The city is pumping millions more into a computer system blamed for bungling the educational requirements of special needs kids, a move the City Council education chair slammed as a “bandaid” approach.
The Department of Education is set to spend another $14.8 million next year in an effort to fix the Special Education Student Information System — better known as SESIS — on top of $12.4 million in this year’s budget.
Critics say the system, which is supposed to track the special needs of more than 190,000 students with disabilities, has deprived kids of needed services while costing the city millions.
It was adopted in 2009 at a cost of $79 million.
“This is a system that has never worked properly. From the beginning, it has never functioned the way it was designed to. The DOE has repeatedly put more money into this faulty computer system to try and make it work,” said Councilman Danny Dromm, the education chair. “At what point do we decide to cut our losses and move on?”
DOE officials said they had determined fixing the existing system was the best approach — in part to avoid losing data stored in the system — but could not say when the upgrades would be ready.
“It needs some serious improvements,” said DOE chief operating officer Ursulina Ramirez.
Asked how long it would take, she could only say officials were “working with a sense of urgency” and would get the project done “as soon as possible.”
Officials also defended the city’s controversial spending on consultants at struggling schools known as Renewal Schools, at a cost of $1.5 million a year.
Chancellor Carmen Farina said the coaches have helped principals develop programming for the schools and identify struggling teachers.
“They serve like another ear to the principal, and I think they have been very successful,” she said.