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New York City officials are expanding a slew of the city’s highest-demand special education programs into preschool classrooms for the first time, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Tuesday.
The expansion this fall is meant to help address the city’s longstanding failure to provide classroom seats to every preschooler with a disability — a legal requirement — even as officials created universal preschool for typically developing 3- and 4-year-olds. Mamdani framed the effort as part of his broader push for universal childcare.
To help close the gap, Mamdani said Tuesday that the city will expand five popular programs that already serve K-12 students with autism and other disabilities as part of a $67.5 million investment included in the city budget. The expansion will add 250 total seats to the Nest, Horizon, AIMS, Path, and ACES programs in 26 schools across 14 of the city’s 32 local districts.
“Universal has to mean exactly that — it has to mean universal,” Mamdani said at a press conference at P.S. 5 Ellen Lurie in Inwood. “Having a child with a disability or a special need should not make families the exception to that rule.”
Eric Adams, Mamdani’s predecessor, promised to provide a seat to every preschool student with a disability. His administration made some progress by opening hundreds more seats. But some students still sat at home without a placement, which can be detrimental to children with disabilities early in their development. A Mamdani spokesperson did not say whether the latest expansion is enough to guarantee a seat for every child next school year.
Mamdani emphasized that the expansion will enable children to attend programs closer to where they live in classrooms that often include typically developing peers. Children have long been forced to travel outside of their neighborhoods to access appropriate special education programs. The city is also hoping to keep more students in the public school system rather than paying for private services when families can’t find appropriate placements.
City officials said many of those programs produce strong academic outcomes for students with disabilities, who tend to post much lower test scores and graduation rates than their typically developing peers.
About 97% of Nest and Horizon students, which serve children with autism, ultimately graduate high school, officials said. Students who attend are more likely to be proficient in reading and math than peers in other programs, officials have previously said. They also tend to have higher attendance rates. At the K-12 level, thousands more students could benefit from those programs than there are available seats, even as city officials have incrementally expanded them.
The announcement represents one of the few education initiatives Mamdani has advanced since taking office, and advocates praised the investment.
“This funding is urgently needed as the city works to ensure that all preschoolers with disabilities get the evaluations, services, and programs that they need,” said Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, an organization that helps families navigate the special education system.
City officials also pledged to strengthen other support for preschool students with disabilities who often go without the services they’re entitled to even after securing a classroom seat. Only 63% of preschool students with disabilities received all of their mandated related services, including speech and occupational therapy, Education Department officials said at a March budget hearing.
The $67.5 million plan includes hiring hundreds of additional staffers, including teachers, psychologists, social workers, and therapists. Officials said the hires will help reduce wait times for special education evaluations. The Education Department is also expanding a program that places special education teachers in general education preschool classrooms, allowing more students with disabilities to access instruction alongside their typically developing peers.
Here are the 26 schools that will receive new special education programs. Officials did not immediately confirm which programs each school will get.
District 2: P.S. 042 Benjamin Altman
District 5: P.S. 133 Fred R. Moore
District 6: P.S. 005 Ellen Lurie
District 7: Academy of Exploratory Arts
District 9: P.S. 028 Mount Hope, P.S. 058, P.S. 070 Max Schoenfeld, P.S. 063X Author’s Academy, and Lucero Elementary School
District 10: P.S. 310 Marble Hill, PS 023 The New Children’s School, Rose Hill Pre-K Center
District 11: P.S. 068 Bronx, P.S. 111 Seton Falls, P.S. 121 Throop
District 12: P.S. 006 West Farms, Samara Community School
District 14: P.S. 147 Isaac Remsen
District 15: P.S. 015 Patrick Daly, P.S. 024, P.S. 958
District 20: D20 Pre-K Center
District 21: P.S. 212 Lady Deborah Moody
District 30: P.S. 152 Gwendoline N. Alleyne School, P.S. 171 Peter G. Van Alst
District 31: P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng
Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at [email protected].
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