Exclusive: Long Island parents say kids aren't getting the help they need in school

RIVERHEAD (WABC) -- In an Eyewitness News exclusive, parents of two children on Long Island are fighting for their kids.

Both say they aren't getting the help they need, and the school district isn't helping.

They say they've been getting the runaround for a year and their children are the ones paying the price. 7-year-old Tristan Fleming hasn't been in school for a year.

"What did you not like about that school?", we asked. "They were mean," he said.

Tristan has autism and Tourette's. His parents say the problems began at Aqueboque Elementary School last fall.

His parents say staff ignored Tristan's tics and at least once smacked his hands to get his attention.

Tristan developed so much anxiety he could no longer go back to school.

"He would vomit, rip off his clothes," said Tristan's father Kevin Fleming.

"The doctors got involved, they said that is the school that caused all this disrupt in his life and caused the tics to be worse so they definitely don't want him back there," said Tristan's mother Janice Fleming.

The school district said they would provide home tutoring. But Tristan's parents say the tutors consistently wouldn't show up, sometimes for weeks.

They say they asked the district for help but nothing was done.

And then in May when his parents pursued legal action against the school district for not providing Tristan services: "The day we filed the papers they called CPS for educational neglect," said Janice.

It's a similar story we heard from Raquel Ortiz, whose daughter Rashell is also in the Riverhead School District.

Rashell has autism. Ortiz says the problems for her daughter began last winter at Riverhead Middle School.

She says an aide bullied Rashell. "She told me she used to tell her, you're a bad girl, you're don't do good at class, you don't deserve a prize, you're this you're that, she said she did not want to go back in school," said Rashell's mother Raquel Ortiz.

Again the school district promised tutors would come to their home. "The last one was making excuses saying that her mother was sick, her child was sick, many excuses, please I need someone reliable..no response," Raquel said.

Education advocate George Deabold is fighting the school district on behalf of both families.

"I'm going to keep filing papers and I'm going to fix it. I'm going to make sure they fix it," said Deabold.

Both parents have asked the Riverhead school district to place their children in another school district.

They say school district officials have told them they will do that, but they refuse to tell them what school they would actually place them into.

I reached out to the Riverhead superintendent Nancy Carney with several phone calls and e-mails. She did not respond.