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Dr. Kappen's Albany Budget Testimony 2021

Added Feb 26, 2021 •

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4201 School sociation dr. Bernadette capon New York Association of Independent Living Lindsay Miller executive director advocates for children of New York when to start with doctor is so much on behalf of the 4201 on schools Association I'd like to thank the legislature for always supporting us and the opportunity to testify today the executive budget proposes level funding for our schools and we're so appreciative of this approve this proposal in the executive budget the pandemic has been difficult for all schools student staff and families the schools in the 4201 schools Association all prepared to offer the best possible education show program to the students students with sensory impairments blindness deafness in close contact for communication and learning it's a challenge to teach a first grader Braille from 6 or even harder remotely think about young students who are deaf learning to use American Sign Language or a deaf blind students who needs tackle signing or students with physical disabilities who need close contact with their personal needs or just in their medical equipment the staff at all the schools in the association put aside fear and jumped into their work to make sure the students received what they needed students or at home receive materials through the mail and in some cases they have brought them it's to their homes families joined the staff staff focused on the social emotional needs of the children the schools deserve to serve a diverse population of students as you know so it's been a challenge for us and those are but our goal is always focusing on excellence and giving every student opportunity to be successful to refill their dreams these things are possible because of the support we received and continues to be necessary to off the students what they need and deserve and certainly thinking of forward for the mental health needs of our students we certainly needs a plan for that in our testimony you see there that were asking for support for the emergency assistance to non-public schools we're requesting that the legislature set aside 2.25 million to support us in this area we know that we're small and don't want to be caught in the bucket there of not being able to receive any funds and as you can imagine the pandemic has been a challenge for everyone at our schools keeping the students safe with extra PPE purchasing extra Furniture working on social distancing extra cleaning supplies and especially the technology area sensory impairments on require additional support in this technology. Not just the computer the iPad again I want to express our gratitude for all your support we know how difficult this budget year is and we are thank for how we've been treated in the executive budget and for the association I just leave you with this quote today I'm Helen Keller optimism is the faith that leads to achievement nothing can be done without hope or confidence I think that's our motto thank you so much thank you thank you all for being here just wanted to say thank you to doctor captain Brad McPhee I saw some of the videos that they've been putting off of the students on the website the great just a question show on the non-public Federal funding and that 2.5 million dollar ask if you can just expound on that in terms of cost at the 4201 schools have sustained as a result of covid-19 18 expenses and you know whether that amount is as a result of what kind of surveying the cost to restore that sugar come from cuz I think it's important that we we have some funding set aside their thanks assemblyman Ross yes we did a survey of the schools to see how much was spent in the areas of personal cleaning supplies as for social distancing technology and we estimated around 2 million at that point of the 10 schools that are in the association so we know that on their 11:40 to A-1 school so we worked getting that number for the eleven of us and then some ongoing increases that we would have and we could see that there was dramatic increases for us in the area of the technology in particular some schools had to hire additional nurses on to be able to meet the needs or other Personnel definitely the furniture was a big issue and the PPE I'm going to think you can imagine for some of the children that are physically disabled but you need really be close to them or for some of our children if you're working with them in the classroom you really can't be 6-speed so we have to have adequate PPE and we hold its drive to stay open and be able to maintain the children cuz we know they need to be here for the social reason so we did a survey the schools to come up with that number thank you very much but I did have a question with respect to your students what percent check them or maybe one of them currently have both devices that are appropriate for their challenges that they face and also Broadband is that everyone has both those things some percentage doing some don't can you just give little more on that as far as the you know the students at The Institute they all have they were all given iPads and other devices I would say at least 95% of the family have some access to broadband we do have a few families that struggle with that I would say it a huge issue is the number of people in the household using that that the stability of the Broadband is not good and that's really a huge challenge for many of our students in his I mentioned before we have many children in the 4201 schools that are coming from low-income families and they just can't afford to do any better I think the proposal for the Broadband is really important for all of our students as well

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