Trenton failed to provide required services to deaf students, report finds

TRENTON » The city’s special education failures have spilled over to another district.

Trenton Public Schools failed to provide services for six district students who are attending the Katzenbach School for the Deaf for at least a year, according to a June 26 investigation report by the New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) that was obtained by The Trentonian.

DOE’s Office of Special Education Policy found the deaf students failed to receive occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) services that Trenton was financially required to provide since April 27, 2016.

The investigation was launched following a complaint filed in April by the Special Parent Advocacy Group (SPAG), a Ewingbased nonprofit that fights for the rights of students with disabilities.

“The school district has known for some time that the Trenton students at Katzenbach were not receiving the related services yet, it continued through the 20162017 school year,” SPAG Executive Director Nicole Whitfield said last week. “The district has literally ignored the mute and the destitute by allowing the hearing impaired to go without their related services for over a year or more.”

According to the report, Katzenbach provided a list of six Trenton students whose Individualized Education Programs (IEP), a legal plan schools must abide by to meet the needs of a student with special needs, required OT and PT services that were not received “either at all, or at various times dating back to April 27, 2016.”

Trenton did not disagree that students were entitled to OT, but claimed two students received PT by outlining one received the service throughout the year while the other accomplished his PT goals and was discharged from the program, the report states.

“However, as of the writing of this report, Trenton has not provided service logs demonstrating the students received services; or documentation showing that the students had accomplished their PT goals and had their IEPs amended to eliminate the service from their program,” the report reads. “As of the date of the investigation, no documentation was provided that PT services were initiated for the two students in question.”

Like in the case with PT, Trenton contended it was providing OT services for its students at Katzenbach, but failed to provide any documentation when the OT services started and who was providing the services. Further troubling, neither Trenton nor Katzenbach provided the state investigator copies of students’ IEPs indicating the number of OT and PT sessions the students were entitled to receive weekly and the information about the total services missed for each student.

Katzenbach told the state it had no responsibility to provide the services since the Ewing-based school did not have the staff and Trenton was aware of that when it placed the students there, according to the report.

Despite the investigation concluding that Trenton was “financially responsible for providing the services,” it also found that Katzenbach is “not without responsibility.”

“At a minimum, Katzenbach should be aware of related services included in students’ IEPs, report lapses in service delivery and coordinate efforts with sending districts to ensure full implementation of IEPs,” the report states. “Katzenbach should take an active role and work and work cooperatively with Trenton to procure OT and PT for all enrolled students whose IEPs require the services.”

Both Trenton and Katzenbach were determined noncompliant and DOE ordered corrective action.

The advocacy group that filed the complaint, however, put the all blame on Trenton’s shoulders.

“The contracted therapists could not keep up with the in-district case load therefore it is impossible for them to provide services at Katzenbach,” Whitfield said. “Shifting the blame to Katzenbach is not the answer either because ultimately these are Trenton students and Trenton Public Schools has an legal obligation to ensure that these student receive the services by any means necessary.”

Trenton was hit with numerous special education violations last year. Many stem from the district laying off a large chunk of its paraprofessionals and therapists and outsourcing the services instead.

At last Tuesday’s school board meeting, it was disclosed a classroom at Jefferson Elementary School was without a required paraprofessional for the whole school year.

“We’ve got to do a better job,” school board President Gene Bouie admitted. “We have to get this right. We can get this right ... I apologize to you and I apologize to those parents whose children were literally left behind and that’s a darn shame.”