Q&A
Accountability measures and the role of the Office of School Wellness Programs
1:41:36
·
114 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about accountability measures for districts with low compliance in health education. The discussion reveals the limited role of the Office of School Wellness Programs in enforcing accountability.
- The Office of School Wellness Programs is a support office, not a supervisory one
- They focus on providing resources and support to schools and districts
- There's a local law requiring reporting from individual schools, but the office's role is to support, not enforce
- The office works with various stakeholders to promote quality health and sexual health education
Rita Joseph
1:41:36
their students.
1:41:37
So so what accountability measures are in place when districts are reporting compliances below 50%?
1:41:45
There has to be some accountability and responsibility.
1:41:47
Right?
Despina Zaharakis
1:41:48
So what is that?
1:41:50
I'm sorry.
Rita Joseph
1:41:50
No.
1:41:50
That's okay.
Despina Zaharakis
1:41:52
We are a support office.
1:41:54
Right?
1:41:54
We work with schools.
1:41:56
We work with districts.
1:41:57
We work with teachers.
1:41:58
We work with central offices to make sure that we, have that every New York City public school student is getting quality health education, quality sexual health education, and the required number of HIV lessons in a way that makes sense with quality instructional materials and from someone that is comfortable teaching them.
1:42:23
That's what we support, and that's what we need to focus on because we're not a supervisory off office.
1:42:30
We don't, you know what we try to do is make sure that schools are doing it and and engage with everyone who works with schools.
1:42:40
Right?
1:42:41
Superintendents, their teams, central offices, principals, assistant principals, teachers, anyone who will listen to us.
1:42:49
So I can't speak to the accountability measure of it.
Rita Joseph
1:42:56
Well, there's a local law that requires reporting from individual schools in order to comply.
1:43:02
So how we how we can't hold accountability when there's a law in place to make sure the reporting is done?
Despina Zaharakis
1:43:09
Correct.
1:43:09
And and, again, as a support office, what I do is take the information from the local law and point schools to what it's saying about their school community, you know, what they need to do for their children, what superintendents need to do for their district sort of, their district schools.
