Opinion: More Schools Must Be Accessible to Disabled

Twenty five years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and over 40 years after the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, it seems incredible to us that students and parents with mobility impairments still find themselves physically excluded from more than half of New York City’s public elementary schools.    

After a two-year investigation, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara issued findings that showed 83 percent of the city's elementary schools were not "fully accessible" to people with disabilities, and six local school districts, serving over 50,000 elementary school students, did not have a single school that was "fully accessible" to individuals with disabilities.   

The official response to Bharara's report claimed there were enough accessible programs to meet students' needs. Rather than acknowledging the human cost of inaccessible buildings and options, city lawyers wrote, “We believe the DOE’s elementary schools, when viewed in their entirety, provide full program accessibility for all elementary students.” 

As parents, educators, and advocates, we have seen first-hand how choices and opportunities have been profoundly limited for students with physical disabilities because of the dearth of accessible schools.  These students often do not have the option of going to their local or zoned school with their siblings and neighbors, and the programs available to them are few and far between.   

Even in schools that the Department of Education considered “partially” or “functionally” accessible, parents encounter elevators that are too small to accommodate a wheelchair, or inaccessible spaces such as the nurse’s offices, science labs, and auditoriums. Being able to get in the front door is not the same as being able to fully participate in the life of a school. 

That's why we, members of the ARISE Coalition and Parents for Inclusive Education (PIE), are collecting data from families who experience these challenges in a short survey. Less than a week after kicking off our survey, we collected almost 90 responses. We'll keep it going as long as we keep hearing from people. 

The preliminary results of our survey showed that many families were struggling. Of the responses we received by the end of last week:
•    62 percent of the students were attending New York City public schools;
•    62 percent of the students in public schools were unable to attend their zoned schools as a result of mobility needs; 
•    Just over 17 percent of the families in public schools stated that they needed to send their children more than three miles away for an accessible program; and
•    67 percent of the families in public schools said they had no other options than their current school because of the need for an accessible school location.     

Comments submitted by parents of students who used wheelchairs included stories of feeling unwelcome on school tours and interacting with school staff who were clearly not knowledgeable about meeting the needs of the students.  

Others said that when they viewed schools listed as accessible, they were not in fact navigable by a person with mobility needs. 

We know of only one public elementary school in the entire city, the Manhattan School for Children (MSC), that is intentionally set up to include students with physical disabilities.  Ironically, even that building is not fully accessible, yet students travel from all five boroughs to attend.

The department must do more than construct barrier-free schools; it must work with families to make sure that students with mobility impairments receive an appropriate education in the schools they attend.