In response to the delay of services for hundreds of Lakewood children, Board of Education member Isaac Zlatkin penned a letter to the education commissioner.

Zlatkin explained the background of the dilemma.

“In Lakewood, there are over 3,000 nonpublic students who require special education services, reading, writing, math and English as a Second Language under State laws Chapter 192 & 193. These services provide crucial support to these students who are struggling academically or with other types of issues. When Chapter 192 and 193 services are requested by a student’s parents, it is imperative that the student be evaluated for eligibility as soon as possible so that, if the student is eligible, the services can be provided without delay. In order for a parent to request Chapter 192 and/or 193 services for their child, a parent must sign and submit a 407-1 student application form. The district receiving the form was then required to verify eligibility and sign the disposition section of the application, and transmit the application to the Chapter 192 and 193 service provider within five working days after receipt so that much needed services could be provided to eligible students. Unfortunately, the newly released guidelines issued by the DOE include an exception to the five-day limit in the form of a footnote, which states that [d]istricts handling over 10,000 services may exceed the deadlines in this timeline.”

He continued, “Obviously, this exception is targeted towards Lakewood because no other district in this State has nearly that many non-public students. This exception is a big problem because there is no deadline on those districts providing more than 10,000 services. This change has resulted in student applications being in limbo for months, since there is no requirement that an affected district to do so, nor is there any apparent penalty should eligibility applications not be acted upon within any amount of time. This footnote and exception to the 5 day rule must be removed and Lakewood should be held to the same exact timelines as every other District in the State says Zlatkin.”

Click here to view the letter sent to the Commissioner.