 The Office of Family and Community Empowerment (FACE) is providing an update of events and resources:
Within our schools, we have seen a COVID-19 positivity rate of only .18 percent out of more than 100,000 students and staff tested. This has been a reassuring sign that our schools are safe, and that our families, staff and student are taking all necessary precautions to stay safe and healthy. However, outside of schools, the signs are not as promising. Two months ago, we pledged to close our buildings and temporarily shift to fully remote teaching and learning if the average weekly positive testing rate, across the city, reached 3%. Unfortunately, the rate has been increasing towards 3%, and we may have to temporarily shift back to full-time remote learning for every school in the coming weeks. We have already communicated this to principals and know that you and your colleagues are working hard to prepare for that possibility. This is an outcome that no-one wants, in a set of circumstances that no-one is happy about. However, we do need to be prepared should we have to take this step, and thank you all, as ever, for your continued dedication through these challenging times. We will keep you closely updated. Show Your Schoolwork NYC The DOE is launching “Show Your Schoolwork NYC” series, a year-long virtual celebration of great schoolwork completed by blended and remote-learning students in 3-K– grade 12 throughout the 2020–21 school year. All DOE staff members and families are invited to participate by submitting a brief summary of a student and their work that you would like to highlight via the submission form at any time during the course of the 2020–21 school year. Submitters should also include at least three photos and/or one video with your submission—this could be media featuring the student, their work, your relationship to the work (i.e., did you assign it), and/or any background regarding the assignment (i.e., lessons learned, expected outcomes). The series will be featured on the DOE’s blog The Morning Bell and the DOE’s social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. For more information, review the submission form homepage. The Window to Opt Into Blended Learning is Open until November 15 DOE public schools offer blended/in-person learning (a mix of in-person days at school and remote-learning days at home) and fully remote learning. Learn more about blended/in-person learning and the 2020-2021 school year on our Return to School 2020 web pages. If guardians have any difficulty completing this form online, they can call 311 for help. Changing Preferences
Big Apple Awards 2020 Nominations are Now Open!We are now accepting nominations for the Big Apple Awards! Nominations for teachers and college and career counselors will be accepted through January 10, 2021. Students, families, educators, school staff, and community members can nominate teachers and counselors by visiting the Big Apple Awards website, today through January 10, 2021. Nominees must be current, full-time public school teachers or college counselors in a district school, charter school or early childhood education center in New York City who demonstrate exceptional success in the classroom. PA/PTA Elections and Annual Financial Report (AFR): Thank you for all of the work you put into holding PA/PTA elections. Holding elections during a traditional year is challenging work, and the transition to holding elections in a virtual environment has made the challenge even greater. FACE is in the process of developing a waiver process that will allow PAs/PTAs unable to meet the election deadline to request an extension to December 31, 2020. SLT Parent Member Elections: Following the PA/PTA election, your school should also have conducted School Leadership Team (SLT) parent-member elections to fill any vacancies on the SLT. Annual Financial Report (AFR): Your school is required to submit the Annual Financial Report (AFR), including the PA/PTA budget beginning balance, income, expenses, and ending balance. The results of these elections, and the Annual Financial Report (AFR), should be recorded in the School Parent Leader Contact Information (SPLCI) system by you or your parent coordinator by November 16. For step-by-step directions on how to access SPLCI from a remote workspace, or on the DOE network, see this guide. For more information and resources, see the PA/PTA Resource Folder and SLT Support Site. For questions, email FACE@schools.nyc.gov. PA/PTA Roles and Responsibilities Virtual Training We would like to share the Roles and Responsibilities for PA/PTA presentation and recording for the virtual training held by FACE on November 10, 2020. We will be posting on the DOE website over the next few days. Access the recording here with Access Passcode: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/N8AmV7_Ha8DJHkXU0TWUprSkHNE0IoedqWKkvBGLFYd7yyNul_VSPAfOPaGg_egW.G1nOXkshpWmasl0m EVENTS FOR PARENTS November is Family Empowerment Month Family Empowerment Month is an opportunity to recognize the importance of school, home and community partnerships, now even more crucial in these times. Family Empowerment Month is collection of activities and events celebrating and supporting families. We invite you, our colleagues and partners in this work, to join us this month and year in celebrating and supporting our families. Save the Date
Family and Student Information Session Families across the DOE are invited to attend a virtual “Family and Student Information” session, which will take place from 6:30–8:00 p.m. on November 19. Principals and their parent coordinators/family-facing staff should share the following session flyers (English, Spanish, Chinese) via email to ensure families are aware of this opportunity. The session, hosted by Chancellor Richard A. Carranza, will feature DOE leaders discussing the most up-to-date information about remote and blended learning, grading policies, and health and safety protocols. Families can join this event by registering via Learn DOE; families can also view the event, without registering, via this livestream on the day/time of the event. Missed us on November 12th? You can view the recording here: https://learndoe.org/face/recordings/ Virtual Workshops on Financial Wellness for Students and Families (English and Spanish) The DOE is partnering with EverFi and Master Your Card to host two workshops on Financial Wellness, one in English and one in Spanish. The workshops will take place via Zoom on Wednesday, November 18th, with the English workshop taking place from 3:00pm to 4:00pm and the Spanish workshop taking place from 4:30pm to 5:30pm. Please share the information below or the flyers for the English workshop (3:00pm-4:00pm) and the Spanish workshop (4:30pm to 5:30pm) with your communities. For questions, email the Division of Multilingual Learners at DML@schools.nyc.gov. The Power Of Financial Wellness Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2020 Time: 3:00 P.M.—4:00 P.M. Location: Online (Zoom) Registration: https://tinyurl.com/MM1108201 Join us for this online session to learn about:
Su Bienestar Financiero Fecha: miércoles es 18 de noviembre de 2020 Hora: 4:30 P.M.–5:30 P.M. Ubicación: Zoom Registro: https://tinyurl.com/MM1108201S Acompáñenos a una sesión en línea para aprender:
For MLL/ELL students and families If you have a child who is in middle schools and is a Multilingual or English Language Learners, or know someone who does, please attend an information session that highlights Career & Technical Education programs in NYC schools and the benefits of career related school pathways. The session will take place on November 16th from 5pm - 6pm with translations available in Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin. City University of New York Admissions Events Thursday November 19th and Friday November 20th - 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Monday November 23rd and Tuesday November 24th - 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm For all families, especially junior and senior MLLs/ELLs CUNY Admissions Overview – 11.19 and 11.20 Learn more about colleges, majors, and support programs available to new students at the City University of New York (CUNY), and ask any questions you have about applying. Held in the afternoons on November 19-20, and offered in Spanish, Mandarin, Bengali, and Russian. Students and families are welcome. CUNY Application Support – 11.23 and 11.24 Receive hands-on support in starting and completing an application to CUNY colleges. Held in the afternoons on November 23-24, and offered in Spanish, Mandarin, Bengali, and Russian. Students wanting to apply to CUNY are welcome. City Harvest Food Drive For 38 years, City Harvest and the Daily News have partnered to host the city’s largest food drive, taking place this year from Tuesday, October 20, 2020 through Friday, January 22, 2021. Our goal is to collect one million pounds of nutritious food, which we will deliver, free of charge, to hundreds of soup kitchens, food pantries, and other community food programs across the five boroughs. Find out how you can get involved this year by visiting City Harvest’s website ICYMI From Betty A. Rosa, Interim Commissioner New York State Education Department Dear Parents, Throughout the pandemic, our priority has been the health and wellbeing of our students and educators. With this in mind, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) determined that the January Regents Exams could not be safely, equitably, and fairly administered across the state given the current status of the pandemic, and we recently announced that the January 2021 administration of the High School Regents Examination Program is cancelled. This cancellation applies to all Regents Examinations that had been scheduled for the January 2021 Regents Examination period. No decisions have been made regarding the June and August 2021 administrations of Regents Examinations or any of the other state assessment programs. We will continue to monitor applicable data and make decisions about other state assessment programs as the school year progresses, being mindful of the evolving situation. Protecting children is part of the responsibility of educators, and that includes preventing child sexual abuse. Curriculum resources are now available to help schools and educators implement Erin’s law, which requires public schools to teach child sexual abuse and exploitation prevention in Kindergarten through eighth grade. NYSED launched an Erin’s law website with materials to help educate students on awareness, skills, self-confidence, and support to prevent child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse. These curriculum resources provide schools with caring, grade-appropriate materials to help empower children by letting them know it’s safe to speak up to someone they can trust. We are grateful to our partners in the legislature, Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assembly member Jeffrey Dinowitz, who advocated for this law and for our students. NYSED strives to maintain a strong connection with families and communities, and a key aspect of this connection is transparency. We recently launched a Parent Dashboard to increase transparency and make information about school performance and other school-level data easier for parents and the public to access. The Parent Dashboard increases data transparency by providing you, as parents, with valuable information about your child’s school, enabling you to make informed decisions about your child’s education. NYSED is now gathering additional feedback from parents and stakeholders to guide further enhancements to the Parent Dashboard. We will use this feedback to identify the data that is most useful to parents and the public and to make improvements to the website. We invite you to explore the Parent Dashboard and then provide feedback via an online survey, available in 17 languages. By completing the survey, you will help us determine how the Parent Dashboard can best provide you with information about your child’s education. All children deserve access to a high-quality education that will allow them to meet their full potential, regardless of their race or religious beliefs. NYSED will hold a series of regional meetings to engage and gather input from stakeholders in the religious and independent school community, as well as their counterparts in public schools, to inform policy decisions related to the substantial equivalence of instruction in nonpublic schools as required by Education Law Section 3204(2). The outcomes of the stakeholder engagement sessions and the survey of religious and independent schools will be considered by the Board of Regents as it considers next steps in the process to develop regulations for substantially equivalent instruction for nonpublic school students. By engaging our partners in the field, we anticipate constructive and thoughtful discussions to develop an inclusive framework for determining substantial equivalence for the students of New York State. Thank you, as always, for your continued partnership and dedication to your children's education. Sincerely, Betty A. Rosa Interim Commissioner Warm Regards, The FACE Team Comments are closed.
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