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Despite spending millions of dollars, a report says New York City’s school system fails to provide adequate special education services to about 40 percent of disabled students, according to Think Progress.

At the end of the last school year, up to 35 percent of disabled students (roughly 60,000) received only some of the services recommended by education experts. And 5 percent of the students (about 9,000) received no special education services, stated the report, released Monday by the city’s Education Department to comply with a New York City Council mandate for greater oversight.

Also troubling, the report said the education system did not conduct initial evaluations on 30 percent of students for special education within the state mandated 60-day period.

The report blames “major deficiencies” on the school district’s special education tracking system. What’s “more striking,” according to the New York Times, is that the education department said it doesn’t know exactly how many students are not receiving services because of the faulty data system.

Despite spending $130 million to create the data system, which was implemented in 2011, school officials are unable to report accurate figures, according to the newspaper.

In February, New York City Public Advocate Letitia James sued the Education Department for failing to meet the needs of special education students, which also caused the city not to receive millions in Medicaid reimbursements, the New York Times reported previously.

SOURCE: Think Progress, New York Times | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

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U.S. Education Department Seeks To Eliminate Racial Bias In Special Ed

NYC Public Schools Explore New Path To Math Parity

NYC Fails To Provide Services To Thousands Of Special Ed Students  was originally published on newsone.com