UFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement following Governor Spitzer’s approval of legislation placing the burden of proof in special education hearings back onto school systems in New York State.
This is a big victory for parents of children with disabilities because it recognizes that most parents don’t have the means to hire a lawyer to fight school districts for what their children need. The union pushed so hard for this because, more often than not, it’s the special educators and support staff that stand alone with parents to advocate for parents of kids with special needs. So we would like to thank Gov. Spitzer and our elected representatives in the state Legislature for correcting the situation and removing this unfair burden on needy parents.
For more than 30 years, school districts in New York State had to bear the legal and financial costs of showing that their classification of children under special education law was correct. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Schaffer v. West placed the burden on parents by making parents seeking appropriate educational services for their children responsible for presenting their cases in hearings regarding their children’s IEPs. That meant parents would have to present their cases, make legal arguments and examine and cross-examine witnesses. This posed an unreasonable burden on parents unable to afford legal representation in such cases.
The UFT and NYSUT joined other advocates for children in lobbying the Governor and the state Legislature to remedy the situation. As a result, state Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan (D, Queens) and state Senator Andrew Lanza (R, Staten Island) sponsored legislation putting the burden back onto school districts, and the Governor approved it.
