I'm writing this post because I put in so many hours figuring this stuff out for myself last year (January 2022). And I know many other parents were duplicating the same efforts. Well, if this post has any say in the matter: no more! 

If you read (skim) through this, I promise you'll save much valuable time. Here's what I wish I'd known about 1 year ago (when I realized, belatedly, our proximity schools didn't thrill me). 
​
Update: A parent emailed me about a comprehensive, parent-created CPS Lottery resource from 2018, but still has a lot of helpful info. 

To-dos for making your CPS ranking:

1. Get a handle on all the "rules" and basics — reading this blog post should do that.
2. Get a handle on the main factors at play — again, this post should pretty much cover you.
3. Schedule in-person tours for all schools of interest. Do it as soon as you're interested in a school, as schools sometimes *stop* offering tours early. (Last year, Morse & Amigos did this.)
4. Make a spreadsheet (even just in pencil) of the schools + factors that matter to you. 
5. Email/text/call your parent-friends about their experiences. (Email me, too, if you want more info on my experience - [email protected].)

LAST STEP: before submitting, make sure you (and your partner) can articulate why you've put each school on your list. This is important as it will:

• clarify your reasoning,
• allow both parents to feel comfortable with their choice, and
• if something should go wrong, knowing how you made your choice should also serve as a guide as to whether you need to think about changing schools. 

Caveat - I'm new & still learning: I have little CPS experience (my 5yo just started in September). And he is healthy with no learning disabilities or other issues so far. FWIW, our son ended up at Baldwin and goes by bus.  

Please email me with corrections/suggestions/questions: [email protected]. I'd love to add your insights to this post. 

And now --
THE RULES & FACTORS you should know before choosing your ranking 

FACTOR #1: PROXIMITY SCHOOLS

As you can see from our June takeaways, one of our main frustrations is DHSP's lack of transparency. This is problematic for many reasons:

• It chills parent speech — you can’t know that your advocacy won’t hurt your child’s lottery chances.
• It makes it harder for families to figure out their options — in particular, because DHSP doesn’t reveal a child’s waitlist status to families. 
• Generally, it’s a major obstacle to building trust.  

But the good news is that the answer to our FOIA request for public records does contain insightful data on the program and lottery for the 2022-23 academic year. 

(Our table of the likelihoods of getting into any afterschool is in #2 below.)
​
Here are our main takeaways (again, you can look at their full data here):

We're excited to share the City's 7/29/22 response to our FOIA request for information. 

Unfortunately, the City has not made this information available online, so we're putting the info up here. 

The response was in four parts:

1. A narrative response to the questions (3pp). Link to PDF.
2. Tables responding to questions 1-4 + 7 (3pp). Link to PDF. 
3. A narrative on the lottery process (Qs 5+6), (2pp). Link to PDF; Google doc here.
4. A page taken from the City's current budget (pg. 42), which itself draws largely from DHSP's October 2021 report. Link to PDF. 

​In addition, here is DHSP's October 2021 Report, which they didn't make available online. Link to PDF. 

Our analysis includes 7 main takeaways.
Your thoughts/analysis/pushback on our findings are extremely welcome.
Please email Eugenia ([email protected]) and Amanda ([email protected]) with your takes. 

[This is my analysis of the 4 candidates on education and family issues. I sent this email to City Council and School Committee ahead of the Council's vote on Monday 6/6/22 for the new City Manager.]

to: [email protected], [email protected]

Dear Councilors,

I'm not pushing one candidate, but do want to share what candidates have said on one issue: Children. 

I feel that few people are spotlighting this issue — though education/childcare policy is one of the most powerful engines the City has for lifting people out of poverty and reducing inequality.

Problematic — Mr. Khumalo on closing education gaps

On Wednesday [6/1/22], Councilor Azeem asked Mr. Khumalo about closing racial gaps in the city. (Note: other candidates didn't get this question, so we can't compare answers.)

Mr. Khumalo answered, "Any attempts to close an education gap that doesn't affect workforce development, housing, etc. will not work." 

This answer is dismaying. It gives public schools cover for not being able to close these education gaps. When I was a public school teacher in the Bronx, people constantly blamed poverty for not getting better outcomes for our students. That is wrong — in fact, CSCC is one local school that has closed the racial education gap, though its Black students share the same demographics as those at CPS. 

This post is an update on my earlier post concerning DHSP's inability to provide ~500 afterschool spots to the families that need them, including 42 low-income students. 

I have 3 updates on this question. None of them is an answer. But they're what I've got, so I thought I'd share. They are:

1. Update from our talk with City Councilor Marc McGovern
2. Update within the new City Budget (released May 2 - see page 42 if you can't wait for my write-up)
3. Update on the City Manager search - which IMO is the crux of this whole thing + also a big part of why it's so unknowable.
4. Old news I should have shared earlier -- City Council passed 3 ordinances last Fall about DHSP. I didn't know about them when I wrote my Advocacy post, but they're really salient, so I'm posting about them now. 

PART I: The ordinances I should have written about before show it's all about a City Manager who cares. (This one doesn't.)

Thank you to one mom who called me to walk me through important history I left out of my Advocacy post. In that post, I discussed:

• a parent petition for more AfterSchool spots (Spring 2021).
• DHSP's 11-page, often hilariously honest report on its many failings with the Community School program. (Not online, naturally.) (October 2021.)
• a blog post by City Councilor Quinton Zondervan on his thoughts about AfterSchool expansion. (October 2021).

Well, what I left out was 3 strongly-worded (but apparently utterly meaningless) ordinances, all of which City Council passed unanimously in October 2021, under further pressure from parents, including at least one leader at the Cambridge Families of Color Coalition (emphasis added below):

From DHSP head Ellen Semonoff herself this morning (Friday 4/22):

DHSP has "begun working" on the 2022-2023 Community Schools Afterschool Lottery. Good to know!

The "anticipated timeline" includes

• online lottery applications becoming available in mid-May,
• placement happening in early June and
• notification to families happening the last week in June. 

Big thanks to the mom who forwarded this to me. And to Councilor Quinton Zondervan for forwarding it to her!

As of right now [Monday, June 9], this is still not up on DHSP's Community Schools website, so you're in on a secret. 

For context, a Cambridge parent told me that, "Somervillle ran its lottery in March and they notify families by June so that they have enough time to hire staff and so families can plan."  (See Somerville afterschool.)

In the spirit of complete transparency, below is the entire email from Ellen (It's mostly about their Summer Camp program). I looked up and added the titles of the people on the email. The info on After-Schools is the very last paragraph, bolded below.

(There's also some fascinating stuff on why everyone missed the Summer Camp announcement because it seemed like spam.)

Umm ... Obvious alert: Cambridge parents are angry because there aren't nearly enough after-school spots in this town. 

You'd think I'd know this, since I just wrote a post to expiate my own anger over how confusing figuring out how to get a spot is. But I didn't. As a new mom in the system, there's so much to get angry about, that it takes you a little while to catch up. 

(All said with love to the hard-working administrators and teachers in the system. I know it's all been tough these last years.)

That being said, multiple people have asked me to help with advocacy. So, this post is my attempt to sort through why parents do need to advocate and what they can do. 

As usual, please email me with corrections/additions/suggestions at [email protected], as I don't really know what I'm doing. 

Step 1: A few parents (4-5) meet with Marc McGovern. 

I lay out what I know about the problem below. But there are many unanswered questions. City Councilor Marc McGovern chairs the committee that oversees DHSP, so he's a natural first place to go + move on from there. Therefore, please email me if you'd like to join a small meeting to talk with Marc ([email protected]) before the end of April.  

Step 2: I don't have a step 2 yet, so ITM, here's what I know about the after-school problem

Note: I've added updates on TIMING throughout. 
This is the info I wish was readily available online. It’s not, so I had to do the research myself. It would be a waste to hoard it for myself.

First, thank you, Cambridge for putting together this comprehensive list of after-school options (hereafter, the Overwhelming List, or OL for short).

Small problem — whoever put this together does not actually have kids they’re trying to get coverage for. I know this because so much crucial info is missing (from the list or anywhere on the web).

So here’s what I’ve learned emailing, calling, and visiting various programs so that you can get through it all faster. If I’ve made errors or you have new info, please share — email me [email protected]. [Many edits made 4/1 — thank you!]

BASICS: Cambridge has 3 types of after-school programs. All are 10-month programs (September — June). (All separately offer summer programming.) They are:

• 1) City-run -- DHSP After-School Programs (link)
• 2) City-run--Community Schools, confusingly also run by DHSP (link)
• 3) Nonprofit + For-Profit private after-school programs

This calls for a table, so here’s one with the basics (many of which I only learned via lengthy email correspondence, as it’s not up online). Get your bearings, then meet me below for deeper dives.