Special Education 'Nightmare' Is Bureaucratic

To the Editor:

Your June 24 editorial on New York State's preschool special education program was based on a report by the City Comptroller that was driven by budgetary concerns and oversimplified the situation.

Private agencies that provide special education programs to preschoolers are licensed and regulated by the State Education Department, which requires that each private preschool have an evaluation component. Parents have the right to determine which site should evaluate their child and which program will provide any required services.

To state, as the report does, that children who are enrolled in the same school that evaluated their disability is a "clear conflict of interest" misunderstands the system and maligns the evaluators, who are certified and licensed clinicians.

The evaluation is only the first step in identifying a child with disabilities. Evaluation reports are scrutinized at a review process in the child's home district. If services are approved, there is a further review by a Board of Education support team.

To suggest that preschoolers get more services than their disabilities require is to ignore the realitythat early intervention is the best hope for reducing future long-term costs.

THOMAS GELB Brooklyn, June 26, 1996

Executive Director, Children's Center for Early Learning