Feds Rip East Ramapo Over Bilingual Special-Ed

As of the beginning of the school year, East Ramapo is operating under an agreement with the federal Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights.

The agreement is in response to two issues brought to the OCR by the Spring Valley NAACP: that the district operated a whites-only kindergarten class and that it failed to provide Spanish and Creole-speaking English language learners with an appropriate amount of English as a Second Language instruction.

But the OCR also found out that the district’s special-education bilingual programs were lacking -- from a professional point of view. And their scathing description of the programs takes up a great deal of the letter, dated Oct. 27 from Timothy Blanchard, director of the New York office of the OCR, to Willie Trotman, president of the Spring Valley NAACP.

According to the letter, OCR staff reviewed the Individualized Education Programs for the students in the special-ed bilingual programs in 2013-14:

...and found no support to indicate that any of the students were identified as English Language Learners, or that they were screened for English proficiency using a diagnostic evaluation.

While some of the IEPs for the students in the Yiddish bilingual classes included a reference in the narrative section to placement in a bilingual special education program, there was no explanation of the reasons for the District’s determination to place the students in such a program. Further, six of the IEPs of students in the Yiddish bilingual special education program did not include any reference to the need for bilingual education, much less indicate how the student’s language needs related to the IEP. None of the IEPs of the students in the Spanish bilingual special education program indicated any need for bilingual special education ... Further, the IEPs of some of the students in the Yiddish and Spanish bilingual special education programs stated that English was, in fact, their native language.

In addition, the OCR said:

The teachers in the Yiddish and Spanish bilingual special education programs were unable to identify the educational theory underlying the District’s language assistance program. Indeed, OCR found no evidence that the District identified any educational theory that is recognized as sound by some experts in the field or is considered a legitimate experimental strategy. OCR did not find any evidence to indicate that the teachers received any guidance on how to develop and implement a bilingual education program or about the exit requirements for the bilingual program.

PHOTO: via poweroften.us USDOE Office of Civil Rights Report