New info to help make your afterschool lottery choices by this Friday [share with friends]
Also: an event related to dire new mental health stats among CPS students (next Wed)
Dear families,
There are 2 new pieces of info you should use as you make your afterschool lottery choices by end of week:
Capacity per site — Yesterday, DHSP posted this table of spots by location and programs. Critical for deciding how to rank your choices. 👏 Thank you to DHSP for posting this following our request!
Transportation — While DHSP hasn’t yet posted it, 👏 CPS has now promised to provide transportation again.
Please spread the word to any families you know who are applying! These changes are vital to good decision-making + need to be made clear to confused parents.
Below is the capacity chart. Unfortunately, it doesn’t say anything about how many current children at each site are re-enrolling. (Those students are guaranteed seats next school year.) But it does show that community schools have far more seats than childcare afterschool + which sites have more seats than others.
As for transportation, great news!
School Committee unanimously passed policy order #23-105 on 5/16 + the CPS Superintendent wrote "CPS will continue to provide the same level of transportation services to the various DHSP and Community sites that were provided this school year" in a 5/15 email. (👏 Thx to Fred Fantini, Rachel Weinstein for sponsoring the order.)
👎 Problems:
As of right now, DHSP says that they don’t provide transportation between afterschool locations + their transportation chart doesn’t reflect the new policy. Thus, families will be making less than ideal decisions. (Forward this email to friends!)
Details are lacking. It’s hard to know exactly what “same level” means.
Just like DHSP, CPS hasn’t publicized this new policy at all (that we can tell). At minimum, they should update their transportation page.
Share your thoughts with DHSP
Despite many continuing issues, we’ve seen a lot of progress from DHSP. In particular, they’re accepting feedback via this form. Please use it to share what you struggled with/what you liked.
Amanda & I believe that DHSP needs to provide much more data, updated yearly, for parents to have a real idea of their chances of acceptance. In particular:
number of applicants and of declined offers by program and location.
details on how the lottery works (see here for DHSP’s response to our FOIA request last summer).
a rough idea of cost — DHSP has nothing up right now. (See screenshots below for last year’s cost structure.)
What else? Tell us and DHSP!
PS: Note from Eugenia — 👏 👏 Amanda deserves much credit for these changes by tirelessly emailing city leaders with concerns.
[⚠️ Content not afterschool-related!]
😞 Learn more about the alarming mental health picture that emerged from CPS's last "Health Survey"
Wednesday, 5/31, 6-7:30pm | Cambridge Public Library (main) or Zoom | RSVP
Note from Eugenia (who will be there) —
In early March, CPS’s annual student health survey revealed dramatic increases in mental health concerns and cases of discrimination. (News coverage.) If that alarms you, this event should be helpful in learning more + understanding how CPS and the City will respond.
This event, by the Healthy Children Task Force, will include panelists from the City, CPS, and School Committee.
For more on this nation-wide issue, here’s an article + podcast episode we recommend (Ezra Klein, New York Times).
[⚠️ More content not afterschool-related!]
Eugenia is running for Cambridge School Committee! (The election will be in November; it’s this 7-member body.)
👀 Things you can do:
Check out the VoteEugenia.com website (finally!). Please email me with any feedback, especially on the platform.
Take the CPS feedback questionnaire if you haven’t yet. (Thanks to those of you who did already + see below for some of the data.)
Await a launch party date — soon! I hope all of you will consider coming.
From the feedback questionnaire: so far, the top issues survey-takers want CPS to address are (note this is in no way scientifically valid - tiny sample):
racial achievement gap
math curriculum issues
simplifying communications
For anyone not yet on this list, here’s the link to subscribe for afterschool updates.
Thanks!
Eugenia Schraa & Amanda Beatty