A close-up look at NYC education policy, politics,and the people who have been, are now, or will be affected by these actions and programs. ATR CONNECT assists individuals who suddenly find themselves in the ATR ("Absent Teacher Reserve") pool and are the "new" rubber roomers, people who have been re-assigned from their life and career. A "Rubber Room" is not a place, but a process.
Education Commissioner Betty Rosa wrote in a Thursday memo that districts “may work with students and families to offer remote options if it is deemed to be in the best educational interest of the student.”
Children with special needs have accommodations on their Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) which are funded by the state and federal governments. Having been a parent advocate for 22 years and a parent to four children all of whom graduated from the NYCDOE (one with an IEP), and after winning almost $1 million for parents to attend private schools or programs at Impartial Hearings, I can give an informed opinion on the Department's latest false statement that these students possibly will be staying home and doing remote schooling.
The fact is, the Department wants/needs/spends the federal and state funds, and must monitor these funds closely, for audits and accountability purposes.
I and many other advocates for parents of children with disabilities know very well the fraud going on in NYC public schools in the area of giving the proper services to the kids who need them. Take ICT classes, for instance. ICT classes are supposed to have two teachers in the core subjects: one certified in special education and the other certified to teach general education students. Many principals give the ICT classes only one teacher, or one teacher and a substitute/paraprofessional. It's cheaper to do this. Also, when a parent gets let's say OT (Occupational Therapy) on their child's IEP and their child is supposed to get 3X30 (three sessions/week for 30 minutes) I tell the parent to have the therapist jot down a note of how their child did after each session, or ask the child every day what happened in school. Parents can keep track of missing dates of therapy.
But most parents don't do this, so principals, always mindful of keeping the school budget in the black (not over-spending available funds), may take away one or two days/week of the therapy and give the child one OT session/week, while telling the therapist not let the parents know. This is a business model of special education where the child comes last.
What happens if the parent finds out? The principal is "horrified", and disciplines the OT person with a letter-to-file, discontinuance, or 3020-a charges. Then it is up to the OT person to defend his/her work, his/her schedule, career, character and life.
There are many, many stories that are the same, with the common denominator being "how much can I get away with"?
The only way this might work is to give each parent of a child with an IEP the money for remote schooling, so the parent can use it as they see fit, with proper monitoring.
Julia Marsh and Selim Algar, NY POST, July 31, 2021
City officials are considering a remote schooling option for kids with immunocompromised relatives, a source told The Post Friday.
The Department of Education previously said that students who themselves are vulnerable could learn from home — but the city may now extend that offer to kids with family members at elevated risk, the City Hall source said.
News of the proposal drew skepticism from some educators. A Bed-Stuy middle school teacher warned that expanding remote learning eligibility could complicate the resumption of classes in September.
“It’s going to be difficult to know where to draw the line,” she said. “I can see that becoming a headache for principals if it’s not handled properly or clearly.”
Meanwhile, state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa wrote in a Thursday memo that districts “may work with students and families to offer remote options if it is deemed to be in the best educational interest of the student.”
She also urged administrators to “consider the value of online capacity developed in response to the pandemic” in crafting their curriculums this year.
Rosa stressed, however, that state officials “will not require schools that are open for full-time, in-person instruction to provide online or remote instruction” to students.
Asserting that screen learning is inferior to in-person instruction and isolates kids, others have demanded an unrestrained return to classrooms.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has been adamant in proclaiming the end of widespread remote classes — but the emergence of the Delta variant has induced fresh parental jitters about the upcoming year.
“While the nature and extent of COVID-19 and its variants are still dynamic, it is essential that schools receive whatever guidance the Governor and the DOH intend to offer about the 2021-2022 school year as soon as possible …,” Rosa wrote in her letter to superintendents.
Citing ongoing coronavirus concerns, some have backed the mandate and argued that the pandemic remains a threat inside classrooms.
Others have resisted the push, countering that COVID-19 cases in city schools were minimal last year and that masks hinder learning and socialization.
The DOE insisted Friday that the remote format introduced last year was completely defunct.
“As we announced in May, we will welcome back all students in September and there will not be a remote option,” said spokesperson Katie O’Hanlon. “Our home instruction program, which benefits a small number of children who are medically unable to attend school, will continue as it did pre-pandemic and as always, we will work with families to tailor the instruction based on the medical needs of each child.”
Backers include City Council education chair Mark Treyger, who said the “DOE should offer a fall remote option for kids not of vaccination age” earlier this month.
Principal Alice Hom (left) and teacher Laura Lai start the school day remotely with
students at Yung Wing School P.S. 124.
The pandemic that hit the United States will forever be known here in New York City as the event that changed everything for kids, parents, and advocates in New York City's public schools.
New York City has been described as the most corrupt city with the largest public school system in the US. My perspective comes from my activities as a parent and education advocate who has 4 children who went through the NYC public schools. Discrimination, segregation,deceit and fraud are imbedded into the structure of the NYC Department of Education. Change happens rarely because the Courts and State legislature are bought by the same people who benefit from the inequality. Lawsuits are won on a case by case basis, not by touching the underlying foundation. Its like turning off the water but not fixing the pipe.
All public schools are not included in the pile of trash, and it can be said that NYC public schools have the best education programs in the world as well as the worst, only here money is distributed through a prism of implicit bias and racial segregation. It's the geography of the city that has made this happen. It's always about the money. Always. In general terms those with money have what they need to succeed; those without, don't and cannot get what they need unless they go to the "right" people who are not bought or co-opted out by nefarious people or other powerful forces.
Pat Romandetto
For years parents, teachers, and concerned others in Harlem and the South Bronx have cried out in vain that there are no good public schools in these neighborhoods. I witnessed blatant hypocrisy and segregation in Booker T. Washington MS 54 when I was PTA President (1999-2001), and I tried to equalize the resources and was attacked by white parents who did not want their kids to lose their privileged position in the Delta Honors Program. Delta had the third floor at the school, and the other 4 programs, whose rosters included community kids and special education students, occupied the second and first floors. Principal Larry Lynch made a mistake when he "borrowed" the check my PTA raised for more than $13,700 and told me that Superintendent Pat Romandetto had to "see" it. He then delivered a Comprehensive Education Plan to Pat that had a fraudulent signature page re-used from a prior year, in order to hide all data of MS 54's systemic misallocation of funds from the School Leadership Team, where I was a member.
I still remember a meeting I had as PTA President with Pat and Larry in the District 3 office where I heard Pat and Larry laughingly say how they obtained $1 million in Title 1 funding although Booker T. no longer qualified to get those funds. I reported this to the Special Commissioner and New York State Education Department.
Back to my missing PTA check.We needed the money for science equipment, so I spent a school year trying to get the money back while I was vilified by the white Delta parents and the District 3 Officer for Family Engagement, D.J. Sheppard. It was rough. Through the entire time I had a whistleblower parent who pretended she was part of the gang and gave me everything they emailed and or handed out. Staff in the main office at MS 54 secretly gave me documents, budgets, rosters, everything I needed. Thanks to them, I got through the bad stuff and learned how the DOE worked. I took notes and recorded conversations (legal in New York State, which is a one-party state).
In 2001 after 9-11, the late former Chancellor Harold Levy moved into the conference room right outside of Principal Stanley Teitel's office at Stuyvesant High School. As I was on the PA Executive Board as Editor of the PA Bulletin, the newspaper, Stan asked me to keep Harold company. So I did. I told him all about Booker T. and what I saw. He told me to talk with his buddy Deputy Chancellor Burt Sacks, so I did, and Burt told me that all principals take money. I wrote it all up for the new Chancellor Joel Klein and handed it to him personally as he was about to start a meeting at Tweed. He fired Burt Sacks on the spot, and Randi Weingarten hired him as a Special Representative/Assistant to her, within a few weeks or days, I do not remember. He later went to CUNY. Larry Lynch was removed from the school and I heard that he was hired by New York University. Pat Romandetto was replaced and sued for racial discrimination. I went to her trial. While she was on the witness stand the lighting in the Courtroom put Pat and her fur coat in such a light that she looked exactly like Cruella De Vil ("Devil"). It was warm in the Courtroom, but she kept that fur coat on, just like Cruella.
The reason I have spent a little time on some background is to back up what I am about to say. This is an important time in the history of public schools in NYC, and not only for the students, but for parents and educators.
Without students attending classes inside the Department of Education buildings, theft of federal and state funding is going to have to change. What will "proof of attendance" look like? How are schools going to get money for "seat time"?
With remote teaching the 3020-a arbitration panel for incompetence and/or misconduct charges will have to be re-designed or put on hold, long-term. How are teachers going to be evaluated? Chancellor Carranza said this past week that no one will be, and he hopes that everyone can work together. I'm all for that. Is the Danielson rubric over, done, trash? I hope so.
With no teachers or Guidance Counselors in a school, no corporal punishment charges can be proven. Notice I am not saying that charges wont be brought, because we all know that anyone can accuse anyone of anything and have the person terminated in a 3020-a hearing (if the Respondent does not have a good rep. fighting for him/her). Proving there was no information of intent or harm is what I do. Show me the facts, the doctors' reports, police complaints, dispositions. Otherwise, stop talking and withdraw the charges.
Without grades for K-8, and systemic false data posted into school VADIR or NYSED data, how will private schools and higher education/colleges/universities look at students from NYC for potential placement?
What about 1:1 paraprofessionals and therapists? How can they do their work remotely? How are they going to be evaluated?
The list goes on and on.
So, new techniques of assessment and accountability must be created. We need new security measures and ways to monitor data and people. We are not seeing this yet.
I have to tell ya, COVID-19, you have really been a gold digger for the corruption police. Everything false, misleading and not valid is bubbling up to the top.
I'm excited to see what happens next with the new normal NYC Department of Education and it's thorns and scorns.
The city boasts that 89 percent of school kids are engaging in “daily interactions” with their teachers during coronavirus-sparked remote learning. But educators dismiss the statistics as smoke and mirrors.
“A student can literally text or email ‘F–k you’ — and that counts as a meaningful interaction,” an elementary school teacher told The Post.
Interactions do not mean class attendance or completed assignments.
“All a student needs to do is hit ‘turn in’ on Google Classroom without doing the assignment and that counts,” the teacher said.
Contact with parents can also be tallied, but it does not necessarily indicate learning. “A text from a parent saying ‘My child isn’t doing the work’ counts as a daily interaction,” the teacher added.
The DOE leaves it up to each school to define interactions, but says they may include a submitted assignment, joining an online discussion, a student’s or parent’s phone call or email or response to a message, or “other evidence of participation as determined by the principal.”
At some schools, teachers report students simply signing in — but then disappearing for the day and turning in no work — is defined as an “interaction.”
According to a DOE press release Wednesday, the agency tallied an average 88.6 percent of students in Pre-K through grade 12 had “daily interactions” from May 18-22.
An impressive total, but even if true it leaves some 128,500 kids a day who did not even check-in. The DOE has nearly 1.1 million students enrolled.
It’s unclear if the absent kids are playing virtual hooky, lack an iPad, laptop and Internet access, or can’t take part because of personal or family hardships.
All three reasons are possible, teachers say.
“A big part of the job has been playing ‘phone number detective,’” a Brooklyn high-school teacher said, describing efforts to track down missing kids.
“Some students who were doing excellent in class have fallen off the face of the earth,” the humanities teacher said.
A couple of his students are homeless and living in shelters where they don’t have a place to sit and learn, or parents who can support them. Other no-shows are Spanish-speaking immigrants.
Another reason for their disappearance: “They’ve got jobs,” the teacher said. One teen, whose mother died when she was young, is working in a supermarket.
School staffers spend hours every day trying to contact no-shows.
“We call, we text, we email to get students to sign on for live instruction. It’s extremely frustrating,” a Harlem special-ed teacher said. ”Some kids go MIA for days at a time.”
Last week, the teacher contacted every parent of kids in her class with the message, “Your child needs to attend Google Meet at 11 a.m. for live math instruction.”
“No one showed up. No one,” she said.
All her students have iPads or laptops, but some parents say they run into Internet problems or can’t help their kids because they’re working. Babysitters or grandparents may not speak English.
The most students who have attended her live classes was about 50 percent, she said. Students who do log on are so “desperate” to catch up with friends the teacher gives them 10 minutes or so to chat.
A City Council hearing on remote instruction last week left City Councilman Mark Treyger, education committee chairman, frustrated, he told The Post.
“The DOE did not know how many students have never logged on, or don’t log on regularly. The DOE did not know how many students are receiving live instruction. The DOE did not know how many students received wellness-check calls, and how often those calls are made.”
Chief Academic Officer Linda Chen could not answer Treyger’s questions.
The DOE could not answer Treyger’s questions, but insisted that absenteeism is no greater for online classes.
“On any given day during in-person schooling, nearly 10 percent of students may be absent, and our current interaction data is comparable,” said spokeswoman Danielle Filson.
“We are checking in with students and families everyday, and we intensify our outreach when students are chronically absent. We’re going above and beyond to keep kids on track and make sure they’re okay during this pandemic.”
The city Department of Education doesn’t know how many of its students are actually being live taught at home during the coronavirus lockdown, officials conceded Wednesday.
Asked if they were keeping track of live lesson provision in the wake of the closure of schools in March, a top DOE official had no answers at a City Council meeting Wednesday.
“We don’t have exact data on how many students are receiving it or for how long,” said chief academic officer Linda Chen.
Those parents said they were provided worksheets via email and ended up providing more instruction to their kids than DOE staffers.
While many city teachers have gamely managed to retain live teaching through video apps, many have opted out of the practice.
Instructors have relayed a raft of challenges associated with remote teaching, from uneven tech resources among students and cybersecurity concerns to haphazard administrative direction and shoddy training.
Teachers union chief Michael Mulgrew called remote learning a “success” overall Wednesday and said many teachers have embraced live teaching under extreme duress.
Citing the variety of hurdles teachers face to recreate their classrooms from afar, the United Federation of Teachers has told members they are not obligated to practice it even if administrators demand it.
“Every teacher in every school community and administrative staff in New York City had to learn how to go to remote learning,” Mulgrew said Wednesday. “There was no plan in place, there was no support system in place, there was no training in place. Every school had to figure it out on their own.”
While he voiced concerns over the uneven provision of live teaching, Councilman Mark Treyger urged city residents to empathize with the position city educators have been placed in.
“I remind folks that educators are also human beings, they have experienced loss of colleagues, they have experienced loss in their families,” he said. “They are in many cases the primary caretakers for families at home.”
The DOE stressed that it tracks daily remote involvement of city kids to monitor “attendance” – although each school has a different threshold for what it considers engagement.
“There is no one-size fits all approach, and teachers are structuring their day to best meet the needs of their students and families,” said DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson. “Teachers have been using tools and techniques to engage students, mixing live and self-paced instruction to accommodate other responsibilities faced by students and employees during these times.”
Filson said live teaching has “value” and that the DOE was facilitating it “when possible.”
