Dear New Yorkers, 

As the last few days of summer slip away, families in all five boroughs are preparing for the first day of school. Good luck to all the parents and educators out there! 

We should all be proud of New York City’s promise of a quality education for every student. But there are still vast areas of our city’s education system that need improvement. 

As my office’s latest report on special education shows, the Department of Education has failed to deliver urgently needed special education services to thousands of kids, especially low-income students of color. This is despite a tenfold spending increase on special education service claims over the last decade.

In FY23, there were roughly 209,000 public school students—more than 1 in 5 students in New York City—who have disabilities and a corresponding Individualized Education Program (IEP) to address their needs. Under federal and state law, the City of New York is legally mandated to provide special education services to all children with disabilities, including speech and occupational therapy, specialized individual instruction, and more.

Unfortunately, not all kids are equally having their needs met. As our new report shows (see chart below), IEP-related service recommendations for K-12 students in districts with higher economic needs are more likely to be partially provided or not at all.

To learn more about our report and our policy recommendations please refer to our latest explainer video from our education policy expert, Lara Lai. Let’s make this school year count for all our students and ensure every student gets the supports they need to succeed in the classroom.  

Brad