A report recently released by the New York City Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI) found four paraprofessionals with the Department of Education (DOE) falsified their timesheets while assisting in the transportation of three separate special needs students to and from their school in the Bronx.
Robert Brown, Michel Desgrottes, Alex Gonzalez, and Carla Alvarez were all found by the SCI, back in 2022, to have forged their timesheets while performing their Special Transportation Paraprofessional (STP) duties for three teenage students at P176x, located in Co-Op City. The school is part of District 75 and is for students with special needs. Such students usually need specific assistance while being picked up to go to school and when they are returned to their parents or guardians at the end of each school day.
SCI received a complaint in 2020 about discrepancies in the four paraprofessionals’ timesheets. Upon investigation, which involved questioning all four employees, it was found that they had added hours to their timesheets during both pick up and drop off during the 2019-2020 school year. Brown had forged his timesheets from September 2019 to June 2020, while Gonzalez forged his from September 2019 to January 2020. Desgrottes and Alvarez falsified theirs from October 2019 to February 2020. During the investigation, it was noted that the timesheets and the timing on the GPA trackers did not match up.
All four mentioned in their timesheets that their times started earlier or ended after their schedule, according to their position’s agenda. The paraprofessionals each noted their sessions began when they came to pick up their assigned students at the students’ homes, and then said their sessions started again when they received the assigned students at the end of school day. But the job’s agenda requires each daily session to begin when both paraprofessional and student board the bus together. The sessions then begin in the afternoon when the bus arrived at the school to pick up the two, despite how long both had been waiting and how long the student was in the paraprofessional’s care.
Brown also claimed to have worked days when his assigned student’s parent drove and picked them up from school. According to the report, “he must have filled out his timesheets the following week and “forgot” that he did not take the bus with Student A on a [prior day].”
Each of the STPs was paid differently per hour for their job, ranging from $22.85 to $31.91. Calculated with the number of hours each falsely claimed to have worked per week meant different amounts of extra payment. For Brown, he earned an extra $2,864.25 during this period while Desgrottes got an extra $448. Meanwhile, Gonzalez earned $31.91 extra and Alvarez obtained $679.05.
A spokesperson told amNewYork that these types of cases are not uncommon throughout the city. “Time theft [or] billing taxpayers for labor that was not performed, is a common violation that SCI investigates on a regular basis. The SCI website has multiple case reports posted regarding time theft. This type of time fraud robs the school district of vital tax dollars and disrupts the learning environment for our students, which is why such cases are among the important forms of fraud that SCI tirelessly roots out.”
Randi Levine, is the policy director for Advocates for Children, which gives free advocacy and legal services for parents and their children, including low-income families and children with disabilities. She thinks cases like these are part of a wider issue.
“While any cases of fraud must be addressed,” Levine said.”An issue we hear from families again and again is that their children with disabilities are waiting – sometimes for months – for the DOE to find a paraprofessional to ride the bus with them. In fact, last year, more than 300 students with disabilities were waiting for the DOE to assign the required paraprofessional they needed to ride the bus, in violation of their legal rights.”
“The City must take steps to ensure it can recruit and retain the paraprofessionals needed for students with disabilities to ride the bus safely and ensure that students can get to school on time every day,” Levine added.
As written at the end of the report, the SCI listed two Policy and Procedure Recommendations for the DOE to follow and prevent further time theft. One was for STPs be told when exactly shifts begin and end each session. The other called for more timesheet oversight.
“When a paraprofessional drops a student off at her school in the morning,” the report reads. “A teacher or responsible staff member should sign the STP timesheet and note the time. Similarly, when a paraprofessional drops a student off at the end of the day in the care of a parent or guardian, that parent or guardian should sign the STP timesheet and reflect the time. That way, timesheets are contemporaneous records and have been independently verified.”
A DOE press secretary confirmed that one of the paraprofessionals is no longer employed.
“We reviewed the SCI report and responded to the report’s recommendations in 2022,” said Onika Richards. “Disciplinary letters were sent to the staff members referenced in the report. One individual is no longer employed by the DOE but received the letter before departing, and for the remaining individuals we are in various stages of confirming recoupment of funds through payroll.”
