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Julian’s Story
Julian is a 3-year-old preschooler with delays in his language skills, but the DOE failed to provide recommended services.
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01.30.2013 | WNYC News | Reports about the arrest and handcuffing of a 7-year-old boy following an incident at a Bronx public school are putting a spotlight how police handle school discipline. Eight hundred eighty-two students at school were arrested in the 2011-2012 school year and the group...
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Resource: Special Education ProcessTimeline of the referral, evaluation, and recommendation process. Includes information on the rights of parents throughout the process.
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AFC submitted testimony urging the New York State Legislature to ensure that the state budget protects access to high-quality Early Intervention services that are driven by children’s needs, not by their health insurance coverage.
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01.25.2013 | Background: Brain research demonstrates that the stimulation and interaction a child receives during the first five years of life are critical to permanent brain development. As part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Early Intervention (EI)...
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01.17.2013 | WABC-TV Eyewitness News | Because the Union and the City failed to come to an agreement by the deadline, the New York City schools lose more than 250 million dollars. "It's sad that the kids are going to pay the price," said Kim Sweet.
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01.23.2013 | WABC-TV Eyewitness News | Art McFarland reports on the school bus strike.
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01.15.2013 | NY1 | By and large, education advocates and the teachers' union gave the speaker's proposals high marks... "I think if a new mayor comes into office that really wants to listen to parents and make them partners, I think you can do that without spending a lot of money," Kim Sweet of...
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01.15.2013 | New York Daily News | Maggie Moroff of Advocates for Children said she's worried about disabled students for whom public transportation won't work. "They don't have a solid plan for how they're going to deal with these more-complicated issues," she said. Read article
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01.16.2013 | New York Post | The nonprofit Advocates for Children called on the city to do more to accommodate 54,000 kids with special needs who are likely to be severely impacted. The Manhattan group said financial hardship makes it difficult for families to front the money for car service, and...
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01.15.2013 | WPIX 11 News | “For those parents, it’s going to be really hard or impossible for [their] kids to get to school,” said Kim Madden, lead attorney for Advocates For Children New York, a children’s issues advocacy organization. ”MetroCards and reimbursement just won’t be enough.” Her...
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10.22.2012 | AFC has updated our guide to the "Turning 5" process. The guide provides a detailed overview of all families with children with disabilities need to know when transitioning from preschool special education to kindergarten, including information on eligibility, referral, evaluations,...
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01.15.2013 | Gotham Schools | Kim Sweet, the director of Advocates for Children of New York, which represents students with special needs, said she was disappointed but not surprised that Quinn did not mention special education once. “It doesn’t tend to be something that mayoral candidates jump...
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01.15.2013 | SchoolBook | Kim Sweet, the executive director of the group Advocates for Children, said the back-up plans outlined by the Department of Education may be manageable for many families, but not for all. “Public transportation may not be feasible as a result of a student’s disability, and...
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01.14.2013 | There is a chance of a system wide bus strike that could impact your children's transportation services in New York City in the very near future. We want to make sure that all families, including families of students receiving preschool and school-aged special education services...
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01.11.2013 | AFC has signed on to a joint issue brief of the Advancement Project, the Alliance for Educational Justice, the Dignity in Schools Campaign, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, entitled "Police in Schools are Not the Answer to the Newtown Shooting." The brief explains...
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01.11.2013 | Staten Island Advance | Randi Levine, project director of the advocacy group Advocates for Children of New York, described the typical scenario in which the mayor proposes cuts to school programs, which galvanizes parents, teachers and officials to mobilize, whereupon much of the...
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Blog: Best & the brightest01.08.2013 | New York Post | "I felt very fortunate in the educational opportunities I got," says Matthew Lenaghan, the son of two college professors. Graduating from Yale, he wanted to do something “meaningful” — so he joined Teach for America and went to teach ninth-grade social studies in a poor...
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Page: Winter 2013Winter 2013
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12.18.2012 | Insideschools.org | All 5th graders will turn in applications for middle school this Friday, Dec. 21. That includes students with special education needs who will fill out the same application as other children. There is often some confusion about the process, even after the roll-out...
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12.14.2012 | Public News Service | "Punish the crooks, not the kids." That's the rallying cry of parents and advocates worried about New York's preschool special education programs that are under an investigative microscope. The state comptroller is pursuing operators of special education providers...