Former Mayor de Blasio has left successor Eric Adams with a parting grenade – last-minute changes to the system fo꧒r resolving disagreements over special-education services, The Post has learned.
Adams, who was sworn in after midnight on New Year’s Eve, faces a lawsuit filed last week seeking to halt what one lawyer called “a betrayal of families of chi👍ldren with disabilities.”
Without warning or announc𒈔ement, 🌊de Blasio overturned a special-ed system that has been in place for decades. The city is violating a court order to give at least 45 days notice before launching such a plan, says the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.
Families of disabled children who complain that the Department of Education is depriving their kids of mandated services or the right placement are entitled to a hearing. An “im𒉰partial hearing officer” can order the DOE to grant remedies such as physical or speech therapy, one-on-one instruction and tuition at a private school.
On Dec. 27 de Blasio iss𒀰ued an executive order to transfer the hearings to the Office of Administrativ💦e Trials and Hearings.
OATH judges are city employees with an inherent “conflict of interest,” say lawyers Gary Mayerson and Elisa Hyman, who sued on be⛎half of five unnamed parents and their kids.
“They can’t be biased. Th🌼ey can’t have the city be able to fire them,” Hyman said.
C🅺urrent hearing officers, hired by the state, serve as independent contractors.
The OATH handles city employee discipline, licensing, zoning and real-estate violations, ꦛbut it has never tackled education.
The city is hiring 25 new “special education hearing officers” to work at OATH. Salary: $140,000. Qualifications include at last two years in “education, special education, disability rights or civil rights.”
The DOE said the plan will🐠 cut🐠 wait times for families.
“We are proud to partꦆner with the State and OATH on this collecti𒀰ve effort to better serve New York City families,” said spokeswoman Sarah Casasnovas.
The lawyers said kids will suffer. “For the past two years, New York City’s special-needs students and their parents have had to deal with the ongoing threat of the pandemic, the difficulty of remote instruction and more,” Mayerson said. “The city’s reckless plan to transfer the hearing process over to OATH is the absolute last thing these kids need.”
The move comes as cases mount. The DOE faces a backlog ဣof roughly 9,400 special-ed complaints, Chalkbeat .