We had an amazing time at Extreme Kids Summer Camp this year! Together, we tapped into our inner inventor, explored a whole spectrum of colors, splashed around in Prospect Park, dove into the world of science, and so much more. Check out some highlights from our time together below!
Last month, Mayor Eric Adams released New York City’s preliminary budget for FY2023, the first of his new administration. Nearly half of the spending cuts come at the expense of the Department of Education’s budget, which is proposed to be $30.7 billion, about $1 billion down from FY2022. Much of this, however, is a result of decreased aid from the federal and state governments, and City spending on schools would actually increase by 3%.
Still, the DOE is facing cuts at a crucial time for the roughly one million students that make up New York City’s public school system, and we know that decreased resources can mean a reduction in services for already-vulnerable populations like low-income students, students with disabilities, English language learners, and more. We took a closer look at the proposed budget to see how, if at all, New York’s students with disabilities would be impacted by these cuts.
The Mayor plans to phase in $375 million in funding cuts to public schools facing declining enrollment over the next three years, softening the blow to schools by backfilling the cuts with stimulus funds.
The cuts could mean increased crowding in classrooms, heightened strain on staff, and fewer resources to support kids with additional needs, which fund services such as after school programs and reading interventions.
The Adams administration would like to trim city payroll by eliminating vacant positions across agencies, and the DOE is no different. The city would eliminate roughly 3,600 positions in the education department, 95% of which are classified as “pedagogical” positions, the city’s term for teachers, administrators, and counselors.
Adams has stressed that, as with other agencies, the cutbacks will simply come as a result of the elimination of current vacancies.
In the 2019-20 school year, approximately a third of all preschoolers with disabilities — more than 10,000 students — did not receive all of their mandated services. The Adams administration, in turn, is proposing to increase its investment in universal pre-K by about $30 million.
While child care spending will remain the same, Adams wants to offer businesses who retrofit their property to create free or subsidized child care space a property tax abatement worth $25 million total in FY23. However, the budget doesn’t address the city’s lack of affordable infant and toddler care, as well as the lack of extended-day/year seats in 3K and universal pre-K programs.
Parents have long been agitating for improvements in the busing services that many students rely on to get to school. This budget seems to deliver in this area, citing a $134 million proposed raise in funding for general education busing.
However, this elides the $128 million in proposed cuts to special education busing, which makes the overall investment seem much more frugal. It is unclear how these reallocations will impact the transportation services that students with disabilities receive, but we will continue monitoring this item.
The budget allocates $252 million in increased funding for special education and preschool special education. This is largely a response to increased cost of living in New York and will go toward educator salaries, not the expansion of programmatic services.
Extreme Kids & Crew and more than 100 other organizations are calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to sign into law S. 6516-A/ A. 8013, passed unanimously by the State Assembly & Senate, to help boost funding for schools that serve students with significant disabilities. Our joint letter is published in full below.
November 30, 2021
The Honorable Kathy Hochul
Executive Chamber
New York State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224
Re: Support for A. 8013 / S. 6516-A re: yearly tuition and regional rate reimbursement for approved school-age and preschool special education programs
Dear Governor Hochul:
As organizations working with children and families across New York State, we write to urge you to sign A. 8013 (Benedetto) / S. 6516-A (Mannion) into law as soon as you receive it. This legislation, which was passed by both the Senate and Assembly in June, would ensure that preschool special education programs, as well as state-approved non-public schools for schoolage students with significant disabilities, receive the same increase in payment rates as school districts; it is essential to address the significant shortage of seats in preschool special education classes, which is causing young children with disabilities to go without the support they need and have a legal right to receive.
Parity in payment rate increases is a matter of equity: programs that serve children with the most intensive needs should receive at least the same annual payment rate increase as district programs. School-age students who attend non-public special education schools do so because they have significant needs that their district schools have determined they are unable to meet. Likewise, the State relies on preschool special education programs to meet the needs of preschoolers with significant disabilities who require a small class size led by teachers trained to educate students with disabilities. The programs that serve these children have experienced rising costs and have had trouble recruiting and retaining special education teachers with their current funding rates.
We are particularly concerned about preschoolers with disabilities throughout the State who are going without the instruction and services they need because the State has a shortage of preschool special education classes. Prior to the 2015-2016 school year, the State did not provide any increase in reimbursement rates for preschool special classes for six years, keeping the rate stagnant with no cost of living adjustments. Between 2015-2016 and 2019-2020, the State approved only a two percent increase each year—far less than the increase provided to school districts in the State budget. Meanwhile, more than 60 preschool special education programs around the State have closed in recent years, including more than 30 in New York City, and many agencies have pointed to the State’s low payment rate as the cause.
As a result, children who had a legal right to such a class missed the chance to receive services at a time in their lives when those services can have the greatest impact. While preschool special education referrals have dropped due to COVID-19, there are still children going without the support they need—and the problem will likely only grow larger as more children need more intensive help because they missed out on months of services during the pandemic. According torecently released data, in New York City alone, 1,215 preschoolers with disabilities were waiting for seats in legally mandated preschool special education classes at the end of the 2019-20 school year.
The State has a legal obligation to ensure there is an appropriate school setting for every preschooler and school-age student with a disability. New York relies on preschool special education programs and state-approved non-public schools to meet the educational needs of students with the most significant disabilities. At a time when school districts are receiving an infusion of new funding, the State must not shortchange students with the most intensive needs and the schools that serve them. To help prevent additional programs from shutting their doors and ensure children with disabilities across New York State receive the support they need to learn, we strongly urge you to sign A. 8013 / S. 6516-A into law.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
A Starting Place
Abilities First, Inc.
ACDS, Inc.
ACLD - Children's Services
ADAPT Community Network
Adirondack Foundation - Birth to Three Alliance
Advocates for Children of New York
Agencies for Children's Therapy Services (ACTS)
AHRC New York City
Alternatives for Children
ARISE Coalition
Astor Services for Children and Families
Birch Family Services
Block Institute Preschool
Bornhava
Brooklyn Defender Services
Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center
CACF - Coalition for Asian American Children and Families
Capital Region Alliance for Children with Special Needs
Center for Spectrum Services
Cerebral Palsy Associations of NYS
Child Care Council of Orange County, Inc.
Child Care Council of Suffolk, Inc.
Child Study Center of NY
Children At Play
Children’s Defense Fund-New York
Citizens' Committee for Children of New York
Developmental Disabilities Institute
Early Care & Learning Council
Early Childhood Alliance OnondagaEducators for Excellence - New York
Elizabeth Seton Children's School
Everyone Reading, Inc.
Extreme Kids & Crew
Generations Child Care, Inc.
Goddard Riverside
HASC
Hawthorne Foundation Inc.
HeartShare Education Center
HeartShare Human Services of New York
HeartShare St. Vincent's Services
HeartShare Wellness
Hebrew Institute for the Deaf and Exceptional Children
Hudson Alliance for Children with Special Needs
Integrated Treatment Services
InterAgency Council
Jawonio Inc
JCC of Mid Westchester
JCCA
Jewish Community Center of Staten Island
Just Kids Early Childhood Learning Center
Kennedy Children's Center
Keuka Lake School
Kids Can’t Wait Campaign
Lawyers for Children, Inc.
LearningSpring School
Leeway School
Life-Skills Home Training Tutorial Program for Preschoolers, Inc.
Liftoff Western New York
Little Lukes Preschool & Childcare Center
Long Island Coalition for Children with Special Needs
Los Ninos Services
Marie Pense Center
Mozaic
New Interdisciplinary School
New York Center for Child Development
New York Center for Infants and Toddlers
New York City Coalition for Children with Special Needs
New York Immigration Coalition
New York State Occupational Therapy Association
New York Zero to Three Network
NY Performance Standards Consortium
OLV Human Services
Orange County Cerebral Palsy Association Inc. dba Inspire
Parents Helping Parents Coalition of Monroe County
Prevent Child Abuse NYPsychotherapeutic Evaluational Programs, Inc.
QSAC, Inc.
Queens Centers for Progress
Rising Ground, Inc.
Room to Bloom Therapy Services LLC
Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy
SCO Family of Services; Tyree Learning Center
Small Wonder Preschool, Inc.
Special Support Services
Step by Step Developmental Services
SteppingStone Day School
The Arc Greater Hudson Valley NY
The Center for Developmental Disabilities
The Children's Agenda
The Children's Law Center
The Guild for Exceptional Children
The Hagedorn Little Village School
The Jewish Board of Family & Children's Services
The New York Foundling
The Parkside School
The Right to Read Project
The Summit Center
Therapy and Learning Center
These Our Treasures, Inc. (TOTS)
UNITED COMMUNITY SERVICES, INC.
Village Child Development Center
Volunteers of America-GNY Bronx Early Learning Center
Westchester Children's Association
Western-Central NY Coalition for Children with Special Needs
Zone 126
As a part of the celebration of our founders Eliza & Jason Factor at this year’s Felix Awards, members of our community submitted clips of themselves thanking Eliza & Jason for their years of hard work and dedication to be included in a video shown at the gala. Watch the video below.
Dear Brooklyn Borough President Adams,
We were appalled to hear you call the closing of Willowbrook State School, the Staten Island site of numerous abuses of people with developmental disabilities, a “mistake” on MSNBC’s Morning Joe last Tuesday, while downplaying the nature of the atrocities committed there. These comments suggest an incomplete understanding of the depth of institutional failure at Willowbrook, as well as the harm that disabled people often face in facilities meant to care for them.
It is imperative that we as a community — both citizens and elected officials — do not forget this history, lest we repeat these mistakes. Remarking that just “a few employees harmed those who were patients at Willowbrook” is a gross understatement that erases the lasting trauma of the thousands of Willowbrook patients and ignores the abuse that many of these same patients still receive today in smaller institutions. It is additionally upsetting that you would conflate the experiences of developmentally disabled people and people with mental illnesses, which ultimately marginalizes both communities and does a disservice to their unique lived experiences.
What happened at Willowbrook was a wake-up call for all of us about how disabled people are treated by the medical industrial complex, and New York City requires a leader who understands this. We encourage you to revisit some of the original coverage surrounding the Willowbrook exposé and listen to those who experienced life there in order to better understand the reality of Willowbrook.
We hope that you can use this as an opportunity to educate yourself and reflect on the harmful nature of your comments. The point that you appeared to be trying to make — that disabled people are woefully under-served by the state despite an abundance of resources — remains a salient one. We look forward to working with the next mayor in advancing opportunities for, while listening directly to, disabled people across New York City.
Sincerely,
The staff of Extreme Kids & Crew
We are appalled at this week’s ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals which struck down a regulation that would have banned the use of the graduated electronic decelerator, a skin shock “treatment” that is used to torture people with disabilities. This device — which has drawn criticism from human rights groups, disability advocates, legislators, and more — is used by the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts on children and adults with developmental disabilities and behavioral disorders, the only place in the country that still does so.
We stand with The Autistic Self Advocacy Network and the broader disability community in denouncing this ruling, and believe it is imperative that we continue to fight for a future where human rights are universal and not dependent on one’s identity. While we find this ruling despicable, we are heartened by the many advocates who continue to fight for justice in these spaces, and we will continue to be vocal in our solidarity. We urge you to do the same. None of us are free until we're all free.
We’re incredibly thrilled to see that Silas Raines, a 10-year-old member of our Crew and a visual artist, was announced as a winner in the 2021 Disability Unite Got Talent artist contest! Silas is one of ten artists that were selected by a community vote, and he’ll be receiving a featured performance in this year's Disability Unite Festival. Congratulations to Silas for his hard work and beautiful creation!
Alt text: A drawing by Silas Raines that shows a community of cartoon people drawn in green on a white sheet of paper. Many of the people are smiling and some have their arms in the air, and it appears that they come from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life.
Silas, who is also the son of board president Vanessa Connelly, is a visual artist whose work — done primarily by pen — depicts abstract and surrealist interpretations of life, often focusing on communities of people. He maintains an Instagram account that showcases the variety of his work. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!
