This is part of a series of periodic articles on issues the NYSUT Special Education Committee is addressing

Upholding the force of law behind a student's Individualized Education Program, the State Education Department has ordered a New York City high school to deliver mandated IEP services and not make changes without a review meeting.

In a major win for the United Federation of Teachers, NYSUT's affiliate in New York City schools, an SED investigation upheld the majority of allegations that some 100 students were not receiving mandated services at the High School of Arts and Technology, just west of Lincoln Center. Of the school's 108 IEPs, the state confirmed 93 were not administered correctly.

The UFT filed the complaint in January after numerous IEPs for students were changed last fall after the annual review and without a formal meeting, according to Carmen Alvarez, UFT vice president for special education. For example, in September, IEPs for all students who were recommended for special ed teacher support services were changed en masse so the students would receive less intensive consultant teacher services. An 11th-grade self-contained class was disbanded and the IEPs for the students in the class were changed to call for consultant services such as homework help and test preparation.

The SED investigation included interviews with students who explained they were not getting promised services. Jessica Salgado, who has since transferred to another high school where she is getting the services she needs, said she was promised there would be staff coming into the classroom to work with the students who needed extra help, but no one did.

"I had no one to help me with my work or the things I have a hard time with," said Salgado, after she lost her resource room services. "When I spoke to other students who were supposed to get these services, I found that none of them were getting the things they needed, either."

Salgado said she knows her old school gets funds for special education, but wonders where the money is going.

Alvarez said the union is carefully monitoring the city's shortchanging of special ed students. "From the systemwide dragging of feet on referrals to rewriting IEPs to suit the needs of administrators rather than the needs of students, the current leaders of the city's public schools have consistently failed to provide special ed students with the kind of nurturing atmosphere that they need, deserve and, by law, are entitled to," Alvarez said.

NYSUT has been out front raising questions about SED proposed regulations that would change the process for amending a child's IEP. SED is proposing many changes in special education to conform with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The reauthorized IDEA allows states to permit changes to be made to a child's IEP after the annual meeting for a school year. The parent of a child with a disability and the school district may agree not to convene an IEP team meeting for the purposes of making those changes.

"We're urging SED to take a broader interpretation of the IDEA and move forward with standards that would give parents and students greater protection," said NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira. "Parents must be provided with adequate information about proposed changes, including an opportunity to discuss proposed changes with the children's special education teacher or service provider."

As the New York City complaint shows, Neira said, some districts may make IEP changes for administrative purposes — not what's in the best interest of the individual student.

— Sylvia Saunders