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Q&A
Funding allocation and programs for parent and family engagement
3:50:37
ยท
5 min
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about the total funding allocated to parent and family engagement. DOE officials provide details on central and local investments in family engagement programs.
- The DOE invests about $8 million centrally and locally, with an additional $4 million for CEC elections every other year
- Programs include the New York City Ambassadors Program, literacy hubs, and professional development for Family Leadership Coordinators (FLCs) and Family Support Coordinators (FSCs)
- The DOE is expanding efforts to train parents as facilitators, aiming to create a network of trusted messengers in school communities
Rita Joseph
3:50:37
Yeah, love the idea, would be great.
3:50:39
Parent and family engagement, $1,000,000, how much is that total funding that New York City Public Schools allocate to parents and family engagements more broadly?
Melissa Aviles-Ramos
3:50:51
So we're going to bring up Doctor.
3:50:52
Mementis to talk about this specific division that does things from a central perspective.
3:50:57
What I do want to know, Chair, is that there are specific pots of money within a school budget as well, right?
3:51:04
So we're talking about from a central perspective, but we also know that there are other funding streams within a school budget.
3:51:11
Quite simply, just a head count for a parent coordinator who also supports some of that work.
3:51:15
So I just always want to make mention that there's the things that we do from a central place and then there are things that happen in a
Rita Joseph
3:51:21
separate In school communities and it's extended beyond Tweed.
Cristina Melendez
3:51:24
Yeah.
3:51:25
So we invest centrally and locally about $8,000,000 plus depending on when there's a CEC election every other year, which we get another additional $4,000,000 to fund that election, which is where we are right now.
3:51:40
So currently, FACE and their $1,000,000 allocation really expanded the New York City Ambassadors Program, where we really spent a lot of time speaking to some of the things that the chancellor shared around what does it look like for the parents' perspective to really support New York City Reads?
3:51:58
What does it look like at home and what can you do?
3:52:01
And how do we teach and support our families in understanding brain science.
3:52:05
Right?
3:52:06
And then the rope and all of the stuff that the teachers were talking about.
3:52:09
So we did that, last year, and we were able to expand on that and build on that.
3:52:13
It's been a very popular program.
3:52:15
I think we're at four forty five hundred parents now that are trained and have gone through some of these cohorts.
3:52:21
We have also expanded our literacy hubs, which are community spaces that host books and opportunities and and events.
3:52:29
But then I wanna pass it over to to some of the work that our that my colleague, DC Rucks does at the local level.
3:52:38
Right?
3:52:38
So how do we support our FLCs and FSCs and PCs to really expand locally on what family engagement looks like and how do we make those things actionable.
Rita Joseph
3:52:48
Thank you.
Allison Marino
3:52:54
Good afternoon, everyone.
3:52:55
Good afternoon.
Danica Rux
3:52:57
So I'm excited to share that in partnership with DC Melendez that we've been bringing our FLCs and our FSCs together for monthly training.
3:53:07
As a former superintendent, one of the things that I had heard from many of the FSCs and the FLCs who are on superintendent teams is the need for real professional development, and so we've been providing that, and I'm I'm I'm very excited about that.
3:53:21
In addition to that, we have superintendents have said that they want an opportunity to bring all of the folks together and provide a menu of professional development for them who are supporting our families and also have families be a part of that.
3:53:36
And so in the spring last year, we did this, and it was highly sought after, and we had hundreds of parents and FSCs, FLCs, parent leaders across the district join us.
3:53:47
And so this year, we're doing it again, and we're doing it even bigger.
3:53:51
And so we are thrilled that we're able to provide that support to them.
3:53:55
We're gonna have a menu of different options and opportunities for parents.
3:53:59
We've even asked parents to facilitate some of those trainings, so it's by parents, for parents, and that is coming in the spring.
3:54:06
You all will get an invitation to join us for that opportunity as well.
Rita Joseph
3:54:11
Thank you.
3:54:12
And as you're training you trained 4,500 parents, are they turning key to other parents or the how does that training spread?
Danica Rux
3:54:20
That is the work that D.
3:54:21
C.
3:54:21
Melendez is doing and that our chancellor spoke about.
Cristina Melendez
3:54:27
Yeah.
3:54:28
So now we're embarking in that second phase of the work, which is exactly what you're saying.
3:54:33
It's really important for us that communities we're really confident that communities know how to take care of each other, and we wanna respect and trust them to do that.
3:54:41
And that requires that we now not only expose them to the work, but now teach them how to facilitate the work towards others.
3:54:47
So we're embarking in the ambassadors two point o program where parents are being taught how to train the trainer.
3:54:54
What does it mean to facilitate this knowledge to appear?
3:54:58
And the hope is that they're not only just being able to train around New York City Reads, but they're able to train and build those skills for everything.
3:55:08
And that's the goal as we keep expanding and leaning into our families to be those trusted messengers in their communities that they know to be.
3:55:18
And invested partners, right, because their children are in our schools.
3:55:21
They really want to be part of the conversations.
3:55:24
A lot of the listening tour feedback was we wanna be involved more.
3:55:28
We wanna be in the conversation more, and our ultimate goal is really to be real partners in this work.
3:55:35
And so that's these are some of the ways that we're doing that and we're building that base so that they're able to confidently do that at their school communities on a regular basis.
Rita Joseph
3:55:44
And the parents you're engaging, is it you meet them where they are or this is on weekends, this is Monday through Friday.