US News Metro Long Island Politics

Sports NFL MLB Olympics NBA NHL College Football College Basketball WNBA

Business Personal Finance

Entertainment TV Movies Music Celebrities Awards Theater

Lifestyle Weird But True Sex & Relationships Viral Trends Human Interest Parenting Fashion & Beauty Food & Drink Travel

Health Wellness Fitness Health Care Medicine Men’s Health Women’s Health Mental Health Nutrition

Science Space Environment Wildlife Archaeology

Today’s Paper Covers Columnists Horoscopes Crosswords & Games Sports Odds Podcasts Careers

Email Newsletters Official Store Home Delivery Tips

It’s time to fix a de Blasio era special-ed policy that’s killing NYC’s budget

Mayor Zohran Mamdani says New Yorkers face a choice: Tax the wealthy or raise property taxes to close a $5.4 billion budget gap.

He left out a third option. “Due process” cases in the Department of Education alone account for $1.54 billion of that gap — 10.3% of the entire shortfall.

Federal law did not create that bill. City Hall did.

IDEA is the federal law that guarantees students with disabilities an appropriate public education. When districts fail, parents can place their child in a private school, pay tuition out of pocket and seek reimbursement through a due-process hearing.

But reimbursement is not automatic; a hearing officer must agree that the district failed and that the private placement is appropriate.

Due process was created to fix failures in public schools, not become a billion-dollar alternative to the public school system. Yet the average reimbursement averaged $101,757 per student in May 2025, more than three times what the city spends per pupil in its own schools.

Before 2014, the city would require parents seeking tuition reimbursement to proceed through full due-process hearing and often appealed adverse rulings, an approach consistent with the federal law.

But in 2014, the........

© New York Post