Citywide G&T: 5,450 qualify, 300 get offers

Summary of the total G&T offers for 2011-2013.From the New York City Department of Education

There were thousands of disappointed families when the city finally mailed offers to elementary Gifted and Talented programs on Friday. This year a record number of children - close to 5,500 -- qualified for the five more selective citywide programs, yet only about 300 offers were made, according to the Department of Education. That means there were slots in citywide schools available for only about five percent of eligible students.

Overall, the chances of snagging a seat in either a district or citywide G&T program were slim, especially in districts where there were high numbers of eligible students. Only 68.5 percent of eligible kindergartners got an offer. Since all G&T programs begin in kindergarten, the odds of getting a seat decrease each succeeding year. For 1st grade, 51 percent of applicants received an offer; in 2nd grade, 34 percent got an offer and in 3rd grade, only 29 percent. In total, just 54 percent of applicants in those grades were offered a seat, a significant decrease from the 72 percent offered a seat in 2012. After 3rd grade, placement in G&T programs is based on standardized state test scores.

Parents must accept their offers and register by June 28 (two days after the last day of school) or forfeit their seat.

This year's admissions process was fraught with delays after it was twice discovered that errors had been made by the testing company Pearson in calculating scores on the assessments, one of which wasnew this year. The offer letters were further delayed when parents filed a lawsuit seeking to have the scores invalidated due to Pearson errors and what they charged was an unfair advantage to siblings of current students. Siblings are given priority in admissions over higher-scoring non-siblings. A Supreme Court judge on cleared the way for the offer letters to be mailed after June 7.

The districts with the highest number of eligible kindergartners were Manhattan's districts 2 and 3. Only 45 percent of District 3's 411 applicants got an offer. Just over half of the eligible applicants in District 2 -- 54 percent -- got offers. There were 459 offers out of 842 applicants in that district.

As in previous years, four districts did not have enough qualifying students to offer a program for incoming kindergartners. Offers were made to 10 or fewer students in District 7 in the South Bronx, District 12 in the central Bronx, District 16 in Bedford Stuyvesant and District 23 in East New York. Those students are eligible to attend programs in other districts. 

To qualify for a district gifted program, students must score at the 90th percentile on the assessment. This year the city did not guarantee a place for all those who scored high enough to enroll because, it said, not enough parents enrolled in the past.

 "We have found that in past years, many families opted not to take their offer, since it may not have been close enough to home for families with young children," the DOE said in a statement.  "Last year, only 58.5% of families accepted. As such, eliminating the guaranteed offer, which many families likely would not have accepted, contributed to the lower percentage of students receiving an offer this year." 

This year, the DOE added additional G&T kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms, according to its spokesperson. In Manhattan there will be new programs at PS 15 on the Lower East Side and PS 111 in District 2 on the West Side which will offer both kindergarten and 1st grade G&T classes next fall.

In Brooklyn, PS 93 in Bedford Stuyvesant (District 13) will open both kindergarten and 1st grade G&T classes. PS 316 in Prospect Heights (District 17) and PS 149 in East New York (District 19) will offer kindergarten G&T. PS 164 in Borough Park (District 20) will open both kindergarten and 1st grade classes.

Queens will get two new programs: PS 68 in Ridgewood (District 24) will have new kindergarten and 1st grade G&T as will PS 121 in South Ozone Park (District 28). PS 188 in Bayside (District 26) will take in two kindergarten classes instead of one for the fall. PS 214 in College Point (District 25) will get a new program for 1st-graders.

On Staten Island, PS 60 will add a kindergarten G&T and PS 53 will add a program for both kindergarten and 1st grade.

Students scoring in the 97th percentile and above are eligible for a citywide slot but in reality, all slots are taken up by siblings of current students or those who score in the 99th percentile at the five schools. Parent groups have been lobbying for an increase in citywide programs, but the only change proposed this year was for STEM, the Queens citywide program now housed at PS 85, to become a K-8 school in 2014.

Students who moved to New York City after the deadline to sign up for 2013 testing may sign up now and be tested the week of July 8. See the DOE's website for more information. No word on how many seats might be still available for those students!

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Your Special Needs Trust ("SNT") Defined

Your Special Needs Trust ("SNT") Defined

You have a special needs trust— or you have been designated as the trustee of a special needs trust— or your child has a special needs trust. What is a trust? What is a trustee? What is a beneficiary? What are all these terms you've never used before even though your first language is English? This article provides you with an overview of the more common terms found in your special needs trust.

What is a Trust? A trust is a legal arrangement in which a person or a financial institution, called the trustee, holds and manages assets for the beneficiary (see definition below). The trust document explains the trustee's authority, how the trust is to benefit the beneficiary, and how and when the trust is to terminate. There are many types of trusts, but this article is focusing on a specific type of trust—a special needs trust.

A special needs trust (SNT) is a trust that will preserve the beneficiary's eligibility for needs-based government benefits such as Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Because the beneficiary does not own the assets in the trust, he or she can remain eligible for benefit programs that have an asset limit. As a general rule the trustee will supplement the beneficiary's government benefits but not replace them. Examples of supplemental needs are costs for sitters, companions, and dental or medical expenses not covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

A first-party SNT, also referred to as a "self-settled" or "(d)(4)(A) trust," is funded with assets or income that belong to an individual with a disability (see definition below) and who is the beneficiary of the trust. In order for the assets of this type of trust not to count for Medicaid or SSI purposes, federal law requires that the beneficiary must be under the age of 65 when the trust is created and funded; the trust must be irrevocable and provide that Medicaid will be reimbursed upon the beneficiary's death or upon termination of the trust, whichever occurs first; and the trust must be administered for the sole benefit of the beneficiary. Typically the funding comes from a personal injury settlement or inheritance the beneficiary receives directly.

A third-party SNT, frequently referred to as a supplemental needs trust, is funded with assets belonging to a person other than the beneficiary. In fact, no funds belonging to the beneficiary may be used to fund the trust. Typical funding comes from gifts, an inheritance from parents or grandparents, and proceeds of life insurance policies. This trust has no provisions to pay back Medicaid upon the trust's termination; rather, the person creating the trust decides how the trust estate is distributed when the beneficiary dies. Source:www.Cacu.com

Dentist Smeared in Spitzer Medicaid Fraud Witch-Hunt Wins $7.7 Million from Former Governor's Staff

A Brooklyn dentist whose career was ruined after the then-state Attorney General made him a poster boy for Medicaid fraud won a $7.7 million verdict Tuesday against two of Spitzer’s former investigators. That was $1.6 million more than Dr. Leonard Morse’s expert estimated the tooth doctor lost as a result of Spitzer’s probe — and, in terms of vindication, priceless. “It took a little more than 2,500 days, but we got to the truth,” said Morse, a 65-year-old father of six from Manhattan. “Now I feel totally vindicated.”

Morse, who accused former Spitzer deputy John Fusto and investigator Jose Castillo in the suit of fabricating evidence against him, also had some choice words for their old boss as well.

“He should be ashamed that this happened in his office, under his stewardship,” Morse said of Spitzer. “His finger prints are all over it.” Morse’s lawyer, Jon Norinsberg, also ripped Fusto as “a perfect storm of arrogance, laziness and incompetence.” Neither Fusto, nor Castillo, work for the AG’s office anymore.

The AG’s office had no official comment, but their lawyers in court told Federal Judge Carol Amon they will appeal the verdict. In his closing arguments, Deputy Attorney General Christopher Miller argued that just because someone is acquitted of a crime — as Morse was earlier — doesn't mean the prosecution had fabricated evidence. “He already had his day in court, he was found not guilty,” Miller said. But Miller looked ashen when the jury, which took just three hours to reach a decision, asked the judge for a calculator.

Spitzer, who resigned in 2008 after getting caught in a hooker scandal, could not be reached for comment.

Morse had a thriving Park Slope practice with 30,000 patients before Spitzer zeroed in on him because 95% of his patients were Medicaid eligible. Morse, in a $75 million suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, charged he was the victim of a Spitzer witch-hunt in 2006, when the hard-charging prosecutor was running for governor. After Spitzer's political opponents branded him soft on Medicaid fraud, he targeted Morse, who was one of the top billers in the state, the suit claimed.

Spitzer, who resigned as governor in 2008 after getting caught in a hooker scandal, said through a spokeswoman that he had nothing to do with Morse’s case. Morse was charged with stealing more than $1 million in false billings for dentures. And his arrest was trumpeted in a press release translated into several languages, including Russian and Korean. But the criminal case against Morse fell apart during a bench trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court after Fusto was forced to concede that billing records only showed a theft of $3,000.

Morse was found not guilty of all charges. But he lost his practice and other dentists treated him like a leper.

The delighted dentist said the AG’s office offered him a $100,000 settlement to get him to drop the lawsuit.

“I didn’t consider it for a nano-second,” Morse said. “There’s more to life than money, but I wanted my family to know I did nothing wrong.” Morse also won a new patient Tuesday. As he was leaving the courtroom, one of the jurors asked him to look at his tooth. Source: NYdailynews.com

Former State Department Employee Kerry Howard Claims Sexual Harassment Forced Her To Resign

Whistleblower accuses consul general of trysts with subordinates and hookers

• By KATE BRIQUELET, NYPOST
• Last Updated: 11:32 AM, June 16, 2013
• Posted: 12:19 AM, June 16, 2013
• LINK

EXCLUSIVE

In the latest black eye for the scandal-ridden State Department, a whistleblower claims she was run out of the foreign service after complaining about a consul general’s alleged office trysts with subordinates and hookers.

Kerry Howard says she was bullied, harassed and forced to resign after she exposed US Consul General Donald Moore’s alleged security-threatening shenanigans in the Naples, Italy, office.

As the post’s community-liaison officer, Howard was charged with keeping workplace peace and advising higher-ups on the state of morale, but when she revealed allegations about her boss, State Department officials swept it under the rug, according to an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint she filed with the department’s Office of Civil Rights.

Consul General Donald Moore

Ex-officer Kerry Howard

“It’s cover-up after cover-up. It’s absolutely hideous,” she told The Post. “When our diplomats disrespect the Italians by hiring and firing them because they have seen too much — or use them for ‘sex-ercise’ — we have to question why we have diplomats abroad at taxpayer expense.”

Howard is just the latest whistleblower to allege that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s State Department allowed sexual misbehavior to continue unchecked.

Last week, The Post reported that Aurelia Fedenisn, an investigator at the department’s inspector-general office, wrote a memo outlining eight cases of supposed sexual misconduct, but that they were removed from an IG report.

The allegations included US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman soliciting prostitutes, including minors, and at least seven agents in Clinton’s security detail hiring hookers while traveling with her to Russia and Colombia.

The soap opera in Italy unfolded in the fall of 2010, when Moore became the Naples consul general after serving in the same capacity at the US Embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti. As a senior foreign-service officer, Moore could make as much as $179,700 a year, State Department data says.

Within days, he allegedly bedded a consulate employee, a single mom who fell in love with him.

Howard detailed the alleged affair in certified letters to members of Congress, including California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, in December, said Howard’s lawyer, Lawrence Kelly.

“More and more intimate details of their relationship became common knowledge,” Howard wrote, adding that the staffer became pregnant and wanted to keep the baby, but that Moore insisted she get an abortion.

“She informed anyone within earshot that she had had the abortion and had her tubes tied at his instruction,” Howard wrote. “Morale continued to sink as this soap opera played out in our workplace on a daily basis.”

With the affair rumors swirling, Howard’s supervisor, Pamela Caplis, instructed Howard to keep quiet, Howard claims.

“I have already informed Frankfurt,” Caplis allegedly said in what Howard claims was an attempt to head off the complaint.

Still, on a February 2011 trip to Rome, Howard told the US Embassy’s management officer, Frank Ledahawsky, that morale was “very bad” because of the alleged affair.

“We have to save his career,” Ledahawsky allegedly said.

Shortly after the meeting, Moore was allegedly called to Rome and ordered to end his relationship with the employee.

Howard thought her troubles would be over, but she became a target instead.

Howard, who made about $16,000 annually in her part-time position, said that her office was moved five times without notification and that she was excluded from meetings and forbidden from attending a staff photo-op with Sen. John McCain.

Howard says Caplis grilled her for the names of staffers speaking about Moore’s relationships and, in one meeting, screamed she was a “backstabber.”

Colleagues ganged up on her, and one State Department security officer told her, “You better be careful, because they are out to get you,” according to Howard’s affidavit in the Office of Civil Rights investigation.

Howard said the situation got even uglier when Moore became her direct supervisor in February 2012 after Caplis was reassigned.

“Try not to be so perfect, and try to be less present in the consulate,” Moore warned, according to Howard’s affidavit.

Meanwhile, bachelor Moore began a relationship with another subordinate, and “continued a pattern of other relationships which threaten the security of the consulate,” the affidavit said.

“The female visitors to the consulate, if they are logged properly, will provide a starting point for a broader inquiry,” she hinted.

Howard was clearer, however, in a recent memo to Feinstein.

“It is also now known that the consul general entertains prostitutes, escorts and married women in his residence during the day during work hours,” she wrote.

“These women enter and leave the consulate via the front entrance . . . His household staff are required to clean his bathroom and change his linens after each woman leaves.”

Only Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) office replied to Howard’s letters.

In an e-mail, Rand aide Brett King wrote: “I received your message this morning regarding actions at the Consulate in Naples, Italy. Do we have your permission to share this information with other government agencies?”

Howard resigned in May 2012.

“I was left with no choice,” she said in her affidavit. “I was forced to leave or suffer continued harassment and humiliation.”

Two months later, she filed the Equal Employment Opportunity complaint. Kelly said an independent investigator is close to concluding her probe, which included affidavits from seven former Italian consulate employees.

Moore is still assigned to Naples. His office referred questions to the State Department, which declined to comment.

kbriquelet@nypost.com

GOP senator questions Weiner's wife about time working for Clinton and as consultant

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) fired off a letter to Huma Abedin and Teneo Holdings, where she worked as a consultant while simultaneously working as an adviser to the former presidential candidate. He wants to know if she provided any governmental information to the firm, which might have benefitted investors.

Comments (1)

BY DAN FRIEDMAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2013, 11:50 PM

• Comment

Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin take a lunchtime stroll uptown near their home.

WASHINGTON — A Republican senator is taking aim at Huma Abedin, the longtime Hillary Clinton confidante who is married to Democratic mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote Abedin asking for details about her last months at the State Department, when Clinton was secretary of state, it was revealed Friday.

Under a special arrangement approved by the department, Abedin worked as an adviser to Clinton while also working for private clients as a consultant with the firm Teneo Holdings.

Hillary’s tenure stained as scandals pile up

• From POST WIRE SERVICES
• Last Updated: 3:51 AM, June 16, 2013
• Posted: 12:22 AM, June 16, 2013

Under Hillary Rodham Clinton, the State Department was littered with scandals:
* It hired law-enforcement agents with criminal or checkered backgrounds under a flawed vetting process. As a result, many of the roughly 2,000 agents in the agency’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security are permitted to play only limited roles in agency efforts to police bad conduct and prosecute wrongdoers.
* US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman, a big Democratic donor, was accused of soliciting prostitutes, including minors, but the State Department agent examining the claims was called off the investigation even after determining Gutman routinely ditched his security detail.

* Security officer Chuck Lisenbee, stationed in Beirut, Lebanon, allegedly sexually assaulted local guards. The internal probe into the charges lasted three days.
* Huma Abedin, wife of mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner and one of Clinton’s closest aides, is being investigated for how she got a six-figure deal to work as a private consultant while still employed by the State Department.
* After terrorists killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, at the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, then-US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice described the assault as stemming from a “spontaneous protest” rather than calling what it was — a planned terrorist attack. The assault came after repeated indications that compound security needed to be increased.

MICHAEL IP/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Congressman Anthony Weiner recently announced his campaign for Mayor of New York City. His wife, Huma Abedin, is the target of a GOP Senator questioning her time working for Hillary Clinton while also working for private clients as a consultant with the firm Teneo Holdings.

In his letter to Abedin, Grassley asked whether Teneo “compensated you for gathering information from government sources for the purpose of informing investment decisions of your clients — or in other words, political intelligence.”

Grassley aides framed the letter as part of an ongoing effort by the senator to investigate and tighten rules on the burgeoning field of political intelligence. The firms gather and sell information on upcoming actions by government agencies and Congress that may affect their private clients.

The inquiry also could cast a shadow over Clinton, a potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate.

RELATED: ANTHONY WEINER’S WIFE, HUMA ABEDIN, WAS ALLOWED TO DO OUTSIDE WORK WHILE AT STATE DEPARTMENT: REPORT

THEO WARGO/GETTY IMAGES

Hillary Clinton (left) during a recent public appearance.

In his letter, sent Thursday and first reported by Politico, Grassley offered no evidence that Abedin used her federal position to provide such inside information to clients.

The State Department approved of Abedin’s special working arrangement in June 2012, after she returned from a maternity leave.

In his letter to Abedin, Grassley requested answers to 13 questions related to that change in her employment, including who approved it. He asked for a response by June 27. He also sent a similar letter to Teneo.

RELATED: ANTHONY WEINER: I HAVE BILL CLINTON’S 'SUPPORT'

MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES

GOP Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to Huma Abedin and requested answers to 13 questions related to that change in her employment, including who approved I, and expects a response by June 27.

The letters seek copies of government documents related to the arrangement, Abedin’s consulting contracts and communications involving the State Department, Teneo and its clients — material the firm likely is reluctant to share.

A State Department spokesman said “we received Sen. Grassley’s (request) and we’re reviewing it.” The spokesman said “special government employees” —Abedin’s job title in her part-time role — are not unusual; the department has more than 100 such workers, he said.

Efforts to reach Abedin through her husband’s campaign were not successful. Teneo did not respond to a request for comment.

Grassley, a member of the Judiciary Committee, cannot subpoena information without a committee vote. It is unclear whether the committee, which is controlled by Democrats, would approve such a move in this case.

But Grassley “expects a response” from Abedin, a Republican staffer said.

dfriedman@nydailynews.com