BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — The Department of Education is looking to expand a special education program next academic year with a new site at a Bedford-Stuyvesant school, according to the city’s proposal.
If approved, P140K@K026 would serve up to 72 students with autism or intellectual disabilities in Brooklyn. The program would be located at 1014 Lafayette Ave. near Malcolm X Boulevard, sharing the building with elementary school P.S. 26 and Madiba Prep Middle School.
The program for special needs students is part of District 75’s P.S. K140, which already serves kids at four sites throughout the borough.
The plan comes in response to a “projected increased need” for District 75 seats in Brooklyn, according to the DOE. The district serves children citywide and has grown by more than 1,300 students since the 2012-13 school year.
P140K@K026 would help kids in kindergarten through fifth grade, with up to eight students in a classroom with one teacher and one paraprofessional, according to the proposal.
Students are placed in such programs based on their individual needs and recommended special education services, the DOE said.
Community Education Council 16, which serves Bedford-Stuyvesant and northern Crown Heights, supported the plan at a proposal hearing Wednesday.
CEC16 President NeQuan McLean said the program would assist students who otherwise may have had to leave the community to attend school.
The school building at Lafayette Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard is currently underutilized, officials said, serving 452 students with a capacity for 1,053.
A high school is also located within the building, but is set to move in the 2016-2017 academic year, according to a recently approved plan from the DOE.
Instruction and future enrollment at Madiba Prep and P.S. 26 would not be impacted if the proposal goes through, officials said.
“If approved, it represents an opportunity for us to continue in collaboration with D75 students and have students be exposed to all kinds of children with varying needs, which only broadens their sensibility and really makes for developing children holistically,” said Sharon Stephens, Madiba Prep’s principal.
The Panel for Educational Policy will vote on the plan on March 23 at 6 p.m., at the Prospect Heights Educational Campus, 883 Classon Ave.
