City Council Hearing: New School Creation

The City Council’s Education Committee, chaired by Council Member Robert Jackson, will hold an oversight hearing on the DOE’s New School Development Process.

Since 2002, the Department of Education has opened almost 400 new traditional or “district” public schools and over 100 charter schools. The process for creation of new charter schools, which is governed by State law, is fairly well known and involves an RFP process and a public hearing prior to approval of a new charter school. The process for development of new “district” public schools, which is determined by DOE, is less widely known and does not require a hearing prior to approval.

This hearing will focus primarily on the process for development of new “district” public schools.

We invite members of Community Education Councils, parents, students, educators, advocates, and all other stakeholders and interested members of the public to testify at this hearing. Testimony will be limited to 2-3 minutes per person to allow as many as possible to testify. Although the hearing starts at 1:00 pm, the Administration (Department of Education), as well as other witnesses (such as elected officials) have been invited to testify and answer questions from Council Members at the outset, so we do not expect to hear from others until sometime after 2:30pm. Please make sure you fill out a witness slip on the desk of the Sergeant-at-arms if you wish to testify. If you plan to bring written testimony, please bring at least 20 copies.