CBS New York

Harriet Baravick’s son Max has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair to get around, but she says just this week, she’s received phone calls from a DOE-contracted bus company reporting issues. “‘I’m sorry, there’s no bus today. You’ll have to pick your child up,'” she said. “Yesterday morning, it was, ‘Sorry, the bus broke down.'” Sometimes, she’s not even sure how her son will get home from school. Transportation is one of several services that the city’s DOE is mandated to provide students with special needs in the city. Whether they go to public schools or not, it’s state law. When the system fails to do so, parents may file for an impartial hearing, which can result in a court order giving the DOE 35 days to right the wrong. 

But according to the organization Advocates for Children, the DOE adheres to the court order less than 10% of the time. “It has guaranteed that it will provide these services to the students to both the state and the federal government, and it simply does not and cannot do so,” said Jesse Cole Cutler, a lawyer who estimates he’s represented 3,000 families in these hearings.