WHEREAS, the DOE and PEP signed a 3-year contract with Aperture for $18 million in July 2021 which included both use of the Deveraux Students Strength Assessments (DESSA) and “an intervention-tracking tool that offers specialized intervention recommendations, rather than a generic list”; and

WHEREAS, while in early discussions, DOE officials told the UFT that the screener would consist of a manageable five to seven questions, it instead purchased an assessment tool with an excessive 43 questions per students; and

WHEREAS, while the UFT is in agreement as to the importance of supporting students’ social-emotional well-being, it has expressed since November 2021 that the NYCDOE should not have chosen such a time-consuming screener – especially in years when classroom educators are already spread so thin. The adoption of this tool once again shows the DOE’s disconnect with what’s happening in our schools and classrooms this year; and

WHEREAS, as the UFT anticipated, during the 2021-22 school year, the universal use of the lengthy DESSA screener in all schools for all students resulted in an excessive use of staff and student time for training, completion, and analysis of results and resulted in little to none of the promised intervention recommendations and supports promised in the DOE’s initial discussions; be it

RESOLVED, that the DOE should not continue using the DESSA screener for all NYC DOE students and schools and should instead reallocate funding allotted to the implementation of the DESSA contract to providing social emotional interventions and support services to students identified in the initial screening process.