State Assemblyman Sheldon Silver (D. Man.) introduced legislation today that would provide a federally funded program for learning disabled children to private and parochial schools in New York State. The program is presently restricted to public schools.
Silver, who said his bill was drafted with the assistance of the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA), noted that under current law, students evaluated as learning disabled are entitled to participate at government expense in “resource room” programs during part of the school day. The programs provide special instruction aimed at raising the learning disabled up to the level of other students.
Because the government-funded “resource rooms” are not provided on the premises of non-public schools, including yeshivas, learning disabled students must join a public school program to receive their benefits, Silver pointed out. He said that this requirement is generally disruptive of a child’s regular program of study and unnecessarily separates the learning disabled from other students.
In addition, he said, the travel takes away from time that should be spent in the classroom and discourages participation. The current system, according to Silver, effectively discriminates against certain children simply because they attend non-public schools at their parents’ expense.
SECTIONS OF THE BILL
The key section of Silver’s bill provides for “resource rooms” participation for non-public school students “that shall be comparable in quality, scope and opportunity for participation to those provided to students enrolled in public schools.”
The bill further provides that “resource rooms shall be made available to students enrolled in non-public schools on the premises of such non-public schools to the extent necessary to provide comparable services to those provided to students enrolled in public schools.”
Silver said his bill contains safeguards approved by the federal courts in similar circumstances that will insure that there is strict conformity with the principle of separation of church and state in the operation of non-public school resource rooms.
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