The Grand Tradition of Suing the City for School Tuition

"Instead of a ten-minute walk to school, negotiations could last up to two hours with her mother, Diana, alternating incentives with threats. At night, after bedtime, Hayley often lay in bed crying and clutching her stuffed sloth with the lights off for hours. (Diana and Hayley's names have been changed to protect their privacy.)"

"Hayley is a sensitive, imaginative child who gives some of her allowance money to the food pantry. Cognitive tests have shown that she has a high IQ but also that she struggles with reading and spelling. Her kindergarten teacher chalked this up to COVID-era learning loss - Hayley had turned 3 in March 2020, so she'd missed part of 3K and attended pre-K part time in a mask."

"But then she got into first grade, and things were really not clicking," says Diana, "and the teacher was like, 'I don't know what's going on, because I can tell that she understands the ideas, but none of it is showing up in her written work.'""

"Diana wanted me to know, first and foremost, that she is a huge proponent of public school. Her older daughter is on the autism spectrum and in a public school. She has family members in the city who taught in public schools. She was even elected co-chair of the school-leadership team at Hayley's public school, a group of staff and parents with input on decision-making from curriculum to budget. She tells me all of this right away because, she says, she doesn't want me to get the wrong idea about her."

A seven-year-old child with high anxiety repeatedly refused to attend her zoned public school, sometimes lying on the sidewalk and protesting for hours. Her mother negotiated with incentives and threats, and the child also cried at night while holding a stuffed animal. The child is sensitive and imaginative, gives some allowance to a food pantry, and has a high IQ but struggles with reading and spelling. Teachers initially attributed the difficulties to COVID-era learning disruption, but problems persisted into first grade, where understanding did not translate into written work. The mother strongly supports public education, citing her family’s public-school involvement and her own leadership role, yet acknowledges it did not work for her younger child.

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