New York

A Brooklyn School Pioneers New Ways to Teach Children With Disabilities

Published

2 years ago

June 20, 2023

A Brooklyn School Pioneers New Ways to Teach Children With Disabilities

The third graders in Room 221 began their day with a chain of hugs.

At this Brooklyn elementary school, children with adaptive speech devices and those without them rushed to offer one another embraces — a shared “good morning” among a group of students who communicate differently.

The students are part of a unique pilot program at P.S. 15 Patrick F. Daly, in Red Hook, that integrates children who might typically have separate educational paths — those with intellectual or multiple disabilities — with their general education peers.

After the hugs, a teacher asked the children to reflect: “What can you do to feel better when sad?” Some wrote independently. Others pushed buttons for words like “swing” and “sleep” on speech devices, working with teaching assistants who helped them print images for journals.

Then, they all shared together.

In New York City, the nation’s largest school district, nearly 200,000 students have disabilities, which can include everything from dyslexia to blindness. Families often struggle to navigate a labyrinthine special education system, and many pupils fail to receive all the services they require.

Children with intellectual disabilities, who represent about 3 percent of children and often have a genetic or chromosomal condition like Down syndrome, may leave the public system altogether to attend specialized private schools. Others enroll in a separate citywide district for students with more complex needs.

But at P.S. 15 — where 40 percent of students are in special education — the pilot, which will finish its expansion through fifth grade next fall, could push the boundaries of how schools integrate children in special education, experts said. P.S. 15 teachers are helping a small Texas district, for example, as it prepares to launch a similar program next year.

“It’s not easy,” said Julie Cavanagh, the school’s principal. But, she said, it begins with recognizing the difference between “tokenism” and true inclusion: “We don’t just host inclusive programs. We are an inclusive school.”

The Brooklyn pilot began in 2017 and is distinct from other city offerings for students with disabilities, although it is modeled on a similar program for students with autism. Two teachers lead a class, which includes a small group of general education students and about four children who follow special education plans for those with intellectual disabilities. A team of paraprofessionals and about a dozen in-house therapists work alongside them.

The environment is not necessarily appropriate for all children, but even those in special education-only classrooms are invited to join other students through other means. Pupils who are nonverbal might use their adaptive speech devices to lead morning announcements, for example.

Srikala Naraian, a professor at Teachers College who studies special education, called the approach a “wonderfully unique” departure from the traditional view that “only some kids can be included.”

“Instead, it starts with ‘Who’s been most overlooked in our school system?’” she said.

On one Tuesday morning, third-grade teachers split the class into pairs for a lesson on the book “Honoring Heroes” by Christine Platt. One student read the book aloud, and a paraprofessional helped the other follow along. Later, the six general education students convened with a teacher to consider the meaning of the passages and make predictions for the next chapter.

Across the classroom, the children with special education plans worked on identifying characters in the book or circling every mention of a vocabulary word, often with the help of adaptive devices.

In earlier grades at P.S. 15, younger children sometimes question why a teacher might sit next to certain students more often.

But Catherine Lipkin, a kindergarten teacher, said that teachers welcome discussions and push children to talk about differences — from a classmate’s need for a leg brace to why a teacher wears glasses. “It’s highlighted to the point where it’s not seen as a negative,” she said. “It just becomes not a big deal.”

It is a major change for Keller Chung, 10, a third-grader who has Down syndrome and was born with a heart defect. At the public school he attended in kindergarten, he was often sent to the principal’s office, given lollipops and distracted with an iPad, his father, David Chung, said.

“He was not really seen as a human with any level of achievement, or need to be challenged,” Mr. Chung said. “He was treated like a baby and babysat.”

At P.S. 15, where Keller, who is nonverbal, started in first grade, his speech therapist and other adults push him often, Mr. Chung says, even when he might shy away from answering challenging prompts about lessons.

Families will soon face a new challenge as their children move to upper grades, where similar programs are rarely available, in part because of more complicated class schedules and academic requirements.

But Ms. Cavanagh said she and families have “dreamed” about possibilities. Could science labs and art classes be more easily integrated than math or reading? Could students work together at a school store? A principal at the nearby Harbor Middle School in Red Hook is eager to tackle those questions, and this spring sent a formal program proposal to school officials.

Eve Colavito, a parent who first pushed for the elementary program, is unsure what will be next for her daughter, Vivian, 9, who is nonverbal and has Angelman syndrome, a genetic disorder.

But Ms. Colavito said she has seen Vivian’s social skills “blossom.” And she has watched her develop “an expectation that she’s going to be included — and be seen and heard — wherever she goes.”

“I have to believe some of that is where she goes to school,” Ms. Colavito said. “Our kids aren’t living on the fringes of P.S. 15. They’re living at the center.”

Audio produced by Sarah Diamond.

New York

Large Blaze Ravages Bronx Apartment Building, Leaving Many Displaced

Published

8 hours ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

Large Blaze Ravages Bronx Apartment Building, Leaving Many Displaced

Dozens of families were looking for shelter after a large fire broke out at an apartment building in the Bronx early Friday, injuring at least seven people, the Fire Department said. There were no fatalities or life-threatening injuries, according to officials.

About 250 firefighters and emergency medical responders rushed to a six-story residential building on Wallace Avenue near Arnow Avenue after a fire was reported there just before 2 a.m., the Fire Department said. The blaze on the top floor was elevated to a five-alarm fire about an hour later, it said.

Several dozen firefighters were still gathered outside the building at around 10 a.m. Many windows on the top floor were blown out and some had shards of glass hanging in place that resembled jagged teeth. Smoke continued to climb from the building as a firefighter on a ladder hosed the roof.

The fire was brought under control shortly before 2 p.m., according to fire officials.

The seven people who were injured included five firefighters, the department said in an email. One person was treated at the scene but declined to be taken to a hospital.

A spokeswoman for the Police Department said earlier that some people had suffered smoke inhalation injuries.

Robert S. Tucker, the fire commissioner, said during a news conference that it was a miracle that there had been no serious injuries or fatalities. Officials said that all of the apartments on the building’s top floor were destroyed.

Firefighters blasted water at the smoke and flames pouring out of the upper floors and roof, according to videos posted online by the Fire Department and television news outlets. Heavy winds had fueled the blaze, the department said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, officials said.

The Red Cross was at the scene helping residents that were displaced by the fire, and a temporary shelter had been set up at the Bennington School on Adee Avenue nearby. Doreen Thomann-Howe, the chief executive of the American Red Cross Greater New York Region, said during the news conference that 66 families had already registered to receive assistance, including lodging. She said she expected that number to increase.

Juan Cabrera and his family were among those seeking help at the Bennington School. Mr. Cabrera said that he and his family had not heard a fire alarm but had instead heard glass breaking as residents climbed out of windows. He said he had also heard people race across the hall one flight above him while others screamed “Get out!”

Mr. Cabrera, 47, said he had smelled smoke and woke up his daughter, Rose, 13. He and his wife, Aurora Tavera, grabbed their IDs, passports and cellphones, and the family left the building.

“I felt desperate,” Ms. Taverna, 32, said.

“Thank God we are still alive,” said Mr. Cabrera, who works as a school aide and custodian and has lived in the building for five years. “The material stuff you can get back, but we have our family,” he said.

Louis Montalvo, 55, was also among those seeking help. He said firefighters banged on his door at around 3 a.m. and that he had smelled smoke.

“I am grateful to be around,” Mr. Montalvo said, as he stood outside of the temporary shelter. He was still wearing his felt pajama pants, which had snowmen printed on them.

Vanessa L. Gibson, the Bronx borough president, said she was “so grateful” there had been no fatalities from the fire.

The last major apartment fire in the Bronx occurred in 2022, and resulted in 17 deaths, which experts said were entirely preventable. Self-closing doors in the building did not work properly, allowing smoke to escape the apartment where the fire started and rapidly fill the structure’s 19 stories.

New York

New York’s Chinese Dissidents Thought He Was an Ally. He Was a Spy.

Published

16 hours ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

New York’s Chinese Dissidents Thought He Was an Ally. He Was a Spy.

The Chinese government’s paranoia about overseas dissidents can seem strange, considering the enormous differences in power between exiled protesters who organize marches in America and their mighty homeland, a geopolitical and economic superpower whose citizens they have almost no ability to mobilize. But to those familiar with the Chinese Communist Party, the government’s obsession with dissidents, no matter where in the world they are, is unsurprising. “Regardless of how the overseas dissident community is dismissed outside of China, its very existence represents a symbol of hope for many within China,” Wang Dan, a leader of the Tiananmen Square protests who spent years in prison before being exiled to the United States in 1998, told me. “For the Chinese Communist Party, the hope for change among the people is itself a threat. Therefore, they spare no effort in suppressing and discrediting the overseas dissident community — to extinguish this hope in the hearts of people at home.”

To understand the party’s fears about the risks posed by dissidents abroad, it helps to know the history of revolutions in China. “Historically, the groups that have overthrown the incumbent government or regime in China have often spent a lot of time overseas and organized there,” says Jessica Chen Weiss, a professor of China studies at Johns Hopkins University. The leader Sun Yat-sen, who played an important role in the 1911 revolution that dethroned the Qing dynasty and led eventually to the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, spent several periods of his life abroad, during which he engaged in effective fund-raising and political coordination. The Communist Party’s own rise to power in 1949 was partly advanced by contributions from leaders who were living overseas. “They are very sensitive to that potential,” Weiss says.

“What the Chinese government and the circle of elites that are running China right now fear the most is not the United States, with all of its military power, but elements of unrest within their own society that could potentially topple the Chinese Communist Party,” says Adam Kozy, a cybersecurity consultant who worked on Chinese cyberespionage cases when he was at the F.B.I. Specifically, Chinese authorities worry about a list of threats — collectively referred to as the “five poisons” — that pose a risk to the stability of Communist rule: the Uyghurs, the Tibetans, followers of the Falun Gong movement, supporters of Taiwanese independence and those who advocate for democracy in China. As a result, the Chinese government invests great effort in combating these threats, which involves collecting intelligence about overseas dissident groups and dampening their influence both within China and on the international stage.

Controlling dissidents, regardless of where they are, is essential to China’s goal of projecting power to its own citizens and to the world, according to Charles Kable, who served as an assistant director in the F.B.I.’s national security branch before retiring from the bureau at the end of 2022. “If you have a dissident out there who is looking back at China and pointing out problems that make the entire Chinese political apparatus look bad, it will not stand,” Kable says.

The leadership’s worries about such individuals were evident to the F.B.I. right before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Kable told me, describing how the Chinese worked to ensure that the running of the Olympic flame through San Francisco would not be disrupted by protesters. “And so, you had the M.S.S. and its collaborators deployed in San Francisco just to make sure that the five poisons didn’t get in there and disrupt the optic of what was to be the best Olympics in history,” Kable says. During the run, whose route was changed at the last minute to avoid protesters, Chinese authorities “had their proxies in the community line the streets and also stand back from the streets, looking around to see who might be looking to cause trouble.”

New York

Hochul Seeks to Limit Private-Equity Ownership of Homes in New York

Published

1 day ago

January 9, 2025

Press Room

Hochul Seeks to Limit Private-Equity Ownership of Homes in New York

Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York on Thursday proposed several measures that would restrict hedge funds and private-equity firms from buying up large numbers of single-family homes, the latest in a string of populist proposals she intends to include in her State of the State address next week.

The governor wants to prevent institutional investors from bidding on properties in the first 75 days that they are on the market. Her plan would also remove certain tax benefits, such as interest deductions, when the homes are purchased.

The proposals reflect a nationwide effort by mostly Democratic lawmakers to discourage large firms from crowding out individuals or families from the housing market by paying far above market rate and in cash, and then leasing the homes or turning them into short-term rentals.

Activists and some politicians have argued that this trend has played a role in soaring prices and low vacancy rates — though low housing production is widely viewed as the main driver of those problems.

If Ms. Hochul was inviting a fight with the real estate interests who have backed her in the past, she did not seem concerned. She even borrowed a line from Jimmy McMillan, who ran long-shot candidacies for governor and mayor as the founder of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party.

“The cost of living is just too damn high — especially when it comes to the sky-high rents and mortgages New Yorkers pay every month,” Ms. Hochul said in a written statement.

James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said his team would review the proposal, but characterized it as “another example of policy that will stifle investment in housing in New York.”

The plan — the specifics of which will be negotiated with the Legislature — is one of several recent proposals the governor has made with the goal of addressing the state’s affordability crisis. Voters have expressed frustration about the high costs of housing and basic goods in the state. This discontent has led to political challenges for Ms. Hochul, who is likely to face rivals in the 2026 Democratic primary and in the general election.

In 2022, five of the largest investors in the United States owned 2 percent of the country’s single-family rental homes, most of them in Sun Belt and Southern states, according to a recent report from the federal Government Accountability Office. The report stated that it was “unclear how these investors affected homeownership opportunities or tenants because many related factors affect homeownership — e.g., market conditions, demographic factors and lending conditions.”

Researchers at Harvard University found that “a growing share of rental properties are owned by business entities and medium- and large-scale rental operators.”

State officials were not able to offer a complete picture of how widespread the practice was in New York. They said local officials in several upstate cities had told them about investors buying up dozens of homes at a time and turning them into rentals.

The New York Times reported in 2023 that investment firms were buying smaller buildings in places like Brooklyn and Queens from families and smaller landlords.

Ms. Hochul’s concern is that these purchases make it harder for first-time home buyers to gain a foothold in the market and can lead to more rental price gouging.

“Shadowy private-equity giants are buying up the housing supply in communities across New York, leaving everyday homeowners with nowhere to turn,” she said in a statement on Thursday. “I’m proposing new laws and policy changes to put the American dream of owning a home within reach for more New Yorkers than ever before.”

Cracking down on corporate landlords became a prominent talking point in last year’s presidential election. On the campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris called on Congress to pass previously introduced legislation eliminating tax benefits for large investors that purchase large numbers of homes.

“It can make it impossible then for regular people to be able to buy or even rent a home,” Ms. Harris said last summer.

In August, Representative Pat Ryan, Democrat of New York, called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate price gouging by private-equity firms in the housing market. He cited a study that estimated that private-equity firms “are expected to control 40 percent of the U.S. single-family rental market by 2030.”

Statehouses across the country have recently looked at ways to tackle corporate homeownership. One effort in Nevada, which passed the Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo, proposed capping the number of units a corporation could buy in a calendar year. It was opposed by local chambers of commerce and the state’s homebuilders association.

A bill was introduced in the Minnesota State Legislature that would ban the conversion of homes owned by corporations into rentals. It has yet to come up for a vote.

At the federal level, Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, and Representative Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington, introduced joint legislation that would force hedge funds to sell all the single-family homes they own over 10 years.