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Megan Tomasic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ursula Lesic was ready to meet with her school district last year about creating a middle school transition plan for her children with special needs when she learned Allegheny County was cutting three education specialist positions, a role Ms. Lesic had come to rely on.

The decision sent her scrambling.

Rather than working with the specialist who provided consultation services between school districts and families to ensure student needs were met, Ms. Lesic instead had to piece together experts in special education and on her children’s disability to help her prepare for and attend individual education plan meetings, or IEPs, with her school district. Ms. Lesic has now spent hours learning the special education system and thousands of dollars on experts rather than relying on the previously free service.

The problem, Ms. Lesic said, is that the specialists were more than just advocates; they also took the time to teach parents and families about districts’ perspectives and what supports would look like once implemented in the education setting.

“It's exhausting,” Ms. Lesic, 58, who lives in northern Allegheny County, said. “And it shouldn't have to be because there should just be the ability to communicate and advocate and collaborate at the lowest levels. But unless you have someone there to help you through the process, it's super hard.”

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services last May announced it was eliminating the education specialist positions. In a statement provided Friday to the Post-Gazette, DHS said the decision was driven by two factors: work being done in the roles “served an exceedingly small portion of the population and was duplicative of other existing services,” and the belief that education advocacy is best provided by independent organizations rather than the government.

But cuts to the program — which served 155 students in the 2023-24 school year, county officials previously said — sent parents and families searching for new supports, often turning to area nonprofits such as Achieva and the PEAL Center, which saw increased demand.

“We knew we had to add hours to our team,” Mary Hartley, president of The Arc of Greater Pittsburgh and senior vice president of Achieva, said of the organization’s response. “It’s challenging and we continue looking for funds to ensure that we can continue to provide those supports.”

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