We had a number of questions this week from parents who are confronted with “Promotion in Doubt” letters, or “PIDs” as they are known in DOE lingo. These letters are sent to families of children who are at risk of repeating a grade or who may be failing a course needed to graduate.  Here are three recent questions from parents who received a PID letter.

 1.Why did I get a promotion in doubt letter, when my daughter's teachers have said that she is doing well and on target for graduation?

2. My kindergartner’s teacher says my son is making good progress according to the terms of his IEP, so why the letter?

3. I never heard this before from my child’s teachers and here it is almost the end of the school year and I'm just now getting the letter?

Here's some advice to these and other parents with similar problems.

If you get a PID letter, the first thing to do is to meet with the teacher, guidance counselor or principal to learn about the problem and figure out a strategy to fix it. Don’t let them put you off, camp out at the school office if it comes to that.  You should have received an early warning letter in February that would have triggered extra help for your child. In addition, there should have been a discussion at fall and spring parent teacher conferences of any academic problems. If these steps were followed, the letter should not come as a surprise to any parent. I agree, it's odd that it's coming to you so late.

That leads me to think that there could be a mistake in transferring information from the the DOE's  automated data collection system known as ATS, to the parent information portal, known as ARIS. ATS produces Promotion in Doubt letters after the teacher, or another  staff member, checks a box in the ATS database.  Principals are supposed to check for ATS errors as they bring the individual record up-to -date. but may not have done so when you last looked.  (NOTE: If you don't already have a link to ARIS you should sign on at the DOE Parent Link.It is an indespensible way to keep up with your child's education)

It is also possible that a new academic problem has surfaced since your last meeting. You’ll find this out when you meet with the guidance counselor, the principal or the teacher.

If you determine that there is a problem such as failure to accumulate enough credits to graduate, failing a key course, poor performance on standardized tests or a genuine issue to resolve for the child with the IEP, steps should be taken to fix it. Summer school is the usual course of action for students who are at risk of having to repeat a grade, followed by standardized tests given in August. A missed high school course can be made up in summer school; hopefully this won’t interfere with college plans. Ignoring the problem will have consequences.

If your kindergarten child has an IEP, call on the school-based-support team team for help. Ultimately, the principal, in consultation with the child's parents and teacher, has the final say about whether the child can move up to 1st grade. For kindergartners and other early grades where there is no test or course to make-up, parents might be able to work out a summer learning strategy with the help of the school.

In all cases, parents can appeal the school's decision to have the child repeat a grade. The appeal is based on a portfolio of the child’s work during the school year. Principals should review the portfolio upon the recommendation of the teacher and send their decision to the district superintendent to sign off.

Staff from Advocates for Children of New York, which represents at-risk students, tells us that these appeals are very rarely successful – it is the standardized test scores that prevail. This may be different this year as more students opted out of the state tests and will be judged on their portfolios alone.  You can read the details in Chancellor’s Regulation A-501 which spells out promotion standards from kindergarten through high school. You can also read about promotion in the DOE Guide[pdf].

Questions that are not resolved at the school or district level can be directed to Office of the Senior Deputy Chancellor for Academic Performance and Support, NYC Department of Education, 52 Chambers Street, Room 320, New York, NY 10007, 212-374-5981.

Good luck!

Judy