Relates to the school governance of the New York city school system; appropriation; repealer

Makes the Chancellor an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Board and adds a Mayoral appointee as a replacement.

Establishes a two-year term for Board appointees.

Requires that one of the Mayoral parent appointees be the parent of a student receiving special education services.

Section two: Creates a City-wide Council on the Arts to focus on arts education in the school district with thirteen voting members and one non-voting member.

Section three: Establishes a two term limit for members elected to Community District Education Councils.

Establishes a system for CEC elections.

Prohibits a school from having more than one parent representative on a district education council.

Section four: Prohibits the Commissioner of Education from waiving the education qualifications for any Chancellor appointed after July 1,2009.

Section five: Clarifies that the Commissioner of Education can remove the New York City Chancellor if the Chancellor is found to have willingly violated a law or regulation.

Section six: Create a Temporary Commission on School Safety. The commission will examine, evaluate and make recommendations concerning the impact that the current Chancellor's regulations and the New York police department have on student safety, welfare and achievement.

Section seven: Creates the office of the Inspector General for schools who will investigate the impact of New York City Department of Education policies and practices on the educational environment of New York City

schools but will not investigate individual acts of fraud or corruption.

Section eight: Establishes a parent and student training center under the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University. The Center will be tasked with the conducting outreach, recruitment, training and support programs for parents and students in order to increase their capacity to participate with local, district, and city-wide school governance. The Center will also be authorized to implement programs to enhance parents and students ability to support students educational success and assist parents and students in interacting with city school district personnel and understand the function, structure and operation of the city of New York department of education. The Center will also work with the Department of Education to continue implementation of student success centers as pilot projects designed to increase the rate of college enrollment and train students to become youth leaders.

Section nine: Requires New York City to provide $3.2 million over two years to the Center to implement the parent program.

Section ten: Establishes the effective date.

Prior legislative history

This is a new bill.

Justification

The sunset provision of legislation which empowered the Mayor of New York City to oversee the New York City School system was inserted to provide the legislature with an opportunity to assess seven years of Mayoral Control of the New York City school system.

Although progress has been made beyond the inefficiencies of the previous school governance structure, the current practices initiated and enforced by the Mayor are not without faults.

In 2008, numerous public hearings were held throughout New York City. Each of these hearings afforded any vested party the opportunity to share concerns and opinions relating to the current education system. Additionally, during this time, countless advocates have visited their respective representatives in their districts and in Albany.

Following these hearings and forums for expression, it became apparent that many of the system's most intimately vested parties have become marginalized. This includes parents, teachers and school administrators. These groups, often times, find themselves without recourse for policies they believe are counterproductive to the education system's goals. Concurrently, parents are encountering individualized issues with minimal and cursory means of resolution.

This legislation aims to empower those groups who are most intimately involved with the city's students and too ultimately improve the education system for all students. Through restructuring, the school governance system will retain the ability to act in a more efficient and responsible manner, but which incorporates increased involvement and empowerment of parents, teachers and school administrators.

Fiscal impact

The bill requires New York City to provide $3.2 million over two years to the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University. EFFECTIVE DATE : Immediately and will have been considered to be in effect on the same date as the chapter it is amending.