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Q&A
Debate over Summer Rising outreach and enrollment responsibilities
2:35:34
ยท
3 min
Council Member Stevens and Deputy Chancellor Vadehra engage in a heated discussion about the outreach and enrollment efforts for the Summer Rising program. Stevens questions why the Department of Education is leading the enrollment process instead of community-based organizations (CBOs).
- Stevens argues that CBOs are better at recruitment and enrollment than the DOE
- Vadehra defends the DOE's role, stating they receive more applications than they can place
- Stevens counters that there are often disconnects between applications and actual enrollment
- Vadehra emphasizes the partnership with DYCD and efforts to improve the process each year
- The discussion highlights ongoing tensions between the DOE's centralized approach and the desire for more CBO involvement
Althea V. Stevens
2:35:34
So in terms of family, and as you said, the applications are already available currently for families.
2:35:44
What has the outreach look like and how's the enrollment going currently?
2:35:48
And I just want to be clear, so DOE is still in charge of enrollment at this time because that has also been one of my biggest issues because you guys struggle on recruitment for everything and CBOs actually do that better and so I still do not understand why this is the responsibly responsible by the responsibility of DOE when we know that this is something you struggle with.
2:36:10
So I'm still confused on why you guys are taking the lead.
2:36:13
It does not make sense when you have a partner who does this well and does this regularly.
2:36:18
Why wouldn't they just take the lead and you do the things that you do well and they do the things that they do well because it's something you're struggling with in three k, in school, like all areas you're struggling in recruitment, but again we're giving this to you when you have a partner who actually does this well.
2:36:30
So I need just a better understanding of why we're still doing this.
Emma Vadehra
2:36:33
Yeah, so this is actually a program where we do a lot of outreach and we get far more applications than we're able to place, So we're not struggling But
Althea V. Stevens
2:36:43
no.
2:36:44
You do.
2:36:44
No.
2:36:44
No.
2:36:44
No.
2:36:45
No.
2:36:45
You do because you get the applications, and then when it's time for enrollment, it's always a disconnect.
2:36:51
And so like so like this is what I'm saying.
2:36:54
Like, I know these are the answers that they're telling you to get, but I want us to really get to a place where we're being honest about how to move forward because you do get a lot of applications and then what happens is the CBO during the summer has to clean a lot of that up because again, the school doesn't do the enrollment the way it needs to be done.
2:37:09
Students are not in the places they wanna go, and it's a mess.
2:37:12
And then in the summer, we're still trying to clean that up.
2:37:14
Has it gotten better?
2:37:15
Yes.
2:37:16
But we're still struggling.
Emma Vadehra
2:37:18
So let me see where to start.
2:37:20
As you know, first of would just say, and I know you know this well, but for everyone's benefit, we work very closely with DYCD.
2:37:25
They work very closely with their CBOs, and we have tried every year based on their feedback, your feedback, and the chair's feedback to continue to improve this process.
Althea V. Stevens
2:37:33
But why would we improve it if we have we have shown before that DYCD or not DYCD because I'm gonna give it to the providers.
2:37:40
The providers do this better.
2:37:42
So then why are we still saying we're still trying to improve when if if to me, it makes the most sense to just go to the providers and say, you lead on this while we are doing these other things.
Emma Vadehra
2:37:54
So we continue to believe with DYCD as our partners that this is a strong way to run the process to ensure it's fair and equitable for all families who come in, to ensure we can prioritize centrally our most vulnerable students no matter which programs they are going to, even if they're moving.
2:38:11
And our process allows us to do that in a simple way for all families.
2:38:16
I will just say you asked earlier about how enrollment's going as compared to last year.
2:38:21
You should know that on day enrollment is up so far compared to last year.
2:38:26
I don't have the data as of today.
2:38:27
As a couple of days ago we were up 25% compared to last year.
2:38:31
We saw more applicants on day one of this program than we've seen for anything else across the system ever, including
Althea V. Stevens
2:38:39
this assessment of what we've over last year.