Families, advocates confront Monroe County over preschool special ed rates

From WHEC

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Families and advocates confronted leaders Tuesday night over preschool special education service rates in Monroe County.

In March, Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo promised a 15 percent increase of provider reimbursement rates.

Families say they haven’t seen that for group rates, only for individual rates.

On Tuesday, the county responded saying they’ve been upfront since the beginning about how they were going to increase individual rates.

The county says group rates were an additional offering.

“Every single individual service rate increased by at least 15 percent, fulfilling the county executives promise, fulfilling that obligation to increase those rates by 15 percent. In addition to that, the county also introduced in March that the county would be implementing a group rate for the first time in 2019,” said Jesse Sleezer, director of communications.

“A 15 percent increase has been promised across the board and that as well is not across the board. The group of one rate has actually been decreased and we’re not seeing across the board increases. The 15 percent increases are not enough to sustain the program to begin with,” added the Jencik family.

The county says providers are in the process of signing new contracts right now. The next step is implementation.