Chair Joseph on 2K special education coordination with agencies

Okay, great.

We have Councilmember Joseph, followed by Wong.

Thank you, Chair.

Good to see you, Chancellor.

DOE continue to struggle to provide students with disabilities with necessary services.

We're thrilled the DOE is expanding and to provide 2K.

Meeting needs earlier should reduce the number of due process case at a later stage in a child's education.

As we begin to educate younger and younger New York, how is New York City Public Schools coordinating with ACS, DOHMH, and other agencies to ensure child's needs are met daily as practical?

Yes, that is something that's very, very important to me, which is why when I

thought about a restructuring, really thinking about putting foster care, open arms, all of those pieces in the same place.

Environment and making sure that we have very seamless communication between the Office of the Deputy Chancellor for Community Partnerships and the and dial and so I'm going to turn it over to

Christina Foti as well as Flavia Padema to talk a little bit more about that.

To talk about 2K coming into the system, how they're getting services.

Remember, they come before early intervention.

We're going to talk about you in a minute.

Get your stuff to you.

Together, but I'm going to talk to DC40 first.

Sorry, Simone Hawkins and DC40.

Yes.

Simone Hawkins and DC40.

Thank you, Chancellor.

Thank you, Councilmember.

And so what you raise is a really important point, and especially as we shift down the entry point into our school system.

And so we've been very deliberate in partnering, and we already partner with our DOHMH colleagues, specifically the Bureau of Early Intervention.

And so what we've been doing specifically on 2K is creating a very intentional accommodations process.

We have some universal supports that we do as a through line, right?

And that's what we should be doing, not just for two-year-olds, but all of our littles, no matter how old they are.

And so that really is around, like, the appropriate coaching, making sure they differentiate.

They, as the educators and school leaders, differentiate based on the needs of our littles.

But then we also know we need some more targeted interventions.

So we have a referral, and we are creating a more thoughtful referral process with our EI colleagues and also our office, the Office of School Health at DOHMH.

Because what we understand is early intervention meets a very specific purpose, but some of our littles might need something different.

And so we're partnering with the Office of School Health, Dial, they're working side by side, that's my girl,

and her team, working with our team to make sure we're coordinated, that there's proper redundancy but not unnecessary duplication, and that our littles and their families are having a seamless experience through and through.