Education Advocacy Alert for Parents of Special Needs Kids in New York

If you don't want to see electric shock, forced noxious inhalants, being made to stand out in the snow with no coat, food or water deprivation, or strangling your kid (I kid you not!) proposed as a planned behavior consequence for your kids' "serious behavior," we must stop this.

From my contacts with state and national mental health buttociations concerning the proposed regulations, I can tell you that NYSED did not consult with the NYS Psychological buttociation or the NYS Psychiatric buttociation to seek their input before proposing these regulations. Nor did they consult with the national American Psychological buttociation or American Psychiatric buttociation.

I believe that NYSED did not consult with mental health professions because they anticipated that mental health professionals would tell them that there is no replicated and controlled research to support the planned use of these techniques in schools, the techniques might cause serious harm, and there are serious ethical issues about using aversives on disabled kids. The NYS state psychological and psychiatric buttociations have now been made aware of the proposed regulations (by me) and may be issuing their own statements.

The NYSED proposal admits that they found no peer-reviewed research supporting the use of electric shock and techniques used at one out-of-state placement. Despite the lack of evidence, and despite saying that school personnel should use research-validated techniques, NYSED is willing to permit the use of electric shock and other aversives.

Advocates for children and other disabilities groups are contacting the Board of Regents to urge them to say NO!!! to these regulations.

To read the proposed regs, go to:

Do not be fooled by the supposed "protections" in the proposed regulations. They will not be enforced because NYSED has a long disgraceful history of not enforcing its own regulations when it comes to requiring waivers or parental consent. As a parent of two now-grown up young adults who received special education in public schools in NY, as a long-time pro bono education advocate for children with disabilities, and as a psychologist who routinely consults with school districts on behavioral issues, I am personally appalled by the proposed regulations and have already contacted NYSED and the Board of Regents to express my strong concerns.

For perspective on what's *really* going on, you may wish to read the following by a special education attorney in NYS:

The following is part of a statement from another special education attorney in NYS who's equally horrified by the proposal:

"The thought that our NYSED is going to be in a position to grant variances to SDs to restrain kids is so scary. Let me share with you one of the more egregious restraint issues that arose unexpectedly in a hearing. I was in hearing for a boy with autism. He was non-verbal, so details of events at the school were extremely sketchy, from our perspective, and some of it had to be constructed through testimony at the hearing. The kid�s special ed teacher had made an entry on the incident log of a three person restraint on a certain date. In the comments column it said, �J. did not want to eat his sandwich.� I asked her what was the reason the three adults restrained J. She said it was because he did not want to eat his sandwich. My jaw dropped, as did everyone elses at the table, including the SD attorneys. I asked her again, and she said, yes, the document is correct, he was restrained for not wanting to eat his sandwich at lunch time. Imagine this poor non-verbal autistic kid sitting at the lunch table not wanting to eat his sandwich and wondering why the hell three adults have decided to pounce on him all of the sudden.

Andrew K. Cuddy, Esq."

The Regents will be meeting on June 19th.

If you want to block these regulations, I urge you to contact the Board of Regents and tell them not to approve the proposed regulations. Contact info for the Board can be found at: