Comments on: City’s top special ed official will leave at school year’s end http://gothamschools.org/2009/05/15/citys-top-special-ed-official-will-leave-at-school-years-end/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:04:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Calendar of Events http://gothamschools.org/2009/05/15/citys-top-special-ed-official-will-leave-at-school-years-end/comment-page-1/#comment-220386 Calendar of Events Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:48:50 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=14453#comment-220386 I wish I had found this before. :( I wish I had found this before. :(

]]> By: dotty http://gothamschools.org/2009/05/15/citys-top-special-ed-official-will-leave-at-school-years-end/comment-page-1/#comment-119632 dotty Mon, 18 May 2009 22:24:31 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=14453#comment-119632 Linda Wernikoff is the only person at the DoE who understands special needs kids and what they need. The overarching decisions -- incompetent reorganization after ignorant reorganization -- made by the DoE that make it difficult for special needs kids to get an education were not made by her, but by the Big Boys upstairs -- the ones who used ideology, not knowledge, to drive their "reforms." We now have more kids than ever getting special ed services. What a crack team! What genius dreamed up the total atomization of evaluation, placement and instruction, so no one is responsible and many children fall through the cracks? For sure, not Linda. She knew much better. But she just lived with the decisions and did what she could to make sure kids were helped, not hurt, and then tried to make lemonade out of lemons. Boy, are we going to miss her! I hope she's appreciated more at her next gig! Linda Wernikoff is the only person at the DoE who understands special needs kids and what they need. The overarching decisions — incompetent reorganization after ignorant reorganization — made by the DoE that make it difficult for special needs kids to get an education were not made by her, but by the Big Boys upstairs — the ones who used ideology, not knowledge, to drive their “reforms.” We now have more kids than ever getting special ed services. What a crack team! What genius dreamed up the total atomization of evaluation, placement and instruction, so no one is responsible and many children fall through the cracks? For sure, not Linda. She knew much better. But she just lived with the decisions and did what she could to make sure kids were helped, not hurt, and then tried to make lemonade out of lemons. Boy, are we going to miss her! I hope she’s appreciated more at her next gig!

]]> By: Jack http://gothamschools.org/2009/05/15/citys-top-special-ed-official-will-leave-at-school-years-end/comment-page-1/#comment-118846 Jack Sat, 16 May 2009 00:32:01 +0000 http://gothamschools.org/?p=14453#comment-118846 She is leaving while everything is still fairly good on the surface. As Ms. Cramer noted, the graduation rates have ticked up slightly, community involvement has become something of a priority, and teacher standards have tightened. The new SOPM will be, perhaps, her greatest legacy - especially if employees are given the time to actually read it. Unfortunately, the quality of special education programs across the city remain terrible, most notably in the Bronx and other areas of the city where parents don't know how to advocate for themselves. To say that there has been an uptick in monies spent on Impartial Hearings is a vast understatement. Ms. Wernikoff laughably responded by gutting the IH teams and replacing qualified clinicians with paralegals who have no experience at all. Parents will continue to hire lawyers to plead their cases: the DOE does not have special education programs that meet the needs of their children. By and large, the aggrieved parents are right. Administrators, especially at the CPSE and elementary school levels, need to get the message that their careers will not be enhanced by cutting essential related services, a risible act of "standing up" to parents who want help. Glimmers of hope like the NEST program for kids on the Autistic spectrum and PBIS for kids with behavioral issues give the rest of us hope that our department can slowly create high caliber programs for everyone. New blood is needed. It is hard to believe that we're using anachronistic definitions for classification. We need someone who doesn't think a learning disability is a 1.5 standard deviation between IQ and one achievement subtest (ref. link). Response to Intervention is the new new thing but upper level administrators have not yet gotten the memo. Maybe they're terrified of training employees of a certain age who are not amenable to learning something different. I truly hope that fresh eyes will start to turn the battleship around towards a best practices, research-based model. Our most vulnerable kids need nothing less than the best. She is leaving while everything is still fairly good on the surface. As Ms. Cramer noted, the graduation rates have ticked up slightly, community involvement has become something of a priority, and teacher standards have tightened. The new SOPM will be, perhaps, her greatest legacy – especially if employees are given the time to actually read it.

Unfortunately, the quality of special education programs across the city remain terrible, most notably in the Bronx and other areas of the city where parents don’t know how to advocate for themselves. To say that there has been an uptick in monies spent on Impartial Hearings is a vast understatement. Ms. Wernikoff laughably responded by gutting the IH teams and replacing qualified clinicians with paralegals who have no experience at all. Parents will continue to hire lawyers to plead their cases: the DOE does not have special education programs that meet the needs of their children. By and large, the aggrieved parents are right. Administrators, especially at the CPSE and elementary school levels, need to get the message that their careers will not be enhanced by cutting essential related services, a risible act of “standing up” to parents who want help. Glimmers of hope like the NEST program for kids on the Autistic spectrum and PBIS for kids with behavioral issues give the rest of us hope that our department can slowly create high caliber programs for everyone.

New blood is needed. It is hard to believe that we’re using anachronistic definitions for classification. We need someone who doesn’t think a learning disability is a 1.5 standard deviation between IQ and one achievement subtest (ref. link). Response to Intervention is the new new thing but upper level administrators have not yet gotten the memo. Maybe they’re terrified of training employees of a certain age who are not amenable to learning something different.

I truly hope that fresh eyes will start to turn the battleship around towards a best practices, research-based model. Our most vulnerable kids need nothing less than the best.

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