Joseph and Sanchez on supporting ELL and students with disabilities

And how do we support our English language learners and students with disabilities?

And I have the rap.

You can answer that last question.

So I do want to invite our friends from Dial and Multilingual Languages to just kind of add a value-add piece to that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

P.

Thank you, Dr.

Pate, Suzanne Sanchez, Chief of Special Education, and thank you, Councilmember Joseph, for the question on students with disabilities always at the forefront.

We know what you're doing and hope you're going to visit PS6 Seed this summer, but that's another conversation.

Students with disabilities benefit significantly from the use of assistive technology, and that is something that New York City Public Schools is committed to, ensuring those students have the right technology in the right cadence, in the right dosage, at the right time.

Chair, you brought up earlier around research and efficacy studies and the evidence, the body of evidence on technology for students with disabilities is irrefutable.

And it's important to note that technology for students with disabilities, what typically referred to as assistive technology recommended on a student's IEP,

follows a really careful and thorough evaluation process by an expert in that field who then recommends the use of a specific AT tool.

It could be a device, it could be a software, it could be an app, all of which go through the IRMA vetting process.

Research is very clear that children with disabilities who utilize AT not only see growth and improvement in academic outcomes, but mental health, social, emotional as well.

as we remove barriers to learning, students start to feel better about themselves, and that is certainly seen and felt in our students with disabilities.

Okay, but I just want to clarify for everyone listening, the specific nature of what you're talking about, AI, you're talking about an individualized...

Education, well I know what it stands for, I wanted to have like a little gravitas and you know emotional cadence to the word individualized.

Get your gravitas in.

Individualized education program.

Was the dramatic pause there, was that good?

It was great.

Because what you're talking about is something akin to providing extra time on the test and what we're concerned with is providing tools that give the kids the answer on the test and the cognitive offloading.

So I just want to clarify that for anyone listening today that absolutely if there's a specific tool for a specific student

to ensure that they have access to the same educational opportunities as everyone else, that is not the same thing

as throwing AI tools into the classroom with no vetting or little vetting, relying on vendors and corporations to provide guidelines instead of listening to parents, students, and educators.