The pandemic and the home schooling that went with it forced more parental involvement with schools.
Now parents will have a chance to go to summer school in July and August, to a free online program run by the nonprofit JerseyCAN that will teach them how to better advocate for better schools. Janellen Duffy is the group’s senior policy advisor.
“We’re gonna do basically like an Education 101 to start, we’re gonna talk about what the education landscape in New Jersey looks like, how we look at quality of schools, what are the measures that are looked at,” she said.
Duffy said those who have signed up so far have expressed a number of concerns.
“Learning loss or gaps in students’ learning in the wake of Covid, that’s been a theme that’s come through,” she said, “and making sure that kids are getting back on track academically, also safety, student safety has been a theme that has come through in some of the responses so far.”
Duffy said they’ll start by teaching parents some basics about the education system and then “we’re also gonna get into talking about some advocacy tools, what are some ways that we can raise awareness and raise attention around issues in our local community.”
You can learn more at jerseycan.org. Registration runs through June 13.