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Q&A
Addressing staff vacancies, low attendance, and support in Summer Rising
1:53:34
ยท
114 sec
Council Member Rita C. Joseph asks about plans to address staff vacancies, low attendance, and support for students with disabilities in the Summer Rising program. DYCD Assistant Commissioner Daniel Guillen explains strategies to improve these areas.
- Summer Rising is not a mandated program for most students, allowing flexibility for families.
- DYCD emphasizes the importance of parent engagement and trust-building to improve attendance rates.
- Parent orientations are offered to familiarize families with the program and build trust.
- Data shows academic growth for students attending 20 or more days of the program.
- CBOs play a crucial role in engaging families and demonstrating the value of the afternoon enrichment activities.
- DYCD aims to increase confidence in the program model as positive results become more evident.
Rita C. Joseph
1:53:34
And, in the hearing we had around summarizing, one of the things we heard around was vacancy, staff vacancies, low attendance and support for students with disabilities.
1:53:45
How are you changing that system this year?
1:53:48
What does that look like this year?
Daniel Guillen
1:53:50
So, you speaking in relation to the system or just across the board?
Rita C. Joseph
1:53:55
The summarizing itself.
Daniel Guillen
1:53:56
Okay so if we could start with the low attendance rates right.
1:54:03
So it is worth noting that summarizing is not a mandated program except for a select few.
1:54:09
Historically, this allows this level of flexibility for families to take full advantage of the program as they need.
1:54:16
One of the things that we are keeping in mind is that this is a full process, right, from when the app is open to the start of the program.
1:54:23
There are phases and there's different levels of engagement right, centrally through New York City Public Schools and DYCD, but as well as the CBOs right.
1:54:31
So when a parent, their family selected, there's a parent orientation.
1:54:36
We want every parent to take full advantage of that whether it is happening in person or Zoom or with any type of level of conversation so they can learn about the program.
1:54:45
This is also about trust.
1:54:46
Right?
1:54:47
You're leaving your child in stranger's hands.
1:54:50
You wanna use the time between a child is selected and that start date to engage with that family.
1:54:55
Because if you feel that you can trust someone, then you're gonna show up.
1:54:58
Right?
1:54:58
And we know because the data showed, we learned last week from New York City Public Schools, that when you attend twenty or more days, there is some growth academically.
1:55:07
So there's some value in showing up, and I think it's important that that got out there.
1:55:11
And not only that, that our CBOs play an important factor in that process as well.
Grace Wong
1:55:15
We know.
Daniel Guillen
1:55:15
Because what happens in the afternoon is very valuable and we believe that we continue to push this model and the results start coming out, they'll really feel more confident that I should keep my child here a little bit longer than I normally will.
Rita C. Joseph
1:55:28
How long does it take someone to get off the waitlist once let's say you waitlist them and I may have family vacation planned and you put me on a waitlist, how long does that take to get off the waitlist so that family can plan around summarizing?