Parents of disabled children who attend private schools are cheering a legislative victory that levels their rights with those of public school parents.

In New York, all parents can now challenge a school district’s plan for what extra educational services a child with disabilities should receive at a hearing presided over by an impartial officer. The state Education Department this year had proposed rewriting state law to channel private school parents’ complaints through a different process.

Advocates said the change would have eliminated those parents’ due-process rights, forcing them to make any complaints in writing rather than at a hearing. Facing pressure, the department backed down, and the bill Governor Spitzer signed last month preserves a single complaint process for all parents.

“The state Education Department was trying to pull a fast one on the nonpublic school community, and we picked up on it,” the executive director of the Sephardic Community Federation, David Greenfield, said.

Another advocate, Leah Steinberg of Agudath Israel of America, praised the quality of special education services in New York, saying religious school parents rarely make challenges in hearings. But she defended their right to do so if necessary. “Parents of special-needs students often feel powerless. Taking away due process rights, which do empower them, would have been cruel,” she said.

Hearings, which force districts to hire lawyers to defend their decisions, can be costly, and parent advocates said the state’s argument for cutting them was partly financial. An Education Department spokesman, Tom Dunn, did not comment on the cost argument, saying the department now supports the Legislature’s decision.

The director for education at the New York State Catholic Conference, James Cultrara, said he would be willing to discuss the cost issue. “But if we’re going to make changes, it should apply to all families equally,” he said.