A Hackensack mother told the school board that a paraprofessional restrained her nonverbal three-year-old son without informing her or filing a report, one of several troubling allegations parents raised at a recent meeting about the district's special education services. Tiara Cavallo, whose son attends the preschool disabled class at Fairmount Elementary School, said the incident came on top of what she described as a month-long teacher absence and a long-term substitute she claims was not certified in special education.
Cavallo spoke at the Hackensack Board of Education's October 14 meeting, according to TAPinto Hackensack. She said her son's teacher had been out for over a month and that the long-term substitute covering the class was not special-education certified and could not properly instruct him or record his progress toward his goals, per Cavallo. She also alleged that a paraprofessional restrained her son without notifying her or filing an incident report, and said the school nurse was unaware the restraint had happened at all, according to Cavallo's account. After the paraprofessional removed him from her care, Cavallo said her son spent the remainder of that time with the substitute and a parent. She called the episode unacceptable, especially in the absence of handle-with-care training, Cavallo said.
Acting Superintendent Andrea Oates-Parchment confirmed that the school's principal followed up with Cavallo and was aware of the incident, per the October 14 meeting. Oates-Parchment also said the district had unfilled positions and was working with Assistant Superintendent Rosemary Marks and staff to recruit candidates. She said specialized positions had remained unfilled since the previous school year, possibly due to job-security concerns, and said she would confirm whether that vacancy status had persisted.
Advocate Alleges Pattern of Missed IEP Services
Cindy Roman, president of the Hackensack Child Placement Advisory Council, told the board that children were not receiving legally mandated services and that classrooms lacked appropriately qualified staff. Roman alleged that IEPs were not being translated for parents and said teachers were not completing the documents case managers need to develop IEPs. She raised concern that general-education teachers without proper certifications were reportedly teaching special-education students, which she said violates special-education code and denies children a free appropriate public education.
Roman also claimed her own daughter was not receiving services required by her IEP, and said therapists were overloaded and lacked the schedule capacity to meet student needs. She said the district could not accommodate certain students because it needed to speak with the South Bergen Jointure Commission, which Hackensack Public Schools joined in June. Roman asked the board to ensure IEPs are properly developed and services are planned before eliminating any further special-education oversight.
Roman also tied the staffing problems to compensation and job cuts, saying staff eliminations and the salaries the district offers have deterred people from returning to work there. She said staff eliminations have caused recruitment difficulties, with potential employees telling her they did not want to work for the district. At the same October 28 meeting, business administrator Dennis Frohnapfel confirmed that the standard staff workday had decreased from 7.5 hours last year to 5.75 hours this year.
District Points to Budget Strain and Unfilled Jobs
The district maintains it would not let budget constraints affect student or staff safety and says it is committed to student safety and providing appropriate educational tools, according to the district. TAPinto Hackensack reported that it contacted Board of Education President Jennifer Harris for comment and had not immediately received a response.
Full-time paraprofessionals have transitioned into part-time positions within the district, per the TAPinto Hackensack report. That shift comes as Hackensack works through a financial crisis that forced emergency intervention earlier this year. In January, the Hackensack City Council approved transferring $6.5 million in emergency funds to the school district to prevent up to 90 layoffs of teachers and staff, according to nj.com. That money came from the city's $21.8 million budget surplus.
The district faced a reported $17 million shortfall that an audit attributed to years of improper budgeting, rising health insurance costs and staffing increases not supported by revenue, the outlet reported. From 2020 through 2026, about $47.5 million of the district's fund balance was used to offset spending, nj.com reported. Even as the district drew down reserves, staffing levels rose by roughly 20 percent while enrollment declined by more than 350 students between 2022 and 2025, per the same nj.com analysis.
Hackensack Public Schools has posted an updated corrective action plan that is pending final approval from the New Jersey Department of Education, according to meeting materials on the district's website. Cavallo and Roman raised their concerns at the October 14 regular meeting.
State Pilot Caps Non-Certified Hires, Requires Reporting
New Jersey law allows schools approved by the Commissioner of Education to hire individuals holding a “limited certificate of eligibility” or a “limited certificate of eligibility with advanced standing” under a pilot program, but caps those hires at no more than 10 percent of a school's total teaching staff, according to the New Jersey Legislature. Schools approved for the pilot must also submit an annual report evaluating its impact on instruction, per the same statute.
Parent complaints about IEP processes are not unique to Hackensack. New Jersey's education department found in 2022 that Newark Public Schools, which enrolled nearly 7,000 students with disabilities during the school year that had just ended in 2025, had problems with reporting of education plans, notifying parents of meetings, and missing meetings with parents and students with disabilities, according to NJ Spotlight News. State lawmakers later passed a law requiring improvements to the IEP process statewide, the outlet reported.
