2015 Action Agenda Plans

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School Overcrowding Action Plan

submitted by Leonie Haimson

  • Petition to Chancellor and Mayor
  • Attend PTAs and CECs to brief them on the issue
  • Ask parents to call their CMs to push for bigger capital plan
  • Get involved in areas that are being rezoned for more housing

 

Class Size Action Plan

submitted by Leonie Haimson

  • File general C4E complaint to commissioner
  • Help parents file individual C4E complaints
  • Put pressure on principals to push for smaller classes
  • Set up meeting between parents and UFT Mulgrew

 

Student Privacy Action plan

submitted by Leonie Haimson

  • Letter writing campaign to Commissioner about appointing permanent CPO & expanded Parent Bill of Rights
  • Set-up page to help with FERPA complaints
  • Make video with Fatima where she can talk about her experiences at Success charters and their violation of student privacy

 

Advocating with PEP (Panel for Educational Policy) Action Plan

submitted by Patrick Sullivan

  • Develop recommendations for a proactive agenda for the Panel for Educational Policy and advocate for the PEP to adopt this agenda.
  • The Panel can act in several ways to advance an agenda in support of public school families:
    1.  Communicate policy to public school community so that all stakeholders have common understanding of policies in place today.  An example would be ensuring parents, teachers and administrators understand the Parent Bill of Rights and are able to support compliance with it.
    2.  Change policies in areas under purview of Panel.  An example would be creating new regulation(s) requiring adequate space is available for instruction.
    3. Advocate for policies requiring action on behalf of legislature, city council, governor or other political entity.  An example would be asking governor and legislature to comply with Campaign for Fiscal Equity and formally endorsing litigation to compel public school funding in accordance with prior court findings.

We would need to invite others to join the effort, then plan for how best to encourage the PEP to adopt some of the above.  That encouragement could be providing testimony, meeting with Panel members or the elected that appointed them, doing sign-on letters, etc.

 

Mayoral Control Action Plan

submitted by Shino Tanikawa, Tesa Wilson, and Margaret Kelley

  • Fix the state law regarding PEP, CECs, PTAs
  • Hold elected officials accountable: ask them to sponsor bill amendments and make themselves if they don’t support our proposals
  • Propose a new PEP structure: majority non-Mayoral appointees & fixed terms
  • CEC – institute stricter eligibility requirements; better oversight

 

Advocating for Students with Special Needs Action Plan

submitted by Ellen McHugh

Parents of students with special needs have always been advocates as well as parents.
The Action Plan is to empower families to use the IDEA, NY regulations, and their own convictions to improve education for all students with special needs. This means that parents and families must also take the time (and have the resources) to understand the IDEA.

  • To achieve this goal, we should create a central source of support and information on IDEA and NY regulations for parents and families to access.
  • This central source of support and information should be made up of parents who are trained to answer questions (or know how to guide parents to other resources and help them find answers).
  • It could take the form of a phone bank or an internet site/forum.