Two important education laws requiring more transparency from DOE passed today!
Today, along with the budget, the City Council approved two new important bills requiring more transparent reporting from the DOE.
According to the first bill, 354-A, the DOE will now be required to report each year by June 30 on the number of students discharged by individual schools and systemwide, as well as by discharge code, so we will know better what is happening to the thousands of students that continue to leave NYC high schools each year before graduation but are not counted as dropouts.
Some students move out of state or transfer to parochial and private schools, but many transfer to GED programs or alternative schools where they do not have a chance to graduate with a real diploma, and currently we have no idea how many are in each category. Moreover, the percent of 9th graders who are discharged from high school has doubled under this administration, without any explanation.