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New York City parents, brace yourself: There are no full five-day school weeks for many students during November.
The month starts with a day off for students on Tuesday for Election Day, and then elementary school students have a half day on Thursday for parent teacher conferences.
The following week, students are off Nov. 11 for Veterans Day, followed two days later with a half day for parent teacher conferences at middle schools and those in District 75, which serves students with disabilities.
Students attending K-12 schools, 6-12 schools, and high schools then have a half day on Nov. 20 for parent teacher conferences.
And finally, the last week of the month has two days off for Thanksgiving.
Having no school on days when most parents are still working can cause child care burdens on many families. Some schools might offer programs for students on these days off, and local after-school centers often spin up programs that families can pay for – but it can still cause logistical and financial headaches.
The stop-start nature of partial school weeks can also be hard on educators trying to build momentum and maintain their students’ focus. It can also put a dent in their efforts to improve attendance, a top priority for many schools. About 1 in 3 New York City students were chronically absent last year, which is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year.
Many parents have expressed frustration with the city’s calendar this year, which only includes 176 days for students, rather than the state-required 180 instructional days. The Education Department, however, is still in compliance since the state allows up to four staff development days to count as instructional days.
Parent leaders from District 1’s Community Education Council, representing Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village, recently passed a resolution calling on the Education Department to make calendar decisions in future years with input from the “broader school community,” including parents and students. Currently, the calendar is created with input from the teachers union.
“We’re calling for more transparency on how the school calendar is put together, and for [Community Education Councils] to be more involved in that process,” council member Alejandro Epifanio Torres said at the meeting in which members passed the resolution.
Julissa Martinez, the Education Department’s director of instructional time policy, told parents at the meeting that officials were working on that very issue.
“We are planning right now, by the end of the year it should be out, a web page on our DOE site that really outlines the calendar process, so that … people know it’s not arbitrary,” she said. “It’s a set formula.”
She also said that the Education Department is not likely to put out three years-worth of calendars like it did recently, but expects to return to the practice of putting out one year’s schedule at a time.
“It is better to take it year by year, and that’s what we’re doing next year,” she said.
Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.
