Relates to instructions of certain children with handicapping conditions

BILL NUMBER:S5613A

Title of bill

An act to amend the education law, in relation to special provisions relating to instruction of certain children with handicapping conditions

Purpose or general idea of bill

This bill would reestablish the process by which the New York State Education Department ("NYSED") approves public and private out-of-state instructional facilities which it deems qualified to meet the needs of certain children for instruction. In November 2012, NYSED initiated a "temporary" administrative suspension of the approval of applications of preschool special education programs, school-age private school programs, and applications for expansions of currently approved preschool special education programs and approved school-age private schools. This suspension is to remain in effect until NYSED completes a review and revision to the application process for new programs and modifications to approved programs. This bill would require NYSED to move forward with the statutorily prescribed approval process in order to expand the scope of qualified public and private out-of-state instructional facilities while it carries out its review and revision to the application process.

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1: Amends Subdivision 2 of Section 4407 of the Education Law to provide that when public and private out-of-state instructional facilities apply to NYSED for approval, they will be added to the register of out-of-state educational facilities qualified to meet the needs of certain children for instruction that NYSED is required to maintain, provided the facility is qualified to meet the needs of certain children for instruction. This approval process will take place notwithstanding any review or revision of policy currently undertaken by NYSED.

Section 2: Sets effective date.

Justification

N.Y. Education Law § 4407 was enacted to give New York children with disabilities the opportunity to receive instruction when they are unable to find suitable instruction within the state. The principal means of accomplishing this is to allow the school districts of such pupils, when it is determined there are no appropriate placements within the state, to contract with an educational facility located outside the state, which the state education department, after inspection, has deemed qualified to meet the needs of certain children for instruction.

NYSED's "temporary" administrative suspension of the approval of out-of-state instructional facilities, which has now been in effect for almost a year-and-a-half, has severely compromised this process. The suspension has forced instate educational facilities to accept children with disabilities for whom, under normal circumstances, they would be unsuited, and in some instances has forced families to send their children to in-state facilities further from home than suitable

out-of-state placements currently barred from admission to NYSED's register.

NYSED's suspension, which has left the number of approved out-of-state instructional facilities stagnant, comes at a time when one in 68 children in the United States has been identified with an autism spectrum disorder according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) latest estimate in March, 2014. This latest estimate was roughly 30 percent higher than the CDC's previous measure, released in 2012 - the same year the suspension was implemented.

Policy reviews and revisions can be undertaken without the suspension of a statutorily prescribed process necessary to safeguard the right of children in New York State to access appropriate educational services. This bill will assure that all children in New York have the right to attend educational facilities suited for their needs.

Prior legislative history

New Bill.

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the first day of October after it shall have become a law.