When are Regents results released and when should the district newsletter go out?

Regents Exams are administered in three sittings (January, June, and August), with results released to schools within two to three weeks of each administration. The June results are the most widely covered. The district newsletter should go out within a week of June results being available to schools, before the local press writes the summer education recap article.

How does the new Graduation Measures pathway work and how do we explain it?

New York is moving toward the Graduation Measures framework, which adds capstone projects, performance assessments, and other pathways alongside Regents Exams as routes to a diploma. Families need a one-paragraph explanation: Regents Exams remain a pathway, and other validated pathways now exist. Skip the policy history. Focus on what it means for current students.

Should the newsletter publish school-level Regents pass rates?

Yes, with the prior year for comparison. NYSED publishes this data publicly anyway, so families will find it. Putting it in the newsletter, framed by the district, is better than letting families find it in the state database with no context. List by school, by exam, with a two-sentence note for any major shifts year over year.

How do we communicate when our Regents pass rates dropped?

Name the drop in the first paragraph. Then explain what the data shows about why (instructional shift, attendance, exam content changes, cohort differences) and what the response plan is. Families in New York are sophisticated about Regents data because of the long history. They notice spin immediately. Honest communication holds up better than careful communication.

What is the best tool for New York districts to send Regents results newsletters?

Daystage was built for district-wide sends and works well for the New York context where high school principals often need to send campus-specific follow-ups the same week as the district communication. It renders inline in Gmail and Outlook, handles consistent branding across campuses, and gives the superintendent open data to confirm the communication actually reached families before the next board meeting question.

New York District Newsletter

Regents results are the most established public accountability data in the country. New York families have been reading Regents pass rates for over a century. They know what they are looking at. That sophistication makes the Regents newsletter both easier and harder than equivalent communications in other states. Easier because you do not need to explain what an exam is. Harder because every word gets weighed against decades of district communication patterns.

Here is how to write the Regents results newsletter so it actually serves families.

Send within a week of results being available to schools

June Regents results land in school information systems within two to three weeks of the exam. The district newsletter should go out within seven days of that landing. Wait longer and the local news writes the summer education story without your framing.

Plan the structure before June. Pre-write the response paragraphs for likely scenarios. The week results arrive should be a slot-and-send week, not a draft-from-scratch week.

Lead with the district-level pass rate, by exam

The headline is district-wide pass rates for the major exams: Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, English Language Arts, U.S. History, Living Environment, Earth Science, and Chemistry. List them with this year and last year side by side.

Families want to see the numbers. Not "results are encouraging" or "we continue to see strong performance." The numbers.

Explain Graduation Measures briefly

New York's move toward Graduation Measures (validated alternative pathways alongside Regents) is changing what graduation requirements look like for current students. Families with younger high schoolers are confused about what counts and what does not.

One paragraph clarifies it: Regents Exams remain a graduation pathway. Other validated pathways (capstone projects, performance assessments, CTE completion) now also count. The district will continue to support students through both Regents and alternative pathways. Link to a longer explainer for families who want detail.

Show subgroup data honestly

Regents pass rate gaps by race, income, and English learner status are well documented in New York. If your district has gaps (almost every district does), the newsletter should name them. Pretending the district-wide pass rate tells the whole story when subgroup gaps are 20 points wide is the kind of communication that lands a district in front of a NYSED equity review.

Phrase it directly: "Our district-wide Algebra I pass rate was 78%. For our English learner students, the pass rate was 54%. Closing that gap is the focus of next year's bilingual instructional support expansion."

Connect to graduation rate

Regents results feed graduation rate, but the relationship is not one to one because of multiple pathways and retake opportunities. Show the district's graduation rate alongside the Regents pass rates so families see the full picture.

A 78% Algebra I first-time pass rate paired with a 94% graduation rate tells a different story than the pass rate alone. Families care most about graduation. Show them how the exam data connects to it.

Address August retake opportunities

Every June Regents newsletter should mention the August administration explicitly. Students who did not pass in June have a real chance to retake in August. Families need to know dates, registration steps, and which schools are open as test sites.

That section is the most concretely useful part of the newsletter for families with a student who did not pass. Treat it as the practical core, not an afterthought.

Pair with high school principal follow-ups

The district newsletter sets the district-level frame. Each high school principal should send a campus-specific follow-up within 72 hours, with their school's pass rates, by exam, by subgroup, with a campus-level response plan.

Daystage keeps the district and campus communications under one branded system, so families read them as one coordinated conversation rather than competing voices.

What to do next

Build the Regents newsletter template before the June results window. Pre-write the principal follow-up template. Set up your distribution list and confirm your bilingual reviewer is available the week of release. When results come in, the newsletter goes out within days, not weeks.

New York District Newsletter: Sharing Regents Results With Families