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When I reported last week about the total review of special education that is set to start soon at the Department of Education, I noted that a complaint was pending with the U.S. Office for Civil Rights against the DOE’s policies about admission to its new small high schools.

In fact, the civil rights office actually issued a decision on the complaint that same day. Based on an interview with the parent leader who filed the complaint and data provided by the DOE, OCR determined that it is not possible to conclude that the DOE excludes students who require special education services or English language instruction from its new small high schools.

The decision comes two and a half years after David Bloomfield, a past president of the Citywide Council on High Schools, filed a complaint alleging that the DOE’s policy allowing small schools to exclude at their start some students with special needs violated those students’ civil rights.

Kim Sweet of Advocates for Children of New York told me last week that OCR generally rules on complaints quickly. But the ruling itself suggests a reason for the delay: In its decision, OCR cited DOE data that showed that after three years, small schools enroll a higher proportion of students with special needs than other high schools.

In a statement, Bloomfield said the longitudinal data reflect a victory for advocates for students with special needs:

While disappointed in this result, I believe we were successful in prodding the NYCDOE to provide greater  educational access to special needs students and English language learners. The almost 3 year process of OCR deliberations clearly allowed the NYCDOE to improve its record of high school admissions, so I feel we have made our point.

Remember that reorganization? Another part of it is that a former McKinsey consultant with no experience in special education is now launching a total review of the Department of Education’s special education services.

Garth Harries has been tasked with figuring out “how to clear up all the clutter” in the hard-to-navigate special education system as part of the department’s ongoing reorganization, which is intended to cut costs, DOE spokesman David Cantor told me. Harries, currently the head of the DOE’s Office of Portfolio Development, will begin his new position in a matter of weeks, Cantor said. “He’s going to basically try to make our entire provision of special education better, more effective, and more efficient.”

Harries, who is a lawyer, came to the DOE from McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm. “He does not have credentials in special education,” Cantor said. “What he is is an unusually talented analyst and mechanic of large operations.”

“I think I have a pretty good reputation for effective problem-solving and getting things done and treating people fairly,” Harries told me this evening. About special education, he said, “I think it’s an area where I can help. I have a lot to learn, obviously.” (more…)

David Bloomfield surprised some of his fellow critics of the Department of Education back in March when he testified before the City Council in favor of a slightly modified form of mayoral control.

But now that Mayor Bloomberg has won the right to run for a third term, Bloomfield, a Citywide Council on High Schools member and Brooklyn College professor, has changed his mind about maintaining mayoral control, he writes on his new blog:

I still believe my reasons for keeping mayoral control of the [Panel for Educational Policy] with power of removal are valid, but giving this Mayor continued ability to steamroll his education policies through the PEP would be blind to the present reality. The recommendations for change, though, might be constructive in order to restrain Mayor Bloomberg’s unfettered discretion. As a general matter, I currently favor rescinding mayoral control as an unfortunate but necessary response to the Mayor’s and Council’s term limits decision.

Bloomfield tells me he can’t think of any individual who’s gone public as changing his position on mayoral control because of Bloomberg’s term limits grab.

But others have predicted it would happen. At the Brooklyn Charter School Night last week, Anthony Weiner, a state congressman and mayoral hopeful who supports mayoral control, said he worried that Bloomberg’s term limits grab would undermine support for mayoral control among Albany lawmakers. Liz Benjamin of the Daily News reported in September that Mayor Bloomberg was confronting a “Sophie’s Choice dilemma,” because seeking a third term could hurt his chances at preserving mayoral control, a key legacy point.