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AUGUST 2004


Dr. Rebecca H. Cort, Deputy Commissioner, NYS VESID
by Joan Baum, Ph.D.

Rebecca H. Cort, since February, Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID), is a confident woman, which means a lot in a state whose legislature has just been identified by an NYU Law School study as the worst in the country. For Dr. Cort, who holds a doctorate in Learning Disabilities from Teachers College, Columbia, the legislature’s designation as “dysfunctional” means that funds for her office are still “on the line”—which means, for one thing, that a great number of public schools and approved private schools with disability programs don’t yet know what they’ll be able to do in an academic year that’s just one month away from starting. It also means that Dr. Cort will have to keep her dynamic marketing initiatives on hold for a while, but it’s clear from her upbeat manner and focused energy that persons with disabilities have in Dr. Cort an informed and eager activist. As for the legislature, well, she replies, with a humorous sense of been-there-done-that, she can wait, because she knows exactly what she wants: providing similar instruction for all students means “all.”

Dr. Cort’s responsibilities, which include administering policy development and program oversight in response to government mandates to meet the needs of people with disabilities from early childhood through adulthood and into the workplace, extend from special education to vocational rehabilitation and independent living programs in the state. Before assuming her position at VESID, Dr. Cort coordinated the state’s Office of Special Education Quality Assurance and Support Services, and was a general education teacher and a special education consultant. A co-author of a book and of numerous articles on children with special needs, Dr. Cort is an expert on disentangling confusing data which both advocates and critics love to cite at times of budget crunch. For example, New York City’s disability classifieds rate, as well as the 12 percent overall rate for the state, is actually below the national average, which sounds good, except that in the city, many kids attend private academies and keep the statistics down. The facts speak volumes about the number of children who attend public schools in urban, high-need districts. But more than money is involved, Dr. Cort notes: the “system” has aggravated problems by not concentrating on the best “critical points” to make a difference for the disabled.

In the past, the disabled were kept separate from the nondisabled (not a cost-effective way of dealing with issues) and thus special education teachers concentrated on methodologies. Now, with state-mandated content-oriented certification requirements for teachers and curricular access for all, the distance between general and special education teachers has been dramatically lessened. Teaching physics to a disabled youngster, for example, means that that teacher has really got to know physics. Recent research, moreover, shows that in some wealthy districts disabled youngsters perform better than non-disabled, a finding that argues for the importance of closing the gap in the early years, for mentoring to prevent drop out, and for promulgating model programs. Changing attitudes is crucial, both at higher education teacher training institutions and in the workplace. If H.S. teachers are not up to teaching subject matter to the disabled, then “we don’t want them.”

Her goals, Dr. Cort says, make economic as well as educational sense because it is less expensive to ensure that the disabled get and keep jobs than it is to support their institutionalization (which includes prison, in many cases). Myths still abide, but the truth is that adult constituents, a category that includes those with mental health as well as physical disabilities, tend to be loyal, responsible, and steadfast employees. Much needs to be done to educate employers to deal with relapses and to use referral services, especially those in resident communities. And of course the need remains to educate the public at large and to persuade those dilatory lawmakers.#

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