THE ASSEMBLY STATE OF NEW YORK ALBANY

MICAH Z. KELLNER th Assembly Member, 65 District COMMITTEES Banks Cities Consumer Affairs and Protection Racing and Wagering Steering

December 19, 2012 Dennis Walcott Chancellor New York City Department of Education 52 Chambers Street New York, NY 10007 Dear Chancellor Walcott: I am writing in regards to a recent change by the New York City Department of Education without first obtaining the requisite approval, that eliminates preferences in admissions to Gifted and Talented (G&T) programs for siblings of current students. Parents throughout Community Education District 2 who are parents of G&T students have contacted my office protesting this change, which now gives preference to siblings only as a tiebreaker in the case of identical scores on the G&T test. Parents have expressed concerns that, while G&T siblings will no longer receive this preference, siblings will continue to receive preference at non-G&T programs throughout the City. This policy change will also require many parents to transport their children to and from different schoolsfrequently within different school zonesplacing an obvious and tremendous strain on parents ability to balance parenting and working. For this reason, parents have requested that the decision to eliminate the longstanding sibling preference for G&T programs policy be reversed and that parents of current students be grandfathered in through the new policy whether or not the policy is reversed. Equally disturbing, however, was that the DOE implemented this radical shift to a policy set forth in Chancellors Regulation A-101 without allowing for any public commentas is required by New York State Education Law 2590-gor issuing any public notice. The Panel for Education Policy (PEP) is not scheduled to vote on this change to sibling preferences until December 20, 2012 yet the DOE included the new policy in a G&T handbook it published in October 2012. It is unacceptable for the DOE to implement a material change to admissions policy without a public hearing. It sends an arrogant message to parents that their valuable feedback is meaningless to DOE. I request that DOE immediately reinstate the G&T sibling preference until a public hearing is held, and strongly urge that DOE heed the input of the parents it is supposed to serve before putting forward to the PEP any amendment to Chancellors Regulations. Sincerely,

Micah Z. Kellner Member of Assembly

ALBANY OFFICE: Room 654, Legislative Office Building, Albany, New York 12248 518-455-5676, FAX: 518-455-5282 DISTRICT OFFICE: 1365 First Avenue, New York, New York 10021 212-860-4906, FAX: 917-432-2983 EMAIL: kellnerm@assembly.state.ny.us