See below comment sent by Gavin Healy, parent leader and attorney, in opposition to the proposed revision to Chancellor’s Regulation D-210 concerning Citywide and Community Education Council conduct and complaint procedures, due to be voted on next week, December 17 Panel for Education Policy meeting, at the Evander Childs Educational Campus (800 East Gun Hill Road, Bronx, New York 10467). All documents for this meeting including contracts for four controversial AI products, including three that were voted down at the Oct. 2025 meeting, and the proposed regulation can found on the PEP SharePoint file here.
This Chancellor's Regulation revision grew out of a dispute and a lawsuit filed by March 2024 three CCEC members challenging the constitutionality of the existing version of Chancellor’s Regulation D-210, issued on December 22, 2021, claiming it chilled free speech and viewpoint expression. Among the allegations of the named plaintiff, Deborah Alexander, was that she was unfairly ejected from a CEC 14 meeting because she had expressed political views contrary to the chair and the vice chair at the time.
In a preliminary injunction, the court found the regulation both unconstitutionally vague and a violation of Free Speech.
What is somewhat ironic is that I was summarily ejected from a Zoom meeting of the Citywide Council of High Schools on Wed. December 10, right before I was going to provide comment on a proposed resolution on the class size law, pointing out how the resolution was both factually inaccurate and unnecessary, given its purported aims. The author of that resolution and the co-chair of the CCHS is Deborah Alexander, the named plaintiff in the above lawsuit.
From: Gavin Healy <ghealy@cecd2.net>
Date: 11 December 2025 at 10:53:39 AM GMT-5
To: RegulationD-210@schools.nyc.gov,
panel@schools.nyc.gov
Cc: Greg Faulkner <gregfaulkner1@gmail.com>,
r.izquierdo06@gmail.com, CCasaretti@schools.nyc.gov,
Marielle Ali <MAli38@schools.nyc.gov>,
NHasan3@schools.nyc.gov, Adriana
Alicea <AAlicea6@schools.nyc.gov>,
Naveed Hasan <naveed@cs.columbia.edu>,
Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos <NYCPSChancellor@schools.nyc.gov>,
DMantell2@schools.nyc.gov, Noah
Means-simonsen <NMeanssimonsen@schools.nyc.gov>
Subject: Comments on Revisions to Chancellor's Regulation D-210
Dear members of the Panel for Educational Policy:
I am writing to urge you to table a vote on the revised Chancellor’s Regulation D-210 and/or amend the current revised draft.
My concerns are as follows:
(1) The revised regulations conflate incivility with serious unlawful conduct
The revised version includes necessary prohibitions against discrimination/harassment (IV.A.), threats of violence (IV.B.), disclosure of private student information under FERPA (IV.D. and IV.F.), and use of a CCEC position for personal financial benefit (IV.G.), all of which may be actionable under state/federal criminal law.
However, IV.C. adds a new prohibition against “disruptive Conduct or Speech that prevents, or is reasonably likely to prevent, the CCEC from conducting business (including, but not limited to Conduct or Speech such as shouting, profanity or physical outbursts, where such Conduct or Speech interferes with the CCEC conducting business).” It is concerning that these revised regulations equate matters of simple civility and decorum in CCEC meetings (already governed by CCEC by-laws, parliamentary procedure, etc.), which are not legally actionable, with more serious and legally actionable discrimination, harassment, and threats of violence. IV.C. should be deleted or moved to a new category separate from these other prohibitions to underscore the profoundly different legal and ethical nature of these types of conduct.
(2) The DOE failed to meaningfully engage all stakeholders (CCEC members, parents, students) in deliberation of these revisions:
The original Chancellor’s Regulation D-210 was adopted by the PEP in December 2021 at the end of the DeBlasio administration. A new DOE position of “Equity Compliance Officer” was created under the regulations as the designated DOE official responsible for processing complaints filed thereunder. The regulations also mandated establishment of an “Equity Council” tasked with providing recommendations on the resolution of complaints. When Eric Adams took office as mayor in January 2022, the new administration dragged its feet on implementing these regulations. The DOE did not fill the required position of Equity Compliance Officer until February 2023, more than a year after the regulations were adopted. On October 27, 2023 then-FACE Deputy Chancellor Kenita Lloyd stated that Chancellor’s Regulation D-210 was “an unfunded mandate inherited from the previous administration,” implying that her office would not actively investigate complaints. It was not until late 2023 that FACE started to process complaints filed under Chancellor’s Regulation D-210, and it was not until February 2024 that positions on the Equity Council were filled and announced by FACE.
In March 2024 three CCEC members filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of Chancellor’s Regulation D-210. Those three CCEC members are represented by the Institute for Free Speech (IFS), a right-wing group that has represented Moms for Liberty and Gays Against Groomers. IFS has also represented pro bono clients in efforts to invalidate college guidelines on anti-racism. In September 2024 the three CCEC plaintiffs were granted an injunction, preventing the DOE from enforcing the provisions of Chancellor’s Regulation D-210 that prohibit CCEC members from (1) “engaging in conduct that serves to harass, intimidate, or threaten others” and (2) “engaging in conduct involving derogatory or offensive comments about any DOE student.” Settlement negotiations have been ongoing since then between attorneys for the CCEC plaintiffs and attorneys for the DOE. These revisions to Chancellor’s Regulation D-210 are a result of those negotiations.
The DOE held a 45-minute “engagement session” with CCEC presidents on October 14, 2025 to discuss the revisions, although no draft of the revisions was presented at that time. Some of the CCEC presidents in attendance at the session objected to the presence of at least one of the plaintiffs in the above lawsuit, commenting that it created an unsafe space for discussion of sensitive issues such as harassment and doxxing of minors. The DOE has not held any engagement sessions about the revisions with other CCEC members, parents, or students, and has not engaged in any meaningful solicitation of feedback from the broader community other than sending two emails to CCEC members notifying them of the PEP vote.
Instead of rushing through a revised Chancellor’s Regulation D-210 to resolve a lawsuit filed by just three CCEC members, the PEP should table a vote until the DOE can engage in a more thoughtful deliberative process with parents, students, and CCEC members. Since the former Deputy Chancellor of FACE under the Adams administration declared that Chancellor’s Regulation D-210 is an “unfunded mandate inherited from the previous administration,” it would be better for the new mayoral administration that will take office in January 2026 to handle these revisions, since it will be the new administration that will be tasked with implementing them.
Respectfully,
Gavin Healy
Member, CEC2 (writing in my personal capacity)
