New York City education officials have stopped doing business with 20 companies that provide education services in private schools amid concerns about fraud in the industry.
In emails sent over the past few weeks, the city education department instructed employees to block the hiring of the companies to provide special education or child care services.
The move marks a sharp change in the city’s approach to education contracting, particularly in cases of parents of private school students with disabilities seeking city-funded services. While parents must go through a legal process and ask a hearing officer to order the funding, the city has for years had a policy of fast-tracking approvals of most such requests. Now, the city will fight requests for it to pay a significant number of companies.
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