Our Achievements of 2025

Client Work Accomplishments

1. Without having to file any impartial hearings, we successfully secured 20 Independent Educational Evaluations (IEEs) at the public expense for our clients to which they should be entitled. Our added support is to expedite the process, have the evaluator paid at the rate they require and support the parents in making sure all their concerns are considered so that the evaluators can make the most appropriate recommendations. Our efforts allowed our clients to acquire evaluations in which the total cost was over $55,000.  This also meant that they had access to experienced and truly independent evaluators without having to wait months for a hearing to fund them or pay out of pocket as getting reimbursed for them after a hearing may not always be possible.
   
2. Without having to file any due process complaints, frequently-denied services such as 1:1 and/or very small group Special Education Teacher Support Services (SETSS) for our clients this year which included specially designed instruction for students working to improve academic skills in studying and time management while receiving content instruction in courses such Physics, Algebra 2, Biology, Writing and Reading.
   
3. We were able to secure a CBST (Centrally Based Support Team) Deferral without contest for a family who with our support, tried their best to have their child educated in the public school system but ultimately needed a more specialized placement.
   
4. Without having to file an impartial hearing, we secured frequently-denied services such as bimonthly and quarterly multi-disciplinary team meetings (teachers and therapists AND parents) for some of our students at their IEP meetings.
   
5. This year, three out of three of our clients whom we referred to attorneys or advocates who specialize in due process complaints have won their cases this year resulting in much needed compensatory and related services and independent educational evaluations with their preferred providers at their New York City market rates. The detailed and thoroughly documented evidence we organized worked not only to strengthen these cases but of equal importance, they served to show our clients how exactly their children were not allowed to reach challenging objectives to which they are entitled. We are awaiting similar results in three more cases that will be decided in 2026.
   
6. Without having to file an impartial hearing, we successfully secured Assistive Technology evaluations by the district  for students who had already graduated which supported the acquisition of much needed appropriate accommodations by the students’ college disability services offices.
   
7. Secured ICT (integrated co-teaching) services for a student’s course in a Career Technical Education course, a long standing obstacle for New York City students with disabilities, without having to file an impartial hearing.
   
8. Secured Special Education Teacher Support Services authorization at a competitive rate for students who were denied services that were mandated on their IEP without having to file an impartial hearing.
   
9. Advocates Rachel Ford and Jenn Choi collaborated to challenge systemic failures and civil rights violations, documenting instances of implicit bias and discriminatory stereotyping during the special education process. By leveraging video evidence and citing federal regulations, they successfully contested procedural noncompliance, such as the use of unauthorized interpreters and the withholding of mandated service logs. The partnership specifically addressed retaliatory disciplinary actions, successfully arguing that detentions issued for disability-related behaviors and transportation failures were discriminatory. Their tenacious escalation to senior leadership highlighted a pattern of harm and shifted the burden of compliance from parents back to the educational system. Ultimately, these efforts secured the finalization of a student’s program and the cancellation of improper detentions without subjecting the parent to further humiliating or repetitive meetings.
   
10. Trained two young people about their IEPs and supported their writing of their student statement to their IEP team. This is the real way to promote what the district refers to as “Student-Centered IEPs.”
    
11. Began building our New York City Public Schools curriculum library that includes educator and student facing materials to allow our clients to understand more definitively how their children are accessing and making appropriate (or not) progress in the curriculum.  
    
12. We secured another set of highly individualized IEPs for students in specialized nonpublic schools and ASD Nest programs who were graduating from middle school and moving into more mainstream public high schools environments that did not have a history of such specially designed instruction. We did this by initiating records requests, interpreting the data, ordering needed evaluations, collaborating with the nonpublic school to more effectively support their work to transition the student to a new setting. Whether it was preserving ASD Nest Program accommodations or Evidence-Based Explicit Instruction for students with Learning Disorders, we worked to secure a well-written IEP that would be needed for a successful transition to ninth 9th grade in a more mainstream setting where students with disabilities can access more academic and social options.
    
13. We worked on creating highly individualized and actionable exit summaries for students who were graduating from NYC public high schools. By exhibiting expertise of district obligations for this very underserved but important final activity, we were able to support the writing of these detailed summaries that must be considered by any college disability service office.
    

Agency Growth

1. Jenn Choi Advocates opened on Dec 1, 2024 and this year, we are completing our first full year. 
2. Jenn Choi Advocates began work by working with two advocates. One is finishing her practicum for the COPAA 2.0 intensive training. 
3. We hired our first intern for our inaugural year of paid internship program as soon as he graduated from high school. The program selects students who have formally had an IEP in high school and have demonstrated interest and/or work in supporting peer students with disabilities. This year, the internship focuses on teaching the purpose and work of advocating for students with disabilities in two ways, 1- interpreting data and creating conclusive reports demonstrating denial of a Free and Appropriate Public Education 2- training younger students with disabilities on participating in their own IEP process.

Training Achieved

1. Jenn completed the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) inaugural Change Makers Academy training. She is also now a Certified Google Gemini Educator which she studied to learn the parameters of artificial intelligence to anticipate the various impacts it will have on students with disabilities.
2. Justine completed the rigorous COPAA 2.0 Advocates and is now finishing her practicum with us. 
3. Carol completed the Special Education Law and Advocacy Training by Wrightslaw this year.
4. Vincent finished his first semester in college! Woo hoo! Go Vincent!

Community Advocacy (Testimonies)

• NYC Council Testimony: Fair Student Funding Formula (1.30.2025): Jenn organized a testimony to be co-signed by 313 community members that argues that the current funding formula is inherently discriminatory because it  caps the funding for students’ special education teacher services despite the actual human resources needs needed to provide the services such as frequency or 1:1 needs. It highlights a pattern of exclusion where schools falsely claim they cannot provide Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) for advanced, elective, career technical, or world language courses due to budget constraints. The massive volume of signatures serves as a collective demand for an immediate overhaul of a system that forces families into costly due process complaints just to secure mandated rights.
• NYC Council Testimony: Education Budget Proposal (3.13.2025): Jenn Choi Advocates proposed changing the Fair Student Funding weights to curb the $1.3 billion spent annually on due process complaints resulting from the denial of a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). The testimony exposes the “60% box” funding trap, where schools ignore their own regulations and refuse to provide co-teachers for CTE and AP classes because it does not trigger additional funding. We called for the City Council to pressure the district to stop these “persistent malignancies” that force students out of their local schools and into expensive nonpublic placements.
  
• Plea to Panel for Education Policy: Vote No to Fair Student Funding Formula: (4.23.2025) After mobilizing the community to confirm that there is an indeed a cap on how instructional services by special education teacher is capped at a per student level in New York City. Jenn finally received the confirmation just three hours before the Panel met to vote on the formula. They did vote in favor to continue it but Jenn was still able to voice the dissent of parents of students with disabilities. A systemic cap on funding is causing systemic discrimination against our children. Period.
  
• NYC Council Testimony: Manifestation Determination Review (MDR) (10.30.2025): Jenn Choi Advocates advocated for strengthening Intro 1359 to provide greater transparency on how disciplinary actions affect students with disabilities before they reach a crisis point. The testimony highlights systemic failures, such as schools neglecting to conduct Functional Behavior Assessments (FBAs) despite long-standing evidence of student struggle. We urged the Council to mandate impartial oversight of the MDR process to prevent bias and ensure that students are not being wrongfully punished for manifestations of their disabilities.
  
• NYC Council Testimony:Juvenile Detention Centers Oversight (11.17.2025): This testimony explored the “school-to-prison pipeline” by detailing how inadequate special education support and the use of handcuffs on young students contribute to early trauma. Jenn Choi Advocates criticized the flawed FBA process and the lack of behavioral specialists, noting that schools often resort to suggestion of home instruction rather than addressing emotional disorders. To break this cycle, we recommended expanding access to therapeutic school options and intensive reading interventions for every district.

Collaborating with Community Parents, Advocates. and Leading Community Groups

1. Leading email campaigns to the Citywide Council on Special Education Chancellor Town Hall 2.24.2025- to ask about the problems of how school do not provide integrated co-teaching (ICT) services to classes such as Career Technical Education courses, Language Other than English, and Advanced Placement courses. Click this link or the above photo of Ms. Corso where she states: “ICT can be offered along with any other course. So ICT can be offered for CTE classes. Please know that we are continuing to work through the great work of Jenn Choi and others to make sure that everyone has this information and is following the DOE policy on this.“ https://tinyurl.com/NYC-says-ICT-is-for-ANYTHING
   
2. Participating in Community Council Meetings to Have Administration Publicly State the Rules for Parents to Hear: (11.6.2025)In response to a question from Jenn Choi, NYC Public Schools Special Education and Office of Enrollment leadership affirmed a zero-tolerance policy for schools using discriminatory messaging to discourage the enrollment of students with disabilities. Officials specifically highlighted “wink, wink” tactics where school staff might dismissively tell a family they “don’t have” certain mandated services to suggest the student would be better off applying elsewhere. The strategy for enforcement relies on families to report these incidents to superintendents or the central office, complemented by proactive, mandatory “Rules and Regulations” training designed to debunk myths about special education access for all staff. Click onto this link to learn what to do when you get discriminatory information re: High School Admissions (middle school too).
   
3. Leading Our Group, Parents of NYC Teens with Disabilities, now the membership is at 2,200. We have successfully led and grown the city’s largest peer-to-peer parent support group focused on the complex transition issues for teens with disabilities. The group’s membership expanded to over 2,200 this year, solidifying its role as a critical, trusted platform for resource sharing, strategy development, and collective advocacy on topics like graduation requirements, college accommodations, and post-secondary planning. This sustained leadership ensures a powerful, unified parent voice in local policy discussions.
4. Full year of participating in AFC Transition Alliance. We completed a full and active year of participation in the Advocates for Children (AFC) Transition Alliance. This collaboration involved consistently contributing our expertise. Jenn Choi Advocates believes in the importance of working alongside other advocates in our field.
5. One more year of running APSEA We successfully continued our leadership role in running the New York City Chapter of the Association of Professional Special Education Advocates of NYC (APSEA) for another year.  We encourage mutual support and information sharing in order to further support our clients and the greater community of families of children with disabilities in New York state.