The Passaic County News and NorthJersey.com has run a pair of companion articles on special education programs and their comparative costs and effectiveness. The second article can be found here. The articles explicitly address the issues of costs, and educational program effectiveness. State and district administrators are interviewed, including Barbara Gantwerk, assistant commissioner of program and operations with the state Department of Education, and Suzanne Bassett, assistant to the superintendent for special services in Tenafly. Martha Brecher, co-director of the Parent Training and Information Center at the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network comments, as does Carole Ann Geronimo, a Midland Park attorney who specializes in special needs children.
From the article:
North Jersey school districts are increasingly confronting soaring special-education costs by starting in-house classes that are cheaper alternatives to pricey out-of-district programs.
Christopher Perkins, a special needs student, in a music class at River Edge’s Cherry Hill School.But the programs have sparked worries among parents, special-needs advocates and private school administrators who assert the districts are motivated primarily by money and cannot provide the small class sizes, low student-teacher ratios and individualized attention by trained staff offered at out-of-district placements.
Among districts that have launched such programs are River Edge, Wayne, Cresskill, Bergenfield, Hackensack, Teaneck, Oradell, Norwood, Closter, Ridgefield Park, New Milford, Mahwah, Paterson and, most recently, Tenafly. Many of the programs have recently expanded to meet growing need.
