D75 Student Art at the Guggenheim — Plus This Week's News

District 75 Office of Arts Education and the Guggenheim Museum tag-teamed once again for the annual showcase of student art. Part of the Museum Mile, a parade of onlookers walked up and down Fifth Avenue on the evening of June 9. Many Milers stopped to look at the artwork—from 30 D75 schools, ranging in age from K-12. Many people couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

It was a joyous occasion. The focus was on ability. It reminded me that in order to be creative, you have to think differently. And this exhibit allowed hundreds of children an opportunity to express themselves in ways other than through their words.

That communication was evident to the waves of people who drifted between the two rows of display easels. Here are some of the things I heard from passersby:

Check out our IG feed here, where we’ll be sharing student’s artwork.

The Trump administration just announced they’re moving two offices out of the Department of Education: the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to Health and Human Services, and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to the Department of Justice.

The shift affects 10.25 million children who rely on an IEP or 504 plan.

What this means on the ground: Lighthouse spoke with Miriam Nunberg, Esq., a former OCR investigator who now represents NYC families on IEP and 504 cases, last week — before today's announcement. She said the gutting of OCR's staff under this administration is unlike anything she's seen, including the first Trump term, when the office "didn't gut the staffing" the way it has now.

Section 504, where OCR has historically been the main enforcement backstop, is taking the biggest hit. Nunberg described New York City as "a walking 504 violation pretty much from start to finish" — citing schools that push evaluation costs onto parents despite federal guidance requiring free evaluations, and 504 decisions made by a single staffer instead of a required team.

Now, families will have even less recourse — left to city and state human rights commissions, which Nunberg said "should theoretically have jurisdiction" but where she's unsure they have OCR's specific 504 expertise.

Critics argue: Shiwali Patel of the National Women's Law Center called the move an “illegal transfer” that would erode protections for millions of students. Is this a return to viewing disabled students through a medical or even criminal lens, undermining decades of disability rights organizing under IDEA (1975)?

The legal bottom line: Nothing about this reorganization changes your child's rights today. IDEA protections remain in effect, and your child is still legally entitled to a free and appropriate public education.

Take action: Email your Members of Congress or call them today.

Adapt Community Network recently presented a webinar, Educational vs. Neuropsychological Evaluations.

The presenter, Dr. Enitan Marcelle, Pediatric Neuropsychologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, was very clear about slicing and dicing this question:

Based on what you’re seeing today:

You don’t need all the answers today—just decide:
“School-based eval first, or do we need something more in-depth?”

That gives us clarity—thank you Dr. Enitan Marcelle!

Randy Ewart has been teaching math for 32 years. He's also the father of a 19-year-old diagnosed with autism as a child. When I asked Randy how parents should think about math for kids like ours, he didn't start with numbers. He started with life.

Said Randy: “Sample transition goals for an IEP map your child's math skills to a specific postsecondary destination — college, vocational training, supported employment, or independent living. Before you can evaluate whether a goal is right for your child, you need to know which destination you're planning for.

Work backwards from postsecondary life settings," Randy says. "Home, work, community. The purpose of special education is to prepare students for those settings — skills for life, education, work.

A student headed toward a trade program needs functional math built around measurement, estimation, and money. A student on a college track needs a different sequence entirely — one that gets them to Algebra 1 with only 504 accommodations by high school, because that's all they'll have when they arrive. A student in a supported employment setting needs the math skills to hold a job: reading a schedule, computing a wage, managing a budget.

The IEP team should be mapping goals to a destination — not writing goals in isolation.”

Check out more math tips from Randy Ewart at Lighthouse.

Michele Kule-Korgood, Esq. has been a special education attorney for more than two decades. I recently spoke with her and we were talking about how every special needs child is different, and how that poses challenges for their teachers and caregivers.

She told me a story about a grade-school girl in a 6:1:1 D75. She was nonverbal, and through the years her dysregulation had been escalating. First, when the work was frustrating, she would push her work off the table. Staff put her in time out or in the hallway.

Then she began knocking over chairs. Again, she was removed.

Later, she started scratching herself and banging her arm until her skin looked like leather.

Eventually, she began hitting other people.

“Every year it was getting worse, and the school basically said they were doing the best they can,” said Michele, who explained the situation like this:

Michele contacted a specialized program, who sent a psychologist to the family’s home. They taught her to use a break card, to show when she was getting frustrated and needed to step away from her work. That’s when things changed.

“She was in that program [District 75] for five or six years, not making progress, and in two hours—two hours!—that psychologist turned it around.”

A few weeks later, Michele was talking on the phone with the child’s mother. “The mother passes the phone to this nonverbal child, who I’d never heard speak, and the child says: ‘Hi, I’m Angie.’*

The kid who had never spoken got into that middle school the family was hoping for.

*Name has been changed.

Albany Is Making Up Rules for Special Needs Appeals. Children Are Paying for It.

A NYC family lost their special education hearing. They appealed to Albany. Albany threw out the case — not on the merits, but because the parent signed a document on the 16th and the lawyer filed on the 18th.

There is no rule requiring same-day signatures. A prior Albany decision says explicitly there doesn't have to be. It didn't matter.

"They are making up rules," said Marc Gottlieb, an attorney at Gottlieb & Wang who brought the case. "They are adding content to rules that is not in the rules, as written."

What's happening. Families who lose special education hearings (denied tuition reimbursement, ABA therapy, compensatory services, independent evaluations) have one meaningful option before federal court: appeal to Albany's Office of State Review (OSR).

Decisions are supposed to take 30 days. They're now taking 12 months. Appeals have exploded — from 178 in 2022 to a projected 1,400 this year. And Albany is increasingly dismissing cases on procedural grounds that don't exist rather than deciding them.

Why it's happening. Appeals have surged 700% in four years. The system is overwhelmed. But as Gottlieb put it: when the White House shows everyone in government that ignoring rules has no consequences, that permission filters down.

What it means for your family. The appeals number — already alarming — is actually undercounting the situation. "It's similar to what Yogi Berra used to say: 'Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore because it's too crowded,'" said attorney Lloyd Donders. "Except here, 'There are too many appeals, so no one appeals anymore.'"

Attorneys are choosing not to appeal winnable cases because the wait is longer than just refiling. Children go without services either way.

"There's nothing you can do," Gottlieb said. "You just have to wait and see what happens."

And if Albany dismisses the appeal? The next stop is federal court. And Gottlieb has a view on what happens there too.

For the full story read here.

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Much has been written recently about bloated billing practices by some applied behavior analysis (ABA) businesses throughout the country. The Wall Street Journal published an account of a family that was billed for $911,400. (“Autism Therapy Is Booming—and So Is the Billing Abuse,” Page One, June 2).

The WSJ article uncovered providers billing $30,000 per day, even $436 per minute in one example. Insurance companies refused to pay these amounts, These sketchy providers are billing for:

The WSJ article pointed to one Brooklyn autism-therapy provider, Perfect Child, as an egregious bad actor. The article tied hundreds of LLCs to the company.

This underscores that ABA is not for everybody.

The good news: Non-ABA autism services exist. Developmental, relationship-based interventions (DRBI) is one approach that tailors play-based interactions based on the child’s profile and relationship with caregivers.

Whereas ABA rewards compliance, DRBIs build upon the child’s innate drive to connect and learn. Where ABA is generally prescribed for 40 hours a week, DRBI requires fewer billable hours.

Dr. Josh Feder, MD, executive medical director for DRBI provider Positive Development, said:  “Lean in with a bit more emotional intensity — not at the child's full level of distress, which would be overwhelming, but maybe at about eighty percent. So the child can feel that you are also upset for them and with them — not because you're going to give them everything they're asking for, but because you truly understand their distress.”

NYC families looking for DRBI providers (aka Floortime) can search the DIR Directory for certified practitioners in New York.

On paper, New York and New Jersey look similar: blue states, high costs, solid public services. Opposite sides of the same coin.

But for many special needs families, the details of Medicaid and support systems make New York much harder to leave. I spoke to Zeke Zimmerman, owner of The Time to Plan is Now.

1. Asset limits: more room to breathe in NY

Practically, this means a New Yorker with a disability can inherit $20–25k and keep Medicaid, even if they lose SSI. In New Jersey, that same inheritance can knock them off both SSI and Medicaid until they spend down and requalify.

2. Waivers and self-direction

Zeke framed New York as not just more generous on paper, but different in day‑to‑day life:

“New York’s also a very generous state in terms of all the benefits. In New Jersey, you don’t get waivers quite as easily for minor children, you don’t get self direction with $50,000 budgets for com hab workers and adaptive cooking classes quite as easily.”

In New York, families are more likely to secure:

3. Services and schooling

New York also offers a density of specialized schools and services that’s hard to match:

“We have a very wide array of different private special education schools that you will not find anywhere else, either,” said Zeke.

That’s why I hear about families coming into New York from places like Florida, and why many New York families think twice before crossing the Hudson. Moving to New Jersey can mean trading a richer support system for a lower tax bill. For a lot of parents, that’s not a trade they’re willing to make.

And we have the Knicks.

FOR ART’S SAKE

There were hundreds of artworks at the recent District 75 Arts showcase at the Guggenheim. Here is one of them:

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