What every parent should know: Filing a complaint with the PA Dept. of Ed
Parents United’s Robin Roberts speaks at a press conference with Sen. Vincent Hughes (far right) to announce the re-opening of http://www.myphillyschools.com and to encourage parents to file complaints.
As Philadelphia schools open under a second year of Doomsday budget proportions, Parents United for Public Education, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, Media Mobilizing Project, and State Sen. Vincent Hughes announced the re-launching of the website www.myphillyschools.com and encouraged parents to file formal complaints with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Education if schools lack necessary resources.
Last year, Philadelphia parents filed 825 complaints from more than 90 different schools with the State Dept. of Education. It remains the largest filing in state history.
We believe the complaints helped shake loose more than $45 million in federal money the state was holding in return for teacher union concessions. Much of the $45 million last fall went toward special education services and restoration of some guidance counselors and other school-based personnel. (Let’s also not forget a significant chunk of money also went to pay charter school enrollment increases.) In a handful of cases involving special needs children (who have more specific legal protections), the State ordered the District to provide full-time school nurses.
The complaints also helped us target our advocacy to eliminate some of the worst offenses – like getting a commitment to immediately reduce classroom sizes of greater than 40 students and to nearly eliminate the 100 split grade classrooms which opened last year.
But it’s not enough.
This year schools are short hundreds of staff in special education assistants and noon-time aides. Most personnel – like counselors, nurses, librarians and aides – have not been fully restored to manageable levels. Your voice still matters.
Pennsylvania state law allows for any individual to file a complaint with PDE for curriculum deficiencies and obligates the state to conduct an investigation of that complaint. That was our intention when we launched our campaign last year to hold the state accountable for the consequences of enforcing a Doomsday budget.
This week, Parents United and PILCOP also filed a lawsuit against the state department of education for the failure to adequately investigate most of the complaints filed last year. Among the complaints:
- A child dealing with the death of a parent with no counselor available during a time of extreme distress.
- A high school student who started each period searching for desks and chairs because her classes were so overcrowded.
- A 7-year-old with emotional and learning needs who began regressing into scratching himself bloody during class because a classroom aide and full-time counselor were no longer available like they were the year What every parent should know: Filing a complaint with the PA Dept. of Ed | Parents United for Public Education: