Comments to NYSED on how their proposed regs on the class size law omit the public process timeline in the law

Update Jan. 5, 2024: As we requested, the mandated timeline was put into the final regulations.

November 8, 2023

Below and here  see comments from Class Size Matters, Alliance for Quality Education, and the Education Law Center on the proposed State regulations concerning the public process required for the development and submission of the new class size law. 

The NY State Education Department drafted proposed regulations that omit the timeline specified in the new law that requires that the public comment period and submission of the plan occur before the start of the new school year, to ensure that the Contracts for Excellence funds and other state Foundation Aid have not already been spent and to allow real State scrutiny and potential revision, including a corrective action plan, of how NYC will meet the class size benchmarks in coming year.

As the letter points out,

This section of the law was added because the New York City Department of Education (NYC
DOE) has a long and unfortunate history of delaying the Contracts for Excellence public process,
including holding hearings and submitting its C4E plan for state approval well after the school
year has begun, school budget allocations have long since been made, and C4E funding has long since
been spent, making the entire public process essentially meaningless. Indeed, the impetus for the
amendment to the C4E law spelling out a timeline was the NYC DOE’s chronic delays in
the development and finalization of its C4E plans.

Instead, this year the DOE submitted their revised, totally inadequate “plan” for approval by the state on Sept. 29, 2023, long after the C4E funding and Foundation Aid had already been allocated and much of it spent.  Moreover, the “plan” included no specific funding for school staffing, school construction or  changes in enrollment  that would allow the annual benchmarks in the new class size law to be met, starting next year and beyond.