The Coalition for Education Justice, United Federation of Teachers and the Department of Education are working together on how to utilize funds for extra parent-teacher conferences. The NYC Department of Education is setting aside $5 million for extra parent-teacher conferences specifically for students with lower performance on state test scores.
Details of how the conferences will be implemented were emailed to principals Wednesday night. The city will provide schools with money based on the number of fourth through eighth graders who received level 1s and 2s on last year’s state exams. Schools will be free to use that money to help schedule 30-minute meetings with parents of those students, and potentially school-wide explanatory meetings as well.
Those involved with the negotiations said that could mean paying teachers for after-school or Saturday sessions, rearranging tutoring services to free up some teachers during scheduled school time, or another scheduling configuration. In an unusual move, schools will be also be able to request sending students home after an additional half day, as most schools already do for parent-teacher conferences.