New York Appleseed Testifies at The New York City Council Committee on Education- DOE’s Provision of Special Education Services

1.30.25 at 1:00 PM- New York Appleseed, is a nonprofit advocating for integrated schools and communities across New York City and State. Today, Appleseed wishes to emphasize to the Council that segregation is not limited to race or income—it also impacts English Language Learners, students in temporary housing, and students with disabilities. 

Special education students face a myriad of barriers that continue to reinforce segregation across NYC public schools. The 5 Rs of Real Integration is a framework that Appleseed uses as both a tool to assess the challenges fueled by segregation and a metric to evaluate how well students receive the care, support, and opportunities they need to thrive. This framework defines integrated schools as those that (1) achieve Racial, ethnic, and economic diversity in composition, (2) appoint leadership Representative of this diversity, (3) facilitate Relationships across people of different backgrounds, (4) practice Restorative justice, and (5) share equitable access to Resources. 

For Race and Enrollment, we note that even with improvements over the past 5 years, the admission process remains burdensome and exclusionary, limiting access for students with disabilities to some of the most popular schools in the City. In 2024, only 80 eighth graders with disabilities were admitted to the eight specialized high schools, out of the 3,600 students admitted total. In 2023, just 76 special education students received an offer. Recent data also illustrated that students with disabilities are underrepresented in the group that receives first priority to screened programs and overwhelmingly overrepresented in the lowest priority groups. 

We encourage the Council and NYCPS to revisit a previously ignored recommendation from the 2019 SDAG that NYCPS convene a committee that includes students with disabilities (SWD) and their caretakers as well as advocates to develop strategies to promote the integration of SWDs throughout the school system. 

For Relationships, Students with disabilities are often separated from their peers due to inequitable access to school spaces such as the gym, cafeteria, and lunch room. Additionally, students with disabilities often attend schools far from home due to accessibility, and these lengthy commutes make it difficult to participate in after-school clubs or build friendships with the students who live within their neighborhoods. This further reinforces the harmful myth that special education students must be isolated from their classmates to learn best.

For Resources, yellow bus service is vital for many students, particularly students with disabilities to get to school. And yet, year after year, families have to fight to get the transportation they not only deserve but often that is mandated for them by law. The time to find urgency on this issue was several years ago, and as a first step, we strongly encourage city officials to engage with advocates and the necessary state actors to create an effective pathway to rebid on bus contracts, as many contracts for this service have not been updated since 1979. It is unreasonable to expect 21st-century service under contracts that were designed for the needs of students 45 years ago. 

For Restorative Justice thirty percent of special education students are labeled as having "emotional disturbances," yet instead of equipping staff with targeted professional development, many are segregated into District 75 schools for specialized support. This disproportionately affects Black and Latine students, particularly those from financially insecure backgrounds, following national trends of conflating high needs and disability with poverty. Additionally, students with disabilities still make up a disproportionate number of suspensions. This becomes especially worrisome when we look into the Mayor’s preliminary budget and see zero funding for restorative justice programming. 

We cannot overstate the need for continued funding for restorative justice programs to prevent the unjust and disproportionate disciplining of our most marginalized students.

And lastly, for Representation students with disabilities and their families require greater access to information and improved communication from not only NYCPS’ central offices but also from educators and school leaders. 

Today, we aim to amplify the voices of parents of students with disabilities who have increasingly come to us over the past two years. They ask to be seen beyond the silo of special education issues, recognizing that many of the barriers they face are similar to obstacles other marginalized groups encounter due to persistent, unaddressed segregation.

Appleseed welcomes any questions and can be contacted at rdu@nyappleseed.org. 

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