Response to State Reschedule of
Hearing Process
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Witanek [mailto:bwitanek@igc.org]
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 12:51 AM
To: 'comments6A14'; 'martha.breecher@spannj.org'; 'mciccone@njpanda.org';
'eshea@arcnj.org'; 'Advocate@StudentAdvocate-nj.org'; 'barbara.gantwerk@doe.state.nj.us';
'Lucille.davy@doe.state.nj.us'; 'diane.shoener@doe.state.nj.us'; 'martha.brecher@spannj.org'
Subject: Response to: Public Testimony on NJAC 6A:14 (Special Education)
Dear Mr.
Worthington, et. al.,
Thank you for the information that you provided in your letter below. As you
might have been aware, we had already begun to organize a rally outside the
hearing that was scheduled for March 15. We will now need to adjust our plans
accordingly.
You might also be aware that we are opposed to the way these meetings have been scheduled, the way the registration process has been run, the holding of these important sessions in tiny rooms that offer standing room only to just a small portion of the parents who wish to testify, the timing of meetings at 3 pm while parents need to be at the curb waiting for the school bus or are at work, the obstacles the board has placed before parents trying to register, the unnecessary cutting of the registration process 5 days before the meetings and other operations by this board to minimize the collaborative process with regard to parents. See: http://www.studentadvocate-nj.org/call_for_inclusiveBOEHearings.htm .
Continuing in this regard, the stretching of this process out appears to be an attempt to minimize the momentum of our efforts. Holding some of the most important meetings during the summer break – a time when getting greater participation will be severely curtailed due to vacation schedules, is also an effort to further curtail our input. Given that all scheduled dates fall on a Wednesday, it is apparent that the board continues to disregard our call for hearings to occur on a Saturday.
Our organization, The New Jersey Student Advocacy Union continues to call for an inclusive, collaborative and democratic process and calls upon you and the board to make the following changes:
1. Schedule regional hearings on the changes to special education code, one in Southern New Jersey and one in Northern New Jersey.
2. All meetings should be held in rooms large enough for the full board to sit and for all parents to assemble together. The Board can use local community colleges or public school auditoriums for such purposes.
3. Registration phone lines need to be fully staffed and remain open. During office hours, all parents should be able to reserve. The queue needs to be cleared at end of day to allow maximal overnight registrations.
4. An investigation is needed into the issue of shutting down the registration queue during the last three days of registration for the last hearing, from Wednesday, January 11 through Friday, January 13.
5. Registration needs to be open up until the date and time of the actual hearing.
6. Move the scheduled hearings to the evening or the following Saturday.
As for your letter, there are a couple of points that need to be clarified. You name a number of dates but you have not provided any times. Will these meetings occur in the evening? I hereby implore you to schedule all of them for the evening to maximize the ability for working families and for parents who need to receive their children at 3 pm to participate. I also implore you to reschedule some of those dates to occur on Saturdays.
You also state that “The public testimony tentatively scheduled for March 15, 2006 will not be held, as the State Board is not meeting in Trenton that month.”
Please
clarify what you mean when you state that “the State Board is not meeting in
Trenton that month.” Will the state board be meeting in some other location
during March? Since you did not come right out and say that the board would not
be meeting at all in March and instead stated only that it would not meet in
Trenton, it begs the question, where will the State Board be meeting in March?
Will the State Board be accommodating our call for regional hearings during
March? Please do schedule the widely supported regional testimony sessions.
Please inform us as soon as possible when those regional hearings are
scheduled.
Sincerely,
Bob Witanek
908-881-5275
cc. Governor Corzine
-----Original Message-----
From: comments6A14 [mailto:comments6A14@doe.state.nj.us]
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 3:14 PM
To: martha.breecher@spannj.org; mciccone@njpanda.org; eshea@arcnj.org;
Advocate@StudentAdvocate-nj.org
Subject: Public Testimony on NJAC 6A:14 (Special Education)
I am writing to inform you of changes to the schedule for the re-adoption with amendments of N.J.A.C. 6A:14, Special Education, and to ask that you apprise parents and other interested parties of these changes. The State Board will consider the regulations for an additional Discussion Level at its April 5, 2006 meeting. The Proposal Level regulations will be considered at the May 3, 2006 meeting of the State Board, and the Adoption Level regulations will be considered at the August 2, 2006 State Board meeting. The adopted regulations will become effective upon publication in the New Jersey Register on September 5, 2006. The public testimony tentatively scheduled for March 15, 2006 will not be held, as the State Board is not meeting in Trenton that month. Instead, an additional Public testimony session will be held on June 21, 2006. The second 30 day public comment period will begin June 5, 2006 with the publication of the Proposal Level regulations in the New Jersey Register and will close July 5, 2006. Thank you.
John Worthington
Coordinator of Policy Development
Office of Special Education Programs
(609) 984-1286
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