Evaluation regs to be adopted without formal public comment
ALBANY—State education officials will soon adopt regulations finalizing a new teacher evaluation system, but because of a statutory deadline imposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature, they’ll do so without the formal public comment period that’s typically required by law.
The state education department has worked to offer limited opportunities for the public to weigh in before the regulations are adopted, circulating an email address people may use to send comments and offering another outlet at an Albany “summit” next week.
But department officials will present regulations for emergency adoption at the state Board of Regents’ mid-June meeting, skipping a 45-day public comment allowance with which they are typically required to comply under a statute that allows agencies to promulgate rules with the force of law.
Stakeholder groups blame Cuomo and lawmakers for not providing more time for comment and overall implementation of the controversial, complex system.
“There really is no time for public comment, and we’re not happy about that,” said Rick Longhurst, executive administrator for the New York State Parent Teacher Association, whose organization pressed lawmakers for a delay in a recent letter. “I don’t know what to do about that, other than to ask the Legislature to call a time out and extend the overall deadline and give everybody a little more time.”
The recently adopted state budget included an overhauled teacher evaluation system pushed primarily by Cuomo, who has pursued policies that would make it easier to fire teachers who are deemed ineffective.
In the budget, Cuomo and lawmakers detailed the new system, which will be based on student test scores and classroom observations, while tasking education officials with finalizing some technical aspects of implementation.
Under the law, the Board of Regents is required to adopt regulations by June 30, after which school districts will have until Nov. 15 to receive state approval for their locally negotiated evaluation plans, lest they lose a scheduled increase in state aid.
As part of officials’ effort to meet the deadline, the board has invited experts to testify at a “summit” on May 7 at the New York State Museum, which is intended to inform their work. Education department staff will then present preliminary recommendations to the board at its May meeting, make changes based on the regents' discussion and then recommend emergency adoption of final regulations in June.
The state’s regulatory process allows for an agency to adopt emergency regulations for 90 days. Officials would then have to publish the rules and accept public comment for 45 days. According to that timeline, the public comment period would not occur until shortly before districts are required to implement the new evaluations.
“To reflect this, we have built in opportunities on the front end to hear from the public,” education department spokesman Jonathan Burman said in an email.
Since the budget was approved, the department has been accepting comments through the email address eval2015@nysed.gov.
The summit, which is invite-only, “will be simulcast to the public, with the opportunity for the public to submit comments,” according to a department memo last week.
Although the Regents board members expect to meet the deadline for adopting regulations, the board's chancellor, Merryl Tisch, announced late last month that the department would use its authority to extend the November deadline to September 1, 2016, for districts facing “hardships.”
Education stakeholders—superintendents, school board members, teachers and others—have been concerned primarily with the deadline for districts, especially because of the risk of losing money. But now that Tisch has offered some flexibility there, they’re also pushing legislators to extend the regents’ June 30 deadline.
And despite the unlikelihood that Cuomo will agree to slow implementation of the new evaluations, lawmakers are considering such a change, in part because of the intense pressure they have felt from constituents since passing the unpopular education provisions of the budget.
State Senate education committee chair John Flanagan, a Long Island Republican and prominent member of his conference, said this week he and his colleagues are discussing extending the deadline, specifically to allow for public comment.
“The most critical aspect of this is the ability for public comment, and one of the overarching themes of our members is, public comment is great, but if the regents and S.E.D. don’t have the time to properly review and incorporate that into their decisions, that seems imprudent,” Flanagan said on Wednesday during an interview on the “The Capitol Pressroom” on WCNY.
“Maybe we should be looking at extending the public comment period,” he said on the radio. “Maybe June 30 is not the best approach.”
In an earlier interview with Capital, Flanagan insisted that the state budget allowed enough time for public comment.
“I believe the actions we took did a couple of things: It provided for public comment,” he said during a phone interview on April 23. “It avoided the issuance of emergency regulations, which would have bypassed public comment. I was very, very clear, as were my colleagues, that we wanted a public comment period."
Flanagan said he expected there to be an “explosion of comments,” especially given how active parents have been on social media, and he said he would understand if the department were not able to respond to each comment.
But, at the very least, “it’s critically important that anyone who sends in comments gets an appropriate acknowledgement that it’s been received,” he said.
Additionally, a group of 18 State Assembly Democrats last week said they would consider extending the deadline.
"If the Regents cannot meet the June 30th deadline, they must inform the Legislature as soon as possible so that the law can be amended,” the group, which included Aileen Gunther of Orange County and Amy Paulin of Westchester County, said in a statement.
Cuomo, however, has insisted the timeline for the evaluations wouldn't change and urged regents to limit the use of the "hardships" exemption.
New York State United Teachers, a statewide union, has pushed the Board of Regents tohold public hearings around the state on the evaluations. Short of that, they’re now asking individual regents to hold hearings in their respective districts, as at least one regent, Judith Johnson of the lower Hudson Valley, has said she would do.
“It’s important for the regents to hold hearings to solicit input from students, parents and Evaluation regs to be adopted without formal public comment | Capital New York:
