City Comptroller pushes for expanded role of parental involvement in education

June 10, 5:15 PMQueens Education News ExaminerLorraine Cappuccio

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New York City Comptroller William Thompson has accused the New York City Department of Education of failing to make sure that parents have a substantial role in decision making regarding their children's' education, even though state law has clearly defined the  role  they are  supposed to take.

In New York City there are three main ways for parents to become involved in education policy decisions affecting their children's' education: They are local district Community Education Councils, parent associations and school-based leadership teams.

At a recent news conference Thomas revealed a report entitled Powerless Parents: How the New York City Department of Education Blocks Parental Influence in Local School Governance.   Thompson's staff surveyed officers of 24 CECs (Community Eduaction Councils) and other parent leaders to determine the extent and the quality of parental involvement in school governance. According to Thompson, CECs  are limited in exercising the powers and duties given to them by the Education law. CECs are meant to represent elementary and middle school parents at the district level. Also many city schools do not have a working Parent Association or Parent Teacher Association. Further ,School Leadership Teams were largely ineffectual. Thompson also accused the DOE of not following 10 different provisions of the Education Law governing CECs

Education Law states that principals need to solicit SLT(School Leadership Team) input when writing the school based budget but this rarely occurs. The law also requires that every school has a PTA (Parent -teacher association) or a PA (Parent association). All school principals must see to this. However recent data suggests that up to 18% percent of city schools have either no parent association or a "barely functioning" association.  There are few Family Advocates per school district  and since they report to the main Education Department office rather than local superintendents they possess limited ability to resolve parental concerns.

In order to strengthen  the role of parents serving on CECs(Community Education Councils), SLTs and in parent associations Thompson offered these recommendations:
 

State Law should be amended so that principals will be more likely to collaborate completely with School Leadership Teams in preparing the school's education plan and enable the SLT full input into the school based budget.

The DOE must provide updated training for parents who serve on School Leadership Teams and Community Education Councils.

Superintendents should be in charge of District Family Advocates.

Education Law should be amended to make sure that CECs's are notified and have enough time to advise and be consulted before drastic actions are taken that could affect one school or several schools in a district.

The DOE should inform the public about which schools have strong SLTs and PAs, as well as data regarding the performance of CECs.

The DOE should tailor the current structure for parental involvement.

Thompson believes that by implementing these suggestions parents of city students would be given a more meaningful role in the development and implementation of education policy that is within their rights. 

Source: The Wave (6/5/09)

For more info:    To view Comptroller Thompson's report mentioned in this article please visit :
                               www.comptroller.nyc.gov.