a way to get some water. Did you say no get started? >> Uh if you need water, go get your water and then we'll go ahead and get >> Oh, good. I'm good. I got it. I got Yep, we're ready. >> All righty, guys. Welcome to the citywide council for District 75's outreach committee today. We do have
some free resources from the Manhattan Psychology Group that we are very happy to bring to you. This meeting is being recorded and will be posted on the CCD75 outreach page. Additionally, we do have
interpretation in Mandarin, Spanish, and Bangla. We will now give the floor over to our interpreters for their instructions. Spanish, you have the floor. The following announcement will be in Spanish. Good morning, Buenos.
forcompar. Spanish complete. >> Thank you so much. Bangla, you now have the floor to give your instructions. Thank you. The following message will be for Bangla participants. Friends, thank Thank you.
>> Thank you. Mandarin, you now have the floor to give your instructions. >> Good morning all. This is for Mandarin conference line. announcement to completed. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Once again, guys, we have um Ariel Cornbloom and Joshua
Rosenthal from the Manhattan Psychology Group. They are here to talk to you about the different spaces that you need to know with your IEPs or if you aren't having services in the ways that you may need them and if you do need different levels of resources from assessments
from different um related services or if you do need to move forward with different help in regard to attorneys and things of that nature because as we do know this is a heavy journey. It's heavy lifting and we have great people, great resources and great community to
assist us as we move through this journey with our students. With that being said, welcome again Joshua. I do now give you the floor so that you may begin your presentation. >> Thank you so much. Thank you Christie. Thanks for having us. Uh thank you to the District 75 council for having us.
We've been very excited to present today. I'm going to share my screen and hopefully everything works the way that it's supposed to. Can you see my screen? >> Yes.
>> Okay, perfect. All right. So, now I need to figure out how do I get my screen on the other side. So, I'm looking at you guys and this at the same time. Let me try one more time.
Okay. Um, Spanish interpreters, while Joshua's, uh, troubleshooting, could we make sure that we You beat me to it, Harold. Thank you. >> Okay. How about now? >> Wonderful. Yes. >> Good. Okay. I always like to be able to
see people's faces while I'm talking because if I'm going off on a tangent and people are starting to fall asleep, I need to know that. So, it's important to see people's faces. >> Um, so thanks again for for coming. We're going to talk for probably about
25 minutes, maybe 30 minutes. Um, but any at any point in time, if you have questions, please put them in the chat. Ariel and I are going to go back and forth to try to mix it up. Please put them in the chat or you can just turn on your microphone and ask. We want this to be interactive. We want you to get as
much as you possibly can out of this. This should not be a passive experience for you. Um, so we're going to talk about how to get the most out of your education at the New York City Department of Education and specifically within your district 75 school.
Uh, we're going to talk about what your child is legally entitled to under FAPE, which is the free and appropriate public education. And I'm going to turn my phone off so it doesn't make any noises. Um, how to evaluate whether uh your child is actually making progress at
their school. What is meaningful progress look like? Um, how can you uh make your IEP even stronger if you're not seeing progress? and then what to do after that if that is not quite enough. So, we're going to cover a lot of ground. Um hopefully it's not going to
be completely new because all of the children in a district 75 school have an IEP. Um but again, if something you know jumps out at you, please stop us. Um so I am uh Josh Rosenthal. I'm a clinical psychologist. I'm the the owner
and founder of Manhattan Psychology Group. We've been around providing behavioral services to New York City families since 2011. Um we've been supporting families specifically with impartial hearing orders uh in the DOE
since for over 10 years now. So we're quite fluent with um with that and we provide all different types of services. Just give you understand how we know what we're talking about. We provide testing. Uh we deal with a lot of children having school refusal. children
need behavior therapy or applied behavioral analysis, parent training, cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, tutoring, and we do have providers in Spanish. Um, and we what we try to do is really try to make it as frictionless and as clear and as
transparent as possible, what is working and what is not working and let's do the things that are working. Um because we know that when you have a child and we have children, Errol and I both have children, every month matters, especially if your child has special
needs. Um every month matters and you do not want to waste any time. Um and you know, we we are completely independent. We have no financial relationships with any schools or attorneys or other agencies. So what we're talking about is
not influenced in any way by, you know, anything like that. I just want to make that sure that's clear. And although we do not accept insurance or provide these services, speech, PT, OT, and medicine, if anyone's interested in those services or they end up working with us, we can help you find those services. We work with lots of wonderful providers that do
accept insurance and provide those services. So, I just wanted to put that out there. Um, if you look on the mission statement for district 75, which I just looked up today, they make it very clear that if your child is going to a D75 school,
they should be receiving an individualized education, which is in line with having an IEP, individualized education plan. Um, and what that means is that your child is entitled to receive what they need for their
particular needs, right? That's really important. And we're going to keep coming back to that to your specific child's needs. Not what's good for the classroom, not what's good for the school, but what's good for your child. It's really, really important. Um, and now I'm going to switch it over
to Ariel and she's going to talk about IEP and why that's so important. >> Okay, good morning everyone. So, IEPs, I know everyone here uh probably has a lot of familiarity with IEPs, but I want to echo what Josh said, which is that Hey,
>> Ariel, I'm so sorry. Can you just introduce yourself? You've got some letters behind your name, too. >> Oh, sorry. So, my name is Ariel Cornblam. I am a licensed psychologist and a BCBA here in New York State. Um, at MPG, I oversee all of our uh behavior
therapy programs, ABA programming, and educational services. Um, so if you have any questions about any of this, I'm your go-to. I will share, um, we will share our email addresses at the end, uh, definitely so you can contact us. So, uh, to echo Josh's point, IEPs are
about your child, about your child's individual needs. They are not about what the school can offer, what kinds of classrooms the school has, whether or not there's an OT, a PT, a speech therapist on staff. So definitely throughout the course of this
presentation I want to keep that like front of mind. Um so what kinds of things are on IEPs? Um obviously class ratios for district 75 programs typically 12:1 8:1 6:1 6:13 um lots of
self-contained smaller size classrooms. Um students who have behavior intervention plans or BIPS also typically have behavior support in the form of a one-to-one para profofessional who is assigned by the school and then all the rel related services uh speech
therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling. Um I will add that again these are at the rate in which your child needs them based on their specific set of challenges. Uh many students also have assisted technology
devices or communication supports on their IEPs. That could be for, you know, communication in the form of utilization of an iPad or apps. It could be use of talk to text for writing assignments, anything like that. Um some students
have 12 month services, uh meaning they go to school for the 10-month school year and then the six week summer program. Uh it's called an ESY, extended school year. Um other uh things that go on the IEP are specialized transportation. So if it is not already
known to you, you are able to request uh through, you know, talking with your child's doctor or therapist uh different kinds of specialized transportation that can take the form of shortened transportation times, specific kinds of transportation. So there are students
that require shortened time, a bus with um let's say air conditioning on it because of a medical condition. Essentially again it's not dictated by what can be provided, it's dictated by what your child needs. Um and the last thing are specialized placements. So
obviously in New York City there are um New York State there are non-public school programs that are uh we make referrals. the cse at the school level can make a deferral to what is called the centralbased support team or CBST for placement into a non-public school.
Um that is again based on what your child needs and the school saying that they cannot accommodate those needs within their building or another equitable building. >> All right, I'm just monitoring the chat. Do we have any >> Oh, I don't have it up. >> Okay, let's see.
I think it's mostly the translation. Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> No questions yet. >> All right. So, the IEP, just to to dubtail, so the IEP, you have to think about the IEP like a living, breathing document. It's not static. It's not something you set up when you first join
the school and then you're good to go. It's something that is constantly changing as your child is changing. Think about that. Your child is growing, right? every month, every six months, every year, your child is different. And
so the IEP should be changing with your child. Yes, you should absolutely have a copy of your IEP. Someone just put a question into the chat. Um, and that's really important to to grasp is that no matter what anyone tells you, the IEP is a living, breathing, changeable document
based on how your child is making progress. All right? And that's it's a legal document, too. That's very important too is that the IEP was designed so that everyone would be on the same page about what your child needs to make individualized meaningful
progress. Okay? And and that is really all you have to to fall back on is the IEP. That's why it's so important when you set up the IEP and you track the IEP, you're always coming back to the IEP. And it can be really helpful, too, right? Because you all are on the same
page about the goals of the IEP and what the expectations are. And now in a in a district 75 school, what we're looking for in terms of IEP progress are communication skills, self-regulation skills,
daily living independence, so being able to move around in the classroom and get things done on your own, and then any reduction in interfering behaviors. Okay, those are the things you want to be seeing making progress over time. And there's probably a host of other
individualized goals for your particular child, but just in general, these are what are probably going to be on the IEP, right? And how do you how do you monitor? How do you know if these things are are getting better or worse? So, you have goals and the goals are set up with
objectives and percentages, right? And that's something that's part of the IEP meeting. Everyone agrees, they see those, they agree to them. Um, and then you have services on the IEP, right? And so the services allow you to achieve the goals. Um, and if progress is not
happening, if you're not achieving the goals on the IEP, the IEP should be revisited. It should come back. Hey, this IEP is not set up properly. My child is not making progress. Hey, it's too easy. Hey, it's too hard. Whatever it is, we're not hitting the goals. We're not making progress. It's an
ongoing discussion with all the representatives from your school. And there's lots of schools. There's an IEP coach, there's uh behavior progress monitors, there's all different types of people that the the DOE provides to make sure that the IEP is being implemented
properly. Right. So, you have lots of contacts that you can reach out to. Um Errol, do you want to take this one or you want me to take it? >> I can take it. And I also want to add that they per the IEP, there has to be
an IEP report on the goals at quarterly. So you should be receiving home the goals of your child's IEP with a report of their progress at least quarterly. That doesn't mean that's the only time you could get access to, you know, the progress on the goals, but that is a
minimum. Also, if your child has a behavior intervention plan, on the last page of that plan, it will have in there the setup for how often the team needs to meet to review the data. It's typically about 6 to 8 weeks. Um, your teachers, your child's teachers are
likely taking a lot of data often, right? Progress monitoring data. Um, they have, you know, testing that they do for like baseline reading, writing, math. So, definitely ask Right. The the easiest way to get the data is to ask.
And my suggestion is to keep a folder on your desktop or in your Google Drive and put everything in there. All the reports, all the evaluations, all the IEPs, so you have everything in one place. It can be quite difficult to track it all down if you don't have it in one space. So definitely as these
things come to you, keep them in one place. For one reason or another, the DOE tends to tends to send home like paper documentation. I would you could ask them. The IEP is digital. They could certainly email it to you. So, you could definitely ask them for that. >> And I and I know my child has an IEP,
right? And Ariel used to be >> Yes, my child has an Yeah, my child has an IEP, too. So, we're both in it. We We understand >> for parents to jump in. You'll need to ask You'll need to give permission um for the schools to give it to you electronically, which generally it's an
email. Please send it electronically and then they can. for the behavior intervention, you want to make sure when you get that IEP that that piece is connected. Sometimes they will not give you that piece either by accident or by error, but as they're saying, that's information that you need and you should have it from the beginning.
>> Yes, that's a really good point. I have seen that often where the behavior plan gets like disjointed from the IEP itself. It should always come together. Um >> there was a a question in the chat someone said about um requesting a non-public school
um and and how she just wasn't seeing progress. We're going to get to that later in the talk um uh Miss August. So thank you for asking that question, but we'll we'll get we'll answer that at the end of the talk. By the end of the talk. >> Yeah. And I think that what we're about to talk about like how long is too long
to wait again you need to uh you know I wish that it wasn't like this. I wish that teachers sent home and some do to be fair progress you know weekly right or bi-weekly. I wish that that was the case because that's how fast these things move right. We need to be
targeting goals on a daily basis. So 3 to 6 months is a really long time to wait. parents, you need to be the advocates, right? And that means asking the school team for your child's progress monitoring data on a regular basis. I'll speak for myself. I have
like schedule send emails for every six weeks to ask my child's teachers for the updated progress. You set it once and forget about it. I promise you, they are not sending it unless you ask. For the most part, they're just really busy. There's a lot going on. Um 6 months is a
long time. It's a really long time. Even three months is a really long time. So, if you're not seeing progress towards the IEP goals, and this is considering the IEP goals are correct and they're on they're on point for where your child is at, then that warrants a discussion with
the school team, right? So, you have the right to request a meeting whenever you want. Um, I see a lot of questions here. >> Christiey's help. I can help. >> Oh, Christiey's helping us out. Okay. Thank you. Um, yes. So, temporary
regression can can occur. I will say this is something to keep your an eye out for. A lot of kids regress over a school break, right? There's a week off, there's 10 days off, the holidays, whatever it is, they're sick for a period of time. Temporary regression
definitely occurs for all kids. There's neurotypical kids, neurodyiverse kids. Um, I would say for the most part, I'm looking at about like 10 days to two weeks to get back on track. And if there's sustained regression past that period of time, that's a reason to talk to the teachers. Um, and what are we
asking for? So, every school uses different things, but they are always doing some baseline measure and some progress monitoring. They'll use different tools for that, especially depending on the skill level and the age of your child. A good thing to do at the beginning of the year is to ask the
teachers what they plan on using in their classroom for that year. Um like I just know from for example like there are certain teachers who are trained on um like I Ready versus A Cadence. There are all these online tools that they're using to track progress monitoring. So
just ask um you can always ask and this is a big one for the attendance data and the service logs for all of your child's related services. This is a really really big one. If they are not receiving their mandates, you want to know why. Um, again, this is something
you will need to ask the behavior tracking data. So, when a school develops an does a functional behavior assessment and develops a behavior intervention plan, they do need to check in at the period of time I was talking about that's on the BIP, typically 6 to 8 weeks, but they should be tracking
data every single day. So, you can ask for that data. It's typically raw and handwritten. That's okay. Um but it will give you insight into if they're saying okay theoretically we're trying to reduce um like alopement from the
classroom like just running out of the classroom without asking and that's happening 10 times a day and the goal is to reduce it to two times a day you can request the frequency how how often is it happening every single day so you can see um I I agree with you Christy I
always ask for the raw data you want it all again put it all in a folder keep it there so you have it. Um, the eligibility for ESY is typically tied to this this idea of regression, meaning that if your child was not receiving services over the summer, they would
likely regress and that would impact them during the following school year. So, you would you need to understand that like when we're advocating for these things, a lot comes down to the fact that like here's the data like they went we had one week of vacation and look what it was like getting back into
school, right? Um, and I think this speaks a little bit to the question about um, requesting the to have your child placed in an MPS because there hasn't been any progress. If the teachers are saying that they see progress, they have to prove it. Ask them for evidence. Ask them for the
progress monitoring data. Um, progress is, you know, to be very frank, it's not subjective. There are certain pieces of it that yes, we get a sense of like this feels a little bit better. Of course, qualitative data is important, but in these kinds of situations, you want to
see the numbers. You want to see quantitative data. And if a school team is telling you that your child is making progress, but is unable to substantiate that with some kind of progress monitoring, that is an issue and that should be raising red flags. There was a question from earlier from Leslie about
I was told to use OPWD and um that's a really interesting question because that's a completely separate funding source to support your child and that's not entirely true. It is true you can use OPWDD but the school is also responsible for supporting your
child irrespective of OPWD. And so we're going to talk about some ideas and some things that you can do um if you're getting told to use outside supports for what's happening at school. Um but I just wanted to acknowledge that question. >> Yeah, that's okay. >> Anything else, Ariel, or should we move
on? >> Uh no, let's move on. >> Okay. Uh okay. So, if if you're not getting what you want out of the IEP and you're reaching out and and you're and you're you're frustrated, but you want more,
right? You realize your child is not making progress, um, you can request an IEP and you can request to have a meeting about your IEP. You want to do this in writing. Obviously, if it if it if you say it over the phone, it it doesn't exist. You have to put it in writing. and and sort of in line with
what Ariel is saying is that you can ask for data, you can ask for updated evaluations. So, if your child's IEP was based on evaluations that were done by the DOE a year or two ago and your child is not doing well, we need to figure out what's going on. And it's the DOE's
responsibility to provide updated evaluations or at least an FBA and BIP to try to understand what is the function of what's happening at school. Um, like Errol said, request all the progress data and silverh service delivery data. Um, you know, you want to
you want to ask for what you need. You can request adjustments to services or class ratio. Like the school, every school is a little bit different and they may be willing to work with you and make adjustments faster, but you have to ask for them. You have to advocate and ask for them. And I'm not saying you're not asking. I'm just saying for the
people that may think, "Oh, I don't want to russle feathers or I don't want to upset my teachers." like it's not going to happen unless you ask for it. Now, if they don't do it, that's a separate that's a separate thing, but first thing is just to ask um and to have that meeting and in an updated IEP meeting.
Um and then you can ask for something what are calledes and these are independent evaluations. So the DOE provides evaluations and then if you disagree and you think that those evaluations are not representative of
your child's abilities, you can ask for a private evaluator and that's something that we actually do to come in and do an evaluation and the DOE um can pay for it um uh if you can't afford it. Um and so that that becomes again a negotiation
process between you and your and your school. But it is an option for families. Ariel, is there anything you want to chime in here on this slide? >> Uh, no. This all >> I do as a mother. Um, I I do impartial hearings. I have a lawyer. We've been going through it for 10 years with my
son. So, when it comes to the um functional behavioral assessments and the behavioral intervention plan, you guys have to know this. It's it's not an if and or but. You have to know what is in it to know if the data that they're even taking makes sense. um because sometimes they can add things that make
no sense or they don't give you the frequency. So knowing what's supposed to be there, knowing um the information based on this because the BIP can change, the FBA can change, but no, you just need to know that information when you get that raw data. If it doesn't look right, say something about it
because it matters. This is paperwork that travels with your child everywhere you go. So we always want to make sure that we are on point with what is there even with the progress reports because some teachers are amazing and some teachers use it as a dropbox. So if you see that it does not align with your
child, make sure that you are being their biggest advocate and speak up and speak out. Thanks. >> Yeah. >> Awesome. Um so let's say you're trying to play nice and you're trying to work with your school to get things changed. Uh Era, why don't you take this one? I've been talking.
>> Sure. So, um, you know, what happens? You ask for updated IEP. You're saying there's your child's not making progress. And, you know, maybe this speaks to the earlier question about like the school's disagreeing, right? The school is saying, "Well, your child is making progress." Sort of where do
you go from there? Um, most times the the cse chair, who is typically the school psychologist, will hand you, cuz I used to be a school psychologist for the DOE, a thing this big that's like your rights as a parent, like what you can do. And it's super confusing and
very antiquated. But what you can do is you have the right as a parent to disagree with the school's decision, whether it's the, you know, what they're putting into the IEP or the progress that's being made. You have the right to request again as many IEP meetings as
you want, but it's not working. You do have the right to file a formal complaint. That is called a due process complaint or a DPC and it goes through what is called the impartial hearing office at the New York City Department of Education. Most families utilize either a attorney
or an advocate to represent them in those in those hearings. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. Um, but essentially once you file, and this is again, this is why you want to have all of your data and all of the evaluations and everything in writing because to
Josh's point, if it happened over the phone and it doesn't exist, you need to have everything in writing because when you meet with an advocate or an attorney, they are going to ask for every single piece of documentation that you have ever seen from your child's school. And they are going to want to
know the timelines. When did you request this? when was this meeting? So, the more that you can come to those initial meetings prepared with that information, the better. Um, so getting it all together and keeping it in in a place where hopefully you won't need it, but if just in case you do, it's ready to
go. Um, filing the complaint triggers a timeline for what is called an impartial hearing. If you are going to impartial hearing, essentially, it is not a I want to be very clear. This is not a court of law. It is a
bureaucratic administrative hearing. Um it's not like you're not in front of a judge. You're in front of an impartial hearing officer. Um and that person is there to hear essentially both sides, the parent side and the school side. You are when you are filing a hearing, you are alleging that the school district is
not providing your child what is called a FAPE, a free and appropriate public education. That they are not meeting your child's needs. That is federal law under IDEIDA. Public schools must provide students a FAPE. Uh you are is asserting that and the school district
is saying well either they're agreeing or they're defending that they did or they are providing a FAPE to your child. A lot of times this resolves before you actually go to hearing. There's some kind of a settlement process. But if not from start to finish it can take about 6
to9 months. So it is a lengthy involved process. Um, again, this is sort of like the last ditch, right? Like this is when all of the mediation and all the efforts on the ground have have to adjust the IEP or to get the right placement have
just not worked. Um, so what does it mean once you get to an impartial hearing? So you go to the hearing again, both sides, there might be new evaluations involved. Um, both sides have, you know, witnesses and therapists and they make their case. At the end,
the impartial hearing officer um issues the order, right? So, the order is quite lengthy and it goes through sort of everything that happened in the hearings and you know, a review of the documentation, but at the end it has an award in it and it either finds for the
parent or it finds for the district. Um but in general, once the award is there, it can include a whole host of things. And I want to be very clear, it includes and it can include and should include every single thing that your child
requires in order to make progress within an educational setting. So that could be payment to a private school, a brand new educational placement. It could be reimbursement for services you already paid for. Um many parents pay out of pocket for school placements and
therapists and things like that. Um it could also include ongoing services. So, yes, you're going to go to this school placement, but you're also entitled to all of these additional services after school. Again, speech, OT, PT, counseling, parent training, applied
behavior analysis, ABA therapy. Just because it happens at home, it is still part of your child's educational program. It's really important to keep in mind. And then, it also might include awards for compensatory services. So let's say you had been in this process
for 6 to9 months, but the DOE did not do what they were supposed to do for years before that. Your child might also be entitled to services that they should have been receiving for all of those prior years. So some of these awards can be quite meaty in the sense that there's
a lot going on in them. Um I want to look at this question. >> No, I wanted to piggyback on one. We it was up a little bit further. Mr. Lewis Diaz says, "I believe that you guys are going to meet with him offline, but he also said, and I want to pull this up
for other parents. What happens if the centralbased support team does not help the family for a non-public or private school? What should you do?" Mr. Diaz, can you speak more about that? Are you saying they're not helping you with the list or they're not helping to move it
forward? let us know when you can come off of mute and then we can maybe you guys can answer. >> So I have my recommendation to all families who receive a centralbased deferral is to do two simultaneous processes. You can look up the list of approved nonpublic schools. Um I have
it. I can certainly send it out. Um, my suggestion to families is always if you get the sense that your CSC chair is going to do the deferral for you, start reaching out to schools. So, families can reach out to, you know, like any school that's on that list and say, "I'm
going to get a um a deferral." You don't need the CBST does not have to send the packets out for you. you can do the o your own application to these schools and oftentimes that moves the whole process along faster. Um so my
suggestion is to get a feel like I would definitely recommend like all the Facebook groups the support groups lots of parents have a really great intel into MPS's which ones are a good fit for certain kinds of students. If you reach out to them and say you have a deferral
they will tour you. They will take the packet and they will move the process along. You do not need CBST to be involved in that process. You can essentially get your child in and just tell your case manager that that's what you did. Um, obviously it would be great if the CBST case manager was really
running the ship, but oftentimes they do not. >> Let's keep moving because I want to make sure we have enough time at the end. >> And then Joshua, as we as we get to the end, we do want to take space to check in with our interpreters to see if there are any questions in the Spanish Bangal
Bengali lines. For sure. For sure. Um, so if you're considering next steps and there's a lot of questions in the chat. I love all the questions. It's clear that we're striking a nerve with some people and that's good. That's why we're here. That's why we're providing the information. Um, we're set up, our goal,
right, is to remove friction for families so that it doesn't have to be even more scary and frustrating than it already is to have a special needs child, right? That's ultimately what we're trying to do is remove the friction. So, we're offering free consultations to any family that's interested in learning more about what
we're talking about. Um, we're going to put our our contact info into the chat. Errol, could you actually do that while I'm talking? Um, and >> I am sorry. This is Spanish interpreter. I do have a question on the Spanish line. Do you want to do that now or? >> Uh, we only have like two more slides
and then we can do that. >> Okay. All right. I'll let them know then. >> All right. >> Okay. >> Um, and we're we'll talk to you. will evaluate your situation um and we'll provide guidance on next steps uh at no charge, right? Um what we're going to
ask you to do is start organizing. If you're interested in moving forward and talking with an advocate or an attorney, organize your IEPs, get everything together like like Arrow was instructing you. If you don't have it all, that's okay, too. Just try your best. Um we're going to start we would start looking at the data to try to objectively
understand what's going on. And then in terms of understanding your your your rights for legal representation, this is very important. Now, there's two avenues you can go. There's nonprofits like Advocates for Children, and a lot of people know about them, and they have specialed attorneys that can represent
you at IEP hearings and impartial hearing orders, impartial hearings. Um, but there's also private attorneys that work the same way with feeshifting, and they do the same exact thing, but they're private. So, it's not a nonprofit. there's a little bit, you
know, that they're they have more flexibility, they have more availability maybe, and we work with those private attorneys. So, if you come to us for a free consultation and we decide that it's a good idea to move forward and you're asking for an attorney recommendation, we can introduce you to an attorney that will represent you. So,
we're trying to again help families find the guidance and the support that they need um to reduce friction. And all along the parent all, this is really important, parent always remains in having the choice of what they do and in control of the process. There's no
attorney, there's no provider, there's no school that can tell the family what to do or where to go. It's always the parents choice. Now, some parents may not understand that. And so it's really important that you talk to people you trust to understand that you do actually need full transparency about who you're
working with and any financial relationships between your attorney and between the providers and between the schools. Um it's it's something that that comes up and people don't talk about it enough, but I want everyone here to understand that that transparency is key. Um and if you come to us, we will always be transparent
with you. Um in the end, what are the major takeaways for parents? that your child is entitled by law to individualized meaningful progress at your district 75 school. Okay. Um if services are not being implemented or
not being implemented properly, that's a compliance issue. It's not just an oversight or a mistake, they're out, the school could be out of compliance with the IEP, which is a legal document according to the federal government that they have to follow, right? Um, and
you're entitled to a lot of things that maybe you have already asked for or maybe you're planning on asking for, including new evaluations if your child is not making progress and you're sort of running into a wall with your school. And there are free legal services
available and free private attorneys that will represent you and do a wonderful job. We work with many of those if you're interested. Um, here's our contact info. Um, Ariel, can you copy the whole thing possibly with the phone number? um your name and our website too and put it into the chat.
So, if you're interested, just reach out anytime. We'll get back to you right away. Again, it's one resource for families. Um Christie, I'm sure, has lots of resources for families, but we wanted to uh break down any barriers and make the process as easy as possible. And please do know that we are going to
be having a series of additional workshops with Joshua and with um his team to make sure that you guys know everything that you can. This is a wonderful, wonderful organization. We have multiple parents that actually do use them. I've had people text me while they're on now. Like they're amazing.
They're amazing. And this is what you want to know. People that have the heart, who care to give you this information and fight for you and move you forward. So stay tuned. Everyone that has signed up for this um um excuse me workshop, your information will get forwarded over to Joshua Rosenthal so
that they can still follow up with you and uh make sure that you are okay on any level that you do need. >> And we have a one-pager that uh Christy I think is going to share with everyone that explains this entire process in one page with our contact information and make it super simple. And we have
Spanish people on staff. All the attorneys we work with have Spanish speaking people. So that that shouldn't be a barrier as well. Okay, Harold, I'm sorry I cut you off before. What was your question? >> Yeah, hold on. Let me let me get that person back on the line. >> Okay,
Alexis is saying, "Oh, yeah. Okay, let me use this." Yes. Yeah, that's a good question. It does, this is not just for district 75. This is for any child with an IEP is entitled to all the same things. It doesn't um doesn't have to be just district 75.
Any other questions while we're waiting for Harold to reach? >> Okay. So, that's usually >> I did have a question up up Joshua. What is the I know it's 10 days right after the annual IEP that they have to give you the IEP because I it's just I wonder
still that rule is a 10-day rule. >> Yeah. um any recourse if they pass that by weeks, let's say for one of the people I'm working with, it's you know, I think it's like two months at this point. >> I would definitely put in writing it's
been 10 days, it's been it's been 15 days, it's been how many days. Um so you have the whole thread there. I mean, I think this is where like a lot of people who even if you don't know where you're going to go with it, it does make sense to at least get some kind of an advocate on your trail.
>> Yeah. um to even come to like for example like I take and someone to my own IEP meetings for my child just because like it's good to have another person there who's not as >> that's right you know it's hard to remember certain things you have someone somebody taking notes and and it adds an
extra layer of accountability I find that the the schools the not that they get scared but they understand that you're like you know your stuff right and then they shouldn't take advantage of your family >> even calling a parent member I'm on the list and I go in. I don't know the
people I can't really call. They give you a list of people. Exactly. Right. Like Yeah. People don't realize that there's a there's a list of uh parent members you can call to your IEP. The DOE must you have to give them a week's notice, but just having that extra person is so important.
>> You can also record them if you ask in advance. Yep. >> Yeah. You could you could also record that. >> Can I jump on to that? If you get the recording and if they say yes, they're recording and you're recording it automatically becomes a part of your child's record. It needs to go into OSIS. It needs to stay in their record.
The recording is now a legal part of the record. I want y'all to know that. Also, Fidia, guys, this is one of our uh council members. So, welcome. Thank you for the support. She's also a broker. So, if you guys need any additional support, we do have that on the council in house. Um, forgive me, Fidia, if I'm
throwing you all the way out there. That's okay. But for your parent where they didn't send the um the IEP, double check on the back end if they put it on the NIXA and just did and send it to the parent because they could have put it over there. >> It's not there. That's the first thing I I had a look is just see. I think it's
an issue with the BIP wasn't like you said up front up top. You said about the BIP. They didn't they didn't talk about the BIP at the annual I actually joined as a parent member and I asked where's the BIP? Oh, well this was like a reconvene. I'm like, "Well, it's the annual IEP according to what you told the parent in this email in the PWC."
So, it was all over the place, but it's been like 2 months and they haven't sent anything. I think they're trying to figure out he's now deferred to CBST, so it's complicated. They can't find a placement, so who's going to keep the child? Basically, you know, >> it's, you know, it's all fun. All it's not fun, but you >> I would still call that a ridiculous
excuse. And if you need to help call the principal to say give the parent the IEP now, that's a document they have the right to ASAP, not >> Yeah. And I would say even if they're in the CBSD process, like most of the CBST schools will reopen the IEP once they
accept the child to like sort of make it fit their program. So like there's no reason to like not do the IEP at all because you're waiting on this. That's it's lazy if that's what they're doing. Like they should just do it for where the child is at right now. >> Yeah. So to repeat and then I'll give
the floor back. One parent asked me to repeat about the recording. We have a we're a one party um state where one party can record but you do have to let them know that you're recording. Generally schools will say yes. If they are recording then they have to put it in your students record in the OSIS
record. So you want to make sure if it's recorded that it goes into the record. You want to keep that standard. Hi, I just wanted to jump in the question that the person had on the Spanish line previously. They were asking uh they have a young child and
they kind of wanted to know where they would begin to get an evaluation as they feel it's necessary. >> You want to take it, Josh? >> Um no, no, go ahead. You can take it. >> Um so the do you know if they the child
had an evaluation already through the local school? No, >> Karolina would is interpreting now. She could communicate with the uh >> I am asking the mom right now. >> Okay.
>> Uh yes, he had the evaluation and he has had some um significant significant improvements. >> Okay. So if do they need a new evaluation then? Okay.
Uh yes, I believe once I have a meeting with the therapist, then I can ask for a new setup for a meeting and to be re-evaluated because I believe he's having a good progress and he should be in an advanced level. >> Yes. So you can ask the school for a
re-evaluation at any point in time. If the school if you do not agree with the school's evaluation or it's not good enough, so I will I will be clear that like the school does not do neuroscychological evaluations. They do psychoeducational evaluations um which are not diagnostic in nature
and also do not look at every single aspect of cognitive functioning, executive functioning, um social emotional health. You could ask the school for the the actual cse. You could ask them for an IE on that level. You don't necessarily need to go to a hearing or have an attorney for any of
that. You could just say, "I want a neuroscychological evaluation for my child." And they should, if they agree, they will give you a list of people that accept um their funding for it. >> Good question. Does anyone else have any other questions?
I know that there's often very specific individualized situations and that's what the consultations are for. So, if you feel like there's a lot of information you want to share about your specific child, please reach out and we can get into the weeds with you um
versus just here today. Any other questions? What steps can families take after they want a case of DOE, but they can't find a proper school with all services and where they go to a private school, but the school is not providing all services and supports? So, what did Karina what did this what
did the order say? It said that you can take it and go to any private school. No, it's it's not my case. is I I found some some uh pe some families that um I
know they they won a case to to the DOE against the DOE and I I I saw this I saw this family getting trouble finding um a proper school because uh their case is
is like complex. It's a it's a child that is is they she can't hear well. She have many many challenges in in in her education in her her behavior. Um but that that is
one and and this family go to different schools but sometimes they are too far. um and and and I try to like help them,
but it it's a little difficult to to find a a proper place. And the other problem that I see is there's some families that get into a private school,
not not a nonpublic uh school, a private school, >> and they suppose they say at the beginning, yes, they have everything. they they can't comply uh with the IEP
and everything, but then they start the family start to have problems because the school is not really doing what they said they would do. >> I I would say just to jump in, if you can send us the orders, we can help with
more understanding as to what the child is entitled to. And that's on the first request about um you know what do you do if there is no school. The second part is that comes back to having trust with the providers that are helping you build
the case and the attorney that you're working with because not all schools are created equal. And a lot of schools will advertise one thing that what you're describing is a little bit of a bait and switch. They advertise one thing to get the child in and maybe to get the tuition. I I don't know. But
then when the rubber hits the road, they're not actually providing the services that they're advertising. Now, it's sort of like >> going on vacation to a hotel and just based on reviews, right? Like sometimes you need someone who's actually been to that vacation spot to tell you, "Yes,
the water is warm. You can actually swim in this water." And so that's what comes from working with people that really know what the services are at the school. they know what quality ABA is, for example, applied behavior analysis, like what does that actually look like?
Um, >> so I'm I'm really sorry that's happening to this family. Um, again, we could definitely help if we just can get more details on the school on what it's supposed to be implementing. So, I would just encourage you to reach out, email us the orders with the parents permission, then we can talk to the
family. >> Yes, I will. I I I will. Every order, by the way, every order is completely different. And the way that the order is written makes a huge difference on what the family's entitled to. It can come
down to one or two words that will make a huge difference in terms of what providers are eligible. So, it's really really important that the parents one work with an attorney that understands the law really well and understands what the the New York City sort of landscape
is of services in schools and two um that they that they that they they implement their orders are written in a way so it creates the most options for the parents. So again, it's it's it's it's it's unfortunate some families have had bad
cir bad situations, but um working with people you trust makes a big difference. >> Also, I have >> Thank you very much, >> Miss um I don't know. Um Harold, do you want to um say what Miss Rosa said that I believe it says her son is in the sixth grade? >> Yeah, sure. I I'll translate that for
you. Um my son is in sixth grade and uh he was in sixth grade and he was in a class of eight and till they switched him to a class of 12. The teacher says that he has a lot of difficulty and he
frustrate and he gets frustrated a lot and he should be going back to a class of eight and his IEP it they changed him to a class of 12. So, I I think she's looking for advice for that.
>> Yeah. Um I would say in that situation that if she can call up like a, you know, either a parent member or bring an advocate to the IEP meeting, uh sometimes that happens with, you know, schools who are they want to eliminate a
certain classroom, right? So, it happened a bunch of years ago when a lot of uh community schools eliminated their 12elves um and they tried to move tons of kids into ICT programs that were not really a good fit for that. That's the school making the decision based on what they have, not what your child needs.
So, definitely reopening the IEP and taking an advocate, an attorney, or a parent member to the IEP meeting. If the teacher is saying that that he needs an eight, um, then hopefully they can say that in the meeting as well, right? Um, and if they deny you, then that's sort
of a a reason to take the next step maybe towards a hearing. >> Um, I think we're going to we're going to wrap up if that's okay. Uh Christie, thank you so much for having Ariel and I with you and thank you everyone for coming today and hopefully you learned
something and again please reach out if you have any questions and we really look forward to presenting more information. There's so many great topics we can talk about. Um so many things we're passionate about and we want to help families learn and and feel more and and bolden and stronger and and
have more information so they can support their children. >> And if you came to this late, it will be on CCD75 outreach. We will share that out today so that parents do have this information because it's very important. Again, we will be having additional uh workshops with this organization,
Manhattan Psychology Group. So, don't worry. We're going to continue the work. I know that they have a hard stop. If you have any additional questions, Karina, I see we'll let your question be the last one. Guys, please do email either Ariel or Joshua or the D75 council and we will make sure to close
the loop for you. Miss Garcia, you have the floor. This is a short one. Christie is uh because I know a lot of Spanish speaking families. Uh how how Mr. Joshua and Ariel that you have translators,
interpreters? >> Yes, we have we have we have Spanish speaking providers on our team. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And the attorneys we work with also have Spanish speaking providers. So that will not be a barrier. I promise you. Awesome.
Thank you very much. >> Thank you everyone. Have a great day into the chat. We're gonna send that out via email. Thank you guys. Have a great day and thank you for coming. Thank you. Talk to you soon. Thanks. Bye. Bye. >> Goodbye.