HELP US!
I need your support on Monday! We will be picketing in front of our school at 10am!
If you can't come any other day,,,,,,
PLEASE Come show some support this monday!

There will be meetings and people that need to hear our voice there, and I want them to hear us! If the weather is good I would love to have our children out there too!

We need to be loud this Monday! Please come help me! Our kids are counting on us!


AYUDANOS!
Necesito su apoyo, el lunes! Estaremos protestando en frente de nuestra escuela a las 10a! Si usted no puede venir cualquier otro día ,,,,,, POR FAVOR venga este Lunes! Necesito mucho apoyo este Lunes!

Habrá reuniones y personas que necesitan oír nuestras voces, y quiero que nos escuchen! Si el tiempo esta bueno, me encantaría tener a nuestros hijos protestando con nosotros también!

Tenemos que ser fuertes este lunes! Por favor ayudenme! Nuestros niños están contando con nosotros!

/EDIT 041909 uploaded recent PDF


Special education schools, learning centers, treatment programs, parent groups, respite care, community centers, grassroots organizations, and government programs for children with disabilities.

Download Directory Here



As the parent of a child with special educational needs, you represent your child's interests. You need to learn about your child's disability, how the disability affects your child, and about appropriate educational and remediation techniques.

The groups listed in the Directory of Disabilities Organizations and Information Groups are an invaluable source of information.

Download Directory Here

Office of Civil Rights (OCR), U. S. Department of Education. The mission of the Office for Civil Rights is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation through vigorous enforcement of civil rights.

U. S. Department of Education. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) is dedicated to improving results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities ages birth through 21 by providing leadership and financial support to assist states and local districts.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), U. S. Department of Justice. Provides information and Technical Assistance on the ADA.

National Council on Disability. In-depth reports about disabilities issues.

U. S. Department of Education, State Monitoring Reports. Find out how your state did when monitored by the U. S. Department of Education.

NICHCY: National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. Funded by OSEP, NICHCY is a center that provides information to the nation on disabilities in children and youth; programs and services for infants, children, and youth with disabilities; IDEA, the nation's special education law; No Child Left Behind, the nation's general education law; and research-based information on effective practices for children with disabilities.

Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or the gifted.

COPAA. Organization of parents, advocates, and attorneys; listserv and databanks available to members.

National Disability Rights Network. Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Disabilities

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

A Guide to the Individualized Education Program. If your child receives special education and related services at school, an individualized education program (IEP) is required. This guide explains the IEP process.

Index of OSEP Policy Documents. Correspondence from the Department of Education received by individuals that describes interpretations of IDEA or the regulations that implement IDEA since 2000.

More information available on IDEA from Wrightslaw.

THE DOS AND DON'TS OF PICKETING


1. It is your constitutional right to picket your employer and pass out handbills during a strike. Your picketing is a form of free speech protected by the first amendment.

2. Your rights to strike, picket, handbill and engage in other forms of concerned activities as workers are also guaranteed by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.

3. When you are picketing:
a. Ask workers who have not yet honored the picket line to do so, even if they are not members of the Union. Section 7 protects them from employer discipline when they refuse to cross a picket line.
b. Ask the public not to patronize the employer, and ask persons making deliveries to the employer to honor your picket line. This does not apply if picketing is only "informational".
c. Communication with customers in a courteous manner and thank them for their support. Tell them why you are striking.
d. Cooperate with police officers and obey their instructions. If there is a problem, obtain the officer's name, department affiliation, and badge number and report information about police actions to the Picket Captain and/or your CWA Local.
e. Picket only where assigned by your Picket Captain and/or CWA Local.
f. Maintain peaceful and orderly picketing.
g. Keep moving and maintain adequate space between pickets to allow for access through Company entrances and gates.
h. Do not use foul or abusive language to customers or others in vicinity of picket lines.
i. You have the right to call strike breakers "scabs". You may add descriptive adjectives such as "lousy scab". You must not use any derogatory language regarding a person's race, ethnic origin, religion, gender, age or sexual preference.
j. Do not threaten customer or others.
k. Do not physically touch any person(s) approaching or crossing picket lines.
l. Do not make any statements to police, reporters, TV/radio, managers or security agents. Refer all questions to the Picket Captain or Local Officer.
m. Do not litter, keep the area clean.
n. Do not drink alcoholic beverages or bring any non-prescriptiong drugs with you to picket duty.
o. Picket only the employer being struck and the workers performing the work of the employer being struck. Do not picket gates "reserved" for neutral employees.
p. Report any incidents involving threatening or dangerous behavior by strikebreakers to Picket Captain and/or Local Union official. Make note as to what happened (date, time, place, description of indiviuals, witness names).
q. Do not interfere with traffic beyond what pedestrians normally are entitled to do.
r. Do not argue with other picketers. If you have a problem, take it to the Picket Captain.
s. Thank everyone for their support.

4. If you have any questions regarding where you can picket or how you can conduct strike activities, contact your Picket Captain or Local Union Officer.
1. It is your constitutional right to picket your employer and pass out handbills during a strike. Your picketing is a form of free speech protected by the first amendment.

2. Your rights to strike, picket, handbill and engage in other forms of concerned activities as workers are also guaranteed by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.

3. When you are picketing:
a. Ask workers who have not yet honored the picket line to do so, even if they are not members of the Union. Section 7 protects them from employer discipline when they refuse to cross a picket line.
b. Ask the public not to patronize the employer, and ask persons making deliveries to the employer to honor your picket line. This does not apply if picketing is only "informational".
c. Communication with customers in a courteous manner and thank them for their support. Tell them why you are striking.
d. Cooperate with police officers and obey their instructions. If there is a problem, obtain the officer's name, department affiliation, and badge number and report information about police actions to the Picket Captain and/or your CWA Local.
e. Picket only where assigned by your Picket Captain and/or CWA Local.
f. Maintain peaceful and orderly picketing.
g. Keep moving and maintain adequate space between pickets to allow for access through Company entrances and gates.
h. Do not use foul or abusive language to customers or others in vicinity of picket lines.
i. You have the right to call strike breakers "scabs". You may add descriptive adjectives such as "lousy scab". You must not use any derogatory language regarding a person's race, ethnic origin, religion, gender, age or sexual preference.
j. Do not threaten customer or others.
k. Do not physically touch any person(s) approaching or crossing picket lines.
l. Do not make any statements to police, reporters, TV/radio, managers or security agents. Refer all questions to the Picket Captain or Local Officer.
m. Do not litter, keep the area clean.
n. Do not drink alcoholic beverages or bring any non-prescriptiong drugs with you to picket duty.
o. Picket only the employer being struck and the workers performing the work of the employer being struck. Do not picket gates "reserved" for neutral employees.
p. Report any incidents involving threatening or dangerous behavior by strikebreakers to Picket Captain and/or Local Union official. Make note as to what happened (date, time, place, description of indiviuals, witness names).
q. Do not interfere with traffic beyond what pedestrians normally are entitled to do.
r. Do not argue with other picketers. If you have a problem, take it to the Picket Captain.
s. Thank everyone for their support.

4. If you have any questions regarding where you can picket or how you can conduct strike activities, contact your Picket Captain or Local Union Officer.

ATLANTIC
Pleasantville

BERGEN
Garfield

BURLINGTON
Burlington City
Pemberton Township

CAMDEN
Camden
Gloucester City

CUMBERLAND
Bridgeton
Millville
Vineland

ESSEX
East Orange
Irvington
Newark
Orange

HUDSON
Harrison
Hoboken
Jersey City
Union City
West New York

MERCER
Trenton
New Brunswick

MIDDLESEX
Perth Amboy

MONMOUTH
Asbury Park

MONMOUTH
Keansburg
Long Branch
Neptune Township

PASSAIC
Passaic City
Paterson

SALEM
Salem City

UNION
Elizabeth
Plainfield

WARREN
Phillipsburg

SOURCE:

“Abbott” is the short-hand description of a series of New Jersey Supreme Court decisions growing out of litigation filed in 1981 in behalf of children residing in New Jersey’s most economically disadvantaged municipalities. “Abbott” is the first-named plaintiff, but the name is now used to distinguish the 31 school districts selected by the Court and the Legislature to benefit from state financial assistance and to implement specific remedies mandated by the Court.

Objective. The New Jersey Supreme Court in 1998 established a single criterion for determining whether a constitutionally guaranteed education is being provided to students in the poorest schools in the state. Do they master the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards with the same proficiency as students in more affluent districts? Prior to 2002, most attention was given to specific remedies and services that were mandated or authorized by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1998. Subsequently, priority attention has been given to academic achievement with particular focus on early literacy and numeracy.

Resources. Under the Abbott decisions, Abbott districts receive state aid that is calculated to provide them with the same per-pupil operating budget as would be found in New Jersey’s wealthiest school districts. Called “Abbott parity aid,” this funding is adjusted annually to reflect spending and enrollment in wealthy districts. In FY2006, it equals about $1 billion. Districts that demonstrate educational needs for its students that cannot be financed with state formula aid and parity may apply to the Commissioner of Education for “supplemental aid” (also called Discretionary Education Opportunity Aid). In FY2006, this aid equals about $500 million. The state is financially responsible for the creation of high-quality preschool programs for all three and four year-old children residing in Abbott districts. Currently, 70 percent of approximately 55,000 eligible children are enrolled in Abbott preschools, supported by $500 million in state funds. Finally, the state is financially responsible for providing adequate facilities with priority given to health and safety projects, creation of preschool facilities, and reduction in overcrowding. As of 2005, the state has committed $6 billion for school construction.

Priorities. The Abbott division has given relentless and consistent focus to increasing early literacy for the obvious reason that a fourth grader who cannot read and write the English language will have great difficulty learning science, history, and mathematics required to graduate from high school. To this has been added an equally strong push on early mathematics mastery. Each Abbott district is expected support schools and teachers with a district curriculum that is fully aligned to the NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards, with instructional materials and software that are consistent with the district curriculum, and with professional development that is tailored to the content and pedagogical needs of its teachers and administrators.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Abbott Reality Check


The State is arguing today at the Bergen County Courthouse that its new SFRA should replace the Abbott decisions as the funding mechanism that provides educational equity in New Jersey. (Here's the Star-Ledger article today.) Seems like a good time to review some of the core issues that got us to this point.

Thirty-one school districts in New Jersey were labeled Abbott districts in 1997 by the State Supreme Court as a kind of grand social experiment: take the most educationally bereft areas in a State that funds public schools through local property taxes, and replace the local funding with State aid so that those districts receive at least as much money as the wealthiest districts. Not as much money as the average district (as other states do), but the wealthiest. This decision came after sixteen years of litigation (the first Abbott case was filed in early 1981 by the Education Law Center) and the ELC and the State have basically been in court ever since. A few of the Abbott districts have had great success, many others have not. So, has the experiment worked?

No, not really. Over two years ago, the New York Times reported,

Today, the Abbott districts serve 286,500 children in kindergarten through 12th grade — about 21 percent of the state’s students — but get $4.2 billion a year in state aid, slightly more than half of all the state money given to New Jersey’s 616 school districts. The Abbotts are among the highest-spending school districts in the state, averaging $14,038 per student compared with $10,509 statewide. The vast majority of districts that fall between richest and poorest say they are increasingly bearing the burden of the Abbotts’ getting so much of the money.

The numbers are now more inflated. The average spending on a child in an Abbott district was $16,407 for the 2007-2008 school year, 24% more than the average cost per pupil in the rest of the State.

It’s not the number themselves that are troubling (okay, they are too). The troubling part is that there are many children in New Jersey who don’t live in Abbott districts yet experience as great or greater degrees of educational deprivation. What are we doing about those kids? Tell them all to move to Camden? On the other side of the coin, there are districts that are labeled as Abbott that are, well, not so Abbott-y any more. Hoboken comes to mind.

The logic inherent in Abbott dictates that we reevaluate all our districts, identify the poorest, and send State aid their way so that their kids get the same money as kids in Short Hills. If we did that we’d go broke, and everyone knows that. But we’re stuck in some sort of 1970’s time warp where educational deficiencies can be reduced to race and urban residence. It’s more complicated than that, at least in New Jersey. Here’s a quote from a recent ELC press release on Abbott versus SFRA:

Noted civil rights attorney Lawrence S. Lustberg of the Gibbons law firm in Newark, co-counsel to the school children in the Abbott case, issued the following statement on the State’s motion:

"On behalf of New Jersey's poor urban schoolchildren, we are strongly opposing the State's extraordinary request to get out from under its long-established obligation to continue implementing the Abbott remedies. The State has fallen far short of making the required showing that those remedies are not needed or are ineffective. To the contrary, the evidence shows that the remedies are having a positive effect on urban schools and their students, and that the need for them continues. It would be contrary to the law and harmful to the children if the State's motion is granted."


If we want to continue to fund poor kids at the same rate as our wealthiest kids, then we’ve got to find a different way to identify them. The Abbott designations are no longer meaningful. (Where we’ll find the money is a different issue.) And if we’re going to fund poor kids like rich kids, the State’s got to control how much municipalities are allowed to spend on their rich kids, which is provoking much panic from the landed gentry. From the Star-Ledger article:

Richard Snyder, who represents 40 wealthier, high-performing districts in a group called Dollar$ & Sense, said his members have their own concerns with the funding formula. He said the new formula will force them to spend less than they deem appropriate to provide the best education.

"The state wants to resolve its funding problems by having the suburban districts dumb down their programs," said Snyder, a board of education member in Ramsey, Bergen County.

If one were a conspiracy theorist, one could conjecture that all the new mandates, all the efficiency standards, and all the new high school graduation requirements are a scheme to equalize our school districts so that all the kids get the same cookie-cutter set of educational services. That’s the great fear of groups like Dollar$ and Sense. But what else can we do except go broke perpetuating the myth that all our kids get a fair share of the pie or, according to the Abbott logic, get the biggest piece of the pie? The math just doesn’t work.

Download PDF Here
April 3, 2009

Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625

Dear Governor Corzine:

In your eloquent speech delivered March 10, 2009 you spoke of priorities and core values that have guided the decisions of your Administration since you took office. You indicated that your core values “reflect a lifetime of experience and are informed by the voices of our fellow citizens, not just the loudest voices, but those who too often don’t have a voice.” Could this mean our children? You emphasized the importance of our vulnerable citizens including our children several times, 10 to be exact, with statements
such as “nurturing our children, honoring seniors, and protecting the most vulnerable among us. There are certain parts of our government’s work that we must sustain. In NJ, we recognize the importance of our children. They are our bright hope for the future.” You go on to say for that purpose you have increased classroom funding for K-12 education.

So I ask you, what happened to the most vulnerable among us? Are not K-12 grade children classified as profoundly and multiply impaired, severely physically and emotionally handicapped, court adjudicated, pregnant and parenting teens among this group? Actually, they fall under two of your three postulated categories. Inclusion and/or mainstreaming these highly specialized needs/at risk populations has not worked for many of them. Unless you put a stop to this travesty, these vulnerable children will be placed in precarious situations that could set them up to fail or worse.

Transferring students to Local School Districts or, in the case of the most fragile students, privatizing to special education facilities, will not save the state money when you consider the funding sources that bring in revenue (NJ Department of Education, US Department of Education, School Districts, State Facilities Education Act, and other public grants). The Office of Education (OOE) receives Special Education Medicaid initiative monies from which 5 million is refunded annually to the State Treasury. If students were returned to their school district, the funds generated by this initiative would remain with the districts and be lost to the state. Therefore sending these students back to their districts will cost the state more money. Historically, the public schools were unable to successfully address the needs of this student population. They admitted they were not equipped to educate students with severe behavioral/emotional difficulties. Public schools had failed and the OOE in the Department of Children and Families (DCF) has been accomplishing the task of educating these students ever since. Quality services can not be guaranteed which is what the students placed in DCF’s Regional Schools receive now.
Every aspect of their education has been monitored and evaluated by highly trained and educated teachers, supervisors and support staff that comprise the Office of Education within the DCF, formerly Department of Human Services for the last 30 years.

You plan on pouring 3.9 billion dollars into school construction to offer a clean, safe, and stimulating environment for learning. Eighteen of these schools already exist. Why abandon them in order to put “15,000-20,000” construction workers back to work for billions of dollars? Why layoff and/or shuffle workers all over the state in order to put “New Jerseyan’s to work”? Why close schools that bring in revenue via tuition from sending (home school) districts? And what about State responsible students who are wards of the state or whose parents cannot be located and thus have no identifiable school district?
The OOE manages this group of children and must continue to do so. What will you do with them? How can you have them listed among other appropriation decreases such as Legislature Furlough Days, Subsidy to the Hunters and Anglers Fund, Chief Executive Efficiencies, etc? This does not meet your very own criteria of being fiscally responsible. It’s not even “real”.

You boast how you’re spending wisely to improve the lives of children who require placement outside of their homes. What about those who require placement outside of their schools? You acknowledge the DCF has gone from being among the most poorly rated in the country to among the very best. You exclaim how your budget priorities make it clear kids count! Yet in the same breath you begin the undertaking of a 4 step phase out plan to eliminate the Regional Schools beginning with Atlantic, Burlington, Monmouth, Wanaque, Warren and Middlesex by June, 2009 and closing the remaining 13 by June, 2010. We implore you to rethink this senseless mistake. Stop the notices and countless meetings to “identify necessary strategies, communications and collaborations to ensure that youth continue to have their educational needs met.” Stop driving Regional School staff into an uncertain future during an economic storm, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the breadline days of the 1930’s. Let them do what they do best, i.e. nurture and educate the most vulnerable children in the great state of New Jersey.

Sincerely,


Thomas J. Palermo, President
CWA Local 1039

c. Hetty Rosenstein, NJ Director CWA
Ken McNamara, President CWA Local 1037
Paul Alexander, Assistant to the President, CWA Local 1034
Kimberly Ricketts, DCF Commissioner
Laurie Hodian, DCF Administrative Director
Debra Stewart, Director of Education
Loretta Weinberg, Deputy Majority Leader District 37
Sheila Oliver, Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore District 34April 3, 2009

COURT BLOCKS ILLEGAL CORZINE FURLOUGH PLAN


Union Calls on Governor to Find Savings by Cutting Political Appointees and Costly Contracting Out, Rather than Layoffs of Middle-Class Workers
State Workers Say They Are Willing to Do Their Share
TRENTON, NJ - Following an appeals court ruling this afternoon invalidating the Corzine administration's illegal f urlough plan, CWA, New Jersey's largest public sector union, called on the Governor to look for savings in the jobs and contracts it has granted to politically-connected insiders.
"The court recognized that the Corzine administration's plan for staggered furloughs of state workers who provide vital public services violates state law," said CWA state director Hetty Rosenstein. "It's now clear that to achieve short-term savings, the Administration should cut the jobs and lucrative contracts of politically connected insiders."
Rosenstein blasted the Corzine administration's escalating threats to lay off workers who make an average of $51,000 a year, when it continues to protect the politically connected from bearing any of the burden of the financial crisis. "We're disappointed and angered=2 0now by talks of layoffs when the State continues to employ hundreds of political hacks and is doling out more than $75 million in unnecessary engineering contracts to campaign contributors," said Rosenstein.
"We're in serious financial straits, but that doesn't give the State the right to single out the people who serve the public as it looks for savings," said Rosenstein.
CWA urged the Corzine administration to abandon its illegal approach to furloughs and come to the bargaining table to negotiate savings with the union. "We're willing to do our share, provided the administration does not continue to try and balance the budget on the backs of child protective services workers, nurses, teachers, scientists, counselors and other workers who serve the public. Governor Corzine needs to come to the table," said Rosenstein.
Rosenstein also connected the emergency furlough action to Corzine's budget plan. "The administration is continuing to ask public employees to bear too much of the burden of our state's fiscal crisis, while exempting many of the wealthiest New Jerseyans from any sacrifice whatsoever. Under the Corzine budget pla n, the average state worker making $50,000 a year will lose over $4,000 of their income, while wealthy New Jerseyans making 10 times as much will pay zero in higher taxes," Rosenstein said. "State workers are prepared to do their share to help New Jersey through this budget crisis, but Governor Corzine is simply demanding too much from middle- and working-class state workers who live paycheck to paycheck. We must find a fairer way to close the budget gap."
CWA represents more than 40,000 state workers and 15,000 local government workers who would have been affected by the rule invalidated by the appeals court today.