Okay, Rose, can we hit the records on? All right. Good evening, everybody. It is Thursday, November 6th at 6:31 p.m. This is the calendar and business meeting for Cityway Council on Special Education.
Good evening. Can we have interpretation please introduce themselves and let our everyone know about your service? Spanish. Could you start please? Foreign speech. Foreign speech. >> [snorts]
>> Spanish. >> Thank you very much. In Mandarin, please can you introduce your service? >> Uh, good afternoon everyone. Uh, thank you. The memory is done. >> Thank you very much. And for interpretation, if you can please put
the information about your service, the dialin number into the chat, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Rose, can we please do roll call? Francesca is excused. Sai is running late.
Stone Cummings is not here yet. Dr. Melissa, >> she's running late. She'll be here around 7. >> Heather Dailyaly >> here. >> Oh, you >> present. >> Maggie San.
>> Susie W. Irene is not here yet. and wrong here. >> Okay, we are not at quorum at this time, but we will continue with the uh the agenda. So, we are honored tonight to
have the office of enrollment here and the office of special education. So, thank you both groups for coming. Really appreciate it. I'm going to pass it over to Johanna now. Thank you >> as always. I'm so loud today. As always,
thank you so much uh to the CCSC for having us tonight. Um we are honored to have the Office of Student Enrollment with us tonight in person. So, we're so excited to have us. I am Johanna Rodriguez. I work for the special education office here at Central. I am
director of family support. I am going to share my screen very quickly so you can see who is here with us in person tonight. Um we are going to have a lot of information here tonight. the CCSE did share with us in advance some questions and so we're going to go
through those. Um but first let me share my screen so you can know who is here with us tonight and I will pass it over to our lovely um office of student enrollment so they can introduce themselves and we'll get started. I'm going to pass it over to our chief
of enrollment. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Travonda Kelly. I'm the chief enrollment officer for student enrollment. Uh we're so happy to be here. I'm here with my colleagues who will introduce themselves and we're just happy to answer questions and really have this discussion. So, thanks for having us.
>> Good evening everyone. My name is Anthony Harrison. I am the senior director for uh strategic initiatives special populations within the office of student enrollment and I'm greatly happy to be here. Thank you.
>> Good evening everyone. My name is Ahmad Chalet. I'm the director of middle school admissions at the office of student enrollment and thank you for having me here today. >> Hello, my name is Christian Barnes. I'm the senior enrollment specialist on specialized high school admissions on
the high school admissions team. Thank you so much for having me again. Thank you for coming. Really appreciate this opportunity to have a nice discussion with you about the enrollment process for both middle school and high school. So, we are right in the midst of the season obviously and
it's it's it's a busy time for you all, but really appreciate you coming to see us and talk to us. So, I don't know if um our office of enrollment wants to share some um positive things that we um you want to
share with the council about our students with disabilities or you want to start off with um our questions? >> Yeah. So, let me let me jump in. So, the the onus of why we wanted to do this because it's a daunting task obviously. I mean, you've got 400 plus high
schools. You've got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of middle schools. And for a parent, with a general ed student, it's a challenge to sift through all those schools. With a student with disabilities, you know, with the wide range of of disabilities that exist and a wide range of services,
it becomes even more challenging. And there's been a lot of really positive changes to the enrollment system over the years. I mean, having gone through the high school process three years ago to the high school process I'm going through with my my younger one now, it's
been night and day difference. That being said, I'm still struggling. I I I think I have some decent knowledge on what's going on, but I'm struggling. I'm only going to be able to get to like 15 16 schools for for tours. I'll have gone
to after next week's three different fairs, I'll call them, burough fairs. So, I've been able to get to some stuff, but it's a daunting task. And, you know, I appreciate, you know, when you put the little I'll call it the cell phone gauge that helps us kind of, you know, do you
have any chance of getting in that or do you have a really strong chance to get I think that's a huge upgrade. And then I'll say the detail within that where you can go you've got 20 students that that were in your group and two of them
got in or you had 150 students and they all got in. Those are very big changes that have happened recently or at least since the last time I my son and those are huge and yet I still go there's still more I'm looking for and that's
really kind of and and we have other another parent of a high schooler and we have another middle school or that's going or rising middle schooler going through the process and we've heard you know time and time again about the challenges. Um, I was at a a D75 meeting
with our new interim superintendent two weeks ago, and we had a D75 parent going, "My child's going to be in high school. My kids's been in D75 their entire school career, and now we're being asked
to go through the normal process. What do I do? I don't know what to do. I don't know how to look for a school with these 400 plus schools. I don't know where to start. I don't know what to look for. I don't have any recommended
schools in the system and I'm lost and the school is trying to assist where they're at and that's great, but we need more of a systematic that can help guide a family. You know, this is one that's
got to self-contain historically or whatever it is. I think that's one of the challenges that kind of brought us asking you to come to go, you know, this is where we need and and by the way, we went through, my son and I went through the two high school student with
disability um programs you had, the one in July, the one in October, I believe it was. Those are really helpful. Appreciate them. Um, you know, that just so you understand kind of where where I was and other council members have been with feedback. So, I just want to put
that out there before we get going. But thank you. >> Yeah, I mean, thank you so much for sharing that. It's encouraging to hear that things are better over time over the last few years. And we've made improvements based on hearing feedback from families and we will continue to do that is sessions like this where we want
to hear, you know, what are the things that are still tripping you up when you in this process. We understand that it's challenging. applying for, you know, over 400 schools is a daunting task, I think, for anyone. And, you know, in terms of the system itself, we try to make sure that we're using the system
and being upfront with all of the information that you need to have. We know it's still a lot of information. Um, but exactly all of the steps. We have videos and all of those things. And you know it what I will say is I don't know if we'll ever make it completely easy to do this because of the fact that
there are so many schools and so many factors to consider but at the same time I do believe that as we continue to have these conversations and hear feedback we'll continue to take them into consideration. So thank you for sharing that too. >> Hi. Um so I also want to acknowledge uh
that that is a very important question. Um we do recognize that it can be daunting for many families who are um you know especially coming out of district 75 um the middle school or the high school
admissions process can be new and it can definitely be overwhelming to them. So what we have committed to do is uh launch an outreach initiative to many families who are in district 75 and let them know hey listen we are sending you
information regarding uh both middle school and high school admissions processes. Um, we are, you know, setting up efforts and initiatives to where, hey, you can meet with an enrollment counselor or you can contact our middle
school or high school admissions team for more personalized support. Um, in an effort to let them know what their options are. Um, also in an effort for them to be aware, hey, um, there there are options for your child specifically.
So, those are things that we've launched. We are also looking at integrating um district 75 into my schools and that is an effort that we're continuing over time so that way it is reflective and everything can live under
one hub. So those are things that we look forward to keep you, you know, keeping you all posted on in addition to uh maybe setting up some focus groups to hear more about your feedback in general and what families with IEPs are students with IEPs are facing to where we can
update our process. Andy, >> thank you so much, Anthony. And I I just wanted to add on for district 75. um hugely supportive relationship with the office of school enrollment and really looking to meet directly with our counselors um in district 75 schools. Um
that role is so pivotal in terms of really preparing families and um having a great sense of um what the students goals are and what supports that they need. And so that's something that we'll be collaborating on also so that those counselors in schools have the same information and can get feedback and and
and that's the the type of two-way communication that I think will support more choices and options um for students in district 75 at these key transitional grades. >> I I appreciate that. That's it's encouraging. I mean it's it's it's a
daunting task, but I I appreciate the the forward movement we've seen in enrollment. It is and it is I'll say giant steps um in just the last three years those steps are tremendous and and was truly appreciated. So thank you.
So we have a whole bunch of questions that we had posted to you. We can go through them if if that would work. Um so the first one was on the D75. So you know the second one I kind of touched on it with the high school. there were the um info sessions that were h that
happened um specifically for students with disabilities in July and in October. The one thing we don't have or I haven't seen is a middle school enrollment sessions targeted towards students with disabilities. I'd love to see that. Our community would certainly
love to see I think the the high school one's very helpful and it's something I think you know would would be beneficial for the community. >> Yes, absolutely. We agree the need for this across all transition points. So moving forward, you will see um these
info sessions for students with disabilities and their families to learn more about the process. So you will see that moving forward. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. I mean it's it's I visited both of them and learned new stuff both times and that
was that was very nice to see and there was a lot of really good questions that were asked by the community at large and with with you know office special education and enrollment both in that meeting it was it was good to get uh you know appropriate and and solid answers.
So thank you and appreciate that. Um, you know, I I'll I'm gonna jump out of order and I apologize, but I think, you know, one of the things I noticed was there's some schools that when you look at the DOE reviews that come out, surveys that come out about schools and how they perform
with students with disabilities and and providing services. Those are schools that typically have a info session when they do for their info sessions for the community in the you know September, October, November time frame where they have one that's targeted towards students with disabilities. You tend at
least in my look of schools that I'm looking at maybe it's a small sample size and that's part of the problem. Those that don't score quite as well seem not to have one that's targeted towards students with disabilities. I think that's something we need to look at at a system level is how do we get
info sessions for all schools for students with disabilities or MLS or or whatever the targeted group we want to have but I think there needs to be a little more targeting with these info sessions and then with the info sessions it is still the hunt to find out when
the info sessions are happening right some are on my schools some of them you join or you you say you want to do it through my schools other ones are on the website. Other ones are ones I find on a WhatsApp group or a Facebook group or a you know someone who knows someone who
found out about this thing because it's not listed on the website, but there's a Google form out there you sign up for, right? It's the hidden info sessions you never know about unless you know someone. And we've got to get away from that. We've got to have it centralized on my schools. That is a powerful
website and it's got to be the only spot where you can have an info session. If it's not listed on my schools, it shouldn't be allowed to happen at DOE. And we've got to put the hammer down from this building because I'm if I wasn't on these WhatsApp groups and these Facebook groups and the other groups, I wouldn't know about half the
info sessions that have happened because they're not listed on the on the my school site. And that's a problem. I mean, that's that's we need equity and it doesn't exist. >> Heather, jump in, please. So the other the other suggestion I would make too is
often um schools have these really great open houses that are for just general openhouse and parents are usually presented with a slide deck about all the wonderful things and programs our school offers and disability and IEP
students are given like one slide um and it doesn't really have much information and I as a parent um want to ask questions about how that school is going to serve my my child. And there's not
opportunity to do that in a general open house. I understand it's a lot of work to have everyone in the school. It doesn't even have to be in the school. It could be a virtual openhouse that happens after their general openhouse, but parents who have students with IEPs
need a place where they can log in and ask specific questions like, "Do you have ICT for your CTE program? How many OT staff do you have on site? How many this? How many?" they they have specific
questions um that are never answered in a big general open house um because there's no opportunity or parents don't feel empowered to ask those questions because they're not going to get an answer when that school is addressing like 400 parents at an open house. So, I
know it's been suggested in the past and for a lot of re whatever reasons, no, they just have the general open house, but it really and especially if it's a school that serves a high percentage of students with IEPs, they really need to
have a specific IEP parent openhouse. >> Thank you, Heather. I And I think that goes right into the next question, which is about data. And we talked about I talked about the opening you know when we talk about there's when
you click on the cell phone it tell bar thing I don't know what the official term in DOE land is but I'll call it the cell phone bar right and it shows you two bars right we'll say or one bar and it says in that group 10 of 50 people
got in how do we find out what details within that 10 of 50 was it based on lotto was it you what or lotto number, whatever you want to call it. You know, how do we how do I know if I'm looking at my kid and going, it's 10 of 50. Is
that a good I mean, I know it's not good odds because he got a one bar, but if he had a great lotto or he had a terrible lotto, is he got a shot because of that or is it because of something else within that grouping? What is the causation that's causing it that there's
only 10 of 50? And I think that's a step that we would be beneficial for general ed students, students with disabilities, any grouping, just to have a little more granular about what's causing that that discussion point of one bar versus three
within that group. >> Yeah. So, I'll take this one. I think on the macro level, it accounts for everything that you brought up. It accounts for the priority group that you're in. that accounts for the croup whether you're GE or SWD for that program. The reason why the offer
likelihood that you're referring to cell phone graph, however, it's colloquially used is only available when you're logged into my schools and connected to your student is because it takes into account all of that information. So, it accounts for the random number for the number of students who have normally
applied to that program, right? taking past year's data and then based on the numbers of other students who are likely to apply to that program right now. I think one of the things that we see is that sometimes for students they may see this change slightly if they for instance did not have grades and then
have grades. So if your information changes and it affects it differently the bars will change and that's really based on the school that you're looking at in that moment for students. >> Appreciate that. Thank you. I mean that's that's helpful. Um cuz I have
noticed a couple of schools did change from you know one to two or two to one type of thing during that and it was that was interesting to see and it's it's good to hear. Um again when we talk about like the 400 high schools and the gazillions of
middle schools one of the challenges is the dauntingness of it. How do we get recommended schools from that? Right? I mean, at some point we've got to be able to say check more boxes, right? Because you got all the check boxes like for sports and you've got all the check boxes for different academic programs.
How do we use that data to say these are the recommended schools? you know, call it your three bar recommended three bar schools, recommended two bar schools, recommended one bar schools, you know, so you have a a diversity, but we can narrow that down a lot more
because even when I put in everything that applies, I'm still getting way too many schools to filter. And honestly, I'm end up going to NYC to help with the recommendations because it's easier, honestly. and it'll tell me which schools are good with students
with disabilities because it looks at the data that's already out on other parts of the DOE website to go these are the good schools with students with disabilities where I have my random number where I have my edop group and my overall group and based on all that these are the schools it recommends
based on whatever things you know if I want x number of miles away or whatever burrows we've got to pull in recommended stuff to help our families get a little tighter because it's just it's too hard otherwise
and the filters are still way too broad and we just need to find a way to make it a little bit easier. And look, it's not the end all absolute and parent doesn't have to go or guardian doesn't have to go off the recommended, but we should have a thing. Hey, recommend me some schools based on what I'm flagging.
That would be helpful. >> That's good feedback for us to have. you know, we did add more and more filters, but you know, any other way that we can help you all narrow down schools, I think that that would be important. I'm not sure if this is something that you want to share. So,
>> um, so again, first on the macro level, you may be a little bit psychic. Discussing filters and developing functionality on being able to use the filters based on which schools are showing high bars versus low bars versus medium bars is feedback that we have heard and we're discussing with our my
school's team. I think outside of that, we also want to make sure that offer likelihood is not limiting where families apply. For instance, if I have a low bar chance of getting into a school, if 70,000 students apply, one in 100 are still set to get in. And we
don't want a family to see that and go, I have no chance, so I'm never going to apply to that school because they could get in. So, I'll bring that up. But I think as Shvanda brought up, we are looking for ways to help filter it down without making families think that they're limited, especially for students
with IEP and other services. They have at earlier points felt like they were told that they could not apply to certain schools and we want to work away from that. On the other hand, we also see sometimes schools reach out to us and they want to make sure that their schools are being shown to families
within my schools and they worry that if they're getting filtered out by a sort of above broad that we're implementing that that would hurt them. So, we are looking at that functionality in the future based on offer chances. And I think we always walk the line between how do we help families find what they're looking for without telling them
that we're not recommending something. And and I think that's where you have to say, "Hey, recommend me some schools, right? You have have it as it is because as it is is you've got the catalog of the 400 plus high schools and the gazillion middle schools, right? But if
someone wants help, have a button they hit, right? I mean, I think that would be kind of like the ideal thing. It's it's there if you want it, but we're not going to mandate you you get an auto filter. You you filter how you want as opposed to you guys telling, right? Because that's not what you want to do. If you want to open, we've got a great
portfolio of of programs you choose. But if you need a little guidance, here it is. I also think something else I never think about till we're just talking. We need to list here's new schools, right? Because we've opened a bunch of new amazing schools in the last 2 3 years.
There's no data out there on like academics and a lot of survey data. So it the schools kind of get the shaft and you see it with admissions. Over the years, we've seen schools that are brand new don't necessarily get filled their their initial classes like they should
because there's no data. But if we flag, hey, these are brand new schools, one-year-old, 2-year-old, 5-year-old, whatever it is, I think that would be beneficial because someone may want to go to a brand new school, right? All the new high-tech stuff and and it's it's the best of the best, literally. And you
know, I mean, I'll just say like Gotham when Gotham Tech opened in Queens, right? They had openings for a brand new school with an amazing program, but people didn't know about it because there was no data showing what it was and what it could do. And I think a new
school flag would be beneficial. So, you know, I just wanted to put that out there. Um, >> hi >> Ron. >> Yeah. So beside Heather was what just mentioned about it the parent may be shy or for any reason that they are not able to speak in the public session during
the open hour session and then we may need the special session for the special needs family that's true and beside that I want to add that so I have kid in in a general education so when I check the website when I cross check the the the
school that I would I I'm interested in I can see the state tax call and I can see the um the demographic and I can see the um the the attendance of the of the school but for the special education
family they they want to see the um the class section available in that school they don't need to go to the specific school to look at the NAS program to look at the uh horizonal program they just want one-stop service like in my
school account. So I can hit um any program available like the NES pro program for certain school or um the IC program or I can check out their um where the death school have the shortage of certain service like OTP
or so there are some parents when they went to that school they found that they have no speech therapist and then they have to get the speech therapist outside of the school and that is terrible for them and it's so inconvenient. and for
the kid. Um so for general education I see a lot of option on the website. I feel very convenience. I can see the yeah the race the teacher anything and the test score like test score the state
test score is so important for general education as a general education parent. But again I have I also have the special education need kit and when I try to look at that I didn't see any um criteria any um any any any any filter
that I would like to see that I would like to cross check like the like I say the ICT order um whether they have shortage of staffing in special education. Thank you. Hey, good evening everybody. Thank you so much. Uh Suzanne Sanchez from the
special education team here. I did want to answer a broader question. One that is uh a question we were seeing in the chat uh in a few different ways is about our specialized programs and when are there going to be more uh and um what's the criteria for that? I do want to
share here and um and thank our uh CCSE council members for their support in advocating uh that we are in conversation continuously with our partners in other city agencies to secure more funding to open more
specialized programs. Right now today uh we do not have the resources to expand beyond what we have already expanded. We've opened up many new specialized programs uh to date this school year. Joanna Charles is going to get us the actual numbers on how many seats we've
opened and we're going to drop that in the chat for you all. So, 2,000 more specialized program seats in the last four years. And we know that that's not enough. And we know that there are families waiting for seats in
AS, ACES, PATH, Nest, and Horizon. And we are seeking that additional uh funding and additional resources from our city agency partners. and will certainly appreciate and need the advocacy of the entire community around
um securing that and and building those high quality programs close to home. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um >> thank you Chantes. How you doing? Um, we're grateful for that and um, I work
very hard with you because I'm very appreciative of it. Um, I wanted to say it was one school that y'all opened in Queens, the D75 high school last year um, in D29, which
I was very grateful of it and it's blossomed very well. the students that are in that are capable to integrate and the other classrooms, the ICT,
are y'all going to be able to do that more once we are able to get more D75 high schools? Because I know I was chasing SCA for buildings. I know they just
started running from me. um spots because the high schools only have a small seat because I believe this high school only has about 70 >> 51
>> 70 75 seats. It's very little and um they were saying that's the biggest the high schools are usually are. So I know it's a very big need for the high schools. So my question is, are we going to get more high schools? And if so, is
it possible to be in other high schools so that the students are able to get that opportunity to integrate and get that knowledge and possibly get that diploma in those other specialty
specialty areas. And the other question I have that I know a lot of parents are still waiting to find out what is the status of the other students in D75 to get their high school diplomas.
>> Great. You're asking so thank you for lifting up the really important topic of inclusion right and and how are we including and creating meaning real inclusive opportunities for students. Um, and um, I'm gonna sh I'm going to shift this over to my colleague, uh,
Andy Corso, who's the chief of school support for district 75. And I do I'm going to step out of my lane, a a drip here, so bear with me and and share you hopefully you have all heard that uh that uh there is a new interim acting superintendent of district 75, Dr. Kesha
McCoy. And I do think it would be wonderful as the year goes on for this group to hear directly from Dr. McCoy about her vision for the district. uh because I I think that uh it's it's pretty exciting. Uh but in the interim uh and not that you're second fiddle,
Andy, but I'm gonna turn it over to you. >> 100% second fiddle to Dr. McCoy. I'll take that every time. Uh I'll take that every time. Um I'm going to try to parse out the questions in a few different ways. Um so first, when we look at high school need for district 75, absolutely agree that's something we take carefully
into an account working with the office of student enrollment, district planning, and space planning. How are we going to create the spaces that students need in high school in district 75? There's three main ways that happens. Um, one is whenever there's new
construction. Look, >> I just got some great coaching to slow down. I am excited. I am excited. I definitely needed that assist. So, when we look at how where do we find those seats, there's three main
pathways. The first pathway is if there's new construction, looking at specially designing district 75 space within that new construction, like at the new Northwell campus that we had um come up this year.
Exactly. then that uh that's what we need. We need good watchers and so and accountability. So that's one pathway. A second pathway that you mentioned is inclusion. So
joining another high school and so we're in active conversations right now with high schools about high schools that have space adding a district 75 program there. And where those come up that you'll see them is in joint public
hearings when we talk with them about that space and then it comes before the PEP. And so those conversations you see unfold, hugely supportive. And then the third is if there's some kind of new space. That often happens if we're repurposing a
building and most often happens for elementary school. Um because for the high school, we do like it to be a little bit bigger so they have just as you say more options. Um, so we are acutely aware of the need for high school seats. We are exploring all
pathways to get high school seats and Anthony and I are regularly in those conversations. And the last question I want to just tackle is how are students in district 75 going to get their diploma? Um, and I think this is very very important and again there are some
different ways that that occurs. Um, and so we know district 75 schools don't grant a high school diploma cuz it's a program. And so there's a part sometimes district 75 schools have a partnership with a um community high school and are
able to work out in a partnership. Sometimes it's an official inclusion program where the student moves from a district 75 classroom to an inclusion classroom still supported um by district 75 but part of that community school
high school. And sometimes our students actually say in seventh or eighth grade, I'm ready to transition back to community school. And that's something we want to encourage even more that after a student has maybe been in district 75 um K to 5 or K to8, they
actually have the skills that they need to transition back to community school. The last thing I'll say about graduation that we'll definitely be bringing back to this council and others is we're really excited and and wanting to commit to the portrait of a graduate. How are
we actually looking at the new state law for a portrait of a graduate to have different pathways to diploma and graduation than we've had today? >> My question is >> so my question is because it was a
little controversy a couple years ago about some of the students that was not able to integrate. um those are the ones that are already, you know, severe or whatever. Um
they was only allowed to get a 4-year completion and I know some of the parents was very upset because in the past those students were able to get a high school diploma and I know parents
was appealing to the state and I know everyone was looking into it. So what is the status? Are they going to eventually or are they able to get a high school diploma again at least or where we at with this right now? Great question. We're still
in the place that the state requirements for the diploma are the same for everybody and district 75 does not grant that diploma. It's a completion certificate um for that. And moving forward, I want to see what we can do
with portrait of a graduate to have a new option on the table that does lead to that diploma. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, we have um a bunch of questions in the chat. We're going to pass it to Office of Enrollment and
Johanna to to answer some of the uh questions in the chat. We'll come back to to people on on chat as well a little bit later. >> I'm just going to read the question out loud. So the office of enrollment can read it um can answer it. Um there was a question from Paola. It reads, "Will
members of the enrollment office leadership be able to share with us more about the admissions process for newcomer immigrant students who are identified as students with disabilities and who are considered for international
high schools and the guarantee for students to receive their mandated services." Thank you for reading that question and thank you for the question whoever put it in the chat. I'll start off by just saying that first I do want to be clear that we do have enrollment which is more
so over the counter when you get to a family welcome center and you need to be placed into a program versus admissions when you participate in the application process and therefore we've been talking a little bit about that and ask my schools and other things and and Anthony who's sitting here can speak more about
the admissions process but just quickly for the enrollment when we do have families who are new to New York new to the public school system and they do reach out to our office um for support with placement. Uh our teams, the enrollment counselors, they are always
looking into the programs at schools to determine what's the best fit for the student. Um we do place blind to need. We don't provide we don't look specifically for all of the services that that school offers, but we do want to make sure that we are considering
what's the best fit for the student. And a lot of that is making sure that we understand that there are language supports that may be needed or any other supports where we can connect with the school and the principal. And then when the student is in school, then the principal and the school staff can work to fit their needs. And so we definitely
don't want to add any barriers for students to get into certain schools, especially international schools. Um it's an opportunity to have a conversation and then the support continues to happen in the school. Um Anthony, if you can speak on the admissions part. Thank you. So, thank you, Travonda. And I think that's a a
great question that, you know, we love to address um especially when we do have new students who are arrivals or new arrivals coming into New York City public schools. And there's many avenues to where that child is registered. But I first want to say that every student or
any student that is new to New York City public or new to New York City is entitled to a New York City public school seat. Um, if a family is showing up with an IEP, an out of city IEP, uh, we typically partner with our colleagues
at the various CSC's located throughout the city to do a comparable service plan. Um, in addition, if we're if the family is looking for a placement immediately, we typically assigned to a school to where the school is able to a
either do a comparable service plan or b uh go through with creating an IEP and doing the evaluation for a student to be recommended for the intended services. Um, I would encourage families if they
do not necessarily know how to navigate and get to that process to definitely visit a family welcome center to where we can, you know, our staff members can connect and determine what is the best pos possible pathway for that child being enrolled in the school. But I
think our goal is really to ensure that that child is tapped into the services that they've been receiving um before entering a New York City public school. >> Thank you. Um let's switch over to accessibility. I mean it's it's a big deal. We have so many inaccessible
buildings [snorts] unfortunately in in 2025 and we still have way too much of our fleet that is not accessible. And on the on the my school site it'll say partially accessible, right? or fully accessible or whatever it is. One of the challenges then we're putting the onus
on the parent or the student to figure out what partially accessible means. We've got that data in other DOE systems because we pull it up all the time for various, you know, capital projects and and whatnot. We need to find a way to be able to bring that in to my schools and
make it so that a parent doesn't have to go fishing. We've got it. We've got to be able to integrate it. And I think, you know, another thing with that is we've got to find a way to integrate more of that external data. Um, you know, examples, you know, 311
complaints. You know, how many times how many times has a police officer been called to a school? You know, what are the what other data points do we have? How many which schools have an academic interventionist at that school? you know
who who's how many ICT classes per grade did they have the last complete school year you know which I'll call it rigorous classes AP classes had ICT available
and we can say all we want about it's supposed to be you know if a student needs it they're going to get it I have been to a lot of info sessions this year where principles are very clear we don't offer it for this we don't offer it for that. You just decide if you want to go
here or not based on that info. So, I know what the law is, but the law doesn't apply at school level sometimes. And it's unfortunate, but it's just the real world. And so, a parent needs to be able to go, give me a snapshot of what it looked the school looked like last year. You know, if they had four
sections of math for 9th grade, how many of those four sections had ICT? How many special self-contained classes were in ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade? That type of I'll call it more granular detail is necessary
because that gives you a a a pattern of is the school being compliant. Is the school offering programs because if they aren't the odds are they're not going to magically start because your kid get went there, right? I mean, it's just a reality. We may not we we know what what
the law says, but we also know reality. And the reality is we need more of a historic from the last school year. What did the school really look like? Same way we do for like activities, right? I think it's great. You show the activities, you show the PSL, PSAL. We need a little bit more what's
actually happening academically at the school in these pictures. >> Just wanted to jump in. Um, I wanted to answer another u pattern question that we're seeing a good bit in the chat is how do I know which schools have
full-time social workers or how do I know if the school has full-time occupational therapy or speech therapy? Um, and uh there was one other question that I I was seeing that I wanted to uh in um uh access to clinical mental
health supports or sappis workers and things like that. So on one hand I'm going to defer to the enrollment team as to what information is available uh for schools on the site but the other point I want to just raise is that there is
fluidity in staff uh this school year or today a school could have full-time social worker and full-time speech therapist. Next year, one of those uft employees could opt to transfer through the open market hiring system and go
work in a different school and the school they are transferring from may hire someone new or maybe they didn't have a good a candidate or an applicant to do so. So, I just want to share that there is some fluidity in flux with some
of these staffers. Um, and it's not always the same year to year and sometimes monthtomonth. I think again a snapshot at end a year gives you a picture. Yes. As a parent or family. >> I was going to say maybe a solution to
that is how many positions for those um jobs are at allocated at the school. So if a school has five OT's, how many are vacant? Maybe that gives an idea of if I send my kid here, there's a chance they might not get their services or they
might not get their full services if half of their OT um is is vacant. >> Understood. And we take that and we hear that um and and we'll we'll bring that back to our larger group because it is a very fair and valid point and I think you raised it as well, right? Like the
child needs speech therapy. how how can I as a parent feel comfortable picking this school if I don't even know if this school has a speech therapist on site and available and completely understand that um and and that could be um
uh or the person could go on maternity leave and take extended child care that we didn't right there's a lot of movement there but your points are are really really important on this and I I do want to uh give the enrollment team an opportunity to share what information is available at a glance.
I >> I'll start and then pass it over, but I just wanted to say I know my schools has already a wealth of information and there's a lot of recommendations as far as adding more information. I think when I'm hearing partially accessibility, I get that. I have the same complaint when we're looking for schools to kind of use
for other activities. Sometimes that information is not very clear to us. Um and so we can definitely look into seeing how uh more specific we can be there in my schools. Um, and then the other thing that I heard earlier, I'm just wanted to get back to that is more info sessions on the calendar. And I
know I'm listening and taking notes, but these are things that we definitely are open to and trying to make sure that we're expanding, providing more information, but then there are some other things that I don't believe may be the right spot. You know, my schools, we can include a lot, but you know, we try to make sure that this continues to be a
system uh for applying to school. And I think that there are other places where we can share that information perhaps on our website. And so we could continue to figure out what those um metrics are that we can put that would be helpful and maybe even having a link from my school to those spaces. Um but I did
want to just make that clear and this this is very helpful to hear these things that are helpful uh for you for you everyone when you are applying. But I do want to make sure that that we also know that we just can't overwhelm uh the system with all of this information. It just may get really lost. Exactly. Um
but please if please add whatever else I missed. I can speak to it and then turn it over to Peter and Anthony for a second. And just to kind of repeat back a little bit. What I'm I'm hearing will be most helpful is a trying to gauge what's the
likelihood that um that this school will have what I need for my child, whether that's the speech therapy or OT or ICT for a certain class. What's the likelihood that this school will be able to deliver on it? So I hear that I hear that request very deeply and that makes
very good sense to me especially in this banana system with so many options and so little time how to get there I don't know I heard the proposed solution which is a snapshot of last year or a snapshot of the current time recognizing that things change I I want to bring up one
question I feel and I don't know what the answer is that we will get to and then I'll turn it over to Peter and Anthony. I also just I'm just pausing for a second. I think this is so important. It is not acceptable that we have
schools who are not creating the the services and programs that students need. And and my caution is if we label some schools even with a snapshot of saying this school offers ICT in this,
it implicitly or explicitly lets other schools off the hook for for the work that we expect them to do. And and I want to I want to say, you know, I I hear the point you're like, Andy policy is not going to give me what my kid needs or save me from interviewing 17
schools. So please know I hear that point deeply also and I don't think we have the perfect answer yet and our expectation is that every school will meet the students needs. Um and and so that's I'm holding that as part of the
complexity. Peter. >> Hi. And Mark, I wanted to go back to your your your question about is there a place where we can see what a school already provides? Again, keeping in mind Danny's point that we expect all schools
to serve our students. And while it isn't contained in my school specifically, there is a a wealth of data that we are obligated to share with the public at foru families at all grade levels, not just those transition middle in high school. and that's where that
information lives. So, my schools does link to the school's quality snapshot which under the instruction tab does list off our public reporting data on the provision of special education programs and services which will also give you access to and I believe Johanna
might drop something in the chat, a list of links, our public reporting the city council requires four times a year of us on the provision of special class ICT and sets at the school level including related services. Um there's also the publicly reported class size report
which lists off types of classes at the high school level down to the section the subject excuse me and how many sections there are again that is point in time and we don't want to give the impression of families that because this happened in June it will happen because it is dependent on the students who arrive in
a school um but it is a snapshot and there's also a wealth I I heard the the point earlier about data available on achievement graduation rate, state test scores for students with IEPs. In the uh family, sorry, student school quality
snapshot will link to the performance dashboard where you can filter by students recommended for ICT, set, special class and their achievement levels and graduation rates. Um, so I I will admit I think we have a lot of data
and information available on public facing websites and it is a challenge to find it. um it would become equally challenging if we're all in my schools. Um but it's available and I think our schools and we need to work with our schools, our middle schools and our
elementary schools when applying for middle and high school, our counselors to help families navigate those websites because we should not expect families to to navigate that all on their own. Uh but but it it is a it is available. But we do hope families take with a
grain of salt going this is a snapshot in time. >> So I think this segus good to um one of the concerns that I hear um is families will go to an open house or
they'll call the school and they'll be told and it's not on their websites and things but they'll be told that we don't offer ICT for AP. We don't offer ICT for foreign language. We don't offer ICT if they're in a CTE program. Um so if you
want your kid to do any of those classes, they just need to get rid of the ICT. And um and it happens more than it should. It happens quite frequently and I'm sure there are schools that are kind of the same schools will probably
pop up. Um, but this does happen and sometimes parents aren't aware that they can say, "No, this is not how it's supposed to be. My child has a right to the placement that's on his IEP or her IEP." Um, and they'll just be like,
"Okay, well, I want my kid to have these opportunities. I'm just going to get rid of ICT." And then they lose all their support. Um, and then the other thing too is, um, I had a question about CTE. You'll see it in here, how the students
with disabilities seats are determined. Um, and I'll just use my own son for an example. He is adores animals and is very, very interested in the CTE program at John Bound for their animal and agricultural science program. Um, and
I'm trying to find out if they have CTE for that. I haven't heard it. It's hard to It's You can't get the information. They don't have it. You have to call the school for them to say yes, he can get ICT when he's in this program because they cohort the students and they all go to the same classes together. Um so
there's that. That's just a real life example, right? Um the other thing is is last year if I look at the data, there were one seat for every two kids that applied with a student with disability, but all the gened kids that applied got a seat. So, um, and CTE programs are
very attractive to students with disabilities who may not be quote unquote collegebound because it gives them real world experience. It gives them a trade. Some of them get certifications. They can go right into a career after school. Um, and so I I just
want to know how those seats are determined and who makes those determinations. Um because I feel like my kid is kind of at an unfair advant you know an unfair disadvantage because he has to compete for less seats than
general education peers for a program that he really needs cuz college may not be in the books for him. You know >> I'm going to take the first part of that and then pass through enrollment for the the seat availability. But I I heard Mark mention something like this earlier
and it's a concern we've heard from this group and families and and Johanna will speak to this. We hear this from families. No school should be saying that they do not and the word offer is not the right word. That they do not provide services. I know they use that
word not that they don't provide services in particular subject. If it is on the child's IEP, it should be provided. And the we again speaking to our public reporting, we work with superintendents and their teams and schools to ensure that every
IEP mandate in every subject is fully served. If schools are saying that at tours or on the phone, we can only know that if families share with us through the special education inbox, special education at schools.gov, that it has happened. And when it when
we are made aware of it, we immediately address it with superintendent, teams, and the school. But we really do encourage that. I think this will be something a point we hit throughout tonight is if we know if we're told the superintendent's office should hear
about it, special education at schools.nyc.gov should hear about it, and we will address it immediately. >> Hi. Um, so does it apply to the charter school? Can you say it again? >> Yeah.
>> Does it apply to the charter school if they say we don't offer ICT? >> Do non-public schools. No charter schools. >> So charter schools have their own
contract or guidelines or bylaws that they follow that's approved by their authorizer. So, it's not the same rules that we have here in New York City Department of Education. Um, so I think you'll work with the cse there. Um, and
and our some charter schools offer the full continuum. Some charter schools do not offer the full continuum. And so that's based on their their own charter of um what they have agreed to offer. >> Thank you, Andy. And uh uh I want to I
want to just take a question uh from uh Jen Chay who's here in person. So thank you Jen. Um and uh the question is how does enrollment and dial enforce that no school gives out discriminatory messages and emails or open houses? And I would say that um given that there are,00
schools uh we we are not in every school at every place at every time and there's a zero tolerance for discriminatory um approaches and discriminatory statements by our schools. As always,
the quote first quote line if a school says something that is discriminatory or dismissive of any student or family, but including those with a disability, is to connect with that school principal. If the principal is not responsive or is not responsive in a way that is
satisfactory, then the next step is to go directly to the superintendent for that school. Uh, all the superintendent's information is available publicly on the New York City public schools website and families can and should also email the special
education inbox. I've heard a few people tonight say, I've been at an open house where the school said, "We don't we we don't offer that. We don't have that. So, wink wink. You're better off applying somewhere else." Right? Uh, we
need to know about that and we want to know about that. so that we can address it in real time. No one is shy about emailing the special education inbox and uh we don't want you to be shy. That is information that we need. So to answer
the overall question like how do we enforce it? We continue to remind and tell school leaders of their responsibilities and the directives from our chancellor that every school follow the process and protocol that is laid
out to them. Travand, I don't know if there's something you or your team would like to add on schools uh having discriminatory practices towards students with disabilities. >> I would say ditto. Um but this is just exactly what I was saying earlier is
that even when we are dealing with families who come to any of our offices and engage whatever schools they're interested in, we're always making placements based on students their interest and family choice. And that is leveraged in every discussion, every decision that we make.
I think I'll add just one more piece here because I I think we don't want to just respond. We also want to be proactive and so all of that happens and this is huge credit, Jen, to you, to the council, to everyone who's given feedback over the years. Um, working together with the uft, we did develop a
rules and regulations training that's required to be given to every school staff member before or on election day. Specifically in that training is a question true or false, can I AP classes be ICT?
To really pull back the curtain on these myths and misconceptions and we do verify that every single school holds this session with every single staff member. That's a proactive piece to make sure it's not just in a P digest, it's
actually out trained in the school. Having said that, we know that that that still practices happen that are not okay, which is why we have the reactive in addition to the proactive. Well, well, we're going to open it up quickly to uh the public. Um any public
questions from people on Zoom, please raise your virtual hand. Um, we'll try to keep it tight with the question, but if you any virtual questions. All right, Tam, go ahead. Please try to keep the question tight. [laughter]
>> Um, sorry, that just made me laugh. You're like, especially you. Um, thank you for for hosting this CCSE and thank you so much um for the dial team and friendly familiar faces in in a room that I know there's a lot of tension right now. I know that you want to tell
us better things. Um, and compliance is a huge issue. You know, I just want to support what people are saying in the chat. It's real. Um, my son's in 9th grade. He went through the high school application process. He was already in a 6 through 12, but we were kind of
checking our options out. It was really daunting. It was really daunting. Um, there was a lot of, you know, you can't come here. We don't offer sets. You're not going to get dyslexia support as a ninth grader. Are you kidding? Um, after, you know, 11th grade, you don't get ICT anymore. They have tracking
within within programs. Um, they have tracking even in, you know, Clinton's IB program. You can't go into these pathways. you have to go into those two over there, unless you want to drop ICT. So, I just think that a lot of families get sucked into these open houses and these glorious speeches from the
principles and the support staff about how amazing they are with inclusivity when if you actually go to that school and you've been fighting them and you've had them audited, you know that that the ICT or and the IEP non-compliance is off the charts. And so I get Andy what
you're saying like you don't want to flag certain schools as doing a great job because then these other schools feel like they don't have to, right? But we I I can't in good faith recommend certain schools to families knowing how badly how badly that school is doing
with supporting them. Um so yeah, I don't I don't know the solution to that. I would say more student voice, maybe more parents, more families speaking about their experiences. And then I'll I'll end Mark really quickly. I do know that some middle schools in district 2
um some middle schools in district 17 have [snorts] like where they the eighth graders and the seventh graders and the sixth graders sorry talk to students who've wait I just got that mixed up. It's the kids who are applying to middle schools. They talk to graduates of that
school who are on the other side who went through the middle school application who are already at the middle school and they have like a feedback session with them and so they get to ask all the questions and all the things and a lot of the special education questions get answered inside those forums. So maybe more of that
would be be helpful too. Thank you. >> Thank you Tim. Okay, >> any other questions um from the Zoom audience? I think Jen Jen wants to give ask a question, but I real quick I just wanted
to circle back on how they determine how many seats in the CTE are for students with disabilities because I don't I think we was like jumped over that and didn't get it answered. Not a problem. Um the reason why we're we're chatting here is that it's it's very similar for both middle school and
high school. Um so between uh ODP office of district planning the school leadership team and then our office we work together to figure out how many heads and seats can happen at the school and then I think from there because you even brought up John Bound for instance the principal's team usually works on
their programming and their staffing to divvy up let's say if there's 200 seats at the school and they're going to have 10 different programs there'll be 20 students per seat etc. But each year we go through with them based on um how many seats they've had per program for prior years, how many students actually
went in and attended the school, based on their register at the end of October, the seats that they'll be having next year, right? So if they had a larger class than usual, they might need a smaller class the next year, so on and so forth. And we do that together. And if they've asked for an increase of seats or decrease of seats, we first
need to make sure that they have the number of seats at the school to have those students there. And then we either approve or reject from there. Just one other small piece and then I'll pass it back to you. One of the things that you brought up is within my schools you're seeing like demand data and then seats
per demand that goes based off of the seats that are planned to be used for the process and then how many students wanted to apply from the prior year. So it's really difficult to say for instance that the seat number is not the same for GE versus S SWD but then it's
basically based on how popular that program is which usually starts from like local to the school how many applicants are applying and then moves out in waves. So you may be seeing for instance two applicants per se for that program because it's a more popular program whereas for the GE students they
may be either applying to other programs within that school or otherwise. I know there was a lot of information all at once. Let me know which parts of that may have been confusing. >> So then maybe it's I don't know if it's just me then and how the data is presented because it looks to me like
when you go that 100 kids applied for this program last year and 100 kids in GenEd got a seat and 80 kids applied for students with disability for the same program and 40 kids got a seat.
I think for a lot of programs how the seats are delineated within programs is not one GE student to one SWD student. But I do just want to say really quickly um for admissions the delineation is not students without IEPs and students with
so there are also students who have IEPs that have the GE group. Yeah, sorry. I'm making sure that I explain it because we'll also have parents on the Zoom and I want to make sure that that distinction is there. Um, but a lot of programs don't have a onetoone of general education seats to SWD seats for
a program, but we can follow up on more of like the breakdown for different programs, especially ones for CTE and those seats for that programming. >> And also in addition, I know for John Bound, I don't know the official term, but when they break it into the tiers,
so a certain number are awarded to each tier, so it's more equitable. That's not really broken down either. Um, I assume it's like quarters, but I don't know. >> Sorry, I might need to follow up just to make sure. I would have to look at the
program in the directory just to make sure whether you're discussing. >> Are you talking OPED or are you talking group? >> Yes, the op-ed. So even in yeah even in those seats for the CT program at Johnbound for example they take a number
from each tier to make it more equitable. Um and that's really not broken down much either. Sorry. >> No, you're good. Um we're getting in the weeds, but I want to make sure that we're not referring to educational option as tiers just because it's how
families colloquially refer to screen programs as well. So for educational option, they have a category, no problem. For educational option, if there are 30 seats at the school, it will be upfront. 10 seats for a high, 10 seats for middle, 10 seats for low, it's
split into one/3. If there are not enough applicants for any of those groups, but there are more for a different one, then it would backfill. And going back to what we discussed earlier, that's taken into account in the offer likelihood that you see. So if there are a lot of students who are
middle applying to Johnbound, you may see a low chance of offer. But if a student has a low educational option category and is applying and there are not many applicants as low, they may see a high chance of getting into that program because that's how that admissions method works. Yeah. But we
can also work on following up on the data across CTE programs because I did hear your feedback that those are really interesting programs and more about the delineation and split between GE and switch seats for CTE programs.
>> The CTE programs like I said are an attractive option for students with disabilities you know. >> So Jen, you had one question. Oh, who's who's got a question?
>> Thank you. Um Jennifer Ch, uh advocate parent of two graduates with uh who had IEPs. Um so this is a question, but it's probably going to sound like a request. Um, is it possible for the school's
directory in their description of the accessibility profile of each school, there's like a little report, it says like, you know, how accessible, like third floor, no way, second floor, yes way. Um, but those reports are like some
of them 2017, 2018. Can we make those reports yearly or like updatable yearly? Like can they just say, you know, the principal says, "I swear this is still correct." You know, that makes
it 2025. And then make those people put that information on the school website. Like if they're fully accessible, I'd be proud. I want that report on the school website. you know that will also say something about the school and how much
they care and how welcoming they are. >> Uh thank you for that. We do recognize that some reports are five, six, seven years old. So every year before the app launches, we actually reach out to schools and update the overview and the
school information. So moving forward, we will build out a mechanism to make sure that the accessibility report is up to date. So if they're saying that the second floor is not accessible, it's currently still not accessible. So we will
definitely look into making that work that into our process moving forward. I'll make sure I give you Tom's old information because he has a list of everything that's updated. It's his people that go to check on those sites
to make sure that that blurb that's listed is accurate. That's his work. I'll send it to you quickly. Um, I'm sorry I have to ask this question, but many of my parents um have obviously
students with disabilities, maybe one or two students that have mental health challenges. They are working. They're trying to apply for schools for one or more of their children. Some of
them don't have days off. Some of them don't know when they can have days off and many of them only have a cell phone for half a month and no computer. So I know my schools my schools my
schools my schools but for our parents it's no schools no schools no schools no schools after the 15th of the month. So my my plea it's too early for this year. I will be around next year to see if it
gets done. But I hope you can find a way to work with the libraries so that parents can explore options on the weekends or after work. Um, you know, very often I would tell many of my
families, well, you could go to the school. Guess what? No, you can't. you need an appointment to go to a school and you don't know when you're going to be off from work or I'll tell them to go to the welcome center, they'll help you, but what they need is time in front of a
computer, maybe somebody who can direct them or maybe they can use your directions to explore. They don't have that. And you are not aware of how many parents my schools does not work for.
They do come to our to our alliance offices. We have five. You have one in every burrow. But that's not enough. Okay. So, my plea is maybe there's a way for the burrows to find a way um to
connect. You know, you could start with Queens because one of our former chancellors is in Queens. Okay. Right. [laughter] Right. but find a way and that that parents can explore admissions processes
because they can't get into schools, they can't spend the time in the welcome centers and not all of them have phone service for a whole month. Not to mention, imagine trying to search for schools on a cell phone. Give me a
break. What are we We're all privileged here, but most of my parents are not. >> Thank you. >> Um I can answer a little bit of that really quickly. Again, a lot of you must be psychic here. Uh one of the things that we've been discussing, we meet with
um our partners at uft. One of the things that we've been discussing is ways to support more of these families. I do think on the high level we can discuss ways to give them access to that technology. But one of the things our team's raised is let's say a family will have an hour to get in and look at
schools. They're probably still starting from a very foundational level and won't reach the point that we want in them being able to make informed choices. So we've increased more byite-size printable options within my schools. And we've been trying to work with guidance
counselors because we think they can sort of bridge that gap. If I'm a guidance counselor of a student, I probably know a little bit more about that student. and some schools that I might want to recommend. I can go into my schools and print a small PDF for maybe five or 10 schools, one or
double-sided pages, and backpack that for it to go home because if they're having technological issues, that's probably not going to get solved within the admission cycle. But porting some of that over to the paper version, that is that bridge. Because we did hear when we
moved into this online process, that same old paper book does not exist. and we are working on what else can we do and what we make printable from my schools. We also at both the high school and middle school level worked on creating high school application worksheets and web pages that can also
be back back home that have some information. We don't want to overload them, but still we understand there are families that aren't really getting online, but we don't want that to be a barrier to engaging with the process at all >> with all of the I'm sorry,
>> we do work with all of the uft parent centers which of course close at 4:00, 5:00, even though they have some evening workshops. But again, I think the library is really something we have to work on. Thank you.
>> And I would I would love to hear more about what you're thinking when you're talking about us partnering at the library. So, we should connect and talk more about that. >> That's and Dennis and I, we talked a lot about some other opportunities earlier, so we definitely can have that conversation, I guess. Okay.
>> Yep. All right. We are at the time we need to wrap up. Um, kept few overtime. What's that, Heather? >> Okay. Yeah. I just want to say thank you for office for office enrollment coming out. This was a great >> Before you go, sorry. Uh sorry, Mark. I
I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I just want to double check the uh the phone lines. Yeah, the interpretation lines. Yeah. To see if there's any questions. And before before doing that, I do want to highlight that it's these conversations are very important. Thank
you all for being here. The public loves hearing from you in person. I know it's a long meeting, but again, just showing you my uh showing appreciation from all the members and you know to you Suzanne and the team. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And if there may be questions in the chat that we didn't get to, we're going to download the chat questions and make sure that we do respond to something there. There's a uh you know there's some comments that are not questions but they're more comments. So, but certainly questions we will do our
best to get back to and I believe Johanna dropped in the chat the special educationchools.nyc.gov inbox where you can email us that is manned directly by Johanna and her colleague Britney. So, uh, I I I I very
quickly want to acknowledge and thank, uh, Travonda, you and your team for being here tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you again. This was a really good discussion. Thank you everybody. >> And also, Office of Special Education,
thank you for coming out. Appreciate your support. But thank you Enrollment. Thank you, Office of Special Education. Appreciate it. Okay, we're going to take a couple m minute break and then we'll get resuming with the rest of our calendar meeting the [clears throat] calendar meeting.
Thank you for the uh the understanding and the and the pause in our our meeting, but we're ready to get going again. Next item on our agenda is a resolution that was sent out on Monday.
The resolution is on busing. So wanted to see is there a motion to open discussion on the busing resolution. >> I make a motion to open discussion on the busing resolution. >> Is there a second?
I second. >> Okay. All in favor of opening a discussion on busing resolution, please say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. So, as stated, there was a
resolution that was put forth in email and sent out to the community. The resolution is on improving bus service for students with disabilities in NYC. Um, I hope every if you haven't had a chance
to read it, please look on uh the your packet members. Rose, thank you. So, Rose is putting it on screen. Um, she'll scroll down in a little bit on that.
Um, the version that you are seeing is actually a proposed uh with amendments to it. We'll get to that in a moment, but I just want everyone to see. So, if you see anything in red, that is stuff that would be and strikeouts, that would be an amendment offered. Um, we're not
quite at that point for an amendment, but want to put it out there um for the community. So, does anyone want to talk about a proposed amend uh proposed resolution? Yes. Uh, can you if you could put the original up for now because we'll do
amendments if if people want to have an amendment. I'd like to Yeah, Rose, if you could do the original that was sent out to the community would be great. Thank you. >> So, one that's not in the amendment one, I think
>> the original >> in the original. Yes. Um, I think there needs to be aware as about the chancellor's regulations and how they haven't been updated. Um, they >> Sorry, Heather. Can do you want to add
the language just so we could add that? >> Um, I don't I don't know. >> Do you have language for that? >> I don't have the language for it right this moment, but >> you could type up um or work on it in your head and then type it into the chat and we can discuss it at that point.
chance of regulations. I mean, they still refer to um city bus companies that have now been consolidated under the MTA. Um there are there's just a lot in the chancellor's ranks that is is
obsolete and doesn't even apply to busing. How it how it currently is is now. Um and and the PEP I think needs to be encouraged to update it to reflect the current um process and stuff.
>> Okay. So if you could think about how you'd want that phrased and then we can we can offer that up as a proposed amendment. >> Hi. Um Ron, go ahead. >> Yeah. So this is Ron. Um I see here uh
be it resolved the NYC DOE GPS. So the GPS bus data I just wonder so because I many parent they concern the bus driver they never open the app for the parent to track where's the bus I'm not sure whether the GPS here is talking about
the same thing as the >> So Ron you're actually you're talking about the proposed amendment that I put forth you're that you're looking at the one that's got red right that is that's not the original that is a proposed amendment that I would I would put forth in a few moments ments.
Um, the original is the one that's that Rose has. It's it's the one and a half page document. So, I I can certainly talk about GPS. So, local law, so city law requires every yellow bus to have GPS.
So, that is the law. So, every bus has GPS. Now there is a secondary part which is the school bus app that relies on the GPS but doesn't have to be turned on if the bus driver doesn't turn it on. The
GPS is on no matter what. So the DOE is can is getting data real live data if the app is being turned on by the driver or not. The DOE still has that data because it's required by law. So, and that's why if you saw one of the
contracts that was put forth by a representative of bus company at the PEP last month, that contract did talk about GPS in there. And the reason it was talking about GPS in there is because it's the law that they have to have GPS. Thank you, Rose. Um, but the app is
different from the GPS in that the app today doesn't have to be turned on. It's supposed to be turned on, but it doesn't have to be because there's a lack of it in the contract for bus drivers. So, there's like guidance, but guidance
is not the same as actual law. And so, that's why in my proposal, which we'll bring forth, I I wanted to have GPS a little more stringently used and data provided because
the app is great. if it works. I can tell you the app has not worked for my kid the last two weeks. Um, and so I'm doing the I hope he's coming. I hope the bus driver's coming. And you know, Monday I had to drive the kid to school. And uh, of course with self-reporting as
it is, there was no self-reporting that the bus never showed up. And I know the bus didn't show up because I got a call at 7:15 for a 7:20 pickup saying, "We're still at the bus yard. We're not going to be able to come for at least an hour. Do you think you can take your kid to school?
and other people on the route got the same call after talking to their people on the route and we all ended up taking our own kids to school. Um, but they never self-reported it. So, according to DOE's self-reporting system, the bus showed up in the morning, which it
didn't. And that's part of the problem where the GPS does show the bus never moved from the yard, but the app doesn't show anything because they never turned on the app and they never self-reported that they failed to do their job. And that's some of the challenges that when I put forth my my proposed amendments to
the original, that's kind of the backstory as to why. Okay. So, Heather put in the chat a a whereas amendment. So, we'll talk about that in a moment. But, you know, I think quick backstory on on why why we're
we're talking about this today. So, a lot of you were at the PEP meeting either online or in person last month and and saw a very interesting PEP meeting. The most vocal PEP mo meeting I have seen in probably 8 10 years. Um,
last time it was that bad probably was when we had the bus strike which was about what 10 11 years ago, 12 years ago I think. Uh, no god it was 2012 2012 2013. I don't know. That's when I had hair. um and tell just how long it's been. But, you know, that's probably the
last time the PEP was that honory and uh wild, but you know, it was a good discussion. The Pep at that time turned down the mayor's 5-year contract. And just so you know, backstory, I did find out post the reason the 5-year contract was put forth to the PEP is because the
mayor's office demanded a 5-year contract. So, it was very interesting to see. So, the PEP unanimously, which is honestly the first time I've ever seen the PEP unanimous on anything, um, and they were unanimous three times during that PEP meeting, stated that we're not
going with a 5-year contract. We're not going to settle for this bad system and bad service continuing for five more years without any changes to the poor system. And thank goodness they did that. What's now
come forth is there is a new PEP meeting coming up this month in a couple what week and a half from now um where the PEP is now been given by the mayor's office a three-year contract. So again, it came from the mayor's office. Now they want to do the same
contract for three years. Again, it's the same contract that's out there today. So the same level of service and quality that you get today, if you can call it quality, um is what they're proposing where our kids don't get after school or kids don't get weekend or kids
don't get um summer busing at the at the same level. Um where you may know if you've got your bus coming, you may not. You know, it's a system that's broken. And so the mayor wants to continue with the three-year. So, the PEP, I'm not
sure where they are, honestly. I've heard from some PEP members that they're looking one year. Some are contemplating the three-year. I haven't heard any PEP member that's solidified on three-year that, yeah, this is where we're definitely going to be. Um, so part of
it is the part of the reason why we brought forth this resolution is to make sure we can let PEP know before the PEP mean CCSC and our students that we represent the position. So PEP is abundantly clear and we also
want to make the DOE abundantly clear on what our students need. And so that's kind of the backstory about why we're at where we are. So the contract that's out there now is good through July 31st, right? I'm sorry, December 31st. My
apologies. So, the contract has got another month and 3 weeks before it expires at the end of really the Adams administration. So, our new uh mayor is going to be settled with no contract um as of January 1, which is interesting
in itself. Um, but yet I can't imagine any bus company is going to start off with the new mayor and and and you know just say we're not going to bust kids around because that would be a bad start if they ever want to be busing in the city ever again. So there's probably going to be a a
let's say there was no contract agreed to by the PEP of three years. Let's say Pep says we ain't doing three years. Mayor Adams Mayor Adams has got to decide is he doing one year, two year, three year, four year, five year and put it back forth for the December meeting. If that gets turned down, then you're going to have to go with this another 30
or 60 day extension into, you know, February or March. Um, what's interesting how the contract works though is whenever, you know, if it's a three-year contract, it's really a two and a half year contract because it starts on July 1.
So, it does get backdated to when the last contract was fin when the last contract ended. So, a three-year is really a 2 and 1/2 year. A two-year is really a 1 and 1/2 year. A one year is really a halfyear contract. Challenge I have with a three-year
contract, that's way too long. I we can't have our kids waiting another two and a half years of this terrible service. The problem I have with a one year is July 1, all of a sudden we're at the same, you know, July one in not that many months, we're at the same point we
are today with where are we at? And the challenge is ultimately for some of this stuff to happen, you need the state to pass some laws and you need the governor to sign it. Now the governor doesn't usually like signing stuff till November, December. It's very rare she signs a bill that's passed in June in July. So
we got a problem that we have to have the state do stuff and then we have to negotiate a whole brand new contract. And I am told by legal that the last contract took about a year to negotiate.
So, if that's the case, my general feeling is fine. We need a year and a half. You know, what we call a two-year contract is probably realistically what we need because we're not going to have everything locked up by July of 26.
Heather, go ahead. I think the important thing that Mark is highlighting too is that the contract that is going to serve as our kids and the union bus workers. So those are the the mechanics, the
matrons, the drivers and will encourage um to fill a lot of the vacancies and shortages is the contract needs to provide employment protections. And currently the state law does not allow that to be included in the contracts.
So, a law has to be passed in Albany before they can negotiate EP in the city contract with the bus companies. So, it's it's very complicated um in that sense. So, we can say they need a new
contract, they need a new contract, um they need to rebid a new contract, but it can't really happen in the way it needs to unless the state passes that law. >> Oh, thank you, Heather. I left that little part out. Thank you. So yeah, so state state needs to do some stuff. The
city needs to do some stuff. OPT has a lot of stuff they need to do. And the city is really negotiating a contract with OPT involved. Um, and look, there's still plenty of issues at OPT level that we need to get fixed. But that's not the boss bus contract, right? Routing is
OPT. It's not the bus contract. I have plenty of complaints. We have all plenty of complaints with routing. Ron, Heather, Maggie, all of you can talk about the the torture of routes. Um, and like to be fair, it's the most complex, convoluted
challenge that exists. I mean, right, they have actually more routes than the MTA has. Literally, it's the largest bus route system in the nation. I mean, we're the biggest city, so it kind of works that way, but the reality is complex. And and I'm not going to I'm
not going to put OPT off the hook, but I'm also going to say the reality is it is a colossal undertaking they're going through. That being said, when you're still doing stuff by hand in today's day and age, that's a problem. You know, when we we buy VIA
and we bought Via back in Delasio days, so not going to bash on on current Mayor Adams on that. We bought VIA. It took us five years before we got the VIA app out there, and I still can't even get on it today. Um, you know, so there's there's
still issues, but it's partially OPT, it's partially DOE, it's partially bus company, it's partially state law, it's partially city law. There's a lot of little things in play. That being said, my feeling is whatever if we choose to do a resolution
and and approve one, my feeling is we need to put the kitchen sink in there. everything that we think our kids and families need. I wanted a resolution because I want to be able to have us go to OPT to go to state to go to city and
go this is what our families need right not having just a generic resolution that says we want better busing doesn't work in my my view. You got to list all the little details. And so I have and I sent out today and Rose
printed up and it's got all the little red marks in there and the strikethroughs my proposed amendment. So we'll get to that in a bit, but I just wanted to let you have a framework of where where I'm at. >> Before we go to Susie, one second. Before we go to Susie, uh Mark, I just want to uh for for folks, the public and
and for the council to consider as well is that uh the governor is also going to uh there's going to be elections for the governor's um so there's going to be a governor's race. That's also something to consider given the fact that she can
veto whatever the uh the legislature passes or she can sign off on it. So, just, you know, as an FYI. Oh, go ahead, Susie. >> Okay. Sorry. And I'm glad that you guys
brought that up and and Mark because I think one of the things that we do want to focus on, especially with those contracts, is just making sure that they are catering to our special needs children and that it's not an afterthought. So, that's something important, not just
the money. [laughter] So, yeah. So, you know, the the PEP does the contracts are available on the PEP's website for three years a 5.4 billion for just those few
companies. That's not all the bus companies, but for three years, 5.4 billion. And that's just a sliver of the total companies involved in this whole thing. So, we're talking big money. It's just rolling over and the service you're getting for 5.4 4 million or 5.4 billion
with the B doesn't make a lot of sense to me. We're paying a lot of money for substandard service. And look, it's not the bus drivers. Bus drivers are getting paid $23.75 for for their their their pay. If you if you sign up today, if you want to be a
bus driver and you have the certificate and certification you need, it's 2375 an hour. They ain't raking in the dough. Bus owners are raking in some serious money at 5.4 four billion, but it ain't falling down the it ain't falling down to the drivers, the matrons of Paras, that's for sure. I mean, um Joanne sent
out the uh the note earlier this week about Paray. What was it? 28 29,000 is intro pay for Paras. I mean, it's the money tree ain't falling too far from the owner's booth. Um you know, 5.4 for just those few companies for three years
is a lot of money and it's not trickling down. And it's definitely a trickle down economics that's being played out there. Um, but what is trickling down is our kids are getting hosed. >> Another thing to uh sorry to interrupt you, but another thing to point out is
uh interestingly at the pub, I don't know if you guys saw um there was a contract passed around. We still it's not confirmed or denied. Whether that was the actual proposal of a contract, I would suggest to read it over because
there are some items there like I saw some language around non-disclosure which is alarming and there's nothing there as far as I know on the EP which was something that was brought up at the PEP meeting over and over by uh
representatives of the company of the uh bus companies and company uh company uh vice presidents and owners themselves. So, it's just something to consider uh that you know if this can be used as
example or an example of a contract, there's nothing there that actually holds uh everyone accountable. Um and so we that's why it's so important to have to do that advocacy that's really really
needed for this state to because right now the uh EP bill the um S1088440 is stuck in committee. So, we need to pressure the governor and the and the
state legislature to pass this bill because that is the only way that we're going to be able to get uh retention um from the um uh the busing staff. Uh that means drivers, that means
maintenance because these are people that hold our kids' lives in their hands. They are responsible for taking them to school safely, bringing them to the home safely, and they're getting paid peanuts, and there's no protection
for those for those uh for that staff. And so, we have to ask ourselves, what is the value of our kids? uh when you're talking about workers and also, you know, listen, if there's uh
like the the the if the buses are always um having issues, mechanical issues or the fact that they're very old. Um Heather, I don't know. I I think you mentioned um a comment on about like how old were these buses and what about what
about that? Like can we add language around that? Thank you. >> Add language. I mean, the language in there gives 15 a 15year lifespan for a bus, which you know, MTA's got buses
that are much older than 15 years. Um, so, you know, and Heather's point is the maintaining of the buses is the bigger issue. The age of the bus can you can have a 5-year-old bus that's in terrible condition. You can have a 15-year-old bus that's in perfect condition. Depends
on how much they're refurbished. I mean, heck, you've got MTA subway cars that are 50 years old and they're still viable. It depends on the quality of of the taking care of the the capital, in this case, the uh the bus fleet. And
that can vary and certainly if you want to put language in there about quality of of maintenance or or whatnot. I'm I'm le I personally less concerned about 15 years as I'm concerned about the quality of the fleet and the maintenance and maintaining the fleet.
>> Yeah, I think maintenance is is important and I think it's it's we could discuss that because I think that it's I mean the the buses keep breaking down. Why is that? And they keep getting fixed but they keep breaking down. So even like if it's not on the resolution like
pushing for that language to be uh or or for something to be done around that um you know it's really important. >> So any further discussion or do we want to go to amendments? What what's the
council's feeling? >> Go ahead. >> Dr. and I just got here, so I want to give her a chance to discuss if she wants to. >> I I mean, I think looking at the amendments, I I thought, you know, maybe the
amendments that you actually put forth, I know you said you would speak about them later, I thought they were good. Um, one of the concerns that I did have is that Porto, a lot of parents in my district, as he I I can't remember his name, but as he explained that um not
being able to see in real time where their kids are, um, unfortunately, we're in I feel like we're in sometime in power and privilege that we can get in a car and drive our kids to school where a lot of parents when they got get the
message that the bus is not coming or they wait and it doesn't come. They then are relying on public transportation that can take a much longer time which then puts the kid depending on the age of the kid out of routine. So, I just
think having some sort of accountability around this system or asking for more information about how cuz that system came out a few years ago. >> January 24. Yep.
>> Right. But where's the accountability and the effectiveness of the system? Who's monitoring it? Um I just feel like that was the only thing I had to add to it. But I think everything else was great. >> Thank you. Um, now and and just so you know, the contract that was distributed
at PEP, if it's valid or not, and Liz, general counsel for DOE, says it's not valid, but I I don't necessarily believe that. Um, it could have been a very early draft. Might have been, you know, your old draft, but it certainly seemed pretty semil-legitimate. Um, it did have
a thing about 90% app compliance. Now I think 100% is the only compliance number that matters but >> where do we find the data for that? That was a concern. They did have a number but they didn't have like what was the monitoring system that kind
of moni to that from the start because a lot while they're saying 90% there's a lot of parents in my district saying that they can't even get on. So how how are I can get in the room and say it's 90%. But where's the proof? How do CEC's
get access to it so that we can see where the where the breakdown is? Because clearly there's a breakdown. >> Okay, that's that's >> I I will say that in the contract that we're not sure that was passed out at the PEP, that contract does say that if
they fail to turn on their GPS, they're fine. They they were the bus companies are given liquidated damages for failing to turn on their GPS. But I don't think that's related to the app. I think that's just related to the GPS data that
OPT has access to. >> Correct. I mean, technically the GPS is supposed to turn on automatically. Um, because it's state law, city law, pardon me, it's local law. Um, that being said, I think there's something that you have and I don't know for sure, but I think there's something you have
to press to say you're like bus number 1 2 3 4 or your route M1, you know, whatever, or Q1, whatever. >> I think also the driver has an ID number that's inputed into the system and if
their number is not correctly in the system, they can turn it on and it still won't show. there's some like issue with how drivers are able to log in um as well. So, it isn't always that the driver isn't turning it on, it's the
driver has not been like added to the system, which is also a problem. If that's the case, then I mean the reality was the purpose of the system was to really give families in real time
understanding of when buses were coming or not. because for years that was a problem right so if we have all these glitches that's what I'll call it then my question is within the resolution maybe we can say something like how are you addressing those issues because at
the end of the day it's great that you're saying 90% one I'm a data person but where's the data how do we know who who's monitor what office is monitoring this and then if you know you have glitches then it's not the bus driver's fault I doesn't I don't care proof for
what it is. I still don't know where my kid is, right? And so, someone needs to fix it. What's the purpose of having a system if it's not working properly? >> And a year and a half, almost two years is long enough for somebody to figure out how they're supposed to work.
>> In addition to that, what we've seen on the ground is then the bus companies have a lot less communication with parents because they're like, "Well, you have the busing app." So now, even though they were never required to, matrons won't call anymore. They don't even give you a pickup time anymore because they're like, "Well, check the
app and when the bus is near your house, you need to come down and get on the bus." So, they're not given a pickup time, which which also they're supposed to be given a pickup time so that um if they don't show up in time, you can hold them accountable. Um and the drivers are not communicating with parents on their
dry runs. None of that because they're all saying, "Well, they can just use the app." and and with but they don't have access to the apps. So they've kind of like washed their hands of communicating with parents because they have this magic app that's supposed to tell parents everything when it really
doesn't tell them anything. >> Okay. So what I'm hearing is be it resolved that NYC DOE must publish daily app usage by route by run AM PM after school to a website that also may be
must be accessible by NYC open data right so that way we're seeing in the morning did this route have the app on the evening did they have their route running on the app and then you also have if there's an after school run >> be because what that will do in the long
run is you may have drivers who are not doing what they need to do. You'll see in spaces where the trends are where you can then hold people accountable because I can guarantee in more areas where families are not as wealthy as other
families, they may have more struggles, right? And so you can't really account for anything or hold space to help people if you're not even getting real data or clear information on something that was invented to supposed to be to
support parents. But yet again, you've created a system that is flawed and no one is really trying to fix it. But you you're sending parents to it as if it works properly. >> And it would also resolve the self-report problem. So, if the GPS data
shows that they showed up at the school at 10:30 in the morning when school starts at 8, you'll be able to see that very clearly and it's not waiting for the bus company to tattle on themselves, which they don't want to do. >> So, I want to bring up that. So if we
check uh if we review the the mystery contract that this pet meeting and it does say something about the GPS compliance rate um in the contract so they will find the company penalty if
their compliance GPS GPS compliance lower than 90% they will charge them $75 a trip uh for single trip and there's no gap. So in my opinion if that contract is true and is in reality they they they
doing that contract they signed that new contract extension I think the bus company will comply with that but the problem is as a parents we don't know that we don't know all the data and we are looking for open data but I think if
you were the best company you may have to comply with that because this is really really hard for them. They the the DOE will charge them. We find them $75 a trip if they their compliance GPS
compliance rate lower than 90%. It's on the mystery contract, but we are we don't know the real one. >> Apparently, they're not finding bus companies today and it's already in the current version of the contract. They're just not they're not I've been told by people within senior leadership that
they're not finding the bus companies for lack of compliance on the app today. >> Not to mention that um the bus companies when they do their budgets and things, they they budget in liquidated damages as a cost of doing business. So, it's
not it's to me it's not the most effective way to get um compliance on some of these issues that are like repeated over and over again. >> I just wanted to chime in and I don't know if this is the place for it but can
you hear me? um thinking about like the data. So like reporting data is one thing, right? But then is there room for verbiage about using that data to make to inform decisions in a timely manner? So like they'll inform families if we're
rerouting within 24 hours. But if we start to see patterns in like kids with limited time travel and we're always violating that like for weeks in a row and we're figuring it out and now this kid is missing up till 10:30 a.m. missing all of that school for, you
know, 3 days a week. It's just this trend that we're seeing. Can they make decisions about routing in a timely fashion to make that stop happening? >> In theory, they're doing that. in theory
I look real world I think they lack a big enough data team >> they don't have enough data scientists they have a lot of GPS data they received it's in real time I don't think they're pouring through that data because if they were they would not be
routing by hand all the special education curb to curb routing um I think that's a real deficiency is they just don't have enough data people crunching the numbers and really seen that they work more on the reactive when they get a phone call as opposed to
proactive. I think that's a transformative process that needs to start at the top of OPT and it's a complete overhaul of how OPT is run and I think that's part of the challenge that I don't
it's a transformative change that has to happen in OPT because they have to become customer centric and right now they're more I'll call it bus company centric. >> Yeah. and we need them focused on the kids. And it's just it's not there today. And
I don't think it's necessarily by intention, but I think it's just how they're structured, how they're formed, and who they have on their team. And they just they need to rebuild and restrategize how they exist and what their role is.
But I'm happy if you want to come up with language to as a recommendation of how they need to move forward as an organization within OPT because I think that's critical and I certainly didn't put that in there and I thank you for bringing that forth
from uh you did sort of because it does say I don't know what line this is but uh be it resolved that NYC DOE utilize GPS bus data to determine if a bus is late and not rely on self-reported data.
So, not relying on self-reported data is is is I think what Mark talked about earlier was that yeah, you know, they should it should be it should be automatic quote unquote. And also the the line at the at the last page the
second line we had resolved that NYC DOE and bus companies must share all complaint data except for personally identified identified data on NYC open data. So I mean take from that language and just try to add
>> and there's something it's it's correct it's true that once the companies do sign the contracts then they will have to comply with the requirements with the new requirements but the other thing to keep in mind is that the bus companies
are did not create the NYC school bus app. So it all goes back to the DOE and OPT. So I guess we also have to be clear on the issues. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> That's not gonna >> 100%. Because and that's what I tried to say beginning. There's a lot of fault
that falls on many different groups. There is DOE leadership on the fourth floor here. There is OPT in Long Island City where they're based. There is the bus companies. There is state law. There is city law. There is a lot of blame.
But there's also a lot of opportunity to refocus on our students and fix the problem. So, I think what's really coming up um is contract extensions. So, these contracts have been in place for 45
years and they've been awarded to these companies for 45 years. And it really comes to do we make amendments through negotiations to um to amend the contracts and extend them to these these
same bus companies, many who are for-profit. And if you're a for-profit business, you're always concerned about the bottom line. And when it comes to human beings and services, um, forprofits, and this is my own
opinion, are notorious for cutting corners so that they can make a higher profit, which means cutting corners on servicing our young people and and our our students, right? um not maintaining the buses how they should, not employing the amount of
people that they need to provide appropriate services. So what's happening is really coming up against do we keep extending and amending the same contract that's been around literally as long as I've been alive and I am not young. I'm not a young person. I will be
half a century old in a couple of years. or do we do we write a new contract and do a rebid so other people and other companies have an opportunity to file a
R to respond to an RFP with a new contract. um give other people a chance because these legacy companies have shown for decades that they're not servicing our students and there are
issues on both sides. Absolutely. Um there's a couple um be it resolves I want to add like OPT needs to modernize their routing. their routing is so archaic to improve and enhance the bus
routes, right? So, that's something that can help. When a person calls and makes a complaint every day for the bus being late, it goes into some void, right? They get assigned a ticket and gets sent an email, but nobody follows up on that. It can go months and OPT never calls
them, they log in, they never give a response on their ticket. They're just call their complaints are as far as a parent's concerned it's just going into some void, right? There's no response to parents that call OPT call line. You
know, I I think I agree with you just in terms of the current contract in those legacy companies. One of one of the things I think we have kind of moved away from is just giving people the notion that you just
get it because you've always got it right. And so um which also breeds the notion of not necessarily having to see the human being that they're serving cuz they they know that regardless of what they do, they're going to get it. But in this day and age when you do have other
up and cominging companies, up and cominging things, if that is the truth and that we decide to say, you know, we would like those contracts rewritten to really better support the children that they serve, the families that they serve, um, and and open it up to other
companies. I think one thing we must put in that that part of the res resolution is that parents or parent leaders need to be at part of the conversation as you rethink about how you're going to rewrite these contracts because often times with a lot of city agencies, you
get people in the room who don't have kids who use buses, who don't understand, and they write contracts that don't necessarily take into account the needs of the people that they're serving. So I think that's a great idea, but making sure that we also put that if
a revision is done that those that a committee or whatever to put together because remember this has been around as you say over 40 years. So a lot has changed in 40 years just how we live has changed in 40 years and travel. So I
think it's important that parents be a part of that conversation. however they choose to incorporate parents in who have children using busing. That needs to be said because if it's not said, they'll just assume that we don't want
to be a part My apologies. Um, so I I just put in the chat box, be it resolved that NYC DOE brings in parent and parent leaders into the new bus contract discussions as representatives. Oops, I brought the s
at the table because I think that's is that what you're looking for or you want me to change it up? But don't forget to put the part about opening it up to other possible companies. >> Okay. So I I would Why don't we do that as a sec? Why don't we do that as a second
>> amendment? I I'd rather have that as two separate parts >> like a rebidding process. >> Yeah. it res. So be it resolved that NYC DOE um initiates new
contracts with the above in um items included. and [sighs and gasps] what creates
be resolved at NYC initiates new contracts the above items included and brings contracts forth to any and all companies that want to bid. I I need some help on that. I'm sorry. >> Bidding process
>> and rebids rebids >> which will allow other companies to >> Right. because you have these legacy companies that have been around before I was born that still are running bus routes. >> So, here's what I got and correct me
before I hit the enter button. Be it resolved that NYC DOE initiates new contracts with the above items included and rebids with a new RFP that reasonable. And again, we'll have to if if we decide to do amendments,
we'll have to vote on the amendments either as a package or as individuals. But uh and again there's there's other amendments out there. I know Heather's working up one and Maggie I see in her notes she's got a few. So if you have
proposed amendments if you could please start typing them up or let us know so we can type them in. >> Yeah, I'm going to type mine in. So um I know you have your in here in this one. Can you flip to the the proposed
amendments? So the these >> I don't have any issues with the first page and the clock the crossed out part. Um >> so Rose is putting up the proposed amendments that that I put forth and emailed out to council earlier today.
Um, page one, Heather is saying, and what I did is I I changed the language instead of New York City public schools to their official name of New York City Department of Education because that's what they're still legally known as, >> NYC DOE, because ultimately they serve
public students in DOE districts. They serve public students in charters, parochial schools, non-public um special um schools, 853s, 4410s, private. They they serve it all. Well, I don't want it to be seem like they're just serving
districts 1 through 32 and 7579. They they serve a lot more. >> Thank you for that. Uh Mark, I only added that because in previous uh resolutions we we had them as uh NYCPS.
So I don't know, but yeah. Um, I also think um it's in a couple places in here um where it talks about busing for after school programs. >> Um I I don't think it's too far to ask
that they provide busing for city funded after school um like the DYCD funded after school programs. >> Okay. So let's >> because some schools will fund their own afterchool private afterchool programs and I think you get in the weeds a
little bit there but if it's a cityf funed program um they should get busing. So if it's if they get dycd funding for their afterchool program then those kids should be able to get busing. >> Okay. So that would be the very last
line on the first page and going on to the second where it says be it resolved that the office of people transportation opt and NYC DOE ensure students with disabilities are guaranteed busing and transportation accommodations in parenthesis such as
busing paraprofessionals for all afterchool activities such as sports after school tutoring and extracurricular clubs >> and city funded extra or after school programs. >> Maybe you can say for all city funded
after school activities and sports and after school children. >> Okay. >> For all city funded >> funded after school programs. >> Um yeah, what you already have here just
add for for all city funded and then you can get everything you have there. >> Okay. for all city funded and then after school activities such as sports, after school tutoring and extracurricular. Okay. So city funded we put in after all
and before after school >> and then it's also in your next be it resolved um I put it after the busing pair professionals um >> for all city funded. Okay, I will pop that into
the Let me add those two in. Thank you everybody. It takes a village, right? That's why we're here. And then where you have about the utilized GPS.
>> Hold on. You're you're too fast for me. I'm I'm slow. I'm old. I I'm past this I'm past the c half century mark there, Miss Heather. Unlike you, Yunnan. All right. So, I'm going to copy and
paste that in and then I'll All right. So, that's the two changes will be plpped in the city funded. >> Yeah. >> Um, so then in the at the bottom, >> okay.
>> Um, the I think about the GPS data. Um, it needs it just put in data needs to be made public. Just some way to >> Okay. >> All right. >> What do you want? Where do you want
that? Uh, where should we put that? >> And this might be something we could collapse into two. This is the data I'm talking about. If they have if the DOE has access to the GPS status, they should publish when buses are arriving at school, right? So, we should be able to look at
when the buses arrived at the school for that day. And if we know that that school starts at 8:00 and their bus didn't get there till 10:30, then that bus is late and it's not self-reported. Like the the city the schools already have access to that data. They should
they should publish it. >> Okay. >> Where we have access to it. >> Yep. Okay. No, I I appreciate that. Thank you. maybe having them access it on this alleged portal that's supposed to be parent friendly. >> Yeah.
>> Versus them coming up with another space where you have to go dig for the information because they'll still say they're reporting it, but they'll put it someplace else where we you may not necessarily you would have to take a two or three step to find. So maybe have it somewhere within the portal and stay in
that because that's where parents are going to first look. How about on that? So, we have that line. It says, "Be it resolved that NYC DOE utilize GPS bus data to determine if a bus is late and not rely on
self-reported data. Fail to turn on GPS data on the bus must mean that the bus route did not happen and thus payment for the bus route bus run must not must be clawed back or withheld." I want to go with more than 75 bucks, Ron. I mean, my opinion is if you didn't if you
didn't report it, it didn't happen and you don't get paid for it. I I don't believe in 75 bucks. That's not enough initiative. You you you don't get paid for the run if you didn't do your job um of turning it on. Um but here then I would add then bus arrival
and departure time from the school is report daily sorry daily daily bus arrival and departure times must be reported
on the on the family facing web portal and included in NYC open data, right? So that way it's it's always out
there. We can see it. So I will post that after I correct my terrible spelling. Um >> and then in the next be it result that you have um it's duplicated. >> Yeah. So we can took that out for that
out multiple times now. >> No, I I I appreciate >> I told you but I didn't >> I appreciate in all seriousness. Thank you. >> Um so then I have be it resolved and I'll type this in the chat. Um OPT needs to invest in modernizing routing their routing system to enhance routes for
better service and accountability. They need to >> is that a new is that a new one >> be a resolve? Yeah, a new one. >> Okay. And you're going to type that in the chat. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um and then on the back page, the third be it resolved. Omni is spelled
with a Y. So we >> What did I do, Ron? I'm sorry. >> Yeah. We must distribute Omni cards to all students on a bus route in case of bus failure. Um um and then
um oh the be it resolved that NYC DOE and bus companies must have working air conditioning and working heat on all buses and I said and provide um maintenance maintenance um logs for all buses. There should be some public data about bus the bus inspections and
maintenance. >> Can you repeat that one more time? I would also add regardless of the IEP because many times they are trying to say they will not provide those things as AC and proper heating if it is not included in the IEP forcing parents to
have to go to the pediatrician and have the medical busing forms updated. >> That that's why we're putting it for every bus, not just for IEP students. for every bus route, every bus has to have AC and heat.
>> And I think the law says that all of the special education buses are required to have AC and heating. >> Um whether that's happening or not, it is in the law stating they have to have that. Um >> um >> that is local law. Yes.
>> Right. So So yeah. So this one maybe is it in um pro provide public data on bus inspections and maintenance. >> Okay. Can you type up >> yes >> be it resolved that? >> Yes please.
>> When they maybe that needs to be put in the contract because do we know if that is even in the contract because if a lot of these bus comp which a lot of these bus companies are forprofits they have to maintain their own buses. the city is not doing it. So unless it's not written
in their contract, you you that they have to provide the data of how they maintain their their stuff. So I think that being specific about that language because if it's not in their contract, >> then how is DOE going to get the data
unless they make it a part of what the requirement is? Because if it ain't in the contract, you ain't got to do it. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean there is federal law for busing, right? There is some department of transportation federal law that applies for buses in terms of minimal, I'll call it maintenance
necessary, right? There's tire tread. You have to have a certain depth of tire. >> Very generic. >> Yes, that's the problem. >> It can be convoluted and it is it leaves a lot of room for interpretation. And I think if we're trying to make things better, we should be a little more specific. If I if I put together a
contract, if we're asking them to do a new contract, >> Yep. >> make sure that be one of the requirements that they have to perform regular or provide regular data whether it be quarterly, yearly, something should be in there saying that because the other thing too when you do
resolutions and DOE often read them, they only take what you write. So if you if you want something specific, you got to be specific. That that would be my recommendation. So, so then I came up with this um be it resolved that NYC DOE
will conduct regular audits of bus maintenance and repairs and provide public data. >> Great. All right. Put in the chat and I'll plop it in here. Thank you. >> And then I have one last bait resolve. Bet resolve DOE, OPT, and bus companies will ensure that students remain on a
bus no longer than the state recommended reasonable times of and I don't have them off the top of my head, but it's like 90 minutes outside of Burrow and 60 minutes within Burrow. Y >> because one of the big complaints we hear from parents is their kids are on a bus for like two or three hours one way.
Um and there's no reason why a four-year-old should be on a bus for 6 hours to get to home from a school that's 3 miles away. >> Agreed. So So [sighs] yeah, Heather, one one thing about one of your proposed amendments you put in
the chat. It says, "Be it resolved. OPT will implement a plan to update parents on resolutions of complaints within a timely fashion. I think we need to define what a timely fashion is because timely fashion to some DOE people is seven to eight years. >> 72 hours maybe
>> something like that. >> 7 days 72 hours whatever days I just would >> rather have a yeah within within se 7 days 72 hours. What do you what are you all comfortable with?
>> Selia says 5 days and I agree with that. I think that's good. That's a school week. >> Five calendar days. Five business days. >> Five business days. Yeah. >> Thank you. I'm going to plop that back in the chat
just so it's out there in its updated form. What what else is >> just a quick question. Um is there data that actually reflects like the number of buses that are equipped or not
equipped with the proper AC and heating. I just wonder if there is anything that reflects in the system that shows the number of buses that actually have working units and such. >> Not public facing that I'm aware of. I'm
sure internally DOE's got some patchwork thing, but I haven't seen anything publicly facing. I mean, you could probably foil it, but I have a feeling they probably don't have a master list if I had to bet.
I'm speculating. >> Yeah, because I was going to say the truth is there are very few busing companies uh in the state. I think Reliant was one um but that folded. I think that was through Delasio. >> Yeah, they got a they got a good deal.
Let's just say their owner was made quite wealthy from Delasio or Yeah, >> but I we don't have the language on the chat. I haven't seen the language on the chat. Did you? Okay.
I'm trying to Okay, I haven't got there yet then. Oh. Oh, yep. Sorry, that was the very next one. I got Ron's in. I'm scrolling up from the bottom. Sorry. I got yours is the very next one. Thank you. My apologies. You're faster than me, which
is not a shock. I'm slow. All right, I got the chancellor's in there now. Thank you. This is going to be a 75page document by the time we're done. And that's good. Um, so I see something from Heather where
you say where as the chancellor's regulations insert the section here is severely outdated and and I think we have chancellor's regulation A81 from Amanda. So that's the one I'm going to plug in. Okay. Thank you, Amanda.
Right. I'm going to plug that in. >> Amanda is awesome. She knows where to find everything and she's my go-to for data and looking for things. >> Right. So, I'm going to plug that alpha 801.
So, in my audits of um bus maintenance, I'm going to also put um um follow up on emergency repairs >> in there. >> Okay, >> I'm putting it in the chat. >> You can put in the chat so I can try to
plug it in, please. All right, there's seven new ones at the bottom. I'm going to start scrolling back from the bottom and see what I missed. um be it resolved pep needs review and update chances regulations and we're going to have to read all this
in just so everyone's aware um Rose I'll need to have access to share screen so I can I'll I'll need to share screen so I can I'm I I h I have my I have it on my computer
open so yeah if you can just give me share screen access at some point doesn't need to be now at some point because then we'll have to read in all these amendments from a legal standpoint. And if there's a motion to vote, we'll
have to vote on the amendments and then vote on the overall document. A two-step vote process here. one. So I think if you you are right rewriting the contract or repeating
contract we have to consider the route bidding system in the contract. So how No, because right now the I mean a bit system for the route. So the l how how how how you will assign the contract
that route to the certain company. Yeah. Because right now they are they just give the contract to the to the to the company that offer the the lowest price to the to the route and then they can take away the route. That mean you see a
lot of traffic during the inter borrow because there's maybe more than two or three or more than many company that run uh many route during the same area because they they offer the lowest price to be a different route from different
company. All right. Okay. So, are there any more amendments that we typed in? Okay. Heather, you're type in. Maggie, any other council member with amendments to propose that we put in [snorts] here. If so, if you can just let me know when
you're finished typing them in, I'll plug them into the the document and then we'll share the document and go through all the amendments that we have. And if that's the case, then we can vote on amendments and vote on a a resolution if we so desire.
>> Okay, I see be resolved. Okay. Wait, is it this is a new one or is this a take out something? Okay. All right, I'm gonna >> All right, I'm plugging Maggie. I'm plugging yours in and then I'll
>> Heather, when you get a chance, just review mic. >> All right, then. He Heather, you plugged in. Joanne, you're working on one as well. Is that right? Are you working on uh Okay. No. Okay. Ron, Irene, Susie,
Sai, are you are you all working on any other resol uh amendments or we we good from that standpoint? >> Okay. Okay. >> Yep. >> Maybe that'll be >> okay. >> Let me get this has one too. >> Okay.
>> I'm going to type it in the chat. >> Okay. Thank you. Get in there. All right. Guardian system. Thank you. >> I'm just going to go ahead and read it out loud. Um the one that I put in so we could fix the language on that. Um yeah
be it resolved that NYC DOE and OPT must oversee and intervene after three times that bus company vendor vehicles I don't know if you can call it vehicles um keep breaking down uh wait
no longer utilizing those same vehicles and bus routes until they are fixed. appropriately. So, I want to fix that language, but I just don't have the Okay. All right. All right. Ron, you got a new one in there. I see. Is that That's a new one,
right? Okay. I will plug that in. Thank you. And Melissa, you're typing away. Is that right? Okay. Sorry, I just let you in late and I apologize. My apologies on that. Do we have this one though? Uh, be it
resolved uh that OPT needs to invest in motoriz modernizing its routing system. >> Yeah. Yeah, I have that one. Yep. And again, we're going to read through everything if if we have a motion to
review proposed amendments. Um, >> you want to read it then? >> Okay, Melissa, help me out on which one you want to add it to because I've added so many things I have no idea where. >> Oh, it may have even moved. So the be it resolved that NYC DOE and bus companies
must share all complaint data except for personally identifiable information. that um one. >> Okay. So, >> uh the last page that one. Yeah, the second the second one on the last adding to it a sentence
>> on the which the last page. Okay. Be it resolved it. Okay. I got to find that one. I'm sorry. Um is that's like >> it should be one of the last ones. Well, the original last. >> Yeah, we we've added like 15 more amendments. Yeah. [laughter] Mhm.
>> Um I put Okay. So for Maggie's I said be be it resolved NYC and OPT must oversee and intervene after a bus has broken down three times to ensure proper repair. These buses should be barred from servicing routes until repairs are
certified and approved um by NYC DOE. Hey, does that make sense? >> It will in a second. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, here's the paragraph >> and you want Okay.
Like that. Okay. And no, thank you. Okay, now I got to go back to this was the Maggie and Heather collab. Is that right? Okay, let me um do you think that we should revisit and maybe not to table this, but should
we bring it back to the legislative meeting or something? Well, well, they they I mean the issue is if you don't want it if you don't want it for PEP, that's fine if we go back to but the legislative is after PEP votes. So, the
issue is if you want if we're trying to influence PEP and the busing contracts, then we want to put it forth. We want to do something tonight. Yes. Maggie, what was the first verb been? Was this was this yours? >> I was just saying that Irene's been very
quiet and asking her if she has anything she wants to add cuz you guys have all those detail information when you add in. >> You guys steal all the idea from her. >> Okay. Regular. Okay. It's right here.
Yes. Right here. This one I'm taking out Heather's >> on the same page. >> All right, I think we got everything here now. So, I'm going to try to share
>> what was Melissa's uh final one. >> Melissa, we plugged in we plugged it in um where her her proposed. So, I'm going to try to share screen and here we go. All right. So,
we'll start at the top. >> Oh, yeah. I'm trying to fix. >> I mean, I don't know. We'll see. We'll see how it does. But, >> does anyone want to be added as co-sponsors? Okay.
Dr. Sai uh Heather Heather is a co-sponsor. Anybody else wants to be added to the to the reszo for the co-sponsor? >> Dr. Canton said she wants to and I think Ron did you want to? Every anybody can co-sponsor. >> Anybody Anybody is Everybody want to be
a co-sponsor who's here? >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Susie, do you want to be a co-sponsor? >> Okay. Okay. Irene, you want to be a co-sponsor? Yes. No. Do you want to be a co list as a co-sponsor or no? Okay. Okay. So, I'm
just going to flag here. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I will add it in later. Maggie Susie, are you going to be a co-sponsor or no? Okay. We'll leave you off for now and you can let us know at by the end of the
night if you decide you want to become one. Okay. All right. So, do we have a motion to review proposed amendments? >> I make a motion to review the proposed amendments.
>> Is there a second? >> A second. >> Second. >> Multiple seconds. All in favor? >> Opposed? Abstain. Okay. All right. So, let's let's go through it. It's a lot of stuff here. I apologize. Anything that's in red, we do have to read out loud per
state law. So, or anything that's struck out of the original one. So, on the second paragraph, whereas the New York State Department of Education NYC is added, the NYC DOE, um that is an addition. Um so,
>> can you can you put OPT after office of people transportation? So, then we can just use OPT through the rest of the document. >> Okay. Whereas whereas the New York State Department of Education, NYC DOE, and the Office of People's Transportation, OPT, have not complied with section 504
and and IDEA, not the IDA, right? And IDA, no, the idea. And I'm just going to put OPT in quotes since we did on NYC DOE. Okay. Um, the next paragraph, no changes. Next paragraph,
no changes. Next paragraph. Whereas currently and historically it is documented that NYC DOE and the Office of People Transportation OPT fails to provide adequate busing services to students with disabilities with specialized busing.
All right, the rest is done. Now we get to the line at the top here. Be it resolved that NY state legislature needs to vote on S1018 440 to allow EP provisions in busing contracts.
The yes, >> we want them to vote yes on it, right? Not just to vote on it. They have to vote on it, right? >> So the proposal it would be to vote yes, >> right? >> Correct. >> Yeah. Sorry.
>> Okay. So, I'm going to read it again. Be it resolved that the and I'm going to write out New York State. Okay. So be it resolved that the New York State Legislature needs to vote yes on S1018440
to allow EP provision in busing contracts. The next paragraph was struck out which stated, "Be it resolved that the NYCPS shall create an independent office to ensure that parents/guardians authorize or entitled to receive reimbursements for transportation
accommodations such as carfare receive this within no more than 30 days of submission and that parents entitled to or authorized to receive direct funding for a car fair receive same immediately." Okay, the next paragraph um there were a
few changes so I'll read the entire updated paragraph. Be resolved that the office of people transportation opt and NYC DOE ensures students with disabilities are guaranteed busing and transportation accommodations such as busing paraprofil paraprofessionals for all city funded after school activities
such as sport after school tutoring and extracurricular clubs. Next paragraph is a complete addition. Be it result that the office of people transportation opt and NYC DOE ensure students with disabilities are guaranteed busing and transportation accommodations such as busing pair
professionals for all city funded summer programs including summer rising dream and any other DOE initiated program at school including pickup after the educational program and after the enrichment program. Next paragraph be resolved that the office of people
transportation opt and NYC DOE ensures students with disabilities are guaranteed busing and transportation accommodations such as busing pair professionals for all NYC DOE weekend programs including weekend academy and any inschool tutoring or classes.
Next paragraph has a small change, but be it resolved at NYCPS. Oops. NYC DOE. My apologies, I missed that. I will reread it in just a moment. Be it resolved that NYC DOE will ensure students with disabilities living in New
York City attending private schools and/or state approved nonpublic schools receive the same level of access to busing and transportation services as students attending NYC DOE schools. They're public schools. I mean, by law, they're public schools.
Be it next paragraph. Be it resolved that the NYC DOE provide consistent clear communication to families of students with disabilities regarding any and all delays in assignments of busing routes, delays in arrival times at school, and any other busing related issues.
any pardon me any other related busing issues. Next paragraph was struck out which stated be it resolved that long-term five-year bus contracts that lack all the important EP legislation undermine school bus workers integrity and employee retention.
Next paragraph was amended to state, "Be it resolved that NYC DOE and the Office of People Transportation, OPT, fully implement all student IEP mandated transportation accommodations, including but not limited to curb to curb or door-to-door busing, transportation, pair professionals, limited time travel,
medical/ nursing services, and specialized transportation assistant services in par in parenthesis and then quotes." Next is an addition be it resolved that NYC DOE and bus companies must inform
families within 24 hours if a route is merged. Next paragraph is new be it resolved that NYC DOE and bus companies must share all complaint data except for personally identifiable data on NYC open data. Bus companies are required to have
a specific call-in number for complaints to accurately record all incoming calls to a bus company. NYC DOE and OPT must ensure complaints are acknowledged, investigated, and resolved promptly and consistently. Next new paragraph. Be it resolved that
NYC DOE must distribute Omni cards to all students on a bus route in case of bus failure. Be it resolved that NYCDOE must provide rid share information to all families with curbto curb service, including the ride share phone number, website, and
voucher code in case of bus failure. Be it resolved that NYC DOE and bus companies must have working air conditioning and working heat on all buses. Next paragraph. Be it resolved that NYC DOE and OPT must evaluate the utilization of NYC bus as the sole
provider of school busing in New York City. Next paragraph. be a result of the board of education of the city school district of New York also known as the panel of education policy or PEP must not agree to a contract extension of more than 2
years. So the above can be implemented in a new contract. I actually want to put that at the very bottom. So we have the above is everything. So I apologize. I'm going to cut that and move it to the very bottom. Okay. >> Hey.
All right. Be it resolved. The PEP needs to review and update the chancellor's regulations on busing to reflect current busing policies, procedures, and contracts. Contacts. Pardon me. I can't read.
Yes. Thank you. Okay. There you go. Next. Be it resolved that NYCPS, we're renaming that NYC DOE. Be it resolved that NYC DOE and the Office of Pupil Transportation OPT shall publish monthly public reports on school
bus service performance, including route assignments, delays, on-time arrival data, staffing shortages, and a number of unresolved cases affecting students with disabilities. in order to ensure transparency and accuracy, accountability, pardon me. Transparency and accountability.
Next, be it resolved that NYC DOE utilize GPS bus data to determine if a bus is late and not rely on self-reported data. Failure to turn on GPS data on the bus must mean that the bus route did not happen and thus payment for the route run must be clawed back or withheld. Daily bus arrival and
departure times from the family facing web portal. We need to change that. Daily bus arrival and departure times must be published on Yeah.
Yeah. So, I'm going to read the entire paragraph again. I apologize. Bait resulted that NYC DOE utilize GPS bus data to determine if a bus is late and not rely on self-reported data. Failure to turn on GPS data on a bus must mean that the bus route did not happen and thus payment for the route must be
clawed back or withheld. Daily bus arrival and departure times must be published on the familyfacing web portal and included NYC open data. be resulted. NYC DOE must publish data daily via app usage by route by run AM PM after school
to a website and also must be uploaded to NYC open data. >> Can we just agree that like >> capitalizations that shouldn't be there can just be fixed? Well, yeah, we'll
we'll talk about that, but yes, >> there's a lot of things that need to be fixed. Yes. Is it Oh, it's capitalized all via Got it. Okay. Um, next paragraph. Be it resolved. OPT will implement a plan to update parents on resolutions of complaints within five
business days. What's that? where it says via in that one. It would be more clear to just put the bus tracking app or via bus tracking app because I'm cuz I can also read it as a
typo as via like via the track usage. >> All right. So, thank you. So be it resolved that the NYC DOE must publish daily via via I guess via right bus tracking app
usage by route by run AM PM after school to a website and also must be uploaded to NYC open data. Next paragraph be it resolved OPT will implement a plan to update parents on resolutions of complaints within five business days. Next paragraph. Be it resolved. The PEP needs to review and update the
chancellor's regulations on busing reflect current busing policies, procedures, and cont. We already had that one earlier. That was a dupe. I'm going to take that out. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Next paragraph. Be it resolved. NYC, DOE, OPT, and bus
companies will ensure that a student's time on the bus does not exceed the state recommended guidelines of 90 minutes outside of Burough and 60 minutes within Burrow. Next paragraph. Be it resolved, NYC DOE and OPT must oversee and intervene after three times the bus company vendor vehicles keep
breaking down, no longer utilizing those same vehicles and bus routes until they are fixed appropriately. Okay, >> this is the one I retyped in the chat. >> Okay. Where? Okay. So, let me take that
out and it should be in there somewhere else. And if it's not, we'll add it in at the end. Okay. So, I'm taking striking that out. Next paragraph. Be it resolved NYC DOE and OPT must oversee and intervene after a bus has broken. That's the same one, isn't it? Is it a
fixed one? Okay. Sorry. Be it resolved, NYC, and OPT must oversee and intervene after a bus has broken down three times to ensure proper repair. The these buses should be barred from serving routes until repairs are certified and approved by NYC DOE. Next paragraph. Be it
resolved, OPT must invest in modernizing its routing system to enhance routes for better service and accountability. Next paragraph. Be it resolved that OPT, Department of Education, DOE, and the Office of People Transportation, OPT, shall reform the school bus contract bidding process so that contracts are
not awarded solely on the basis of lowest cost and instead evaluate quality of service, student safety standards, workforce stability, and compliance with IEP mandated transportation as primary criteria in contract selection.
Next paragraph. Be it resolved that NYC DOE brings in parents and parent leaders into the new bus contract discussions as representatives plural at the table. Next paragraph. Be it resolved that NYC DOE initiates new
contracts with the above items included and rebids with a new RFP. And final paragraph. Be it resolved that the panel sorry be it resolved that the board of education of the city school district of New York also known as a panel of education policy or PEP must not agree
to a contract extension of more than two years the above can be implemented into a new contract. Just a quick question. Um, in in the contract, uh, like through pages 31 to 40, it does address some of the issues
like the AC and such like that. Do we need to still include that um, information? because I think it said something like uh uh liquidated damages in the contract or penalties for violating standards on
time, temperature control, etc. Um so I'm just wondering if that needs to be on there still, like if the >> or which needs to be on there, the very last paragraph. So, with the um with the AC um that was already mentioned, they
said something about requiring the bus companies to hold like parent town hall meetings and such. So, that's our just >> it's it's already in the contract, they'll do it. I mean, that's part of the problem is >> I mean, we could put a be it resolved that until a new contract is that that
the bus companies need to be held fully accountable to the contract that they have or something like that. But it's not really going to change anything. This is what we've been dealing with for 46 years. >> Y >> So I mean Susie, if you want to add
another whereas we can we can or be it resolved, we can certainly do that. If you've got a proposal, I mean that's and I've been told by senior leadership there's some things that are DOE is overlooking that are in the contract today because they have a
problem of enforcing it. >> Yep. Um I mean that >> so it's it's tricky so >> concerned I wasn't sure if there was any >> yeah I just wasn't sure if it was going
to cause any like further delay for the contract approval. Well, the idea is we're the last paragraph is saying that we're suggesting to the PEP that they not approve an extension of more than two years because we want them to do
everything that we've talked about tonight and that's not going to happen in 6 months and we certainly don't want to take five years to get all these things done. And so a year and a effectively two-year contract gives enough time to negotiate according to
DOE legal and it also gives enough time for state to do anything if the state chooses. >> But but also some of the things that we've already put are things that were formally asked some of those things when parents had asked whether it was the air conditioning, whether it was a tracking
and a GPS. So it's not like these are things that are new. So I think two years is a reasonable time because they should be doing these things anyway. >> Exactly. >> I wanted to say maybe on the last be it resolved that we that we rewarded a
little bit to say that in during the two years instead of saying so the buff can be implemented. we should say um so that serious consideration and discussion of what the a new contract would look like can take place or something to that
effect. You know what I mean? So only approve two years but in that two years work needs to be done so that at the end of two years we're not like oh my gosh we need to extend the contracts like during those two years they should be working on the new contract. All right. So, >> I don't know how to word that, but
>> so so the development of a new contract I'm just so a new contract with the above recommendations are are are developed.
that services the needs of all >> and negotiate negotiated developed and negotiated >> develop and negotiate a robust busing contract that protects the rights of our students with disabilities who utilize specialized busing something like that.
I don't know. >> All right. So, [sighs] I'm going to strike this out here. No, I I appreciate I appreciate our collaboration. Okay. So, a new plan faculty above
recommendations are developed and negotiated with all parties. Uh, including parents and parent
leaders. What else we want to add on there? >> We can't hear that. >> I think it's important that it be very strongly worded that that needs to happen in the two years.
So, so maybe something so that a robust contract can be presented um at the two-year >> within the length >> the two-year the two-year. Yeah, because I feel like what's happened a lot of
times is they wait for two months before it's going to expire and they just keep extending it because they haven't done any real work in that time in crisis mode. >> So here's what I got and you tell me what you think. Be it resolved that the board of education of the city school
district of New York, also known as the panel of education policy or PEP, must not agree to a contract extension of more than two years. So a new contract with the above recommendations are developed and negotiated with all parties including parents and parent leaders within the length of the
finalized contract. >> This instant duplicate to the one that um the the the third one that you just scroll up >> this one, right? >> Yeah, that one. >> Yeah, I know. I I I think it the key I
think the idea was to try to reiterate that we want to make sure during that negotiation that we're not left out we being parents or parent leaders but you're right there is a duplicative portion there absolutely
>> um I also want to ask should you also include the student that who ride on the school bus so we can hear what they yes >> like what they don't right >> how they feel cuz they are the one that who in the school Exactly. Y >> All right. So, let's go up to that
paragraph that says, "Be it resolved that NYC DOE brings in par parent and parent leaders >> with students." >> Student leaders >> lead with students. >> Students, parent >> student and parent lead. What you say?
Student and parent leaders. >> Yep. So be it resolved that NYCDE brings in student and parent leaders into Okay, so I'm going to reread that paragraph because it's a new amendment to the amendment of the amendment. Be it
resolved that the NYC DOE brings in student and parent leaders into the new bus contract discussions as representatives at the table. Okay. And then back down here including student
and parent leaders. So the last paragraph would be be resolved that the be it resolved that the board of education of the city school district of New York also known as the panel of education policy or PEP must not agree to a contract extension of more than two
years. So, a new contract with the above recommendations are developed and negotiated with all parties, including student and parent leaders within the length of the finalized contract. >> The time of this 2-year extension should be utilized to develop
>> the time of the extended. So it would say >> contract >> not agree to a contract >> should be two years >> must be sorry must be utilized to create
the new contract with the above recommendations. >> I don't like the word recommendations though. I almost want to say demands. Yeah. >> Or requirements. >> Yep. >> Requirements.
This recommendations are so soft. >> Yeah. Yeah. Because these these are requirements and this is what our families and students have been demanding for >> literally decades and decades and decades, almost a half a century.
Ultimately, it's it's really on the DOE and us as a council to really hold them accountable, right, when it comes to anything that they are truly not uh following through with. Sorry.
>> Even looking at their contract and it it it's, you know, um stressing the air conditioning on sorry all mini bus station wagons and such. They really stress the mini buses. >> Okay. Um
we have younger kids. >> We have our CCHS representative here. coming to the table. Come on, friend. So, so Kim Kim had been um upstairs on the third floor in in the uh CCHS uh
>> Oh, yeah. >> special meeting they had today. >> Welcome, Kim. >> Oh, [laughter] you've been indoctrinated after one meeting, huh? No. Um, yes. So, welcome Kim. So, we're or we're
in the mess. Kim, I heard you you had a a a thought or suggestion. >> Yeah. >> Um, under the resolution where it was the New York State legislation to approve. >> Trying to find it. I'm sorry. Do you
remember the page? or it may have been like on this towards the top of the second or the bottom of maybe this page you're on right now. >> I don't know page one either. This is page two. It's on the very
>> New York State Legislature needs to vote on the New York State The New York State Legislature needs to vote on S1018. >> Yeah. >> Okay. 1018. Yep. Okay. >> Yeah. So, be resolved that the New York
State Legislature needs to vote yes on S1018A440 >> and the governor needs to sign into law. Oh, good. Yes. >> Yes. Thank you. Good. >> There's something missing. >> Y
must sign into law. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yes. >> But I heard >> Governor Governor Governor Cuomo did actually. Yes. All right. So, I'm going to reread that paragraph. Be it resolved that the New York State Legislature
needs to vote yes on S1018440 and the governor must sign into law to allow EP provision in the busing contracts. >> Okay. >> Technically EP is employee protection provision. So >> yes.
>> Okay. >> Now it's a it's a duplicate. Um, one other recommendation to kind of um, tighten the language in the very last result. >> So, see, so all right. So, I let I I
need to reread this in so with the change. So, I will in a second. I just need to reread this otherwise it's not legal. Be it resolved that the New York State Legislature needs to vote yes on S1018440 and a governor must sign into law to
allow EP and busing contracts. Okay. And then where are you, Heather? I apologize. All right. So next steps are going to be we will vote
on the So just so everyone knows the next thing we'll do is we'll ask for a motion to vote on the amendments and approve them and then we would vote on the finalized
resolution. So that would be the next two steps if the motions are put forth and approved. And Heather, you're >> all right. So, what do you got, Heather? Talk to me. >> Okay, you're going to have to because I
can't even see my >> be it resolved that I I because I was typing the chat, I I put the >> Where does this go? Is this replacing something? >> I reworked the last the last be it resolved. >> This is the very last be it resolved. Okay. >> And I in my version, I didn't type out
bord because I just wanted to get it in the chat. So that just needs to be typed out again. But be it resolved that the NYC DOE and PEBB must not agree to a contract extension of more than two years and concurrently use the two years to develop and negotiate a contract with
the voices of students and parent leaders that includes the demands above and guarantees the rights of students with students of dis and guarantees the rights of students with disabilities are no longer violated. Are we okay with that? Change and strike
out this paragraph and go with that one. Everyone okay? All right. So, I'm yanking I'm yanking that out. Okay. And we're going to put this in. All right. So, I will read it in one more time. We're striking out the prior
last paragraph. replacement it with. Be it resolved that the NYC DOE and PEP must not agree to a contract extension of more than two years and concurrently use the two years to develop and negotiate a contract with the voices of student and parent leaders that includes the demands above and guarantees the
right of students with disabilities are SWDs are no longer violated. Okay. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you for the collaboration everybody. All right. So we are at a point now that we have a
very robust uh amendment process that occurred. Um so I'm going to ask is there a motion to approve the amended changes to the proposed resolution? I make a motion to approve the
amendments that were added and also to correct the capitalizations um of several be resolved and >> yeah and formatting. >> Okay, >> there's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> We have a sec. Multiple seconds. Thank
you. Okay, so all in favor of Rose. Wait, hold on. Rose roll call. Thank you. >> Ready. We are voting on the amendments to the resolution, the changes and the
um corrections and alphabetical alpha alpha whatever. Yeah. Dr. Sai, >> yes. >> Joanne, >> yes. >> Heather, >> absolutely. Yes. Mark, >> yes.
>> Dr. Melissa, >> yes. >> Ron, >> yes. >> Maggie, >> absolutely. 100%. Yes. >> Susie, >> yes. >> Irene, >> yes.
>> Okay, >> the motion pass. >> Well, the motion to accept the amendments. Now, we have to have a vote on the actual resolution. I make a motion to vote to pass the resolution on busing. >> What's the name of it called?
>> Rose. Rose, you have something? >> No, we have a motion. We have to have a second. >> Second. >> Irene seconds. Okay. All right. Rose, please. >> Now we are voting on accepting the resolution. >> Dr. Sonat,
>> yes. >> Joanne, >> yes. Heather, >> yes. >> Mark, >> yes. >> Dr. Melissa, >> yes. >> Ron, >> yes. >> Maggie, >> yes.
>> Yes. >> And Irene, >> yes. >> Okay, thank you everybody. >> All right, Rose, I will send you the update. I have to add in Oh, Susie, were you going to be a co-sponsor?
I I were you a co-sponsor? I'm sorry. I forgot. Okay. Okay. And Irene, you were not a co-sponsor. Are you a co-sponsor? >> Change my mind. >> You're going to co-sponsor. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Okay. Great. Thank you everybody. All right. I apologize for the lateness of that part of the discussion, but I think that was a really robust and a big deal for this council. So, thank you all. Um, we now have go to public comment. Is there anyone out there? Um, still
I'm joking, but uh it's been a long night for all of you and I really appreciate all staying online. Thank you. We can't table the business meeting, but we can run through it quickly. Um, public comment. Anyone going once, going twice? Okay. Uh, is there a motion to adjurnn?
>> Motion to adjurnn. >> Nope. I think we do have a public comment. Raquel, >> we do. Oh, she says I'm sorry. >> Raquel, did you want to speak? I'm sorry, Raquel, you're on mute. >> Hi. >> Hi.
>> How are you? Good night, everybody. Or good evening. Yes. Um, quickly, I just wanted to touch on um one of the um resolutions uh about the paras on the bus. I think Heather was saying something about um a
student having to have a par in order to be able to ride the bus. Yep. >> Yes. So, how it works is if your child is assigned a parah um to ride the bus, if there is no para available, your
child is not allowed on the bus. Um and so this is what happens a lot of times is our students can't get to school on the school bus because they don't have the pair available. Uh and so that's one of the complaints that we often feel.
Um, and if you have um if you're experiencing that or if you have um people in your community that brought you that concern, they absolutely need to reach out to the special education inbox um at special education schools.nyc.gov.
Uh because a parent should be assigned to um to escort that child on the bus, but they will not let the child ride the bus if the pair is not there. So if the parent is sick and they don't have a backup, that child doesn't get to ride the bus that day.
>> I think that should be, you know, amended because this is why I requested for the matron to have some sort of medical training even if it's just to assist in an emergency because penalizing the child isn't right. >> Um and they're not trained for that.
That's not that's not the role that they play on the bus, unfortunately. Um, the PAR often [clears throat] offers like onetoone support for a child who has difficulty with their behavior on the bus. If it's a medical issue, they have a nurse assigned to them and that
nurse has a certification um to provide to provide >> eies like for a type one diabetic >> like a type 1 diabetic or like a child with asthma. Those sort of emergencies, not anything else beyond that like because it's immediate. It's life and death. So that's what I mean. liability though. They would rather have that
child not on the bus because they don't have the medical service available than to have them on the bus and have something happen >> and not have the appropriate staff there. >> And if the student only assigned a par in school um but not for a busing, they they should be able to still ride
because they're not there like the par was assigned for the bus. It's only for school. So that wouldn't really cross over for that student. Am I saying it wrong? >> Yeah. Unfortunately, that's that's not how how they do things. Um, and it's
it's for the protection of the the the children and the the busing staff in the schools. >> Okay. It's just that hasn't been my experience. That's why I said something. But, okay, I understand. >> I mean, I think your concerns it's true.
Um, and the the problem is is they need to make sure they have those staff available. That's where the problem lies. It's um >> there's a [clears throat] million backup plans we can come up with suggestions for, but at the end of the day, the DOE is responsible for prov for providing
that staff and when they don't, it's their failure to that child. >> Understand. >> Thank you for your for your feedback. Thank you for being staying this late with us. >> Of course, I'm all in. Thank you. Have a great evening, Raquel. Thank you
so much. All right. Is there a mo any other public comment? >> Oh, sorry. Thank you. Thank you, Irene. Is there any other public comment? Okay. Is there a motion to adjourn the calendar meeting? >> I make a motion that we adjourn the
calendar meeting. >> Okay. Motion. Is there a second to adjurnn? I second. >> Thank you. All in favor of adjourning calendar meeting. I >> I >> oppose abstain. Good. All right, let's start the business meeting. Um calling the business meeting to order. Um roll
call rows real quick. Dr. Sai Joanne >> Heather >> here. >> Mark >> here. Melissa >> here. >> Rob >> here. >> Maggie
>> here. >> Here. >> Here. >> Okay, we're going to go quick. Um, approval of minutes. The minutes were distributed. Did anyone have any changes to the minutes as they were distributed by Rose? If not, then we will accept
them as presented. What >> there >> in the September on the third sheet? >> Okay, >> if you circle it and give it to Rose, she can fix it. >> All right. So, we will get that
corrected and then accept the minutes as presented with the one amendment. Thank you for calling it out, Susie. >> All right, Kim, you have a quick CCHS update. >> Hello. >> Um, for those who are Oh, for those who
don't know me, um, I was appointed on the as the uh CCHS, no, the CC as the appointee for the CCHS. Um I attended the first meeting um after my appointment on October 22nd. Um
during that meeting there were a few resolutions that went through. The first resolution was related to um the DOE providing digital um digital uh training for children or
learnings around how to be a smart digital citizen basically rather than just having removing the cell phones or those mobile devices as well as clarifying for teachers um and principles that they can use DOE approved or Wi-Fi enabled DOE Wi-Fi
enabled devices in the classroom for classroom work because I guess there were some schools where that was not obvious. There were some they were really nervous about it. Um so those those were a few uh things that also come up came up. One other thing we had
Senator Louie uh presented to the uh CCHS and he is the head of the educational committee the education committee in the senate in the state senate. Um and there is a resolution or there is a um piece
of legislation a bill that he has sponsored where it names the CCHS president to be the to be part of the voting body of the PEP. Um and I just wanted to bring it to your attention
because if that's one citywide council that is going to be part of that voting body, it would be good to incorporate all citywide councils on it. Um, so I just wanted to make you aware of that as well. Um, so those were kind of the big highlights. We're also going through a
bylaws um, review um, because we're try making sure that everything is clarified in the bylaws. Um, I am also looking at some of the things that you all are doing. So if you happen to have your bylaws, I would love to see them as a model for us. Um, as well as we're
updating, we're using some of the face template and um, other experiences that we've all had on different legislation bodies. >> Get you a copy um, tomorrow. Thank you on that. >> Yeah. So, thank you. So, this has been a great honor actually kind of a fun
journey. Oh, the other thing too, I'm so glad that you all did your busing resolution because I want to borrow it if I could um to take it to the CCHS. Um yeah. Yeah. Um because there's a couple of people who are interested in being co-sponsors on that. So
>> So thank you. [laughter] >> So once you have the final draft, um please send it to me. I think we're meeting next week. So if I can get that as soon as possible, that'd be wonderful. >> Cool. We can do that. >> All right. Is there a face update? Sorry. Any face update? I know you've
been here forever. All right. No face update. Great. Committee updates. Um, anyone want to talk committees or we want to just push it to next month? >> Committee updates. You want to have committee updates now or you want to push? >> I just want to remind people that our first blessing committee meeting is next
Monday. Um, it's virtual meeting. Um, once Rose, she'll send out the um the invite to our list serve and then I'll pull the um registration link and put it in the calendar so it so it syncs to the
website. So you can just um so check your email boxes for that and then also you can go to the website to see if it's posted to register. I believe it starts at seven, right? >> Seven. >> Yeah, it's the busing and transportation
committee. >> And I will send out notes for the legislative committee meeting we had earlier this week so we don't spend more time here. Okay. Anyone else uh with committee updates? >> Yes. Okay. The health and wellness. So
um Miss Joanne Kaboose and myself are going to be putting something together and we will have updates in terms of a date of when the meetings will take place. So that will be coming soon. >> Thank you. >> Oh u just really quickly uh we will send
out the well uh Rose will send out uh the notice. We're going to have to um send that info to to Rose so she can send it out. Uh communications committee meeting is coming up this month uh November 19th.
But anyway, just just be on the lookout for your emails. It will we'll send it out. Sorry. Thanks. >> Okay. Um co-president report. I just want to quickly mention there's the transition fair this Saturday 10:00 a.m. to to 2:00 p.m. at John J College. It's
it's a really good one. Um they've got a lot of really good stuff set up. I'm actually really impressed. Um so I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. And then city council has their education hearing November 17th.
Um, Chair Joseph, Ed Chair Joseph is looking to add an education, a citywide educational leadership team. So, another unpaid commission, committee, whatever you want to call it. Um, Uh-huh. That's
my general feeling as well. Um, she also wants to require, so Chair Joseph wants to create another citywide educational leadership team. So, we have a lot of them out there, but we need another one apparently.
Chair Joseph of the Education Council, another education leadership team. We don't have enough. Yeah, Rita Joseph education leadership team. We have a million out there already. Yeah. So, she wants to create another
one. So, just heads up on that. Um, she also wants to require district leadership teams and school leadership teams to include a student representative. Um, which is great. The problem I have is just think about retaliation. And if that student doesn't do what the
principal wants, the SLT, that kid's not going to be living life at all. So this is SLT and you know, the principal's already control most SLTs. That student disagrees at all. That's a road to a not a good life for that
student. Um I think that puts a kid in danger, honestly. So Rose has got her hand up. I know we're running late >> to go back. We have to schedule the um office of food and nutrition services for presentation.
>> Yep. >> All right. So, food and nutrition, we need to schedule it for what time frame? Because we've already got December and January lined up. >> I'm sorry. They're scheduled for 20 minutes. Do you want to do it as part of one of those January, February workshops
during that time? >> Do we do we want it I guess a question for the council. Do you want it early and we just have a little bit longer presentation? We could do it for December presumably. >> Oh, I mean probably with what's going on in the country with food, I'd probably
I'd rather have it as soon as we can. So, Rose, see if we can get them in December. And I know we have OPT in December, but I think it's important to have both. >> You want both of those? >> Both of them. And we'll just make we'll make a very abbreviated calendar
business meeting, but I think it's important. >> Um, and then at the PEP coming up on December 17th, they are going to vote on updated chancellor's regulations D210.
That was the one that the judge u federal judge had basically said we can't enforce D210 in its state um because it violated first amendment um clauses and so >> nobody can hear you.
>> So there is a new proposed there is a new proposed D210 out there that'll be voted on presumably on December 17th at PEP. So just so everyone's aware. Um, and then just so everyone's aware, DIAL, which is Office of Special Education,
MLL, is hosting a meeting this Monday with CCEC presidents. That's the CEC presidents, just to kind of share what they've shared with us over the last couple of months, just so everyone else in this the leadership of CEC's is aware
what's happening. Yeah. So, the the CCSE was not, as far as I know, represented on that um educational um committee that met with Zoran Namdani. And I'm just concerned.
>> I was there, >> but I didn't I didn't know that you were going to be there. I didn't And I I don't think the CCSC knew. And so, did you go representing yourself or did you go representing CCSC? because I don't
think we ever voted on it or even knew we were invited. >> I was invited at the last second. Um I did not represent CCSE because as you said >> so we weren't represented >> even though your voice was at the table.
I was an individual. I could not represent because we had no and there wasn't and there wasn't really advanced notice per se of of significance where we could have done anything >> because you have to have 72 hours to have a special meeting. It was not
[snorts] there was less than 72 hours. Um, so yes, so I did attend, I did listen, I did speak a bit about what issues have been brought up in this council and families have brought up, but I did as a individual as I will
speak at the city council hearing on November 17th. I will speak as an individual um and not as a council member. So >> I think the only concern I have about those things is often times they bring
people to the circle who they feel most comfortable with. And as a council, it is imperative that that sort of clickish behavior is sort of checked and that even if they want to invite the
presidents or the co-presidents to something, we as a council should be notified, right? that we're that they're inviting. Even if it's the last minute, send an email or send the email to ROS and make sure that we all get noticed that you've been invited even though we
didn't have an opportunity to vote to send you on our behalf. I I just feel it's very underhanded. Um and I think it just poses issues within the council because you don't get all the information.
Not you. You may be one of the few persons on a council who will not hold information, but I've sat on councils long enough to know how those conversations can be twisted. And though you may have came in the room representing yourself, you were called
in the room not to represent yourself. You really were called in the room to represent us. Else they wouldn't have called you. They could have called anybody. So it's like, yeah, you get up and say, "Oh, I'm not representing CCSE." But the reason you were called to the table was because of the seat you
sit in. And so I think we really need to have a better conversation with face or whoever gives these faith who gives these opportunity or the other elected officials that make sure that we're mindful and even if you're called to the table that we should be notified in
advance >> because it doesn't look good being notified after the fact. >> Yeah. I apologize. Um so face was not involved. This was I got a call. I'm not saying face, but I'm just saying that's the leadership around this city, if that's a better way to put it. >> Yeah.
>> And also, I just want to point out our bylaws allow the presidents to assign tasks to other council members. So, you could send any of us to go. >> I apologize for not not speaking up. I was
I I I knew about it just cuz I was invited by someone who knew me not on that campaign, but someone else knew me from other things I have done around. So I'm not going to say it was because I
was CCSC, it's because I was known. But that being said, I am known more so because of being on season to your point. >> What I'm saying is at the end of the day, that may have been the case, right? We all are invited to meetings because who we know and and we all gatekeep because I have gatekeep and everyone
takes ownership of that. But if we want to make a more transparent and build cohesiveness as a new council as leaders, we have to be mindful when we're being placed in a position that even though our intentions are in the
right place, the impact lands differently. And and one of the things I would like to see this this term cycle that we did not see last term cycle was that you have to even though you may be the person invited as the president you
can send other members and some members here are brand new to the council and don't have institutional knowledge like myself and a few of the other members and the only way they're going to better understand how the system runs and work as leaders you have to be willing to give them an opportunity to go to these
meetings or be in those rooms so that they can have an opportunity to come back and share. Um, some of us will get in the rooms by other means, but I think it's important if we're going to if we're going to build a better CCSE, we need to be conscious of that. I know
our intentions are not there, but how it how the impact happens is what matters. My intentions to do a lot of things can be one thing, but my impact is what actually makes an effect. So, I'm just saying as a council, we just need to be more mindful of that because there are new people here who don't know anything.
And I think the only way they're going to learn is that they're given opportunities or the conversation is brought. We can send a text on email for mundane things. We can send a text on email for important things. That's just
a just a suggestion of mine. >> Feedback acknowledged and appreciated. Thank you. And I will just say as a new member, I don't think that all of us new members don't have no knowledge of what is going on with the citywide councils.
But but no, it doesn't matter. I I I only just stated one thing. I'm I'm just stating that >> I just I just want to say that if if I had not asked and brought it up at this meeting, would we have ever found out that you attended that and spoke on
behalf of students with disabilities? like and in and to me I elected an a president and I voted for a president that was going to um consider the council and not just go and and make decisions and and talk and do things
without um the input from everyone at the table. That's not what my vision of the president is supposed to do. Um you're supposed to facilitate, not be the the word of the council. Um, so I just want to put that out there.
>> I appreciate the feedback. >> Should facilitate the council, not not make all the decisions and be the beall end all voice of us. >> The one thing I want to say, I just said the purpose of this term is to really bring people into the conversation. And
so Susie, I want to say to you and directly speak to you. I didn't say that you as a council member knows everything, but there are council members here who have not sat on CCSE who are not familiar with the issues.
While we you may have knowledge of things, the way those meetings work and stuff you may not have knowledge of. So, it's not personally towards you, it's just in general that gatekeeping is an issue among counselors. So, don't take
it personal. We we Rose is saying we got to get going. So >> I I want to say something before we go though. Um I I said it in the beginning when you guys voted for us as a slate that I was for
transparency and I was for all of that what Sai and Heather talked about. So, I I can just say that Mark and I have been collaborating on, you know, on on on pushing the council forward. I do want
to just say that we we do need all hands on deck as well. Uh each of us need to hold ourselves accountable. This is the first resolution that we as a council have developed. We want to see more because
we really, really need it. We're seeing other councils, other education councils come up with with a lot of resolutions. We need to collaborate with them as well. Um and so I I I look forward, we look forward to like the committee um
work that's going to take place. We have the communications and outreach committee. We have the transportation committee. Let's work on the committees and the work on the committees. But I do agree that that yeah, we don't want to go back to the to the silos and gatekeeping and we want to keep it
transparent and we we want to bring you guys to the table. I think that we're we're kind of on the same page on that. But I also want to want to say like we need all hands on deck, please, because it's it's a you know, Mark does a lot of work. I try to do a lot of work. you
guys do a lot of work, but please uh just yeah, let's let's keep collaborating and let's collaborate with the other councils as well. >> Okay. Um and just quickly, D the CCSE D75 member vacancy still exists. Um we
thought we had a person face approved and then face said never mind or not D75 parent. So we're back at Yes. Don't don't understand, but that's where we are today. Okay. So, we're still waiting for a member. Rose sent
out the notice earlier. Um, do we have a motion to table the remainder of the business agenda? >> I have I'll make a motion to table the rest of the business agenda. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor of tableabling the rest of
the agenda? >> I opposed. Abstain. All right. Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. Take a second. >> Yes. Okay. All in favor of journing. I oppose
abstain. Okay. Thanks everybody. Have a good night.