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https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-life/space-and-facilities/building-accessibility

https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2023/8/23/23842183/nyc-school-building-accessibility-students-physical-disabilities-parents-federal-prosecutors/

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Some schools not fully accessible to those with disabilities

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Over 1,400 school buildings in the city.

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https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/smoking/277100

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At PS 110 on the Lower East Side, the halls should be bustling with the energy of eager students, but for Yuvania Espino's family, getting through those school doors has become a challenge.

For Yuvania's 8-year-old daughter, Kira, school should be a place of excitement and growth. However, when Kira and her 14-year-old sister Mia, who bravely navigates life with cerebral palsy, recently attempted to attend a school event, the simple act of entering the building turned into an obstacle course.

"We wait for someone to come remove a chain or wait for someone to come let us in that has a key to the locked accessible door," Espino recounted.

The plight of the Espino family echoes a recent report from Advocates for Children of New York, a non-profit agency committed to educational equity. This report paints a vivid picture: over two-thirds of NYC public schools stand as inaccessible fortresses for children with physical disabilities, including P.S. 110.

"There's a range," says Sarah Part, a senior policy analyst for Advocates for Children. "There are some schools that are not accessible at all, meaning there is no accessible entrance or exit you. If you use a wheelchair, you literally cannot get in the building."

Advocates for Children says that their summer-long study found that 1 in 4 schools have no accessible classrooms.

Part elaborated, "There are some schools where there's some accessibility. Maybe you can access all the ground floor, all the classrooms, all the public spaces on the first floor, but there's no elevators, so you can't get up to the second or third floor."

The study acknowledges that the city is making strides toward improving accessibility in school buildings.

In a statement to FOX 5, the Department of Education said: "This report acknowledges how far we have come, and the ongoing $750 million commitment in our current capital plan towards our shared goal of making school buildings more accessible."

The DoE says there are 65 accessibility projects in the pipeline. And they are committed to working with stakeholders to resolve those projects successfully.

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NYC schools struggle with accessibility, leaving students with disabilities behind

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According to a new report, 1 in 4 schools in New York City have no accessible classrooms for children with physical disabilities.

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Fewer than one in three New York City public schools are fully accessible to students with physical disabilities, according to a report released Wednesday by Advocates for Children that calls on the city to ramp up funding for building upgrades.

With the city expected to release its initial five-year capital plan for schools in November, the group is pushing for $1.25 billion to more quickly address major gaps in building accessibility.

That funding, which would run from 2025 through 2029, would allow roughly half of the city's schools to be fully accessible according to the report, addressing a longstanding problem that has drawn criticism from parents and federal prosecutors alike. The City Council is slated to approve the capital plan in June, though it is typically amended twice a year thereafter.

Officials have made some strides in recent years, in part due to pressure from advocates who successfully lobbied the city to devote $750 million to the effort in the current capital plan, which runs from 2020 through 2024.

The city is on track to boost the share of fully accessible programs from about one in five schools to one in three under the current capital program, according to the Advocates for Children analysis. (The figures do not include certain alternative schools, prekindergarten programs, or charter schools. Nor do they include satellite campuses, as schools may have more than one location.)

"That represents a huge amount of progress, which really shows that when you commit to making schools accessible, you can make a huge difference," said Sarah Part, a policy analyst at Advocates for Children. "The current lack of accessibility isn't inevitable."

Inaccessible school buildings have long represented a barrier for students with physical disabilities, leaving children with few - or even zero - nearby school options. They can also limit students' ability to take advantage of New York City's extensive choice system, which allows children to apply for schools outside their home neighborhoods. Nearly 39% of schools have no accessible classrooms for students with mobility needs, according to the Advocates for Children report.

Abraham Weitzman, a rising junior at Columbia University who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, took the bus more than an hour each way to private school through eighth grade.

"This was while I lived across the street from an inaccessible elementary school," Weitzman wrote in an email. "I didn't get the chance to find community in my neighborhood."

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Weitzman eventually attended Bard High School Early College Queens, a fully accessible public school, though the process of navigating the high school admissions process was a challenge. The staff and students on many campuses were welcoming, but he quickly found the buildings weren't as accommodating.

In one case, he visited a school he liked, only to find his wheelchair didn't fit in the bathroom, leaving his mother to carry him into a stall.

Although he had a positive experience at Bard, access for students with physical disabilities across the public school system "is disgraceful," Weitzman wrote. "We must put our efforts into making it better for future students."

Obstacles for students remain despite building accessibility gains

Federal officials have also spotlighted dire accessibility problems.

In 2015, then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara released findings from an investigation that found elementary school accessibility problems in New York City were so severe they amounted to a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Even though many of the city's school buildings are more than 100 years old, Bharara found city officials failed to improve accessibility even when renovating older buildings.

Part said the city has taken accessibility improvements more seriously in recent years. But the scale of the problem - and the massive amount of funding required to fully address it - means even if the city heeds Advocates for Children's call for more funding, about half of schools will still not be fully accessible by 2029, nearly four decades after the Americans with Disabilities Act passed.

Asked about their accessibility goals, city officials declined to say whether they hope to make all schools fully accessible, though they pointed to improvements over the past five years.

"This report acknowledges how far we have come, and the ongoing $750 million commitment in our current capital plan towards our shared goal of making school buildings more accessible," Kevin Ortiz, a spokesperson for the School Construction Authority, said in a statement, referring to Advocates Children's analysis.

City officials have made incremental gains, including improvements that render some buildings "partially accessible." About 20% of the city's school buildings meet that definition, which means some - but not all - classrooms and facilities can accommodate students with physical disabilities.

In recent years, the city began releasing more granular school-level reports that outline which areas students with physical disabilities can access. Advocates for Children also created a map alongside their report with school-level accessibility information.

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Partially accessible buildings can still present significant obstacles. Manhattan mom Yuvania Espino sent her daughter Mia Simpson, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, to a partially accessible elementary school in East Harlem that specializes in serving students with disabilities.

But the front entrance was above a small set of stairs, which forced the family to stand by a separate accessible entrance, sometimes in the rain, as they waited for a staff member to unlock the door each day.

Mia took classes on the school's first floor, but didn't have access to certain classrooms or support on other levels, including a second-floor gym that helped students with sensory difficulties. Over time, many of her friends moved to classrooms on other floors, which distressed Mia and made her act out, Espino said.

"We don't know to this day what an elevator would have done for Mia's academic performance at that school," Espinso said. The family ultimately decided to send Mia to an accessible private school, where her tuition is covered by the city.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
Mia, now 14, is still affected by accessibility problems. She often has to miss performances and other events at her younger sister's public school because the auditorium is on the second floor and there is no elevator.

"When enrolling your kids in school, no parents should have to think about accessing the building," Espino said. "I'm thrilled that we've taken some baby steps, but we need to buckle up and take some giant leaps."

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Just 1 in 3 NYC public schools are fully accessible to students with physical disabilities

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Advocates say a $1.25 billion funding increase would allow half the city's schools to become fully accessible to students with physical disabilities. Inadequate accessibility has drawn the ire of parents as well as federal prosecutors in recent years.

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The seats and carpeting in the Elmwood High School auditorium are not only a groovy shade of 1970s orange, they're also frayed, faded, a little dirty and, in the case of many of the theater chairs, busted.

"I graduated from this school in 1986 and the auditorium is shabbier, but mostly identical to the day I walked out of here. There have been no upgrades," said Tim Dwyer, president of the Elmwood School Board. "It's not the ideal of what we want people to see when they come visit our district. It's not up to par, not up to our standards. It's embarrassing."

The whole auditorium, built in 1974 and mostly untouched except for regular cleaning since then, needs to be renovated. Besides the worn seats and the crummy carpet, the stage curtains are ripped, the ceiling is water-stained and the acoustics, lighting and sound are all sub-standard.

The auditorium needs help, but help costs money.

"The board knew that this was not a good time to be asking property tax payers for the money to pay for the auditorium renovations," Dwyer said. "Not when there are pressing educational needs, too. So we came up with some ways to try and get charitable donations so the community could be involved in sprucing up this real community asset."

The community responded.

"We sold T-shirts and the board did a cheeseburger night where they grilled cheeseburgers," said district Superintendent Roger Alvey. "We've tried a myriad of fundraisers, and we're trying to come up with more."

The district has sold about 130 sponsorships of theater seats at $100 per seat. Names of donors will go on a plaque in the theater lobby where every nameplate will represent one of the 400 seats in the theater.

The local movie theater pledged a 5 percent return on every movie ticket stubbed dropped in a box at the elementary school. Farmer's State Bank bought 50 of the seat sponsorships.

So far about $40,000 has been raised. The total cost for two phases of the renovations is about $300,00, but the district can get state money for the carpeting and the ceiling. Seats for the auditorium cost about $90,000 and new curtains would cost about $20,000. It is at least that combined cost, $110,000, that the district would love to see come from community, tax-deductible, donations.

There is precedent here. In 1999, the school sought donations from the community to build a new track and raised $111,000 of the $212,000 it needed.

"This community really supports education," Alvey said, pointing to a recent referendum that passed in a first attempt to help fund some special education programs for the district. "And the auditorium is a real focal point. It's a jewel in the rough right now and really could be a place that people could be proud of and it's the kind of thing that helps attract new families to our schools."
Scott Hilyard can be reached at 686-3244 or at shilyard@pjstar.com.

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Elmwood High School gets creative with auditorium fundraising

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The seats and carpeting in the Elmwood High School auditorium are not only a groovy shade of 1970s orange, they're also frayed, faded, a little dirty and, in the case of many of the theater chairs, b...

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NYC Students With Disabilities Speaking About Accessible Schools

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I was in my sixth-grade P.E. class when I went to get up from the ground. All of a sudden, I was unable to feel my legs. My vision became blurred and sound was faint. I was in shock. I was rushed to the hospital, where I was diagnosed with a spinal disease called transverse myelitis. Throughout junior high and high school, I was in a wheelchair. I then moved on to forearm crutches, and now I walk with canes.

I used to think my "old" life ended at the time of my diagnosis. But it turns out that was just the beginning of a new perspective on life, happiness, and disability.

I never really talked about my disability in junior high. Growing older, I found the right people, support systems, and ways to get involved in disability justice. I soon found my passion and purpose.

When I got to the University of San Diego in 2018-as a young, disabled, low-income woman of color and first-generation college student-I was eager to find community. I created a student group called the Alliance of Disability Advocates.

We push for greater accessibility on campus, such as elevators in buildings and American Sign Language interpreters. We also work to erase stigmas surrounding people with disabilities and to increase awareness of the ADA.

That law isn't always enforced, so young people with disabilities need to know their rights and be their own advocates. We should never stop striving for more inclusivity and progress.

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Thirty years ago, U.S. lawmakers passed a key law protecting people who have disabilities from discrimination.

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Students at a Minnesota elementary school are getting an A+ in compassion this year after raising over $600,000 to make their playground wheelchair-accessible and more inclusive.

The project was started by Betsy Julien, a fifth and sixth grade teacher at Glen Lake Elementary School. She noticed the school's current playground isn't equipped for all children.

The school has about eight students who currently use wheelchairs, said Julien, who also has a child of her own who uses a wheelchair.

"My classroom overlooks this beautiful playground that we have," she told USA TODAY. "I was just having lunch one day overlooking recess time ... I just had this light bulb moment of 'This is not OK.'"

She applied for a grant and later got her students involved. The kids quickly raised $35,000 and eventually reached $300,000, Julien said.

Now, the students have a goal of $1 million because they want a fully-inclusive playground.

"Even though it sounded astronomical, in the playground world, it's very normal and humble," Julien said.

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How did the students get involved?

After talking it over with other people at the school, Julien said she decided to try and get a swing and a merry-go-round for the playground. She applied for a grant in September and the district put in some money as well.

Julien still needed $35,000 though, so she asked her students if they could help her raise the money. That's when one student asked a million-dollar question.

"Why aren't we doing the whole playground?" the student asked.

From there, things took off quickly. The class created a fundraising page and on the first day, they raised about $10,000. Now they're on month three and have raised at least $690,000.

Each night, students go home and brainstorm so they can find more ways to reach their goal. In school, they bounce ideas off each other. They also have a poster where they write short-term and long-term goals, Julien said.

The kids have formed about 20 "advisory groups" that focus on specific approaches such as bake sales, coin drives and passing out flyers.

One initiative has even involved local businesses, she said.

"They took Google Maps and kind of split it up," she said. "Then they each chose a section and they called every single business within a two-mile radius, which was about 400 businesses."

And they didn't stop there. Julien is licensed to drive a bus, so they hopped on a bus and drove around to talk to locals about their initiative.

What's next?

In order to plan the renovations, the school is working with Landscape Structures. The company gave them catalogs to look at for inspiration.

So far, a swing and merry-go-round have been ordered. Part of the new playground should be installed in August, before school starts, Julien said.

The students hope to reach the rest of the $1 million goal by spring 2024.

They also have an upcoming auction and they are working with the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team to sell t-shirts.

They've also talked about starting a nonprofit and raising more money to help other schools, including schools with fewer special needs students than them.

"They still deserve a really great playground," Julien recalled the students saying.

"As a parent who has a special needs child, I mean, that just means the world," she said. "That's what you want. You want your kids to be accepted and loved and for other people to advocate and fight for them. That's what my class is doing."

For more information or to donate, visit www.tinyurl.com/GlenLakePG.

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They wanted a playground all children could enjoy. They've raised almost $700,000.

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Students at a Minnesota elementary school are getting an A+ in compassion this year after raising over $600,000 to make their playground wheelchair-accessible and more inclusive. The project was started by Betsy Julien, a fifth and sixth grade teacher at Glen Lake Elementary School. She noticed the school's current playground isn't equipped for all children.