The Foorce

People Get Ready

By Lori Podvesker

Yesterday I attended a meeting with Chancellor Walcott and other key people from the DOE to discuss how students who receive special education services and their families will be impacted by a bus strike.  While there was some talk about the “politics” part of the strike, much of the conversation focused on the DOE’s plans for the strike. This includes parents of students with IEP’s receiving MetroCards to travel with their children to and from school and also being reimbursed when using public transportation is not an option. Go here for more information.Without hearing any clear, workable solutions from the DOE, I started to think about what I can do now to hopefully lessen the additional responsibilities that are lying ahead of us—managing and initially funding the transportation needs of getting our child to and from school which may also include making additional childcare arrangements—ugh!

So here’s what I’m thinking of doing. And honestly, I have to say that I will be proud of myself if I can do half of the things that I am telling the rest of NYC parent world to do. Because I don’t call myself the “shoemaker’s kid without shoes” for nothing!

• Speaking with my supervisor at work about how a strike may affect my work schedule—can’t be good for anyone if this strike last for a few weeks or months
• Asking my beloved retired neighbor if he is willing to accompany my son to school on the days when I cannot afford to miss work—hoping he gives us a discounted rate if we need him for a lot of trips
• Calling 2 or 3 car services to ask about an estimated cost of a round-trip to my son’s school—possibly shelling out $60 a day and waiting to be reimbursed is so NOT cool—this is because my son goes to a public school that is 7 miles away from our house
• Calling all 3 of the therapists who work with my son afterschool–need to let them know that he might be late or entirely miss therapy because of the strike. I think this is the one thing that bothers me the most about a strike
• Going to my son’s school to get MetroCards for us to travel on the train—the boy loves riding the subways and he is gonna love this!
• Asking my son’s caretaker/babysitter if she is able to pick him up at school everyday instead of meeting him at home—leading to one more additional cost (childcare) that we will have to absorb during this strike except there are no reimbursement forms to fill out for the DOE—ouch!
• Talking about the strike with my son,  and how things will look and feel different for us in the morning and afternoon during the course of the strike—not an easy thing for a child like mine who struggles adapting to new environments

That’s it. I can’t think of anything else to say except HANG IN THERE and know that you can always call us if have any questions. Or feel free to email me at lpodvesker@resourcesnyc.org if you just need a space to vent—I totally get it!

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