City family engagement office rolling out new website for parents

While the city is busy looking for a replacement for its Chief Family Engagement Officer Martine Guerrier, one of her initiatives is just getting off the ground.

SchoolSource NYC is a website intended to be a repository for fact-sheets and instructional podcasts and videos parents can use to navigate the school system. The site was quietly launched last summer, but  the city is now trying to draw parents’ attention to it.

The Department of Education is paying for the site and they’ve contracted out its production to WNET/Channel Thirteen and the consulting firm RMC Research Corporation. Emily Zyko, the website’s director, told me that each year producers plan to add information on three new broad topics, chosen through work with focus groups and parent associations. Right now, the site includes information on topics including the high school admissions process, Regents exams and transitioning between elementary, middle and high school.

Here’s one of the site’s videos, focusing on how parents can use ARIS and interpret their schools’ report cards: