07.28.2021 | Chalkbeat NY | Multiple advocates said they are concerned that schools will offer a fixed menu of special education services rather than figuring out what each student missed last year in consultation with parents and offering services tailored to those gaps. 

“What is most important for us is that there’s an individualized determination of what the students’ needs are and likewise an individualized determination of the assignment of services,” said Rebecca Shore, the litigation director for the nonprofit group Advocates for Children. 

The organization filed a class action lawsuit last year demanding the city come up with a streamlined system for providing compensatory services rather than relying on the formal legal complaint process. Education department officials did not respond to a question about whether they considered the after-school and Saturday sessions to be “compensatory” in nature, a distinction that has legal implications. Read article