City charter office to schools: start parent groups by October

No Parent Left Behind

September 7, 2010

City charter office to schools: start parent groups by October

by Maura Walz, at 6:43 pm

For the first time, the Department of Education’s charter school office is forcing all New York City charters to start parent associations.

The change is a direct result of the new charter cap legislation that Albany passed in May. In addition to doubling the number of charters allowed to open, the legislature amended state education law to say that charter schools located in New York City must establish parent or parent-teacher associations.

What remained unclear over the summer was whether the new provision would be enforced by the city, or by each school’s individual authorizer.

Today, the acting director of the city’s charter school office, Aaron Listhaus, sent a memo to leaders of all of the city’s charter schools — regardless of who authorized them or when — instructing them to start forming parent organizations if they have not done so already.

Listhaus gave the schools an October 1 deadline to check in with his office on their progress starting a parent group. Charter school authorizers have never before had to track whether their schools have parent groups. Hard numbers about how many schools will be affected by the change were not available today. But Listhaus and a spokeswoman from the New York City Charter School Center estimated that a majority of city charter schools currently do have parent organizations.

The full memo from Listhaus to charter school leaders is below:

http://www.nycharterparents.org Mona Davids (NY Charter Parents Association)

NYCPA advocated and got the law changed mandating EVERY charter school in NYC have PA/PTA’s along with other reforms including charters serving and retaining ALL our children including Special Ed, ELL and low performing students.

Let’s be clear, it’s not because the DoE, charter lobby or most charter schools were willing to do this on their own.

Lastly, the law states PA/PTA’s NOT parent council, family council, parent committee or any other named parent organization.

At our September 30 meeting, we’ll be helping parents organize their PA/PTA’s.

Thank you to the Indypendent for printing the truth in their Back to School Issue at:
http://www.indypendent.org/INDY_ISSUE_ARCHIVE/INDY_ISSUE_155/ISSUE155_INDYPENDENT_SEP8.pdf

NYCPA is pleased that the DoE finally notified charter leaders on our right to now have PA/PTA’s in NYC charters.
Michael Fiorillo

What does it say about these schools, endlessly and dishonestly hyped as exemplars of “The Civil Rights Movement of Our Time” that they have to be forced to establish parent organizations?
http://www.classsizematters.org Leonie Haimson

Mona: didn’t the SUNY charter office said that DOE did not have the authority to demand that PTAs be established in all NYC charter schools?
http://www.nycharterparents.org Mona Davids (NY Charter Parents Association)

Leonie:

You are correct, SUNY CSI has said that DoE/Chancellor does not have authority over their schools and the revised law re PA/PTA’s in charters does not apply to SUNY CSI authorized schools. The charter center agrees with SUNY CSI’s interpretation of the law AND believe PA/PTA’s erode the authority of charter schools.

Below are the quotes and links to the charter center’s brief to charter school leaders. Today’s letter from the DoE obviously differs with what the charter center, which Joel Klein is a board member of, is advising school leaders.

Like I’ve said, the charter lobby VEHEMENTLY OPPOSED the reforms NYCPA won.

http://nyccharterschools.org/storage/documents/Guide_to_new_charter_law_-_19_July_2010.pdf

Page 1
In another erosion of autonomy, the NYC schools Chancellor is purportedly given authority to ensure the establishment of parent associations at each charter school; the actual authority the Chancellor has to do this is unclear.
Page 8
Parent associationsIn an amendment to the school governance law, the Chancellor must now ensure that eachcharter school located in NYC has a parent association and that meetings of the parentassociation are, among, other things, open to the general public. SUNY has stated, however,and the Charter Center concurs, that contrary to the language in this amendment, theChancellor has no authority to require a charter school to form a parent association if 1) theschool is not authorized by the Chancellor; and 2) the school is not housed in a DOE building. Itis not clear the extent of the Chancellor’s authority more generally.
Both the Charter Center and SUNY CSI are wrong. EVERY charter school in NYC is required to have a PA/PTA. NYCPA fought for that right and we will ensure the law is followed.

Revised Charter Schools Act & NYS Education Law states:

29 S 26. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 15 of section 2590-h of the educa- 30 tion law, as amended by chapter 345 of the laws of 2009, is amended to 31 read as follows: 32 (a) establishing a parents’ association or a parent-teachers’ associ- 33 ation in each PUBLIC school under the chancellor’s jurisdiction; and 34 ensuring that the districts AND CHARTER SCHOOLS LOCATED WITHIN THE CITY 35 DISTRICT do the same; the chancellor shall ensure that meetings of such 36 parents’ associations or parent-teachers’ associations shall comply with 37 section four hundred fourteen of this chapter;

DoE, SUNY CSI and Regents authorized charters in NYC are now required to have PA/PTA’s. I’d like to believe that SUNY CSI’s interpretation of the law has changed upon further due diligence and they will not stand in the way of all SUNY CSI authorized schools in NYC complying with the law.
Mariama D. Sanoh

NYCPA was the first and only true INDEPENDENT Parent Association that has fought for ALL charters schools have a PA/PTA not a parents council or any other limited parent group that many charters had prior to the reform. From the inception NYCPA platform has stated that ALL schools have a Independent PA/PTA. I have never heard such statements from the DOE or New York City Charter School Center. The fact is that the DOE must comply with the law. This has been a victory for NYCPA and our supporters. It was NYCPA parent leaders that had taken endless trips to and fro’ Albany to meet with our state representatives to make this change happen!
What drives NYCPA is the passion of parents who are not only dedicated to changing the lives of their children but helping countless others. NYCPA has and continues to be a TRUE grassroots organization committed to reform
Gideon

While I don’t think a charter school should prevent its parents from forming a parent association, shouldn’t it be up to the parents of each school to decide if they want to form and maintain a parent association? And what exactly is the purpose of the parent association: is it to represent all of the parents interest or serve as an opportunity for interested parents to get involved. In my experience as a teacher serving on a PTA at a district school, there were about five active members who showed up to meetings regularly. While I think the PTA did good work and raised significant issues with the school administration, it was hardly representative of the entire parent body. Forcing every school to have a parent association will in no way guarantee meaningful parent involvement in the school and I don’t see why the burden is on the school to organize it if it has other more effective means of involving parents in administration and governance of the school.
http://blog.nycsa.org Peter Murphy

Mandating by law every charter school have a parent association will not translate to parents being more involved in a charter school. It guarantees nothing, in fact. Absent such a mandate, parents are free to form an association and work with the school, charter or district, as they exercise the effort. The law cannot mandate better parenting and more involvement in school or their child’s education. Sure, the school can encoourage it, which they already were required to do. It’s ultimately up to the parent(s) to determine their degree of activity and involvement. Many charters across the city and state have parent organizations to varying degrees and effectiveness.
More legislative mandates like this one do not make better schools. Holding schools accountable higher educational outcomes for students and closing them for failure to improve student academic outcomes is all that really matters; yet, every time the DOE tries to close a low-performing non-charter school, it gets thwarted, resulting in children remaining in low-performing schools. Oh, incidently, the new law does not actually apply to charter schools anywhere, because it did not amend the Charter Schools Act itself, unlike, for example, the staff fingerprint requirement. Furthermore, the City DOE has no authority over charter schools, including those it approved, to force a parent association since such authority derives from applicable law and the charter contract.
Pingback: In the New York Schools: Charter Controversies and Elephant Dung - NYTimes.com
http://public52schools.hpage.com/compare_louisiana_public_schools_6351_50311275.html robin quivers marathon

What does it say about these schools, endlessly and dishonestly hyped as exemplars of “The Civil Rights Movement of Our Time” that they have to be forced to establish parent organizations?
KitchenSink

Let’s fact facts, folks: there’s a huge gulf between home and school in some communities. You’re not going to legislate that away, and you’re not going to parent associate it away either. While I think this initiative is a good idea, the problem is cultural. Schools – and I think charter schools are more guilty of not doing this than district schools – need to think deeply about where parents are coming from, what are their prior experiences and expectations for school, and what are their goals. (HCZ is an example of the exception, of which there are many others.)There needs to be some major parent (what it means to be successful in school) education and educator (what it means to be culturally responsive) education to bridge the divide that is partly at the root of the NYT story we saw this morning about the racial achievement gap.

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No Parent Left Behind

September 7, 2010

City charter office to schools: start parent groups by October

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