Questions about Special Ed in NYC Orthodox Schools

In The Politics of Autism, I write about special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. II also discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families. 

 Brian M. Rosenthal at NYT:

Less than a decade ago, New York City drastically changed the way it provided special education to thousands of children with disabilities.

State law requires cities to deliver those services to students in private schools, even if the government has to pay outside companies to do it. But for years, when parents asked, New York City officials resisted and called many of the requests unnecessary.

In 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio changed course. Responding to complaints, especially from Orthodox Jewish organizations, he ordered the city to start fast-tracking approvals.

The policy has made it easier for some children with disabilities to get specialized instruction, therapy and counseling. But in Orthodox Jewish religious schools, particularly in parts of the Hasidic community, the shift has also led to a windfall of government money for services that are sometimes not needed, or even provided, an examination by The New York Times has found.

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Five hearing officers told The Times that in proceedings involving Hasidic children, some parents have not seemed to know what they were requesting, or why. In one case, a mother could not explain her son’s disability, records show.

The Chabad Girls Academy, a Hasidic yeshiva in Crown Heights, sent an email to one mother in 2020 that said her daughter would qualify for autism treatment and provided her with a sample prescription for the child’s doctor, according to a copy of the message obtained by The Times. “Please can you have her medical doctor write a prescription stating diagnosis of F84.0,” the email said. “This is what we need.”

The mother told The Times her child does not have autism.

A lawyer for the school, Jules Halpern, said the school never pressed to get any child diagnosed with autistic disorders. “Email exchanges with this parent or any other would clearly demonstrate a dedicated educator working diligently and completely in the interest of the student,” he said.

Autism, Vaccines, Measles, and the Ultra-Orthodox

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism.  

At The Forward, Ari Feldman explains why there is a measles outbreak in New York's Hasidic community.

[S]ome ultra-Orthodox believe that there is a connection between vaccines and autism, despite the fact that the CDC says there is none. Major Orthodox rabbis have called vaccines “hoaxes” and cast doubt on their efficacy, including three who sit on the rabinnical board that guides Agudath Israel of America, the leading Haredi umbrella group.

Vaccine skepticism has spread from those leaders to their followers.

“I’ve been practicing medicine and doing research on this topic for years now and I am saying scientifically the truth is known but being covered up,” Yosef, a physician assistant from Crown Heights who was raised in the Chabad movement, a branch of Hasidic Judaism, wrote in an email.

Yosef, 35, said that although he and two of his five children are vaccinated, he believes vaccines cause more harm than good.

“Side effects include death, autoimmune diseases, autism and many things in between,” he wrote. “I don’t think, I know. CDC knows. $4 billion paid to parents by our government since 1986 knows.”

Inclusion

In Tablet, Marjorie Ingall writes about inclusion in Jewish schools:

I recently chatted with Dori Frumin Kirshner, the executive director of Matan (the name means “gift”), an organization that supports Jewish communities in educating children with special learning needs.

“The Orthodox have always taken on responsibility for educating all Jews,” she told me. “But Conservative, Reform, unaffiliated, and non-denominational institutions—well, the going attitude was, ‘Sorry, we can’t handle that. Bye. It’s not you; it’s us.’ The latent message, of course, was, ‘It’s you.’ ”

Things are slowly changing. More Jewish organizations are calling Matan for help, and a number of Jewish day schools are trying to be more embracing of kids with learning differences. “There’s a big difference from 10 years ago,” Kirshner said. “But it still takes time, attitude change, and advocacy. Clergy, early-childhood, and educational directors, the president of the shul, they need to step up more and take the full responsibility off parents’ shoulders. This is everyone’s bag. It’s a health and human services issue, an educational issue, and a cultural issue—because there are so many kids out there with no entry points to the beauty of Jewish culture.”

Inclusion, Kirshner said, was a policy equal in importance to the civil rights movement. “You don’t have to be from the South or African-American to feel in your kishkes that it’s wrong to leave children separate,” she said. “I feel strongly—just as my mom, a white Jew who grew up in Shreveport and marched and got arrested for civil rights felt—this is wrong. It’s wrong to tell people there’s no room for them at the Jewish communal table. They have to start adding other chairs.”

NorthJersey.com has a piece on inclusion:

Certainly, the subject of inclusion has been receiving a great deal of attention recently. New Jersey’s Statewide Parent Advocacy Network created the New Jersey Inclusive Child Care Project, a project funded by the New Jersey Department of Human Services. The project’s goals include providing information, training and technical assistance on the inclusion of children from birth through age eight in typical preschool, childcare and after-school programs. Their resources include a comprehensive program called Finding Our Way Together, a resource guide available on the website that provides information on inclusion of children at child-care centers, family child care, and after-school care. NJ SPAN is also piloting a collaborative project with the NJ School-Age Child Care Coalition to promote inclusion in high poverty, high immigrant communities. They are providing free resources on the laws dealing with inclusion in programs before and after school.

Also see a related article on parent perspectives.