Assemblywoman Rosy Bagolie will hold a town hall on special education Thursday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m. at her Livingston office, 651 Old Mount Pleasant Ave.
Bagolie, vice chair of the Assembly Education Committee, said the event follows a recent committee hearing that raised concerns about New Jersey's effectiveness in monitoring and overseeing special education services in local school districts, according to Patch.
"There are clear issues and deep concerns in how special education is being administered in the Garden State, and we must act strategically and proactively," Bagolie said.
The assemblywoman, who holds a master's degree in special education from Rutgers University, said she hopes the forum will give parents a chance to shape state policy. Bagolie represents both Millburn and Livingston in the Assembly.
That committee hearing drew testimony from disability-rights advocates who told lawmakers the state's special education complaint process is underenforced, the New Jersey Monitor reported. Mary Ciccone, director of policy for Disability Rights New Jersey, told the committee that districts were often allowed to self-report compliance with corrective action plans. That meant problems with students' services sometimes went unresolved, she said.
Elizabeth Athos, senior attorney for the Education Law Center, told lawmakers the state complaint investigation process is "being underutilized in New Jersey." In the 2020-2021 school year, the most recent period with available data, parents filed 118 state complaints, compared to 569 mediation requests and 1,117 due process complaints, according to the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education.
Unlike mediation or administrative law hearings, state complaint investigations are free to parents and must be resolved within 60 days under state and federal law, Ciccone told the committee. But because districts always have attorneys in those other proceedings, parents feel pressured to hire lawyers too.
New Jersey Department of Education spokesman Mike Yaple defended the department's record at the hearing, saying more than half of complaint investigations in the past year found districts out of compliance and required corrective action.
The forum is open to parents and caregivers across the 27th Legislative District, which includes Millburn, Livingston, Montclair, Clifton, Roseland and West Orange. Space is limited. Registration is required through an online form, and families with privacy concerns can send feedback directly to Bagolie's office.
