NYC schools aren't meeting needs of students with disabilities, lawsuit alleges
NEW YORK — The New York City Department of Education is facing a new lawsuit from the Legal Aid Society and a group of city public school parents. It alleges that kids in need of special education programs often aren't going to school because city schools don't have what they need.
According to city school data, 46.1% of students with disabilities were chronically absent in the 2022-2023 school year. That equates to over 86,000 students staying home.
The lawsuit alleges that's because they simply don't want to, but because, in some cases, it's too traumatic.
"The Department of Ed does not have a program [or] policy to really address it ... And it's the parents, the families that don't have the resources to do that that are sort of left to struggle on their own," said lawsuit co-council Jeffrey Metzler.
A city schools spokesperson told CBS News New York in response to the lawsuit that they are committed to the attendance issue and providing the support and resources that some of their most vulnerable students need.
"They don't have the resources"
"They didn't have no answer. They didn't have no behavior plan," said parent David Castro.
Castro's son Ian is autistic. He stays home from school every day with no plan set to change that. When in public school, Ian had a series of mental crisis incidents that would, in some cases, turn violent. Castro recalls picking Ian up one day after an incident and seeing school staff on top of his son, restraining him.
"Even the principal told me one time, 'You better pick him up. If not, I'm calling 911,'" Castro said.
Castro says Ian's schools would either call him to pick Ian up or not tell him about an incident at all. As a result, he and his wife are still learning about the severity of their own son's condition. They believe that the schools Ian attended traumatized him and brought on these episodes, which Ian would bring home with him.
"What could the Department of Education give you and him to make him more comfortable?" CBS News New York's Doug Williams asked.
"He cannot go back to the DOE because the DOE's not prepared for... They don't have the resources," Castro said.