| Releases & Statements
For Immediate Release: May 11, 2006
Contact: Frank Sobrino, Press Secretary
O: (212) 669-4193
Thank
you, Chair Jackson, for holding this important hearing.
Since
the Mayor first assumed control over the city's schools, I have
urged the Department of Education to invite everyone with a stake
in public education-parents, teachers, administrators, elected
officials-to contribute their ideas to the reform process that
is underway. I have also expressed concern about the DOE's history
of developing its plans behind closed doors and implementing them
without advance notice, let alone an opportunity for parents and
other stakeholders to offer input.
Unfortunately,
four years into Mayoral control of the schools, the problems persist.
The DOE still refuses to break out of its bunker mentality and
give parents a meaningful role in the reform process. In so doing,
it is not only showing disrespect to the New Yorkers who entrust
their children's education to our public schools, it is depriving
itself of a valuable resource.
We
saw a perfect example of this two weeks ago when the DOE took
a sudden interest in cellphones, using a security crackdown as
an opportunity to revive an 18-year-old ban on "beepers and other
communications devices" that it has hardly bothered to enforce
until now.
My
office has heard from many parents who are justifiably upset because
an important line of communication to their children is being
cut off. They want to know why their right to keep in touch with
their children-a right that is vitally important in this post-9/11
world-has been superseded by an out-of-date regulation. They wonder
if a sudden explosion of cheating or gang violence in the past
few days has necessitated this sudden change in policy.
Among
the parents voicing their concern is Bambi Everson, whose autistic
daughter attends a public high school. The teen commutes by subway
from either her mother's house in one borough, or her father's
house in another, to her school in a third borough. Ms. Everson's
daughter is high-functioning, and her disability would be unnoticeable
to a police officer confiscating cellphones. But even the slightest
change in her normal commute can be disorienting or even dangerous
for her.
--MORE--
The
DOE says that students with special needs can obtain an exemption
to the regulation against cellphones, but clearly it has not effectively
communicated this information to parents. In any case, the tail-end
of the school year is not the time for a new, gung-ho approach
to an old policy. Instead, the DOE should take the time from now
until the start of the new school year to listen to parents and
develop an updated cellphone policy that sensibly curbs inappropriate
cellphone use in schools without alarming parents or jeopardizing
student safety.
I
have reached out to the Chancellor on this issue, and I hope prior
to the next school year we can work with a group of interested
parties to develop such a policy.
The
cellphone controversy is not an isolated one, however. From new
accountability standards to shifts in special education and school
safety, the DOE routinely revises its procedures and restructures
schools without keeping parents in the loop. As a result, it falls
on the elected representatives of the parents, including myself
and the City Council, to legislate greater transparency in the
school reform process.
To
this end, yesterday I re-introduced legislation requiring the
DOE to create and maintain detailed files for each student seeking
or receiving special education services and prepare an annual
report based on those files. I first introduced the bill after
a survey of nearly 300 school psychologists and administrators
by my office revealed that the DOE was pressuring school superintendents
to keep down referral rates for special education placements.
The
annual report would be submitted to my office, the City Council,
and the Citywide Council on Special Education, a parent organization,
enabling parents and their elected representatives to hold the
DOE accountable for its policies and ensure that all students
get the services they need to learn.
Such
legislation would be a mere formality if the DOE would simply
break its code of secrecy and respect the right of parents to
be actively involved in their children's education.
Thank
you.
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