In December 1998, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of approximately 80,000 children who attended the approximately 150 so-called “high minority” schools—those with more than 80 percent minority enrollment outside of New York City. These high minority schools are located in 21 districts across the state, including Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, Yonkers, Mt. Vernon in Westchester County, Hempstead, Uniondale, Roosevelt, Freeport, Elmont and Westbury in Nassau County, and Wyandanch and Amityville in Suffolk County. The suit alleged that the education minority students received was so inferior that it constituted discrimination under civil rights law —Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.Although the suit was eventually lost on appeal in March 2003 after working its way all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, it sent shock waves within the education fraternity, and no doubt contributed to the success of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) lawsuit which was filed on behalf of New Yok City schools advocating for a sound basic education for all children.
Fast forward to 2016, and it’s like déjà vu, as most of these same schools are now faced with a new hurdle; that of having to contend with accommodating and educating over-age, under-credited (OU) children up to age 21 in their regular day program. OU generally refers to students who do not have the appropriate number of credits for their age and intended grade; it is not a new phenomenon, as there has always been this component within the general school population that was not abreast with their peers. However, since the upsurge of unaccompanied minors in most of these high need communities, school districts have seen a significant increase in this segment of the school population and many of them devised innovative ways to handle this unexpected obligation. But in February of this year, Westbury School district joined 22 other districts in the state in reaching an agreement with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to revamp its enrolment policy regarding OU and to abide by certain dictates from his office.
They should no longer be steered to high school equivalency or English Language Learner (ELL) classes with limited academic offerings. In other words, night school is not an option, they must be placed in a credit bearing day program, even if their chronologic age is not appropriate for the grade level; enrollment must be done within 24 hours; (verification of residency may be done afterwards) retaining an ombudsman for oversight over enrollment policies, and also a coordinator for enrollment placement.
The various scenarios that can be drawn from this untenable situation do not bode well for the district. For starters, if a youngster is enrolled in the program and chooses to work in the day instead of attending classes, this is reflected in the district’s absentee/graduation rate, which does nothing to improve its standing among its peers. The same is true in a situation where a 19 year old year old faces a mathematically impossible situation of acquiring five Regents credits before graduating at age 21.
These concerns are real, and unfortunately most of the likely enrollees are already predisposed to follow this path as the following statistics in the book, School Culture: The Hidden Curriculum, suggests: after sixth grade, even one year, over-age students have lower attendance rates than their on-track peers, and attendance rates continue to decrease as students drop further and further behind; overage students are twice as likely to drop out of school.
As we prepare for another school board election—a record nine candidates seeking three open seats (three incumbents), we trust that our seemingly insurmountable problems will not deter prospective winners to band together to take on each challenge one hurdle at a time.
—Chester McGibbon
