Notifications

ANTI-RACISM STATEMENT 

The Syracuse City School District is committed to establishing and sustaining an equitable community that achieves the School District’s equity mission to end the predictive value of race and ensure each individual student’s and staff’s success. The Board of Education and the District reject all forms of racism as destructive to our mission, vision, values, goals and practices.

Anti-Racism Policy (#3120)

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act)

FERPA is a federal privacy law that gives parents certain rights and protections with regard to their child’s education records such as report cards, transcripts, disciplinary records, contact and family information and class schedules. Parents have the right to inspect and review their child’s education records and to request changes under certain circumstances. The law also gives these rights to students who have reached 18 years of age.

For more information, please contact Timothy Moon, Chief Accountability Officer, at (315) 435-4281.

MILITARY RECRUITMENT AND STUDENT RIGHTS

The federal government requires that schools disclose student names, addresses and telephone numbers to the military on request. It also gives students and parents the right to tell the school NOT to give student information to recruiters without “prior parental approval” — in other words, going back and asking parents again.

A school must give students and parents an opportunity to remove their names from the list before giving it to military recruiters. If the student or parent objects, information cannot be released. To keep the military from getting information about a student, the student or a parent should submit a request to the school in writing, stating that the school should not give the student's information to the military. The school should give a form to students and parents, but any written request should be honored.

For further information, contact Timothy Moon, Chief Accountability Officer, at (315) 435-4281.

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT 

It is the goal of the Syracuse City School District that the information on our website be accessible to individuals with visual, hearing, motor or cognitive disabilities.

Good faith efforts have been made to ensure that our site complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to the best of our technical ability.

The majority of pages in our site are available in HTML format that can be deciphered by assistive technologies. Some documents are in Adobe PDF format, which require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. If you do not already have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer, you can download it for free from the Adobe website.

If you are unable to access any page(s) or documents on our site, please email our District Webmaster with detailed information on the location of the page or document you were attempting to access. Be sure to provide us with your name and contact information so that we may provide you with the information in another format.

Please note that some pages on our website contain links to third-party sites, which are not within our control and may not comply with accessibility standards. The district is not necessarily responsible for the content or accessibility of third-party sites.

DATA PRIVACY PLAN AND PARENTS BILL OF RIGHTS FOR DATA SECURITY AND PRIVACY 

Pursuant to Section 2-d of the Education Law, the District and a third-party contractor which require the disclosure of student data and/or teacher or principal data that contains personally identifiable information (" PII") to contractor, must include a data security and privacy plan and must ensure that all contracts with third-party contractors incorporate the District's Parents ' Bill of Rights for Data Security and Privacy. 

The current agreement is available here.

STUDENT INFORMATION/ EMERGENCY CARD

It is extremely important that your child’s school has up-to-date information on your child, including an emergency contact. Every family will receive a pre-populated Student Information/Emergency Card in the mail. Please review the information on the card and make any necessary changes before returning it to your child’s school. Note that throughout the school year, photographs, audio and/or video may be taken of students for use in district publications, on the website and/or social media or by news media. Parents who do not wish to have their children photographed or recorded must check the appropriate box on the current Student Information/Emergency Card and submit it to their child's school.

HOW TO FILE AN APPEAL FOR TRANSPORTATION

The School Board Eligibility Policy requires that a student reside more than 1 mile from school to qualify for bus transportation in grades K-8 and more than 1.5 miles from school for grades 9-12. This includes day care providers. A parent may fill out an appeal packet if they do not meet the district's policy. The appeal committee will only consider distance as criteria for filing an appeal. This includes day care providers. A parent may fill out an appeal packet if they do not meet the district's policy of 1.5 miles. The appeal committee will only consider distance as criteria for filing an appeal.

Appeal packets may be acquired at the student's school, online at www.syracusecityschools.com, or from the SCSD Transportation Center

The appeal packet consists of two forms: one to be filled out by the parent/ guardian and one to be filled out by the school principal

Submit packet to the Transportation Center by fax (435-5854) or mail (369 6th North St. Syracuse, NY 13208)

Transportation will notify parent/ guardian of the appeal hearing date and time

Parent/ guardian attends the appeal hearing

Committee meets and parent/ guardian is notified of the decision within a week

NOTIFICATION FOR PESTICIDE APPLICATIONS

New York State Education Law Section 409-H requires all public and nonpublic elementary and secondary schools to provide written notification to all persons in parental and guardian relationships with students as well as faculty and staff regarding the potential use of pesticides periodically throughout the school year. The Syracuse City School District is required to maintain a list of persons who wish to receive 48-hour prior written notification of certain pesticide applications. The following pesticide applications are not subject to prior notification requirements:

• a school remains unoccupied for a continuous 72-hours following an application;
• anti-microbial products;
• nonvolatile rodenticides and insecticide baits in tamper resistant bait stations in areas inaccessible to children;
• silica gel and other nonvolatile ready-to-use pastes, foams, or gels in areas inaccessible to children;
• boric acid and disodium octaborate tetrahydrate;
• the application of EPA designated biopesticides;
• the application of EPA designated exempt materials under 40CFR152.25;
• the use of aerosol products with a directed spray in containers of 18 fluid ounces or less when used to protect individuals from an imminent threat from stinging and biting insects including venomous spiders, bees, wasps, and hornets.

In the event of an emergency application, a good faith effort will be made to supply written notification to those on the notification list. If you would like to receive prior notification of pesticide applications at your school, please complete the form below and mail to the Syracuse City School District, School Service Center, 214 Park Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13204; fax to 315-435-4936; or you can return the completed form to your child's school.

ASBESTOS ANNUAL NOTIFICATION

Agencies of both the State and Federal governments regulate asbestos in the public schools. With the enactment of the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) in 1987, all Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) are required to identify asbestos-containing material (ACM) in schools and to formulate a written plan to control and prevent the release of asbestos fibers in the future.

Buildings owned or leased by the Syracuse City School District have been inspected, and samples of suspect ACM have been analyzed by Environmental Protection Agency accredited laboratories. The results of these inspections are available in school administrative offices. Included in these plans are specific operations and maintenance programs designed for each building for the control of asbestos.

Implementation of the response recommendations began July 9, 1989. Since the implementation of the AHERA Management Plan, the Syracuse City School District has conducted formal inspections at six month intervals, and in compliance with the law. State and Federal mandates require that a triennial reinspection occur sometime within three years of the first AH ERA inspection. The Syracuse City School District conducted a triennial reinspection in April 2022. The results of this re inspection can be found in each building in the AH ERA Management Plan. As the District renovates buildings, ACM is removed to the extent practical.

Syracuse City School District school buildings including support buildings that have been identified to contain ACM may have had some response action work completed in their buildings during the 2021-2022 school year. The details of those specific response actions have been documented in writing and can be found in the AH ERA Management Plan located in the administrative office of each building.

If at any time the status or condition of any ACM is changed or disturbed through alterations, renovations, or episodic release, it will be documented and Management Plans will be updated. We will continue to implement our Management Plans and alert the public about the district's efforts to control asbestos.