Bronx mom says son denied access to his special needs services

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The new school year has not started out with success for a Bronx family. They say their son was denied access to his special needs services, days before the first day of school. State law requires parents to request services by June 1. "So here is this law that most of us were not aware of, and then it comes and goes and now we're left in the dark wondering what's going on," said a Bronx mother who asked us to withhold her name for her family's safety. Her son is homeschooled and has received occupational therapy, speech therapy and special education support services for 10 years. She received an email from the Committee on Special Education that New York City Public Schools will not provide equitable services for her son for the 2024 and 2025 school year because she missed the June 1 deadline. She says the deadline was never enforced in previous years, and that many families were unaware of it. "This is not the way it was done, the process itself, I would get in old fashioned mail, fill it out and send it back in, everything is done undisrupted, smooth," she said. The City's Department of Education says the deadline is enforced to ensure public money is being used to support students who genuinely need the services, and that priority is given to students who apply by the deadline. As a solution, the Bronx mother says CSE told her she could apply for a placement in public school. "How do you displace thousands of families within the New York city Area, which children who are special needs, this is going to affect their ability to thrive within the current school year," she said. The mother says she has had to fill the gaps to ensure her son does not fall behind. "We will always engage families, including those who didn’t meet the deadline, and seek to serve them as soon and as best as we can," said Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson for the City's Department of Education. "