Middle school muddle: Empty mailboxes, again
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May is one of those poignant and bittersweet months for 5th-grade parents, who are in the early stages of the difficult and lifelong parenting process called Letting Go.
The changes are small now. Ten and 11-year-olds may be more reluctant to hold hands with their parents, especially in public. They may covet teen trappings — cell phones, instant messaging, or even video chats.
Parents sense that long-established elementary school relationships and habits are about to change, so naturally there is some anxiety about the future. And once again this year, that anxiety is compounded by the Department of Education’s failure to send out timely middle school notifications.
So while parents and teachers are busy planning yearbooks, end-of year concerts, and elementary school graduation ceremonies, they are still coming home to empty mailboxes. They still cannot tell their children where they will be going to school next year. And that is not okay.
Last year at this time, I had to comfort my now 6th-grader that news would be arriving soon, and that he’d be fine wherever he ended up. Yet like many parents around me, I couldn’t quite calm my own jumpy feelings every time I searched the mail. I hated not knowing.
The DOE vowed to fix the process this year, but without any specific reason, they have pushed back the date for notification again. Parents who are trying to figure out if they have to move – or forfeit deposits to private school – are particularly annoyed, as comments this week on Insideschools have shown. Given that the supply of top-notch middle schools citywide nowhere near meets the demand for them, it’s understandable that parents want some answers.
The last few weeks of elementary school should be filled with sweet reminders of the beautiful and elusive nature of childhood. After all the bewildering touring, ranking, and interviewing the students did last fall to find a middle school, they deserve timely answers – and so do their parents.
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The DOE should be ashamed of themselves. This process gets worse every year. Ten year olds should not have to get so stressed about school. They will encounter enough pressure in their adult life. No need to start now!!!! Parents should fight to change this process.
Comment by tess — May 22, 2009 @ 10:28 am
Any information about pre-k placements? They were supposed to be sent by “May 18th” and then “by the end of the week of May 18th.”
Comment by Anonymous — May 22, 2009 @ 10:31 am
I will make sure that I raise my children to be as patient as possible when it comes time for MS placement. Is there really a need to get so upset about this? The placements will come in the mail. Why would you involve your 10 year old in your anxiety?
Comment by anonymous — May 22, 2009 @ 10:43 am
I just wrote to the DOE about Pre-K notification and was sent this response: “You will receive your Pre-K information next week”.
I’m so frustrated!!! Been waiting nearly three months already…enough!!! Why bother sending an email on the 18th saying that notifications were imminent (by the end of the week) if you were just going to take it all back?
Comment by Eva — May 22, 2009 @ 10:45 am
Last year they timed Pre K noticifations so that the rejections were received first–over Memorial Day Week-end. This way parents could stew an extra day–unable to do anything.
Comment by PSBK parent — May 22, 2009 @ 11:32 am
Sandy Ferguson, the official in charge of middle school enrollment at the DOE, said at a District 15 CEC meeting last night that middle school acceptance letters will be sent to parents next week. If you haven’t gotten a letter by Thursday, you can check with your school which will be getting copies of the letters, he said. In response to parents’ questions about why the letters are going out late again this year, Ferguson said that testing schedules and auditions vary from district to district and the DOE wanted to make sure all letters were sent at the same time. Additionally, he said, students with special needs will be getting their acceptances along with all other students — something that did not happen last year when many special education students had to wait until the end of the school year to find out where they were accepted. Unlike the high school process, all students will be matched with a school. For families unhappy with the match, there will be an appeals process in districts where there is middle school choice, Ferguson said. Appeals are due back to school guidance counselors by June 8. Ferguson did not have firm numbers of the students who appealed last year but he estimated that about one-third of them were granted another school on appeal. Eighty schools have their own admissions process and those schools send out letters separately. He said parents should contact those schools directly for information.
Comment by Pamela Wheaton — May 22, 2009 @ 11:56 am
Here’s why some of us are so anxious about middle school placement decisions: the harsh reality is that in many (if not most) NYC school districts there are not enough seats in adequately performing schools. Parents are therefore justifiably concerned that their children may be placed in schools in which sizable numbers of kids read way below grade level in eighth grade, or worse, schools that are chaotic and/or dangerous. Depending on people’s individual finances, plan B scenarios include: moving out of the city, investing one child’s college fund in a private school education for another child, or homeschooling. These would be wrenching and life-changing decisions for any family. Many parents will have no ability to implement any Plan B scenarios and will have no choice but to send their kids to these failing, chaotic and/or dangerous schools. Of course the kids should not be sharing in the parents’ anxiety but under the circumstances I don’t think blaming the anxious parents for the city’s failure to sufficiently educate each of its children is terribly productive.
Comment by fifthgrade parent — May 22, 2009 @ 11:56 am
In response to anonymous at 10:43 - the middle school process is very different from what you may have experienced applying to kindergarten. By 5th grade, children are very interested and involved in the choice of middle schools - it is a subject of much discussion among classmates. There really is no way to shield your child from worry over the process, and by this point in the school year children are all anxious to know where they will be going to school in the fall.
Comment by anonymous — May 22, 2009 @ 1:54 pm
And, you must also bear in mind that the entire social group that they have been with since kg. or pre-k is being disbanded with this school change. They not only do not know where they will be, but they also don’t know which of their friends they will be with, if any. It is a time of tremendous change and uncertainty. And, it is the onset of the tween years, where they are developmentally beginning to move out of childhood into adolescence. A little structure and predictability would be a wonderful thing for them. The D2 placement coordinator stated that it is too hard for the DOE to do any better, and if we want anything different, we should advocate to abolish school choice. Not exactly the resolution I was looking for.
Comment by Anonymous — May 22, 2009 @ 6:46 pm
As parents we DO NOT choose to include our 10 year olds in our anxiety. The Dept of Ed has forced us to include them by creating this absolutely idiotic system. IF your child meets the requirements for a school they should be allowed to attend end of story. Find the schools that work and try to create more like them. Give the kids more options instead of a few decent middle schools. A 10 year old should not have an hour commute to get to a decent school.
Comment by tee — May 23, 2009 @ 7:39 am
Oh, and let’s not forget that the Bd of Ed forced us to include the kids in our anxiety by requiring them to take tests on Saturdays and after school, write essays and attend auditions and interviews, just to get into a decent middle school. (To be clear, these are not the so called selective schools — just the more or less decent ones). So of course the kids are anxious. They were anxious about the tests and the auditions and interviews and now they’re anxious about the results. In our district at least, if you choose to protect your kids from the process by not sending him on any of these tests you will be forced to send him or her to one of the low performing schools.
Comment by Anonymous — May 23, 2009 @ 11:50 pm
Did anyone else hear Sandy Ferguson at the CEC 15 meeting Thursday night tell parents that Bay Academy no longer took out of district kids because Bay had been subject to a court desegregation order that was lifted this year as a result of a lawsuit? Wasn’t the desegregation order lifted this year only for Twain? How does the lifting of the order affect Bay?
Comment by Anonymous — May 23, 2009 @ 11:52 pm
Sandy Ferguson and Bay Academy:
The lifting of the court order has NOTHING to do with Bay Academy. NYC DOE is ‘blowing smoke’.
http://www.cir-usa.org/legal_docs/rau_v_nyc_22808_tx.pdf
http://www.cir-usa.org/legal_docs/rau_v_nyc_op_22308.pdf
NYC DOE is using the court desegregation as an excuse make Bay Academy a ‘District only program’. Parents been complaining that they may live across the street from one of the BEST school in the District BUT their own kids cannot make it into the school.
This is OLD news: Your complain should have been back in Dec/Jan when District 21 CEC scheduled meetings regarding this issue.
Comment by Daddy718 — May 24, 2009 @ 3:37 pm