Committee on Special Education – CSE

When the issues your child faces are cannot be resolved by minor changes in the classroom or such minimal interventions as speech therapy once a week or after-school tutoring, you may need to turn to your school’s Committee on Special Education. This Committee is the gateway to obtaining special education services to help your child with learning problems.
The CSE is made of up a team of individuals who know your child or his or her school. But the most important member of the CSE is you, the parent.

Any parent considering turning to their CSE should first read the handbook created by the New York State Education Department explaining the special education process and describing the CSE and how to request an evaluation. The State Education handbook does not reflect some of the recent changes to the special education laws and procedures, which can be found on the State Education Department website.

Some important things to know about the CSE:

• The format of the CSE is somewhat different in suburban and New York City schools but the substance of the process remains the same. New York City parents should become familiar with recent changes in many aspects of the Special Education process.
• The key to eligibility is classification. Only if an evaluation indicates that a student has one of a specified list of physical, emotional or learning disabilities can that student receive special education services.
• For students with learning and school problems, the CSE will generally classify the student as learning disabled if he or she has substantial difficulty in understanding or in using spoken or written language, which results in substantial difficulty in his or her ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations.
• Students with attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or tourette syndrome, which adversely affects that student’s educational performance will generally be classified as other health impairment.

While the classifications or labels used by the legal system may help school administrators, they do nothing for the self-esteem of the children who are labeled. Please keep in mind that children are complex individuals with many strengths as well as some areas of weakness. No child is learning disabled, even when he or she has a learning disability.