Scams galore!-----The Grand Tradition of Suing the City for School Tuition

The city spends over a billion a year on special-education lawsuits brought, mostly, by white parents. - Anya Kamenetz

• Last winter, as her anxiety reached a new zenith, 7-year-old Hayley would often stop on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope and lie down on the sidewalk, staging a full-body protest against attending second grade at her zoned public school. “I’m not going,” she would wail, red-faced and sweating. “I hate it. I hate you! You can’t make me!”...

And so, like tens of thousands of other families in New York City, she has hired a lawyer and is filing a “due process” claim against the Department of Education...

If the city settles, or the family wins in a hearing, the DoE will be liable for the cost of services, transportation, evaluations, and/or tuition at a specialized private school. 

• In Hayley’s case, the payment will include an annual tuition of nearly $90,000. 
• The city may also be required to pay the parents’ legal fees — typically in the four- or five-figure range — incurred to file the suit each year...