Post a comment about the budget cuts at your school on our interactive comment map. more »
GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools
admissions season
March 5, 2010
City debuts its new common application for charter schools
Every spring, the city’s charter schools hold admissions lotteries and every year, parents applying to multiple charters must fill out a different application for each school. But this year, parents will have a new option: a common application.
The application, which can be sent or turned in to any of the city’s 99 charter schools, is one page long and is available in eight different languages.
It’s not a complete replacement for schools’ individual applications. This year, schools have to accept both the common application and their individualized forms, a change that Department of Education officials hope will make the process simpler and increase the number of applicants. Officials are considering making the common application mandatory in coming years.
DOE officials have been developing the application for months, and in January officials from the State University of New York and Board of Regents charter authorizers agreed to have their charter schools join city-authorized schools in using the application.
A side effect of the common application is that it could quiet criticism that the difficulty of filling out dozens of different applications is narrowing the field of applicants to those with motivated, supportive parents.
“The intention is to make the process accessible to those who might but get deterred by the six page applications or something like that,” said DOE spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld. “It’s not as if this is meant to pull people away from district schools. It’s to make the process for those already interested a much more accessible and easily understand process.”
The application asks for less information than many schools’ own lottery enrollment forms. It doesn’t ask parents for a birth certificate copy, or to check off whether their child has a learning disability or is not fluent in English — a common request that alarms some parents and charter school critics who worry that the schools will discriminate against more challenging students.
However, it does provide a space for parents to write whether their child falls into an “at-risk” category. “This information is optional but providing it may increase your student’s chances of admission to certain schools,” the application reads. Schools also can follow up with parents if they want more information.
Most charter schools’ application deadlines fall in early April, leaving the department without much time to get the common application into parents hands. Last weekend, Harlem’s education fair arrived too early for parents to be given the common application.
-
March 5th, 2010 6:26 pm
I am not sure if parents should divulge their child’s “at-risk” information to the charter schools.
If it’s optional, then there’s no need to provide it. I feel that the charter schools are using that information to eventually admit less “at-risk” students.
-
March 5th, 2010 8:17 pm
noticed-
Your unfounded statement could actually risk students with disabilities from receiving critical services. As the special education coordinator for a high achieving school, I have to comb the DOE’s CAP system with the student ID of every student that receives a seat at my school. This year alone, we had four student’s families intentionally not record that information. Not only does this cause a huge amount of backtracking, file searching, and delays in providing accommodations and modifications, but it can also significantly delay mandated services. I have to find related service providers to service my kids and authorization from the DOE that the provider is under contract with the city.
It takes a weeks upon weeks, months upon months, to secure these vital services for my students. And that’s if I know well before the start of the school year! Getting these providers is difficult and takes a huge amount of outreach and time. Hearing providers are particularly agonizing to find; there are so few of them and many decline immediately when they learn of my school’s neighborhood.
Families failing to inform schools of their child’s academic, physical, and emotional needs are creating a huge disservice that could have lasting, even lifelong, consequences. If a family believes that a school is engaging in the manner you describe, report them to the charter’s operator. No one wants a school like that in their city!
Be assured I’m neither pro-charter nor anti-union. I just fundamentally believe that a good school is a good school. I work mind blowing hours and put every ounce of effort I can possibly manage to get my kids to where they need to be. And I speak for dozens of committed special educators who do the same. I have never “counseled out” a single student and never will unless I truly believe that placement at my school would actually cause the child harm. Just like a district school is obligated to do.
In the interest of students with special needs, I’d advise a parent to note the educational status on the application. A responsible school will ensure that every component of support is provided on the first day of school.
-
March 6th, 2010 6:24 am
[...] City debuts its new common application for charter schools … [...]
-
March 6th, 2010 9:42 am
yomister,
I want to thank you for the information regarding at-risk students. It’s my fault that I didn’t elaborate more on my statement. But, it was not, and will never be, my intention to discredit or reject at-risk students. In fact, those are my best challenging students that inspire me to do more. Allow me to explain.
I am in favor of all schools that will take every child that comes through their doors looking for that opportunity to succeed. I always say that schools (public, private, parochial, charter) are the gateway out of poverty. When a student sits in my classroom, I see an individual who has strengths and weaknesses and it’s the job of the teacher to do everything in his/her power to ensure that child gets the best education.
Unfortunately, I am very saddened by the underhandedness of certain charter schools where at-risk students are surreptitiously removed from non-public schools. Fortunately, they don’t have to worry because our goal, as public school teachers is to welcome all. So I had to question the “optional” part of providing information on the application of “at-risk”. If the charter schools will start admitting “all” children with their strengths and weaknesses, with their various level of disabilities which are always categorized as “at-risk”, and the different levels of the ESL students, then there should not be an “optional” part. But, I truly do not understand the purpose of the “optional” part of informing the charter school of an “at-risk” child if all children must be educated and helped. I found that suspicious; notwithstanding the fact, that charter schools are not reaching out to every “at-risk” child.
Hence, my statement that parents should not provide it. Let’s teach every child that walks through the gateway out of poverty, the schools.
-
March 6th, 2010 4:16 pm
[...] City debuts its new common application for charter schools … [...]
-
March 6th, 2010 5:17 pm
There’s a big difference between providing information about students with disabilities on an application for a lottery and providing that information once a student has been accepted into a school. If the lottery is going to be truly random, then the school shouldn’t need any more information than the grade of the child and contact information to let the parent know if the child was selected through the lottery. Only then should school ask for detailed information about each accepted student in order to serve them best.
The exception to this is when a school gives a preference for at-risk students, in which case the school needs to know if an applicant meets its criteria in order to make its lottery work properly.
-
March 7th, 2010 1:29 pm
[...] City debuts its new common application for charter schools … [...]
-
March 23rd, 2010 11:41 am
[...] Press Deputy Jack Zarin-Rosenfield explained to GothamSchools that the DOE’s “intention is to make the process accessible to those who might get deterred [...]
Leave a Reply
Mapping the Budget Cuts
Copyright Notice
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
8 Comments
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack