The U.S. Department of Education announced today that  its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has entered into a resolution agreement with  the Yonkers****(N.Y.) Public Schools to address address problems concerning appropriate access to general education  instruction for the district’s more than 4,000 students with disabilities.

During its compliance review, OCR examined whether the  district discriminated against students with disabilities by failing to place  them in the regular educational environment to the maximum extent appropriate  to their needs. 

The agreement commits the district to provide all  students an equal opportunity to participate in the district’s programs by  ensuring that each student with a disability is placed in the regular  educational environment unless the district follows the procedural requirements  of federal law to place students in a more restrictive environment.   

“I am deeply grateful to Yonkers Public Schools for its  commitment now to ensure that every student in the district will have access to  educational opportunity that allows the student to thrive,” said Catherine E.  Lhamon, assistant secretary for the office for civil rights.

OCR’s investigation revealed that during school year  2014-2015, approximately 4,298 (16.2 percent) of the district’s 26,488 students  received special education and related aids and services.  OCR found that 3,503 (81.5 percent) of those  4,298 students spent time outside of the regular classroom.  

Of the 3,503 students, 1,890 (53.9 percent), were placed  outside of the regular education classroom for at least half of each school  day, and 1,766 (50.4 percent) were placed outside of the regular education  classroom for 75 percent or more of each school day.  

OCR found that student special education files lacked  documentation of interventions attempted in the regular education classrooms  prior to classification and placement.   And, instead of containing legally required individualized rationales to  support student placement in self-contained classrooms, fully 50 percent of the  files OCR reviewed contained nearly identical boilerplate text that offered no  information specific to the students for why students could not succeed in  general education settings, or an explanation as to why the length/percentage  of time placed outside of the regular education classroom was appropriate or  necessary.  

Examples of files OCR reviewed that lacked evidence of a  student-specific basis for determining the student could not satisfactorily  learn in a general education setting include:

- A fifth-grade student was classified speech  language impaired, when the district determined that the student “made many academic  improvements,” and his speech and language therapy were no longer needed.  The student was functioning at grade level,  enjoyed reading independently and reading historical fiction and non-fiction,  and possessed a strong sight-word vocabulary and decoding skills.  The district placed the student in a  self-contained classroom for over 60 percent of his school day.
- An 11th-grade student was placed in a  self-contained educational setting for more than 60 percent of his school  day.  The student’s individualized  education plan (IEP) noted that the student had good word recognition/decoding  skills, his reading comprehension skills were good, and his writing skills were  “grade level appropriate.”  His grade on  the Regent’s Comprehensive English exam satisfied Regent’s diploma-required  English credit.   
- A ninth-grade student was placed in a  self-contained classroom for more than 60 percent of the school day.  The IEP noted that the student was a great  and responsible student who took advantage of extra help sessions and was  motivated and worked hard to achieve success.   The evaluations revealed that he was slightly below grade level in  language arts, but on grade level in math and science.  

Prior to completing the investigation of the  district’s special education program, the district requested  to resolve the review and, on Oct. 20, 2016,  entered into a resolution agreement with OCR.  

In  accordance with the resolution agreement, the district agrees to:

- Ensure that Pupil Support Teams at each district  school complete and submit appropriate documentation of interventions attempted  when referring students for an evaluation.
- Ensure that the district places students in the  regular educational environment, unless it is demonstrated, for each student,  that education in the regular educational environment cannot be achieved  satisfactorily even with the use of supplementary aids and services.  
- Ensure that the district documents decisions  made about the educational setting for disabled students.
- Provide training to all those authorized to make  placement decisions for students with disabilities about the district’s  policies on the identification, evaluation and placement of disabled students  for special education services.
- Include in training the requirement that  students with disabilities are to be placed in the regular educational  environment – unless it is demonstrated that the education of the student in  the regular educational environment cannot be achieved satisfactorily even with  the use of supplementary aids and services.  
- Review the placement of all students with  disabilities in self-contained settings, to ensure that these students are  classified appropriately and are in the appropriate educational setting.  
- Provide data to OCR to demonstrate compliance  with the regulation implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,  regarding educational setting, for future school years.

Read the Resolution Letter PDF (216.99K) | Read the Resolution Agreement PDF (112.25K)

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