[citation needed] Reassignment centers arose as a budgetary concern in bureaucratic studies and press coverage in the spring of 2008, and cost the city more than $65 million per year in labor expenses.
In June 2012, it was revealed that the New York State Education Department had not paid its arbitrators for many years, and collectively owed them millions of dollars for cases they had completed, or were in the process of hearing.
In frustration, ten of the 24 arbitrators on the New York City panel had quit, while the remaining 14 were refusing to hear any testimony or issue any decisions unless their back wages were paid in full.
[needs update] Filmmakers Jeremy Garrett and Justin Cegnar of Five Boroughs Productions produced an independent documentary on the centers, called The Rubber Room,[5][6] which was the basis for a segment on the radio program This American Life.
[7] In the May 2011 episode of The Simpsons titled The Ned-Liest Catch, school teacher Edna Krabappel is sent to a reassignment room after striking Bart in the back of the head twice for pulling a prank.