Special-ed mess: Officials behind schedule in scramble to find seats for 15500 ...

Education officials are weeks behind schedule in a scramble to find seats for about 15,500 kindergartners with special needs - and the delays could cost the city millions, the Daily News has learned.

If the Department of Education doesn't offer the kids spots in public school kindergarten programs by June 15, they could be eligible for seats in private schools, with the city picking up the bill, officials acknowledged.

The delays are also causing anxiety for families who need to know where their kids are going in the fall.

"I'm losing sleep over this. It's really scary," said Maria Farano of Staten Island, who is waiting to hear where her daughter who has autism is going to kindergarten next year.

"What if my daughter is assigned to a school that's far away? It's a total disaster," said Farano, a stay-at-home mom who is also a member of the Citywide Council on Special Education.

Farano is not alone in her dilemma.

While most typical kindergartners already know where they are going to school next year, changes to the city's special education program have created delays for thousands of incoming kindergartners with disabilities.

This year, customized education programs for kids with special needs are mostly being created by administrators at neighborhood schools, instead of education department officials.

The Education Department is also trying to roll out a new computer system for managing services provided to special needs kids, and the change is taking time.

"There are many factors that caused delays," said Jean Mizutani, an advocate at Resources for Children with Special Needs.

The holdup could end up being costly to the city.

If officials don't find the kids seats in public school by the June 15 deadline, the city could be on the hook to pay for their slots in private school.

Under a 1988 legal ruling, kids with special needs are entitled to a private education paid for by the city if the city violates their right to an appropriate education by missing deadlines or failing to provide needed services.

The city already spends millions every year paying for special needs kids to attend private programs.

But even kids who receive vouchers for a free private school education must find seats in those private schools.

This can be difficult, according to Meredith Madon, a Manhattan-based attorney who represents the families of children with special needs.

Your Special Needs Child–Coping After Receiving a Diagnosis ...

That gray, icy March day, over eight year’s ago, that my oldest son was diagnosed with Global Developmental Delays, possible Autism, still sits like a dark shadow on the corner of my heart. My husband and I certainly were not expecting such a harsh diagnosis. Our sweet 2-year old son was simply not talking, we just wanted to know how we could get help from a Speech Language Pathologist, not an entire team of Neurologists, Phds, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers and Educational Specialists. We knew our son was delayed in speaking, but nothing could have prepared us for the extensive testing they put him through, or the scrutiny we would be placed under as we were interviewed endlessly by social services and others on the review team. It was the beginning of a journey that neither of us anticipated, however, we learned far more than we could’ve imagined we would during the process, and over the course of the past eight years, we are grateful that we have been able to guide other newly-diagnosed families on how to better cope and how not to waste time indulging in too much self-pity along the way.

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