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.#
