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OAL DKT.
NOS. EDU 03246-01S, EDU 04029-99S, EDU 04030-99S, EDU 04113-99S,
EDU 04436-99S, EDU 05356-99N, EDU 05358-99N, EDU 05799-99N, EDU
05804-99N, EDU 05873-99N, EDU 07157-99N, EDU 07158-99N, EDU 07456-99N,
EDU 07914-00N, EDU 09462-00N
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information
and detail that the Department requires to adequately assure itself
of both the intention and the
ability of the districts to achieve the implementation of the
appropriate curriculum must
be left to the expertise of the agency. Nevertheless, here,
as in many areas of this case, the DOE must become the active
insurer of the achievement of
Abbott's goals.
Passivity in this endeavor is simply not warranted.
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Enrollment
& Recruitment
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Preschool
education in the Abbott districts is required to be available
to all students
whose parents want them to attend. It is the absolute responsibility
of each district to make the
necessary arrangements to accommodate each and every eligible
child, whether in a district-run
program or an approved community-based program.
There are, of course, reasons why the percentage of eligible children
who actually enroll in the programs
a district makes available may be less than 100%, even when the
district has all the facilities
and associated necessities to enable all students in the
district to attend. Presumably some parents will choose not to
send their children, or will
make some other arrangements for a preschool program not associated
with the district's plan. However,
there can be no doubt that the mandate is that each district
must provide an appropriate program for 100% of the children eligible.
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In
Abbott VI , the Court, while not actually holding,
as the ELC asserts, that the
DOE "had improperly capped the districts' January 2000 projections
at 75% of 'anticipated preschool
enrollment,'" nevertheless spoke to the true concern, that is,
the need for community outreach.
That is the real concern because, to the extent that a
district is required to provide preschool for all children and
the DOE and districts together
must provide all necessary funding for such programs, provision
of all these items will do little
to increase enrollment if parents either do not know about or
do not understand the programs
available. The Court has advised that the projections are only
important to the extent that
they reveal the existence of a need for outreach. It stressed
that the determination of the
existence of "low" enrollments was "expect[ed]" to be the
trigger for determinations that could identify the reasons for
such "low" numbers. The
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