Northeast Times

Several Philadelphia parents told City Council this month that their young children with disabilities were pushed out of preschool programs, sometimes on the first day. They urged lawmakers to ban the practice across all early childhood settings in the city. The testimony came during a City Council Education Committee hearing on preschool suspensions, expulsions and exclusions. Parents and advocates said the problem, often called “preschool pushout,” persists in publicly funded, school district and privately operated alike. They want the city to prohibit preschool exclusion across the board and invest more in early childhood funding and training…