Extreme Kids & Crew Launches Executive Director Search

Dear Extreme Kids & Crew community,

After 10 successful years, Extreme Kids & Crew’s founding Executive Director Caitlin Cassaro will be leaving the organization at the end of December. Caitlin’s leadership, vision, spirit, and tenacity have been a driving force in making Extreme Kids a “space to be,” where young neurodiverse people, their friends, and their families, socialize, create, and play. We are deeply proud and grateful for her accomplishments and wish her much success in her next endeavors.

As we bid Caitlin Cassaro farewell, the Board of Extreme Kids & Crew is excited to announce the launch of our search for Extreme Kids & Crew’s next Executive Director. This is an extraordinary opportunity to build on our past successes to take this small and essential organization to its next generation of sustainability and impact.

The Board has engaged Rachel Howard, a seasoned nonprofit leader and friend of Extreme Kids, to serve as Interim Executive Director. Steve Stern, an experienced nonprofit financial professional, will serve as the Interim Director of Finance and Administration. Rachel and Steve worked together at INCLUDEnyc for many years where Rachel served as Executive Director and Steve served as Director of Finance. Together with Extreme Kids & Crew’s dedicated staff and Board of Directors, they will work to ensure a smooth transition.

We are looking for a strategic thinker with expertise developing sustainable programs and partnerships to advance the organization’s mission of increasing access to play in New York for young neurodiverse people and their Crews. An exceptional candidate will embody the qualities and values that reflect Extreme Kids’ unique mission and values: creativity, connection, compassion, respect, and collaboration, and a desire to include the voices of the people and communities served in program development.

To learn more about this opportunity and for directions on how to apply, please visit the job posting on our website. And if you know someone who might be interested, please spread the word! We're excited for what this next chapter holds for our organization and can't wait to get started.

Christian Bergeron
Chair, Board of Directors

2022 Mid-Year Review: See Some Highlights From Our First Half

What a year it has been for all of us! We can’t believe school is already back in session. We have some amazing programs coming this fall, but we also wanted to take this moment to reflect on some of our successes over the first six months of the year. Check out our mid-year review, which gives a brief snapshot into what we’ve been working on since January, including an advocacy panel, an amazing gala, the expansion of our footprint throughout Brooklyn, and so much more!

Click here to view a PDF version.

SLIDESHOW: Extreme Kids Summer Camp 2022

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!

What Students With Disabilities and Their Families Should Know About the Mayor's Proposed Budget

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.

Decreased Enrollment, Decreased Funding

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.

Hiring Freezes

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.

Little Change to Child Care and Early Education

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.

Improved Student Transportation?

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.

Increased Pay for Special Education Staff

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.

Calling on Governor Hochul for properly funded pre-school special education programs

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.

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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

The Felix Awards: Honoree Video

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.

An Open Letter to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams

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