Backlog delays special ed assessments
Nearly 2,000 Boston students are awaiting special education assessments — with some missing out on services completely — due to a backlog caused by the pandemic, and one local parent has been trying to get help for her son since February.
“We’ve gone eight months now without any services and that concerns me because I was happy to get a diagnosis early, but what does it matter if we are not getting anything done about it?” said Amanda Chen, a Boston resident and mother of a 3year-old special needs son.
Chen is one of 1,792 Boston families waiting on a special education assessment since the start of the school year, according to a Boston Public Schools spokesman.
The assessments, which are necessary to get special education services, came to a halt due to the pandemic on March 17 and restarted in late September.
“I want him to be considered a student in need, he really needs in-person learning,” said Chen, who requested an assessment on Feb. 12. She filed a formal complaint with the state last month.
Chen’s son is currently doing remote learning without any special services for his disability, a difficult task, “I’m literally chasing him around the house with the Chromebook trying to get him to pay attention,” said Chen.
Roxann Harvey, chair of the Boston Special Education Parent Advisory Council, said many families in “limbo land” are those like Chen, whose children aged out of early intervention and need to transition into school special education programs.
“Those children are almost like a forgotten group,” said Harvey.
Still, Chen is one of the lucky ones. Harvey said some parents who can’t get an assessment cannot get a seat in the district, meaning the child isn’t even a BPS student and families who can afford it may turn to private school.
Ethan d’Ablemont Burnes, BPS assistant superintendent for the office of special education, said such early childhood students make up 10-20% of the backlog, while most are current BPS students who are getting services but need a re-evaluation.
“We are working really hard to address this backlog as quickly as we can,” he said, adding that he hopes to clear it up by the end of the year.
The assessments, which can take several hours, by law need to be conducted within 45 school working days of a parent’s written consent to an initial evaluation.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said the timeline is in place unless parents agree to an extension. A DESE spokeswoman said the backlogs are a statewide issue of concern.
“We are working really hard to get back onto the 45 day timeline,” said d’Ablemont Burnes.
He said to help fix the backlog, the district has opened up a building solely for conducting assessments and staff are currently being trained on new software that allows for more efficient in-person and virtual evaluations.