A growing number of families seeking private schooling for severely disabled students--at public expense--have butted up against the New York City’s attempts to keep spending under control. This year, after complaints from parent groups reached state legislators, City Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed to make changes that would streamline the process for some families, though he did not promise to challenge them less often.

According to The New York Times, the city now spends more than $200 million a year on private schooling when public schooling fails to meet students' needs. Under the Bloomberg Administration, the city had "beefed up" its special education legal team, which evaluates parents' requests for private schooling and, increasingly, has denied them.

The city had 6,241 hearings last year regarding such requests, up from 5,403 in 2008, according to State Education Department data.

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Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor