Gutiérrez asks about multilingual children with disabilities

If a multilingual child is also identified as disabled and in need of special education,

services, how does NYCPS and Mayor's Office of Child Care ensure that they are meeting both those needs, and is it different when the child is three years old and eligible for EI

compared to when the child is over three years old and eligible for special education services?

I could speak to what that looks like for early childhood.

New York City Public Schools never wants to have a family make the decision between having their child choose from a language support or supports with their special education needs, right?

So what we have for our early childhood students is if a child is referred for special education services, our CPSC team,

our committee for preschool special education team, then would administer the assessment or the questionnaire in that child's home language.

And the rationale behind that is to ensure that if there is going to be an evaluation that comes out of that, that that evaluation may or may not necessarily need to be in that child's home language.

So let's assume it is.

If there is a cause for evaluation or a case for evaluation, the child's evaluation is done in that home language.

And what happens is now we've got our own internal folks that go out and administer the evaluation, or sometimes we partner with outside agencies to support that work.

If the...

designation is that the child will now have an IEP or individualized education plan, then those bilingual services are embedded into that child's IEP.

And what our CPSC team does now is work to ensure that those programs and services are rendered, and they work around the clock to make sure that there's continuity in those services too.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.