Fair NYS funding needed for schools that teach students with disabilities

At the Henry Viscardi School in Albertson, teachers work with some of the area's most vulnerable students, including severely disabled children who sometimes require medical care during the school day.  

At the Cleary School for the Deaf in Nesconset and the Mill Neck Manor School for the Deaf in Mill Neck, teachers work with deaf children and their families, providing classes, services and support in speech therapy, sign language, counseling, and other skills.

In all three schools, teachers generally are paid far less than public school teachers. They work in schools that often have to fight budget battles with state officials and lawmakers in Albany just to secure the basic funds they need.

Viscardi, Cleary and Mill Neck are three of the 11 schools in New York known as "4201 schools," named for the part of state education law that established them, but they are often an afterthought within state government and the state's education bureaucracy. Yet the work they do is critical and difficult, and should be recognized as such. Their funding — virtually all of which comes from the state — should not be a matter of last-minute fights in Albany as the April 1 budget deadline approaches.

Assessing these schools' needs and establishing appropriate funding levels should begin early in the process, with Gov. Kathy Hochul's executive budget. To bring the 4201 schools in line with their peer public institutions, Hochul should consider the schools' request for a $30 million "workforce development" fund — a three-year pot of money specifically dedicated to improving salaries. That's crucial because teacher pay at these special schools is sometimes so out of whack with public school pay that hiring is difficult. Some teachers have to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet — even as the work they do during the school day is incredibly difficult and sensitive.  A recent Newsday story noted a Viscardi teacher with a master's degree earns $90,834 at the high end of the pay scale, while at nearby Herricks High School the median salary was $130,225 as of the 2022-23 school year. 

A funding boost would be only a temporary fix. The larger problem is that the 4201 schools need an updated funding formula that better reflects the schools' current needs, like increasing costs for therapeutic and other services. That would allow state officials to budget properly going forward and would give school administrators more certainty as they plan. Just this week, the Rockefeller Institute emerged with recommendations on traditional public schools' Foundation Aid formula, but that effort does not specifically address these 11 schools. State officials should similarly re-examine how 4201 schools are funded. Their needs and concerns are highly specialized; their funding must reflect that. 

An appropriate formula fix for those 11 schools would close long-standing gaps, while preventing the annual scramble for the last available monetary crumbs. Most important, a brighter spotlight on these schools and their needs would allow them to focus on what matters most: their students.