Ongoing Advocacy
One of the best ways to get involved with ongoing educational advocacy in DC, and especially to help elevate concerns from your particular school to a higher level, is to connect with your ward-specific Education Council. You can use this website to find contact details for the ward education councils, and view details of upcoming monthly ward ed council meetings on our Ed Meeting Calendar.
Here are some ongoing advocacy efforts that you can join and/or pass along to your school community:
School Nursing Model - This year, changes have been made to the delivery of care in DC Public and Charter Schools. Rather than having one stable nurse, nurses and supportive staff are now floating between a “cluster” of schools. Concerns include student safety and the effects on school nursing integrity and professionalism in DC.
Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-cluster-model-protect-student-health-and-nurse-professionalism-in-dc-schools
Submit testimony to the City Council here (until January 18th): https://lims.dccouncil.gov/Hearings/hearings/224
To share your experience with how nursing allocation has affected your family or school, fill out this survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe_nsXLTx-KUgffAGjE9a7xiUjfkuGcNy1jQW9isVvJiM4VWA/viewform?usp=sf_link
For more information on parent organizing, email: parentsunitedforschoolhealth@gmail.com
To get updates on what parents are doing and to hear about ways to get involved, join this Google Group: https://groups.google.com/g/dc-school-nurse-parent-group
DME Studies - The office of the Deputy Mayor for Education is currently running 3 important studies on public education in DC:
(1) Boundary and Student Assignment Study - to review DCPS boundaries and feeder patterns and District-wide public school student assignment policies
(2) Master Facilities Plan Study - to ensure school facilities are efficiently utilized and every student is enrolled in a modern, state of the art, well-maintained facility
Complete the public input survey
(3) Funding Adequacy Study (no public info link yet available) - to provide a data-driven estimate of the costs of providing an adequate pre-K through 12th grade education to students in DC's traditional public schools and public charter schools
Other Public Engagement and Input:
DCPS has released a report on the listening sessions and online survey they held in Fall 2022 to help shape the development of their next five-year strategic plan (the Capitol Commitment Strategic Plan). You can read the report, as well as summaries of each of the listening sessions, at https://dcpsstrong.com/strategic-plan
Petitions and Letters:
The DC Students Succeed Coalition has a number of advocacy opportunities on their website, including forms to send letters to DC Council in support of specific asks.
Upcoming Hearings & Meetings:
DC Council Committee of the Whole:
See this list for other upcoming Committee of the Whole hearings. For past hearings, you can view video recordings and read written testimony.
State Board of Education (SBOE) Public Meetings are held on the Third Wednesday of every month at 5:30 p.m., in the Old Council Chambers, located at 441 4th St. NW, and televised on the District Knowledge Network. All students, parents, educators, and community members are invited to provide testimony at Public Meetings. Individuals and representatives of organizations who wish to comment at a public meeting are asked to notify Board staff in advance by email (sboe@dc.gov) or by form no later than 48 hours in advance of the meeting. Written testimony may also be submitted at any time to sboe@dc.gov for consideration at Working Meetings (first Mondays) and Committee Meetings (see events calendar). Read more about SBOE meetings
Other Advocacy Opportunities:
Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE) identifies two top priorities for advocacy each year at its Parent Policy Summit. You can learn more about this and previous years' priorities, including what is needed and ways to get involved, at https://dcpave.org/parentpriorities
The Digital Equity in DC Education parent group continues to push for equitable access to technology for families and teachers. They welcome any feedback on technology/device issues at your school to identify shared challenges/issues across schools. You can send feedback to digitalequitydc@gmail.com or DM their Twitter account @DigitalEquityDC. DCPS's stated policy this year is:
1:1 student-device ratio for grades 3-12 and 3:1 student-device ratio for PreK to 2nd grade.
DCPS Central is deferring to schools to decide whether to let students take home computers.
No hotspots or LTE-enabled devices for home use -- families are encouraged to access low-cost federal internet programs.
DCPS is in the process of replacing Smartboards but hasn't gotten to all schools yet.
Through EmpowerEd, you can join a teacher-led advocacy group or sign up specifically to advocate regarding teacher retention.