July 24th, 2020

Chancellor Richard A. Carranza NYC Department of Education Tweed Courthouse 52 Chambers Street , NY 10007

RE: Proposed DOE Communications Plan for Immigrants

Dear Chancellor Carranza,

The New York Immigration Coalition’s Education Collaborative is concerned about the Department of Education’s (DOE) capacity to communicate with immigrant families and Learners (ELLs) about the possible transition to blended learning models during the summer and into the 2020/2021 school year. To ensure immigrant families and ELLs have agency during the transition to blended school models, the Education Collaborative has outlined below pragmatic steps to improve school-based communications and central DOE capacity to do effective outreach to Limited English Proficient (LEP), low literacy, and low digital literacy households.

The COVID pandemic has laid bare that DOE schools have a lot of work to do to become trusted places to share information and support for immigrant families. It is our hope that the DOE will employ these recommendations. While it is imperative that the DOE implement the following communications plan during the 2020 summer and into the 2020/2021 school, these multi-pronged approaches for communicating with immigrants should be implemented well beyond the pandemic.

Recommendations for School-Based Communications:

1) Schools should communicate with parents through continuous touchpoints (phone calls, texts, social media, emails). Schools and educators should be instructed to communicate with immigrant families through a succession of different forms of communication, to ensure at least one source of communication will reach all families. Schools and educators should be instructed not to rely on sending messages through the instructional platforms, as this communications vehicle is the most challenging for hard to reach families. Additionally, schools should never rely solely on one mode of communication, as it will never be sufficient.

2) DOE schools should prioritize communications to hard-to-reach immigrant households, including families with Limited English Proficiency, parents with low literacy (in any language) and/or low digital literacy. The following are the best approaches to communicate complex policy changes to immigrant families: (Options below are rated in order of effectiveness.) a) Phone calls: Prioritize direct phone calls to immigrant families. This personalized and individual outreach method is by far the most effective at reaching immigrant families. b) Videos: Sharing informative videos through social media, TV and text messaging applications in families’ home languages will ensure that low-literacy households are able to understand the intricacies of a blended learning model. c) Radio: Employing ethnic/local radio communications is another strategic approach to reach low-literacy and low-digital literacy individuals in specific communities. d) Texts/WhatsApp/WeChat: Regular and clear text messages in families’ home languages should be employed to share important deadlines and reminders. Schools should also an easy way to update cell phone information (such as text XXX to #### to sign up to receive information).

3) Schools should be guided on the best approaches to strategically leverage social media. The following list can help schools understand how to best employ social media. a) Videos: Low-literacy families benefit tremendously from video communications, as they can be employed to explain very complex and time-sensitive information. Schools should deploy videos to explain to families the type of blended learning model employed by the school and how to share their preferences with the school. These videos should not simply be posted on the DOE’s website, as many immigrant families do not have the digital literacy to locate content on complex websites. b) Pictures and infographics: Much like videos, graphics can be deployed to explain information quickly to a broad audience. Infographics may not be as well suited as videos to deliver in-depth information, yet they can be useful to explain the top line ideas schools would like parents to remember about blended learning, social distancing, deadlines, contact information, and where to get more information. c) Where to find information: Schools should share links to their school website and share where more information can be found on social media. d) Contact information: Social media is a great place to share with families important school-based contacts. Schools should also include how to contact the school if you do not speak English. Schools should be encouraged to have a Facebook group that is regularly updated. e) Deadlines and reminders: It is important for schools to use many platforms to remind families of important deadlines or timelines.

Important Social Media Sources: ● Twitter ● Facebook (Facebook Live) ● WeChat ● Snapchat ● TikTok ● Instagram 4) Schools should offer weekly info sessions and office hours: Schools should schedule weekly remote “info sessions” where families can learn about the school’s chosen blended learning model and school policies with interpreters on hand. Schools should also offer weekly office hours for families to speak to school-based representatives (with interpretation on hand) for families to ask questions and share concerns.

Recommendations for Central DOE Communications:

1) DOE central should share central messaging with schools to ensure uniformity and consistency. a) DOE central should create videos, graphics, and pre-packaged messaging for schools to use in their communications with immigrant families. b) DOE central should strongly encourage schools to focus school-based translation and interpretation (T&I) funds for direct outreach to MLLs/ELLs and LEP families and outsource as much as possible to the central T&I unit.

2) Follow Executive Order 47, requiring the NYC Department of Education to spend at least half of their annual print and digital advertising budgets on community and ethnic media outlets. Partner with CUNY Center for Community and Ethnic Media and the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs to ensure important local and ethnic media outlets (TV, radio and print) in as many languages as possible are broadcasting the blended learning models, as well as the options and deadlines for families. DOE central should also support schools that want to employ ethnic media.

Some important must-haves for local and ethnic media lists: ● ● 41 ● El Diario NY ● NY1 Noticias ● The ● Sing Tao Daily ● Chinese Times ● Korean Daily ● Kan Zhong Guo ● Haitian Times ● LaMega 97.9 ● New York Awam ● World Journal (Chinese) ● Radio 1480 AM (Cantonese) 1380 AM (Mandarin) ● Urdu News ● Latino ● People en Español ● Allewaa Al-Arabi ● Arab Astoria ● Africa in Harlem ● US Bangla News ● WNYZ-LP (NY Radio Korea) ● WQBU Regional Mexican "Que Buena 92.7 ● ATN Bangla TV ● TBN 24 TV ● Prothom Alo ● Thikana ● Bangladeshi Protidin ● Bhorer Kagoz

For a full list of community and ethnic media sources and the details of Executive Order 47 go here: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/mome/industries/community-media.page

3) DOE central should share translated videos, pamphlets, one-pagers and graphics to the following institutions and places immigrants may find the information. a) Immigrant/refugee serving organizations: Legal services; immigrant rights CBOs; academic support CBOs; direct services CBOs; worker rights, work training, career, and employment centers; adult literacy CBOs. If possible, provide funding opportunities for these community-based organizations to broadly share this information with their constituents. b) Health and social services organizations: Hospitals; clinics; health access CBOs; social work organizations (eg. places to apply for SNAP or other public services) c) Religious institutions: Churches; mosques; temples; other religious centers that serve immigrant communities d) Large immigrant employers: restaurants; supermarkets; factories; cleaning services; bodegas; dollar stores; laundromats; pharmacies. e) Other places immigrants may find the info: Subway/bus Ads; food banks.

Additional considerations:

● Hard to reach immigrant communities are not online. DOE central and schools should not rely on online communications. Emails and websites should be the last line of defense. ● Schools or DOE central should create a directory of up-to-date contact information for each school, including their parent coordinators and language access coordinator. ○ Schools should use their language access coordinator as the main point of contact for immigrants and communications liaison for immigrants during this transition. ○ Have a uniform list of what their responsibilities are. ● There is a need for major changes to the DOE website and school websites. ○ Websites should be more parent-friendly, use more basic language, and be vetted by LEP and low-digital literacy parents. ○ Important information about learning during COVID (remote learning, resources, blended learning, etc.) and ELLs should be easily found on the homepage without any additional clicks. ○ DOE central should ensure that all schools have a website that has up-to-date contact information. ● We have a growing population of immigrants and young people who speak indigenous languages and who have never had the opportunity to develop literacy. We must do everything possible to ensure that they are part of the communications plan. ● Content should not be sent in large paragraphs. DOE central and schools should ensure information is clear, concise and bulleted or displayed in easily understandable chunks. Information shared should always strive to include resources for families. Content should be vetted by immigrants and parents to ensure that it is parent-friendly. ● Weekly Community Affairs and NYIC (Thursday) calls should continue throughout the summer. ● DOE central should include services that families need in the weekly roundup emails to community-based organizations. ● Youth and parents could also be deployed to do outreach, offer information, and support.

We hope the DOE will take these important steps to ensure DOE Central and schools are better equipped to inform and engage immigrant families and provide equitable access to a quality education.

In solidarity,

Education Collaborative Leadership Group Darnell Benoit, Executive Director, Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project Aracelis Lucero, Executive Director, Masa Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, Director of Immigrant Students’ Rights Project, Advocates for Children of NY Kim Sykes, Director of Education Policy, New York Immigration Coalition Andrea Ortiz, Manager of Education Policy, New York Immigration Coalition

The New York Immigration Coalition’s (NYIC’s) Education Collaborative works to improve the quality of education for New York City’s Multilingual Learner (MLL)/English Language Learner (ELL) and immigrant student population and to ensure that parents have opportunities to meaningfully engage in their children’s education. The Education Collaborative comprises more than 30 groups and is multi-ethnic, bringing together leadership from grassroots immigrant organizations representing the diversity of New York’s immigrant communities. Members also include advocates from legal, policy and education organizations, including experts in MLL/ELL education.