Do You Need 60 Hours Of Community Service To Graduate High School

High Schools Mandating Community Service for Graduation

May i, 1994

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May 1, 1994

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COMMUNITY service, performed without pay, is condign increasingly familiar to loftier school students. Schools are encouraging students to include service every bit function of their school experience. Several Long Island districts have recently mandated service as a graduation requirement. Others take added courses that include service in the curriculum.

Although there is no argument over youth interest, the question of whether to mandate service for loftier school students has encountered mixed responses.

In Nassau County the Roslyn and Hewlett-Woodmere districts recently approved service mandates. In Roslyn students beginning with the high school course of '97 will be required to take a ane-semester half-credit community-service form and to consummate a minimum of thirty hours of field work to graduate. For the grade of '98 the number of field hours volition increment, to 40. The class was introduced this yr every bit an elective on a pilot footing. Superintendent Frank Tassone said that twoscore percent of the high schoolhouse students now participated in community service and that the goal was to encourage the rest to become involved.

"It's important for students to requite back to the community that for a number of years has provided them with a wonderful public education," Dr. Tassone said. "This also gives the kids the opportunity for new experiences, whether it be visiting a senior-citizens' home, volunteering in a infirmary or working correct in the school commune in the library or attendance office. From our research, we've learned that in school districts where community service is mandated many kids who might have been reticent or too shy to volunteer have admitted that they were glad they had been forced into participating."

Dr. Tassone added that there had been stiff community support to require service. "At first, some kids questioned why this would exist required," he said. "Only once they realized how beneficial it is, their resistance has been minimal."

But elsewhere the constitutionality of mandated service is under fire. Last month a libertarian grouping, the Institute for Justice, filed a suit for two students at Rye Neck High Schoolhouse in Mamaroneck who refused to carry out the required 40 hours of service. The constitute has sued other districts, including those in Chapel Colina-Carrboro, N.C., and Bethlehem, Pa.

In the Bethlehem case the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on the found's argument that mandated service violated the prohibition in the 13th Amendment confronting involuntary servitude.

The requirement in Hewlett-Woodmere starts with the form of '95. Information technology will require students to complete 10 hours of service in a course called Participation in Government, a one-semester program usually taken in the senior year.

Superintendent Bert Nelson said lx percent of the senior class was involved in some voluntary service. He added that several years agone a group of students started a Reach Out to Seniors program, in which they volunteered to assist older people with activities like yard work, shopping, running errands and irresolute lightbulbs and smoke-detector batteries.

"Nosotros've had almost 100 kids participate in the program," Dr. Nelson said. "This told me that our kids were looking for means to give something back to the community. We felt the need to reach out to those twoscore per centum who are non involved.

"We desire our students to sympathize that a responsible commitment to the community is office of a well-rounded education. We've started with a small requirement. But our expectation is that in one case the students get a taste of satisfaction doing for others they will increase the number of hours on their own."

In Suffolk County the Sag Harbor high school has had a mandated program for several years. To receive a diploma, all students are required individually or in groups to complete at to the lowest degree 1 service projection in their four years at the school. Superintendent John G. Barnes said that the the school suggested 10 hours of work, but that each project was individually evaluated. "We believe that community service is a must for all students," he said. Clearinghouse for Information

Upwardly to this year in that location had been no clearinghouse to exchange ideas on service. This yr, educators from public and private schools and representatives of community agencies organized the Service Learning Network to share programs and projects.

The managing director of the Pupil Service Center at Mineola High School, Diana Falk, said the network would help public schools learn virtually service. "Public schools are just beginning to see service equally a mode to reform education," she said.

Every bit service becomes a growing priority, other districts are likewise considering mandating information technology, said Dr. William Johnson, Superintendent of Schools in Rockville Centre and president of the Nassau Quango of Superintendents.

"Simply before a district can mandate a customs-service requirement," he added, "information technology must have concomitant support and coordination from the community.

"First, in that location must exist plenty service opportunities to conform all students. Then yous must define what will be accepted, how much service is required and how it volition be verified and coordinated by school personnel.

"There are also the issues of what do yous practice with kids who don't have admission to transportation? Or if they accept paid jobs because their income is needed to help their families, would that count as community service?" Difficulties in Large Schools

Service requirements are especially difficult to enforce in large loftier schools, said Dr. Jorge Schneider, principal of Syosset High School, which has i,700 students.

"With a graduating class of 450 students, it would be virtually impossible to mandate and go on track of voluntary activities for every student," he said. "But there is no shortage of service opportunities -- from ongoing activities through the many schoolhouse clubs, to short-term projects like the recent daffodil auction nosotros had to raise coin for the American Cancer Social club, to one-day events like our senior prom for elderly citizens held in the school. While not required to participate, the majority of students, by the time they graduate, have some course of community service experience."

Some districts, without mandating service, encourage participation past offer credit. Students at Westhampton Beach High School who participate in community activities for one term receive a half-credit toward graduation. Superintendent Edward Broderick said most service programs were geared toward the elderly, who make up 80 per centum of the village population. Other projects include beach cleaning, afforestation and customs cleanups.

"By offer credit for these projects," Dr. Broderick said, "nosotros're giving a stiff message to the kids that this is of great importance. Community service too helps the students to empathize that the school and community are related, and this helps to maintain our pocket-size-boondocks atmosphere." Encouragement for Volunteers

At Great Neck North High School, 99 per centum of the senior form takes a social studies elective class that includes customs service. A spokeswoman for the commune, Jessica Vega, said that the course was not required, but that faculty directorate strongly encouraged it. Over all, in the ii Keen Neck high schools, North and South, participation in activities like tutoring, AIDS awareness, Students Against Boozer Driving, solar day intendance, care for the elderly and environmental work is 30 pct, Ms. Vega said.

Other districts accept programs to recruit students for service. Bay Shore Loftier School formed a service honor club this year to recognize and advantage students on all bookish levels who have performed and documented service.

A teacher and adviser, Pat Ponzi, said students received credit for every 60 minutes working, whether at a hospital or in school making announcements. After 240 credits, they are eligible for the Honor Club. Mrs. Ponzi added that 70 students had qualified so far.

"We want to institutionalize and celebrate community service," she said. "The kids are all the same not sure what's in it for them. But we're trying to excite them with a sense of belonging, a feeling of satisfaction from helping others and the added incentive that this recognition will help for higher admission. The bottom line hither is that information technology doesn't affair how academic yous are, simply where you lot heart is."

At North Shore Loftier School in Glen Head, the crucial cistron for interest is interest, said the service coordinator, Julia Salat.

"If kids are required to participate," Ms. Salat said, "it becomes a pressure point instead of a worthwhile experience. If they are interested in a specific project or charity, they are more dedicated and committed.

"My job is to help students explore options and find projects best suited for them. By the time they graduate, ninety percentage of the students volition participate in some form of community service." For All Levels and Abilities

An finish-of-the-year breakfast at Mineola High School next month volition recognize participants in the Pupil Service Center with awards and certificates. The middle, started 11 years ago with a $1,500 grant, has expanded, from 4 programs to 14. In 1991, the middle received the Eleanor Roosevelt Community Service Award from the Governor's office, one of ten given each year.

Mrs. Falk, managing director of the Student Service Eye, said the programs had been created to appeal to students of all levels and abilities.

"Some students enjoy working with handicapped kids, while others prefer visiting a nursing home or might bring together the Red Cross Club to be trained in disaster relief," she said. "This twelvemonth we've added to our list peer mediation and a special recreation program for handicapped children. The kids know it's their effort that counts. At our celebration breakfast each educatee can invite a parent and ane friend who hasn't participated in a community-service program.

"The community spirit is contagious. We don't have to mandate, because we take so many kids on board. When kids don't have to do something, simply exercise information technology because they want to, you can't beat that. Long after they forget algebra, they'll think the letters and words of thanks from these experiences. They get a sense of filling a need, of feeling important, and as corny as it sounds, of making a difference."