Parents fear spec. ed. shift could hurt kids

City parents are pushing back on a move to shift responsibility for hiring judges who handle special-education complaints from the state Education Department to the city’s administrative court system.

The parents are worried that the move will further strain an already overburdened system and make it more difficult for them to get their concerns addressed.

In the past, parents who believed the DOE is failing to meet their special-education needs could take up their case with impartial hearing officers hired by the state, who could force the department to shape up or mandate additional services.

Before former Mayor Bill de Blasio left office in December, city and state officials agreed to shift responsibility for the hiring of the hearing officers from the state to the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, or OATH.

Now, some parents of kids with disabilities are arguing that asking city-employed administrative judges to adjudicate disputes involving another city agency presents a conflict of interest.

“They’re taking away that independent system,” said Rima Izquierdo, a Bronx parent who launched a petition to stop the change, which is already underway. Under the new system, the city will be “judge, jury and executioner,” she added.

Izquierdo is backing proposed legislation in Albany that would prevent impartial hearing officers from being employed by the city government.

She also argues that the shift could also lead to fewer administrative judges and less-qualified hearing officers.

The impartial hearing system has suffered from a crippling backlog for years, with a flood of complaints and shortage of hearing officers forcing families to wait months and longer for a resolution.

State and city Education Department officials have been searching for ways to lessen the backlogs, entertaining ideas like hiring non-lawyers to serve as hearing officers. The shift to OATH is an effort to decrease the backlog and make the system run more efficiently, city and state officials say.

A state Education Department spokesman pointed out the agency will still be responsible for training and overseeing the hearing officers, including investigating any allegations of misconduct.

The shift will “help NYCDOE address the longstanding delays in the special-education due process system and bring more timely resolutions to these cases for students and parents,” said the spokesman.