Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Tuesday he will expand special education programs for preschoolers across New York City as part of an effort to address long-standing gaps in early childhood education.
The city is launching programs for 250 preschoolers with autism and developmental delays at more than two dozen schools across the five boroughs. This will be the first year those programs serve students in preschool.
The education department said it is also hiring hundreds of additional teachers, therapists, social workers and evaluators to help students receive services they need.
“ Making pre-K truly universal means that no family has to go without just because their child needs a little extra help,” Mamdani said at a press conference in Washington Heights.
The new programs and services are part of a $67.5 million investment in special education that was part of the budget passed in June.
The investment comes after years of lobbying from special education advocates who decried a shortage of seats for students with disabilities within the city’s free pre-K program.
In recent years, the Adams administration took steps toward expanding preschool seats for students with disabilities by creating more slots in Integrated Co-Teaching classrooms, but city data showed hundreds of students were still on waitlists for programs that met their needs.
Experts say the dearth of special education seats is among the factors pushing families out of the public school system and into private schools.
Under federal special education law, students with disabilities are entitled to a “fair and appropriate” education. In cases where families can prove the public school system is unable to provide the necessary services, they can sue the city to cover tuition.
The price tag for private school tuition and services for students with disabilities has grown to $1.5 billion. Mamdani has pledged to rein in those costs by serving more students with disabilities in-house.
The special education expansion includes new pre-K seats in the Nest, Horizon, and AIMS programs, which serve students with autism; the PATH program, which focuses on students with emotional and behavioral needs; and ACES, which teaches life skills to students with intellectual disabilities.
”Every parent deserves to know that no matter what educational needs their child may have, that they are safe, that they are supported, and that they are learning,” Mamdani said.
