Pete Morones, a bilingual clinical psychologist, didn't have to think twice about buying a building to house his office.

For professional support staff, there is a psychologist, a Spanish-speaking bilingual psychologist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, an early childhood liaison, two Franciscan Children's Hospital counselors, and a City Connects coordinator.

Ms. Weiss was until recently a bilingual psychologist at the New York City Board of Education in Manhattan.

Mr McNeil said, however, that given the CRE investigation he could not say if the education department had subsequently employed any bilingual educational psychologists or more interpreters.

The region is alleged to have largely ignored children's bilingual and cultural backgrounds during their special needs' assessment, and, in a high number of cases, failed to provide interpreters or bilingual psychologists during interviews with children and their parents.