State Education Department Announces 13 Public Meetings To Be Held To Receive Comment On Draft Every Student Succeeds Act Plan

The New York State Education Department is seeking continuing stakeholder and public input as it develops the state Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan, Commissioner MaryEllen Elia announced today. To facilitate this, 13 public hearings will be held across the state to gather feedback on the state’s draft ESSA plan and written comments will be accepted May 9 – June 16.

“The Board of Regents and I have made it our guiding mission throughout this process to ensure that every child has equitable access to the highest quality educational opportunities, services and supports,” Chancellor Betty A. Rosa said. “By asking parents, teachers, students and community organizations for feedback during every step of the plan development, we are working to make sure New York schools provide highly effective instruction aligned to the state’s standards, as well as positive learning environments so that each child is prepared for success in college, career and citizenship.”

“We have to help schools improve performance without reducing them to a number or a letter,” Commissioner Elia said. “We reviewed more than 2,000 survey responses and feedback from more than 120 public meetings in developing our state accountability plan. We have also engaged extensively with national experts in developing this draft. After we present our draft plan to the Board of Regents, we want feedback from educators and parents across the state so we can submit a proposal to the U.S. Department of Education that best addresses the needs of New York’s children. These public hearings and the public comment period are the next step to help us do that.” 

The draft plan will be presented to the Board of Regents at its May meeting and the first public hearing will be held on May 11.

To allow for as many speakers as possible, each person will have a maximum of three minutes to speak and will be asked to make their presentations in the order in which the person signed up to speak. In the event that there are more speakers at a hearing than available speaking slots, persons may submit written comments. The public also will be able to submit written comments on the draft application during a public comment period from May 10 to June 16. The Department will review all comments as it finalizes New York’s ESSA plan.

The public hearings and comment period are the latest in the Department’s efforts to collect feedback on the draft ESSA plan.  Input has also come from:

• More than 100 ESSA Think Tank members, representing 108 stakeholder organizations, who have worked together since last July;
• A Survey of Possible School Quality and Student Success Indicators that received more than 2,000 responses; and
• A series of more than 120 regional meetings held statewide last fall and this winter.

For more information about the State’s work in developing the required ESSA state plan, please visit the Department’s ESSA website.

The complete list of public hearings is below.

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Schedule of ESSA Public Hearings