The BOE will be reviewing the results of an RFP issued in January at their next scheduled meeting, a BOE official confirmed to TLS. Included in the RFP is the IDEA funded programs, which include the Stars program as well as the self contained classrooms throughout Lakewood Mosdos.
“This year, the RFP for IDEA was issued separately from the others and was not properly advertised”, a BOE member said. “At the last BOE meeting, no extension or new RFP were issued even though some Board members had asked for it.”
Below is a letter sent by Rabbi Meir Hertz to the Mosdos of Lakewood asking them to ask their members of the BOE to join the others in order to help the children:
Please consider the following facts: 1. The nation’s special education law is called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. IDEA defines the term “child with a disability.” Federal special education currently provides funding for the costs of educating students with disabilities (and developmental delays) based on their identification within 14 categories. Using disability labels ensures that students’ civil rights will be protected – rights that can extend throughout their lifetimes. So although one should not rely on labels to guide one’s perceptions of, and decisions about, students, these specific labels currently have a significant function.
2. Federal IDEA funding is generated by the total number of children with disabilities in the District. The total IDEA grant this school year – $5M – is based on a formula amount of $1,123 per child with disability. According to NJ DoEd figures, there are a total of 4,416 children with disabilities ages 3-21 in the Lakewood District, of which 3,547 (80%) are enrolled in Lakewood’s private schools. Of these 3,547 nonpublic students with disabilities, only 426 children (12%) are slated to receive services through IDEA funds. All the remaining 3,121 IDEA-eligible children with disabilities in our mosdos are not receiving help through IDEA. Approximately 300 of these children, those with a need for PT/OT, are receiving help through local taxes. But that still leaves an astounding 2,821 children with disabilities in our mosdos, who receive no help at all. Moreover, the LBOE, due to its single-source method for procuring special education services, has no capacity to provide help to nonpublic students who are identified within most of the 14 IDEA disability categories, nor even a method to search and identify such children! This is an apparent violation of both the “Child Find” and the “equitable participation” requirements of IDEA. However, that’s a topic for another conversation.
3. The $5M federal IDEA grant to Lakewood this year is allocated as follows: $4M for nonpublic school students, and $1M for public school students. Local taxpayers contribute an additional $1M to supplement this grant. In disregard of the mosdos longstanding request for multivendor competition, the LBOE decided again for this school year NOT to solicit competitive proposals for the provision of the IDEA program. Instead, the BOE awarded the entire $4M nonpublic IDEA grant, plus the $1M local taxpayer contribution, to Catapult, as its single-source IDEA services provider. This $5M is used as follows: $2.4M for the preschool Stars program, and $2.6M for nonpublic (mosdos) self-contained classes, (including Oros Yisroel and shadows).
4. However, by federal law, only $194,073 is available for STARS through IDEA. The balance of the Stars $2.4M annual budget is currently being paid by Lakewood taxpayers, ($1M), and the rest, $1.15M, is apparently being illegally diverted from the mosdos’ IDEA allocation.
This apparently illegal diversion from the mosdos has been going on for years. As will be shown below, if multivendor competition was/is introduced, the significant savings would obviate the need to divert any nonpublic IDEA funding, and the number of self-contained classes could be doubled from 30 to 60, all this while keeping STARS intact!
5. Moreover, up to a few years ago, IDEA funds in Lakewood were also used to pay for PT/OT services, which are not handled by Catapult. Since Mr. Inzelbuch wanted Catapult to have the entire $4M nonpublic IDEA pie, (plus the $1Million Lakewood Taxpayer subsidy, total of $5M) he took PT/OT out of IDEA, under the pretext of “centralization”, reducing from 457 to 300 the number of entitled children receiving PT/OT. Today, Lakewood children in need of PT/OT are served on a triage basis, and are selected by “lottery”. The cost of this severely reduced PT/OT, $500,000, is also being paid by Lakewood taxpayers. This is on top of the $1M used to subsidize Stars. Total taxpayer cost? $1.5 Million annually.
6. Based on past IDEA competitive bidding, and on actual bids received, the numbers show that the District could legally and properly accomplish the following with the same dollar amount – $4M nonpublic IDEA funds + the $1.5M taxpayer subsidy:
a) Keep STARS intact, including the same directorship/instructional structure, by legally using the $1.5M taxpayer subsidy, plus the $194,073 legally available Preschool IDEA funds, for a total of $1,694,073 (see bid quotes received by the District from Educational Excellence below) ;
b) Stop the current diversion of $1.15 Million from the mosdos’ IDEA-funding; bringing the available IDEA funds to $3.75M ($2.6M + $1.15M) instead of the previous $3.1M (2.6M IDEA plus $500,000 from local taxes). This money would be used for self-contained classes, (including Oros Yisroel and shadows), PT/OT, and any leftover funds would be used to help some of the 2,821 children with disabilities in our mosdos who currently receive no help at all. The decisions on what proportionate share of these funds should be allocated to which services, should be made, as stipulated by law, in consultation with parents and mosdos, and should not be made, as they are now made, unilaterally by one individual, based solely on where the favored single-source provider makes the most profit.
In simple terms, this additional $650,000, together with significantly lower rates achieved through multivendor competition, could (1) DOUBLE the number of students receiving PT/OT via IDEA, from 300 up to 600; thus restoring PT/OT services to all children that were dropped by the District in the 2008-09 school year, and could (2) DOUBLE the number of self-contained classes, thereby ensuring appropriate services for ALL of our most needy children, with no additional funds collected from the taxpayer, or, alternatively, if we do not need to double PT/OT and Self-contained classes, the remaining IDEA funds could easily (3) more than DOUBLE the total number of IDEA-eligible children with disabilities in our mosdos who will receive help through IDEA for their unique disabilities. Under any of the above alternatives, Lakewood mosdos could increase from 12% to 25% the participation rate of nonpublic students benefitting from IDEA. That’s an additional 461 children served and “saved” by IDEA, more than doubling the IDEA program, from 426 to 887 students. Can we turn our backs on our children?
This is not merely a projection. It is based on the parallel savings our mosdos already achieved by introducing competitive bidding in the Title 1 NCLB, Ch. 192/193, and the Nursing programs. Moreover, it is also based on historical and recent competitive bids received for these services. Before we vote for any candidate, we must know where s/he stands on this central question — and get a written commitment to switch to multivendor competition for ALL special education and related services. Better yet, let the BOE hold a Special Meeting before the elections, and vote to issue an RFP for competitive bids for ALL IDEA services for the coming school year, with at least 3 components: Stars, Self-contained, and PT/OT, with no reduction in the scope of current services whatsoever!
We can accomplish all this simply by bringing competition to the IDEA program, as we currently have in all other Special Education services.
It is our most vulnerable children who need and deserve our support, not Catapult!!
[1] According to the Agenda and Minutes of the 8/29/07 Board meeting, for the 2007-2008 school year, there were several qualified bidders on the IDEA contract. Catapult submitted the highest bid, at $3.5M, 73% higher than the low bidder, Classic Rehab (a Lakewood outfit owned by Mordechai Lubet, with an excellent track record and reputation), whose bid was $2M. Yet Mr Inzelbuch still made sure the contract was awarded to Catapult.
[1] More recently Educational Excellence submitted IDEA bids as follow: STARS @$1,610,173. Self-contained (including: Shadows (without a need for parents to pay the difference on their own, as is the case now), Oros Yisroel, PT/OT) – total $1,482,431. For a total, legal and proper IDEA budget of $3,092,604. Similar savings were submitted by bid proposal by Educational Excellence for the public preschool program.
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The vote on the IDEA program will take place after the School Board elections.
Couldn’t it be condensed into 2 paragraphs?? Who has patience to read all this???
BOORRRRRRIIIING
As an Occupational Therapist who lives in Lakewood and works with children for many years, I cannot tell you how important this is for our children. There is evidence that show how important it is for a child who needs services to receive them as young as possible. The children who do not win this lottery can be affected tremendously. Twelve years of experience has shown the significant difference it makes to have services as early as possible. Therefore by opening up the contract to multiple vendors as explained can help so many more children in our community that need the help. I urge the BOE to overturn the Catapult contract and open the bids to all companies and to be as transparent in the bidding process as possible.
I thought more vendors do bid now… tree of knowledge
I wrote the following in part and sent to our central office in 2008:
“The census-based method used in the School Reform Act of 2008 fails when a district has a substantial population of students in private schools that are not counted in the census.
Section 612 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 requires each local educational agency (LEA) to conduct a find and evaluation process on all children in private schools. It requires that a free appropriate public education is made available (FAPE) to those students found to need special education services.
New Jersey funds each LEA using a census-based method to calculate each district’s special education funding by multiplying the district’s total enrollment by the state average classification rate of 14.69%. Of the 16,000 children in Lakewood private schools [in 2008] 14.69% or 2,350 students will be found to need special education services. They are offered a free and appropriate public education under federal law.
The cost of special educational FAPE for that number of additional students, based on the state average cost, is 2,350 x $10,898=$25,610,300. The additional categorical aid for FAPE for the 2,350 students is $8,536,767.
However, under New Jersey law, the addition of 2,350 into the district census results in only $3,762,153 in the adequacy budget because the state funds only 14.69% of the cost of each additional student and provides only $1,254,051 in categorical aid.
Granted that not all of the 2,350 students will opt for FAPE, but a large number will enter the public schools because of the expense and availability of services. The State funds each additional student choosing a free and appropriate public education only 14.69% of the $10,898 needed for FAPE (excluding categorical aid) or $1596.
Federal law requires each State to offer a free and appropriate education to students found in private schools. New Jersey grants each private school student found to need special education services $2,135 for a free and appropriate education in a public school, while each student initially found in public schools is granted $14,531 (including categorical aid).”
This substantially lowers the amount of funding for each student who opts for a FAPE.
Indeed, when the New Jersey Supreme Court approved the SFRA, it assumed that the census method would be used for only one-third of the funding.
“The census-based method only accounts for one-third of the special education funding. SFRA funds the other two-thirds of special education costs by allocating an excess dollar amount for each special education student in a district.”
Abbott ex rel. Abbott v. Burke, 199 N.J. 140, 166-167 (N.J. 2009)
This, of course is not true.
The governor’s new proposal for 2013 does not change the census method. I have always felt that Lakewood had a case to litigate.
To Comments 1 and 2 I beg you to read it 5 times if you have in order to understand the letter Rabbi Hertz wrote. Call him and ask him to explain things to you if need be
GO Reb Meir!!! We need your assistance in getting this done. How about making a voter education commitee to educate the voters? Have on eperson in each neighborhood explain your letter to all his friends and neighbors.
It`s Hatzalas Nefashos Mamesh!!
Very detailed and well written. Thank you Rabbi Hertz. How can we get the state involved?
Wow! Rabbi Meir Hertz knows this topic inside out!
I must tell you that my own granddaughter needs to be placed in a self contained class that simply was unavailable in Lakewood. My children’s entire family had to bear unbelievable costs to move out of town to seek help elsewhere. Sometimes a parent has to consider sending such a child into a non-Jewish, non-religious environment to try to help their child.
If our ‘city of chesed’ can help children in this situation in any way at all, we must not let ourselves be complacent, bored or fall asleep at the wheel no matter how many words it takes to convince us that we must take action. Without the details there is no real case to consider to form an opinion of what is really going on!
JUST HELP this inyan, if you can! and stop criticizing. This is not a ‘talk show’ performance. It’s serious.
Best of success and keep up trying to assist with this life and death situation, Rabbi Hertz!
The solution will come through our distance education program. No Lakewood child need to be in our physical plant to receive an free public education.
Each additional student who is enrolled, he or she is counted for full state funding for regular educational exenses.
Of course, as in my previous comment, the SFRA will fund 14.69% of each additional student for his or her special education expense. This might be unconstitutional as applied to Lakewood.
The case to watch is DePascale v. State (2011 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 2626). This judicial pension case directly pits the legislature against the judiciary. Its outcome might signal the future of Abbott and litigation over educational spending.
We should have brought the case earlier.
We need R’ Hertz to put out a public endorsement of the candidates that will support multiple vendors etc… Just writing a article on the scoop is good but not enough. If the other side has signs hanging in every shul they will win unless there is a clear campaign for R Hertz’s candidates. Unfortunately ” ha’olam golem”