Remote learning setup to skimp on special ed

In their scramble to find teachers for a dizzying array of in-person and remote classes this fall, city officials may have cut a legal corner on special education staffing rules, advocates say — and tens thousands of students with disabilities may pay the price.

NewEducationDepartmentguidance confirms that students in classes with a mix of special education and mainstream students who alternate between inperson and virtual learning will have only one teacher on days they’re remote — a seeming violation of the state law that requires two teachers for such courses.

“It’s very, very clearly written into law that there need to be these two teachers, one general education, one special education, working collaboratively” in the mixed classes — known as “ICT” classes — said Maggie Moroff, the special education policy coordinator at Advocates for Children.

“We have always escalated concerns to the DOE when we got word of a class with only one teacher … to see it now written out very clearly that it’s going to be sanctioned is a definite violation of the state regulations,” Moroff added.

Education Department officials disputed advocates’ characterization, arguing they are complying with the law because students in the integrated classes will get two teachers on the days they’re in school buildings, and those will be their primary teachers. Most students opting for in-person classes will get one to three days a week in school buildings.

“We are following the law and offering ICT consistent with all regular requirements by having an in-person co-teaching pair primarily responsible for our students, as well as a blended remote teacher who is consulting with the in-person teaching pair providing specially designed, high-quality instruction when students are remote,” said Education Department spokeswoman Danielle Filson.

The special education teaching snafu is part of a massive staffing crisis facing the city Education Department as partial school reopening looms.

Because of the smaller class sizes required by social-distancing rules and the addition of remote courses, schools are forced to offer more classes than before without a corresponding increase in teachers. Officials say they’re tapping employees in the central offices, substitutes and teachers on administrative duty to help fill the gap.

The staffing crunch is particularly severe for the integrated special and general education classes, which are designed to help students with disabilities learn alongside their peers.

The legal requirement for one general education teacher and one special education teacher in the integrated classes is supposed to ensure that kids with disabilities get individual help to address their learning needs, while also getting to learn the same material as their general education peers.

Roughly 100,000 students with disabilities are enrolled in integrated classes. About 60% of city students are currently slated for blended learning.

Kids in the integrated classrooms who are fully remote will get two full-time teachers, according to the guidance. Same goes for ICT students in the part-time in-person model on days they’re in buildings. But on days the blended-learning students are home, they’ll have just one teacher.

That teacher should have a special education license, if possible, but it’s not a requirement in the guidance — meaning some kids with disabilities could spend several days a week working with a teacher who’s not certified to instruct them.

Queens dad Jason Cianciotto, whose son is enrolled in an integrated course, said the second teacher is “critical.”

“I’m worried about all these kids,” he said. “Not only will they not have that second teacher when they’re remote, they’ll be flipping back and forth between two environments.”

Education Department officials stressed that the two teachers assigned to in-person ICT classes will be in charge of all grading and lesson planning for those students, and will coordinate closely with the teacher doing the remote teaching.

State law is clear that integrated courses “shall minimally include a special education teacher and a general education teacher.”

Education Department officials pointed out the law was not written with remote learning or the city’s unprecedented experiment in pandemic learning in mind.