Budget challenge: Rally at City Hall

Posted by helen at 9:43 AM

Some folks may opt for picnics or the movies on the last day of school, Thursday June 26th. But if you, like thousands of city parents, worry about threatened school budget cuts, a late-afternoon visit to City Hall may be more your speed.

Join Class Size Matters activists and others to protest the budget cuts and crowded classrooms; meet on Broadway near City Hall at 3:30, ahead of a 4pm press conference.

There's just another week before the City Council wrestles the proposed budget to some kind of compromise conclusion; if you can, before heading off to the beach, summer camp, the cineplex (or the nearest sofa), make your presence known.

Turn Up the Heat

Posted by helen at 8:44 AM

Rally today at 1pm at City Hall, organized by Council Member David Weprin of Queens and joined by Council colleagues and parents citywide to protest pre-K admissions -- and omissions.

Bring kids, signs, and lots of water -- and plan on extra travel time, especially if you're coming from uptown, as the Puerto Rican Day Parade celebrates on Fifth.

Eyes and ears on the ground, let us know what you see and hear.

City Council hearing offers hints of mayoral control reforms to come

Posted by Philissa at 10:55 PM

Since the discussion of mayoral control has been heating up for a little while already, I was hoping at yesterday's City Council hearing on the subject to hear some concrete recommendations for how the city's school governance structure should be improved. But much of the morning session at least was spent conflating the issue of mayoral control with the myriad issues many parents, teachers, and advocates have had with the control exercised by Mayor Bloomberg. Education Committee Chair Robert Jackson repeatedly had to ask his colleagues to stay on task as they questioned Chancellor Klein on subjects as far-ranging as testing, the cell phone ban, and the progress reports.

Still, as council members discussed their frustrations with the current education administration, they also gave some hints about what the council's working group on mayoral control will recommend to lawmakers in Albany. It was clear from the council's questions that reverting to the old system of local school board control isn't a real possibility in 2009. Instead, and in keeping with its grievances of the last five years, the council appears to be seeking public — and more specifically, parental — checks on the mayor's power over education. Jackson said the group would likely recommend that the Community Education Councils, currently powerless, be given a formal, significant role in approving DOE decisions. David Yassky, one of the chairs of the council's working group, suggested that the CECs take on a role in the budget process similar to that which community boards play in the municipal budget progress.

And Jimmy Vacca, the third working group chair along with Jackson and Yassky, asked Chancellor Klein and Deputy Mayor Walcott what they thought about the creation of an independent research body being created to authenticate DOE data. "Having independent analysis is always a good thing," Klein said, noting that the DOE is in the process of setting up such a group right now. Later in the day, David Bloomfield suggested that the city's Independent Budget Office might be an appropriate home for the independent analysts, since that office is already "a reliable source of objective, professional budget analysis."

Progress reports (may be*) statistically sound; not enough for Council, parents

Posted by Philissa at 7:50 AM

After yesterday's excitement, I'm ready to take a more substantive look at the content of the City Council hearing on the progress reports. Jenny Medina at the Times has the best rundown of all of the papers and for an overview of what James Liebman said and how the Council members responded, I would go to her report.

What stood out most to me was that once again the DOE managed to present a compelling initiative in a way that frustrated and angered elected officials and parents. A numbers-oriented friend of mine who shares my interest in education has told me that the progress reports are sound from her vantage point, and from mine, nothing I heard yesterday dissuaded me from thinking that they contain useful information parents ought to be able to find out. Liebman's presentation also helped me understand just how some top schools got low grades by showing how their students' progress, particularly that of their students who began the year in the lowest third, stacked up unfavorably next to other schools with similar students.

So I don't understand why Liebman had to undermine his own hard work by arguing that the grades are not based almost entirely on single assessments in math and English; saying that his office had "consulted" with, among many others, an organization whose leader was in the room and later testified that their only conversation was not about the progress reports; and by giving Time Out From Testing the runaround on his way out the door.

I was also relieved to see that in disliking the progress reports, Insideschools readers are more like typical New Yorkers than the Quinnipiac poll would have us think; Council member after Council member commented that their constituents have told them that poor grades are unfairly stigmatizing some good schools, some of which fear that their recent progress could be undercut. Liebman did say, as he has before, that he is open to tweaking the formula used to calculate the grades or even assigning schools multiple grades based on different criteria. But in my view, it's the presentation and the attitude behind it, not the formula, that need a major revision.

*Title updated to reflect an exchange in the comments about the statistical validity of the reports.

TODAY (12/10): City Council hearing on progress reports

Posted by Philissa at 12:13 AM

There's plenty to do this week if you're concerned about the progress report grades that were recently released. (And if you have anything to do with the 13 schools the DOE has already said it will close because of poor grades, you're probably concerned.)

First, this morning the City Council's Education Committee is holding a hearing on the progress report grades. 9:30 a.m., City Hall. Map.

Then, tomorrow Central Park East I and II elementary schools are hosting a forum, featuring Deborah Meier and others, about the grades. Tuesday, 6-8 p.m., CPE I, Manhattan. Map.

And if that's not enough, you can also sign Class Size Matters' online petition against the report cards. Class Size Matters says the millions of dollars that are going into the progress reports would be better used lowering class size and building new schools.

I'll find out the answer to this question tomorrow morning when I see how many people are at the City Council hearing, but I'm curious: Are folks still at your school still as worried about the report cards as people were two weeks ago, when most Insideschools readers gave the initiative a "D" or an "F" in our poll? Or have people moved on?

City Council member takes aim at excessive homework

Posted by Philissa at 4:55 PM

Upset about the amount of time he's spending helping his middle school-aged daughters with homework, City Council member Peter Vallone of Queens wants to introduce a resolution to limit homework to 2.5 hours a night and require schools to create one homework-free night a week. The mayor doesn't sound interested in taking up the cause, and the DOE believes homework load is best set by individual schools.

For most kids, I can't imagine that a limit of 2.5 hours of homework would mean a reduction in the time spent on homework. Still, as Izzy noted earlier, some schools have a reputation for handing out hours of homework every night. And it is true that the most conscientious students and parents, who are the least likely to need more work, are the most likely to suffer when it's assigned.

Vallone's quest may be quixotic but he isn't alone. Last year Insideschools reviewed two books arguing for the abolition of homework; we also interviewed Alfie Kohn, the author of one of the books, who said that homework, at least before high school, is "all pain, no gain."

At City Council hearing on safety, kids describe schools' least pleasant lessons

Posted by Philissa at 2:14 PM

I've been meaning to share notes from last week's City Council hearing on school safety for days. The press did a pretty good job sharing the central issue of the hearing: it's unclear whether DOE employees or NYPD employees have the final say on school safety and discipline decisions, and the lack of clarity creates flammable conditions in schools that give rise to incidents like the one at East Side Community High School last week.

But the issue is more than one of confusion. Community leaders and students took to the stand in the late afternoon to describe the ways that aggressive policing detracts from a learning environment. Kids described being arrested and hauled out of school by safety agents after breaking minor rules, such as by writing on a desk or cutting class. They also described harassment by school safety agents that didn't result in arrest. Every student mentioned missing class time as one outcome of his or her interaction with police in school.

Kids described psychic losses as well. Jonathan Clark, a senior at Aviation High School, where he is president of the honor society, described the day last spring when radnom scanners came to his school. The scene was one of confusion and screaming, Clark said, with agents unclear about what to confiscate; they took some students' school equipment and birthday cupcakes, while allowing others to choose whether their cell phone or iPod was taken. Students missed hours of class waiting in line, and the day was ruined. Clark said, "Every other day there is such morale and happiness, and on that day it was the exact opposite." Another student echoed Clark's concern when he saw random scanning at Bryant High School: "I thought that something had happened and I was scared."

As the Legal Aid Society's Nancy Ginsberg noted, "You could probably find probable cause for arrest every 20 minutes" in schools. That doesn't mean that having police in schools — and there are nearly 5,000 school safety agents in New York City's schools — is necessary or wise. Representatives of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which released a report earlier this year decrying "aggressive" policing in the schools, spoke about alternative discipline strategies, such as Positive Behavior Intervention System, that have been successful elsewhere. Those strategies are more flexible and less punitive than giving control to school safety agents, and they are administered by those charged with carrying out schools' educational missions.

Kids from the Urban Youth Collaborative, who said they didn't want to identify their schools out of fear of retaliation, repeatedly said that incidents in their schools "can be solved" if school safety agents were simply more respectful toward them. The student from Bryant said, "I don't think the NYPD knows how to deal with young people." Keeping kids out of class and teaching them that the police are their enemies? With such terrible teachers on staff, NYPD really shouldn't get involved in schools.

One final note: Council members were interested in what happened to a 1998 Memorandum of Understanding between the DOE and NYPD effectively transferring authority over school safety to the NYPD. That memorandum was supposed to be revisited in 2002, but by that time Mayor Bloomberg had been elected and given control of the schools, and no joint committee met to extend the arrangement. Kathleen Grimm, deputy chancellor for finance and operations, argued that mayoral control made such memorandums unnecessary because the mayor oversees both NYPD and the DOE. So we can attribute some of the reason behind the lack of explicit guidelines for making school safety decisions to mayoral control, touted (at least by mayors) as a panacea for educational problems.

Thanks to Leah Gogel, Insideschools' Zankel Fellow from Columbia University's Teachers College, for her help covering the hearing.

TODAY: City Council hearing on school safety

Posted by Philissa at 6:38 AM

Just a reminder that the City Council is holding a major hearing tomorrow about school safety. The hearing is a joint endeavor of the council's committees on education, public safety, and juvenile justice and is being held in two sessions, one from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and the second from 3 p.m. until the end of the day. Map

We'll be reporting on what happens, but if you are concerned about safety issues at your kids' schools, you might want to consider testifying. To get on the docket, speak to the sergeant-at-arms at the beginning of the hearing. If you can, bring copies of what you plan to say. Given the persistent issues surrounding school safety and the interaction between safety agents and students — just yesterday, the principal and an honors student at East Side Community High School were arrested in a confrontation with safety agents — it's important that the council hear from students and parents.

Liveblogging the City Council hearing: Community members testify

Posted by Philissa at 3:24 PM

Wow. A ton of people came out to testify today. We'll be here all afternoon. I'll try to summarize most folks' main points:

Joan McKeever Thomas, UFT parent liaison for Staten Island: "If the DOE's proposed changes [to the regulation governing School Leadership Teams] are institutionalized, many SLTs -- which show and continue to offer so much promise -- would become rubber stamps for the principals."

Randi Herman, first vice president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators: "A meaningful role for parents and the community cannot be left merely to the discretion of this mayor or any successive mayor. It must be part of the law. ... Even then, vigilant oversight is needed by [the City Council] to ensure that the spirit as well as the letter of the law is being carried out." (From written testimony)

Patrick Sullivan, Manhattan representative on the Panel for Educational Policy: "The changes DOE is proposing will result in parents being more reluctant to participate since decisions about how to allocate their school's budget will be made before they are engaged by school administrators in the development of the [Comprehensive Education Plan]. Ultimately, the proposed changes to A-655 threaten to weaker rather than strengthen SLTs."

Kim Sweet, Advocates for Children's executive director: "District Family Advocates and their supervisors have no authority whatsoever over the principals; they are not even in the same chain of command. ... We have no objection to District Family Advocates, to the extent that they may help parents work their way through the often impenetrable bureaucracy. Our objection is that parents with complaints are being funneled to the District Family Advocates, rather than to DOE officials who have the authority to respond to their concerns. This structure does not promote parent engagement; it promotes parent disenfranchisement."

Shana Marks-Odinga, Alliance for Quality Education: "Without sufficient details, parents and other stakeholders at the school-based level were unable to participate in the [Contracts for Excellence] planning process in a substantive, meaningful way. In this first year, we were operating under a short timeframe, but this process did not allow for real deliberation. ... Public engagement around the 2008-9 Contract for Excellence should begin in October 2007 to ensure a meaningful process."

Jim Devor, acting president of the Association of CECs: Under the proposed SLT regulation, "most of the major decisions will already have been made" by the time parents enter the process.

[At this point, the meeting had run so long that we had to move so another committee could use the Council Chambers. That space was internet-less which is why this entry is so late!]

David Quintana, member of the Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council: "Most parent coordinators serve a function as 'principal coordinators' ... they are overinflated [and are] not serving the purpose they were intended to."

Tim Johnson, CPAC chairman: "To parents, [the parent engagement initiative] looks and feels like yet another reorganization. ... It doesn't change anything on the ground for parents. ... We haven't seen the commitment from the chancellor that our issues are as important as those of other stakeholders."

Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters and NYC Public School Parents blog: One reason for the chain of command issue Kim Sweet described is that "district superintendents are no longer in district offices. Now, they're working with schools outside their districts and are not empowered to intervene" in the schools they supervise.

Susan Shiroma, president of the Citywide Council on High Schools, to Robert Jackson: "I implore you that the voice of high school parents not be lost. ... I can't find president's councils that represent high schools."

And to finish the (very, very long) hearing, Robert Jackson: Is the DOE "really trying to eliminate the coordination of parents' voices? Sometimes I wonder."

Whew. Whatever improvements come out of the initiatives Martine Guerrier discussed earlier, all the testimony I heard today suggests it will take time and hard work for the DOE to earn back the trust of the most involved parents.

Liveblogging the City Council hearing: Council members react

Posted by Philissa at 12:21 PM

Council Member Lew Fidler nailed the central parent engagement issue this morning when he pointed out about Guerrier, members of the Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy staff, and parent coordinators, "There is a huge fatal flaw. Each is hired and answerable to the DOE, not parents. ... You [Guerrier] felt the need to defend the rigid position of the DOE, not advocate for parents, and that's a problem." Fidler got applause for this statement, and he deserved it.

While being questioned by council members, Guerrier gave a few more details of the precise role parent bodies will play this year. They will help decide "how school closures happen" and where charter schools and new schools are sited based on community needs. She agreed with Council Member Vallone's characterization of those discussions in the past as "a dog and pony show."

Guerrier wants to train School Leadership Teams and help Parent Associations do better outreach to get more parents involved. Guerrier also revealed that one reason the DOE's new parent engagement website is not up yet is that developers are working on allowing parent associations to disseminate audio and video of their meetings online. In general, she said, parents should be making the decisions "that impact students directly."

Coming up: testimony from community leaders, including Advocates for Children's Kim Sweet

Liveblogging the City Council hearing: Cell phone furor

Posted by Philissa at 11:33 AM

Council Member Peter Vallone just got angry about cell phones, an issue that's important to many, many parents.

Vallone: Have you consulted with parents about the cell phone ban?
Guerrier: OFEA doesn't actually manage cell phone policy.
Vallone: 99 percent of parents oppose the cell phone ban.
Guerrier: "It's unfair to deny the feelings of parents who oppose cell phones." I've heard from families whose kids were terrorized by other students using cell phones. But I think some families have issues that require phones. If I polled five parents, I might find one who opposes cell phones.
Vallone: Would it be safe to say that the parents you've communicated with on the issue of cell phones, are the majority in favor of kids carrying cell phones?
Guerrier hems and haws but settles on yes.
Vallone: ... If parents are against this ban, wouldn't it be part of Ms. Guerrier's job to help them?

Guerrier was right that cell phone policy isn't under her purview — Vallone pushed her pretty far on the issue and I have a feeling she'll be getting a reminder from Mayor Bloomberg soon, as Chancellor Klein did when he made the mistake of suggesting the possibility of a compromise back in May 2006. The mayor has made it clear that no matter officials' duties, they aren't to make concessions on cell phones.

Update: Council member Lew Fidler asks Walcott, "Can we — council representatives and parent representatives — sit down with the mayor's office and come to a policy we will all support ... that fosters respect for the rule and those who make it?" Walcott says, "I'm always open to dialogue but ... we will always be at odds." Fidler: "Deputy Mayor, we will see you in court."

Liveblogging the City Council hearing: Martine Guerrier

Posted by Philissa at 10:45 AM

Martine Guerrier's up and she sounds sincere. She says was concerned she would have to give up her role as a parent advocate when she took on her position as chief family engagement officer, but that hasn't been true. Instead, she says, she's convinced of the "sincerity on the part of the administration to change the tone" of interaction with parents. Of course, she has to say things are getting better, but her willingness to admit the flaws of the past — untimely and poorly explained information, parents having to travel to regional offices to get help, etc. — is refreshing and gives me hope that these flaws will be remediated.

Guerrier's talking about forging a "broader definition of parent engagement that goes beyond training and supporting parent coordinators." She's going to be holding parent nights all year to take discussion about schools to parents' homes, neighborhoods, and community organizations. Public forums will also be conducted in foreign languages.

The Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy has a broad range of responsibilities: training and overseeing parent coordinators, engaging Community Education Councils, managing translation and interpretation unit, making sure all schools have a functioning School Leadership Team (a fact that will factor into principals' grades — but by how much, I don't know).

Guerrier says the "relationship between schools and families is a key determinant in whether kids can take advantage" of resources provided by schools. Parents want more communication of academic progress -- short conferences not enough and some families only find out about kids' progress when there isn't any. That's where OFEA will collaborate with the office of accountability.

Next up: questions. Here's a taste:

Jackson: What is your opinion on parents? Are they full partners in their kids education?
Guerrier: Yes.

Liveblogging the City Council hearing on parent engagement

Posted by Philissa at 10:32 AM

Education Committee chair Robert Jackson opened today's proceedings with some familiar complaints: why don't people know what's going on at the DOE until after decisions are already made? how do you know who to call at the DOE when you need help? what's wrong with 311?

Now Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott and OFEA CEO Martine Guerrier are testifying. Walcott has gone over the familiar litany of efforts the DOE has made in the last few years to formalize parents' voice — and they're nothing to shake a stick at. Walcott also notes that "the Mayor's doors at City Hall are and always have been open to parents." I had no idea — has anyone ever tried to meet with the mayor in his City Hall office?

Walcott has just said "probably 95 percent" of parent coordinators originally hired are still employed by the schools that hired them. There's no way that's even close to being true. Does anyone want to fact check? Still, the creation of the parent coordinator position was a huge step forward for the DOE and the best of the parent coordinators are tremendous assets to their schools.

2007-08 the year of parent engagement?

Posted by Philissa at 3:03 PM

We can hope so. If recent experience with the DOE is any guide, though, it's more likely to be merely the week of parent engagement.

Today, Chancellor Klein, along with Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy CEO Martine Guerrier, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and Alonta Wrighton, principal of PS 11 in Brooklyn, held a feel-good press event to announce the DOE's newest family engagement efforts. The highlights: the creation of District Family Advocates to replace the old Parent Support Officers; Guerrier's office's "year-long, citywide public information campaign," soon to be found on subways and buses; expansion of access to translation services; and better support for the Community Education Councils.

I hope these much-needed improvements make a difference for parents who have felt for years that the DOE doesn't adequately address their questions and concerns. But how will the DOE make sure that these engagement efforts pay off? Remember, as the press release points out, "principals will be evaluated in part based on the effectiveness of their School Leadership Teams, half of which is comprised of parents."

Oversight is a central issue at two meetings tomorrow focusing on the DOE's parent engagement initiatives. The City Council's education committee is holding a hearing on the initiatives starting at 10 a.m. (Map) and the Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council also has parent engagement on the agenda for its 10 a.m. meeting in Tweed, where Guerrier and Klein are expected to appear (Map). We hear there may also be some kind of press event on the steps of City Hall at 11 a.m. It looks like it will be a busy morning for the DOE's parent engagement gurus -- we'll let you know what we find out from those meetings, but if you are able to go, please let us know your take as well!

Backlash against alternative programs?

Posted by Philissa at 3:22 PM

Gotham Gazette reports that Kew Garden Hills residents are preparing to protest the DOE's decision to locate a new transfer alternative school in the neighborhood. City Council member James Gennaro is more upset that the DOE didn't seek community approval before making the decision than he is about the nature of the program, which will serve older students who may have had difficulty at their previous schools. “It’s really just the community feels so left out,” Gennaro's spokesman told Gotham Gazette. “It’s almost hurtful.”

In the last year, several school communities have successfully protested the DOE's attempts to locate new schools in their buildings. But this situation is different -- the alternative school in Queens will have its own building, in an old Catholic school. And usually, when a community finds out it will be getting a new school, folks are happy. Could it be that Gennaro is concerned about having older, less academically successful high school students in his neighborhood? I hope that's not the case. But I think about how folks at MS 113 in Brooklyn recently told the Daily News that sharing space with a GED program instead of a suspension center was "the lesser of two evils." As the recent story about transfer alternative schools in the New York Times made clear, taking more than four years to graduate from high school is becoming more and more common. Instead of resisting schools that will help older kids graduate from high school, communities should be happy to see them made available.

New York school cell phone ban unusual

Posted by Philissa at 12:14 PM

New York may have better public transportation, restaurants, and sports teams, but Washington, D.C., has at least one thing on us -- kids in the surrounding counties can carry their cell phones to school. The Washington Post today reports that "school boards everywhere are revisiting decade-old bans against portable communication devices in the classroom" because parents and kids view cell phones as a necessity and because fears about how cell phones would undermine discipline and learning simply haven't come true. The last Washington-area school system to allow cell phones in school will finally do so this fall.

Of course, New York isn't like most places, and the mayor and chancellor are holding firm on the cell phone ban, even in the face of City Council opposition. With school starting next week, I haven't heard anything more about which schools will receive cell phone lockers as part of a "compromise" pilot program. Has anyone else?

The politics behind the Middle School Task Force

Posted by Philissa at 3:22 PM

The Gotham Gazette analyzes the politics behind yesterday's Middle School Task Force announcement, concluding that the mayor is trying to coopt the City Council's efforts to improve middle schools and speculating that Speaker Christine Quinn is allowing him to do so in anticipation of her anticipated 2009 mayoral bid.

I can't imagine that Robert Jackson, head of the council's education committee, is thrilled about this dynamic, given his frequent criticism of the DOE for its refusal to address the issue of class size adequately and to make information available to his committee. But like everyone else who pays attention to schools in the city, Jackson knows that middle schools have always been a weak link in a strengthening system, and so I hope he's pleased that Bloomberg and Klein for once sound genuinely committed to taking the council's advice — even if they do inevitably try to spin the results as their own creation, as they have managed to spin the initative itself.

Middle school reforms on the way

Posted by Philissa at 8:48 PM

Today, the mayor and chancellor announced a host of reforms based on the recommendations put forth by the City Council's Middle School Task Force. Council speaker Christine Quinn convened the task force this spring to address what the New York Times recently called the "critical years" of middle school, when adolescence threatens to derail kids' academic and social successes.

Parents will be most interested in the DOE's commitment to add Regents-level courses to all middle schools by 2010 and the fact that the highest-need schools will receive extra funds. Here's exactly what the DOE has agreed to, from the city's press release:

• Identifying at least 50 high-need middle schools that will have access to a $5 million fund to implement the Middle School Task Force recommendations
• Working to implement Task Force recommendations citywide
• Waiving fees for professional development for high-need schools
• Expanding Regents-level courses citywide
• Establishing an ongoing discussion on middle-grade reform with various stakeholders

Interestingly, the task force report mentions 15 times that middle school class size is too large, but the DOE's announcement does not address class size at all, except in a quote from UFT President Randi Weingarten. The announcement similarly does not address parent involvement or safety and discipline at all, although those topics take up more than 10 pages in the report.

It's possible that those topics will be broached by the DOE's new "Director of Middle School Initiatives." The person appointed to this new position, housed in the Division of Teaching and Learning, will be responsible for making sure the task force recommendations are carried out. The mayor announced today that Lori Bennett will be the first person to take on this task; she was formerly a LIS in Region 8, where her new boss, Marcia Lyles, was the superintendent.

Mayor vetoes City Council's anti-cell phone ban bill

Posted by Philissa at 11:35 PM

Earlier today Mayor Bloomberg vetoed the City Council's recent bill that would allow kids to carry their cell phones to and from school. I'm somewhat surprised by this development because the line from the DOE when the council was discussing the bill was that kids are not prevented from taking their phones to school, just from taking them inside once they get there.

In a statement reported by Staten Island Live, Bloomberg wrote that he vetoed the bill because it represented "an invalid attempt at imposing the (City) Council's views on how the public schools should be managed." But council members were explicit about the fact that they don't control the schools.

It seems pretty clear that the mayor is overstepping his bounds here by vetoing the council's bill because of what he thinks are its supporters' intentions. The council plans to override his veto, and Bloomberg seems eager to set up a court battle over the cell phone ban. I'm curious what he seeks to gain from this showdown. Certainly he won't have a chance of winning the support of the city's parents -- though of course we know he isn't terribly interested in that anyway.

City kids want more mental health options

Posted by Philissa at 10:00 PM

"Many New York City students would like to have someone to whom they can turn," but their schools don't provide mental health services, writes a high school student in an article first published in New Youth Connections and reprinted by the Gotham Gazette. The author, April Daley, writes that kids might be more likely to seek out help if it's available at their schools, but many schools don't have on-campus health centers and even those that do don't always have staff members trained in mental health issues.

Daley also notes that City Council member Gale Brewer and others pressed this year for funding for school health centers and mental health professionals for every school. They were not successful but plan to try again next year.

Does your school have a counselor on staff? What can kids do if they feel, as Daley says is common, like they "need someone to talk to"?