Lots of kids in shelters & special ed

From Capital New York:

New York City has massive numbers of New York City schoolchildren living in temporary housing, as well as a large and growing special education population, according to an Independent Budget Office report released Tuesday.

The large population of high-needs students may present new policy challenges for Mayor Bill de Blasio and his schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña.

According to the IBO report, there were 82,807 students living in some form of temporary housing during the 2013-2014 school year, including 27,772 who were living in shelters.

There are about 1.1 million schoolchildren in New York City.

The number of families living in shelters has increased substantially during de Blasio's tenure.

Forest Hills educators socked by audit

From the Daily News:

A Queens-based provider of bilingual pre-school special education services was hit by state Controller Thomas DiNapoli in a new audit for improperly spending taxpayer money on fancy cars, a Manhattan apartment, and even a recent hire's funeral expenses.

The audit, set to be released Monday, found that Bilinguals Inc. received reimbursements to help cover the cost of rent on a Manhattan apartment for Executive Director Trudy Font-Padron and her husband, Robert Padron, an assistant executive director, "so they wouldn't be too far from the office," even though the headquarters are in Forest Hills.

Taxpayers also paid parts of the leases, insurance and other costs related to three upscale vehicles - 2009 and 2011 Lexus SUVs and a 2010 Honda CRV - for Font-Padron and her husband, as well as cable TV at their Manhattan apartment, auditors found.

Bilinguals Inc., which has provided services since 1995 to special needs kids ages in New York City and the surrounding suburbs, also wrongly billed governments for excessive compensation for Font-Padron and her husband, employee bonuses, meals and parties, gift certificates, and college tuition for employees, the audit found.

Ugly scam in ugly building

From the NY Times:

Cheon H. Park ran a company that had begun to prosper on government contracts, but he had bigger ambitions. So he tore down his shabby headquarters on a quiet street in Flushing, Queens, and replaced it with a lavish three-story building that had marble floors, granite countertops, red carpets and a soaring chandelier.

Then he brought in the clients: 3- and 4-year-olds with developmental disabilities.

Scores of them came each weekday, their parents lured by the attractive surroundings and the promises of state-of-the-art therapy. New York City and New York State paid for it all, from the expensive renovations to the services themselves, at a rate of as much as $98 an hour.

But many of the children entrusted to Mr. Park’s company did not get the care they needed, according to numerous interviews with workers and parents and an extensive analysis of government records.

Some children whose first language was Chinese languished in classes taught in Spanish or Korean. Others who were supposed to receive individual tutoring were thrown into groups of four or more children, all with different types of disabilities.

Some children did not have disabilities at all and were simply being used to generate billings, the interviews show.

“We had kids who were little rocket scientists being put in there — who could read and write at a third-grade level,” said Angel Tirado, a former aide to Mr. Park.

Mr. Park’s contracts were canceled by the city at the beginning of this school year after The New York Times questioned officials about his company.

But his success until then underscores how private contractors have taken advantage of this generously financed but poorly regulated segment of the special-education system, often called special ed pre-K, according to an investigation by The Times.

Special ed school ripped off taxpayers

From DNA Info:

An audit found that a couple running a Flushing special needs pre-school bilked the state out of nearly $1.5 million over the years, which they used on their cars, kids’ furniture and even mortgage payments, authorities said.

A state comptroller's office probe of Bilingual SEIT and Preschool’s books, which has branches in Flushing and Elmhurst, found that the school's billings to the state had skyrocketed over the last decade—spiking from $808,935 in 2002-'03 to $15 million in the 2010-'11 school year, The New York Times first reported.

Bilingual SEIT and Preschool runs programs to help kids aged 3- to 5-years-old with disabilities, teaching them communication and motor skills, the company website said.

Teachers employed by the company would give the kids one-on-one lessons at home or at the pre-school.

Companies can bill the state for up to $122 per hour per child for these services-an amount that is reimbursed, whose costs are split by the state and local governments, authorities said.

But auditors found that the company was overcharging the program and noticed that the school's honchos paid themselves hefty salaries. Executive Director Cheon Park overpaid his wife Hyun Ham, who worked as a payroll clerk in the office, more than a $100,000 over a decade, according to officials.

Not just that, they also allegedly avoided paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes, by working as “independent contractors,” and even billed the interest payments on their mortgages to the state.

Crowley campaigned on taxpayer time

From the Juniper Park Civic Association:

On the day of the Special Election ‒Tuesday, September 13th, Liz Crowley was seen with two of her aides at the Metropolitan Avenue station in Middle Village along with Comptroller John Liu, David Weprin, Assembly Member Markey and an army of aides, blocking the sidewalk and platform so passengers on the trains had to wait their turn passing them. The passengers were given palm cards by Crowley and others and told who to vote for. Some passengers described it as an assault.

We at the Juniper Park Civic Association suggest that Council Member Elizabeth Crowley concentrate more of her time and efforts on trying to solve the many problems in our neighborhood rather than campaigning for her political cronies like Dave Weprin whom her cousin, Congressman Joe Crowley, handpicked.

The JPCA is calling for an investigation as to how city council aides on the taxpayer payroll, are used regularly for political campaigning by both parties during regular business hours. The days before the election many of Elizabeth Crowley's aides were off campaigning and not at their desks in the office on Dry Harbor Road. That may explain why the JPCA received several calls from residents complaining about a lack of response from Council Member Crowley and her staff on a host of issues.

Ms. Crowley, stop the political campaigning and start to do the job you and your staff are getting paid tax dollars to do.

From the Forum:

Crowley said any suggestion that she or her staff did anything improper during the campaign was wrong.

“City Council staff, like other government employees, are allowed to do what they want on their own time, including working on political campaigns,” said Crowley. “Neither I nor my staff used any New York City Council resources to campaign and any accusation that we did is false.”

Photo from Lost in the Ozone

Failure to place kids in schools is costly

From the Daily News:

The Department of Education missed a June 15 deadline to find spots for thousands of kindergartners with disabilities - and now the city could be liable for their tuition in private schools, officials acknowledged.

The holdup is also causing panic for families who are still waiting to hear where their kids are going to kindergarten next year.

Education officials said they were still figuring out precisely how many kids were without seats and therefore unable to provide a firm number of how many children are left without assignments - and how much it will cost the city.

While most public school kids already have seats, education officials were struggling to find assignments for the 15,500 incoming kindergartners with special needs because of changes to the city's special education program.

The kids who don't have seats yet are entitled to a private education paid for by the city under a 1988 legal ruling.

The city already spends about $100 million to educate about 4,000 kids in this situation - and now the cost could skyrocket.