Charter School Sued Over Denying Special Ed Students Services

Sorry for the heavy NY focus today, but lots of news. Happy Friday.

Special education students at a Brooklyn charter school did not get mandated services and were punished for behavior that arose from their disabilities, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Thursday. The suit, filed on behalf of five students at Achievement First Crown Heights, described a “systemic failure to provide them a free appropriate public education, in violation of their rights."

Dottie Morris is among the parents
suiding the charter school.

It said that students did not get physical therapy and other services for weeks at a time, and that a student with autism was disciplined for not looking in the direction a teacher instructed or for hiding under his desk.

NYC Requires Flu Shots for Preschoolers

New York City preschoolers will be heading back to class this week with memories of new holiday toys, vacation adventures, and, health officials hope, a flu shot.

In fact, because of a new city requirement, young children can, for the first time in the city’s history, be excluded from class if they have not received a flu vaccination.

Preschool Kids Struggle to Get Special Education Services Under New Education Department Policy

Alexandra Berger and her triplets.

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Alexandra Berger thought she had done everything right.
The Park Slope mother of 3-year-old triplets, two of whom have developmental delays, spent the spring and summer researching therapists for her tots and lining up a fall schedule of sessions to help them catch up to their peers.
But at the end of August, just one week before the city-funded therapies were scheduled to start, Berger got a call saying the Department of Education had denied the contracts.