蜜桃影视

New York City education officials missed a deadline again this week for providing teacher misconduct records, pushing 蜜桃影视鈥檚 wait for the documents, , past the two-year mark.

In a March 2 letter, the Department of Education set a date for providing remaining materials in response to a submission made under the state鈥檚 Freedom of Information Law 23 months earlier.

Owing to 鈥渢he age of your request鈥� and because the records office recently completed 鈥渟everal voluminous requests,鈥� a DOE letter said, the agency would be able to provide 鈥渁 final response鈥� on April 30, 2018 鈥� 508 business days after 蜜桃影视 asked for the information.

Officials previously missed a January 31 deadline set by the DOE general counsel.

In March, as in some previous instances, the DOE provided a disk with a portion of the requested files, though it wasn鈥檛 possible to know how much remained outstanding.

Another letter arrived on the April 30 due date. It said that 鈥渁dditional time is required to respond substantively to your request. Accordingly a further interim response is currently anticipated by May 16, 2018.鈥� (Underscore in original.)

The DOE declined to respond to a request for comment this week about the latest missed deadline or answer questions on how it is handling public records requests like this one that preceded reforms it instituted last year. The changes were put in place after the department was widely criticized 鈥斅燼nd sued 鈥斅爁or its lack of transparency.

Observers of the agency鈥檚 procedures for handling FOIL requests have hoped its practice of repeatedly extending time limits was past. In settling a New York Post lawsuit last month 鈥� the tabloid accused agency officials of engaging in a 鈥減attern and practice鈥� of 鈥済ifting themselves more time鈥� 鈥� lawyers negotiated changes to FOIL policy that now oblige the records office to provide a 鈥渄ate certain鈥� for requests that require more than 20 days. (The city denies that the Post litigation played a significant role.)

This provision was already enshrined in the law, but DOE administrators interpreted it as allowing them to reset timetables within 20 days after an existing deadline and for no longer than an extra 20 days 鈥� a practice that sometimes recurred for years.

The agency鈥檚 failure to honor January and April deadlines 鈥� explicitly described that way, not merely as extensions 鈥� may indicate that the new regulations are ineffective. Another possibility: the revamped approach only applies to submissions after November 29 of last year, when the changes went into effect.

The city says 570 FOIL requests were open at the time. These may remain subject to the old regime, in which 鈥渢he only certainty鈥� was 鈥渁nother monthly Form Delay Letter,鈥� as the Post alleged in its lawsuit.

Past statements by the DOE suggest the answer is somewhere in between, at least at the moment.

鈥淭he DOE鈥檚 FOIL Unit is working diligently to implement the new regulation across all open FOIL requests, including requests pre-dating the new regulation,鈥� DOE spokesman Douglas Cohen said in March. 鈥淏ecause of the large number of existing requests, and an increase in new requests since the regulation was adopted, implementation remains ongoing.鈥�

In April 2016, 蜜桃影视 asked the DOE for decisions in teacher disciplinary hearings dating back to the start of 2015. A new teachers contract negotiated in 2014 was more detailed than past agreements in defining misconduct.

Investigators substantiated 59 misconduct charges of an undisclosed nature against pre-K staff in 2015 and 2016, according to the Special Commissioner of Investigation. Across all grades, investigators substantiated 131 misconduct charges that included 鈥渁 sexual component鈥� between 2014 and 2016.

The outcomes of these cases, which 蜜桃影视 was seeking and which have not been made public, could range from termination to little or no punishment. It was unclear whether some of the sexual allegations involved pre-K students and whether the 2014 contract revisions affected how cases were decided.

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 蜜桃影视鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.