There is a petition available that NYS residents can sign to urge the Board of Regents and the NYS Education Department to immediately revoke the
"emergency" regulations that they enacted on June 23rd. These "emergency" regulations, while appearing to prohibit the use of "aversive behavioral interventions" -- such as electric skin shock, ammonia sprays, hot pepper sauce on children's tongues -- actually now open the door for every public school, preschool, state-approved private school, and BOCES facility to use these methods on disabled children if they obtain a waiver to do so. The procedure for getting a waiver is that the district basically asks itself and the state, "Can we do this?" and then decides whether it can or can't,
regardless of the advice of the state. I kid you not.
The Board of Regents will be voting at their Sept. meeting as to whether to make the regulations permanent or not.
The Board and NYSED are holding after-the-fact public hearings for members of the public to submit testimony and input. Information on how to submit feedback and the schedule for public hearings
If you would like to sign a petition to get the new "Aversives" regulations withdrawn, you can find a petition in .pdf format or in .doc format.
Once you've completed it, email it or mail it to your nearest Regent. Regent's contact information.
If you sign and send in a petition, please send a copy or an email to petition@transparencyinpubliceducation.org so that the Coalition gets some sense of how many people are demanding that these regulations be withdrawn.