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[The following is the text of an email sent by Dee Alpert to Deputy Assistant Secretary Marburger:]
Given our recent correspondence regarding the NYS Education Department's long-standing waiver of NCLB standards and targets for schools which enroll many kids with disabilities, and your apparent approval of this practice, I felt you should be made aware of NYSED's newest NCLB waiver program: The NYS Ed. Dept. just published its process and application form for LEA's to apply for waivers from the NCLB 1% cap on counting disabled students' scores on alternate assessments for severely disabled students as proficient. http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/policy/ayp-except.html http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/policy/1percentcap-app.htm The cover memo notes that the following kinds of entities don't even have to apply: BOCES (NY's IEA's), State-operated programs, State-supported programs ... and other State agency educational programs." This is, of course, because they were never included in NY's NCLB accountability system to begin with: these schools and IEA's have none of their own NCLB accountability standards or targets and have never had them. They were exempted from the day NCLB went into effect. Then there are all the alternative high schools which were waivered out from Day One. And now NYSED has a new waiver process by which any LEA can apply for a waiver for any of its regular, common garden variety high schools. I posit that we're talking now about 70% of all kids with disabilities in New York State attending schools which have NCLB waivers - for accountability - for them. I'm particularly impressed with the exemption for LEA's which have NY State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental facilities in them. While you might think this meant large State institutions, the language of the form indicates that it includes the hundreds and hundreds of very small, community-based group residences established since the State was sued and forced to close Willowbrook and its ilk. "Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) licensed residential programs (e.g., Intermediate Care Facilities; Individualized Residential Alternatives) or other similar community or health organizations located within the district have resulted in a large percentage of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities." Then there's the exemption because "The LEA has very specialized programs for students with severe disabilities, resulting in a large number of families of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities residing in the district." There are 700+ school districts in New York State; nearly 60 BOCES (IEA's) and a variety of other entities which provide special ed. programs. By repute, there are exactly 2 LEA's which offer quality special ed. programs for kids with significant cognitive disabilities (autism, to be precise) good enough to entice parents to move into their geographic cachement areas so their children can take advantage of their "quality special ed. programs." At most. We also are impressed with the new NYSED automatic exemption for all districts with small numbers of kids with disabilities. How small? One hundred thousand kids with disabilities, or less? And these lucky LEA's don't even have to apply! Now we all know that despite the fact that NY's special ed. kids' scores and school exiting outcomes are amongst the worst in the nation, the fact is, according to the NYS Ed. Dept. and the folks who run these programs (a/k/a Day Willowbrooks) that their special ed. programs are of the highest quality possible - even higher than the IDEA requires! [Although it's true that virtually none of their kids can pass any of the State-mandated tests, nor do even half graduate with diplomas or certificates.] So, we may safely assume that every single LEA in the State of New York will be able to apply for - and receive - this exemption, especially since NYSED isn't requiring proof that the district runs a high quality special ed. program, nor is it requiring proof - via parental sworn statements and new deeds - that families really moved into the district especially to take advantage of their "high quality special ed." offerings. It started with a little list of just 34 New York City alternative high schools to which NYSED had granted NCLB waivers, plus, of course, all the 91 publicly-operated, all-special ed. schools and 2 State-operated schools. Since then, it's grown like Topsy. In fact, there are now so many holes in NCLB coverage for kids with disabilities in New York State these days that it's starting to look like Swiss cheese, except there's only holes - and no cheese. I suspect it's time for us to sponsor Special Education Muckraker Contest Number 2: Find one kid with a disability in New York State who is in a school which doesn't have a NCLB waiver of some kind for kids with disabilities. First Prize: One free subscription to The Special Education Muckraker. Second Prize: Two free subscriptions to the Special Education Muckraker. I'll bet you $10. that nobody at USDOE can win.
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