Our legal action to stop the DOE from expanding online learning without parent consent

June 17, 2024

Last week, Class Size Matters and five parents launched a legal challenge to the DOE’s directive to schools regarding online learning. For more on this, see our press release, the legal papers, and articles in the Daily News and Politico. You can also listen to my interview on Talk out of School, with attorney Laura Barbieri and two of our plaintiffs: Queens teacher and parent Amanda Vender, and Tanesha Grant, parent and founder of Parents Supporting Parents NY, about why this case is so important.

While the regulations approved by the Board of Regents in April clearly stated that parent consent is required before a student can be assigned to an online class, the DOE guidance sent to school administrators two weeks later said that while schools should try to obtain parent consent, they can “program students for virtual/blended courses in STARS in anticipation of getting back Parent Opt-In Forms…. The student may remain in the virtual/blended course in accordance with the school’s existing add/drop policies or until the parent declines to have their student participate in the virtual/blended course, whichever occurs first.”

Clearly, this is not parent consent but parent opt-out, a much weaker procedure that is non-compliant with the regulations. And as several of the parent plaintiffs pointed out in their affidavits, given how haphazard and inconsistent communication with families is at many schools, parents may not even become aware to the fact that their children have been assigned to online classes until it is too late to pull them out.

According to the UFT contract, teachers also have to consent to teaching a remote class before they can be assigned to one, but many teachers are apparently unaware of this fact. For example, a high school teacher told me that his principal applied to DOE for permission to hold all classes remotely on Fridays, without polling him or other teachers to see if they had agreed to this.

I urge all parents to ask their principal if there is a plan to hold online classes next year, and if so, if they will agree to obtaining parental consent before assigning their children to these classes. Parents should also contact their School Leadership Teams to see if they’ve discussed this matter, and if online learning is being implemented, ask if that is part of the school’s Comprehensive Education Plan which all SLT members must consent to. Teachers should also ask these questions, and demand that it is also their right to refuse to teach online classes.

As is obvious to nearly everyone who experienced it, online learning during the pandemic seriously failed the great majority of students. Many students fell behind academically, became disengaged, and suffered mental health issues as a result.

During his campaign, Eric Adams proposed expanding online learning, an idea which met with controversy and even some ridicule. While both he and the Chancellor now admit that no other large district in the nation is considering such a move, they point to this as a matter of pride, rather than acknowledging that others learned important lessons from the pandemic that they failed to learn.

When Adams announced the UFT contract in 2023 that allows for the expansion of online learning, he said “Look, you all aren’t going to appreciate what I’m doing until I’m done. You are going to look back and say this guy was just ahead of what other people want. This is New York – we lead from the front…”

Chancellor Banks proclaimed that this is “not just a reimagined experience for kids, it’s a reimagined experience for teachers as well… when you want to really focus on how to make the profession respected at an even higher level, you have to engage in new and creative ways for teachers to even be able to teach. And I think that this is 21st-century thinking. We’re the first major school district in the nation that is even taking this on.”

The fact that DOE has proposed to expand online learning as part of their plan to comply with the class size law rather than building enough additional classroom space is especially unacceptable, as remote classes would likely undermine any of the benefits that smaller classes would otherwise provide.

If Adams and Banks refuse to acknowledge how the heedless expansion of virtual learning risks undermining the quality of teaching and learning in NYC schools, parents, educators and advocates must do what we can to stop this runaway train.

2. Our annual Skinny dinner last week was a joyous occasion, honoring six independent parent members of the Panel for Educational Policy. You can check out some photos on our Facebook page. For those of you who bought tickets, thank you! I hope you had a good time.  For those who missed it, please consider supporting our work with a donation. While attorney Laura Barbieri is representing us pro bono in our latest legal action (thank you Laura!), there are other expenses involved in filing this appeal, as well as those related to our primary focus, analyzing DOE’s policies and budgeting, while advocating for them to take action to lower class size in ways that will benefit NYC students, unlike expanding online learning.

More on this soon, Leonie

Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
phone: 917-435-9329
leonie@classsizematters.org
www.classsizematters.org
Follow on twitter @leoniehaimson
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