Senate Bill S5613A

                                BILL NUMBER:S5613A

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the education law, in relation to
special provisions relating to instruction of certain children with
handicapping conditions

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

This bill would reestablish the process by which the New York State
Education Department ("NYSED") approves public and private
out-of-state instructional facilities which it deems qualified to meet
the needs of certain children for instruction. In November 2012, NYSED
initiated a "temporary" administrative suspension of the approval of
applications of preschool special education programs, school-age
private school programs, and applications for expansions of currently
approved preschool special education programs and approved school-age
private schools. This suspension is to remain in effect until NYSED
completes a review and revision to the application process for new
programs and modifications to approved programs. This bill would
require NYSED to move forward with the statutorily prescribed approval
process in order to expand the scope of qualified public and private
out-of-state instructional facilities while it carries out its review
and revision to the application process.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

              

Section 1: Amends Subdivision 2 of Section 4407 of the Education Law
to provide that when public and private out-of-state instructional
facilities apply to NYSED for approval, they will be added to the
register of out-of-state educational facilities qualified to meet the
needs of certain children for instruction that NYSED is required to
maintain, provided the facility is qualified to meet the needs of
certain children for instruction. This approval process will take
place notwithstanding any review or revision of policy currently
undertaken by NYSED.

Section 2: Sets effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:

N.Y. Education Law § 4407 was enacted to give New York children with
disabilities the opportunity to receive instruction when they are
unable to find suitable instruction within the state. The principal
means of accomplishing this is to allow the school districts of such
pupils, when it is determined there are no appropriate placements
within the state, to contract with an educational facility located
outside the state, which the state education department, after
inspection, has deemed qualified to meet the needs of certain children
for instruction.

NYSED's "temporary" administrative suspension of the approval of
out-of-state instructional facilities, which has now been in effect
for almost a year-and-a-half, has severely compromised this process.
The suspension has forced instate educational facilities to accept
children with disabilities for whom, under normal circumstances, they
would be unsuited, and in some instances has forced families to send
their children to in-state facilities further from home than suitable


out-of-state placements currently barred from admission to NYSED's
register.

NYSED's suspension, which has left the number of approved out-of-state
instructional facilities stagnant, comes at a time when one in 68
children in the United States has been identified with an autism
spectrum disorder according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's (CDC) latest estimate in March, 2014. This latest
estimate was roughly 30 percent higher than the CDC's previous
measure, released in 2012 - the same year the suspension was
implemented.

Policy reviews and revisions can be undertaken without the suspension
of a statutorily prescribed process necessary to safeguard the right
of children in New York State to access appropriate educational
services. This bill will assure that all children in New York have the
right to attend educational facilities suited for their needs.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect on the first day of October after it shall
have become a law.