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Disabled kids in limbo

By Sarina Trangle

Her son was struggling at Queens Gateway, but Sandra Williams put off requesting a hearing with the city, hoping the special education certificate she was told his instructor had would materialize and his lessons would improve.

Williams never saw the license, but shortly before an administrative hearing on her son’s education in February 2013,Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School reassigned Colette Caesar, the instructor who traveled from class to class with her son and about eight other special education students, according to a transcript of the so-called impartial hearing proceeding and Williams.

Under federal and state education law, parents of children with disabilities are entitled to challenge the students’ classification, education and evaluation in an impartial hearing overseen by an officer who listens to testimony from parents, their representatives and a Department of Education official, reviews evidence and renders a decision.

Caesar, who Williams and fellow Parent-Teacher Association Co-President Derek Braithwaite described as a friend of the principal, was assigned to teach a business writing elective at the Jamaica Hills middle and high school that winter.

This academic year, PTA leaders said Caesar received English courses and an English as a Second Language class they believed was a ploy to boost her salary because it only contained two or three pupils.

“These students speak English, read English and refuse to go to class. That’s just another class so she can get some extra money,” Williams said.

Caesar could not be reached for comment. But state records indicate she acquired a certificate to work with special education middle and high school students in April 2014.

Meanwhile, Williams’ son cycled through substitutes and waited at least a month to get a licensed special education teacher.

Other parents said their children’s individualized education plans, a document drafted to tailor learning for those with special needs, went unmonitored and unfulfilled — sometimes for more than a year.

The city Department of Education did not comment on special education concerns at the school, but it confirmed the department was investigating complaints detailed in a letter the PTA co-presidents and students on the School Leadership Team sent to the city schools chancellor.

City Council members Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) and Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills) also wrote the DOE requesting that it review the allegations.

The April correspondence from the parents and students claimed money was misspent, citing senior activity fees arbitrarily doubling, the purchase of non-functioning laptops and the lack of funds for extracurricular activities.

The same letter contends Gateway, which moved into its 160-20 Goethals Ave. location on the Queens Hospital Campus in 2010, has lost its focus on math and science, with few seniors having such courses and its rotation program with the hospital languishing. Nevertheless, U.S. News and World Report ranked Gateway’s high school the 72nd best in the state in 2014.

The letter also describes a pattern of school leaders employing acquaintances, starting with Superintendent Juan Mendez hiring Judy Henry as principal while also serving as her professional reference.

Staff in Henry’s office directed requests for comment to the DOE.

Williams said her son works well with his current special education teacher, but maintains Gateway is not complying with mandates from the 2013 hearing.

A transcript of the impartial hearing shows that Henry did not dispute that Caesar lacked a special education certificate at the time.

The hearing officer concluded that Williams’ son was entitled to roughly 200 hours of tutoring to compensate for his unmet needs. The officer also ruled the school must send parents updates on their children’s individualized education plans, commonly known as IEPs, at least six times a year and appoint a person to coordinate the implementation of these plans.

But Williams said at least five parents have come to her with concerns about special education and some of their children are among the several disabled students that have left the school this year.

Annette Kassim said she is working on scheduling an impartial hearing because her son and about eight freshmen have gone without a certified special education teacher for half a year.

“They didn’t give me any progress report on my son, not since 2013,” she said. “They are not giving it because there is nothing good to report.”

Special education students’ therapists, special and general education teachers, parents and a school district representative decide what protocols get written into an IEP and must review the document once a year, according to the DOE.

Judith Kalphat said she is trying to transfer her seventh-grader to another school after repeatedly asking Gateway to comply with his IEP since fall 2012.

She said her son’s IEP called for him to learn in integrated classrooms, where a special education teacher works with students in a general education setting, for science, social studies and math.

But Gateway kept him in self-contained special education classes all day.

She learned the school did not have the resources to implement integrated classes for middle school students at a March impartial hearing.

“I was crying because this whole time I didn’t know. Nobody told me they didn’t have that in the school,” Kalphat said.

She noted that the staff recently urged her to sign off on IEP revisions that place her son in a special education setting for all disciplines.

“They never gave him the chance,” she said.

Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at [email protected].