They are part of Buffalo Public Schools' community schools program: parent centers, aimed at helping both parents and students, will be featured when the new school year opens in September.
Community schools are a very different approach to education, longer hours a day, more days a week and much more connection with the surrounding community. Four of the high schools involved in the program around the city will each have a parent center, with a full-time staff member to help students and families, the parent engagement liaison.
Associate Superintendent for Student Support Eric Rosser said this will be real assistance.
"We want to make sure that if a parent steps into one of our parent resource centers that we want to be able to address that parent's need," said Rosser. "On-site support will also address the immediate, critical needs that parents may present, such as, if a parent comes to us and says, 'Hey, we just got an eviction notice. I need some assistance.'"
Rosser and Superintendent Kriner Cash said there will be checks, the metrics of seeing if the program and other pieces of the community schools program actually add to student achievement. That includes items like making sure more and more parents sign up for Infinite Campus, a computer program that connects parents and the school system databases of information about how their kids are doing.