Parent and Student Training Center

Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 2590-w to read as follows:

§ 2590-w. Parent training. 1. The City University of New York shall operate a parent and student training center, known as the parent training center ("center") for the support and training of parents or persons in parental relation to a student or students attending public school in the city of New York. Such training shall occur in each of the five boroughs. The center shall design and implement programs for parent engagement within public schools in the city of New York, coordinating, where appropriate, with the city school district of the city of New York. The center shall:

(a) conduct training and support programs for parents in order to increase their capacity to participate in and engage with local, district, and city-wide school governance and participatory structures designed to support and include parental and student input including but not limited to school leadership teams, community education councils, district leadership teams, parent associations, city-wide councils and other existing formal governance and participatory structures designed to support and include parental and student input;

(b) conduct outreach and recruitment to increase diversity in the above listed governance and participatory structures to better reflect the diverse composition of the represented community, with an emphasis on providing resources and training in community districts where graduation and retention rates are in the lower half of the city-wide graduation and retention rates;

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD02540-01-9

S. 4379 2

(c) implement programs to enhance parents' ability to support students' educational success, including support for parents to help them communicate with school administrators and teachers, track their child's performance, and foster an environment for learning at home;

(d) assist parents and students in interacting with city school district personnel and in developing an understanding of the function, structure and operations of the city of New York department of education, including providing basic information concerning special education programs, gifted and talented programs, English Language Learner programs, school improvement strategies, school budget, enrollment procedures, and state and city structures and policies that impact education, and the effect of such strategies, procedures, structures and policies on the education being provided by the student's school;

(e) encourage student based college counseling initiatives designed to increase the rate of college enrollment and train students to become youth leaders, including but not limited to Student Success Centers.

2. Priority in designing and implementing programs shall be given to schools and districts in which there is low overall academic achievement by students or which have a high density of English language learning students or low-income families. Schools with ineffective parent associations or without parent associations shall receive target support.

3. Upon request by the center, the city school district shall provide the center with names and contact information of the officers of parent associations, members of councils of presidents, members of the chancellor's parent advisory council, members of community education councils, members of school leadership teams, members of district leadership teams, and members of the city-wide councils, provided this information is publicly available.

4. The center shall be strictly non-partisan, shall not engage in issues of advocacy, and shall remain neutral in all policy matters and disputes.

5. The city of New York shall provide annual funding to the center in an amount equal to that provided in an appropriation by the state, but not to exceed eight hundred thousand dollars per year.

§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.