Special Education “Mistake” Costs New Rochelle Board of Education Millions — Part I

This is part 1 of a 4 part series

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (October 8, 2024) — The City School District of New Rochelle has improperly used millions of dollars in state education funds to pay Shrub Oak International School to educate four autistic students over the past five years. The District paid additional hundreds of thousands of dollars to transport the students on the 70-mile round trip journey from New Rochelle Mohegan Lake, NY as well as provide a 1:1 aide to ride the bus each day with one of the students.

My reporting on this story began in 2020. I began making Freedom of Information requests in 2022. I received records in 2023 and 2024. I am still waiting for additional records. It is fair to say that the City School District of New Rochelle has not been forthcoming. Shrub Oak International School entirely unresponsive.

Shrub Oak is one of the most expensive private therapeutic schools in the country. It is not on the list of state-approved special education schools, which has a multitude of negative implications for the District, for parents, the children placed there and taxpayers who are footing the enormous cost.

Committees on Special Education are not allowed to recommend placement of students in non-approved schools. Public schools are not allowed to use stated aid to pay non-approved schools.

All of this happened, even after state officials ordered the District to remove the students from Shrub Oak in 2020.

I will not identify, directly or indirectly, the parents or children involved in this matter even though I have their names and details.

Student 1 was first matriculated into Shrub Oak on July 1, 2019, as a 5-day residential placement (came home on weekends only).

Student 2 was first matriculated into Shrub Oak on October 23, 2019, as a day placement (came home every day).

Student 3 was first matriculated into Shrub Oak on November 13, 2019, as a 5-day residential placement (came home on weekends only)

Student 4 was first matriculated into Shrub Oak on February 24, 2020, as a day placement (came home every day).

There are significant limits to my access to public records involving any student at a public school, and especially special needs students and certainly for students placed in non-approved schools. The focus of my reporting is Student 2, but I gathered available records and information for all 4 students to the extent possible.

Student 3 was the first student to be placed at Shrub Oak, but the parent(s) removed the child, after just a few months, alleging the child was being abused. Dara Joseph, the Director of Special Education at the time, notified the New York State Education Department of the abuse allegations. NYSED officials stated they could not act on the abuse allegations because Shrub Oak was not an approved school that students who are mistreated or abused have no recourse unless criminal charges are filed against a particular staff person.

A Committee on Special Education (“CSE”) may only recommend a placement of a student with a disability in an approved private school when it determines that the student cannot be appropriately educated in the home school district, a neighboring district or in the programs of a board of cooperative educational services (“BOCES”) program.

New Rochelle public school students have been placed at Shrub Oak International School since 2019 and, based on tuition records obtained under a Freedom of Information request, three students remained there up to a few months ago, and may be there presently. Shrub Oak has charged New Rochelle tens of thousands of dollars a month for tuition, every month, for five years.

A BOCES special needs school costs a fraction of the cost of Shrub Oak. Shrub Oak originally offered to match the BOCES prices but then unilaterally declared they would no longer honor their offer and raised the tuition price. The students remained at the school anyway.

The District appears to have violated numerous state and federal laws, as well as, regulations of the New York State Education Commissioner, by placing students in an inappropriate setting, at a non-approved school, using state funds to pay a non-approved school.

There are rare cases where a non-approved school is the only option for a child, but this is extremely unusual — and does not apply to the four students placed in Shrub Oak International School.

So, why were they sent there?