Response to NYC Academic Recovery Plan

New York, NY, July 8, 2021—After reviewing NYC’s Universal Academic Recovery Plan, Barbara A. Glassman, Executive Director of INCLUDEnyc, made the following statement: 

We applaud the City’s $251 million investment in special education, prioritizing more than 300,000 students with disabilities, including preschool students and students who recently aged out. 

While we appreciate additional instruction and related services being offered in afterschool and Saturday borough-based programs, we are still awaiting a separate plan for compensatory services. Families need to know if the City will make-up services for their child, and how, when, and where it will happen. The City also needs to provide busing to and from these new programs for all students who require it, so they can equally participate.

We call on the City to take this opportunity to make additional investments that create more inclusive programming, both academically and socially, so students with disabilities and general education students can begin to recover from the last 17 months together and feel less isolated.