December 18, 2014

By Rosie Sofen

In July of this year the City of Yonkers and Board of Education entered into an Inter-Municipal Agreement, transferring financial control of the Yonkers school district budget from the Board of Education to the municipal government. The transfer happened in response to two years of significant financial mismanagement, resulting in $55 million that wasn’t available being spent by the Board. From a segregation case so infamous it is now being made into an HBO series to decade after decade of financial deficit and mismanagement, Yonkers’ management of schools is disorganized and chaotic to a substantial degree. Yonkers school district serves 26,594 children and nearly ¼ of those children live in poverty. The transfer of financial control will have an undeniably huge impact on children, especially those who already suffer lack of resources in the face of great need. The transfer is the latest in a string of political stunts that has made the district tumultuous and delegitimized education in Yonkers in the eyes of the public.

Councilman Johnson of the 1st district, who did not vote for the transfer, explains that while he agrees City Council should have some degree of oversight, a transfer of this nature wouldn’t increase opportunity for ability to fund projects that have been recently cut or improve the classroom experience of students. “No one showed anything that said, this will save “x” amount of dollars, or our children’s education would improve at this level because of x, y, and z—there was no support in that regard.”

Mayor of Yonkers Mike Spano explains the process and reasons for coming to the solution of an Inter-Municipal Agreement, expressing that in New York State, Boards of Education are separate from the municipal government. In cities apart from the big five city school districts (New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse), mayors have no control or oversight over the functioning of their cities’ public schools. Taxing systems for schools and for public services (firemen, police, sanitation, etc.) are separated. Mayor Spano expresses, “We all [the big five city school districts] have a codependence with the schools.” That codependence, and the ensuing push and pull that happens between municipal governments and their Boards of Education, has advantages and disadvantages.

Robert Bifulco, Associate Professor of Public Administration at Syracuse University explains that in New York State, school districts themselves, unlike most school districts in New York State, don’t have independent taxing authority. Local revenues that they receive are appropriations from the municipal government. He says, “That budget and the appropriations they request have to be approved by the municipal government. It sets up a somewhat contentious process. The city government officials often complain that it’s an important part of their budget but they lack a lot of control over what the school board does. Typically, they just approve the appropriations of the school district, not particular aspects of the school districts’ budgets. City officials have their own political incentives that are then brought more directly into the budgeting process.” In Yonkers, a city that was desegregated only in 1985 and continues to harbor that legacy, city officials gaining control of the budgeting process for public schools may have serious implications.

Paul Bennett, Professor of Finance and Business Economics at Fordham University, builds on the discussion of the relationship between government and education by giving a broader perspective, “In New York, the municipal government of New York City recently took stronger control of the school system, the Board of Education. The municipal government is always going to be very political. The Boards of Education are going to reflect the professional interests of the education profession, which is good in a way because then they can keep the politics out of it. The problem is that the Board of Ed. also becomes ingrown and begins to reflect the needs or interests of the Board of Ed. employees themselves, including the teachers. There’s an ongoing struggle—it’s like the teachers versus the taxpayers, in a way. The reason New York City took control of the Board of Education was because it was viewed as not being responsive to the desires of parents and the needs of students and was too focused, for example, on the needs of teachers. You certainly don’t want the politicians to have too much control over the education system, but on the other hand, you want the education system to be responsive to the needs of the voters. You could have a situation where the politicians who are running the city government could become too politically motivated. There’s not a simple system that always works right.”

Mayor Spano explains the challenge of a previous lack of transparency in budgeting from his end. In Yonkers, the mayor previously had the authority to appoint the school board, the school board would decide their budget and approach the city council with a proposal. “They take that money and they spend it. If they overspend it, they just tug on my shirt and go uh, we kind of messed up. If they save some of the money and they have a surplus, they keep it. The problem was, the people who made the decision on what the taxes are and how the money is given have no input on how that money is spent. More than that, they had no input if the money was spent incorrectly. State law said you can only go so far as to give them the check, and then it’s up to them to decide what to do with it, and if I ask you what you’re spending the money on, you don’t have to tell me.” While Mayor Spano makes a compelling argument, focusing on the positives that come from greater control and transparency, he negates to mention any hypothetical effect of the transfer on existing inequities in educational opportunity of Yonkers students of different backgrounds.

Similarly to Mayor Spano, Councilman Michael Sabatino of the 3rd district and minority leader of Yonkers City Council says he thinks the transfer will give the council better control over where money is spent and what it’s spent on. He says, “We as a city allocated tax dollars towards the schools but the mayor nor the council had any say on how that money was spent, that was strictly up to the Board of Education. In that respect I think there will be more monitoring and exchange of information and more transparency of the finances.” Increased transparency of finances in theory in certainly positive, but the tradeoff of corresponding increase in politicization of the budgeting process is viewed by some as not justifiable.

Juanita Lewis, director of the Yonkers Chapter of Community Voices Heard, takes issue with the hurried nature of the process itself, and the lack of community engagement or input in the transfer of power. She explains that allocation of funds is heavily based on the state level formula, going on, “The budget cap that was there that the city was trying to fill based on getting some money from the state, I don’t think was the best solution. At the end of the day, is that going to make sure that students are learning more and are successful in school? I don’t think any of that was taken into account. I think it was, here’s a potential solution, let’s do this quickly and see what happens. But I don’t think it’s going to change the funding situation and it’s definitely not going to change the success of students.”

Dr. Jim Bostic, executive director of Nepperhan Community Center, says, “The philosophy of the existing mayor is to consolidate services and thereby save money where they can. Given the fact that this is such a cash-strapped school district, I’m not sure that’s such a bad idea. But I do think it becomes a problem when government gets involved in running the school district from the educational side of things. Education should be left to the educators. When government gets involved, it starts to become politicized, and education is not a place where you want to see politics begin to take control. Education should be nonpartisan and equal opportunities should be available to all citizens.” He concludes by expressing hope that the outcome will be what was intended, to divert money being saved through consolidation back into the school district for the programs that have been cut as a result of the budget deficit.

Lamont OyeWale’ Badru, director of Community Governance and Development Council, also emphasizes the idea of consolidation as a guiding factor in the decision to transfer control.  He adds from the other perspective, “There’s also a criticism of the political nature of that type of administrative arrangement because now you have the mayor being able to influence the personnel at the Board of Education and that can be seen as political. It definitely will result in more transparency because one of the major issues that there was with the Board of Education was they didn’t really share information with the public.”

Leonardo Medina, a 23-year-old employee of Community Voices Heard, born and raised in Yonkers, describes, “The problem wasn’t with the Board of Education to begin with. The problem was with the city. That money never existed. It was an administrative, accounting error. The people in charge of that wasn’t the superintendent, it was the city—the city appointed the people in charge of accounting. Suddenly the Board of Education doesn’t have its own budget. Now the city is allowed to filter money coming from the country, state, and county before it gets to the Board of Ed.” Mr. Medina brings in an important point—that often, fingers are pointed in a rush, and not always accurately. While solving financial mismanagement quickly and efficiently is vital, consideration needs to be paid to the root of the problem, and in this case, there is talk that attention wasn’t paid adequately.

Mayor Spano explains straightforwardly the effects of the transfer in his eyes, “The Board of Education last year overspent $55 million. I went to the city legislature and to the governor, I said we need a little more control. I don’t need to control teachers, I don’t need to control who hires teachers, where principals go, any of that. But there are a number of things we do that we could do much more efficiently. I looked for a merger of anything that was non-educational so that we could keep an eye on the books, make sure that if the superintendent was going to hire a thousand teachers, he needs approval to do so. If I hire ten more cops than I budgeted for, first I have to go back to the city council to get approval, so now it’s the same process for the superintendent. So we asked for that type of control. The school district ran this year without any cuts to programs. It doesn’t mean that our kids are getting everything they should get, but there were no cuts to programs.”

Nicholas Georgantzas, Professor of Management Systems at Fordham University, describes two contexts from which to approach the issue of advantages and disadvantages of varying levels of control of municipal governments over their Boards of Education. From one context, he describes, “One can argue that, within an organized free state, there are advantages in municipal governments having varying levels of control over their Boards of Education, so that schools can produce useful citizens of a free state.” From the other context, he says, “Municipal governments having varying levels of control over their Boards of Education will entail major disadvantages for the collective good of the people.” In speaking with a variety of professionals in Yonkers, the divide in perspectives indeed comes down to the two contexts Professor Georgantzas elaborates.

Yonkers practices school choice, a policy where parents select their three top choices of schools for their children to attend, and the city then decides where to send children. The motivating factor for this policy is to further desegregate schools. Yonkers public schools also often have different focuses, such as an emphasis on arts or on math and science, so parents can choose schools for their children based on their children’s interests. Many students now make long bus rides to get to schools. As in many such policies, motivation is different than the ground reality. Professor Bennett explains the ways certain schools become higher and lower quality, the effects of which are exacerbated because of the policy of school choice. He says, “You would think teachers would be looking out for students, but there are other things involved. For example, the teachers in New York City get tenure; they get automatic job security after they’ve been there for a long time. That’s good as long as the teachers who get tenure are very good teachers, but it doesn’t always work that way. Moreover, the teachers get to choose which schools they want to teach in based on seniority. So it can become a system where the poorest teachers are teaching in schools that have the biggest need for high quality teachers because the students come from backgrounds where their own parents are not so educated, and they need more help to succeed in school.”

Yonkers schools are, like schools in most cities, judged by the general population in terms of quality. The quality of schools in Yonkers connects in turn to the population of students in attendance. The mostly racial/ethnic minority schools are often considered the lower quality schools, are overcrowded, and are given less funding. As Professor Bennett explains, because of tenure, which applies in the city of Yonkers, established teachers may choose what school they want to teach at, furthering implications of the entrenchment of racial inequality inherent in public schools.

Ms. Lewis articulates about the challenge of combatting racism inherent in the Yonkers school system, “Overall, the system of public education is a system, an institution, and systems and institutions are inherently racist because of when they were created, who was able to access education and so on. Yonkers is no different because they had a school desegregation case that led to the housing desegregation. Even now, because we have school choice, you start to see which schools folks send their kids to. And you start to say the really, really good schools are these, and schools that aren’t that great that are underperforming happen to be in communities of color. No one seems to talk about that. It’s always, we need to close them down, or they’re not producing anything, what’s the point? What’s missing? The one thing that seems to be consistent is that they’re overcrowded, and it’s mainly kids of color with high immigrant populations, and no services or structures to support these circumstances. It just doesn’t seem like the same investment in schools like that is happening.”

Lamont OyeWale’ Badru experienced school choice firsthand in moving back to Yonkers for high school after living in Kentucky during his middle school years. “A lot of people say this and I’m not sure if it’s been substantiated or documented but a lot of people say they track you into schools according to what neighborhood you live in, so if you live in a certain neighborhood you have a better chance of getting drawn in to the better schools. My experience plays into that because when I was enrolling in high school in Yonkers, I filled out a ballot and I put the top three schools on my ballot—Yonkers High, Saunders, and Gorton. They ended up placing me at Lincoln, which is like one of the worst schools in Yonkers, which I was really upset by.”

From a professional perspective about school choice he expresses the opinion that neighborhood schools are valuable in their potential for serving as community centers after the school day. Federal and state policy has attempted to enhance and promote the idea of community schools. Parents are also more likely to be involved in their children’s schooling in the system of neighborhood schools. He says, “Last year statewide, Cuomo released an initiative called the Community School Initiative that was giving funding for schools that would come up with proposals to operate as community schools, so to offer programming and services, not only for students but also for parents and the surrounding community.”

A large challenge to the Yonkers school system and its budget is a lack of state funding. Juanita Lewis, director of the Yonkers chapter of Community Voices Heard, a community advocacy organization, says, “Yonkers is severely underfunded for the population that it serves and other places are overfunded for the populations that they serve, like Hartsdale or Chappaqua. So let’s figure that out and make sure that students have a fighting chance.”

Councilman Dennis Shepherd of the 4th precinct elaborates on this challenge, saying that Yonkers still lacks adequate funding from Albany. “We feel that we’ve been shortchanged the amount of funding due to the kids in Yonkers for a number of years, based on the Albany formula, which we really to this day do not understand. Everybody lobbies for the funding that goes through Albany—New York City, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Yonkers, all the schools—and it’s just a matter of the politics of deciding where that money should then be going. I don’t think we have people lobbying enough for us correctly up there. Unfortunately it comes down to a political battle. We suffer all the time trying to get the right funding. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and New York City all get a lot more money than we do.” And yet, Yonkers has more students with greater need than most of the other listed school districts.

Councilman Sabatino similarly says, “We have an influx of students coming in and finances are always difficult. It’s been awhile now that we as a city don’t get our fair share of school money when it comes to the big five schools.” Elected officials at the state level decide most funding. “Since most of the other big cities are upstate cities, you need a majority of people to change the funding allocation in the assembly and senate. Particularly in the senate there is a larger population of upstate electeds.” Lamont OyeWale’ Badru adds, “I hear it might have something to do with the deal after the desegregation battle. Every year, I hear a lot of noise about the school formula needing to change because school districts of similar size and population tend to get funded way more than Yonkers. But the state is really reluctant to revise its funding formula. The state is cutting funding everywhere, especially on education.”

Marilyn Power, Professor of Economics at Sarah Lawrence College, adds to this discussion a larger picture of the way Yonkers budgeting works in relation to New York State, “States vary in how much of the education budget comes from local property taxes, and in New York a fair amount does--but the state also subsidizes lower income schools. Yonkers, I think, relies rather heavily on the state subsidies, keeping its property taxes much lower than other towns in Westchester (the county as a whole has some of the highest property taxes in the state--a very regressive form of taxation)--but in the process has underfunded certain schools, resulting in those being poorly preforming schools.”

About potential effects of the transfer of budget control, Councilman Shepherd expresses hope that lobbying in Albany in the coming year will prove more successful than it has in past years. “We’re going to go up there again and ask for money from the government. Schools in Yonkers are really falling apart and the kids deserve better than that.” Councilman Shepherd was in favor the transfer of financial control because of the perceived necessity for greater oversight over the budgeting process, saying too that taxpayers have a right to know where their money is going. “It’s not saying this is the curriculum that you need, but before the mayor signs off the check we want to know how it’s going to be spent. Hopefully you’ll see better control of the money and you won’t see an error of 55 million dollars occurring, which we had to make up for. That’s a huge deficit. You have more eyes and ears looking at the budget so you don’t have something like that recurring on us.”

Dynamics between the government of Yonkers and the education system have complicated monetary decisions over the years. Freda Elston, director of youth and family programming at Cluster Community Services, articulates that the government isn’t working with the school system as it should. “As far as the government, I don’t see them taking on the funding that is needed, say for extracurriculars or after school programs, I don’t see funding being given. If that funding were to be given, it would enhance those students that are struggling academically and help them succeed and graduate in a timely fashion.” Instead, funding has continued to be cut. Ms. Elston continues that the biggest challenge for the community of Southwest Yonkers is a language barrier, hindering Hispanic children’s academic success, and that funding for programs and services alleviating this barrier has been entirely cut.

In Yonkers, separate but equal as philosophy and policy was not abandoned until 1985, following the desegregation Supreme Court order. Its legacy is seen in unequal opportunity of children’s education based on ethnicity and race. Some accept and work to change this legacy, while others deny such a legacy. This political division further complicates the transfer in politicizing the budgeting process. While some will advocate giving more funding to struggling schools in low-income racial minority communities, others will not see such necessity. Councilman Chris Johnson of the first district expresses, “There is absolutely a legacy of segregation in the school system. Public schools, especially on the high school level, are mostly minority, about 75% black and Latino. The private schools are mostly Catholic, and families who have the ability to pay extra make sure that their kids receive that more desirable education. After the desegregation case, a lot of parents pulled their children out of the public school system and started putting them in private schools. Now schools are mostly minority and so when you see this district struggling you ask yourself some questions.” 

Lamont OyeWale’ Badru voices the poignancy of the legacy of segregation in how the education system looks today. “There are no high schools on the Westside. So if you’re from Southwest Yonkers, in order to go to high school, you have to get bussed. There’re two on the Westside now but they weren’t here five years ago—Palisade prep. and Riverside High School. Yonkers High is considered to be on the Westside but it’s in an affluent neighborhood. There are no schools in black and brown communities in Yonkers. Yonkers has a really rich history in terms of its practices in segregating its school system.”

While some advocate solutions focused on roots of inequality in the education system, some feel that all students now have a fair shot. Edward DeChent, school principal of Roosevelt High, denies a legacy of segregation. “There should definitely be a variety of students in every building and there should be equal opportunity for all. I do think that currently there is equal opportunity in schools in Yonkers. There are so many options now.”

In the same vain, Councilman Sabatino denies a legacy of segregation, citing changes resulting from the desegregation case as having been completely effective. “We try our best to become integrated although the parents do have a three choice selection, so part of it is based on what schools stay select and I think we do our best to try to make it as fair and balanced as possible, but I don’t think that it’s perfect.” Denial of a legacy of segregation is carried mainly by affluent whites, leading one to suspect that this perspective is that of the privileged, in the oftentimes inherent blindness of privilege.

Councilman Shepherd similarly says, “I don’t think segregation exists. On the Westside, about 70% of our students benefit from some kind of government aid. So that makes it hard for us to fund that correctly because we have a lot of students who need help from the government.” Asked if he thinks there are inequalities along racial or ethnic lines in terms of what types of schools (private, charter, public) students can attend, he replies, “I really don’t know if that exists. I hope it doesn’t. I would say that should be formulated by the neighborhood schools, I think parents should be the ultimate decision makers on where their kid goes to school. Unfortunately, the Westside where we definitely need a new school to be built is where we’re heavily populated with kids.” Being unaware if such inequalities along racial and ethnic lines exist is all too common among politicians, currently and historically, in Yonkers.

Exacerbating the inherent inequality of the education system are policies designed to reverse this inequality that more often than not play out in an opposite manner. One major such policy is No Child Left Behind. Dr. Jim Bostic, executive director of Nepperhan Community Center, describes his perspectives on inequality of education in Yonkers as well as No Child Left Behind, “I still think there’s an imbalance in our educational system. For example, there’s a disproportionate number of minority students that get suspended in our school system and that needs to change. I think we have to do more, create more programs and opportunities for that target of operations. I see the greatest needs of students as being the fundamental academic knowledge, you know, reading, writing, mathematics—I see us as being behind in those areas so I see that as the greatest need. Many of our kids are below grade level in those areas, and if they’re going to have an educational life after high school in college, they’re going to have to develop those skills and get those grade levels up to where they should be. When school districts get hit fiscally as bad as the city of Yonkers has been over the years, you’re going to take a hit in educational support services and key staff that can help narrow those achievement gaps. I don’t think you can lay off people and expect that your academic performance level is going to remain the same. In reality, I think that No Child Left Behind legislation has left a whole lot of children behind. I don’t think it played out in local school districts the way the initial intent may have been in Washington. A lot of it was rhetoric without the necessary resources to back it up.”

Potential solutions to both the financial deficit in the Yonkers school system as well as contemporary inequality and racism in the system are multi-faceted. Ms. Lewis expresses one such solution, “We need to be having a conversation around what power and race and racism is, and realizing that all institutions that we utilize are inherently racist because they were all constructed not thinking about women or people of color, and really getting an understanding of that. That’s not an easy conversation to have. No one wants to think about it. They think of racism as very overt and direct, not systems, not oppression, not covert. That’s also tied into how things get funded and the perception of people in different neighborhoods when it comes to funding for different things. There also needs to be a good conversation about how we look at overall funding for things that benefit all of society, like public education from the state level.” The challenge of allocation and priority of funds both to and within certain school districts would certainly be well served by conversations building awareness of inherent racial inequalities in U.S. institutions. These conversations could help bring reality to politicians who view our society and even their specific city as post-racial, and thus make effects of politicizing of the school system budgeting process somewhat less negative.

Mayor Spano summarizes on a realistic note, “Everyone was used to crisis and fixing, crisis and fixing, but it was my opinion that we just needed to talk about how to solve our problems. Cities today are kind of held together by chewing gum and Band-Aids—the manufacturing base is gone, the poor centers continue to be in Yonkers and their issues continue to be more and more expensive. The dependent population continues to grow. These are issues across America, and it’s no different for us. But despite all those issues, we are getting through.”

12/15/14

A Silent Battle in the Yonkers School System

By

Francesca Carter

“People used to say to me before I moved to Yonkers, ‘Why are you moving to Yonkers? They have a terrible school district,’" explains Erika Carsone, a current resident of Yonkers, “and I said ‘Well, I heard it’s not so bad.’  Well it’s not so bad if you have a child that is NOT special needs. But to have a special needs child in Yonkers, it’s awful.”

Carsone has been battling with the Yonkers school district since her son Anthony was in Kindergarten.  At 14, Anthony is still in the Yonkers school system and has been diagnosed with ADHD, generalized anxiety, and auditory processing disorder. He has been a part of the special education system in Yonkers most of his life.  But if it had not been for his mother’s perseverance, Anthony might have fallen through the cracks of the Yonkers school system.

And while most schools may struggle with making sure children who are special needs don’t fall through the cracks, Yonkers is a particular case.  Along with trying to find the resources to accommodate a population of 26,459 students, the Yonkers school district continually struggles financially.  Recent budget cuts have not helped.

With limited funds, Yonkers’ special education department is severely limited in the amount and types of resources they can provide their students, let alone the fact that there are far too few staff members for the number of special needs students.  Consequently, the current staff is stretched so thin that they have a hard time providing enough time and energy to special education students.  Many advocates and lawyers worry that if special education students don’t get the help they need, they are in danger of dropping out. This is especially problematic for children in Yonkers.  Entering the working world without a high school diploma is not easy in a city that is still struggling to stand on its own two feet since leaving their industrial past behind.

On top of this, many Yonkers general education teachers don’t seem to have even been trained how to recognize and deal with, let alone teach, special education students.  Whether it’s not knowing a child has an IEP (Independent Educational Plan) or not being willing to implement the accommodations of an IEP is unclear.  But general education teachers in Yonkers are either too overworked and/or untrained to understand what they need and should be doing to work with a special needs child. 

And there is no “escaping” to a private school to get your child help.  That’s because the Yonkers Board of Education makes decisions on accommodations for special education children who are in private schools as well.

“I said to one of the people in the special education department, ‘my child is entitled to a fair education,” Carsone recalls, “and they said – ‘It’s not a matter of entitlement.’ And I felt like, what a slap in my face; of course my son is entitled to that.  So is every other child.  And I felt like they were telling me ‘it was a privilege that my son was in a Yonkers school.’  No, it’s not a privilege, he is entitled to a fair education regardless of where he is.  And every child should have the same types of education.”   

Carsone is not alone in her battle with the Yonkers school district. Many parents in Yonkers have been fighting to get their children with disabilities help from the school system. Special education includes all types of disabilities that can encumber a child’s educational outcomes.  By law, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), every school in the U.S has to help a child with a disability receive the same quality education as a general education student. This means that children with disabilities must be provided additional resources by their school district to help them to achieve academic success.

But not all schools in the U.S. are equal, and so each faces different challenges. On top of Yonkers’ school districts’ budget cuts, according to Mr. Macias, the Director of Special Education, around 13% of students in Yonkers are currently in special education. With economic constraints and a large population, the Yonkers School district struggles in more areas then just special education. But the problem remains that, in Yonkers schools, children are not getting the full benefits of their education, and there are parents losing their voices over an almost silently fought battle for their children to receive the care they deserve.

Carsone and her family moved from the Bronx to Yonkers when her son, Anthony was three years old. A year earlier, Anthony had been tested through an early intervention program provided by NY State. From the test’s evaluation, Carsone learned that her son was delayed for his age. They explained that Anthony had a speech delay; and for a year he received speech services, occupational therapy services, and general education services.

“He made a lot of progress that year - it was great,” Carsone recalls.  “But once Anthony turned three, he could no longer receive services. Unfortunately, I didn't know any better to continue services on my own.  So when he got to pre-k at four, that’s when it started getting apparent that there was a little something that still wasn't right.  And the teachers saw, but they felt that maybe it was just immaturity.”

Mistaking a disability for immaturity, and even laziness, is a common occurrence for teachers, not just in Yonkers, but in many other school districts as well. According to Carole Boccumni, a retired Yonkers teacher and the current senior educational advocate at the non-profit Student Advocacy in Elmsford NY:  “To educators, what they see is what they get. Often times I hear kids that are really struggling with a number of things.  Whether it’s a learning problem, an emotional problem, or a combination thereof, or a limited cognitive ability that nobody has actually identified, what the teacher sees is the kid is not paying attention. They complain that the child is unmotivated, and lazy - but that’s not really what they are.”

Anthony wasn’t lazy, but when he entered first grade it became a real challenge for him to keep up academically with his peers.  “At that point we had him evaluated through the [Yonkers School] District and I was not happy with their findings.”  Carsone explains, “I knew that there was something, and they (the school board) were coming back saying that everything was fine. And yet my son was still struggling.  They gave him a speech assessment and they said that his expressive language was fine—which had not been the case when he had early intervention. His expressive language was what was delayed. So that kind of sent a red flag up for me.”

A Yonkers school psychologist, who has wished to remain anonymous due to the fact that special education is a contentious topic, and fears retribution.  This is one of the psychologists who conduct the evaluations for children who are suspected to have a disability that is impacting their education, or “educational disability,” as the psychologist calls it.

According to the psychologist, when a child is referred for an evaluation – “The parent signs their consent for a series of evaluations, including psycho-educational. A social history is done.  We also review medical history, and the child’s teacher fills out paperwork. And some times there is a speech evaluation, and an occupational therapy evaluation, and a physical therapy evaluation. Sometimes there is also a psychiatric component included in the evaluation. And then there is what is called a CSE meeting - a committee on special education that meets to determine whether or not there is an educational disability.”

According to the psychologist, during the meeting which the parent is a part of, once it is decided that the child has an educational disability, an IEP – an independent educational plan – is then drawn up. The IEP states all the accommodations that the child will receive to help him or her achieve academic proficiency. This can include taking more time on tests, having directions repeated at length, or going to a resource room, which is a place a child can go to receive help with class work with a special education teacher.

“After that last testing in second grade, I have never had him tested again through Yonkers.  Never.” Carsone explains.  Instead the summer before third grade, Carsone had Anthony tested privately. But going outside of the school district to pay for a child’s evaluation is expensive and according to Carsone costs around 5,000 dollars. She admits that she was lucky enough to have great insurance for Anthony, which covered the cost of the evaluation. 

Some parents get tired of the fight and they leave Yonkers. According to Nicole Garcia, an advocate at the law firm Littman and Krooks: “I had one family that I helped. She was a Yonkers resident.  After we had several CSE meetings, she didn't want to go to a hearing. She wanted to find a house in a different school district - in Rockland, because she felt that the education was better and the programs they had for her child would be better.  And it would be better then staying in Yonkers and having to fight them constantly.  The families in Yonkers feel that all they are doing is fighting”

And some parents aren’t even willing to fight; not because they don’t want to but because they are scared of any repercussions. In Yonkers there are a lot of Spanish speaking residents and immigrants, and this can impact a parent’s ability and willingness to speak up for their child.  

According to education lawyer, Julie Gaughren, from Asher, Gaugrhen, LLP: “You sometimes have a population of parents who are afraid, for all kinds of reasons, to approach the school district: They don't have the language skills; maybe their legal status, or maybe something else that makes them nervous, and they stay away.  They are very respectful of authority and they are not comfortable going in and saying ‘What’s going on? My kid can't read; what are you going to do about it?’  the way an American born parent might be more equipped to do.  It’s a problem. 

With the help of his insurance, Anthony went through a four-day evaluation with a neuropsychologist. Carsone recalls that, “At that point, they said that he definitely did have attention issues.  They weren't going to diagnose him at that point with ADD or ADHD, because they wanted to see how the following school year went.”

Carsone continued by explaining – “At this point, school for my son was so hard for him that he was very anxious. So now I was dealing with a kid that was struggling in school and now has severe anxiety that's triggered by school.  At this point school was very traumatic for him.  So if you ask me the question about Yonkers and their special education, I am not pleased with it… If I had not fought for my son, I feel that Yonkers, unfortunately, would have just let him slip through the cracks. It just wasn't good enough.  They would have just failed my son, or let him go through the system.”

Who knows what would have happened if Carsone had not had the resources to get her son privately tested, or had the persistence to keep fighting for him. Perhaps he would have dropped out, as many advocates and educational lawyers worry about when children with special needs do not get the help they need. Adrienne Arkontaky, a partner at the Cuddy Law Firm even worries about special needs children ending up in prison: “Some end up in prison because they were just pushed through (the system) - or unable to secure a job, Arkontaky explained.”

The school district’s lack of resources isn’t the only thing keeping children in Yonkers special education from academic success. There is also a lack of a parental community to support one another in fighting the school system.  Carsone use to be the head of SEPTA – the Special Education PTA in Yonkers, where she would meet with other parents of special needs children.  They would help each other navigate their problems and come up with solutions.

When Carsone became too busy to be a part of SEPTA, Nicole Garcia stepped in. However, Garcia also had to step down, and no one took her place.  So now there is no SEPTA. According to Garcia, in Yonkers “there is no one who the parents can go to find out this information.  Other districts - more influential districts - they have SEPTA groups where they have parent meetings so parents become more aware of what their rights are and what they need to know.”

According to Garcia, “I was SEPTA of Yonkers for two years, so I saw the view from the parents’ perspective that they weren't getting responses from the district on ways to help their kids.  So for instance, if they contacted the district and let them know that the child hadn't had a CSE meeting or evaluations, or placed them in the appropriate setting, they weren't getting responses to fix these problems. So of course, without the responses, problems continued to become bigger and bigger.”

 Anthony was lucky to have a parent who refused to give up, no matter how big the problems got.  Carsone recalls that, “In the 3rd grade was when Anthony was first given an IEP - they gave him counseling, resource and that was it. Eventually I was able to get him speech. He was also diagnosed with auditory processing disorder, so I was able to get him the earpiece that they wear.”

But making sure that the IEP was implemented in school was another battle entirely.   According to Carsone: “An IEP is a legal document that is supposed to be followed to the ‘T,’ because that is what it is created for this special needs child. I was so discouraged, because every time my son got an IEP and I went over it before the school year started, I would say ‘Great, he is going to get this; he’s going to get this and this....’

“Then the school year would start.  And three, four weeks into the school year and all the teachers that he was dealing with - nobody had seen his IEP. Nobody had any knowledge that he had an IEP.  I would have to go there with a copy and bring it to each teacher. I understand that I am his mother, I don't mind doing that…but why am I doing it? Who is dropping the ball? Why are these teachers not aware ahead of time who they are teaching? Why are they not preparing for this?”

Carsone explains that the statement she would always hear from Anthony’s teachers was: "’Oh well, we haven't gotten it yet.’  ‘You haven't gotten it yet? Well, where is it coming from that you haven’t gotten it yet? Why haven't you gotten it yet?’ And I never got an answer.”

Carsone continued by explaining - “When my son was younger, like in the 4th and 5th grade, his attentional issues were really bad at that point. And his IEP stated that he would take any and all tests in a separate location to minimize the distraction. They would never do that - they would never pull him out of the classroom for his tests. And he was failing test, after test, after test.

“And when I went to the school and I asked them about it, their answer to me was, ‘Well, it’s at the teacher’s discretion.’  And I said, ‘What do you mean it’s at the teachers discretion? It’s on his IEP!’ ‘Well, you know, if we don't have the resources, and if there is no one available, then it’s at the teachers discretion.’  And I never got that; how could you tell me that it’s at the teacher’s digression when it’s on his IEP. Find the resources, or give him the test another day when there are the resources available. These are the kind of stupid answers that I was given. And no one ever was held accountable for not following the IEP to the ‘T.”

According to educational advocate Carmine DePalma, “Yonkers faces the same problems that large school systems like NYC and Buffalo face, in that they are trying to serve the needs of a great many people with very limited budgets.”

According to Mr. Macias, “It’s the resources.  It’s trying to do more with less, and trying to meet the needs of the students with the resources that we have.  So absolutely, it’s the financial situation that the district deals with on a year-to-year basis that impacts, more often than not, the services that we are able to provide to kids.” And according to the psychologist, because of the budget cuts, a lot of psychologists were cut, which limits the ability to test children for disabilities and provide counseling for them.

When asked if she and her family had ever considered moving so that Anthony could change school districts, Carsone replied: “Well that would be great. But at that point the housing market was plummeting, and I would have to sell my house in order to move to another district, so it was not an option. And private school was not an option, because they didn't have the resources.”

Fran Smith, who is the director of the after-school program Kids Care of Westchester, also understands the struggles of special education, especially in the private schools of Yonkers. Except, no matter how hard she has fought, unlike Carsone, she was never able to get an IEP for her son.

According to Smith, “I went through the whole system with Yonkers and my son actually qualifies for extended time on the SAT’s.  He definitely has a learning disability if the SAT’s are giving him extended time.  It’s not easy to get that.”  But he never received services from Yonkers, ever. He never even got an IEP. “I had to get him tested privately, and with those results, I was able to get the SAT accommodations.”

Smith explained that when Cameron started in Yonkers, he went to a private Catholic school. For children who want an IEP in a Catholic Private School in Yonkers they still must go through the Yonkers Board of Education. When Smith would go to meetings to discuss getting her son help with the board of education, according to Smith, “Even the principal from this catholic school came with us and said, ‘This student needs help.’ And they were like ‘Sorry.’  I had multiple meetings, and it always ends up the same.” Smith explained.

According to Smith’ “Because Cameron doesn’t have a textbook case of anything he doesn't always fall into any special area. He technically can't read, even though he can identify letters as words. He reads words as symbols, so what happens – he can't sound out words. He sees the words start in a sentence; he'll just start substituting words in until the sentence makes sense. So with his use of vocabulary, he has been able to survive.

“So he doesn’t actually read, and he has short-term memory and processing speed issues, too.  His processing speed is in the 5th percentile. When you complicate that with the reading, it takes him twice as long as the average student to read the exact same paragraph. If he reads out loud he sounds illiterate. But they (the Yonkers School board) said he is smart enough to compensate. so he is fine. They never offered him any services or did anything for him.” 

Cameron is currently a junior in a Yonkers public high school; and thanks to his mother, has been able to avoid falling through the cracks of the Yonkers school system. But they are just one example of the many families that are fighting for their children to get accommodations within Yonkers and being silenced and/or simply ignored.

While Carsone was able to attain an IEP for her son, she admits moving to another school system would have been ideal. “I would have gone to Pleasantville or Hawthorne; those have great special education programs. I know people that go to those schools, and I’ve talked to the parents and I’ve told them my situation, and they haven't faced that with their children that are special education kids. They say ‘I can't imagine what you are going through, we don't even have to fight that hard. Services are readily available to these kids.”

According to Fran Smith, “In Yonkers, if they cannot provide the proper services (for a child who has been evaluated as having an educational disability) they have to put you in a different school district and then pay that school district to educate you. They try really hard not to do that.”

And, according to Mr. Macias, “If the district does not have a particular program that best meets the needs of the student, then an out-of-district recommendation is made for that particular student. So we currently have over 400 students that registered in the Yonkers public schools that are being educated in out-of-district places. And that can range from behavioral needs to medical needs - where the Yonkers public school is unable to [provide] their particular program.” 

Another point of contention that Carsone has with the Yonkers school district is the core curriculum. “The teachers are put under so much pressure,” Carsone explains, “especially now with the core curriculum, they are put under so much pressure just to get the grades, that the kids like my son struggle. They are not teaching these kids to learn; they are teaching them towards these state tests.”  

According to Mr. Macias,  “In New York State, everyone has to be educated on the common core curriculum. So common core has been implemented for K-12; and there is a curriculum that has been prescribed by NY State, that a teacher must adhere to, whether or not it is general education or special education.”

The core curriculum is not for special education kids,” Carsone explains,  “special education kids have a hard time just keeping up with the regular curriculum, let alone the core curriculum.   Now they are making the regents exams core curriculum.

The regents examines are the 5 specific regents that a high school student must pass in order for them to graduate high school, “Macias explains. And because the tests can be extremely difficult for those in special education, NY has changed the requirements for those in special education. “More often than not, the individual (a person in special education) will attain the 22 credits to meet that requirement, but the regents’ exam is more difficult for them to achieve, so NY state has allowed them to have a variance where an individual can receive a 55 instead of a passing note of 65,” said Macias.

However, Carsone has no positive feelings toward the regents’ exams and, according to her,  “This year is the first year that they are doing the algebra regents based on the core curriculum, so my son was not given the opportunity to take the regents’ exam. They only let the kids that have the high math averages take it (because they are worried about ranking). So they decided they were only going to allow certain kids to take it. (Anthony) can't graduate without the regents exam, so you basically cheated him out of an opportunity to take it.”  While Anthony will have another opportunity to take the algebra regions exam, as Carsone explains he was cheated out of an opportunity to take it this year.

When asked about Anthony’s past teachers how they dealt with his disabilities, Carsone explained: “It depends by grade. There were some grades that he had a great teacher. He once had a teacher that was very patient and nurturing with him. There was very open communication with me. That’s another thing, if the teacher doesn't want to communicate with you, you’re lost, especially for my son, because he is not a great communicator. And then he has attentional issues. If he didn't hear something or he wasn't paying attention - he can't communicate it to me at home.

“So there were plenty of nights where we were frustrated because he couldn't remember how to do something for H.W. [homework] or if he had to do it, or the steps to do it. We were just lost. And there were some teachers that were great - some teachers gave me their cell phone numbers. Some teachers said I will communicate with you through e-mail and they were very proactive that way. And then there were teachers that were like, nope, he has to copy it in school, he has to pay attention, and they just couldn't wrap their head around that it wasn't that he was trying to be obstinate - he couldn't do it.”

When asked about Yonkers school teachers being trained on special education, Mr. Macias replied with: “There is a pre-referral professional development that is called RTI - the Response Intervention - and its mandated in pre-k through 4 by NY State. And it just gives you various tiered levels of support of intervention. So there is tier one, there’s tier two and there’s tier three. And in theory, what you are supposed to do, is go to each of those tiered interventions before a parent makes a request for special education services. But this does not necessarily happen every time.” And if it doesn’t happen it is because a parent asks for their child to be evaluated before the teacher has completed all the tiers. 

In Carsone’s opinion – “The teachers in Yonkers, they basically run the show. They are not held accountable and they don't have to adhere to rules that I think other districts have. I think there are other districts that have training sessions in place, have rules in place, where the Yonkers teachers are almost like a little gang – ‘we will do it our way if you don't like it tough, and no body is going to hold me accountable for it.’

‘There is a union in Yonkers.  It kind of gives them a lot of leeway - I’m union so I don't have to do it.   According do my union, I don't have to do that   - I don't have to communicate with you outside of 3:00... everything is the union, the union, the union. They don't go the extra step, they never hold after school tutoring sessions for kids that are struggling, never. School got out at 3:15 by 3:16 it was like a ghost town, you couldn't talk to a teacher, nothing.”

This is Anthony’s first year in high school, and according to Carsone, “He is actually having a great experience. This high school, for some reason, is so different in Yonkers.  They are a great group of teachers.  They all follow the same guidelines, they all have after school days that they stay after for help.  I am so pleased so far. My son is doing fantastic, he got an 80 and above average in all his classes.”

Carsone continued by explaining that Anthony “sees a therapist once a week for his anxiety, which is actually wonderful now. His anxiety was so bad it was affecting him physically.  He had eczema from head to toe - he was afflicted with it because the anxiety was so bad. He is doing great now, the eczema is gone, the anxiety is manageable, and we have gone from once a week seeing a therapist, to every other week. And honestly, I keep him going to a therapist now because he is at that teenager age I want him to have somebody else to talk to besides me and his dad. Sometimes he does not want to talk to us about certain things. But other than that he is great.”

Carsone might not be the head of SEPTA any more, but she still continues to help parents when she has time. “What I do with parents when they ask me what I have done,” Carsone explains, “I walk them through my journey and I give them names of resources that I have dealt with, like the WIHD, is a great foundation that deals with special education, and they were my ‘go to.’ They helped me with learning the IEP processes, with learning what my rights were for my child.

“I usually lead them in that direction. Also if they want an advocate, I have a parent advocate that knows the education laws; and they can attend the meetings with the parent. At that point, if they feel that they are not getting anywhere, then they have to go through the legal processes.  There are a lot of lawyers out there, and I have also given them names of lawyers.”

Another struggle that parents face is getting past the stigma of having their child “labeled,” with an educational disability. According to Myriam Choate, from Iglesia Memorial de San Andres’ after school program, they work with a few children who have disabilities and some whom they suspect have disabilities that have gone undiagnosed. 

Choate explained that, “A lot of these parents are very eager to get the answers for their children and to get the right kind of education and accommodations for their kids. And then others are kind of concerned about even saying the word "special ed.," and what that could mean, and how it could stigmatize their child.

“We recently had a student that was struggling very, very much, and had only been here since the beginning of the semester. And the dialogue with the mother seemed at the time, like she was hearing us and our concern and that she had the same concern. It was one conversation…we had recommended that we speak to the teacher and that we call a meeting and then I offered to be a liaison and translator so that we could talk about what is really going on here and see whether or not we can get an IEP... From that day on we never saw them again.”

Another mother, who already had a child being evaluated for a disability, was told by San Andres that perhaps she should do the same for her younger son, and she replied: "My children aren't sick."

Stigmatization of special education, along with language barriers and legal statuses is a problem, not just in Yonkers.  It is a problem that needs to be addressed to prevent any more children being denied the help they need. Of course before that happens, Yonkers needs to find a way to make it less of a struggle for parents to get their children the resources they need and are entitled to by federal law.

“Yonkers has to get more on board with realizing that all kids are not cookie cutter kids; they are not all the same,” Carsone remarks.  “And I think that they need to have more training for the teachers. I think that they have to realize that children do learn at different paces, and they have to put more services in place - more services that are available for these kids.”

Carsone continues by expressing - “What I always stress to parents: You can't give up. You have to continue regardless of how frustrating, how discouraging it seems. You just have to keep pushing, because every day you have to look at your child and say,  ‘You know what, I did the best I can do - I fought as hard as I could.’”

Carsone did fight as hard as she could, and she is watching the fruits of her struggle come to fruition this year, with Anthony in the ninth grade at Saunders high school. Anthony is attending a trade school, and he has chosen to focus on heating and air conditioning. According to Carsone, “He loves it. He feels very comfortable, and he never felt that way, ever, in the years before. He never felt comfortable going to school.  He comes home and he does his H.W. immediately. Finally, I feel like something is going right. All my years of fighting and crying have finally paid off.”

October 27th 2014

By Blair Mason

The Boy Scouts who gather in the open cinderblock sanctuary of Iglesia Memorial de San Andres are shining examples of the principles instilled in the Scouts’ Law, with one tiny exception.   They are trustworthy, loyal, and helpful—they just aren’t all boys.  In fact, of the eleven children sitting on carpet squares to protect their knees from the church’s hard linoleum, six were girls, making this particular Cub Scout troop, whose number is withheld for privacy, majority-female.  

The Boy Scouts of America’s official position on girls as scouts is clear.  Though adamant that they do not “discriminate” against girls, they are likewise adamant that the Boy Scouts are supposed to serve the needs of boys, and only boys.  Over the years,  the Boy Scouts have created certain co-ed programs for, but the Boy Scouts and the Cub Scouts do not allow girls to join their ranks, and have shown no interest in changing that policy.  Indeed, over the decades the Boy Scouts have successfully fought five legal suits brought by girls who had been denied membership by their local troops.

And yet the girls at San Andres somehow exist, fidgeting on their carpet squares while Mr. Buff, their troop leader, explains how to use a compass.  Like all Cub Scout troops, programming focuses on character development and leadership through “wilderness” skills, which are in this case adapted to the children’s urban environment.  Thus, the kids learn to study topography not through maps of mountains but of the city of Yonkers.  They also play games, which for Mr. Buff, a white retiree with a kind voice and a crisply pressed khaki uniform, are crucial.  “The most important thing is to have fun,” he said, chatting while clearing away the tables left over from the church’s afterschool program.  “They have fun while learning to follow rules and structure, and that’s even better.”  There’s nothing particularly unusual about the troop’s activities, except for the fact that they include girls.  

According to Mr. Buff, the strange case of girl Boy Scouts may not be so strange after all.  “It’s not that uncommon, especially in urban areas,” he explains as he sets out for the scout meeting.  “It’s not something we advertise, but we are chartered and the Boy Scouts are aware of it.” Mr. Buff says that exceptions like this are often made for low-income families who need a place to send their daughters while their sons are at Boy Scouts.

While the sibling exemption is a legitimate policy of the local Boy Scout council, this particular troop is using it to shelter many more Scouts than it was intended for.  When an afterschool participant was asked how she liked Boy Scouts, she frowned in confusion and said, “I don’t go to Boy Scouts. I don’t have a brother.”  The very next week, she became the proud owner of a carpet square, sitting as Mr. Buff explained the meaning of the word “trustworthy.”   And it’s worth noting that the “no girls allowed” rule is not the only one they’re breaking.  Cub Scouts is open only to boys between seven and ten years of age, but the group contains two five-year-olds.  They accept underage children for much the same reasons they accept girls:  to give the kids a safe and enriching place to have fun and learn.  

The children all come from the predominantly Latino and predominantly poor community that San Andres serves.  San Andres is a small building with a leaky roof and an industrial exterior, but it has a prominent and extraordinary presence in the neighborhood.  Though Episcopalian in nature, its vicar Madre Yamily Bass-Choate likes to joke that San Andres is a church only on Sundays, and a community center the rest of the week.  Every child in this Boy Scout troop is involved in one way or another with church projects, whether they receive aid from the food pantry or attend the annual summer camp.  Between an afterschool program and an enrichment camp on Saturdays, it is easy to see how many of the children can spend every day of the week in the cramped but bright sanctuary.

The Boy Scouts meeting weaves naturally into this tapestry of events, starting up as the afterschool program winds down.  Each Wednesday there inevitably are a couple Scouts watching the time, scrambling to finish their homework before the clock strikes six.  They wave and cheer Mr. Buff’s name when he walks into the room, and eagerly sit down on the carpet squares he lays out.  Mr. Buff first learned of San Andres when he and other men from his Bronxville church came to paint the sanctuary.  He was so impressed with the work they do that he wanted to be a part of it.  A Boy Scout all his life, Mr. Buff wanted to share his knowledge and love for the Boy Scouts with the children at San Andres.  

For Mr. Buff and Madre, having children be engaged and active is far more important than strictly following Boy Scout regulations.  And so, the San Andres troop quietly accepts any child who walks through its doors, whether they be a girl or too young or both, in the case of one five-year-old girl who informed me that she was too busy to answer questions, as she was taking attendance.  

The girls seem completely unaware that they are an anomaly, enjoying a welcome many other troops would deny them.  They chatted to me about the games they played, their clear favorite being something called "Yankees and Rebels," but never about the issue of gender.  That may in fact be the true magic of the San Andres Cub Scout troop.  Whether these girls will want to continue in scouting and whether the Scouts will let them is a distant concern in the sunny cinderblock church.  For now, Wednesdays are of time of excitement and acceptance, where young children promise to do their best to serve their God and their country, regardless of gender.