Chalkbeat

NYC schools start Sept. 10, leaving parents scrambling for childcare

2026-08-24T22:15:35+00:00

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Students in Houston and Las Vegas returned to school on Aug. 10. In Los Angeles, kids went back on Aug. 12, and Miami’s students started the following day. Students returned Monday in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Denver.

But in New York City, students in the nation’s largest school district still have nearly three weeks before the first day of school. Of the country’s 20 biggest school districts, New York City’s is the only one where classes don’t start until September.

This year’s start on Thursday, Sept. 10 falls later than usual because Labor Day falls on Monday, Sept. 7. Under the city’s contract with the teachers union, teachers return to school the day after Labor Day for two days of prep and professional development. Students return to school the Thursday after Labor Day.

That’s left families to fill nearly 11 summer weeks without school. Many parents are struggling to find childcare since most camps ended in mid-August, including the city’s free Summer Rising program, which wrapped up Aug. 14. Some educators also worry that the late start disadvantages their students academically, especially those from low-income households.

Brooklyn parent Elizabeth Skid, who has a kindergartner and third grader at P.S. 39, recalled how during her childhood in the Midwest, the start of school moved from September to August. She’s continually surprised — and angered — by New York City’s school calendar, including the frequent holidays.

“I thought it would get easier every year, but every year, it pisses me off,” she said, even though she has the luxury of working from home if her children are out of school. “It just doesn’t make sense for parents.”

It’s also been a challenge for Brittany Castillo, whose son will start first grade at Brooklyn’s Hellenic Classical Charter School, which follows the same schedule as city-run schools. She thought things were set after signing him up for an eight-week day camp, and only realized there was a three-week gap once that ended last week.

To fill the void, she managed to find a week-long sports camp at the last minute — though it’s an added cost she hadn’t anticipated. She also plans to take some time off. That’s a “silver lining,” she said, because previously, she often saved her time off for sick days for her kid and ended up not using them.

She’s not sure, however, what she’ll do after Labor Day.

“That second week of September, we’re going to scramble,” Castillo said.

Some organizations are trying to fill the void, offering mini-camps this week and next, but several camps struggle to offer extra days since they rely on college students who’ve already returned to school. And those that do have openings can be pretty pricey.

A week of gymnastics or ninja camp at Brooklyn’s Chelsea Piers outpost costs $950 a week from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. A climbing camp at Manhattan’s Central Rock gym costs $775 for the week from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. In central Queens, Commonpoint recently added a mini-camp for the week of Aug. 31, costing $650 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, several charter schools across the five boroughs have started the school year. Students at Uncommon Schools, for example, returned Monday. At Success Academy, the city’s largest charter network, high schoolers began returning Aug. 3, followed by younger students at later dates.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC teachers: How are you teaching about 9/11 on its 25th anniversary?

2026-08-20T16:56:22+00:00

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As New York City memorializes the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field, Chalkbeat wants to hear from teachers across the five boroughs: How do you teach about 9/11 in your classroom?

With children back in school for just one day before this year’s anniversary, it might be hard for teachers to discuss the topic on 9/11 as they are still building community with their students. Educators, how will you approach the day?

Several resources for teachers exist. New York City’s Education Department offers an instructional guide with links to books, lesson plans, archival materials, and more, and also offers professional development sessions for teachers and administrators at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. And the 9/11 Memorial & Museum provides lessons for educators and also offers on-site and virtual visits for students in grades 3-12. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has a 9/11 curriculum.

Many New York City educators were in the classroom on Sept. 11, 2001 others may have been students at the time.

Suzanne Werner, who worked at Lower Manhattan’s P.S. 124, was asked that morning to cover for a fifth grade teacher whose husband worked at the nearby World Trade Center.

“It was so hard to get back to teaching that fall,” Werner previously told Chalkbeat. “The stench of the cloud hung over the neighborhood. The number of boxes of letters and boxes of teddy bears from school kids all over the country was overwhelming.”

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Vaping, bathrooms, stress: What 357,000 NYC students revealed in revamped school survey

2026-08-17T22:28:45+00:00

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How often do students at your school vape? Are school bathrooms aligned with your gender identity? Is your school connecting your learning to the real world?

These are among the new questions that New York City’s annual school survey now asks students.

Middle and high school students are asked every spring, along with parents and teachers, to fill out the annual school survey. But the questions for students were too wordy and confusing, and there were too many of them, Education Department officials acknowledged.

So, education officials decided to make substantial changes, shortening the number of questions to 61 from 79 the year prior and making the language more direct. The goal, officials said, is to give educators more insight into particular problems. The changes are already bearing some fruit in terms of participation: More than 357,000 of the city’s students in grades 6-12 participated in the 2026 school survey, up 3 points from last year’s student participation rate, officials said this week.

To redesign the survey, the city sent a ballot of questions to school leaders and survey coordinators, garnering more than 300 responses. They held listening sessions with more than 50 school leaders, and convened more than 20 students — some of whom served on the Chancellor’s Student Advisory Committee and some who were part of a Brooklyn Summer Rising site.

While some of the questions tweak language from the previous year’s survey, others are new. Because of the survey’s changes, the 2026 results can’t be compared to prior years, but will serve as a new baseline moving forward.

“You may notice lower favorability scores on some items compared to prior years,” stated an explainer about the redesign. “This does not necessarily mean things got worse. It often reflects students answering more directly and precisely under the new language — not a change in classroom reality.”

Here are some highlights from the survey’s new questions.

How often do students in this school vape?

Many students, parents, and educators will tell you: Vaping is a big problem in schools. Some schools have been figuring out ways to cut down on vaping in bathrooms, but many have been struggling with how to respond.

Now the city’s survey is catching up with these concerns, adding a question about vaping. More than a third of students said vaping is common, with 19% of students saying students vape “very often,” and 16% reporting that students vape “often.” About 39% of female students reported their peers vape often or very often, compared to 32% of males.

The responses varied by grade, with fewer sixth graders (19%) reporting vaping as an issue compared to the ninth graders (45%), who reported seeing the most vaping use.

Curious and concerned parents can check out the responses for all questions at individual schools. For example, nearly three-quarters of the students at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts reported that students vape very often or often, compared with just 11% of students at University Neighborhood High School reporting that.

How often can you use a bathroom that matches your gender identity in your school?

A few years ago, the city began allowing families to list their child’s gender as “X” instead of “M” or “F” to accommodate nonbinary or gender-expansive youth.

The school survey data is catching up, now asking about whether students can use school bathrooms aligning with their gender identity. Under city guidance, students are entitled to use bathrooms that match their gender identity — a policy that has come under fire from the Trump administration.

At first glance, most students reported favorably to this question, with 86% saying they can use a bathroom matching their gender identity “always” or “most of the time. But drilling down into the data, for those students identified as neither male or female, 65% said they had access to a bathroom matching their gender identity.

How many of your teachers connect what you are learning to life outside the classroom?

Many students often complain that what they’re learning in school feels irrelevant to their lives and careers. In response, the city has ramped up its focus on career education.

Students see room for improvement. Less than half — 49%— said most or all of their teachers connect what they’re learning to life outside the classroom. The answers vary by grade, with the fewest favorable responses in ninth grade (45%). But by senior year, more students — 59% — responded favorably to this question.

How often do you use strategies you learned at school to stay focused when something frustrating happens?

Schools across the city have been trying to incorporate more mindfulness practices, with former Mayor Eric Adams bringing daily breathing exercises to students. But when it comes to learning coping mechanisms, students say schools still have work to do. Just 45% said they use strategies learned at school to stay focused in the face of frustration. Asian American girls had fewer favorable responses (37%) compared to their Black male counterparts (51%).

How often do you feel included in school activities like clubs, sports, recess, field trips, and school events?

While the 2025 survey asked students whether they felt like they belonged at their school, the redesigned survey took things a step further, asking students specifically about their experiences in school activities outside the classroom.

About 10% of students surveyed reported they “never” feel included in these activities, and another 30% reported feeling included “sometimes.” Girls reported feeling excluded more often than boys, with 43% reporting they sometimes or never felt included compared to 38% of boys. Broken down by grade, ninth graders (45%) reported feeling excluded most often , while sixth graders (35%) felt excluded least frequently.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

How a Queens school transformed a local playground — and its students’ lives

2026-08-11T14:54:17+00:00

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How do you make high school feel less like, well, school? And how do you get kids to show up, especially those at greatest risk of dropping out?

A class devoted to community service projects at Voyages Prep in Elmhurst, Queens might offer some clues.

The school, which serves older students who transferred in after falling behind at other schools, partners on the elective course created with Hire Cause, a career education company that focuses on building skills through hands-on projects aimed at improving communities. Two years ago, the students decided they’d focus on renovating Playground Ninety, a run-down basketball court in Jackson Heights where some of them played after school.

The students got to work. They collaborated with artists to design the space. They learned how to fundraise — organizing bake sales, a basketball tournament, and a carnival — and netted about $2,100.

Then they decided to shoot for something bigger, submitting a video to the “Every Court Has a Story” contest, a worldwide initiative led by Project Backboard, a nonprofit that funds renovations of public basketball courts. They won $50,000, beating out scores of submissions from around the globe and marking the first time a student-led entry won the contest.

Voyages Prep student Ashely Marquez painting the court at Playground Ninety in June.

“Too often, many students can’t see how the classroom connects to the broader community,” said David Dvorkin, CEO of Hire Cause, which worked with 28 public schools and 1,450 students across the city this past school year. “That’s part of the gap that we’re collectively working to close here.”

Playground Ninety’s renovation wrapped up last month with a repaired basketball court and a mural painted on the ground with flowers representing the diversity of Jackson Heights and wavy lines symbolizing New York City’s rivers. The kids at P.S. 90 have been especially delighted: The elementary school exclusively uses the space during the school day.

With its intensive focus on job skills, Voyages’ Hire Cause class fits into the city’s larger effort embracing career readiness. Nearly 180 high schools across the five boroughs are part of the Education Department’s FutureReadyNYC program, providing students with hands-on classes and career training. About 105 career and technical education programs offer certifications for a range of post-graduation careers. But the Voyages class differs in its emphasis on social impact and its student-led approach. Students pick a cause they care about and have to raise money to see their project through.

It gives them something bigger to be part of, educators involved in the project said. And they get to see the fruits of their effort.

It gives them a reason to show up, students said.

By the time Kamrin Jones took the class, the project had already begun. Initially, it was just an assignment to him. But when he saw the excitement of the elementary school kids, his perspective shifted: “It started off as an obligation, but then became a passion.”

It felt dramatically different from his previous school where he would travel about 1.5 hours to just “sit around,” the 19-year-old said.

“Not only do I have a reason to be here, but like it’s proof that I can do more with myself than I thought I could,” he said. “Like it’s proof that I’m more than just sitting in class and just waiting, twiddling my fingers. It’s proof that when I do actually put myself to the task, I can meet expectations.”

Jones believes his path might have been different had he not landed at Voyages and dove into the playground project. After graduating from Voyages in June, Jones is spending this summer learning about economics and marketing through investment banking firm Centerview (that he is getting paid for). He is planning to go to a trade school in the fall.

A drone photo of the new basketball court at Playground Ninety.

A lesson in joy, leadership, and local change

As a transfer school, where students come and go, graduating at different times as they accumulate enough credits, Voyages had about 60 students in all working on the project at some point, with about 35 of those students more intensely involved. Ten, including Jones, devoted after-school hours ensuring Playground Ninety got done.

Jones became the project manager, making sure everyone stayed on track. He would spend his lunchtime organizing things, sharing reminders to his peers in morning announcements he made over the loudspeaker.

“It’s easy for us students to get distracted,” Jones said. “I made sure we stayed on task.”

Some students who were struggling with attendance, “turned a corner” after getting involved in the course, said Anthony Drzal, one of the co-teachers of the course. A student who was chronically late, knew that missing the second period class would have significant consequences, not just for her.

“It wasn’t like another class where maybe she just missed the worksheet and she would deal with it later,” Drzal said. “If she had a responsibility, she had to take care of it.”

He believes that led to a different type of engagement than in more traditional classrooms.

The sense of community and connection created by the class is something the school overall works hard to achieve. It has a high-needs population — nearly 90% are from low-income households, nearly 30% have disabilities, more than 70% are overage and undercredited. It also struggles with outcomes: Just 17% graduated from high school and enrolled in a post-secondary program within six months.

People play basketball on the new court at Playground Ninety on June 12.

Even though the course is rooted in social change and social justice, that was never explicitly part of the conversation, said Traci Molloy, one of two artists who worked on the playground project alongside the course’s co-teachers.

The goal was to make something beautiful.

“In doing that, you’re transforming the park, you’re transforming a neighborhood,” she said. “The way it was framed was always: We have to have fun. We have to have joy, and then that joy becomes a change.”

The Voyages students will move on this school year to a new project of their choice, but those like Jones, who are graduating, are taking many skills they learned from the project, Molloy said.

As she told Jones: “This isn’t the last thing you’ve done. This is the first best thing you’ve done.”

Correction: Aug. 11, 2026: This article initially stated that Hire Cause is a nonprofit. It is a for-profit company that partners with many nonprofits.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC revamps how schools handle school avoidance under legal agreement

2026-08-03T12:00:00+00:00

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New York City’s Education Department is changing how it responds to students who are chronically absent due to school avoidance, according to an agreement officials signed last week with the legal team that brought a class action lawsuit over the issue.

School avoidance, or school refusal as it’s sometimes called, is when students miss large stretches of school because of social or emotional disabilities, such as severe anxiety or depression.

The lawsuit, filed in October 2024 on behalf of four students with disabilities who stopped regularly attending school, claimed the nation’s largest school system had no policy or procedures to ensure students received the “free appropriate public education” they were entitled to under federal law.

The city spent more than a year hashing out an agreement with attorneys from the Legal Aid Society and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. The agreement signed Friday creates systemwide guidance and support, including a new mandate that every school across the five boroughs designate a school avoidance liaison.

The shift involves “amending policy, doubling down on training, and creating awareness,” said Flavia Puello-Perdomo, deputy chancellor for family partnership and community support.

“If we’re able to intervene earlier and address the needs of students and really get to the root cause of why students are not coming to school, then we are going to be able to address chronic absenteeism much better,” Puello-Perdomo said. “What is affecting that student from coming in? Is this related to anxiety? Is this related to depression? Is this … simply refusing to come to school because oftentimes not coming to school is, as we know, signs that kids are struggling.”

The Education Department began working on the agreement with the lawyers before a judge ultimately dismissed the lawsuit, believing the claims for each plaintiff could be handled through individual due process hearings. The lawyers, however, planned to appeal because they were challenging a lack of a systemic policy. But they continued working with the department instead, seeing the city was approaching it in “good faith,” attorneys said.

Building systemwide consistency and intervening earlier

Researchers estimate between 1% and 15% of children exhibit school refusal. Parents and educators believe the problem was exacerbated after the pandemic forced schools to shift to remote learning. Education Department officials said they don’t collect specific data on how many chronically absent students are avoiding school because of social or emotional issues. Overall, roughly 33% of city students were chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year, and officials hope the shift in approach will help address school-avoidant students before their absences pile up.

“The moment that we see that student attendance is dipping down, or that students are showing any of these types of behaviors, then we can intervene earlier and ensure that students are remaining engaged with school,” Puello-Perdomo said.

When students don’t show up to class, they often fall behind academically, which can make returning to school harder. Without official guidance on how to respond to students struggling with school refusal, the city’s nearly 1,600 schools have responded unevenly, Chalkbeat previously reported. While some schools have developed strong partnerships with families to create plans that gradually bring children back to campus, others have blamed parents for their children’s attendance problems and refused to help students who weren’t in the building, several families told Chalkbeat.

Under the agreement, schools must designate a school avoidance liaison — a teacher, school administrator, or other pedagogue — by Oct. 31 each year and provide that staffer with annual two-hour training on behaviors that lead to school refusal. The liaisons, or other staff at the school, must provide families information about mental health programs and options such as special education evaluations or reevaluations.

The agreement requires the Education Department to create training materials for district and school staff, including liaisons, by Jan. 1, 2027. The materials must include guidance on talking with parents about school avoidance behaviors and resources like sample plans for bringing students back into the building gradually.

Schools should not expect students exhibiting school avoidance behavior to immediately have perfect attendance, Puello-Perdomo said. Schools instead will have to provide individualized plans to reintegrate the student, working closely with their families.

Experts say, for example, a student might first just enter the school lobby, then spend a morning with the guidance counselor before attending a favorite class. The student could gradually build toward a fuller return, with accommodations for easing back into class and catching up on missed work.

The goal, Puello-Perdomo said, is to “make it so that they can also experience a level of success.”

The Education Department also will post resources on its website to help parents address school avoidance behaviors.

Schools shift from blaming parents to addressing root causes

Susan Horwitz, director of the Legal Aid Society’s Education Law Project who worked on the class action suit, said the agreement will help schools look more closely at the reason kids aren’t showing up and shift the conversation from “What’s wrong with this parent? Why can’t they drag their kid into school?” to “Why is this happening?”

Most importantly, she added, “There will be consistency between schools in how they address school avoidance.”

The agreement tackles another major issue: Often, when students refuse to attend class, their schools say they can’t evaluate them for special education support since the child is not on campus. Now, schools will consider accommodating students at an Education Department-approved location closer to their home or approving an independent evaluation.

“So many times we hear from parents that when they say, ‘I can’t get my kid to go to school, she won’t get out of bed,’” Horwitz said. “The school says, ‘Well, we can’t do any evaluations because your kid’s not here.”

Jeffrey Metzler, a litigation partner and co-leader of Pillsbury’s education group, praised the Education Department for an agreement that is not only in the “the best interests of the kids, but that’s something that’s actually implementable.”

“I don’t think it’s realistic to expect even with training for every school liaison officer to become an expert in all of the potentially complicated issues that could result in school avoidance,” Metzler said. “But they know enough, and they’ll have the resources to escalate to people who do have that expertise.”

The Education Department must report to the legal team by July 31 whether each school in the system has designated a liaison and whether each liaison has completed the training.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani names 13 school board members, cementing control of NYC schools

2026-07-28T18:58:17+00:00

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed 13 people to the city’s school board Tuesday, cementing his control over the panel that votes on major policy changes, contracts, and decisions to merge or close schools.

The appointees to the Panel for Educational Policy bring a range of professional experience, including an environmental justice advocate and a budget official at the MTA. Others have more traditional education policy backgrounds, including a former early childhood policy official who worked under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Several are current or former public school parents.

Mamdani also reappointed three members who served under former Mayor Eric Adams. The terms of Adams’ appointees ended last month. (See a full list of Mamdani’s appointees below.)

“Public schools belong to New Yorkers, and the families, students and educators who make them what they are deserve a real voice in the decisions that shape them,” Mamdani said in a statement. “The Panel for Educational Policy has a vital responsibility to help guide our school system with transparency and accountability.”

Under state law, the mayor has the power to appoint 13 of the board’s 24 members and pick the chair from a list provided by state lawmakers. The current chair’s term does not expire until September. Parent leaders select five members, and each of the five borough presidents appoints one.

That structure gives Mamdani direct authority over the school system, a power he campaigned on giving up to make the system more democratic, though he never sketched out a clear alternative. He abandoned that position shortly before taking office and successfully lobbied state lawmakers for a two-year extension of mayoral control in the most recent state budget.

Under Mamdani, the panel will likely consider a range of hot-button issues, and advocates are already gearing up to influence the new board.

A group pushing for a moratorium on artificial intelligence in the city’s public schools plans to rally outside Wednesday’s panel meeting, the first that will feature Mamdani’s new appointees. The board has previously been skeptical of AI, and the city is developing new guidance on how the technology can be used in classrooms. The city delayed releasing the guidance due to overwhelming pushback, but officials said they planned to release it before this fall.

The panel will also have to grapple with how to approach declining enrollment in the nation’s largest school system. Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels has indicated the city may need to ramp up school mergers and closures, but such proposals often spark fierce backlash, with parents, students, and educators packing board meetings in protest.

Historically, mayoral appointees tend to vote in line with the mayor and his schools chancellor. Mamdani, however, has vowed to listen to community input. It remains to be seen if that posture will give his appointees more room to vote independently of City Hall’s wishes. The mayor can no longer remove his own board members simply for voting against his proposals under a 2022 tweak in state law.

Adams sometimes struggled to control the board, which more frequently bucked City Hall’s proposals than panels under previous mayors. Toward the end of his term, Adams allowed three mayoral appointees on the board to sit vacant, effectively giving up his majority.

Under recent changes to the board’s structure, mayoral appointees serve one-year terms that expire at the end of June. That makes Mamdani the first mayor required to work with board members appointed under his predecessor for his first six months in office. Although Mamdani could have filled two mayoral vacancies that Adams left open, he mostly allowed them to sit empty in recent months. He appointed one member, Brooklyn College professor Maddy Fox, in time for the June board meeting.

Greg Faulkner, the panel’s current chair who was appointed by Adams, said he was impressed with the new slate of board members.

“I’m excited by this new group — the diversity and experience is really great," he said.

Here are the members Mamdani appointed, according to a press release issued Tuesday afternoon. The three members Mamdani reappointed are Alan Ong, Marjorie Dienstag, and Amy Fair.

Karla Cordero

Cordero is chief of staff at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, which fights for climate justice in low-income areas of West Harlem and upper Manhattan. She previously worked in government and helped launch an emergency food program during the COVID pandemic that delivered more than 18 million meals to New Yorkers.

Tariq Khan

Khan has spent nearly three decades at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where he now works in budget and finance. The Queens resident has also been active as a parent leader in his local school communities.

Mehrain Mahdi

Mahdi, a parent in Manhattan’s District 2, served on her school’s leadership team, where she launched an after-school Spanish program. She also founded Little Leaping Leaders, a mentorship program for young girls.

Alan Ong

Ong, a longtime civic leader in Queens, has served as a parent-teacher association president and as president of District 26’s Community Education Council. He previously was an Adams’ appointee on the PEP.

Amy Fair

Fair has worked in higher education administration for more than 25 years and is the director of strategic initiatives and special projects at NYU Steinhardt. She has also served on the community education council in Bronx District 11 “and in several community leadership roles supporting students, families and schools,” according to her official bio.

Courtney Rajwani

Rajwani, the parent of two public school children, is a managing consultant at the Lewin Group, a healthcare consulting firm. Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, she was an executive director for policy development and support in the city Education Department’s early childhood division.

Crystal Vera-Montalvo

Vera-Montalvo is the director of community educational engagement at the College of Staten Island. She oversees a slew of programs, including English as a second language, continuing education, GED, as well as other initiatives geared toward older adults and people with disabilities. She is the parent of a current New York City public school student.

Marjorie Dienstag

Dienstag’s three children have attended both public and private schools, including one who currently attends a District 75 school, which serves children with more complex disabilities. She led a grassroots push to build a West Village middle school that includes a program for District 75 students.

Lucas Koehler

Koehler previously worked as a seventh-grade math teacher in the Bronx and is now the chief financial officer at the Foundation for City College. His bio credits him with playing a “key role in expanding New York City’s early childhood education system.” He also previously worked in the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget.

Primo Lasana

Before becoming chief impact officer at the Forum for Youth Investment, a nonprofit focused on youth development, Lasana was the executive director of Reading Partners and director of new site development at iMentor. He’s also been active on his Brooklyn community board.

Kristin Jefferson

Jefferson is a senior education consultant at Teaching Matters, a nonprofit that works with schools to improve reading and math instruction through training and coaching. She also founded KJ-Ed Solutions LLC, an education consulting firm. She previously was the academic director and network multilingual learner coordinator at Explore Charter Schools and director of recruitment for the Education Department’s Office of New Schools. 

Maddy Fox

Fox is a Brooklyn College professor who studies children and youth as well as sociology and is a faculty member at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is a “union member and participatory action researcher whose work focuses on partnering with young people and communities to shape public policy,” according to her official bio. Fox has two children in the city’s public schools.

Raysa Rodriguez

Rodriguez is the executive director of the Citizens’ Committee for Children, an advocacy and research organization. She previously worked at other nonprofits, including the United Way of New York City. During the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, she was a senior adviser on children’s issues for the deputy mayor for health and human services. She was born and raised in the Bronx and is a former kindergarten teacher.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani taps World Cup fever to get NYC teens designing climate-friendly stadiums and soccer apps

2026-07-28T10:00:00+00:00

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani is trying to channel World Cup excitement into real-world careers: Teens across the five boroughs are designing stadiums of the future and soccer fields through a six-week competition run by New York City’s youth summer jobs program.

And while the city’s schools are still grappling with artificial intelligence, this summer jobs initiative is embracing the technology.

As part of the Summer Youth Employment Program, hundreds of 14- and 15-year-olds are participating in the New York City Sports and Technology Innovation Challenge, where they are using AI and other technologies to expand access to soccer while exploring careers in sport-related industries.

The teens are dreaming up digital platforms to connect young people to sport opportunities across the five boroughs, planning climate-resilient public spaces for athletics that feel more inclusive to New Yorkers from various backgrounds, and designing environmentally-friendly stadiums that can transport 50,000 fans efficiently and sustainably. They are working with officials from the New York City Football Club and faculty from New York University’s School of Professional Studies on their projects.

“The World Cup is inspiring our young people, not just to perfect their stepover but to imagine the next great sports stadium, design soccer fields that combat climate change, build new platforms to connect their friends to matches, and much more,” Mamdani said in a statement.

The program, he added, “will help create the next generation of architects, engineers, and scientists.”

The finalists will present their submissions on Aug. 13 to New York City FC for the initiative, which is expected to become an annual challenge, city officials said.

A record year for NYC’s youth jobs program

The city’s Summer Youth Employment Program, or SYEP — the nation’s largest program of its kind — has continuously evolved over its 63-year history, finding new partners like New York City FC, whose nonprofit foundation, City in the Community, funded and designed the design challenge. The Department of Youth and Community Development, which oversees the jobs program, offered roughly 100,000 paid jobs and career exploration opportunities to the city’s 14- to 24-year olds this year and received more than 200,000 applications, a record, agency officials said.

Older students in SYEP earn the city’s minimum wage of $17 an hour at one of the program’s various work sites, ranging from tech and human services to finance and culture. The city’s 14- and 15- year-olds earn a $700 stipend doing project-based learning where they build work-related foundational skills, such as team-building, public speaking, and resume-building, said Youth and Community Development Commissioner Sandra Escamilla-Davies.

She was especially proud of the new partnership with New York City FC, saying it grew out of the interests of young people and also builds on the World Cup momentum to get young people interested in learning about opportunities that go beyond being the next star goalie or defender.

“We really knew that hosting a World Cup is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and it brought such vibrancy, such community throughout New York City. But we didn’t want that to be just the only legacy,” Escamilla-Davies said. “We wanted to think about how we use soccer, which so many New Yorkers love, and sports, which young people love, to really inspire young people to see themselves as the next generation of innovators, of engineers, of designers, of entrepreneurs.”

Escamilla-Davies also said that to prepare young people for future careers, incorporating AI was critical.

“We have an ecosystem that needs to accelerate learning, accelerate opportunities, and I don’t know that it’s humanly possible for us to do that without technology,” she said.

Students solve real-world problems with AI

Mohammed Usman, a 15-year-old who lives in Ozone Park, Queens, and attends Brooklyn Tech, decided to tackle the lack of available places to play soccer, looking at how to repurpose existing land and better understand when fields are available.

“Many of the fields that we do have are usually booked by teams or other people who want to play, and it’s hard to get a field,” Mohammed said. “So I was thinking of making an app that would allow you to know when a field is open and to be able to play with people your age.”

He’s been using AI to refine his proposal, for example, by encouraging him to add more information on his app about whether fields have lights or how to pair similarly aged students together.

He already can see how the problem-solving skills he’s learning could help him with his future career goal in engineering.

“What an engineer does is find a problem and then develop a solution for it, and that’s really similar to what we’re doing in the program: finding problems in our communities and then solving them related to soccer,” Mohammed said.

Escamilla-Davies sees SYEP as an important opportunity for young people to explore a range of careers beyond being a doctor or lawyer, and a way to get them connected to mentors and industry professionals, especially for those who don’t have family and social networks they can tap to help.

“For me, it’s the first step of equity,” said Escamilla-Davies, who is hoping to continue building more industry partnerships to expand SYEP.

The program says participation has improved school attendance and reduced students’ odds of getting tangled up in the criminal justice system. SYEP participants’ chances of being arrested fell 17% and 23% for felony arrests, according to a 2021 study.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

At NYC’s first all-virtual high school, this award-winning teacher knows it’s not ‘one-size-fits-all’

2026-07-22T21:12:30+00:00

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Chemistry and earth science teacher Jude Julien helped launch New York City’s fully virtual high school four years ago, after more than two decades teaching in brick-and-mortar classrooms.

Julien was already comfortable with online learning before schools went remote during the pandemic. Besides teaching high school, he was an adjunct professor for the City University of New York, primarily for their virtual classes. So when the city’s Education Department tapped his principal at the Bronx High School for Writing and Communication Arts in 2022 to lead one of two new virtual high schools, Julien joined the effort.

The Virtual Innovators Academy (formerly known as A School Without Walls Virtual) is the city’s only all-virtual high school, and served more than 320 students last school year. (The city also opened a hybrid high school called A School Without Walls.)

“Every student brings different strengths, experiences, and obstacles into the classroom,” Julien said. “Whether I’m teaching in a traditional classroom, a virtual school, or mentoring other educators, my goal is the same: to help students see possibilities for themselves that they may not yet see and to give them the knowledge and confidence to pursue them.”

From his own experience, as the son of Haitian immigrants growing up in Brooklyn, attending public schools, and eventually studying chemical engineering at Columbia University before getting his Ph.D at Teacher College in science education, Julien believes that “learning isn’t one-size-fits-all.” His efforts to expand equitable access to STEM to diverse learners have won him much recognition: He has a Sloan Award for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics, was a Big Apple Award semi-finalist, and this year won Math for America’s prestigious Muller Award for Professional Influence in Education, which comes with $20,000 in prize money along with $5,000 to Julien’s school.

At the Virtual Innovators Academy, he enjoys watching his students grow from hesitant participants to confident learners engaging in scientific discussions.

“Those moments remind me that powerful teaching is less about the setting and more about creating opportunities for students to think deeply, collaborate, and recognize that their voices and ideas can make a difference,” Julien said.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

I decided to teach about a year after I graduated from college. I studied chemical engineering but I wasn’t exactly sure if I wanted to work in that field or if I should go to graduate school so my plan was to teach for a few years until I figured it out. I entered education through Teach for America and started teaching middle school math and science in the South Bronx.

I instantly enjoyed it and my experience and decided to continue teaching. I then started to work towards my Masters in Education and the rest has been history so to speak.

Tell us more about the Virtual Innovators Academy. What are some of the ways teaching there is different from your previous experience?

It serves students from all five boroughs whose needs and circumstances make a traditional setting a poor fit. Many of our students face social and personal challenges, so our work extends beyond delivering content. Some of our students have physical disabilities which make it difficult to access a physical site. Some students have underlying health conditions so the virtual option allows for more access. Some of our students have social and emotional challenges so they struggled in the larger school setting. Some of our students were initially homeschooled, and families wanted to access a more structured environment to deliver the content. Some of our students work and are caretakers, so the virtual option provides more flexibility. Some of our students simply preferred the virtual option and are comfortable learning online.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

One of my favorite lessons to teach is our project-based learning unit on climate change. Rather than simply learning about the science behind climate change, students investigate its causes and impacts and then work collaboratively to develop realistic, evidence-based solutions to a problem they identify. At the end of the unit, they present their proposals to the class, explaining the science behind their ideas and defending their recommendations with data.

What makes this project especially rewarding is that we do it entirely in a virtual environment. Students collaborate using shared digital workspaces, conduct research online, create multimedia presentations, and present their solutions live to their classmates. It demonstrates that meaningful, hands-on learning doesn’t require students to be in the same physical classroom. In fact, the technology often allows students to be even more creative in how they communicate their ideas.

I love this lesson because it transforms students from passive recipients of information into active problem-solvers. They see that science isn’t just about memorizing facts, it’s about using evidence, critical thinking, and creativity to address real-world challenges. The virtual format also helps students build important skills they’ll need beyond high school, including digital collaboration, communication, and presenting ideas in an online setting.

You’ve worked with incarcerated youth in the past? Do you still do that?

Yes. I volunteer as a math tutor with the Petey Greene Program, which partners with educational programs in correctional facilities and community organizations to expand educational opportunities for justice-impacted individuals.

Before the pandemic, I tutored at the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center in the Bronx, working with incarcerated men to strengthen their math skills and support their educational goals. When the pandemic changed how programs operated, my tutoring transitioned to a virtual format, where I worked with formerly incarcerated and justice-involved youth in the community.

That experience reinforced my belief that education can be a powerful pathway to opportunity and transformation. Regardless of a person’s background or circumstances, every student deserves access to high-quality instruction, encouragement, and someone who believes in their potential.

You’ve also long mentored other teachers. Why is that important to you?

I’ve been fortunate to have incredible mentors throughout my career. They challenged me, encouraged me, shared their expertise, and helped me become a better educator. I’ve always felt a responsibility to pay that forward.

Mentoring is also important because it ultimately benefits students. When teachers collaborate, share ideas, and learn from one another, everyone grows. Whether I’m working with new teachers, experienced colleagues, or fellow science educators through organizations like Math for America and the New York State Master Teacher Program, I enjoy helping others refine their practice while continuing to learn from them as well. Mentoring isn’t just about giving advice, it’s about building a professional community where we all become better educators together.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I attended New York City public schools, and they opened doors that changed the course of my life. As the son of Haitian immigrants growing up in Brooklyn, education represented opportunity. I was fortunate to have teachers who believed in me, challenged me, and encouraged me to pursue goals that sometimes felt beyond my reach. Their influence ultimately led me to study chemical engineering at Columbia University before finding my true calling in education.

Those experiences shape my work every day. I never assume that a student’s current circumstances define their potential. I’ve seen firsthand how a caring teacher, high expectations, and meaningful opportunities can change a young person’s trajectory. That’s why I strive to create a classroom where students feel supported, challenged, and capable of succeeding.

And finally, how do you plan to use the prize money from the Muller Award?

I’m planning to be practical with it. I’ll save a significant portion, pay down some bills, and invest in my financial future. At the same time, I also want to enjoy it a little. I love to travel, so I’d like to use part of the award to take a memorable trip, and maybe treat myself to a few things I normally wouldn’t.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NY families left $62 million in summer food benefits unspent last year. Here’s how to claim your $120 now.

2026-07-17T19:32:07+00:00

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Thousands of New York families might be leaving millions of dollars on the table when it comes to summer food benefits.

To combat hunger while schools are closed, the state’s Summer EBT program sends eligible families $120 per child in food benefits. Last year, the state issued about $237 million in benefits to families, but about $62 million — or 26% — remained unspent during the 122-day window families had to use them, according to records obtained by David Rubel, an education consultant who tracks Summer EBT rates.

That money could have fed about 518,000 children in need, the data showed.

Instead of going to struggling families, Rubel said, the money reverted back to the federal government.

More people across the country are going hungry now than at the height of the COVID pandemic, according to a May survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In New York City, 1 in 4 children experiences food insecurity, food rescue group City Harvest estimates.

Advocates and educators are concerned about an increase in hunger as new federal work requirements to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, took effect in March. Food pantry lines have lengthened this summer, Gothamist reported Wednesday.

Under federal guidelines, children are eligible for the Summer EBT program if they attend a school that offers free lunch and meet household income requirements for free or reduced-price school meals. The income limits vary by household size. A family of four qualifies with an annual income at or below $61,050, for example.

Families who receive SNAP or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits, or who are enrolled in Medicaid, automatically receive the funds. Other families who qualify based on income must apply. Last year, roughly 99% of Summer EBT recipients were enrolled automatically because they qualified through SNAP, Medicaid, or information provided by the state Education Department, officials said.

Families have until Sept. 8 to apply for the food benefits.

Lost your Summer EBT card? How to claim your benefits

Nearly 1.6 million children from low-income families have received $189 million in summer food assistance through the program, said Darren O’Sullivan, spokesperson for the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, or OTDA, which oversees the program.

“At a time when vital nutrition programs like SNAP face continued attacks in Washington, Summer EBT puts money back in the pockets of New York’s working families, helping them afford to buy healthy food during the summer months when schools are out of session and many children lose access to free school meals,” O’Sullivan wrote in a statement to Chalkbeat.

The benefits for all eligible families are loaded onto a child’s Summer EBT card and can be used wherever SNAP or EBT benefits are accepted. Last year, families were supposed to use cards they were sent in 2024. Rubel said he worries that some families may not have realized that or may have lost their cards.

This year, however, the state is sending new cards to families that did not spend any of their food benefits last year.

Families can also request a replacement card either online or by phone (1-888-328-6399). Cards take about a week to arrive, state officials said.

Rubel is hopeful that less money will be left on the table this year if families understand they can get replacement cards. He praised OTDA for stepping up its outreach efforts.

Besides mailing eligibility letters to families before issuing the benefits, the agency is also texting reminders to use the benefits, sending texts and emails with other important Summer EBT updates, and scaling up a public awareness campaign at Thruway rest stops and Department of Motor Vehicles locations.

Rubel, however, felt that the city’s Education Department missed an opportunity to promote the initiative by not sending home a letter with students before the school year ended.

Education Department officials told Chalkbeat that information about the benefits would be reiterated to families through a flyer included in this week’s “Principal’s Digest” newsletter, which is emailed to all principals. The department also plans to share the information directly with students and on its social media channels.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Wildfire smoke forces Summer Rising indoors as officials limit outdoor activities

2026-07-16T19:10:30+00:00

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New York City officials urged summer school programs to limit outdoor activity on Thursday as wildfire smoke wafted into the five boroughs.

The Education Department’s guidance to principals also asked schools to reschedule outdoor trips.

The city’s summer school program, known as Summer Rising, has slots for about 110,000 elementary and middle school students this year, offering a mix of academics, enrichment activities, and trips.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned in a social media post that the “combination of dangerous heat and unhealthy air is a serious threat to New Yorkers’ health.”

Thursday’s pivot indoors marked the latest heat- or smoke-related disruption to the city’s public schools. During a heat wave earlier this month, summer programs were instructed to cancel outdoor field trips on July 1 and July 2, according to an internal email obtained by Chalkbeat. In June 2023, the school system switched to remote instruction for a day due to wildfire smoke (though most students already had the day off).

Education Department officials said they follow Health Department guidelines on air quality to make decisions about whether outdoor activities are safe for children. They did not indicate whether they plan to issue a similar warning for Friday when the smoke is expected to ease.

One Brooklyn principal supervising a summer school site, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly, said the heat and smoke has led them to limit outdoor activities on about half of the days of this year’s summer program, which began July 1 and ends Aug. 7 for middle school and Aug. 14 for elementary schools.

As a result, students are getting less time for recess, basketball, and soccer, because a larger number of students must rotate through the campus’s air conditioned gym. They’re playing games like “7 Up” instead.

“It’s really not ideal — there’s not as much space for free play inside,” the principal said, noting staying indoors is important because many of his students have asthma.

The principal did not receive the guidance that Education Department officials sent to school leaders in advance of the smoke on Thursday and was “literally going off the [New York City Emergency Management] text alerts I personally signed up for” to make decisions about when to limit indoor activities.

Grace Bodenmann, chief education officer at New York Junior Tennis & Learning, said her organization moved programming indoors at the 26 Summer Rising sites they work with as well as the two full-day camps they run at charter schools. They made the move based on instructions from the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, which sent out two emails Thursday morning, she said.

“It’s not that fun to be in a school from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Bodenmann said, noting that while Summer Rising sites are required to have air conditioning, not all spaces in a building necessarily have AC, particularly some of the larger spaces such as auditoriums, cafeterias, and gyms. “It’s hit or miss,” she said. “And you can’t open the window.”

Under a recent state law, children are not allowed to be in school spaces that reach 88 degrees or higher.

Students at the New York Junior Tennis and Learning's ACES afterschool program at P.S. 9 in Brooklyn.

Another challenge: Some of the Summer Rising sites have multiple community organizations in one building jostling for space.

But it’s clear that families rely on the program: Attendance was barely down over the past two days, she said. Bodenmann was eager to find out what would happen on Friday, which is when many organizations organize field trips. Rescheduling those trips can be difficult.

Meanwhile, many of the air purifiers the city distributed to every school during the pandemic are gathering dust. Many educators have stopped using them because of concerns that the devices the city bought are noisy and are not as effective as other models. Although the city’s guidance to custodians directs them to keep windows and doors closed when possible and and check HVAC systems, it does not mention using the purifiers.

Some experts previously told Chalkbeat that school systems should think more intentionally about indoor air quality, especially in regions like the East Coast that have less experience responding to smoky conditions.

“On the West Coast, wildfire smoke has just been part of life for a while,” said Patricia Fabian, an associate professor of environmental health at Boston University. On the East Coast, “people have really only started talking about it in the last couple of years.”

Clean indoor air is important for student and staff health, she said. And while she wasn’t familiar with the purifiers New York City purchased for schools, she said that air purifiers can help filter particles and reduce the risk of wildfire smoke.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Just 1 Black student gets into Staten Island Tech as racial gaps at specialized high schools persist

2026-07-10T21:52:19+00:00

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Of Staten Island Technical High School’s nearly 300 offers, just one went to a Black student.

At Stuyvesant, that number was three — the lowest number since at least 2014, which is as far back as the city’s public data goes. And at the High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering, there were six Black students who received offers, according to Education Department admissions data released Friday.

The dearth of offers to Black students to the city’s eight schools that require the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, as the sole basis for admissions is nothing new.

And Mayor Zohran Mamdani, himself a specialized high school alum — he attended Bronx Science — plans to look more closely at the results, his spokesperson said.

“The mayor believes we must root out the deep racial and economic inequities that persist in our public school system, and our administration will be reviewing these results carefully,” Jenna Lyle, a spokesperson for the mayor, said.

About 3.5% of the roughly 4,000 offers in total went to Black students, edging up slightly from last year’s 3%. About 6.5% of offers went to Latino students, down slightly from 6.9% the year before.

Overall, Black students made up 19.3% of students this year; Latino students made up 42.3% of the nation’s largest school system. About 17% of the students who took the SHSAT last year are Black, while 25% are Latino.

The number of offers to Asian American students at specialized high schools ticked up to 56.5% from 54% the year before. Offers to white students fell slightly to 23.5% from about 26%. Asian American students make up 18.7% of students citywide; white students make up 16.1%.

The city’s specialized high schools enroll about 5% of the city’s public high school students, yet they draw an outsized amount of attention because they are often considered among the best in the country. For years, integration advocates have called to change the testing admissions system to these prestigious schools.

Mamdani said on the campaign trail that he would keep the SHSAT in place. (He did, however, say he would like to push back the start of gifted and talented programs from kindergarten.) Earlier in the mayor’s race, he indicated that he would order a study of racial and gender bias in the admissions exam. In a 2022 questionnaire before he ran for mayor, Mamdani said the test should be abolished.

Another 800 students were invited to participate in the Discovery program, which offers disadvantaged students who scored just below the test-score cutoff a chance to enroll in a specialized high school. The program faces ongoing legal challenges from families who say it discriminates against Asian American applicants. Of this year’s 800 Discovery participants, 11% are Black, 16% are Latino, 62% are Asian American, and 7% are white.

Roughly 26,100 students took the SHSAT, which was offered online for the first time. This coming year, the digital test will be computer adaptive, meaning that students’ responses will affect the level of difficulty of their subsequent questions.

Beyond the specialized high schools, about 58% of rising ninth graders got their first choice in high schools, and 82% received one of their top three choices. For middle school, 77% of rising sixth graders got their top choice, and 94% got into their top three schools. Those numbers were on par with the previous year, officials said.

A focus on 3-K expansion shows results

Mamdani, who didn’t make K-12 education a major focus of his campaign or his first six months in office, has devoted significant attention to expanding access to the city’s free childcare programs.

He launched a free program for 2-year-olds for the first time this year in five school districts for roughly 2,000 kids. Families who applied to that program will get their offers Aug. 4.

Despite an energetic effort to publicize the city’s free 3-K and prekindergarten programs, Mamdani’s administration did not see an uptick in those applications, which stayed flat compared to last year.

But officials did succeed in placing more 3-K applicants in programs closer to their homes in response to complaints from some families in previous years about having to make significant commutes with toddlers in tow. City officials added roughly 2,000 new 3-K seats in areas of high demand to address the issue.

This year, 70% of 3-K applicants got their first choice program, up from 65% last year, according to the Education Department data. Of the roughly 5,100 families who didn’t get into any of the 3-K programs they chose and had to be placed in a program by the Education Department, 63% were put in a program within a mile of their home — up from 39% last year.

Looking ahead, here are some key dates to know:

High school admissions will run from Oct. 6 to Dec. 4, with SHSAT registration closing on Oct. 30. Offers will be sent March 4, 2027.
Middle schools admissions will run from Oct. 14 to Dec. 11. Offers will be sent April 7, 2027.
Kindergarten admissions will run from Dec. 9 to Jan. 22, 2027. Offers will be sent March 30, 2027.
3-K and pre-K admissions will run from Jan. 13 to Feb. 26, 2027. Pre-K offers will be sent May 11, 2027, and 3-K offers will be sent May 18, 2027.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael atmelsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Tap your cellphone: NYC to pilot digital student OMNY cards for 7 schools

2026-07-07T16:10:38+00:00

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Student OMNY cards are going digital, at least for some New York City students, Chalkbeat has learned.

New York City’s Education Department is launching a pilot program for virtual student OMNY cards at seven schools, officials confirmed on Monday. Officials declined to share which schools will be part of the initiative and said the participating schools were subject to change.

Officials initially said the pilot would launch this fall, but later walked that back, saying they had no start date yet.

Students at those schools might not be allowed to access their cellphones during the school day, but will be able to use their devices to tap for their commutes to and from campus. The move comes after widespread complaints of physical cards breaking and long delays for replacement cards.

The Office of Pupil Transportation selected participating traditional public, charter, and non-public schools after assessing whether they were ready to transition to cellphone-based OMNY cards.

The school system and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have been discussing the move to virtual cards for more than a year. Students without phones would still be able to obtain physical OMNY cards.

The shift from student MetroCards to OMNY cards during the 2024-25 school year has been a game changer for many students. They now get four free rides a day, 365 days a year, at any time, a significant upgrade from the three daily rides during limited hours on school days.

But many students have run into problems with the flimsy paper cards, which are known to suddenly stop working and can be difficult to replace from school in a timely manner. Some families have told Chalkbeat they’ve waited for months to get replacement student OMNY cards. And while some students are able to pay the fare in the meantime, others can’t afford to and jump turnstiles.

Ishaq Bekoe, a student at the NYC School for Collaborative Studies, told City Council members at a March City Council hearing that his friend’s OMNY card “randomly” stopped working last year.

“We thought it was just a glitch, however, the next day, the same thing happened,” Ishaq said. “So he had to jump the turnstile where an officer approached him and stopped him and asked him where his OMNY card was. He tried to explain to the officer that his OMNY card wasn’t working, to which the officer replied that something like that doesn’t just happen.”

His friend was able to show the officer his OMNY card, but then missed his train and had to wait another 10 minutes.

“When a student’s card stops working without warning, it is not just an inconvenience, it can disrupt their entire day, their attendance, and their sense of stability,” Ishaq said.

August Hoyt, a student at Bard High School Early College Manhattan and a member of the youth activist committee for the Transportation Alternatives transit advocacy nonprofit, told City Council members that his OMNY card had been deactivated at least half a dozen times for reasons that were unclear to him. His peers, too, have been left stranded by malfunctioning or deactivated cards.

“It puts students — and particularly students of color — at risk of confrontations with the law enforcement,” August said.

Several students at that hearing pushed the city to expand eligibility for student OMNY cards to groups that don’t currently receive them, including students who live less than a half-mile from school and students with disabilities who ride yellow buses and are limited to that single mode of transportation.

Without OMNY cards, those students miss out on benefits such as free rides on weekends and during the summer, as well as transportation to and from sports practices, extracurricular activities, and internships.

Education Department officials said the current eligibility requirements will remain in effect for the coming school year.

New York City pays the MTA about $50.5 million annually for the student OMNY cards program, officials said.

This story was updated to reflect new information from the Education Department about the pilot program’s timeline.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

This Brooklyn teacher connects chemistry to the real world — and just won $25,000 for it

2026-06-29T21:18:08+00:00

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Rayhan Ahmed, a Brooklyn high school chemistry and environmental science teacher, knows that the human brain is wired to care about people and their stories, not formulas and equations.

That’s why at Gotham Professional Arts Academy High School, where he’s spent the past eight out of his 22 years teaching, he created a curriculum for his ninth and 10th graders that is attached to human experiences and rooted in fieldwork and field trips focused on critical social and environmental issues. It explores topics such as the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (known as PFAS) contamination, and nuclear energy.

“Absolutely, my students run experiments on corrosive inhibitors, analyze data, and write scientific papers,” Ahmed said. “But that learning became deeper when we went to Flint to hear people describe waking up early to stand in line for bottled water. It wasn’t abstract any more because there were faces and stories attached to the chemistry.”

(Since his school is part of the New York Performance Standards Consortium, where students complete performance-based assessments instead of taking Regents exams, Ahmed has been able to create his own project-based learning curriculum.)

Ahmed was one of six grand prize winners for this year’s prestigious FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence, which comes with a $25,000 cash prize for the winning teacher and a $10,000 grant for their school. He plans to use the money to take the 14 kids in his advisory “crew” that he’s been with for four years hiking in the mountains. (He’ll also use it for a family road trip, visiting as many major league baseball ballparks as possible this summer.)

But even this award-winning teacher is worried about the encroachment of artificial intelligence and how it’s affecting the prompt he uses as the heart of his classroom: “What do you do with an idea?”

“What I’m seeing now is that students are using AI to bypass the intellectual and emotional struggle of learning that is required to address this question,” he said. “This is really forcing me to ask what learning is for. What is the kind of learning that I’m trying to protect and what kinds of people am I hoping my students become?”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

For years, I told myself a pretty simple story about how I became a teacher. It was just a temporary job that I’d do for a couple of years, get some experience, and head off to graduate school and move on with my life. It turns out that wasn’t the story.

My first teaching job was in the Eight-Plus Program in the South Bronx, where I taught math and science to 15- to 17-year-old kids who were too old to be in eighth grade but had not met the promotional criteria for high school. The recruiter placed me at the site because “they needed the bodies.” He said “most teachers didn’t make it until Thanksgiving.” (Side note: He was wrong because two teachers left after Christmas!)

In my time there, I saw grit, humor, resilience, and intelligence. These students carried more on their shoulders than I did as a recent college grad!

I ultimately did leave for graduate school. I mostly did research in a lab, and I deeply missed being around teenagers every day. A couple of years in, I was at a conference about protein folding and my phone rang. My former student was stuck on quadratic equations. I stepped outside, found a quiet spot in the woods, and we worked through the problem together. This call reminded me where I belonged. So I came back into the classroom.

Tell us about the curriculum you’ve developed, and why you decided to create it.

What excites me most is creating opportunities for my students to do work that matters to them, their communities, and to the world around them and to see what happens when we trust young people with real work.

One year I had a group of students concerned about the environmental and health impacts of fracking. They analyzed scientific evidence, designed experiments, interviewed experts, wrote policy recommendations, and eventually traveled to Washington, D.C., to present their findings to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s office.

Not long afterward, New York enacted a historic ban on fracking!

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

My favorite “lesson” is really when my students realize their work matters beyond the classroom. In my ninth-grade environmental science class, I teach an expedition on PFAS, which are what are commonly called “forever chemicals.” Here, students start out thinking that they are doing just a regular chemistry class, with labs where all the answers are known. But pretty quickly, they’ve come up with questions about their water, communities, and the consequences of PFAS in their lives that I can’t answer. No one can just yet.

We were at Hudson Yards doing a PFAS community assessment survey and happened to run into Stienjte Vanveldhoven, minister of climate policy and green growth of the Netherlands, who told my students about her international work with PFAS and how she called on the European Union to restrict all PFAS, except for uses of the chemicals deemed essential.

Now, they’ve got more questions. Before they know it, we’re headed to Dartmouth to talk to Professor Celia Chen, an expert in PFAS. And I’m on a call with Reyhan Mehran, a regional resource coordinator at NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration, about using Jamaica Bay as a potential research site and offering practical support to make it happen. (Toshiba awarded us a $10,000 grant to study this!) And now they are thinking they are capable of contributing to problems adults haven’t solved yet!

You brought the first AP course to your school. Why was that so important?

One of the Peloton instructors I like to ride with always says, “The most powerful thing anyone can say to us is what we say to ourselves.” At Gotham, I’ve worked with the guidance team to expand those stories.

Over the last eight years, we’ve taken kids on overnight college visits. Over a student’s four years at Gotham, they’ve visited more than 25 campuses, from local schools to places like Dartmouth, Cornell, and Williams. Our seniors take a hybrid college course with Williams. We’ve organized our annual College March, where our entire school community celebrates graduating seniors and their postsecondary plans. This year, two of my advisees are attending Smith and Hobart and William Smith on full scholarships. Another student is on track to join UA Local 1 ( the plumbers union). The label “Advanced Placement” is another way of sending the message to students to see themselves differently. For many of our students, especially first-generation college-bound students, that message is really powerful.

Is your educational experience connected to why you mentor early career educators through the NYC Men Teach program (which aims to get more men of color into teaching)?

My parents are immigrants to this country. I grew up in Astoria, Queens, and went to New York City public schools, including going to high school at Brooklyn Tech. Tech is a huge school with large classes and it’s easy to get lost, but for students, like me, who thrived there, it opens tremendous opportunities and a pathway to the middle class. It’s important to me that schools are places of opportunity for our students, including opportunities to learn and grow, to interact with ideas and people that are new and different. Part of that is having a diverse teaching workforce that is reflective of the student population. That belief is connected to why I mentored early-career educators through NYC Men Teach.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Most high schoolers no longer need to pass Regents to graduate. Schools are in the dark on what’s next.

2026-06-24T19:07:52+00:00

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By next fall, the majority of students in New York high schools will not be required to pass the state’s Regents exams to earn a diploma, a major shift that state officials hope will reshape teaching and learning.

There’s just one problem: The state Education Department has not yet revealed what the new graduation requirements will look like — even as the Class of 2027 will be the last cohort that must pass the exams to graduate under the current timeline.

That disconnect is alarming advocates and educators who worry that schools will not have enough time to seamlessly transition to new graduation standards.

In interviews and responses to a Chalkbeat survey, educators and families said they felt confused about the transition and unsure what it means for their schools. One member of the state Board of Regents, Hasoni Pratts, said during a public meeting this month that her own child is unclear on whether they need to pass the exams.

“Teachers are going to need time to figure out what the requirements are and how to translate that,” said Robert Effinger, a teacher at the Bronx High School of Business. Right now, he said, “There’s no information.”

State officials have been planning for years to transition away from the Regents, exit exams that date back to the mid-1800s. In their place, state officials have outlined a list of six high-level attributes students must have to graduate, known as the “portrait of a graduate,” such as effective communication skills and critical thinking. Students will be able to demonstrate those skills in a wider variety of ways, such as research projects and internships, state officials have said. The Board of Regents, which oversees the Education Department, must approve any changes to the graduation requirements.

Many educators have cheered the move away from graduation exams, which research suggests do little to promote student learning and have fallen out of favor across the country. The move could free them up to ditch test prep and pursue more creative learning experiences and hands-on projects. Several also hope it will help quell some students’ test anxiety.

Educators pointed to existing models of how to assess students in other ways. Some schools have waivers from the state Regents exams and rely on performance-based assessments, where students give presentations — but those efforts, educators say, require lots of planning and buy-in. International baccalaureate schools also have a well-developed system of assessments and emphasizes collaboration with peers and applying learning to real-world contexts. Again, that approach requires extensive teacher training and support.

Samantha Schmoeger, the principal at The Boerum Hill School for International Studies, which uses the IB curriculum, said she appreciates that the state is planning to allow students to demonstrate knowledge in a variety of ways, and she feels confident that the IB framework aligns with the state’s changes.

“That said, the uncertainty around future graduation requirements does present challenges,” she wrote in an email. “Long-term planning for curriculum, assessment systems, staffing, counseling, and student pathways requires clarity.”

State is slow to share details on graduation changes

State officials have emphasized that the transition away from Regents exams will be gradual — and local districts may continue to use them as one possible graduation pathway even after the new requirements take hold.

A state Education Department spokesperson indicated that officials will reveal more details about the standards early next school year and are collecting public input this summer.

The new graduation measures — along with overhauled credit requirements — will fully take effect for students who enter high school in 2029.

State officials recently suggested that schools should begin experimenting with different ways of assessing students and boosting access to opportunities like work-based learning, even before the actual graduation requirements are available. They’ve secured $2 million to help schools adapt to new graduation requirements and are requesting additional grant and state funding.

Multiple school leaders said they are reluctant to make changes before the state releases more details. Some are wary of telling families that the Regents will no longer be required because they want students to still take them seriously.

“We’re all sort of in limbo,”said one Brooklyn high school principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

As Regents exams exit, equity concerns rise

The transition away from Regents exams has prompted concerns from some educators and advocates about maintaining consistent standards across hundreds of school districts and thousands of schools.

Erick Espin, a teacher at Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning, said his school already emphasizes fieldwork, expeditions, case studies, and project-based learning. More recently it introduced career-focused programs through FutureReadyNYC.

But he worries that if schools have more control over graduation measures — along with pressure to keep graduation rates high — there may be incentives for schools to push students to graduate even if they haven’t mastered key skills.

“The state needs to strongly consider how to more objectively evaluate the skills of New York students,” he said.

Effinger, the Bronx high school teacher, raised a similar concern. “It’s going to be too easy to set up a race to the bottom for graduation requirements without serious guardrails,” he said.

State officials said there will be protections to ensure graduation standards are applied equitably. “This is not about lowering standards,” Board of Regents Chancellor Lester Young said earlier this month. “This is about redefining how all of our students meet the standard.”

Without a detailed plan, some advocates are wary.

Alren Benjamin-Gomez, the executive director of the advocacy group Education Trust-New York, said the state is setting up a “wild west” where schools are trying to guess how to prepare for the new graduation system.

It makes sense to move away from the Regents exams, Benzamin-Gomez said, but she would like to see a new system that is “rigorous and comparable across the state.”

“The reality is that an alternative is actually challenging to create,” she added. But “I think it’s poor policy, I think it’s poor rollout, I think it’s poor implementation to leave people so unclear on what is the new approach,” she said.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC to overhaul attendance rules, requiring a ‘school avoidance liaison’ at every school

2026-06-16T19:15:16+00:00

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To address New York City’s stubbornly high rates of chronic absenteeism, the Education Department is proposing to overhaul its attendance regulations for the first time in nearly a decade.

One big change: Starting in September, every school must have a “school avoidance liaison.”

The city is requiring schools to designate a staffer — a teacher, administrator, social worker or guidance counselor — who will receive training on school avoidance and join their school’s attendance committee, which meets weekly to tackle student absences.

The Panel for Educational Policy is expected to vote Wednesday on the proposal.

Students who are school avoidant, or who exhibit school “refusal” as it’s sometimes called, might be unable to attend school for large stretches of time due to social or emotional disabilities, such as severe anxiety or depression. As they fall behind academically, it can be even harder to get them back to school.

Researchers estimate between 1% and 15% of children exhibit school refusal. Experts say that it tends to be more difficult for school-avoidant children to return to school after periods of transition or prolonged closures. And parents and educators believe the problem was exacerbated when school buildings opened after the pandemic forced buildings to close for remote learning.

Education Department officials declined to say how many of the city’s roughly 33% chronically absent students are avoiding school because of social or emotional issues.

“By strengthening training and coordination at the school level, we are providing staff with additional tools to work closely with students and families, address concerns early, and connect them with appropriate interventions and resources,” Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement.

The nation’s largest school system has lacked official guidance on how to respond to students struggling with school refusal, as Chalkbeat previously reported. That has led to an uneven response from the city’s nearly 1,600 schools.

Some schools might follow the gold standard for care, forming deep partnerships with families, customizing programs to slowly get kids back in the doors, and finding accommodations such as lightening the homework load. Other schools have left families to fend for themselves — or even involved child protective services when students fail to attend regularly.

A class action lawsuit filed last year claimed the Education Department was systematically failing to provide equal access to education for students with disabilities who were chronically absent. The city lacked a policy to track, evaluate, and get school-avoidant students back in school, the suit charged.

Education Department officials did not respond to questions about the lawsuit, but attorneys who filed it said they were continuing to hash out a settlement with the city.

“While we are still working to settle the lawsuit, DOE’s new proposal to add a trained liaison at every school is a crucial step toward helping students with school avoidance,” said Susan Horwitz, supervising attorney of the Legal Aid Society’s Education Law Project.

Advocates says struggling students need more intensive support

Having a liaison, however, may not be enough to address the needs of some students struggling with school refusal, some experts and advocates say.

Maleeha Chida, an attorney who is an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Advocates for Children, said the city should continue to explore additional avenues to help students, such as creating flexible school schedules, connecting them to mental health providers, and hiring trained behavioral specialists to coordinate plans to gradually re-reintroduce students to the classroom.

“Students who are facing school avoidance require significant supports and interventions to be able to return to school, and much more will be needed to address the needs of this student population,” Chida wrote in an email.

School avoidance often is not something that happens suddenly, said Jenn Choi, a special education consultant. It might start with a student making frequent trips to the nurse’s office because of stomach aches, asking to go home early, or missing one day then going in the next before stopping for longer stretches.

“How much time would this person use for preventing and not just treating the problem?” Choi asked.

Anne Marie Albano, the director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders, said confronting school avoidance is rarely a one-size-fits-all approach and echoed the importance of intervening early as well as working with a child’s family.

It’s also critical to do a “school climate” evaluation to understand what staffers can do to make the environment “more welcoming,” Albano said.

“It’s a multi-level intervention that has to take into account the [child’s] development, the environmental issues, and the family issues, as well as, what are the schools’ resources, and what are the limitations,” she said.

A student, for instance, might need resources, such as getting access to transportation for therapy. Or if a relative is ill at home, the child might be worried to leave them, Albano said.

“You’ve got to think about what else we have to do to help the systems the child is involved in, so the child can learn how to thrive,” she said.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Knicks ticker-tape parade is on a school day — and conflicts with Regents exams. Some families are angry.

2026-06-15T00:05:13+00:00

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The New York Knicks’ victory this weekend over the San Antonio Spurs, cementing their first NBA championship since 1973, brought joy to fans across the five boroughs.

Shortly after their win, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the city will host a ticker-tape parade to honor the team. It will start at 10 a.m. at Battery Park and travel north along Broadway through the Canyon of Heroes before concluding at City Hall for a ceremony where the mayor will give the team the keys to the city.

The only problem: Some parents are mad that the parade is being held on the same day as science Regents exams. The biology and living environment exams are being administered in the morning. The “Earth and Space Sciences” and “Physical Setting/ Earth Science” exams are being administered in the afternoon.

One mom has already started a petition asking city and state officials, as well as the team’s owner, to move the day of the parade. (High school students who aren’t taking Regents exams that day don’t attend school.) And one student started a petition to cancel school altogether on Thursday.

“This scheduling conflict creates a profound issue of equity and fairness,” Michelle Weintraub, a mom of an eighth grader scheduled to take a Regents exam that day, wrote in her petition. “The students most affected are those who have worked tirelessly all year to pass these exams. Depriving them of the chance to celebrate their city’s historic milestone—while adults and non-testing students freely attend—is inherently inequitable.”

Sebastian Crosa, the student who started a petition, played up the feelings of unity the Knicks have brought to the city — and suggested the parade could be a teachable moment.

“The parade is an educational experience in itself, rich with lessons about sportsmanship, history, and the power of dreams coming true,” Cosa wrote in his petition. “By supporting this request, we will allow the next generation of Knicks fans to experience this extraordinary moment, creating lifelong memories and sparking inspiration for future accomplishments in their own lives.”

As mayor, Mamdani has embraced a sense of fun for the city’s school kids, “canceling” bed time so they could watch the Knicks in the championship games. And of course, many kids were grateful to him for bringing back traditional snow days. But to do that, he had to get a waiver from the state for the day off since students already were at the minimum required instructional days.

Getting a waiver again would likely be a tall order.

What do you think about the scheduling conflict? Let us know: ny.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

An NYC student was ashamed of his antisemitic thoughts. This fellowship helped him resist prejudice.

2026-06-09T22:48:23+00:00

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Can a program for New York City high school students designed to fight hate change hearts and minds?

For Matthew Canzius, a sophomore at Hillcrest High School in Queens, the answer is yes.

During his freshman year, he saw the fallout on social media from Israel’s bombardments of the Gaza strip, following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas. And he grappled with having antisemitic thoughts while attending a school with several Jewish teachers.

Those thoughts “made me feel ashamed in a way,” Matthew told Chalkbeat. Recognizing they came from a place of ignorance, he applied for the fellowship.

As part of a yearlong Combat Hate Fellowship, Matthew joined 26 other students from five New York City high schools designed to help them recognize — and confront — antisemitism, racism, and other forms of hate. They visited cultural institutions, at each stop hearing from speakers who shared personal stories of facing injustice. They participated in facilitated conversations exploring their own identities and experiences. And they later gave workshops in their own schools about hate and how to be an upstander in the face of bullying and harassment.

“This isn’t something that I usually like to share out publicly,” Matthew told the crowd of students and educators gathered at the fellowship’s year-end celebration last month in midtown Manhattan, “but I’d say that I used to think in a way that was more based on prejudice.” After nine months in the program, he believes he gained “a sense of deeper empathy.”

The fellowship is a partnership between the anti-hate organization Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation and the New Visions High School District, the city’s largest high school network that serves 37,000 students, including those at Hillcrest. Now in its second year, the fellowship is largely funded by the City Council.

It comes at a time that New York City middle and high school students say they’re seeing and experiencing more bullying related to identity. Roughly 40% of New York City middle and high school students last year reported seeing classmates bullied or harassed based on race, ethnicity, religion, or immigration status, according to annual school survey data. That was up from 30% in 2019.

In terms of documented incidents, the city has started to see a downward trend. Schools reported roughly 700 incidents related to ethnicity or national origin in the 2024-25 school year, down nearly 15% from the year before, according to public data. There were nearly 320 reports related to religion last year, down about 56% from the 2023-24 school year.

In the seven months following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas and subsequent bombing by Israel on Gaza, former schools Chancellor David Banks reported that out of the 281 incidents of religious bias in city schools, 42% involved antisemitism and 30% were directed against Muslim students.

One of the highest profile incidents took place at Hillcrest High School in November 2023 — a year before Matthew enrolled there — when students rioted in the halls after seeing a health teacher’s pro-Israel social media post.

The school has changed principals since then and made other changes. And in the spring, members of the fellowship gave presentations to their peers at the school. They also created a video raising awareness about cyberbullying for their final presentation for the program.

“From day one, I knew that confronting hate in our schools wasn’t optional, it was essential,” said Noah Angeles, the superintendent of New Visions who took over the network in 2024, not long after the clash at Hillcrest.

Creating safe spaces for hard conversations

At the fellows’ first stop in October, the students toured an Anne Frank exhibit at the Center for Jewish History and met with Leo Ullman, a Holocaust survivor who was hidden as a baby from the Nazis by a non-Jewish family in the Netherlands. Their last trip was to the Islamic Cultural Center, where they met Mohammad Ravzi, who became a prominent advocate for Muslim New Yorkers after 9/11.

In between, they visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.; El Museo del Barrio; the Stonewall National Monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history; and the Museum of Chinese in America.

Jack Simony, Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation director general, left, interviews Holocaust survivor Leo Ullman during the Combat Hate Fellows' trip to an exhibit on Anne Frank at the Center for Jewish History on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025.

Meeting speakers who experienced hate and hearing how they were affected but were able to “push through despite that hate,” was eye-opening for Matthew.

He said it helped him “learn and grow as a person, from seeing all these people who experienced such horrific acts, or horrific acts of prejudice still continue to thrive and try and help the society.”

Chayanika Chakravorty, another Hillcrest sophomore, also felt transformed by hearing people’s stories.

“I feel like a new whole world opened up to me, like things that I never even knew existed,” she said.

After the Anne Frank exhibit, she felt a deeper understanding of what happened to Jewish people in Nazi Germany, and said it resonated with her as a Hindu from Bangladesh, where most people are Muslim.

About Ullman, she said, “not a lot of people have that mentality, that strength in their head, and seeing someone like that really inspires me to do the exact same thing.”

Angeles said he wanted to build a program to foster that kind of empathy rooted in experiential learning through the city’s diversity and cultural institutions.

In talking to students across the city, Angeles saw they were hungry to discuss world events but needed the space to do so.

“The adults didn’t always want to talk about it, because it could be controversial, and people are afraid,” he told Chalkbeat in October.

Jack Simony, Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation director general, said that creating a peer-to-peer model felt essential.

“You can’t tell people not to hate. It doesn’t come top down, it comes bottom up,” he said.

Officials across the five boroughs have been trying to find school-based solutions. The Education Department has continued to develop its “hidden voices” history program, featuring stories of figures overlooked by traditional textbooks, including lessons on Muslim Americans and Jewish Americans. The department last school year also launched an anti-hate hotline (718-935-2889) to anonymously report incidents related to hate, harassment, and discrimination.

A City Council task force to combat hate recently issued recommendations, including expanding arts programs that expose students to current events and diverse perspectives, and ensuring that teachers have the resources and training to connect historical context to current events.

The committee also suggested funding peer educator “train-the-trainer” programs for restorative justice interventions in the 15 schools with the highest rates of student-to-student bullying, harassment, and discrimination.

Marcia Cudjoe-Forrest, a Hillcrest special education and global studies teacher who was the adviser for her school’s Combat Hate fellows like Matthew, believes what happened in 2023 at her school exposed the need for students to dive into the stories of other cultures to help them see “we have a lot more similarities than differences.”

She’d like to see more spaces for kids, not just in her school, where they can have these kinds of conversations.

“We can always agree to disagree,” Cudjoe-Forrest said, “but we have to agree to at least learn, listen, and understand.”

Correction: June 9, 2026: Only the New Visions High School District is involved in the fellowship, not its partner organization, New Visions for Public Schools, as the article initially stated.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school budgets won’t face cuts next year (for now) despite falling enrollment

2026-06-07T20:14:13+00:00

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Despite shrinking enrollment, New York City schools will not see their initial budgets take a hit next school year.

New York City principals are soon expected to receive their budgets for the 2026-27 school year, and schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels gave them a heads up that even if they’re projected to have fewer students, their budgets won’t drop.

Though school budgets are typically tied to student head count, the city began its “hold harmless” policy — propping up school budgets despite enrollment losses — during the height of the pandemic. The Education Department’s coffers were flush with billions in one-time federal relief funding, and officials were concerned about catching kids up after prolonged learning disruptions. So they kept budgets steady even as students left the nation’s largest school system.

Over the past six years, the city has spent $1.6 billion to stave off enrollment-related cuts, according to the Citizens Budget Commission, a watchdog group. Meanwhile, K-12 schools have lost nearly 10% of students during that time, dropping below 800,000 students this school year — and declines are expected to continue. The decision from Samuels pushes any eventual financial reckoning further down the road.

“Our hold harmless policy began during the pandemic to provide stability amid a crisis—and while we are no longer in a pandemic, stability and predictability remain critically important for our school communities,” Samuels wrote in a Sunday email to principals.

“To that end,” he continued, “we will be holding schools harmless for their SY26-27 initial budget allocations. This investment will provide stability and predictability for school communities as principals plan staffing, programming, and supports for the upcoming school year.”

Some school funding experts warn against allowing budgets to drift away from schools’ actual enrollment, which disproportionately benefits schools that have lost the most students. But some educators and parent leaders note that many schools have come to rely on the money and abruptly removing it could force them to scale back programs such as music and art and let go of teachers.

Plus, cuts are likely to invite backlash and are politically unpopular, especially as Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed to prioritize funding for public schools on the campaign trail. When former Mayor Eric Adams initially began winding down the program, the blowback ballooned, with families making T-shirts declaring that Adams defunded their schools. Subsequently, Adams decided to keep propping up budgets.

Samuels’ email made no mention of what the city will do midyear, when it will be faced with another inflection point whether to hold schools harmless if their enrollment is lower than anticipated. Again, before the pandemic, the city would claw back money in the middle of the school year if a school’s roster failed to match projections.

But principals this year did not have to give back money despite nearly two-thirds of the city’s roughly 1,600 schools having fewer students than projected. The policy cost the city more than $250 million.

Samuels is expected to testify Monday before City Council on the budget.

“Going forward,” he told principals, “I am committed to engaging with you and your school communities about our school budgets—to ensure both long-term fiscal sustainability and comprehensive school support.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC proposal would add younger students to school leadership teams — and pay them for it

2026-06-05T21:30:16+00:00

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New York City elementary and middle school students may soon have a greater say in shaping their education by joining their school leadership teams — and earn $300 doing so.

School leadership teams, or SLTs, are committees of educators and parents that collaborate to develop and evaluate school policies aimed at improving student outcomes and ensuring that a school’s goals and budget align. Through a shared decision-making process, these teams create a sort of blueprint for the school year, known as a “comprehensive education plan.” Under state law, all schools are required to have these governing bodies, and when Mayor Zohran Mamdani pledged a more democratic model of mayoral control, he said he would tap the existing infrastructure of parent involvement, including SLTs.

The city already requires high school SLTs to include at least two students. An Education Department proposal to update SLT regulations would mandate middle schools include at least two student members and would encourage elementary schools to include students as well. (All SLT members can get a remuneration of $300 for completing 30 hours of SLT work, including training. In the summer, they may receive an additional $10 per hour for up to 10 hours.)

“School Leadership Teams are most effective when they reflect the voices of the communities they serve, including students,” Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement. “As we continue strengthening family and student engagement, we are focusing on expanding meaningful opportunities for young people to participate in school-level decision-making, so that school policies and priorities are informed by those closest to the student experience.”

But will students sign up to be on these committees?

About 125 high schools — or nearly a quarter — have no student representatives assigned to their SLTs, Education Department officials said. Roughly 370 high schools have at least two student members identified on their SLT rosters, and another 30 have at least one student member listed.

More broadly, SLTs must have at least 10 members, including a school’s principal, its teachers union chapter leader, and parent teacher association president, along with other school staffers and parents in equal numbers. And about 10% of schools across the city do not have the minimum 10 SLT members, as required, officials said.

SLTs were codified in state law in 2004 and haven’t been updated since 2010.

The new regulations propose adding other members to SLTs in addition to students. At schools that receive federal Title 1 funding — generally those with at least 60% of students living in poverty — the proposed regulations would also mandate the Title 1 Parent Advisory Chair serve on SLTs. It encourages schools to make their “best effort” to include staffers from DC37, the union that represents cafeteria workers, crossing guards, and substance abuse specialists as well as parent coordinators. Parent coordinators are not allowed to serve on the committees due to potential conflicts of interest representing parents but reporting to principals.

The updated regulations, which are expected to be voted on June 17 by the Panel for Educational Policy, say they clarify election procedures for SLT members as well as the open meetings law requirements when conducting meetings, among other things. Some education advocates, however, say the updates didn’t go far enough when it comes to open meetings and had been calling for remote access for observers.

The city solicited feedback on the proposed regulations, posted May 1, and as of Tuesday, received just 14 responses, including calls for more transparency in how the meetings are run and promoted. Though these meetings are open to the school community at-large and the public in general, they rarely attract non-members. One commenter pushed back on excluding parent coordinators since they are so involved in daily school operations.

Lisa Donlan, a former parent leader from Manhattan’s District 1, who led training sessions as part of the district leadership team for SLTs, said she focused on empowering these committees to help them “grow” their school’s sense of community rather than making them feel like a “coffee clatch.”

“The work is creating the goals of the school for the following school year and creating actions plans — and then seeing if those goals are met,” Donlan said.

For parents, she added, “you forget that you’re not just serving on the SLT, your job is to represent the parents.”

(People can send comments on the proposal to Panel for Educational Policy on the proposal through June 15. District 1’s Neighborhood School PTA Advocacy meeting, which is open to the public, is hosting an 8:30 a.m. discussion at the school, located at 121 E. 3rd St., on the proposed SLT regulations and co-governance in city schools on June 17, before the panel votes on the proposal.)

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Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

New York teachers union calls for aggressive limits on AI and screens for youngest students

2026-06-01T21:43:05+00:00

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The tide is quickly turning against screens and artificial intelligence in schools — at least in New York state.

The state’s teachers union is the latest to join the grassroots parent efforts to limit screens and AI, passing a resolution this weekend calling for a ban on individual students’ screen use in prekindergarten through second grade, including online assessments.

It also calls for banning student-facing AI for these young learners, as well as prohibiting AI chatbots for students under 16.

Gov. Kathy Hochul also expressed concerns on Monday about screen time in schools.

The resolution from New York State United Teachers, or NYSUT, which is the umbrella union of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers, comes on the heels of a push for a nationwide strategy to curb technology use in schools from its parent union, the American Federation of Teachers. AFT President Randi Weingarten last week called for similar limits in her “devices-down, eyes-up, hands-on” plan.

The resolution from the state teachers union comes as New York City is rethinking its policies on artificial intelligence in schools. Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels recently called AI the “most invasive technology that we’ve seen” and signaled the Education Department may create clearer guardrails for the city’s youngest students, after significant criticism of the city’s initial draft policy.

“Educators are not anti-technology. We are pro-child,” NYSUT President Melinda Person said in a statement on Monday. “Every decision made in the name of innovation must actually serve the students in our classrooms.”

Meanwhile, Hochul said Monday that it is “definitely worth looking into” limiting screen time for younger students. She would take a similar approach to studying this as she did before implementing banning cell phones, she said at a press conference celebrating the first year of the state’s school cellphone ban.

“I spent a year going around the state, gathering information, assessing it, analyzing it, and coming up with a really solid policy,” Hochul said, “so I would engage in that before I would give an answer on how I feel about this, but I’m learning a lot as a parent and grandparent.”

Several districts or states are limiting or looking into limiting screens in schools. Los Angeles schools are moving to ban screens until second grade. Iowa recently passed a law limiting screens in schools. Tennessee and other states are considering limits.

How the national backlash to education technology will affect classrooms in the nation’s largest school district remains to be seen. An upper Manhattan superintendent instituted a “screen break” last week at a parent advocate’s request. But the state teachers union is pressing for broader change.

NYSUT’s resolution, for instance, calls for banning online assessments for young children. Since the pandemic, schools across the five boroughs have been giving students assessments in reading and math three times a year to gauge their progress. Many schools use online tools from i-Ready or MAP Growth starting in kindergarten for the math assessments. (The Acadience Reading assessment for K-2 students is not device-based.)

As New York transitions to digital standardized exams for students across the state in grades 3-8, some educators have raised concerns that test preparation will increasingly rely on devices, too. The union’s resolution calls on the state to maintain paper and pencil options.

Students are “spending excessive time preparing for computer-based testing, completing mandated screen-based programs, and engaging in passive technology use that interrupts student-teacher engagement,” the resolution states.

A spokesperson for the state’s Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The union’s resolution also calls for requiring that using AI in any grade must be “educator-led” and designed to “promote critical thinking, digital literacy, and civic readiness, rather than replace human instruction, creativity or judgment.”

Teacher unions are also trying to walk a tightrope as they navigate the latest education technology backlash. The AFT and New York City’s teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, launched a partnership last year with OpenAI and Microsoft to help train educators.

“There are conversations at every level about how to scale back screen time for students, especially our youngest,” Mary Vaccaro, the UFT’s vice president for education, said in a statement.

“At the same time, the UFT and its national union, the AFT, are trying to help educators better understand and navigate AI, whether that’s learning how to protect their students or how to harness the tool for their own work.”

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

In the AI era, NYC schools need a computer science reboot, this expert says

2026-05-26T16:51:36+00:00

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A decade ago, New York City officials promised that all schools would have access to “meaningful” computer science education by this school year.

Computer Science for All, known as CS4All, also had particular equity goals of reaching girls and students of color.

The share of students enrolled in computer science classes has quadrupled from roughly 5.5%, or 54,000, in 2016, to 20%, or more than 193,000, in 2024. And CS4All made gains in growing the number of underrepresented students. Still, just 1 in 5 schools citywide are meeting CS4All’s goals for girls, Latinos, and Black students, according to a data brief released Tuesday from the Center for an Urban Future, a New York City-based think tank.

Though the initiative “still has unfinished business,” the timing is also ripe for CS4All 2.0, said Eli Dvorkin, the center’s editorial and policy director, who believes that the city’s education system needs to rethink its approach to computer science in the age of artificial intelligence.

“Just because entry-level coding work is in serious decline, it doesn’t mean that demand for computational thinking is going away,” Dvorkin said. Instead, “every teacher should be able to prepare young people to think critically and solve problems and use judgement on whether and when to use AI tools and how they work and why.”

He acknowledged the “understandable concerns” many parents have about how much screen time their children are spending in school. But he believes that “evidence-based” computer science education is an antidote to passive screen time.

“I think there’s a very real chance that Mayor [Zohran] Mamdani’s legacy will be shaped in part by how our public school system adapts to the AI era,” Dvorkin said, “and that means a strategy to a retool computational-thinking education for the world we inhabit right now.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

There’s been some progress in the number of computer science classes offered in the city, but did the program meet the goals outlined 10 years ago?

New York City has done something genuinely impressive. More than 90% of schools now offer computer science, up from a tiny handful a decade ago, but access is not the same thing as participation. Our data shows that just 20% of student students were actually enrolled in computer science classes.

The data also shows that the city is still pretty far from the original promise of computer science for all: Just about 19% of schools are meeting CS4all equity and participation goals. So that’s why now is the time for the Mamdani administration to launch a CS4all 2.0 that should focus on closing the gaps that remain in participation, equity, and teacher preparation, and move toward integrating computational thinking across the curriculum.

Now that we’re at the 10-year mark, is the program over?

At the school-level and even centrally, there’s still an effort underway to continue to build on the work of CS4all, but in terms of a unifying centralized effort to advance this work, learning from the successes in the challenges of the first decade, and charting a path forward for the next one, we’re not there yet.

And this is a risky moment for the country ‘s largest public school system to be without an organizing effort around computing education.

The school system did put out some preliminary guidance around the use of AI in schools. It’s important work. But this is, I think, the even bigger challenge: What should the New York City public school system’s computing education strategy look like in the AI-era?

The goal can’t simply be to teach some students to code in 11th through 12th grade. In fact, that kind of technical knowledge may be in rapid freefall right now with the rise of generative AI.

But AI also raises the bar for embedding computational thinking across the whole curriculum so that every young person learns how to think critically and ask hard questions and solve problems with computers. That’s the only way to ensure that our young people are able to graduate from high school capable of fully understanding these powerful systems that are shaping our lives. Computer science education can’t just mean a coding elective for some.

As you say, the city’s AI framework is one piece. But how we educate kids should be an urgent part of this conversation, too, especially as we see the world changing and the job force changing.

It feels like a lot of the conversation is focused on being for or against technology.

At a time when AI tools are flooding into students’ lives both at school and at home, the answer isn’t simply more devices or more apps. I think most parents and teachers would agree, it’s certainly not more screen time. But it is deeper computational fluency — the ability to understand, question, and shape technology rather than just consume it. That’s computing education done right.

I think there’s a misperception that advocating for evidence-based, age-appropriate, and even joyful computing education is simply synonymous with more screen time. That couldn’t be further from the truth. But we need a teaching workforce in New York City that is equipped to integrate computational thinking — the building blocks of computing education— into every young person’s classroom experience.

I think a lot of people — perhaps even teachers — would be surprised that you can teach computational thinking without screens.

There’s a growing body of evidence that shows the dangers of exposing young children to too much screen time. But that doesn’t mean deferring computing education until later. That means we have to be much more creative about how we can integrate a computing education into classroom settings without screens.

There is a program at CUNY’s colleges of education called CITE — computing integrated teacher education. And what CITE does is equip CUNY professors that are teaching our future K-12 teachers to integrate computational thinking and learning into their pedagogy. The power of this model is pretty profound because about a third of all new public school teachers in New York City every year are hired out of CUNY.

We’re now at a point where the first participants in CITE programs have actually been entering the classroom as student teachers or they’re beginning their first full-time teaching assignments.

With the screen time and AI backlash, do you think there will be an appetite to push for CS4all 2.0?

I think the backlash against screen time actually strengthens the case for CS4all 2.0. Parents are right to worry about passive, addictive, and poorly governed technology use in our classrooms. But the answer is not to leave students less prepared to understand technology, it’s to teach them how technology really works, how to question it, think critically about it, and how to use it responsibly and creatively.

So one key question is: Are New York City public school students going to be the people of the future who will shape how that technology is created and deployed?

I think the argument is strong that our future economy will only become more bifurcated between roles that require sophisticated computational thinking skills — including the critical thinking and judgment skills that should be an essential part of a CS4all 2.0 — and low wage work that does not pay enough to enable New Yorkers to afford life in the most expensive city in America.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

An upper Manhattan mom was tired of screen time. She convinced 38 schools to take a ‘screen break.’

2026-05-22T21:42:47+00:00

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Amid a growing backlash against screen time use in and out of school, one upper Manhattan mom is starting a week-long initiative to help parents and educators limit devices and educational technology in the classroom and at home.

Olympia Kazi, the parent of a third and fifth grader, enlisted the support of her superintendent to convince the 38 elementary and middle schools serving more than 10,000 students in her local school district to cut out screens and offer more recess — as much as possible — next week.

Dubbed “Screen Break,” the week-long pilot program for Manhattan’s District 6, spanning Washington Heights and Inwood, also encourages families to ditch screens and come together as a community, offering a lineup of activities after school and on the two days off. (Monday is Memorial Day, and Wednesday is Eid). She suggests parents and guardians organize book clubs and documentary screenings about the risks of overexposure to screens, providing a list of resources, in English and Spanish, to get them started.

The surgeon general’s office this week raised the alarm about the dangers of screen time for young people, linking various health concerns to excessive time online, including anxiety, depression, poor sleep, and alcohol use.

Across the nation, families are fighting back against screens and ed tech in their children’s schools. In Los Angeles, the parent-led Schools Beyond Screens coalition helped push the school district to come up with a proposal that may include a total screen ban until second grade and other limits by age. Iowa recently passed a law limiting screens in schools. And in New York City, in addition to a grassroots surge of families calling for an AI moratorium in schools, parents on local Community Education Councils are taking action. The council in East Harlem’s District 4 last week passed a resolution to set school screen time limits based on age (and calls for strengthening student privacy protections).

“I think parents are seeing the consequences: privacy issues, lack of alignment of computerized assessments with better outcomes, and the mental health studies,” said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a neuroscientist and president of District 4’s Community Education Council.

Ultimately, Kazi hopes her Screen Break pilot will give families and educators an opportunity to pause and have some conversations about how prevalent screens have become in education since the COVID pandemic. And she wants to hear from schools afterward about what worked and what didn’t to help fine tune the program for next year.

“I think what happened with the pandemic is we were all rushed. It was an emergency,” said Kazi, a community advocate and former nonprofit leader whose children attend P.S. 187. “Things changed, and the things haven’t been evaluated to understand: What is working and what isn’t working? What is worthwhile keeping and what shouldn’t be kept?”

An effort to replace screens with other activities

The seeds for Screen Break week were planted when Kazi fired off a March 12 email to her superintendent, Renzo Martinez, and New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, telling them she didn’t want to lament about screen time in schools but wanted to do something “positive.” Her original idea was for a fully screen-free week with double recess, but she later realized the approach needed more flexibility based on schools’ needs. (She’s upset that her kids’ school, like many schools, only has 20 minutes of daily recess, and during inclement weather, they spend it inside watching movies or videos.)

To her surprise, Martinez agreed to work with her on the initiative, and together, they pitched it to the local Community Education Council.

Martinez handled the school side of things, explaining the initiative to principals, while Kazi focused on family engagement and lining up community activities, she said. On Tuesday, for instance, she curated “book fest,” where the Washington Heights New York Public Library branch will do read-alouds in the garden of the Morris Jumel Mansion, and Uptown Stories will offer writing games. The Fountain Bookshop and Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria will have book giveaways. And there’s an improv class for all ages, in English and Spanish at The People’s Theater.

Martinez did not respond for comment, but after this story initially published, Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said the city “empowers our superintendents and school communities to make decisions that best reflect the needs and priorities of their students and families.”

Kazi wanted to make it easy for families and schools to participate, which is why she chose a three-day school week after state testing ended.

For her own family, Kazi hadn’t allowed her 10-year-old son to play video games, so she was incensed when she learned that his school used Prodigy Math, a game-based learning tool, in class. She was even angrier when she learned that the company also had a paid account option. She didn’t want her son to be exposed in school to a company with a commercial interest or put a burden on families who couldn’t afford accounts. But instead of complaining, she preferred to find a way to broaden the conversation.

“I’m a big believer in public schools and to show to everybody that these are our schools,” Kazi said. “We can make them what we want them to be as long as we do the work.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC after-school contract shakeup sparks fury after beloved, long-term providers are ousted

2026-05-21T21:32:12+00:00

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A reshuffling of contracts for New York City’s sprawling free after-school program has separated some schools from beloved, longstanding providers, sparking fury from parents, program staffers, and school administrators.

The changes came as part of the city’s first attempt in years to re-bid contracts for community-based organizations, who get city funding to operate the COMPASS after-school program for more than 100,000 elementary and middle school students.

Re-bidding the contracts allowed the city to expand the program by 10,000 seats and make long-needed changes to providers’ pay rates, which now come out to around $4,000 to $7,000 per student depending on age, city officials and providers said.

But the new contracts, which were announced earlier this month and run through 2032, in some cases edged out providers who have been working with schools for more than a decade, and had the support of principals and families.

In Manhattan, multiple middle schools that have long worked with the organization Manhattan Youth were assigned new providers starting this fall, according to a petition and joint letter from parent leaders across the schools.

“Making sweeping changes to successful and trusted afterschool programs without transparency, stakeholder engagement, or demonstrated justification does not serve students or families,” wrote the parents, some of whom staged protests Thursday afternoon.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many programs citywide were turned over to new providers.

Chantal Alba, a spokesperson for the Youth and Community Development Department, said “most” of the 927 schools with after-school contracts are continuing on with their existing provider – 71 schools are opening a program for the first time next year.

“DYCD understands how important long-standing afterschool relationships are to families, and we recognize that a change in provider can feel disruptive,” Alba wrote. “These transitions are the result of a standardized competitive process, not a reflection on the value a particular organization has brought to a school community.”

Providers who lost out on contracts at schools where they’ve been successfully working for years said they’ve gotten no clear explanation on why they weren’t selected.

“We’re all very confused,” said Manuela Garcia, a program director for the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services at Louis Armstrong Middle School in East Elmhurst, Queens. Garcia’s program has operated an arts-focused after-school program at Louis Armstrong for 12 years, but lost out to a larger provider in this year’s contract re-procurement.

“We did everything we were supposed to do,” she said. “Why are we being uprooted … to bring somebody else brand new to start over?

New rules, little transparency

In past years, providers had to secure a signed agreement from a principal before applying for a contract at that school, giving the principal broad discretion to select a provider. This year, principals could rank multiple providers, according to people familiar with the process. In some cases, they didn’t get their top choice.

“Despite our school clearly identifying Manhattan Youth as the best fit for our community, a different provider was selected,” Computer School principal Jessica Shalom wrote to families last weekend, according to a copy of the letter shared with Chalkbeat.

In seeking “clarification” from the Department of Youth and Community Development, Shalom said she “received dismissive responses that failed to acknowledge the depth of our current partnership with Manhattan Youth and the significant impact this potential change would have on our community.”

Alba, the DYCD spokesperson, said more than 80% of principals received their first- or second-choice provider. Asking principals to rank programs allowed “more providers to participate … while still ensuring principal input is reflected,” she said.

“DYCD must balance principal preferences with competitive scoring, capacity, and provider diversity,” Alba added.

Severing longstanding relationships between providers and schools isn’t the only concern. Providers that are losing their contracts after the summer might struggle with retaining staff for Summer Rising, the city’s free summer program, said Nora Moran, policy and advocacy director at United Neighborhood Houses, an umbrella organization for several after-school organizations.

She also wondered if the city’s notoriously slow contracting process would be able to meet the demand of having to certify so many new contracts for the fall.

Still, the outdated contracts needed to be rebid, Moran said. And throughout the bidding process, the city had been open about wanting to diversify the pool of providers.

While that’s a “good goal,” Moran said, it’s a “hard situation all around” because there are “always winners and losers” in a procurement process.

“In some circumstances, these are really longstanding relationships, and so for certain schools, it is going to be a really big change,” she said. “Also, there’s new opportunity that comes with new providers, and some organizations are happy that they’re going to have the chance to expand their work.”

Particular after-school programs are often a draw for families

Families at some of the schools switching providers say the shift could significantly diminish their kids’ school experience — and undercut one of the reasons they chose the school in the first place.

Alexandra Cardasis, whose daughter is in sixth grade at Simon Baruch Middle School, compared Manhattan Youth’s vast offerings, including theater and a multi-school sports league, to “a suburban experience at a large school.”

“When you’re trying to keep like families in the public school system,” she added, “these are the things that make people want to come.”

Families at Simon Baruch are trying to fight back, said Gilberte Lal, president of the school’s parent-teacher association, who planned to deliver about 400 student letters to the city.

“The anxiety that these children feel wondering what’s going to happen to their mentors, it’s heartbreaking,” said Lal.

Out of the school’s roughly 1,000 students, all but about 36 participate in Manhattan Youth’s array of 50 weekly offerings, from ceramics and nail art to orchestra, drama, and Dungeons and Dragons. The program also offers many teams that are part of the Middle School Athletic League — that would cost the school about $200,000 to cover next year, Lal said.

The program has 90 staffers, three of whom are full-time, and many of whom are paraprofessionals or teachers at the school.

The new provider, the Imogen Roche Foundation, which focuses on social-emotional health, has mainly worked with elementary schools, raising concerns among families whether it can quickly scale up a sophisticated program for middle schoolers.

At Louis Armstrong, an arts-focused middle school in Queens, the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services over years built a theater-based after-school program that perfectly fit the school’s needs, said Garcia, the program director.

The program has developed partnerships with professional theater organizations, worked closely with school staff to build a shared performing arts program, and routinely connects students to outside services like therapy, access to food, and healthcare, Garcia said. She’s now working on gathering documentation she can use to support an appeal of DYCD’s contract decision.

“This has been really devastating,” she said, “and I’ve taken it upon myself to organize the community.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC PTA funding inequities: See how much your school’s PTA raises

2026-05-15T21:10:06+00:00

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New York City’s public school system has long been defined by inequities of concentrated wealth and poverty, and nowhere is that more pronounced than in parent-teacher association fundraising.

Of the money PTAs raised last year, the top 30 schools, or just 2.5%, raised nearly half of the total amount of the 1,240 schools included in the recently released Education Department data for the 2024-25 school year.

Meanwhile, roughly 390 PTAs — about a third of the schools — reported raising no money last year, suggesting their parent-teacher associations are inactive or struggling. Another 330 PTAs appear to have failed to report anything to the Education Department. Though schools are mandated to have PTAs, some may not have the capacity to sustain such groups.

PTA money can fund enrichment, not core classroom teachers, and is often used to bolster things like the arts or pay for teaching assistants. When a school can use PTA money to cover these costs, it could free their school up to pay more for core classroom teachers.

That could, in turn, make a school more desirable, said Carolyn Abott, a Baruch College assistant professor of political science who has been researching PTAs. It could create a snowball effect, she said, attracting families to a particular school zone and potentially even pushing up housing prices.

“And you are pulling those politically and community active families away from schools that are already sort of resource-deprived, which again, exacerbates the situation,” Abott said.

Noah Strote, a parent of a fourth grader at P.S. 199, an affluent school on the Upper West Side in Manhattan’s District 3, said the funding disparities can show up in different ways, from the number of air conditioners or bathroom supplies to the quantity of enrichment programs.

“They can also fund all the little things that add up, such as teacher and staff appreciation events with food and drink and gifts, that help create a culture where those people want to stay year after year,” Strote wrote in an email. “It’s obviously not the only factor contributing to outcomes for children, but it’s definitely not an insignificant one.”

P.S. 199, which is typically a high-rolling PTA, failed to report any data to the Education Department, revealing some of the shortcomings of the public data.

The data, which is self-reported, appeared to have some errors and inaccuracies. (For example, P.S. 60 in Woodhaven, Queens, was among the top 10 for reported income, reportedly bringing in more than $2 million. But looking at the school’s full balance, that appeared to be a decimal error, and the school likely only brought in about $20,000.)

Drilling down on the data

Fourteen schools brought in more than $1 million each, led by P.S. 29, an elementary school in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill; New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math, a K-12 gifted and talented school on the Lower East Side; and P.S. 8, or The Emily Warren Roebling School, an elementary school in Brooklyn Heights. Another 14 schools raised more than $500,000.

Looking at the data on the district level reveals another set of extremes. PTAs in Manhattan’s District 2, which includes such affluent areas as the Upper East Side, Greenwich Village, and TriBeCa, brought in the most money, with nearly $18 million in total income. That was 600 times greater than what PTAs raised in District 23, which spans Brooklyn’s high-poverty neighborhoods of Ocean Hill/Brownsville. PTAs in District 23, which is also one of the city’s smallest districts, brought in about $29,000.

Because school funding formulas send more money to schools with higher-need students, more affluent schools tend to spend less per pupil — an argument that some PTA fundraiser powerhouses point out. P.S. 29, for instance, spent $17,310 per pupil last year, compared to P.S. 150 in District 23, which spent $46,198 per pupil, according to public data. About 4% of the school’s funding, or $154,000, came from federal dollars given to schools with more than 60% student poverty.

Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said the city recognizes that PTA fundraising varied “significantly” across school communities and reiterated that the city’s funding formula aims to allocate additional resources to schools serving kids with the greatest needs.

“We remain committed to ensuring equitable access to resources through the funding streams we directly control,” she said.

With executive boards turning over each year, newly minted PTA members might not know what they’re getting into and lack training and the understanding of the PTA’s role, said Antonia Martinelli, the PTA Link coordinator at Appleseed, which helps fill the “information gap” for PTAs.

Though the rules governing PTAs make it clear they can supplement, rather than supplant, school budgets, PTAs can change their schools’ ability to hire more teachers, Martinelli echoed.

“Now they’re inadvertently impacting the academic outcomes of the students,” she said.

Martinelli also raised concerns about the end balance of the city’s PTAs, which totaled about $46.5 million.

“PTAs are supposed to target their fundraising to a specific goal,” she said. “They are not supposed to be running quasi endowments.”

Efforts to bolster PTA fundraising

PTAs raise money in various ways: direct appeals, bake sales, or carnivals, galas, and other events.

Some schools raise money by organizing after-school programs, like P.S. 20, in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, which raised more than $1.16 million last year, putting the school in the top 10 citywide. About 85% of the PTA’s income came from P.S. 20’s “wildly successful” after-school program serving kids from prekindergarten through fifth grade, said PTA co-president Sarah Durand McGuigan.

At P.S. 20, it covers an art teacher, pays for a gardening and beekeeping program, and helps fund arts residencies, Durand McGuigan said. It helped the school build a library as well as facility upgrades. It pays for full- and part-time school assistants working in the cafeteria, office, and hallways. It also covers the costs of teacher professional development training.

P.S. 20, which had nearly 700 students, sits in District 13, a racially and socioeconomically diverse district that schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels previously oversaw as superintendent. And while it’s not among the most affluent like some of the other elementary schools in the top 10, with just 38% of students from low-income families, the school is still among the top 100 schools in the city with the smallest share of students in poverty. Citywide, about 75% of students come from low-income families.

The school community is aware of the different needs of families, offering scholarships to the after-school program, for instance, and the PTA jumped into action last year when public food assistance was going to be restricted, raising about $10,000 for grocery gift cards to families in need, Durand McGuigan said.

“The haves and the have nots in the New York City public school system are huge,” she said. “We have people living in $3 million brownstones, and we have people in public housing.”

The PTA at Arts & Letters 305 United, also in District 13, was among the top 30 fundraisers, bringing in more than $546,000 last year. It used the money to support tutoring, school trips, stepping-up ceremonies, enrichment teachers, and for many community-building events, said LaMeane Isaac, PTA president at the Bedford-Stuyvesant school where Samuels had led a merger between a popular affluent school and an under-enrolled one serving more low-income families.

The school’s PTA also helped provide about $2,000 in seed money for a districtwide fund bringing together families, local businesses, and community organizations to support 28 under-resourced schools across the district that lacked PTA funding.

“We are willing to help and commit towards supporting other schools who may not be as financially fortunate as we are,” Isaac said.

“If we can be helpful and supportive to other schools, everyone wins, right?”

Correction: May 17, 2026: This article initially said the percentage of top PTAs was based on all 1,540 schools, which included those that failed to report any data. The calculations were based on the 1,240 PTAs that reported data. (The lookup tool excludes schools that raised no money as well as those that did not report their data to the Education Department.)

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani expected to secure 2-year mayoral control extension and class-size delay in state budget

2026-05-15T02:14:06+00:00

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to win a two-year extension of mayoral control from state lawmakers as well as a delay in implementing the class size mandate as part of Albany’s final budget, according to multiple media reports Thursday.

Mamdani had been lobbying alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul for a four-year extension of the city’s school governance model — despite declaring his opposition to mayoral control on the campaign trail. Just before his inauguration, he walked back his views on mayoral control, though he still pledged to make the system more democratic and responsive to families and educators.

Lawmakers have often made tweaks to mayoral control when they’ve extended it over the past two decades. It’s not clear yet if or how lawmakers might change the governance structure that empowers the mayor to unilaterally appoint the schools chancellor, select a majority of the city’s school board, and generally set the policy direction of the nation’s largest school district.

Mayoral control is set to sunset on June 30.

Hochul suggested last week at a press conference that a two-year extension was on the table. State Sen. John Liu, of Queens, seemed to confirm the likely deal on mayoral control, which was first reported in Politico.

“A two year extension of mayoral control is the right thing to do, to give this new mayor a chance to deliver results for our public schools, and to pass it as part of the state budget given that there will remain less than two weeks of the legislative session once the budget is finally passed,” Liu said in a statement.

Liu, an architect of the class size law, also has said he’s open to changes to the mandate since Mamdani took office.

“The Mamdani administration also deserves an extended timeframe for reducing class sizes given that despite inheriting a difficult circumstance, the mayor steadfastly committed to achieving full compliance and has presented a clear plan towards that end,” Liu said.

While running for mayor, Mamdani vowed to support the state’s law to reduce the city’s class sizes. Though Mamdani voiced his continued commitment to shrinking classes, he supported changing the timeline from requiring all classes meet the caps of 20 to 25 students, depending on the grade, from the 2027-28 school year to the 2030-31 school year.

Though the state’s budget is delayed, with its 12th extension signed on Thursday, Mamdani previewed his executive budget earlier this week and already anticipated the state will approve a delay implementing the class size law.

Mamdani’s executive budget proposal released this week also anticipates changes to state law, that have not yet been made official, to save money that would have otherwise been spent next school year on class size reductions. His latest budget proposal included $122 million to hire 1,000 educators. That was down from the preliminary budget he unveiled in February that called for $543 million. Officials previously said they would need to hire 6,000 educators to comply with the law.

At the same time, his budget added $1.5 billion in capital funding for the School Construction Authority to help the city comply with the class size mandate.

“Make no mistake: We are fully committed to fulfilling the state mandate in a meaningful way on a realistic timeline that New Yorkers can actually trust,” Mamdani said on Tuesday.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

5 new public schools opening this fall in the Bronx and Queens

2026-05-05T14:14:39+00:00

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Five new schools are expected to open this fall in the Bronx and Queens: Two will exclusively serve students with significant disabilities, three will have an arts focus, and all promise to incorporate project-based learning.

The new schools aim to ease overcrowding in neighborhoods that have historically been bursting at the seams, city officials said. They also are geared to expand access to seats in District 75, a network of public schools for students with significant disabilities, so students don’t have to travel as far to school.

“Our new schools reflect a bold commitment to expanding access to high-quality, rigorous learning experiences for every student, in every neighborhood,” schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said in a statement on Thursday.

Several of the new schools have been in the works for a while, but the move to open new campuses comes at a time when the nation’s largest school system is getting smaller, and the city is increasingly eyeing school mergers as it grapples with enrollment losses. There were roughly 793,000 K-12 students, according to preliminary data for this school year. That’s down about 15% from the 2019-20 school year, when the city served about 912,815 students.

The city opened seven new schools this year and nine new schools the year before. The city recently nixed plans to open New Generation Technology High School, a proposed selective school with an AI focus after community members pushed back on its admissions process and raised concerns about AI use in the classroom.

Here’s a look at the schools expected to open in September:

Academy of Cultural Excellence

Long Island City, Queens

The school, which will serve prekindergarten to fifth grade, aims to foster “confident, curious, and compassionate learners,” according to its website. It will embrace project-based learning and the arts, city officials said. Starting in third grade, students will “co-design an individualized learning pathway, allowing them to pursue areas of interest while maintaining strong academic foundations,” said a blurb on MySchools.

The school will not be zoned, according to MySchools. But students from the nearby P.S./I.S. 78, which had a waitlist last year for students in its zone, will get priority.

The school is in District 30, which has long been overcrowded and is one of the few districts where enrollment has been growing. The district is also home to the largest number of new apartments constructed in the past year — more than 2,470 — according to 2026 data from the New York City School Construction Authority. Yet, city officials expect enrollment to decline in the district, along with most others, over the next decade.

Bronx School of Arts & Exploration

Highbridge/South Crotona, Bronx

This District 75 school, for students in grades K-8, will have an arts focus, integrating core academics with visual and performing arts. It will also employ project-based learning and performance-based assessments, school officials said.

The Bronx School of Hip-Hop

Claremont, Bronx

Students at this 9-12 school will study hip-hop — emceeing, DJing, and graffiti — in the borough that birthed the art form. The school will also teach entrepreneurship and civic engagement through music while creating pathways to college, internships, and careers for students, school officials previously said.

“It’s about keeping the Bronx at the center of a culture we gave to the world,” Carl Manalo, the high school superintendent for Districts 7, 9, and 12, said when the city approved the school in December.

Each classroom will operate like a studio, according to the school’s MySchools page, with units culminating in showcases for students’ original work.

Admissions are based on what’s known as “Ed. Opt,” where a certain number of students performing at “high, medium, and low” academic levels are accepted.

Queens Academy for Innovative Learning

Astoria, Queens

Students from grades 6-12 at this District 75 schools will focus on STEM and work-based learning to help prepare them for jobs after high school.

West Q Elementary (P.S. 437)

Woodside, Queens

This new elementary school in Queens’ District 24 will seek to blend math and literacy instruction with more hands-on projects. According to its MySchools page, each grade in the K-5 school will take on a “signature project that connects classroom learning to real-world experiences.” District 24 has roughly 1,300 open seats across its middle and elementary schools, but roughly a third of its 83 school buildings were listed as overcrowded last year, according to city data. The district is also projected to lose among the most students of any district in the next decade, according to the city’s predictions.

West Q will not be zoned, but will give priority to students who live in the district, according to its MySchools page.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Tech glitches disrupt state math exams across New York

2026-04-29T20:39:23+00:00

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Students across New York were unable to log in to the digital platform for the state’s grades 3-8 math exam Wednesday morning, raising fresh questions about the transition to computer-based assessments.

The New York State Education Department told schools they could pause or delay the math tests, officials confirmed.

The issue affected schools across the state, including some in New York City where schools were expected to administer the exams sometime between April 28 and May 8.

“More than 116,000 students tested without error this morning, with thousands more expected to complete testing later today,” state Education Department spokesperson JP O’Hare wrote in a statement. “Since the testing window opened, more than two million exams have been successfully submitted.”

Officials declined to provide specific numbers of affected students. But O’Hare said it was a “limited number.”

Upon learning of the problem, O’Hare added, “NYSED immediately contacted our vendor, NWEA, to expeditiously address the issue.”

State officials said schools can administer the exams at a later point during the window, which runs through May 15.

The city’s messaging to caregivers struck a somewhat different tone. A letter principals were encouraged to distribute said “many” students were unable to complete the test and “we are pausing the administration of the Math exam and will reschedule once we receive the assurances we need that no additional disruptions will occur.”

A message to principals encouraged them to postpone state testing scheduled for Thursday.

New York’s multi-year transition to computer-based tests has been marred by tech glitches. This year’s problems come amid a growing backlash against the proliferation of technology in schools, including the amount of time students spend on screens.

After a gradual phase-in, the state fully transitioned from paper-and-pencil tests to computer-based tests this spring. The grades 3-8 English language arts exams have already been administered.

Some principals began receiving notifications Wednesday morning from the city’s Education Department about the login problems with Nextera, the state’s testing platform.

“We are receiving a high volume of escalations about students having trouble logging into Nextera,” city officials wrote in an email obtained by Chalkbeat. “It is happening statewide.” The message said schools could continue testing if students had already logged in, but should cancel testing for the day if students continued to have problems.

Officials at NWEA, the state’s testing vendor, said they “have directed all available internal resources” to fixing the problem and hope to have the system running by Thursday.

“The cause of this has not yet been identified, which means the fix is also pending,” Simona Beattie, a company spokesperson, said in a statement.

At one Brooklyn elementary school, students were unable to log in to start their exams for more than an hour but were eventually able to log in and complete the tests, according to the principal who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I’m sure there are going to be parents who feel like it’s not going to be the best picture of their child’s performance because of the way it happened today,” the principal said. More broadly, the school leader wishes the state would keep paper and pencil tests, especially for younger students who have to “learn a whole other set of skills” to take them digitally.

At another Brooklyn school, a teacher proctoring the exam for a group of sixth graders with disabilities said that one of the seven students was able to log on. The rest spent two hours trying before the school allowed them to take a break and play basketball in the gym.

“They were frustrated but understood there was nothing we could do,” said the teacher, who requested anonymity since she was not authorized to speak. “They were so patient.”

After their gym break, the students were able to log on and take the test, the teacher said, but she questioned the validity of the results.

“Your purpose is to test them, it’s not to test them after two hours of testing their patience,” she said.

City teachers union President Michael Mulgrew blasted the state Education Department in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

“Once again, students and educators were left scrambling because the state failed in its responsibility to hold its vendors and consultants accountable,” he said.

How did testing go at your school? Let us know at ny.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

The math equity gap: Thousands of NYC students miss out on Algebra 1 in eighth grade

2026-04-23T22:28:22+00:00

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Having access to Algebra 1 in eighth grade can often make or break a student’s path to high school calculus, which in turn, is often a gateway to selective colleges as well as science and engineering careers.

But many eighth graders can’t take Algebra 1 — regardless of how well they did on their seventh grade state math test. And when New York City parents are exploring middle school options for their fifth graders, they might not realize the consequences a school’s math offerings might have for their students’ education trajectory.

Across New York state, more than 1 in 4 schools don’t offer Algebra 1 to eighth graders, found a report released Thursday from the New York Equity Coalition, a group convened by EdTrust-New York. Schools that disproportionately enroll Black, Latino, and low-income students tend to have less access to Algebra 1 in middle school.

“When we have qualified kids that are denied that opportunity, and it impacts them in high school and beyond … it is such a critical inflection point,” said Jeff Smink, deputy director at EdTrust-New York, an advocacy group focused on improving outcomes for students of color.

Smink hopes to raise awareness about the importance of Algebra 1 for eighth graders so parents can advocate for it.

“If there’s no demand, then schools aren’t going to respond to it,” he said. “They’re going to offer the easier, simpler option, which is just tracking kids to the standard eighth grade class, which is going to avoid kids struggling, it’s going to get potentially better test scores.”

While 58% of New York’s seventh graders scored proficient (a 3 or 4) on their 2023-24 state math exams, in the following school year — 2024-25 — just 37% of eighth graders enrolled in Algebra 1, representing a gap of 20,000 proficient students, the report said. More than half were estimated to be from low-income families, and nearly half were students of color.

In New York City alone, there were 8,000 more students proficient on seventh grade state exams than enrolled in eighth grade Algebra 1, according to the researchers.

The state’s gaps were starkest for Black and Asian American students: while 38% of Black students and 75% of Asian American seventh graders were proficient, 13% of Black and 14% Asian American eighth graders the following year enrolled in Algebra 1, the study found.

Drilling down into the data, using the coalition’s lookup tool, reveals vastly uneven access across New York City’s 32 local districts.

The top three districts with more proficient seventh graders than eighth graders in Algebra 1: Queens’ District 24, Brooklyn’s District 20, and Staten Island. Each had gaps of more than 1,400 students, researchers said.

In five districts, fewer than half of their schools offered Algebra 1 for eighth graders: Manhattan Districts 4 and 6, Brooklyn’s District 13, and Bronx Districts 7 and 12.

Eight districts appeared to be outliers, with either more than or an equal share of eighth graders taking Algebra 1 last year compared to the percentage of seventh graders who scored proficient on their state math tests the year before: Manhattan’s District 3; Bronx’s District 11, Brooklyn Districts 15, 19, 23, and 32; and Queens Districts 27, 28, and 30.

Equity gaps in proficiency remain, however, and three of those districts — 19, 23, and 32 in Brooklyn, which overwhelmingly serve Black, Latino, and low-income students — had fewer than half of their students who were proficient.

The report recommends the state adopt an automatic enrollment, or opt-out policy, for all eighth graders who score proficient on seventh grade state tests. They want an $8.5 million investment to help 15 high-needs districts expand Algebra 1 access as well as fund tutoring, staffing, and public data tracking enrollment and completion by race and income.

The report comes at a time when Gov. Kathy Hochul, in January’s State of the State address, called for an overhaul of math instruction, getting “back to the basics,” proposing $4 million for more teacher training and support. New York City’s schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, a former math teacher, has also argued for a foundational approach to math emphasizing memorization of math facts along with a focus on creative problem-solving.

Samuels has hinted at some changes to come with math instruction.

Under former Mayor Eric Adams, the city required nearly all high schools to use a single math curriculum from Illustrative Math for Algebra 1 — which has garnered some pushback from educators. Education Department officials are also requiring all middle schools shift to city-approved math curriculums by fall 2027.

“We are working to strengthen early math instruction, expand equitable pathways to Algebra 1 by eighth grade, and ensure every student has access to rigorous, high-quality curriculum,” Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement.

Several states and cities have focused more attention on eighth grade access to Algebra 1, including Chicago, which has offered the class online and has covered educators’ training costs to get credentials to teach algebra.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s 2026-27 school calendar is out: late September start, a Monday finish in June

2026-04-21T20:30:09+00:00

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New York City’s 2026-27 public school calendar is out, and families can expect a long summer, with the first day of school starting on Thursday, Sept. 10.

They can also expect a late start to next summer, with the last day of school falling on Monday, June 28 — a dog-leg day that’s a recipe for low attendance.

Parents and educators have been eagerly awaiting next year’s calendar, which the Education Department quietly released on Tuesday. School typically starts the Thursday after Labor Day, and because September starts on a Tuesday, this year’s first day of school is on the later side, likely causing many parents child care headaches. (Teachers report to work two days before students return.)

New York state requires 180 days of instruction, but it allows for up to four days of teacher professional development to count toward that target, and New York City is using three such days to meet the mandate. That means students will be in class for 177 days in the coming school year. That number does not include the two half days students have scheduled for parent-teacher conferences.

The current school year calendar had 176 days for students, and then on top of that, the city got a waiver from the state for a snow day in February. In general, because New York City’s school day of six hours and 20 minutes is below the national average, students in the five boroughs spend less time in class than their peers across the country.

Here are some other quirks and notable pieces of information about this year’s calendar:

Election Day, on Nov. 3, will be a remote day for students, unlike this year when students were off.
School will be off on Good Friday, which is March 26, but not on the Monday following Easter. In 2023, the Education Department added that Monday to the calendar following backlash.
To avoid some of that backlash, spring break will be from Thursday, April 22 through Friday, April 30, covering all of Passover.
Although new holidays have been added to the calendar over the past few years, several of them aren’t days off this year: Diwali, the “festival of lights” celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains around the world, falls on a weekend. Lunar New Year falls during the February mid-winter recess. Juneteenth is on a Saturday. (Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, is also on a weekend.)

After this story initially published, Education Department officials explained the justification for ending on a Monday, saying that the school year always ends before the second to last weekday in June.

When there was a Monday dog-leg day before winter break a few years back, the city ended up giving that as a day off. And this year, the city wound up also granting a day off when students were scheduled to return on Friday, Jan. 2.

City officials did not commit to whether they will continue the practice of traditional snow days or will once again pivot to remote learning, leaving the possibility open to hold remote classes when buildings are closed due to inclement weather.

Robert Murtfeld, a parent leader in Manhattan’s District 1, who has been pushing for more family involvement in scheduling the calendar — which is hashed out by the Education Department and teachers union — was disappointed that the city did not immediately notify families upon publishing the calendar.

His district’s Community Education Council, representing Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village, passed a resolution earlier this school year calling on the Education Department to make calendar decisions in future years with input from the “broader school community,” including parents and students. In response, Education Department officials wrote, “We are working on creating an online tool for families and others that outlines the school calendar creation process.”

Education Department officials on Tuesday afternoon sent Chalkbeat a link to this “tool” explaining how the calendar is created, which they released on the same day as the new calendar.

Officials, however, had yet to share the tool with the parents who asked for it, Murtfeld said, adding, “No parents were consulted on the calendar.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Where is NYC’s 2026-27 public school calendar? Kamar Samuels says it’s coming next week.

2026-04-16T17:26:37+00:00

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New York City public school parents and educators eagerly awaiting to know next year’s first day of school will likely get the answer soon: Chancellor Kamar Samuels expects the school calendar to drop next week.

“Everybody wants to know: When will the school calendar be released?” Randi Garay, the co-chair of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council, pressed Samuels Thursday morning.

Samuels responded: “Feel confident saying by the end of next week.”

Families and staff have yet to receive confirmation about the first day of the 2026-27 school year and the timing of holidays, making it difficult to plan summer camps or make child care arrangements. But most are expecting a late start to the school year.

The first day of school for students is typically the Thursday after Labor Day, which falls on Sept. 10 this year. It’s on the later side since Sept. 1 is on a Tuesday, and it could mean many families will struggle with the longer stretch of post-Labor Day child care.

This year’s calendar might bring other quirks that have made planning especially difficult for next school year. Students are unlikely to get off this year for the Jewish new year of Rosh Hashanah, which falls on the weekend of Sept. 11, just after the start of school. But they will likely have off on Sept. 21 for Yom Kippur, just after what is expected to be the first full week of the school year.

The trickiest thing is that Easter and Passover are far apart in 2027, with Easter Sunday on March 28 and the first night of Passover on April 21.

When these holidays were spread out in the 2023-24 school year, the Education Department ended up going back to the drawing board after releasing a calendar that sparked backlash. After giving Good Friday off, the city added a day after Easter Sunday. And after giving schools a weeklong spring break that coincided with most of Passover, the city ended up adding two more days for the last two days for the eight-day holiday.

The timing of the school calendar’s release has varied widely over the past decade. Officials have often released it in March or April. In recent years, the calendar has come as late as the end of May, prompting loud complaints. Many other school districts, including Newark, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, have already published their 2026-27 calendars.

The city recently experimented with releasing multiple years of calendars at once — after the teachers union fought for that. Samuels, however, said the city will only release one year at time, at least for now.

“The calendar is coming out right on time,” Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein wrote in an email. She called the prior decision to release multiple years at once “an anomaly.”

Many observers will be watching closely to see how many days of class students will have.

Under state rules, the city must offer 180 days of learning. This year, the city is on track to have only 175 days of instruction after the state gave the city permission to cancel a day of school due to a snowstorm on top of having four teacher professional development days that counted toward the state’s limit, as the rules allow. (Before Mayor Zohran Mamdani reinstated a snow day this year, the city’s post-pandemic approach during storms has been to pivot to virtual learning rather than canceling class.)

In general, New York City students have fewer hours of instruction than average, largely because the 6 hour and 20 minute school day is shorter than what many other districts offer.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

She was expelled from high school. Now, she’s one of NYC’s top teachers.

2026-04-13T21:40:35+00:00

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Fatimah Barrie knows the 30 sixth graders in her three history classes at Uncommon Canarsie Middle School really well. But she also prides herself on knowing the younger and older kids at the 5-8 school, which serves about 100 kids per grade.

“To me, that is joy,” Barrie said. “It is showing up every day as a whole school educator to pour into all students in the building, not just the ones on my roster.”

Barrie has been at Uncommon for eight years and serves as the school’s lead lesson planner, helping write the 5-8 curriculum, leading professional development, and mentoring new and returning educators. Barrie’s own educational journey was filled with highs and lows. She went from being expelled from high school — which she shares candidly with her students on the first day of school — to winning a 2025 Big Apple Award from the city’s Education Department, which recognizes 10 “exceptional teachers who go above and beyond to serve students and families.”

Barrie’s school, which is overwhelmingly Black, Latino, and economically disadvantaged, often outperforms its peers on standardized tests. About 63% of its students, for instance, passed last year’s Algebra 1 Regents exam, which was well above the average for students of similar backgrounds and also surpassed the state average.

But more importantly, Barrie said, her students have shown resilience and compassion in the face of loss. In 2023, a fatal fire claimed the lives of two students, Kelsee Miles (who would have been in sixth grade this year) and her sister Journee Milles (who would have graduated last year), along with their mother, Danielle Havens. Four of the girls’ cousins attend the school along with many of their friends. At last year’s eighth grade graduation, the school reserved a seat for Journee, had a gown for her, designed a cap in her memory, and presented her father with her diploma. The school plans to honor Kelsee in the same way, said Barrie, who is working on a more permanent memorial for the girls through funding from the Big Apple Awards fellowship.

“They’ve been through a lot,” Barrie said of her students, “but they continue to show up for each other in ways that mean a lot.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

Becoming a teacher was extremely unplanned. I was just about to graduate from City College of New York with my B.A. in Political Science and my B.A. in Black Studies, and the plan was to take a gap year interning at a law firm as I prepared for my LSATs.

A few weeks prior to graduation, I bumped into a former high school classmate who had recently relocated back to NYC and was starting her principal journey at Uncommon. She thought with my interests and concentrations in college, I’d be a great fit as a seventh grade history middle school teacher. I did not think I would get the job, but on Juneteenth of 2018, I was hired just two weeks post-graduation for a full-time history teaching position.

The plan was to teach for a year, study for my LSATs, and prepare for law school. However, I fell in love with teaching.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

This is such a hard question, I hope I can change it up. Since I have begun teaching, I’ve had the pleasure of teaching fifth, sixth, and eighth grade. My favorite grade to teach history is sixth grade not only because of their personalities but the content is foundational to scholars’ understanding of the United States. The essential questions of the year asks students to consider: Does a society’s culture shape their government or does a society’s government shape their culture?; What form of government best serves people?; What role do people play in their governments? Students start the year off learning about Ancient American Civilizations (Aztec, Maya, and Inca) and end the year learning about the formation of the United States.

And while I am sure my students would say their favorite lesson was when I dressed up as an English judge (and we put Columbus, his men, the King and Queen of Spain, the Tainos, and the system of empire on trial for the genocide of the Taino population), I was only able to do that because I had built genuine relationships with my students which not only resulted in strong classroom management but a comfortable learning environment.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom or your school?

One thing that really impacts my classroom is how much my students are on social media and just constantly taking in information. They have opinions, they have thoughts, but a lot of times they haven’t been taught how to actually question what they’re seeing. They’ll say something confidently, but not always know where it’s coming from. So, I’ve had to be really intentional about slowing them down and teaching them how to think, not just respond.

Tell us more about the importance of joy in school. How do you bring joy into the classroom?

Middle school is often one of the most challenging parts of a student’s learning journey. I know it was for me. I attended three middle schools during my journey because of my behavior. When students get to middle school, they are navigating everything from hormonal changes to major shifts in academic expectations. They have a different teacher for each subject, move between classrooms every hour, and face increased rigor. Because of that, joy is not extra. It is essential. It becomes the heart of learning, especially in middle school.

I bring joy into the classroom by removing the strict power dynamic between adult and child, or teacher and student. My scholars know that my classroom and our school building are safe places. For some, joy may look performative in the classroom, like sing-a-longs, chants, and dance breaks. For me, joy is building relationships with them, not just teaching them. It is about students feeling seen, valued, and safe.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I had the honor and privilege of growing up in the greatest and most influential neighborhood in the world, Harlem. Being from there, especially in the ‘90s, and attending schools in Harlem gave me a unique perspective on life, confidence in learning, and knowledge of Black and brown people.

In Harlem, I learned a lot through an inclusive education and learning about multiple perspectives. I always tell my peers and my mother that attending Child’s Memorial Christian Academy for Kindergarten and first grade gave me the tools I needed to excel academically in any setting. From second to eighth grade I attended public schools; including P.S. 166, FDA II, West Side Collaborative, and I.S. 164 Stitt. At a few of these schools (those not based in Harlem), instruction, especially regarding history, was often Eurocentric, which sometimes made it hard to see myself and my community reflected in what I was learning. At parent-teacher conferences I would often hear, “Fatimah is so bright, but she distracts her peers by constantly talking to them,” or “Fatimah challenged the lesson today by saying Christopher Columbus did not discover America.” It was a constant reminder that I was intelligent, but I was not necessarily a follower. I was a leader in some way, even if I did not always realize it.

Eighth grade brought me to one of the most challenging middle schools in New York City, where there was constant violence. I knew I needed a better environment. For high school, I attended the first and only boarding school for girls in New York City, Catherine McCauley Catholic Academy, where I developed independence and control over my studies. In true Fatimah fashion, I was later expelled and was given the opportunity to complete my high school journey at Frederick Douglass Academy I, earning a Regents diploma. While some may see that I attended seven different schools during my educational journey and assume the worst, however each school gave me an experience that led to this very moment in my life.

I would not change a single choice I made during my adolescent and teenage years as a student. I believe this is why I connect so well with middle school students.

I know firsthand what it feels like to make a mistake and not be given grace. I want them to know that not only do I understand what they are going through, but they can grow through it and truly excel.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

An alternative to gifted education: Why some NYC schools are embracing International Baccalaureate

2026-04-10T14:44:08+00:00

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A few years back, a groundswell of Brooklyn parents in District 13 wanted to ditch gifted and talented classes, concerned about sorting and segregating children starting in kindergarten.

Then-Superintendent Kamar Samuels, now chancellor of New York City schools, wanted to find an alternative that offered rigorous academics for all students in a school rather than a select few. He settled on the International Baccalaureate, or IB, program and encouraged schools in District 13, which spans from Brooklyn Heights to Bedford-Stuyvesant, to pursue the yearslong authorization process, using a grant to support the shift.

The IB approach embraces inquiry-based, transdisciplinary learning that allows students to go deep into a specific topic across classes, connecting global issues to their own experiences. Educators are trained to facilitate these connections and foster ways for students to become independent thinkers and leaders.

“It means something for a teacher to be an IB teacher. It means you’ve gone through a process,” Samuels said in 2021, when introducing the initiative, “and you’re really pushing the envelope as you think about all your students.”

Amy Hamberry and her second grade students at P.S. 56 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, on March 9.

The district now has five elementary schools and two middle schools in the program, representing New York City’s first IB “pathway” designed to serve children from 3-K through eighth grade. (The district also hopes that students continue on to the handful of public IB high schools in the city, including those in neighboring districts.)

The IB model might soon gain in popularity as schools grapple with the state’s graduation requirement overhaul, as the Portrait of a Graduate framework replaces Regents exams for diplomas starting in the 2027-28 school year. The approach closely aligns with the state’s six key qualities students must demonstrate (such as being creative innovators, effective communicators, and global citizens). And as schools await the state’s guidance on how to assess students under the new framework, IB schools already have a well-developed system of project-based assessments.

The schools also boast strong post-secondary outcomes: 71% of IB students in the U.S. enrolled in college compared to the average of 56%, the IB Schools and Colleges Association found.

Fifth grade students at P.S. 56 on March 9.

On a recent Monday at P.S. 56, in Clinton Hill, second graders hummed as they worked on a project for a unit on self-expression. The kids were creating shapes to use for fabric construction, incorporating math, writing, and social-emotional learning as they jotted down the way the colors they used made them feel.

In a fifth grade room down the hall, students — also doing a unit on self-expression — tackled a poem about technology, as they discussed the effect technology is having on education. Another fifth grade class read a poem about bullying, and students were asked to write their own poem about a problem they wanted to change.

Jayda, a fifth grader, wrote about concerns with the increase in immigration enforcement across the nation. She recently participated in an anti-ICE protest that Lucy, another fifth grader, organized. They and their peers talked about how they struggled with writing when they were younger but have since blossomed as writers, especially as they’ve been able to work on more creative writing.

“Now it’s my passion,” fifth grader Noah said. “I couldn’t imagine life without it.”

Tracey Scronic, the instruction lead and coordinator for District 13’s IB schools, sees the shift to the IB model as an “equity tool” to ensure all of a school’s students are exposed to enrichment. She said it “de-prioritizes traditional testing’s emphasis on regurgitation of information.”

Jayda speaks about her experience learning through the IB program at P.S. 56 on March 9.

Leaning on IB to tackle enrollment declines

The IB program at P.S. 56 has helped prop up enrollment, its principal, Eric Grande, said.

Just before Grande became principal of P.S. 56 a decade ago, the Clinton Hill elementary school tried to bolster enrollment, then hovering below 200 students, by adding a gifted and talented program. Grande added a “world language” program, focusing on Spanish, hoping that would attract more families. But the school didn’t feel cohesive.

“Even though we had a relatively small school, there was almost like schools within the school,” Grande said. “You had your world language Spanish program, your gifted and talented program, you had your special education classes and your gen ed classes, and it just started to feel a little bit off.”

Students within the school, which is more racially diverse than most New York City elementary schools, were not integrated within the different programs, he said. (Last year, about 36% of its students were Black, 36% were white, 17% were Latino, and 1% were Asian American; roughly 47% of children came from low-income families.)

Principal Eric Grande and Arelis Jimenez, IB coordinator, in a third grade classroom at P.S. 56.

Grande began looking for a model to bring everyone — and all of their different programs — together, appeasing families who wanted a foreign language and those who wanted a project-based approach to teaching. IB offered the “perfect synergy of all things that we were doing.”

The school is now in its second year as an authorized IB school following three years as a candidate school. Enrollment has increased, with about 230 students last year.

And while Grande said his school has never been too focused on test prep, he was proud to see a shift in state test scores since his teachers transitioned to the IB framework, from about 35% proficiency on reading in 2019, the year before the pandemic, to more than 60% last year.

The move to IB can be challenging

The buy-in from teachers on IB takes some time, said Scronic. They needed training to shift practices and must do more in-depth planning around the new units. They also needed to figure out how to meld the IB framework with the mandated literacy curriculum for their district, EL Education.

“It is a bit more cognitively intense for the teachers,” Scronic said. But after a while, she said teachers feel like they’re being respected again for their craft and facilitating connections between the curriculum and students’ own lives. “I feel like the passion that a brand-new teacher brings to the profession then kind of gets squashed sometimes, IB has brought that back.”

Rosa Davis and her seventh grade students during science class at Restoration Academy on March 9.

Becoming an authorized IB school is not easy. Schools have to pay the Switzerland-based nonprofit that oversees the IB program about $9,000 a year to start the training and candidacy process. It’s about $10,000 each year once a school is authorized to support the implementation and maintenance of IB programs, according to the organization’s website. District 13 used a grant to cover the costs for the initial training for the schools, though the schools have had to foot the bill for new teachers.

Though Scronic leads District 13’s IB initiative, she’s started holding monthly Zoom meetings for about 40 IB elementary and middle schools in the city, a grassroots effort to provide support and create a community to share best practices and resources.

Restoration Academy Principal Adele Simon's office displaying IB program notes and a diorama created by students.

Samuels continued to promote IB schools when he left his Brooklyn district to become superintendent of Manhattan’s District 3. He encouraged schools in Harlem to adopt the IB model as a way to tackle declining enrollment in a part of the district facing heavy competition from charter schools. (District 3 used a grant to cover the costs as well.)

But Samuels acknowledged the challenges in pursuing IB authorization.

“I do believe in a lot of the work of IB, but it really takes a big investment,” he recently told K-12 Dive. “It takes principals being onboard. It takes teachers being onboard and willing to go and get a lot of background and content knowledge, and to be able to personalize for young people and the kids in your school.”

A middle school IB program helps students find their ‘voice’

Sanai Gary, an eighth grader at Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Restoration Academy — which is in its first full year as an authorized IB school after its yearslong candidacy — said the IB approach has helped her deepen her learning.

“I like how the topics transmit over to other classes. I feel like it helps me learn better,” said Sanai. “It gives me more time to focus on it.”

Last year, she and her peers became clean water advocates after diving into a unit on global sustainability.

Sanai Gary, an eighth grader, speaks during her language and literature class at Restoration Academy.

It started after they read a novel in English class, “A Long Walk to Water,” about the struggle in South Sudan for clean water. In their Individuals and Societies class (akin to social studies), a student brought up questions about the water crisis that started in 2014 in Flint, Michigan, that got the students wondering about the water quality in their own school. So, in science class, they tested their school’s water fountains and created makeshift filtration devices.

Concerned about the color and clarity of their school’s water, back in English class, the students mounted a letter-writing campaign to city officials demanding changes.

Restoration Academy has struggled with enrollment and has long served marginalized students. The middle school currently has roughly 80 middle schoolers; about 80% are Black and Latino, and more than 90% are from low-income families. Pre-pandemic, about 20% of its students were considered proficient in reading. Since transitioning to IB, the scores have improved, rising to about 30% last year.

Tomaso Millian and his eighth grade students during design and art class at Restoration Academy on March 9.

But more importantly, Principal Adele Simon said, students are increasingly linking what’s happening around the world to their own lives and finding their voices to advocate for change based on what they’re learning in school.

“It’s the connection between what they’re reading,” Simon said, “and not just reading it for the purpose of reading it, but reading it for the purpose of, ‘Okay, what am I going to do with this? … Who’s in power and who is not in power? And how can I make sure that the people in power represent me and my community?”

Their school is getting new water fountains with filtration devices this spring.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Goodbye, Regents exams. NYC educators: Tell us how Portrait of a Graduate will change your classroom.

2026-03-20T19:35:18+00:00

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Next school year will be the last requiring students to pass their Regents exams to earn a high school diploma under the state’s current timeline.

Starting in the 2027-28 school year, students will be evaluated based on a new framework from the state called the Portrait of a Graduate, which includes six key qualities high schoolers should master to earn a diploma. They should be able to demonstrate they are academically prepared, creative innovators, critical thinkers, effective communicators, global citizens, and “reflective and future focused.”

State officials have offered few specifics about how students will be expected to meet those criteria, though they have sketched some broad possibilities such as research projects and internships.

Chalkbeat wants to hear from school leaders and teachers: How will these changes affect what’s happening in your classrooms? What will moving away from the Regents exams mean for you and your students? What questions do you have?

New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels has signaled the Education Department plans to “ramp up” its work filling in the lines for the Portrait of a Graduate. He recently revamped his cabinet to include a new position for a high level official supervising high school leadership. It’s headed by Alan Cheng, who most recently oversaw Outward Bound schools, the Internationals Network serving newcomer immigrants, and New York Performance Standards Consortium schools, which require students to do performance-based assessments such as capstone projects or other presentations rather than Regents exit exams. Consortium schools could potentially serve as a model as the state overhauls graduation requirements.

“As Portrait of a Graduate starts to take shape, a New York City diploma needs to mean rigorous learning and genuine preparation for what is to come next,” Cheng said when his new role was announced.

Help us understand how schools are adapting to the changes by taking our survey.

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AI is already in classrooms. Tell us how you’re using it as we await NYC’s school playbook.

2026-03-17T20:09:38+00:00

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New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels has promised that a city policy on the use of artificial intelligence in schools will be coming shortly.

In the meantime, many educators have already been using a host of AI tools in their classrooms, and many students have come to rely on the technology to help them with their work.

Chalkbeat wants to know how AI is being used in your school and what you want the chancellor to know about it, the good and bad. Parents have raised concerns about safeguards, worried that the technology could lead to upticks in bullying, that it could erode critical thinking skills, and that it could compromise student privacy.

According to a RAND survey released Tuesday on using AI for homework, 67% of participating students (more than 1,200 young people between ages 12-29) said that using AI for schoolwork harmed critical thinking, up from 54% earlier in the year. Roughly 71% reported using at least one AI tool for school-related activities (including writing help, brainstorming, and fact-finding), and most students indicated their schools did not have rules for using AI for homework.

“Some of us as educators recognize that there’s some potential in AI to accelerate some learning,” Samuels said at a recent town hall meeting in Manhattan’s District 2. But he also said that the city’s guidance must be done in a “responsible” manner, with input from communities.

Miatheresa Pate, the city’s chief academic officer, described the forthcoming AI guidance as a “traffic-light approach for clarity around what we allow, what we absolutely will not allow,” as well as opportunities to “engage in case use studies around some of the positive things that are happening to support learners who need it most.”

Once the city releases its guidance, it plans to open a 45-day window for feedback from families, educators, and school leaders.

Help us understand what’s already happening with AI in schools — and what you’d like the city do — by taking our survey.

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Mayoral control fight? Mamdani’s former Albany colleagues set stage for showdown on who runs NYC schools

2026-03-10T20:40:39+00:00

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s old colleagues in Albany aren’t going to let him maintain control of New York City schools without a fight.

Though the former state assemblyman campaigned on ending mayoral control as a way to give families and educators more of a say over the nation’s largest education system, Mamdani recently reversed course. Now, he faces an uphill battle with lawmakers in Albany to let him hold onto that power. Neither the Senate nor the Assembly proposed extending Mamdani’s control of city schools in separate budget proposals they released this week despite Gov. Kathy Hochul pitching a four-year extension of it in her budget proposal.

The state’s final budget is due April 1.

Albany gave New York City’s mayor control of the education system more than 20 years ago and has extended it ever since. The governance model — which is set to sunset on June 30 — allows the mayor to unilaterally appoint the schools chancellor, select a majority of the city’s school board, and generally set the district’s policy direction.

As Mamdani has moved full steam ahead on his plan to bring free child care to the city’s 2-year-olds and bolster the free program for 3-year-olds, he has come to appreciate having centralized control over the vast system.

“We would not have been able to launch 2-K or begin to fix the issues plaguing 3-K without mayoral control,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Mayoral control is key to delivering our affordability agenda, and I look forward to continuing to work with leaders in Albany to secure its extension.”

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who built the city’s massive prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds in 2014, said he would not have been able to launch that initiative without mayoral control.

“This is something that would really lead the nation” de Blasio told Chalkbeat about Mamdani’s child care push. “He’s not going to be able to do it, especially not quickly, if he doesn’t have sufficient capacity to run the system.”

Hochul had asked for a four-year extension in 2024 as well. Ultimately, state legislators approved a two-year extension with some changes to the school board, known as the Panel for Educational Policy. (The board grew to 24 appointees, with the addition of a chair nominated by Albany officials and selected by the mayor.)

Because the mayor appoints a majority of the members, the board has long been considered a rubber stamp for the chief executive. But the panel has increasingly displayed an independent streak, repeatedly bucking City Hall under former Mayor Eric Adams.

Another tweak from Albany lawmakers: Panel members serve one-year terms that run through June. That resulted in Mamdani inheriting Adams’ appointees, putting the new mayor in an awkward position of not fully controlling the school board for his first six months in office.

Adams, at the end of his term, ceded some of his control of the Panel for Educational Policy and left office with two mayoral vacancies. Mamdani has yet to fill those openings.

Still, there have been some new additions to the panel, including Jonathan Collins, an assistant professor of political science and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. He was appointed by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal.

“It’s an honor to be able to serve the kids of our city,” Collins wrote on LinkedIn on Tuesday, “and in this particular moment, I welcome the opportunity to model what true democratic school governance can look like.”

Advocates have continued to press the mayor to follow through on his promise to make the system more responsive to students, parents, and teachers.

State Sen. John Liu, who chairs the New York City Education Committee, said extending mayoral control would hinge on the city coming up with a plan to shrink class sizes to comply with state law. He also said he is speaking with Mamdani about possible changes to make the system more democratic.

“I’m in discussion with the mayor about what the plan is for class size reduction and what he envisions as a way to increase stakeholder input into how our schools are run,” said Liu, who did not offer more details.

When previously revealing his reversal on mayoral control, Mamdani pledged to incorporate community involvement, restructure parent meetings for community education councils to increase participation and awareness of these elected bodies, and improve the role of parent coordinators to be “meaningful” parent organizers instead of principals’ administrative coordinators.

Hundreds of parent coordinators wrote to Chalkbeat with their ideas for the mayor. They want better pay, more respect, a clearer job description — and they want to be included in decisions made about their jobs.

Albany signals support for Foundation Aid increase

Though lawmakers might not be on board for Mamdani’s plea for extending mayoral control, they do seem aligned with him on changing the formula that makes up the bulk of school budgets, funnelling more money to high-need schools.

The two-decades-old Foundation Aid formula was tweaked last year, but many advocates and politicians said the changes weren’t significant enough. Both houses called to add additional weights to the formula for homeless students,those in foster care, and children learning English as a new language.

High-need districts like New York City — which had about 154,000 students in temporary housing last year — stand to benefit if those weights are added. City schools last year received $314 million less than they would have under the original formula.

Compared to Hochul’s proposal to increase Foundation Aid across the state to $27.1 billion next fiscal year, the Assembly called for $27.8 billion, Speaker Carl Heastie said, while the Senate called for $27.4 billion.

Correction: March 10, 2026: This story initially said that Jonathan Collins was appointed to the Panel for Educational Policy by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. In fact, he was appointed by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Kamar Samuels’ cabinet: Your guide to the Education Department’s new leadership team

2026-03-05T19:54:48+00:00

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New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced his top deputies Thursday, replacing some of the system’s top leaders while keeping several others.

Of his 11 cabinet members, all have deep roots in the nation’s largest school system — and six are staying in the roles they assumed under the previous administration.

Samuels named Danielle Giunta as first deputy. She will helm his cabinet and oversee a slew of key areas, ranging from academics to district leadership, including managing two newly created roles of supervising superintendents. One will supervise elementary and middle school superintendents and another will oversee high schools and alternative program superintendents.

“I spent two decades of my career in roles across NYC public schools — from math teacher to principal to superintendent — and I’ve seen many iterations of our organizational chart, iterations that often lacked cohesion, efficiency, and clarity,” Samuels told a packed audience at the Education Department’s Lower Manhattan headquarters. “I needed to make some structural changes.”

The changes Samuels announced on Thursday do not completely overhaul the system’s leadership. Simone Hawkins, the deputy chancellor of early childhood education, will keep her position — a key post as Mayor Zohran Mamdani prioritizes universal child care and shoring up the prekindergarten system. Kenita Lloyd will stay in her role as chief of staff, which she held under former chancellors Melissa Aviles-Ramos and David Banks. She previously worked with Banks to support the Eagle Academy network of public schools, which he helped launch.

Lloyd compared herself to a professional basketball player changing teams.

“The coaching philosophy shifts, culture evolves, and expectations have risen, yet the responsibility remains the same,” she said. “Elevate performance, protect the star, and help the team win.”

It remains to be seen whether Samuels will make other structural changes.

Former Chancellor Richard Carranza added a new layer of executive superintendents. Banks scrapped those positions and required all of the city’s local superintendents to reapply for their jobs.

Here are the new faces in Samuels’ cabinet.

First Deputy Chancellor: Danielle Giunta

As first deputy, Giunta will oversee district planning, enrollment, new school development, and policy as well as academics and instruction, with the two supervising superintendents, one for elementary and middle school, and the other for high school and alternative programs, reporting directly to her.

Giunta most recently served as the chief of school leadership development, tapped by Banks to fill that new role. Prior to that she spent about a decade as the superintendent of District 26, a high-performing and affluent part of Queens that includes Bayside, Douglaston, and Little Neck. She was a principal at P.S. 154 in Flushing.

Supervising Superintendent of Elementary and Middle Schools: Maribel Torres-Hulla

Supervising Superintendent of High Schools and D79: Alan Cheng

In these newly created roles, Torres-Hulla and Cheng will oversee the implementation of the city’s curriculum mandates, NYC Reads for literacy and NYC Solves for math. They will oversee work around career readiness and apprenticeship programs. And as the state is changing graduation requirements, the high school supervising superintendent will have a massive job helping schools figure out how to shift their practices.

Torres-Hulla, born in the Bronx and raised in Brooklyn, rose through the ranks from elementary school teacher to literacy coach, assistant principal, principal, deputy superintendent, and superintendent of the Bronx’s District 10. Most recently, she served as chief of school support, working with superintendents of 18 local school districts across Brooklyn and the Bronx to help them align instruction with citywide initiatives.

Cheng’s career has had a similar trajectory, starting as a math teacher and working his way up as a principal, deputy superintendent, and superintendent. He most recently has served as the superintendent for Outward Bound schools and international schools — serving newcomer immigrants — as well as New York Performance Standards Consortium schools, which require students to do performance-based assessments, such as capstone projects or other presentations rather than Regents exit exams. Consortium schools could potentially serve as a model as the state overhauls graduation requirements.

Former Deputy Chancellor for School Leadership Danika Rux previously oversaw all superintendents; she will no longer have a cabinet position and will advise the office of the general counsel. Samuels, who previously served two tours as local superintendent in Manhattan and Brooklyn, said the new roles are meant to help support superintendents as they navigate reading and math curriculum overhauls and implement a new set of graduation standards in the coming years.

Deputy Chancellor of the Division of Family Partnership & Community Support: Flavia Puello-Perdomo

Attendance, students in temporary housing and foster care, language access, school wellness and counseling programs, and community schools providing wraparound support will be among the areas that Puello-Perdomo will oversee. She will also be in charge of Family and Community Empowerment, or FACE, the office that supports parent leaders on parent-teacher associations, school leadership teams, and Community Education Councils — along with running the elections for these councils, which have been plagued by low turnout.

Puello-Perdomo most recently served as the chief of schools for the office of community supports and wellness where she worked across agencies to support community school programs, students in temporary housing and foster care, after-school, and summer programs. She also focused on attendance initiatives.

Deputy Chancellor of the Division of Finance, Administration, & Human Resources: Michael Cheatham will serve as acting deputy chancellor until June, when Lindsey Oates takes over

This role will be responsible for administrative services, finance, human resources, and procurement.

Cheatham previously served as a senior advisor to the chancellor and chief financial officer and as senior executive director and acting chief of finance and human resources for the Division of School Leadership. He’s currently also the Education Department’s interim chief savings officer, a role Mamdani established to find cost-efficiency strategies.

Oates previously served as the Education Department’s chief financial officer during the de Blasio administration. She’s currently the interim chief financial officer at the Legal Aid Society.

Here’s who is returning to their former post.

Chief of Staff Kenita Lloyd. Lloyd joined the Education Department as a deputy chancellor of family engagement under Banks. She was elevated to the chief of staff role in 2024, and Samuels is keeping her in that role.

Deputy Chancellor of the Division of Inclusive and Accessible Learning Christina Foti. The division oversees special education, multilingual learners, and District 75, a network of schools that serve students with more significant disabilities.

Deputy Chancellor of the Division of Early Childhood Education Simone Hawkins

Deputy Chancellor of the Division of School Operations Kevin Moran

Chief of Safety and Prevention Partnerships Mark Rampersant

Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel Liz Vladeck

Correction, March 5, 2026: Alan Cheng most recently oversaw Outward Bound schools, the Internationals School Network, and consortium schools.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Kamar Samuels to unveil new Education Department cabinet as old deputies exit

2026-03-05T02:17:12+00:00

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After two months helming New York City schools, Kamar Samuels is expected to announce his cabinet members on Thursday as top Education Department officials say their goodbyes.

Acting First Deputy Chancellor Isabel DiMola, the school system’s second in command, announced plans to retire in a Wednesday evening letter to staff. She was tapped to fill the role by former Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos after a previous top deputy, Dan Weisberg, stepped down.

Also leaving her post: Deputy Chancellor for School Leadership Danika Rux, who supervises 44 superintendents charged with directly managing principals. Rux oversaw the system’s reading and math curriculum overhauls, a major priority under former Mayor Eric Adams.

In a Wednesday letter announcing plans to step down, Rux said she is “excited to see Samuels deepen the work and build his team.” Samuels has previously said he plans to keep the literacy mandate changes in place but has suggested there could be tweaks to the math program.

Cristina Meléndez, the deputy chancellor of family, community, and student empowerment, had previously announced her departure.

The flurry of staff changes is not surprising, as Samuels is expected to assemble his own cabinet to replace the one he inherited from the prior administration. Any new appointees will play an important role implementing Samuels’ priorities. The new administration’s vision for the larger system remains a question mark, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said little about his plans for the city schools.

In a message to principals, Samuels wrote that he is making an announcement Thursday about the system’s “organizational structure” and planned to convene school leaders shortly after the official announcement.

In her letter to school staffers, DiMola reminisced about her 30 years in education. She started at the age of 22 teaching social studies at Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island, Brooklyn, working her way through the ranks as an assistant principal, principal, and superintendent. For 16 years, she served as the superintendent of Brooklyn’s District 21, the same district where she attended public schools growing up.

Rux also began her education career 30 years ago, starting as a teacher and working her way up from a school leader to superintendent.

“Each step along this path has strengthened my belief that leadership in education is ultimately about people,” she wrote in her farewell to staffers. “It is about the relationships we cultivate, the trust we build, and the collective responsibility we carry for the success of every student in our care.”

Rux is leaving her post as a deputy chancellor to become a senior advisor to the Education Department’s Office of the General Counsel, she wrote.

Former Chancellor Aviles-Ramos announced a new job of her own this week. She has a senior role at HMH, a curriculum company with strong ties to the school system, a move that has raised eyebrows.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC to launch ‘2-K’: Here are the neighborhoods getting free child care for 2-year-olds this fall

2026-03-03T16:30:00+00:00

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Neighborhoods in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens will be the first to get free seats for 2-year-olds this fall, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday.

Hochul committed $73 million to fund about 2,000 seats for the program’s first year. The following year, the state is planning to contribute $425 million to grow the program to 12,000 seats across all five boroughs by fall of 2027, officials said.

The program — which the city is calling 2-K — is eventually expected to provide free child care for 2-year-olds to any New York City family who needs it, regardless of ZIP code, income, or immigration status.

“Raising a child takes a village – and it takes a city government willing to step up and tackle the child care crisis head-on,” Mamdani said in a statement.

The initial round of programs aims to serve families in high-need neighborhoods, with an eye toward inclusive access for children with disabilities and families in temporary housing, officials said.

Here’s what you need to know about the program’s first year.

What communities are expected to get seats in September 2026?

• School District 6: Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights, and Inwood

• School District 10: Fordham, Belmont, Norwood, Morris Heights, Van Cortlandt Village, and Kingsbridge

• School Districts 18 and 23: Canarsie, Remsen Village, Brownsville, and Ocean Hill

• School District 27: Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Howard Beach, Woodhaven, and Rockaways

City officials said they will release further information on the specific providers in the weeks ahead.

The city used a host of criteria to select these first four communities areas, officials said, including economic need, projected child care demand, existing access gaps, provider capacity, and readiness to scale up seats.

The programs will rely heavily on the existing child care infrastructure, particularly with home-based providers. The city has no plans at this time to open programs in schools, officials said during an unrelated City Council oversight hearing on Monday focused on a series of bills related to early childhood education.

“As we think about the spaces that are most developmentally appropriate, healthy, safe for our youngest children, we know that that is most often our child care centers and our family child care providers,” Emmy Liss, head of the Office of Child Care at the New York City Mayor’s Office, told council members.

Will all children who turn 2 in the calendar year be eligible?

Yes, but with a caveat, Liss explained.

Children may need to be 2-years-old at the time they start the program, depending on the setting, because of health codes. That means those children with fall birthdays may not be able to start right away.

So while seats will open in September 2026, the city expects to have rolling admissions throughout the fall to accommodate toddlers turning 2 from Sept. 10 (which is the anticipated first day of school) through Dec. 31. (The city’s preschool programs enroll children who turn 3 or 4 in a given calendar year.)

Will it be a “full day?”

It’s not yet clear whether all programs will offer a “full day” similar to public schools, which is 6 hours and 20 minutes. It may depend on feedback from providers and parents.

“We want to understand the capacity that our providers have. We also want to understand family interests, which we know varies by community, from community to community,” Liss said. “We do anticipate many providers and families will want a full day, but we have left open the option.”

What will the child/teacher ratio look like?

The answer isn’t straightforward, officials said.

Like the city’s programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, all programs will have at least two teachers in the room. But the number of children depends on the settings since some home-based providers serve mixed ages, from infants to older kids. For a group that’s exclusively for 2-year-olds, there would be two teachers for every 12 students. (For infants, the capacity is around eight. For 3-year-olds, there’s a maximum of 15 children, for 4-year-olds, it’s 18.)

What about children with disabilities or who might need extra support?

City officials pledged to take into account toddlers who might have particular needs, and said they plan to have coaches as well as “inclusion specialists” to help train staff.

The 2-K programs will also work closely with the Education Department’s Division of Inclusive and Accessible Learning as well as the bureau of early intervention at the Health Department to “further tailor their coaching for staff,” Simone Hawkins, deputy chancellor of the Division of Early Childhood Education, told council members on Monday.

How will the city address child care workers’ low salaries?

As New York City grapples with salary disparities between prekindergarten teachers at its city-run programs versus those that operate in community based organizations with city funding, the issue of salaries for child care workers in the 2-K program remains a big concern.

Kellan Calder, an organizer with New Yorkers United for Child Care, praised the city’s approach in focusing on high-need neighborhoods, but told council members, “we want to make sure it’s done right, and that starts with paying providers fairly.”

Liss said the city is aware of the issue, noting that workers across the sector earn a wide range of salaries, but doesn’t yet have the answer.

“Broadly, child care workers in the city earn less than 96% of other professions, and that’s something we need to address,” Liss said.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC students clock about 130 fewer hours in class than national peers. It likely hurts learning.

2026-02-27T21:24:32+00:00

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Though New York City public schools spend well above average per student each year, kids in the five boroughs are on track this year to spend significantly less time in class than the national average — and that has potential consequences for learning.

Students are in school about a week less this year than the state’s required minimum of 180 days of instruction. That’s because of this week’s snow day (for which the city got a waiver from the state), four professional days where teachers are working while students are off, and as usual, two half days for spring and fall parent-teacher conferences.

While those days add up, the main driver in the disparity is the length of the city’s school day, lasting 6 hours and 20 minutes. Nationally, students are in school on average about 7 hours a day 179 days per year, according to a 2025 study that looked at federal school time data and analyzed more than 74 studies about the importance of total school time.

Making sure kids are in school is a top priority for the city’s new chancellor, Kamar Samuels, who pledged to focus on addressing chronic absenteeism. About 1 in 3 New York City children were chronically absent last year, which is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year. The chronic absenteeism rate is seen as a major predictor of performance since missing class means missing instruction.

“Folks need to understand that if we’re not in school your child is going to miss work,” Samuels previously told Chalkbeat.

New York City K-12 students with perfect attendance are on track this year to be in school for 1,102 hours. That’s about 20 fewer days than the national average, per the study, of about 1,231 hours in school each year.

And this doesn’t take into account all of the other times New York City students miss out on instruction due to testing and test prep for the math and reading assessments students take three times a year, the state tests for grades 3-8, and Regents exam days in the winter and spring when many high school students don’t attend school.

The quality and quantity of time spent in school both matter, said Matthew Kraft, one of the study’s authors and a professor of education and economics at Brown University.

“Overall the evidence strongly points to additional instructional time increasing student success in school,” Kraft said. “Of course, how much time you add, when you add it, and how it’s used also matter tremendously. But it is one of those necessary but not sufficient inputs into supporting a successful education.”

There’s wide variation in terms of the school day length between states and even within states, Kraft said, urging leaders to examine those disparities.

“I think that’s a really underappreciated element of inequity in our learning system that we don’t talk enough about,” he said. “Of course there are collective bargaining constraints and budgetary constraints, no doubt, and we can’t trivialize those, but it’s at least worth having a conversation about what we think would be best for kids.”

The state laws that set minimum learning time thresholds, he said, are just that: minimums.

“They are not what we should be targeting or aspiring to,” he suggested. “They set a floor that we should be moving beyond.”

Education Department officials reiterated that this year’s calendar met the state’s guidelines for calculating instructional time, which includes allowances for professional development, parent-teacher conferences, and Regents days.

“We also know that instructional time only matters if students are present,” Chyann Tull, an Education Department spokesperson, said in a statement. “That’s why NYC Public Schools continues to provide targeted support to schools and families and helping remove barriers to regular attendance.”

David Bloomfield, an education professor at Brooklyn College and The CUNY Grad Center, emphasized the importance of thinking about “the problems of continuity and opacity” in the school calendar, where interruptions are frequent. Out of 45 school weeks, he said, less than half — about 20 — have complete five-day weeks.

“What seems like 180 days isn’t really,” he said, adding, “A child’s individual calendar may differ from grade to grade, program to program because of testing and other non-instructional obligations.”

Bloomfield staunchly advocated for snow days, but he also believes the city should consider rethinking the calendar to add days at the start of the school year, before Labor Day.

Students return to school the Thursday after Labor Day. Given this year’s late holiday, schools aren’t expected to start until Sept. 10 for 2026-27.

“Since summer camps have already closed, most families would not be unnecessarily inconvenienced by the change,” Bloomfield recently wrote in an op-ed. “The main impediment would be union agreement, a difficult but not impossible challenge for the new administration to overcome.”

Neither the union nor the Education Department responded to questions about next year’s calendar.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Dylan’s mom goes to Washington: Mother of detained Bronx student joins Schumer at State of Union

2026-02-23T23:02:01+00:00

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As President Donald Trump touts his accomplishments in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, one woman in the audience is meant to serve as a reminder of how his immigration policies have taken a toll on families and school communities.

Raiza Contreras, the Bronx mother whose son was the first known New York City public school student detained by immigration agents, is expected to attend the Washington, D.C. event as the guest of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York.

Raiza has fought to bring her son, Dylan Lopez Contreras, home since his arrest nearly nine months ago at his routine immigration court hearing in Manhattan. Schumer’s invitation to Dylan’s mom comes as Democrats remain in a protracted standoff with Republicans and the Trump administration about placing limits on immigration enforcement tactics.

At the time of his arrest, Dylan was a student at Ellis Preparatory Academy in the Bronx, a school serving recent immigrants that rallied to his defense. ELLIS has continued to support him however they can, as well as their other students, many of whom are grappling with their own immigration cases. Dylan was also working part time as a delivery driver to help his mother care for his two younger siblings, enabling them to move out of a city-run shelter and into their own apartment.

Dylan was trying to do everything right and follow the rules: He turned himself in at the U.S. border in April 2024 after a trek from his native Venezuela, eventually making his way to New York. He requested asylum and was permitted to enter the country under a Biden-era program revoked by Trump that was meant to formalize and streamline the process of entering the country. He legally obtained a work permit and applied for Special Immigration Juvenile Status, a type of legal protection for youth.

He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in May at a routine court date and has spent most of the time since at Pennsylvania’s Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest detention facility in the Northeast. In September, he lost his asylum case after facing a judge with a 95.8% denial rate, his lawyers said. After his lawyers appealed, Dylan remained detained at Moshannon Valley.

As his appeal remains pending, his lawyers from the New York Legal Assistance Group are also litigating a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Western District of Pennsylvania, where Dylan is being held. His lawyers claim Dylans’ detention is unconstitutional and violates immigration laws.

“He has been detained for 8.5 months and is being held in Pennsylvania, far from everyone who loves him,” Raiza, his mother, said in a statement. “All he wants is the chance to study and build a future. I am simply asking for fairness and for my son to be brought home.”

Schumer said his guest showed how ICE was “hurting families and terrorizing communities” across the country. “When someone complies with the law and appears before a judge, they should not leave in handcuffs,” he said in a statement.

Schumer and his colleagues have been calling for urgent reforms of ICE enforcement, including prohibiting agents at sensitive locations like schools and courts, banning the use of masks during enforcement, and strengthening oversight and coordination with state and local authorities. Federal immigration agents need guardrails and accountability measures to stop them from causing chaos in communities, he and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, recently wrote in a letter to Republican leadership. Republicans are mixed on supporting the changes outlined, with most opposing getting rid of masks, according to reports.

Dylan’s legal team from the New York Legal Assistance Group hasn’t given up on trying to return him to his family in the Bronx.

“NYLAG is working tirelessly to get Dylan home to his mom, his siblings, and his school, but unfortunately, the federal government is fighting tooth and nail to prevent him from even having a modicum of due process,” said Kate Fetrow, associate supervising attorney in the group’s immigration protection unit.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC gets ‘old school’ snow day as blizzard targets city, Mamdani says

2026-02-22T18:01:52+00:00

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New York City schools will get a traditional snow day on Monday as the area braces for 18-24 inches of snow and blizzard-like conditions, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Sunday.

In a surprising move, the school system will not pivot to remote learning as it did last month. The state granted it a waiver to have an old-school snow day, Mamdani said.

“We believe that there are a unique set of extenuating circumstances,” the mayor said about the request for the waiver.

The city is enacting a travel ban from 9 p.m. Sunday to noon on Monday as part of declaring a state of emergency, Mamdani said.

New York City had stopped having traditional snow days in 2020, deciding that schools could instead offer remote learning to help meet the mandated 180 instructional days as more holidays have been added to the calendar.

And as holidays have crowded the calendar, the city has relied on state regulations that allow certain professional development days to count toward the total number of instructional days. This year, the city is counting four such days as instruction, leaving students in class for just 176 days this year. But the city was able to get the OK for one more day off without having to pay a fiscal penalty, the mayor said.

It’s the second major storm in less than a month. But Sunday’s storm — expected to be the most serious in a decade — threw some wrenches, making it more complicated for schools to make sure students were prepared with devices at home.

The storm’s late-breaking nature meant that school leaders didn’t get communications from the Education Department until Friday night. Officials told principals they would get overtime pay to open up their buildings over the weekend to distribute devices to students in need. But since schools had been out all week on midwinter recess, some families and educators were out of town, making it harder to spring into action.

“Timing is everything,” schools chancellor Kamar Samuels said on Sunday. “Students and staff have been out of buildings for the last week, and many are still out of town and out of the country. Given this, along with the severe nature of this weather event, we do not believe providing remote instruction tomorrow would be effective.”

Samuels said his high school junior approved of the move for a traditional snow day.

Snow days, whether traditional or remote learning, can be hard, however, on some families who need child care or for students who rely on schools for hot meals.

“Having a traditional snow day is the right decision,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers.

In a message to union members, he wrote that the UFT joined the city’s call for a waiver on the 180-school day policy. “New York State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa granted the waiver for several reasons including the fact that a travel ban will be in effect in the city, and that students and staff are unlikely to have the equipment they need for a day of remote learning,” Mulgrew wrote.

While the Education Department acknowledged “minor hiccups” during January’s remote day, there didn’t appear to be widespread issues. That day, however, may have benefited from the fact that a big chunk of students were already scheduled to be off: Only about 500,000 of the city’s nearly 900,000 students were required to report to virtual classrooms since high schools and schools serving grades 6-12 had a staff development day.

City officials said they had been working with IT vendors to conduct load testing to ensure systems are fully ready for remote learning and that they recently completed load testing for up to 1.2 million logins. The city had faced a technical meltdown from two years ago when snow forced schools to go remote and many students and teachers were unable to log on, despite efforts to practice in advance.

Instead of grappling with potential tech issues, Mamdani had a message for students about the snow day: “To kids across New York City, you have a very serious mission, if you choose to accept it.”

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Deputy chancellor for family engagement is stepping down. Will a broader reshuffle follow?

2026-02-18T21:48:16+00:00

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As New York City school insiders eagerly await to see how the new chancellor reshuffles top brass, the Education Department has its first high-profile departure.

Cristina Meléndez, the deputy chancellor of family, community, and student empowerment, is leaving her post on Feb. 27, she wrote in an email to parent leaders on Wednesday, thanking them for their work.

“The most important thing you can do is stay engaged in your schools and keep building your child’s confidence day by day, conversation by conversation, and moment by moment,” she wrote. “That steady belief you offer your child becomes their strength.”

She did not say where she planned to head next. Education Department officials did not respond to questions about her replacement or whether the departure is related to a broader cabinet shakeup.

“We look forward to sharing more soon,” Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said in a statement commending Meléndez for her service.

Meléndez assumed her role as deputy chancellor more than a year ago, after serving as the executive director of the Education Department’s Office of Family and Community Empowerment, known as FACE, which among other things, oversees the Community Education Council elections.

The elections have had notoriously low turnout, with roughly 18,000 households, or just 2% of eligible families, casting ballots in 2025. A 2023 Chalkbeat investigation highlighted numerous concerns in how FACE conducted the election process, uncovering how the office was gripped internally by turmoil and factions, potentially affecting the election process. A New York City comptroller report called on the Education Department to implement a series of changes in the voting process, but the participation rate remained unchanged.

“It’s indefensible what happened with the election,” said Robert Murtfeld, a former Community Education Council member in Manhattan’s District 1, who runs an advocacy committee at The Neighborhood School.

Given Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pledge to include families in governance of the nation’s largest school system, Murtfeld suggested there’s an opportunity to find someone who can engage not only the estimated 1.6 million current parents in the system but also include millions more alumni.

“It needs to be someone who is inspiring,” he said. “It can’t be a bureaucratic robot.”

Meléndez took over at FACE in January 2022 after serving as a lead on the education transition team for former Mayor Eric Adams.

A former bilingual education teacher in the Bronx and assistant principal, Meléndez earned a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania in educational leadership. While there, she wrote a thesis entitled “Dominican parenting across generations” and examined difficulties the city had engaging Black and Latino parents.

Before that, Meléndez served as a district supervisor for the city’s controversial renewal initiative aimed to turn around failing schools, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Engineer or entrepreneur? NYC parents want career aptitude assessments for high schoolers

2026-02-12T23:13:35+00:00

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As New York City schools ramp up their focus on job readiness programs, a parent board overseeing high schools is calling on the Education Department to implement career aptitude assessments for all ninth and 11th graders.

“It helps with the ever popular question of ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’” said Lawrence Lee, one of the sponsors of the resolution the Citywide Council on High Schools passed this week. “It’s a big world with lots of different options and choices. I think many people look around and think their choices are only what they can see around them.”

New York City schools, like other schools across the state and nation, are increasingly focusing on career education. There are more than 130 career and technical schools plus over 260 career and technical programs offering internships, apprenticeships, and job-focused courses across the five boroughs. But often, students are left to navigate a complicated application process without guidance on how various programs, electives, internships, career and technical tracks, and postsecondary paths might align with long-term goals, the high school council board members said. They believe the career aptitude assessments can help students reflect on their choices to improve how they select courses and work toward real-world goals.

“By 11th grade, those decisions directly affect college applications, workforce credentials, and financial planning. Rather than leave those moments to chance, these assessments can give students the agency to better understand their own talents and to see multiple futures for themselves,” said Deborah Alexander, one of the resolution’s sponsors.

Education Department officials said they will review the resolution, but added they currently use platforms that offer interactive career exploration activities and generate tailored career options based on students’ interests.

“This career planning is also embedded in 1:1 advising, ensuring each high schooler receives personalized support in mapping out their next steps,” Education Department spokesperson Isla Gething said in a statement.

The high school council members want students to take “developmentally appropriate, research‐based” assessments in the fall of freshman year and spring of junior year, saying it will help provide more guidance especially for students from historically underserved communities and those learning English as a new language.

“Some students grow up surrounded by professionals who talk openly about their work and pathways, but many do not,” Alexander said. “That difference can shape who sees themselves as an engineer, a nurse, a filmmaker, an entrepreneur, or who never considers those possibilities at all.”

The online career assessment industry has exploded in recent years: An estimated 47% of high schools and 40% of middle schools across the country use off-the-shelf advising tools from more than 20 companies, and many others use custom tech tools.

Some research suggests that career aptitude tools can help students better understand their strengths, exposing them to career possibilities that might otherwise not have been on their radar. Some experts suggest the tech tools can also help erode gender and other biases, when it comes to career advice.

But evidence of how effective these tools are remains scarce, which is why education research organization MDRC has embarked on a long-term analysis of two of the tech tools, expecting to release results in the summer. Though the tools offer schools a way to advise students without having to hire more counselors — doing deep dives into what kinds of careers fit a student’s aptitudes and personality as well as what kind of degree to pursue and potential salary ranges — they often need adult support to assist with interpretation, said Rachel Rosen, a senior research associate at MDRC.

“They’re not perfect,” Rosen said of the tools. “They are better if there is a teacher or an adult who will take the information and really work closely with the students on understanding how it can help them think creatively about what the tools are saying.”

While MDRC researchers don’t yet have definitive answers on whether the tool helped reduce bias, they did find that by the time students take the assessments, they already have some of their own assumptions about who they are and what kinds of careers they might do, Rosen said.

“They felt like they knew themselves better than the tool,” she said, and while the tools still had potential, “they need some good adult guidance to go with them.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Safety, academic rigor, integration: Kamar Samuels embarks on 5-borough tour to discuss priorities

2026-02-05T22:16:39+00:00

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Before becoming the chancellor of the nation’s largest school system last month, Kamar Samuels was a superintendent, first in Brooklyn and then in Manhattan, where he developed a reputation for his listening skills.

Now Samuels plans to embark on a five-borough tour to hear from students, parents, and educators on how to better include them in the decision-making process, especially when it comes to his main priorities: safety, academic rigor, and integration. Other Education Department staffers will be on hand to answer questions about special education, enrollment, language access, and more, officials said.

Each borough will host two sessions, one on a Tuesday and one on a Saturday. After the 10 sessions wrap up, the Education Department plans to release a report based on the feedback gathered during the events’ roundtable discussions as well as a “long-term roadmap” for the city’s school, officials said. It’s something of a rite of passage for new chancellors, who have previously embarked on similar listening tours and issued reports about what they heard.

“These conversations are about fundamentally changing how we make decisions by ensuring that those closest to our students have a real seat at the table,” Samuels said in a statement.

Several controversial topics will likely come up, including Samuels’ record of merging schools as a way to tackle low enrollment and integrate students from different backgrounds. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has indicated his support for bolstering diversity in New York City schools, which is one of the nation’s most segregated school systems.

Samuel’s approach to gifted and talented programs is also sure to attract heated debate. When he was in charge of Brooklyn’s District 13, he helped several schools move away from gifted programs, responding to a groundswell of support from families who were concerned about the relative lack of Black and Latino students in such classrooms, and he instead encouraged schools to create International Baccalaureate programs, bringing academic enrichment to entire schools rather than just a subset of classes.

Mamdani has also expressed wanting to rethink the city’s gifted programs, particularly the practice of admitting students into the programs in kindergarten. Most programs across the nation start when kids are older, and in recent years, New York City has opened new programs starting in third grade.

Several parents and educators who have worked with Samuels are quick to point out that the chancellor is unlikely to simply take something away without providing other compelling options. In Manhattan’s District 3, which he most recently oversaw, Samuels tried to tackle enrollment declines in Harlem — where a large percentage of families go to charters — through mergers along with bringing new programs.

Michelle Lee, who sits on the parent council for Manhattan’s District 3 and formerly served as PTA president at Anderson, a gifted and talented K-8 school that draws students from across the city, said parents were leery when Samuels took the helm of their district.

But when Samuels held a town hall for the school to discuss bringing back screens for the middle school, families were “pleasantly surprised” that he wanted to engage with them.

“I think he sees the validity of why there is a segment of the student population that needs to have accelerated learning, and he understands that,” Lee said. “He does believe in providing opportunities for children and different types of learners.”

But she also had some suggestions about ending gifted for kindergartners in favor of starting in third grade: Few parents would want to pull their children from their elementary school for a program lasting third to fifth grade, she said. They would, however, potentially consider a third through eighth grade program, allowing them to skip the middle school application process.

It remains to be seen whether Samuels’ can translate his listening approach from a more local level to the system writ large and how he’ll be able to synthesize feedback from families with competing needs from 1,600 schools across the city.

Meghan Dunn, District 13’s superintendent who had been Samuels’ deputy superintendent when they started pursuing the International Baccalaureate, said the idea grew out of conversations with families.

Dunn said Samuels was intentional about cultivating relationships with families — in his capacity as a fellow parent of children in the school system and as a superintendent. “He called it,” Dunn said, “the playground superintendent.”

Here’s the schedule for the chancellor’s listening tour, dubbed, “Our Schools. Our Future: Conversations with the Chancellor:”

Queens, March 17, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Queens Innovation Center, 53-16 Northern Boulevard

Brooklyn, March 24, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

John Dewey High School, 2471 Stillwell Ave.

Bronx, March 28, 10:30 a.m. to noon

Roosevelt Educational Campus, 500 East Fordham Road

Staten Island, April 11, 10:30 a.m. to noon

Curtis High School, 105 Hamilton Ave.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

This award-winning South Bronx teacher creates ‘living labs’ (and helps design Regents exams)

2026-02-04T20:02:20+00:00

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In New York, classroom educators often help create state assessments. Few however, are from New York City, like Bronx earth science teacher Carolina Castro-Skehan.

Since 2018, she has been working as an educational specialist with the New York State Department of Education, trekking to Albany to help develop the New York State Earth and Space Science Regents exams.

“The experience offers a true behind-the-scenes look at how the exams are designed and aligned to the standards,” Castro-Skehan said. “That insight is invaluable and has made me a stronger classroom teacher and a better mentor to other educators.”

But her path as an educator was not a straightforward one.

After college, Carolina Castro-Skehan worked for a New York City-based cosmetic company. It was fast-paced and even glamorous at times, she said. She used her biology and business background to understand the science behind the products and how they were marketed.

Then came the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and her job began to feel “empty.”

Award-winning Bronx earth science teacher Carolina Castro-Skehan.

She pivoted to teaching, landing 24 years ago at DeWitt Clinton High School, the same public school she attended as a student. For the past five years, Castro-Skehan has been at Comprehensive Model School Project in the South Bronx, where she is the science department chair and teaches earth science to freshmen and sophomores.

To bring earth science to life, Castro-Skehan’s students participate in real-world projects such as growing produce for the school community or local food banks through a hydroponics program with NY Sun Works. She was recently recognized by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers with an “Outstanding Earth Science Teacher”award for both New York state and the Eastern Section for her sustainability and environmental projects.

Castro-Skehan also continually seeks out professional development opportunities and fellowships taking her into the field. She’s explored the Jurassic Coast in England, studied dinosaur fossils at dig sites in Montana, and sailed on an ocean drilling ship to learn how core samples reveal Earth’s past environments.

“Staying curious and continuing to learn alongside my students,” she said, “is what keeps my teaching meaningful and my classroom a place where curiosity thrives.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

My favorite lesson is our rain garden and street tree unit, which is really our core lesson on green infrastructure. It starts with a real problem students see every day: flooding around our school.

In the classroom, students build water filters and explore porosity and permeability, seeing firsthand why some surfaces absorb water while others don’t. Then we move outside. Students study the compacted soil around our street trees, loosen it, add fresh soil and native plants, and observe how healthier ground improves infiltration after storms.

Street flooding becomes becomes a way to teach geology, hydrology, ecosystems, and community action all at once. Throughout the year, students return to the same sites, observe changes after rainfall, and use what they’ve learned to argue for greener, better-draining spaces around our school.

Tell us how you approach teaching challenging scientific concepts particularly for students who are simultaneously learning English as a new language.

Hands-on, real-world science lessons are especially important for students who are learning English as a new language. When we teach through phenomena, students don’t have to wait until they’ve mastered scientific vocabulary to participate. They can jump in right away by observing, questioning, and making sense of what they see, which isn’t limited by language.

This kind of learning also allows students to participate from the start by sharing their own lived experiences. For example, when we study hurricanes or earthquakes, many students bring in personal experiences from events like Hurricanes Maria or Sandy, or earthquakes they experienced while living in the Caribbean. They talk about how their families prepared, what worked, and what they think could have been done better. Those conversations become the foundation for learning the science behind these events.

Language develops naturally as students explain their thinking, listen to one another, and refine their ideas.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom?

The area around my school is heavily urban. We’re crisscrossed by major highways and surrounded by heavy traffic, auto repair shops, and very little green space. Air quality is poor, flooding is common, and dilapidated concrete dominates the landscape. This is the reality my students walk through every day, and it shapes not only what I teach, but how I teach.

We talk about why our neighborhood looks the way it does, including the legacy of urban planning decisions associated with people like Robert Moses, that prioritized highways and automobile access over existing communities, public transit, and quality of life, particularly in marginalized neighborhoods. From there, we focus on what can be done to make it better.

How did you start working with the NY Sun Works hydroponics program? And how has that helped your school’s community while also giving hands-on learning experiences to your students?

I first became involved with the NY Sun Works hydroponics program through my work as a Master Teacher with Math for America. During a workshop at DeWitt Clinton High School, I saw how deeply students were engaged in growing food while learning the science behind it.

They were testing systems, collecting data, and producing nutritious food for their school community. I wanted to bring that experience to my own school.

Hydroponics labs are bright, active spaces filled with water, light, and growing plants that transform a dry classroom into a living lab. If I couldn’t green the space outside our school, I thought, maybe I could do it inside a classroom. That idea became a reality in our high school, where the hydroponics lab is now one of our most popular and successful science electives.

Because of that success, I worked with the development director of NY Sun Works, Megan Nordgrén, who helped identify a grant opportunity and supported me in writing the proposal, to expand the program into our middle school. With the support of my principal, Ms. Ricci, and approval from City Council member Althea Stevens, the project was allocated $200,000 in funding. In June 2025, we received confirmation that, once the budget passes, the School Construction Authority will fully fund the construction of the new lab in partnership with NY Sun Works.

The new middle school hydroponics lab will allow students to begin this learning earlier and will be named in honor of Jacob Pimentel, a beloved student who passed away in 2024 and was one of the first participants in our high school hydroponics program.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

When I think back on my own learning in high school, the most memorable experiences were the ones where I was given opportunities to lead my own learning with the support of a teacher. Those were the moments when I felt most engaged, challenged, and confident because I wasn’t just receiving information, I was actively making sense of it.

That experience shapes how I teach today. I try to create classrooms where students have ownership over their learning, where they’re encouraged to ask questions, investigate real problems, and take intellectual risks, knowing there’s a teacher there to guide and support them.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC 3-K and pre-K applications: 50,000 families apply in 2 weeks

2026-01-30T22:56:12+00:00

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New York City received more than 50,000 applications for its free preschool programs in just two weeks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Friday.

That number is about half of the total applications the city received last year for its 3-K and prekindergarten programs — some 94,840. But families of 3- and 4-year-olds still have nearly a month to apply, and many families often wait until the end of the application window since applications are not accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Applications remain open through Feb. 27.

“Every child deserves access to free, high quality childcare – and we’re making sure families across the city know that now is the time to enroll in 3-k and pre-K,” Mamdani said in a statement.

Mamdani seems to be taking a page from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s playbook, when the former mayor launched the city’s massive free pre-K program a decade ago and made outreach a major focal point. De Blasio’s administration mounted a door-to-door campaign to get the word out, particularly in low-income neighborhoods where families were less familiar with the city’s new offerings, and staffers called families of 4-year-olds across the city to encourage them to apply.

Former Mayor Eric Adams, however, did not focus as much on outreach, complained City Council members, who fought for more funding to improve getting the word out about the programs to families. Last year, about 1 in every 5 seats for the city’s free child care programs for children ages 4 and under, or more than 27,000 of roughly 136,000 seats, went unfilled, according to city data.

The new mayor has a vested interest in making sure application numbers are healthy: Not only did he vow to strengthen the city’s 3-K program and ensure that it’s truly universal, showing the demand for the city’s existing programs will help shore up support for his 2-Care program for the city’s 2-year-olds.

In her recent executive budget proposal, Gov. Kathy Hochul pledged to spend $73 million to help New York City roll out its 2-Care program and committed to invest $500 million over two years in the program. The city is aiming to create 2,000 new child care seats for 2-year-olds in high-need areas of the city in the fall, then grow to 8,000 seats the following year, and reach all of the city’s 2-year-olds by the end of Mamdani’s first term.

On Friday, Mamdani visited a home-based child care provider in Manhattan’s Chinatown as a way to show his commitment to the providers who operate out of home and often offer care that is culturally and linguistically responsive to families in their communities.

The administration will likely have to rely heavily on home-based providers to scale up its 2-Care program, which will pose many logistical hurdles. That workforce is still reeling from losing kids to 3-K and pre-K programs and the COVID pandemic. More recently, the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts have affected the immigrant-heavy workforce, advocates and providers have said.

Emmy Liss, a former de Blasio administration staffer who is heading the mayor’s Office of Child Care, acknowledged that not all home-based providers fared well in the rollout of the city’s 3-K and pre-K programs.

“We want to work closely in partnership with them in this next phase of work, because we cannot do this work without them,” Liss previously told Chalkbeat.

Families can apply to 3-K and pre-K online through myschools.nyc or by calling 718-935-2009. City officials said any family that applies by the deadline will receive an offer.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

No meltdown, just ‘hiccups’: How NYC schools handled a remote snow day

2026-01-26T22:48:58+00:00

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As Bronx social studies teacher Seth Gilman sipped his coffee and prepared to log on for a day of virtual teaching, he was met with an error message.

At first, he worried it would be a repeat of a disastrous pivot to remote learning during a 2024 snowstorm.

“Oh no, not again,” he thought to himself. But within about 20 minutes, his school had resolved the issue and he logged in to Google Classroom, the platform schools use to share schedules and Zoom links.

“Once we got the classroom up and running, it was fine,” Gilman said.

Unlike two years ago when they pivoted to remote, New York City schools did not see a systemwide meltdown, but pockets of families and educators from across the city shared instances of glitches and snafus. Many of the issues seemed to be resolved quickly. School buildings will reopen for regular instruction on Tuesday, city officials announced Monday afternoon.

The switch to remote learning on Monday in the wake of a major snowstorm represented an early logistical challenge for the nation’s largest school system under Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his schools chief, Kamar Samuels, who took office earlier this month.

About 395,000 students and their families were able to log in for virtual learning, according to preliminary figures city officials provided Monday afternoon. Officials estimated that 79% of students logged on for at least some virtual learning.

About 500,000 of the city’s nearly 900,000 students were required to report to virtual classrooms. High school students and those attending 6-12 schools had a previously scheduled day off for staff training.

“Things have gone very well this morning — it was a smooth start to the day,” Samuels told reporters during a Monday morning press conference.

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein later acknowledged there were “minor hiccups” as families logged on but emphasized the agency’s technical support line fielded a similar number of complaints as a typical school day.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the 200,000-member United Federation of Teachers, gave the mayor an ‘A’ for his handling of the snow storm. “The one glitch seemed to be Google. They had the same notice as our students, parents, and teachers, so they need to do better.”

As the storm approached, Mamdani seemed to entertain the idea of a traditional snow day, though he later admitted there is no room in the school calendar to do that without running afoul of the state’s mandated number of instructional days.

Schools snapped into gear, distributing devices to students, offering reminders about how to log on to virtual classrooms, and sending home paper worksheets in case families ran into tech problems. Some schools tried to recreate a regular day on Zoom while others emphasized independent work or review lessons.

Attendance was lower than usual in many classrooms, according to teachers and families as well as Education Department figures. Some schools built time into the schedule for students to enjoy the snow.

Gilman, who works at the High School for Teaching and the Professions, said he was impressed with how many students showed up to virtual classes. Still, he stuck to a more “discussion-based lesson” in part to avoid leaving students behind who were absent. (Though most high schools were not in session, Gilman’s school runs on a different calendar through a program that grants exceptions to the teachers union contract.)

Tech problems and tiny victories with remote learning

The Education Department may not have melted down, but some parents did.

Chris Ninman, who has a third grader at P.S. 889 in Brooklyn, tried to help his son log into Google Classroom, but said the server was down. Then he wasn’t able to sign into Zoom from his son’s school-issued Chromebook. Things worked better when he switched from the Chromebook to Ninman’s own computer.

Once he was successfully logged in, Ninman thought his son’s teachers did a good job with remote learning. There was a live, 40-minute reading instruction, with other synchronous lessons scheduled throughout the day.

“I’d rather they just called it a snow day,” Ninman said. “But if you’re going to do school, do it right.”

Liz Groeschen, a mom who took her two sons to Prospect Park Monday morning, said that getting into her second grader’s morning Zoom meeting was just the first challenge. She had to page through multiple websites that were nested in each other.

Groeschen read aloud to a reporter from this morning’s chat in her classroom parent group:

“So you search for FUN HUB inside Google Classroom?” one parent wrote. “No,” another parent replied. “We had to log in through the browser, not the app, and then search for FUN HUB in the search bar.”

“Did you disable the popup blockers?” a third parent asked.

“P.E. is a slide show? The 21st century is crap.”

Tiffany Rodriguez-Noel's sixth grader, who attends P.S. 191 in Manhattan, works on a laptop.

Tiffany Rodriguez-Noel, a Manhattan mother with four children in city public schools, said her sixth-grade son struggled to log into his new school-issued Chromebook for remote instruction. He wound up propping his phone up on a laptop with his PlayStation 5 screen tantalizingly close by.

Despite grumbles from her sixth grader about having to wake up early and log on for school, Rodriguez-Noel said her son’s homeroom teacher at P.S. 191 made it easy, sending out a clear schedule with links. The school also sent home hard copies of assignments, saving him from typing into his phone.

“It’s actually pretty smooth,” Rodriguez-Noel said.

She decided not to log her kindergarten twins on for remote instruction, though, because they are hyperactive and have speech delays, and she felt they wouldn’t get much out of it. Her high school child spent the day working on college applications.

Her sixth-grade son’s school planned a half day of instruction, giving the family time to have fun outside. “I’m taking him to Central Park to sled down this rock we’ve been waiting to do since 2021,” she said.

Some families yearn for traditional snow day

Brooklyn dad Steven Mahoney, refused to log on for his 10-year-old son who is non-verbal and attends a school in District 75, which serves children with significant disabilities.

“The regression that I witnessed in my child during the remote/hybrid learning was heartbreaking,” Mahoney said of virtual instruction during the pandemic.

Since he and his wife had to work on Monday, their son’s sitter took him to a nearby park and then got hot chocolate.

Sledding at Brooklyn's Prospect Park on Monday.

Brooke Young, a Brooklyn mom, said her son’s 3-K teachers told parents their kids didn’t need to log on, and instead they gave families suggestions of snowy day activities. Many of the suggestions, however, like dyeing snow different colors, seemed too labor intensive, she noted.

Young helped her daughter log on from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. for her first grade class and then again from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., while she herself logged onto work meetings. After that, they went to Prospect Park for sledding, with a plan to return to Zoom for an end-of-day meeting for her first grader, who attends P.S. 321.

If her kids were older and had “real attention spans” for Zoom meetings, remote learning could have been more productive, said Young, who struggled to balance her own job with having to mute and unmute her daughter on Zoom. She would have preferred just putting on an educational PBS show.

Ultimately, Young was grateful to spend time with her kids outside.

“I remember the joy myself of having a snow day,” she said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Abigail Kramer is a reporter in New York City. Contact Abigail at akramer@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools pivot to remote learning Monday during snowstorm, Mamdani says

2026-01-25T15:34:11+00:00

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New York City public schools are going remote on Monday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed on Sunday as the snowfall was predicted to reach 6-10 inches.

All school programs are canceled, including after school and adult education, the mayor said. Charter schools and private schools make their own decisions about whether to close buildings and pivot to remote learning. Students in high schools and schools serving grades 6-12 were already scheduled to be off for professional development.

“As snowfall begins to blanket our city and conditions become hazardous, closing school buildings is a necessary step to keep New Yorkers safe,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Over the past week, my administration has prepared for this moment – ensuring devices are in hand, families are informed and educators are ready to welcome students online.”

The transition to remote learning for roughly 500,000 of the city’s 884,000 students represents the first major operational challenge for the Education Department under the new administration.

The mayor and schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels briefed the city on Friday, letting families know that school buildings would either remain open or classes would pivot to remote learning, but that a traditional snow day was off the table because the city needs to meet a certain number of instructional days under state law.

But Samuels also said that schools could be flexible in how they approached the day.

“No one is asking kids to be on a device for six hours and 20 minutes,” Samuels said on Friday. “Some learning will be synchronous. Some will be asynchronous. You can still have your hot chocolate; you can still go out and enjoy the snow.”

Many schools asked their families and staffers to practice logging into remote learning platforms over the weekend to avoid glitches on Monday. Education Department officials also encouraged school leaders to stagger school start times for each grade level by 15-minute increments “to ensure a smooth login experience,” according to a letter to principals obtained by Chalkbeat.

When in-person classes were canceled because of snow two years ago, a technical meltdown prevented many students and teachers from logging on despite efforts to practice in advance. The Education Department subsequently conducted another drill but it was optional, and many students seemed to have opted out.

Samuels said the city “stress tested” the system for remote learning, most recently in December.

“We’ve increased the capacity to make sure that we can house as many students as possible on that day,” Samuels said. “So we now have the capacity of having a million students logging at the same time within 60 seconds.”

City officials advised families needing technical support to visit selfservice.schools.nyc or contact their school directly.

Tell us how Monday goes for you and your child or students: ny.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

No traditional snow day for NYC: Mamdani says Monday classes will be in-person or remote

2026-01-23T15:44:16+00:00

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Sorry kids, New York City students will still not have a traditional snow day, no matter how many inches fall.

School will be in session on Monday, whether in-person or remote, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Friday as he provided an update on the preparations for a potentially massive winter storm heading to the area over the weekend.

The mayor said he will make the final decision by noon on Sunday whether classes will pivot to remote learning. The city is also canceling Sunday’s Public School Athletic League activities as well as any other Sunday school events.

“I have to apologize to the students that we’re hoping for a different answer for a traditional snow day,” Mamdani said during a press briefing on the storm, acknowledging that the city has no flexibility in its calendar to cancel instructional days.

New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the city was committed to swiftly sharing information about schools.

“We know that families need timely, clear information to plan their schedules,” Samuels said.

He also said that schools will be flexible in their approach to remote learning.

“No one is asking kids to be on a device for six hours and 20 minutes,” Samuels said. “Some learning will be synchronous. Some will be asynchronous. You can still have your hot chocolate, you can still go out and enjoy the snow.”

Education Department officials are encouraging students and staff to log in to remote learning platforms over the weekend to make sure they can connect and to avoid technical glitches Monday morning, according to a letter to principals obtained by Chalkbeat. School leaders were also encouraged to stagger school start times for each grade level by 15-minute increments “to ensure a smooth login experience,” the email states.

The National Weather Service is predicting up to 14 inches in the metropolitan region, and the city is gearing up. Schools across the five boroughs are reaching out to their students to ensure they have devices and understand how to log on in the event of a remote school day.

This is the first major logistical test for the mayor and his new chancellor. A big chunk of the city’s nearly 900,000 students — all high school students and those attending 6-12 schools — already had the day off for a teacher professional development day. But the day might be complicated for many parents of young children: They might be frustrated with remote learning and prefer that their kids play outside, or they might be scrambling for child care, especially if they must work in-person.

Many families also depend on schools to provide their children breakfast and lunch.

Schools last closed in-person classes because of snow two years ago, and it did not go well: A technical meltdown prevented many students and teachers from logging on, despite efforts to practice in advance. The Education Department subsequently conducted another drill, but it was optional, and many students seemed to have opted out.

“We are preparing for the possibility of remote such that we do not repeat those mistakes of the past,” Mamdani said.

Samuels recalled the 2024 remote snow day as a “day that will live in infamy” and said, “We’ve stress tested the system, both in person with students logging in and as well. We’ve had simulations so we are prepared now.”

The most recent test, Samuels said, was in December.

“We’ve increased the capacity to make sure that we can house as many students as possible on that day,” Samuels added. “So we now have the capacity of having a million students logging at the same time within 60 seconds.”

The mayor and chancellor offered conflicting messages this week about whether closing school altogether, with no remote learning, could be an option. Samuels said on Wednesday that remote learning would be required if school buildings are shuttered, though Mamdani indicated on Thursday that he was mulling a traditional snow day.

Changes to the school calendar make cancelling school difficult, if not impossible.

The city stopped having traditional snow days in 2020, deciding that schools could instead offer remote learning to help meet the mandated 180 instructional days as more holidays have been added to the calendar.

The state allows certain professional development days to count toward that number, and because of that, New York City students are only in class 176 days this year.

Mamdani emphasized the steps the city is taking to prepare for the storm.

More than 2,000 sanitation workers are going to start 12-hour shifts starting Saturday evening as the city issues a hazardous travel advisory for Sunday and Monday. He urged people to take the storm seriously and stay home.

The city’s subway and bus system is expected to be operational, said Janno Lieber, CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Snow day or ‘screen’ day? NYC to pivot to remote learning if winter storm hits, chancellor confirms

2026-01-21T23:40:51+00:00

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As forecasters warn that a winter storm could wallop New York City this weekend, the city’s schools will pivot to remote learning rather than cancel classes, if necessary.

With no room in the school calendar for a traditional snow day, schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels confirmed that the nation’s largest school system would go virtual in the event of a big storm — despite lobbying from his 11th grade son.

The National Weather Service is predicting snow on Sunday into Monday — though there is still uncertainty about the effect on the city. Some superintendents have already asked their principals to ensure they’re ready for a remote day and that their students have devices, according to emails obtained by Chalkbeat.

Samuels confirmed that schools would go virtual, if needed — even though the move is unpopular with many students, he told PIX11 on Wednesday.

It could be the first test of Samuels’ ability to manage a major logistical challenge, though he has a bit of a buffer: High school students as well as those attending 6-12 schools were already scheduled to be off for an educator professional development day. Parents of younger kids, however, tend to be the ones scrambling for child care, especially caregivers who must work in person. Many families also depend on schools to provide their children breakfast and lunch.

The last time schools closed in-person classes for a snow day, in February 2024, a technical meltdown prevented many students and teachers from logging on, despite efforts to practice in advance. The Education Department subsequently conducted another drill, but it was optional, and many students seem to have opted out.

Some principals said they felt ready from a device standpoint, but had concerns as to whether their families can or will log on.

“For us, most of the kids do some amount of learning on their devices in school, and we have 1:1 devices, so that part is manageable,” said one Brooklyn elementary school principal, who was not authorized to speak on the record. “Ensuring families and students get online from home and learning when they’ve been out of practice with remote learning for so long may be more of a challenge.”

In 2020, New York City schools stopped having traditional snow days since schools can instead offer virtual learning and need to squeeze in as many instruction days as possible as more holidays have been added to the calendar. The state requires 180 days of instruction, but allows certain professional development days to count toward that number, and because of that, New York City students are only in class 176 days this year.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Who is Kamar Samuels? Meet Zohran Mamdani’s schools chancellor.

2026-01-15T16:23:05+00:00

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Shortly after Mayor Zohran Mamdani tapped Kamar Samuels to run New York City’s public schools, the two visited a Brooklyn campus where they were swarmed by students jockeying for selfies.

Mamdani soon peeled away, but Samuels toured the school, Arts & Letters 305 United, where he ducked into a room of third graders and began counting students.

As a local superintendent overseeing dozens of campuses, first in Brooklyn and then in Manhattan, Samuels often informally surveyed classroom headcounts on his visits. He’d later check official registers to see how many students were missing that day, a key measure of whether students are engaged at school.

“I really don’t have to do this,” Samuels said with a laugh after leaving the room of 21 third graders. “It’s kind of like muscle memory.”

Mamdani told Chalkbeat he selected Samuels, 48, because of his granular knowledge of the city’s classrooms, learned during more than two decades as a teacher, principal, and superintendent. The mayor also cited Samuels’ track record of pursuing ambitious change.

In both of the racially diverse New York City local districts he oversaw, Samuels used school mergers to address declining enrollment and persistent segregation. He led a transition away from gifted programs, replacing them with International Baccalaureate offerings available to all students. And he helped guide a plan to diversify several Brooklyn middle schools by setting aside a portion of seats for low-income students.

Those moves sometimes generated pushback. But Education Department colleagues saw him as a leader who doesn’t shy away from thorny problems and crafts solutions based on input from schools and families. In nearly 20 interviews with educators, parents, and former and current city officials, Samuels was described as someone who builds deep community ties, listens to critics, and focuses on student outcomes.

“He has not been afraid to touch the third rail and have difficult conversations — be it around equity, low enrollment, the concept of rigor, and the disparities in test scores throughout our district,” said Jill Rackmill, co-president of the parent council in District 3 in Manhattan, which Samuels supervised as superintendent. “Ultimately, he makes the hard decisions and does the tough things.”

In his first week on the job, Samuels told principals that he will build on some of the prior administration’s biggest initiatives, including new career education programs and an overhaul of elementary school reading.

And the new schools chief has pointed to other big problems facing the system, including cratering enrollment and alarming rates of chronic absenteeism, in which 1 in 3 students now miss more than 10% of the school year. He recently gave the system’s overall performance a “C” grade.

Shael Polakow-Suransky, the president of the Bank Street College of Education and a former top Education Department official, said he believes Samuels is up to the challenge.

“He’s politically gifted in a way that’s similar to the mayor,” Polakow-Suransky said. “He’s someone who inspires people and really gets them excited about his vision and supporting change.”

Samuels’ built a reputation for listening early on

Samuels, who moved to New York from Jamaica at age 15, originally pursued a career in finance, landing an accounting job at the National Basketball Association. He hated it.

He saw a subway ad for the city’s Teaching Fellows Program, a fast-track initiative that funnels career-changers into city classrooms. Within a few months, he was teaching sixth grade math at P.S./M.S. 194 in the Bronx.

Over the next two decades, Samuels rose through the ranks at the Education Department, earning a reputation for his strong rapport with community members.

Page Best-Hardy, a retired family leadership coordinator in District 23, which includes Brownsville and Ocean Hill, recalled that when Samuels was a deputy superintendent there nearly a decade ago an attendee at a back-to-school event confronted him about the poor performance of local schools. Samuels wasn’t defensive and won over the crowd by saying he needed their help to improve student outcomes.

“He didn’t say things were all rosy,” Best-Hardy recounted. “They didn’t expect that.”

As the superintendent of District 13, which runs from Brooklyn Heights to Bedford-Stuyvesant, Samuels not only cared about getting to know nearly everyone at the schools he oversaw, but he also was laser-focused on assessment data, said Emily Paige, principal of The Urban Assembly Unison School in Clinton Hill.

During one visit to the school, when he had come to evaluate Paige, she found him in the cafeteria introducing himself to the kitchen staff and sampling the food. He also spent time with Paige reviewing students’ scores on citywide reading assessments.

Samuels took a look at a chart of test scores Paige had prepared and homed in on a single student. “‘What is that telling you about this one child? What does that score mean?’” Paige recalled Samuels asking her. The conversation prompted Paige to think more carefully about how teachers should use the assessment data to tweak their instruction for students who are behind in reading.

That was a “really important moment for us as a school,” Paige said.

Mergers have tested Samuels’ leadership

As superintendent of District 13 and District 3 in Manhattan — a diverse district that includes the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, and parts of Harlem — Samuels became known for carefully crafting mergers.

In both districts, he combined schools with different demographic profiles to foster integration while addressing declining enrollment. The proposals sparked fraught conversations about school resources and race. But Samuels stuck to his plans, drawing on the relationships he had forged with community members.

In his first full week as chancellor, Samuels highlighted that record by hosting Mamdani at Arts & Letters 305 United in District 13. The school is the result of a merger between Arts & Letters, a more affluent and overenrolled Fort Greene school that served a disproportionate share of white students, and P.S. 305, an underenrolled majority-Black campus in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“I see a model and an example for the rest of the city,” Samuels declared to a group of parent leaders, school staff, and elected officials.

Samuels told Chalkbeat that mergers may become increasingly necessary, as K-12 enrollment has plunged in recent years. About 793,000 students attend the city’s public schools this year according to preliminary figures, a loss of well over 100,000 children since 2020. As schools shrink, they often struggle to afford basic programs because funding is tied to headcount.

P.S. 305 had slipped below 100 students, making it a prime target. But the merger, finalized in 2020, was at times contentious. Several P.S. 305 families feared it was a takeover of their school. Meanwhile, some Arts & Letters families worried about moving to Bed-Stuy — concerns that had racial undertones connected to neighborhood crime and the school’s concentration of homeless students, according to a case study on the merger released by the city comptroller’s office.

Education Department officials involved in the process were impressed with how Samuels engaged the school communities to build support and diffuse conflict — a sharp contrast with many other consolidations.

“By the time we got to the vote, there was broad consensus,” said Karin Goldmark, a former deputy chancellor who led a public hearing with Samuels about the merger. “It’s a testament to the depth of engagement that he did.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels visit students and staff at Arts & Letters 305 United, a campus Samuels helped merge in 2020.

Samuels’ track record of building community support was likely a selling point for Mamdani. On the campaign trail, the mayor vowed to give educators and families more input in Education Department decisions, though he backtracked from a promise to end mayoral control of the system. Samuels’ experience shifting schools away from gifted programs also lines up with another Mamdani campaign pledge.

Still, not everyone has been impressed with Samuels’ approach to community engagement.

Morana Mesic, a former parent at West Side Collaborative, an Upper West Side middle school, was devastated when the school merged into Lafayette Academy in 2023 — a proposal from Samuels that drew considerable backlash in District 3.

“We will always consider it the closure of our school,” said Mesic, who was the PTA president at West Side Collaborative at the time. The merger disrupted her son’s education. Mesic declined to send him to the newly merged school and struggled to find a campus that was a good fit, ultimately transferring her son to two different middle schools.

Mesic felt some details were left out of initial conversations, including that the school would lose its longtime principal and parent coordinator. She acknowledged that Samuels set up many community meetings to hash out the details but they felt performative to her. “They put a lot of dates on the calendar so they could say to reporters and the media, ‘Look how much effort was put into the process,’” she said.

Still, Mesic is a fan of Mamdani and is willing to give Samuels time to prove himself as chancellor.

The new schools chief has wasted little time trying to earn that trust. His first order of business was to launch a whirlwind tour to visit schools in each of the city’s 45 districts during his first two months in office.

Many of those early visits have included informal roundtable discussions with students, parent leaders, staff, and local elected officials. At Arts & Letters, Samuels gave a short overview of his background and high-level priorities around rigor, safety, and integration before taking questions on the tiny number of school librarians and how he would support parent leaders.

Unlike some of his predecessors, Samuels has avoided making waves in his first days in office.

Before he lays out how he thinks the system should change, Samuels said he needs input. The goal isn’t to get everyone to like him, he said. It’s to generate buy-in for the solutions he ultimately proposes.

“It’s not just about, ‘Do parents like you?” Samuels said during his first meeting with the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council. “It’s about: What are we achieving when we work together? And are we solving the biggest problems together?”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Child care, class sizes, mayoral control: Albany’s education agenda in 2026

2026-01-07T18:40:56+00:00

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As lawmakers head back to Albany this month for the state’s new legislative session, several big ticket education issues are expected on the agenda, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push to bring universal child care to New York City.

It remains to be seen what kind of reception Mamdani, himself a former state assemblyman, will get in Albany for his child care plans as well as other education priorities, including extending mayoral control, a policy on which the new mayor recently reversed his stance.

Passed over three years ago, the class size law remains a challenge for overcrowded schools in New York City. As the city enters the second half of the implementation period to reduce class sizes, lawmakers may continue discussions on how to reach the finish line. Some lawmakers are also pushing — again — for changes to Foundation Aid, the funding formula that provides a big chunk of money to local districts.

Here’s a preview on major education issues Albany may take on this year.

Universal child care expected to dominate discussions

Mamdani campaigned on making the city more affordable, including a promise to provide universal child care.

The average cost of home-based care was $18,200 in 2024, according to a report by the New York City’s Comptroller’s Office. That is a 78% increase since 2019. For center-based care, the average cost was $26,000, a 43% increase.

Mamdani said his team has been having conversations internally as well as with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office on child care. The new mayor estimated the plan would cost about $6 billion a year for New York City. Statewide, it could cost an estimated $15 billion.

“We truly believe that the absence of this is something that poses a great risk to our city and our state in terms of the ability for working class, middle class families to afford to stay here,” Mamdani recently told reporters.

It is an issue that Hochul has long supported. Last year, Hochul signed a bill that invested $2.2 billion in child care across the state, including $350 million for child care vouchers in New York City — but that funding was not nearly enough to meet demand.

An added wrench: The Trump administration recently froze $10 billion in funding for child care and other social services for New York and a handful of other Democratic states. Hochul said the state hadn’t been notified of the plans as of Tuesday, but she would fight back in court.

A (new) push to renew mayoral control

One of the few major education policies Mamdani offered on the campaign trail was to end mayoral control. But the day before his inauguration, Mamdani admitted he planned to scrap that idea and would instead ask Albany to extend mayoral control when it’s up in June.

“Though I have concerns about mayoral control, I also acknowledge that New Yorkers need to know where the buck stops with me,” Mamdani recently told reporters.

Ever since the state gave the mayor power over New York City schools more than two decades ago, every mayor has appealed to Albany lawmakers to keep it — and state officials invariably have extended the governance system, with tweaks here and there to chip away at the mayor’s power.

Under the current governance model, the mayor unilaterally selects the schools chancellor and appoints the majority of the members to the Panel for Educational Policy, the board that votes on major contracts, school closures, and major changes to Education Department regulations. The panel is often considered a rubber stamp for the mayor, though under Mayor Eric Adams, he did not have a majority of appointees due to vacancies, resulting in the board’s rejection or pushback of some city priorities.

Mamdani has pledged that his version of mayoral control will look different, particularly when it comes to community involvement.

Continued discussion on class size law

Limited funding may also provide challenges for New York City to continue making progress toward reaching the class size reduction law passed in 2022. By 2028, the law requires all high school classes to have no more than 25 students, classes in grades 4-8 to have no more than 23 students, and classes in grades K-3 to have no more than 20 students.

Teachers who are already teaching smaller classes are raving about the improvements they’ve seen in their students as well as their work environments, but over 40% of New York City classes have yet to see reductions.

“The most difficult stages are yet to come,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education and policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, who believes that Adams “slow-walked” implementation.

To reach compliance, the city needs to hire more teachers and create more classroom space, both of which are costly, and lawmakers might revise the mandate this legislative session, Bloomfield said.

Revisions might include not only allocating more funds to hire teachers, but also increasing teacher salaries to attract more teachers. Lawmakers might also consider exempting specialized high schools with competitive admissions, where parents may be willing to accept larger class sizes, Bloomfield said.

“We are committed to implementing the class size mandate,” Mamdani recently said. “It is something that I was proud to be a part of in Albany, and when we return to Albany for this upcoming legislative session, we will also make clear the kind of support that’s necessary for the full implementation.”

He added: “We have to set teachers up for excellence if we want to demand excellence.”

Possible changes to Foundation Aid

Last year’s legislative session tackled how to update the metrics used in the two decades-old Foundation Aid formula. The formula takes student needs into account, providing more money, for instance, to districts that serve higher populations of students in poverty. In New York City, where more than 70% of students live in poverty, needs are typically high. Roughly 154,000 students, or 1 in 7, were homeless last year, living in shelters or doubled up with family or friends.

Hochul pushed to change how student poverty is measured, but many advocates felt the tweak didn’t go far enough, especially when accounting for the needs of students in temporary housing or foster care. Officials estimated that the city would have gotten over $300 million more under the old formula.

State Sen. John Liu of Queens along with state Rep. Jo Anne Simon of Brooklyn introduced bills to further tweak Foundation Aid. They want to update the regional differences in cost of living, saying that the Regional Cost Index for the city and Long Island is still outdated by more than two decades, and they want the formula to better account for students in foster care or those experiencing homelessness.

“The cost to run our schools in New York City is significantly higher, and that is not addressed,” said Liu.

Other education-related laws

Lawmakers have introduced several other education-related bills in Albany. Here are a handful that might come up for discussion.

“Alexandra’s law” requiring schools to teach students how to recognize and react to rip currents, rip tides, and undertows
Directing the state education commissioner to come up with recommendations to incorporate instruction of “artificial intelligence system literacy” into K-12 schools
Requiring computer science for graduation
Providing specific requirements for instruction related to the Holocaust and genocide
Implementing requirements and guidelines to reduce chronic absenteeism, including attendance reporting, attendance review teams, and early warning strategies
Requiring the state Education Department provide districts resources and instructional materials on media literacy
Requires at least two hours a week of civics instruction for grades K-12
Requires comprehensive sex ed for grades K-12

Jessica Shuran Yu is a New York City-based journalist.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani names Kamar Samuels as NYC schools chancellor, reverses course on ending mayoral control

2025-12-31T23:10:12+00:00

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As Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Kamar Samuels as his new schools chancellor on Wednesday, he also reversed course on one of his main K-12 campaign pledges: He no longer plans to end mayoral control of the nation’s largest school system.

Instead, he will ask Albany to extend the governance model when it comes up for renewal in June. He said he will work alongside Samuels, a veteran New York City educator, toward a version of mayoral control that will “engage parents, teachers, and students in decision-making,” Mamdani said at a press conference on the northern tip of Central Park just hours before his inauguration.

His stance on mayoral control represents a major about-face for the city’s new chief executive. But Mamdani’s views on school governance were an outlier compared with other mayoral candidates, and the idea to ditch mayoral control entirely had many skeptics, especially when paired with Mamdani’s sweeping plan to build a free child care system.

Mamdani acknowledged the challenges of the massive system he’s inheriting, with its $43 billion budget, roughly 150,000 staff, and nearly 900,000 students. While literacy rates are improving, he said, nearly 45% of the city’s students in grades 3-8 remained below grade level, according to last year’s state tests. Roughly 154,000 students are homeless. And thousands of teachers are needed to meet the mandate to shrink classes, particularly in hard-to-staff positions for special education, bilingual education, math, and science.

He said he now realizes that New Yorkers should direct their concerns to him.

“I will be asking the legislature for a continuation of mayoral control,” Mamdani said, “and I will also be committed with my incoming schools chancellor to ensure that the mayoral control we preside over is not the same one that New Yorkers see today.”

Under the current governance model, the mayor unilaterally selects the schools chancellor and appoints the majority of the Panel for Educational Policy, a board that votes on school closures, contracts, and other major changes to Education Department regulations. The panel is typically considered a rubber stamp of mayoral priorities, though Mayor Eric Adams left some vacancies on the board, resulting in recent votes that pushed back more than usual.

Mamdani pledged to incorporate community involvement in a way that will not be “ceremonial or procedural, but tangible and actionable.” He wants to restructure parent meetings for community education councils so that “working parents can actually attend them” and improve awareness of these elected parent boards that oversee school zones and advise on policy. Voter turnout for these boards has been less than 2%.

Mamdani also promised to “improve the parent coordinator role to be a meaningful organizer of parents, rather than an administrative coordinator reporting to a principal.” The responsibilities of parent coordinators, a role created in the initial deal allowing for mayoral control, vary widely from school to school. Many do a tremendous amount of organizing already, particularly when it comes to helping homeless families, but many in the role have long complained about its low wages.

Mamdani said he chose Samuels because “this moment demands a new generation of leadership” that “understands our schools” and has a “transformative vision” on how to lead them.

As superintendent of Manhattan’s District 3 stretching from the Upper West Side to part of Harlem, Samuels oversaw some controversial school mergers, combining schools with different demographics as a way to foster integration in one of the country’s most segregated school systems. He initially used that approach while superintendent of Brooklyn’s District 13, where he also spearheaded a move away from gifted and talented programs that separate kids toward schoolwide enrichment models, embracing the International Baccalaureate program. Samuels started out as a teacher and principal in the Bronx.

Mamdani made clear on Wednesday that he remains opposed to gifted programs for kindergarten students, but that he has no plans to change the process for the current application season.

Samuels’ work overseeing the Adams administration’s literacy curriculum mandate, NYC Reads, led to an increase in test scores, Mamdani pointed out. Samuels also secured more than $10 million in grants across districts 3 and 13 to advance integration efforts through admissions policies, mergers, and rezonings.

“Equity is not an abstract idea. It’s a set of choices we make together in policy,” Samuels said. “But what matters is not just what we do, it’s how we do it, by listening to educators, by respecting families, by seeing students, not just as data points, but as whole people with enormous potential.”

In recent weeks, some parent groups had been calling for Mamdani to maintain stability of the school system and keep the current chancellor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos.

Liss will be the new child care office head

Mamdani also announced that Emmy Liss will serve as executive director for the mayor’s Office of Child Care, a position that will be critical in realizing Mamdani’s pledge to bring free child care to New Yorkers.

On Dec. 31, 2025, Zohran Mamdani tapped Emmy Liss, pictured with her son, to lead his office on child care. Liss was the chief of staff for Josh Wallack, a top aide in the de Blasio administration who oversaw the Education Department’s rollout for prekindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds.

Liss was the chief of staff for Josh Wallack, a top aide in the de Blasio administration who oversaw the Education Department’s rollout for prekindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds. She has been advising the mayor-elect on child care issues.

“When I worked on the expansion of universal 3-k and pre-K, I saw firsthand what it means when city government comes together to deliver the families with the vision of universal child care,” Liss said on Wednesday. “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to come together again, to double down on the city’s investments and to design and implement a program that truly meets the needs of families and sustains our child care providers and educators.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Zohran Mamdani to tap Superintendent Kamar Samuels as NYC schools chancellor

2025-12-31T01:51:01+00:00

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Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is expected to tap Kamar Samuels, a Manhattan superintendent, to run New York City’s public school system, according to a transition committee member briefed by administration officials.

As the superintendent of Manhattan’s District 3, Samuels supervises schools with widely varying demographic profiles across the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, and parts of Harlem. Samuels has led school integration plans and played a role in a previous effort to scale back gifted programs, initiatives that Mamdani has vowed to revive.

Samuels also has experience executing school mergers — a task that is often complex and controversial — which could be valuable as the city grapples with a growing number of tiny campuses. Those mergers, however, have tended to have an explicit integration focus in what is one of the nation’s most segregated school systems.

Before his tenure in District 3, where he oversaw several mergers, Samuels was the superintendent in Brooklyn’s District 13, which spans from Brooklyn Heights to Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant. While there, he oversaw the move of Arts & Letters, a coveted pre-K-8 school, from its home in Clinton Hill to an underenrolled school building in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

He also spearheaded that district’s move away from gifted and talented programs — amid growing concerns from parents about racial disparities — and laid the groundwork to move toward implementing International Baccalaureate programs districtwide. The International Baccalaureate is recognized globally as a rigorous program, and District 13 aimed to use it to create a more inclusive schoolwide approach to enrichment as an alternative to gifted education, serving only a select group of students.

Samuels started out as a teacher in the Bronx nearly two decades ago before becoming a principal at the Bronx Writing Academy, or P.S. 323, where he took advantage of a teachers union program allowing schools to experiment beyond the confines of the contract: he staggered start times for teachers, adjusted class lengths, and incorporated online learning through a city program known as iZone, which paid for the school’s new computers.

His expected appointment was first reported by City & State.

He will face a series of challenges as New York City’s schools chief. As enrollment in public schools has plunged, the incoming administration will have to answer difficult questions about whether to close or merge more schools. Rates of chronic absenteeism, which skyrocketed during the pandemic, remain elevated. A state class size mandate will require finding thousands of new teachers and billions of dollars. Though reading and math scores have ticked up on state assessments, the city’s performance is widely considered middling given the agency’s nearly $43 billion budget — and there are wide gaps that cleave along lines of race and class.

Perhaps the trickiest task for the incoming chancellor will be managing one of Mamdani’s most significant education promises: to end mayoral control of the nation’s largest school system and give families and educators more of a say.

Mamdani has yet to outline how he would give up some of his own power over the school system, but it’s possible those moves would dilute the schools chief’s authority.

Some education observers were quick to praise Mamdani’s decision to elevate Samuels.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, a journalist who has written extensively about inequity in New York City schools, praised the move on social media as “outstanding news for those who still care about school integration and equality.” She added: “In the face of the national attacks on civil rights and dismantling of enforcement at the U.S. DOE this pick by Mamdani sends a powerful message.”

Others who have worked directly with Samuels said he is known for navigating thorny debates about inequity in the system and incorporating feedback from parents and other community members.

“He is savvy and respected,” said David Adams, the CEO of Urban Assembly, which supports a network of New York City public schools. The decision “reflects a mayor who is looking for a chancellor who knows how to operate within the system.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Doing high school and college simultaneously: Dual enrollment surges in NY, saving families money

2025-12-02T23:00:28+00:00

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Every morning, all of the roughly 100 seniors at Kingsborough Early College Secondary school start their day taking classes together at CUNY Kingsborough Community College.

In the afternoon, they hop on a yellow school bus and head back to their school on the Lafayette educational campus about 15 minutes away.

Kingsborough juniors make the reverse trek. They start their morning at the Lafayette campus then take the bus to the community college for afternoon classes.

By the time the students graduate high school, most have earned associate degrees from CUNY Kingsborough. In fact, the majority — 57% — of CUNY Kingsborough students are not stereotypical college students. They’re high schoolers, according to a new analysis released Tuesday from a New York coalition of advocates and education institutions.

CUNY Kingsborough is one of six community colleges across the state where high schoolers make up the majority of students. It could be the harbinger of something bigger. As community college enrollment has declined nationwide in recent years, dual enrollment programs — where high school students take college courses and earn college-level credit — are expanding in New York state and elsewhere.

The state Education Department is making these programs a priority. It recently proposed new reporting regulations requiring institutions to not only report their dual enrollment partnership agreements but also to provide data on enrollment and outcomes. The idea is to help officials and educators get a better grasp on the variety of dual enrollment programs and find ways to ensure the programs reach more students who are underrepresented in higher education.

The stakes are high: According to a 2024 report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, workers will need a bachelor’s degree for 66% of “good jobs” in 2031 — defined as one that pays a minimum of $43,000 a year nationally to workers ages 25-44.

The state’s proposed rules, which it’s expected to adopt early next year, will mark the state’s first consistent policy governing these programs. Additionally, the state recently created a $9.1 million College in High School Opportunity Fund to support dual enrollment and other early college programs to focus on enrolling more students from low-income families.

Several studies have celebrated dual enrollment programs for helping put students on a path to college by exposing them to high-level coursework.

At Kingsborough, the program has proven so successful that many of its students not only complete higher education degrees, they eventually return to work at the school. Of the school’s 80 staffers, 16 are graduates, its principal, Tracee Murren, said.

And there’s one other very obvious benefit dual enrollment programs frequently offer: Students can save money by earning college credits, often for free, before they finish high school.

Early college programs help families save on average $13,000 on the cost of a bachelor’s degree, said Alexandra Wilcox, deputy director of the New York Alliance for Early College Pathways, the group that studied the state’s dual enrollment expansion.

Research has found students in these programs are also more likely to attend school regularly, avoid suspension, graduate high school, and earn a college degree within six years.

“It really is a game changer in terms of being able to save time and money to a degree,” Wilcox said.

But a deeper understanding of the types of programs, who they’re serving, and what their outcomes are — the things the state is proposing to capture — will ultimately strengthen dual enrollment programs, said Wilcox.

Though New York pioneered dual enrollment programs, launching them more than 50 years ago, the state’s approach in terms of policy and funding has been “inconsistent and unpredictable,” Wilcox said.

NYC has range of early college programs

Across New York state, dual enrollment jumped 15% year-over-year, the alliance report found. It now has the nation’s third largest number of students in dual enrollment with more than 176,000, behind California and Texas.

In New York City, the majority of dual enrollment students are in College Now, where they take college-level courses at CUNY for free, generally as an add-on to their regular high school courses. But there’s rising interest in the early college approach, which integrates college courses more deeply into the curriculum. About 30,000 students take College Now courses while roughly 3,500 students take CUNY classes through early college courses, a CUNY spokesperson said.

Nearly 45 out of the city’s 400 high schools offer early college programs, according to the city’s MySchools lookup tool.

The early college model traces its roots to Middle College High School, which opened in 1974 to provide students who struggled in traditional schools with an opportunity to take courses at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, where the school is still located.

Some early college programs do not screen students based on their academic records, like Pathways in Technology Early College High School, known as P-TECH. That school launched in Brooklyn in 2011 and spawned eight other high schools across the boroughs that offer a six-year program, grades 9-14, each affiliated with different CUNY institutions. Students at these schools can graduate with an associate degree in a STEM field at no cost.

Other programs are highly selective. Bard College, a liberal arts school in Annandale-on-Hudson, has four New York City Bard Early College campuses, where Bard professors teach students, who go through a rigorous admissions process involving a test and interview. The newly opened HBCU Early College Prep in Queens — which partners with Delaware State University, a historically Black institution — also admits students based on GPAs, a writing exercise, and a video submission. The HBCU Early College students take online classes through Delaware State.

Access to dual enrollment programs shifts

At Kingsborough Early College, which opened in 2006, the school targets students who are underserved in higher education — those “not typically selected for gifted and talented,” Murren said.

The school starts in sixth grade, admitting students through a lottery. Demand for it is high: Roughly 1,000 students apply for 100 seats every year.

Roughly 40 to 50% enter the program reading below grade level, Murren said, and the school takes an intensive approach to ensure they’re ready to read dense college-level material as they reach the upper grades. Middle schoolers also have an advisory class every day to ensure they have the “mental fortitude” to take on college-level work, she said.

Students at HBCU Early College Prep High School in Queens on its first day of school, Sept. 4, 2025.

The students take their first college class in ninth grade, a Spanish course, stretching it from one semester to the entire year to make it slower and more digestible, Murren said. The school intentionally starts with a foreign language since it’s a course that many four-year colleges require and has no prerequisites.

Professors from CUNY Kingsborough Community College come to the Lafayette campus to teach the freshman and sophomores in the afternoon, and the school has an extended day to accommodate these courses.

Balancing high school and the more advanced college courses simultaneously isn’t easy, Murren acknowledged. But her staff is committed. There’s low teacher turnover, and they get to know most students from the age of 10.

The students, for the most part, take their college classes together once they start attending the CUNY campus, maintaining a sense of community.

Murren said the students also support each other, characterizing their approach in this way: “‘We’ve been going through this together, and I don’t want you to fall off, so I’m going to make sure that you don’t.’”

She added: “We should never doubt what our students are capable of, their abilities, and their tenacity really shines through when given the opportunity.”

Historically, many high schools have used dual enrollment programs as an acceleration strategy instead of also a strategy to promote college access, said John Fink, a researcher at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University.

But that’s changing. Research into dual enrollment is also shifting away from addressing whether it works and instead trying to understand how to make it work better — and for more students, not just the top students who are “already acing everything,” he said.

The key question, Fink believes, is how to make sure that families know there’s free college available to New York City high schoolers.

“Even though you think that word would get out, it doesn’t,” he said, “[but] when it’s implemented as a purposeful path to debt-free college … that marketing also helps sell the high school.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani’s education transition committee: child care, higher ed, policy pros, but no K-12 teachers

2025-11-24T22:46:07+00:00

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Of the nearly 40 people Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani tapped for his youth and education transition committee, notably absent were principals, teachers, and students who are currently in New York City’s K-12 system.

Mamdani, who announced the names to his transition teams Monday, centered his campaign on an affordability agenda, including free child care, but had little to say about improving the nation’s largest school system.

Several advocates from the world of child care policy and school integration made the list, along with higher education leaders and some former high-level officials from Bill de Blasio’s administration.

The members of the 17 transition committees will work on helping Mamdani’s new administration make personnel decisions and provide policy guidance, so the 34-year-old Queens state assemblyman can hit the ground running when he takes office on Jan. 1.

Whereas Mayor Eric Adams tapped several Bloomberg administration officials on his education transition team, Mamdani’s list includes some Education Department officials from de Blasio’s tenure, including Josh Wallack, who oversaw the city’s massive free prekindergarten expansion; Edie Sharp, who served as Chancellor Richard Carranza’s chief of staff; and Karin Goldmark, a deputy chancellor of school planning and development who now runs GreenLink Education, a nonprofit that helps schools tackle sustainability efforts.

Some other notable committee members include: teachers union President Michael Mulgrew; Mark Dunetz, a former high school teacher and principal who now runs the New Visions for Public Schools network; and Sharon Greenberger, the president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater New York who was the head of the School Construction Authority and then the Education Department’s chief operating officer under Bloomberg.

Mamdani, who has mentioned concerns about school segregation in a city with among the most segregated schools in the nation, also tapped for the committee Nyah Berg, the director of Appleseed New York, an integration advocacy group, and Matt Gonzales, of New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools. Gonzales previously served on de Blasio’s School Diversity Advisory Group, or SDAG, which advised phasing out gifted and talented programs and curtailing selective admissions. Mamdani referred to the group several times on the campaign trail and also voiced interest in eliminating gifted programs that start in kindergarten, though the Bronx Science alum has walked back previous comments about addressing racial segregation in specialized high schools.

(Mamdani’s favorite Bronx Science teacher, Marc Kagan, who retired from the social studies department in 2014, was tapped for the transportation, climate, and infrastructure committee.)

Higher education leaders on the committee include SUNY Chancellor John King and CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez.

Child care and after-school policy experts made the list, including Susan Stamler of United Neighborhood Houses, Tara Gardner of the Day Care Council of New York, and Rebecca Bailin, who started the grassroots advocacy movement behind New Yorkers United for Child Care.

“I’m most hopeful about the tremendous opportunity we have to help shape a transformative policy to support families, strengthen our child care providers, and bolster our city’s economy by putting New York on a real path toward universal child care,” said Grace Rauh of Citizens Union, which is home to the 5BORO Institute think tank that has examined the importance of affordable child care.

Terrence Winston, who runs the Coalition for Community Schools Excellence and works with nonprofits who partner with public schools to provide wraparound services to students and families, felt encouraged to see several familiar names across different sectors and hoped this would be a “genuine opportunity to supply innovative input and insights that will influence the mayor-elect’s first 100 days in office.”

He added, “There will, however, need to be a committed investment in these collaborations — especially when things get difficult.”

Here’s the list of who will help shape Mamdani’s vision for youth and education:

Tazin Azad [former Brooklyn Borough appointee to the Panel for Educational Policy]

Rebecca Bailin, New Yorkers United for Child Care

Nyah Berg, Appleseed

Evelyn Castro, Medgar Evers College

Jason Cone, Robin Hood Foundation

James Davis, PSC-CUNY

Marielys Divanne, Futuro Solutions

Mark Dunetz, New Visions for Public Schools

Kesi Foster, Partners for Dignity & Rights

Amy Freitag, NY Community Trust

Tara Gardner, Daycare Council of NY

Debra Ellen Glickstein, KidsRise

Karin Goldmark, GreenLink Education

Matt Gonzales, New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools (RJPS)

Sharon Greenberger, YMCA Greater NY

Brian Jones, Center for Education & Schools and New York Public Library

John King, State University of New York (SUNY)

Sebastian Leon Martinez, YDSA

Randi Levine, Advocates for Children

Christine Marinoni, Public School Advocate

Felix Matos Rodriguez, City University of New York (CUNY)

Rashad Moore, Crown Heights Baptist Church

Michael Mulgrew, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)

Lori Podvesker, INCLUDEnyc

Hasoni Pratts, National Urban League

Grace Rauh, Citizens Union

Arva Rice, NY Urban League

Raysa Rodriquez, Citizen’s Committee for Children

Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, Alliance for Quality Education

Edie Sharp

Felicia Singh, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families

Susan Stamler, United Neighborhood Houses

Hannah Towfeik, Muslim American Society (MAS)

Mary Vaccarro, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)

Joshua Wallack

Eric Waterman, East Flatbush Village Inc.

Terrence Winston, Coalition for Community Schools Excellence

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s digital SHSAT debut goes smoothly for most test takers

2025-11-13T22:18:51+00:00

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For the first time, the Specialized High School Admissions Test went digital this year, and the transition went smoothly, Education Department officials said.

Of the roughly 19,500 eighth graders who took the exam Wednesday at their middle schools, just four, so far, will be taking the test this weekend or next week due to a technical issue with extended time accommodations, officials said.

“We’re pleased to report that the shift to digital SHSAT testing on Wednesday was successful,” Education Department spokesperson Isla Gething said in a statement. “There were no citywide or schoolwide issues and we are working with schools to address the small number of technical issues that arose.”

The Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, is the sole basis of entry for eight of New York City’s top high schools, including Stuyvesant and Bronx Science. Students at all standalone middle schools could take the test in school on Wednesday. Eighth graders at 6-12 schools, charters, and private schools will be able to take the test at central locations this weekend. (Ninth graders can take the test on Nov. 22 or Nov. 23.)

Students with disabilities who have extended time to take the test ran into some glitches at Manhattan’s M.S. 104, also known as Simon Baruch middle school. The test clock said these students had three hours for the test — but it should have said six hours.

After about 20 minutes of trying to troubleshoot, someone from the Education Department told the school to reset the exams to correct the timer, according to a letter sent to parents. That took about an hour.

“The students were obviously frustrated by this,” wrote Principal Chris Comparetto in the letter. “I know how important this exam is for families and how much time and effort goes into it.”

He offered the students the option to restart the test or take it on Nov. 18. (Three students opted for the make-up day, he noted.) Comparetto told families that the same issue happened at more than 15 Manhattan middle schools.

Comparetto did not respond to questions from Chalkbeat.

Many students spend months studying for the exam, with some families paying thousands of dollars for tutors or classes to help them prepare. The city approved a contract for the new exam last school year. Before the test, the Education Department provided middle schools with a 45-minute digital SHSAT “readiness” activity so students could practice logging on, confirm accommodations, and navigate the new online features.

Some studies have found that students in general tend to perform worse when taking tests on computers and tablets. But the research is not definitive, experts have told Chalkbeat.

Most students are accustomed to taking exams digitally, however. Students take MAP assessments online three times a year, and all students in grades 3-8 by this spring will be taking computer-based state reading and math tests.

Next year’s SHSAT is expected to be computer-adaptive, meaning that the level of difficulty of subsequent questions changes based on a test-taker’s responses. (This year’s test was not computer-adaptive.)

Last year, 25,933 students took the SHSAT, and 4,023, or 15.5%, received offers to the eight selective schools, according to Education Department data.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

How a kid who hated school became a superstar Bronx teacher: Lunch-and-learns and basketball helped

2025-11-10T22:40:49+00:00

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Angelo Imperati never wanted to become a teacher. He disliked school and couldn’t wait to finish.

He only went to college to make his parents happy. But while there, he befriended a girl and began to take the same courses as her. Soon, he found himself student-teaching and signing up to take the teacher certification exams.

Twenty-one years later, Imperati is an award-winning fifth grade teacher at P.S. 75 in the Bronx, where he teaches math to three classes and leads social studies lessons twice a week to his homeroom class. He also started a basketball league for his students and beyond. As 2025’s FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence grand prize winner for elementary school educators, he received a grant for $25,000, and his school received $10,000. (Nominations for the 2026 FLAG awards are open through Nov. 30.)

Imperati couldn’t be happier than educating kids from the borough where he was born and raised, making learning feel relevant to their lives.

“I share stories about myself, and show them how I have used the topics I’m teaching in real life settings,” Imperati said. “I create word-problems using my students as characters in the problem. We, as a class, act out the problems to bring it to life, and students begin to make that connection between what they’re learning and the application of it in a real-world situation.”

He focuses on building community and a “sense of belonging” for his students. At lunch, he opens up his room to kids from across his school for tutoring. He cooks for his students on Thanksgiving and brings his outdoor pizza oven from home to make pizza with the fifth graders for an end-of-year party.

His approach yields academic results, Imperati said. Of his 60 students who took the state math tests, 55 of them — or 92% — showed proficiency levels. The citywide average for fifth grade math was 57%, according to public data.

And though he’s proud of his students’ test scores, he was disheartened to see that test prep programs were basically the only option in terms of after-school activities. So he started a basketball league and has been continually adding teams over about 10 years.

“It was a perfect outlet for kids to exhaust some of their energy, and give them an organized activity with something that they enjoy doing,” Imperati said.

We talked to Imperati about his approach to making school feel relevant and fun. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom or school?

My school is located in the South Bronx. Some of our students live in shelters, struggle financially, or come from broken homes. Some children don’t know where they are going to sleep, or where their next meal will come from; but yet they are still expected to care about a fraction, a decimal or anything else getting taught.

I believe this is a teacher’s and a school’s biggest obstacle. How can I get them to care about education when they have all these odds against them? How can I empower them and help them overcome life’s challenges? How can I make them feel like their existence matters and are essential parts of their communities? As an educator, I feel immense pressure to do everything in my power to help put these kids on a path to success.

How have you boosted student performance? What’s your secret?

It’s about building a relationship where students feel valued and respected. I believe once you’ve established that sense of trust and respect with your students, they will work harder to make you, their families, and most importantly themselves proud.

We are a community of learners that follow a growth model; a classroom where the focus is on realistic, individualized goals for every child.

Bronx teacher Angelo Imperati

In addition to this, I strategically pair students up to encourage collaboration in my classroom. It creates an atmosphere where they are all responsible for each other’s learning and success. I give up my lunch every day to do lunch-and-learns. My top math students stay to “tutor” any child who wants to come for extra help. They eat, mingle, and learn.

Lastly, I communicate often with my students and parents. I create online assignments that address topics that have been taught in previous lessons and questions that relate to the current topic being taught. Students are expected to complete and submit these daily assignments on Google Classroom. Every evening I check these assignments and leave feedback for every student.

I also created a digital math notebook that students, parents, and guardians can access anytime they need clarity or assistance with the work.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

When it comes to math, I don’t really have a favorite lesson to teach. I just love to teach. I love the challenge of finding ways to make math practical for my students. I love finding ways to motivate and inspire children (especially children from the Bronx) how to be successful in their educational paths, how to ultimately be successful in life, and how they can be positive contributors to their respected communities and world they live in.

I love educating students on past events like slavery, World War II, and what happened to the Native Americans during the age of exploration. I teach about the current injustices that are happening in our world today and how we can learn from the wrongdoings and injustices of the past. These lessons create excellent discourse around topics like racism and inequality, and allow students to look at the world from a different perspective. It helps build community within the classroom, and I believe students are transformed through these lessons.

Tell us about the basketball league you’ve founded. Why is coaching so important to you?

I began by organizing a basketball program during recess time for fourth and fifth graders to participate in. I had about 30 kids that would participate on a daily basis. I began to notice the difference it was making, especially with the “troubled” kids. I started to make them responsible for their behavior and academics to stay in the program.

Later that year, my principal hired a basketball organization to come and work with the kids. If I remember correctly, she paid about $15,000 for nine weeks. At the end of the year, I put forth a proposal to my principal allowing me to run my own after school basketball program for a lot cheaper than she was paying this organization. Thankfully, she granted my wish, and the following year, I set up an after-school basketball program for third to fifth graders. I partnered with another teacher and a school aide. We had about 40 kids.

While running this program, I began to reach out to other schools to set up exhibition games. We would take our 10 best players to travel to different schools to play against different competitions. I saw how these games would attract the surrounding community. My new goal became partnering with different schools to form our own basketball league.

With the support of my principal, I was able to partner with several other schools in my district to create a District 8 elementary basketball program. We are entering our seventh year as a league.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

An excellent piece of advice came from my boss when I worked in a dry cleaners while in college.

I was 19 years old and very short tempered. My boss noticed my temper and anger on a couple of occasions. This one particular night, after we closed, he called me into his office. I thought he was going to terminate me. The first thing he asked me to do was take one hand and ball it into a fist. He then asked me to use the pointer finger on my other hand and travel along my knuckles of the hand that was balled into a fist. He asked me what did I feel. I replied, “ups and downs.” He replied, “That’s life!”

He explained that when I’m feeling down, I should keep my head up because I am surely bound to go back up again.

I have used this analogy every year with my students. My hope is that they realize no matter how hard life gets, and no matter what individual adversities they may encounter, there are brighter, better days ahead.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani wins mayoral election. Here’s what it means for NYC schools.

2025-11-05T03:23:39+00:00

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Zohran Mamdani won Tuesday’s New York City mayoral election, putting the 34-year-old Democratic Socialist in charge of the nation’s largest school system at a time when graduation rates have risen but college readiness is low and too many students are still failing to show up to class regularly.

He won a little more than 50% of the vote, beating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent and won roughly 41% of the vote, according to the Associated Press, which called the race with 75% of the votes tallied. Republican Curtis Sliwa trailed with about 7% of votes. Mamdani becomes the first Muslim mayor of New York City.

One of the most pressing questions ahead for the mayor-elect is whether he will end two decades of mayoral control, a governance model that gives the chief executive enormous power over the city’s schools, including the selection of its chancellor.

Mamdani’s campaign galvanized the youth vote, but the Queens state assemblyman didn’t display a deep interest or expertise in education in the race, and he doesn’t have much of a record of school-related legislation from his time in Albany. Until recently, his campaign website devoted just one 168-word paragraph to K-12 education. But overseeing New York City public schools is no small feat: It has a $41 billion budget, 150,000 staffers, and nearly 900,000 students at more than 1,600 schools.

The school system’s graduation rates have soared 30 percentage points over the past two decades, and state test scores for reading and math have improved since the pandemic. But a closer look at a range of metrics reveals that student progress may be more stagnant than some of these figures indicate.

Just 52% of high school students in 2024 were considered ready to succeed in freshman-level college coursework, according to a recent audit from the state comptroller’s office. Students’ scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, were essentially the same last year as in 2003. And schools are facing a crisis of chronic absenteeism, with 1 in 3 students missing at least 10% of school last year.

The fate of mayoral control remains murky

Prior to mayoral control, schools were governed by the Board of Education and a decentralized system in which the city’s 32 districts had a lot of power over their own budgets, hiring, and contracts. Complaints about corruption, patronage, and fiefdoms ran rampant.

Today, the mayor chooses the schools chancellor and appoints the majority of members of the Panel for Educational Policy, which votes on major Education Department contracts and school closures.

Mamdani has echoed criticisms that mayoral control gives little say to parents and educators on decisions that directly affect them. He has promised a system of “co-governance” with existing parent councils and school-level leadership teams, though he has offered few details on how that would work.

But how much power he is willing to give up remains to be seen.

“I remain opposed to mayoral control,” Mamdani said at the final debate last month, “and I also believe that the mayor is accountable for that which happens in this city.”

He has yet to define what that accountability means.

Mamdani’s biggest education agenda, free child care — which focuses on the littlest New Yorkers rather than the K-12 system — could prove challenging to enact if the system’s 32 districts are controlled locally. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious initiative scaling up prekindergarten for 4-year-olds could not have happened without mayoral control, the city’s former chief executive has said.

Lawmakers will consider whether to continue the current system in June 2026. Some education advocates, who met recently with Mamdani’s team, are pushing for a short-term renewal while a commission would create a more detailed plan.

Finding ways to better support teachers

Mamdani, who was endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers in the general election, often talks about the importance of lowering class sizes. To help meet the state’s mandate for capping classrooms — at 20-25 students depending on grade level — Mamdani unveiled a $12 million plan to recruit 1,000 teachers a year by offering tuition assistance to those who commit to teach in city schools for three years.

He also supports Mayor Eric Adams’ literacy and math instruction overhaul, but has emphasized the importance of teachers having more input over how the mandated curriculums are implemented.

In the final debate, Mamdani’s tone on the reading curriculum changes — and the school system overall — shifted a bit, sounding more pessimistic than previously.

“We are not even on track to ensure greater literacy levels across those schools, despite the strides that have been taken with NYC Reads,” Mamdani said. (Reading scores ticked up on the latest state tests, though it’s unclear to what extent the curriculum changes are responsible for those improvements.)

Promises to focus on vulnerable students

When discussing how to fix education, Mamdani has often expressed that larger systemic issues, like homelessness and hunger, need to be addressed too. The city has “grown numb” to the numbers of homeless and hungry children and the segregation in its public schools, he told Chalkbeat on the campaign trail.

“This continues to be a focus for my campaign of putting forward a vision for our school system,” he said.

In responding to a Chalkbeat questionnaire about the most pressing problems of the city schools, he offered some hints that he’d want to focus on the system’s most vulnerable children, including students with disabilities and homeless children. Roughly 154,000 students lived in shelters or doubled up with other families or friends last year, a record high.

He also said he’d support the city’s community school model, providing wraparound services, such as mental health or dental clinics and other social services. The city currently runs more than 400 community schools, and the city’s teachers union supports the model, which has shown some promising results.

Stirring up debate on gifted programs

Mamdani recently reopened a long-running debate over the city’s gifted and talented program in elementary school, saying he wanted to eliminate gifted classes with a kindergarten entry point.

The program has come under fire by integration advocates since it enrolls disproportionately few Black and Latino students relative to their population in the school system as a whole. In the past few years, the program switched from basing admissions on a test given to 4-year-olds to teacher recommendations. Teachers, however, overwhelmingly recommend students.

New York remains an outlier in sorting in kindergarten for gifted and talented programs.

Mamdani did voice support for keeping gifted programs starting in third grade. But many of the programs for third graders, started by the Adams administration and focused on undeserved areas, have failed to gain traction.

And while Mamdani has expressed interest in overhauling gifted programs, he backed away from previous calls to eliminate the Specialized High School Admissions Test, which serves as the sole basis of entry for eight high schools, including Mamdani’s alma mater, Bronx Science.

Mamdani has also discussed tackling problems with Education Department procurement and expanding solar panels on schools. His overarching vision for the school system, however, remains opaque.

“We’ve been wanting to see how these different ideas fit together,”Jonathan Collins, professor of political science and education at Columbia University Teachers College, previously told Chalkbeat, “and instead he’s been pivoting from one idea to another.”

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Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC won’t claw back $250 million midyear from schools as enrollment declines

2025-11-03T17:11:03+00:00

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New York City schools with fewer students than projected will not have to give back money midyear, Education Department officials announced Monday, as the public school system saw its biggest enrollment drop in four years.

Enrollment in the city’s K-12 and preschool programs fell by about 22,000, or 2.4%, compared to last year, according to the Education Department’s preliminary numbers. A total of 884,400 students were enrolled in the city’s traditional public schools as of Oct. 31, according to the figures.

Nearly two-thirds of the city’s roughly 1,600 schools had fewer students than projected, officials said. In past years, those schools would have had to pay back a total of more than $250 million to the city. But those funds will now stay with schools.

“As we navigate enrollment fluctuations and uncertainty around federal funding, we’re committed to providing stability and ensuring every school has the resources it needs,” schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said in a statement.

The remaining third of schools whose enrollment was higher than projected will receive extra money to account for the additional students, officials said, but didn’t say how much that will cost.

In some ways, Mayor Eric Adams’ parting gift to schools could become a headache for the next mayor, who will have to confront the costly but popular initiative.

City officials did not immediately offer an explanation for the enrollment drop, but it’s likely that changing immigration patterns played a role. Over the three school years prior to this one, city schools absorbed an influx of roughly 50,000 migrant students.

That surge helped offset declining enrollment, keeping the city’s student numbers relatively flat between 2022 and 2024. But immigration into the country and city has ground to a halt under President Donald Trump’s enforcement efforts. Adams has closed many of the emergency shelters the city opened to house migrants.

Several educators at schools with large immigrant populations have noticed sharp enrollment declines this year, driven by existing students leaving and fewer new ones showing up.

“We definitely have seen a decline this year in our schools that serve newcomers,” said John Sullivan, the superintendent overseeing transfer schools geared toward older high school students, at a hearing last week with the City Council.

Manhattan’s Liberty High School Academy for Newcomers is down about 200 students this year compared to its average enrollment in recent years, Sullivan said. More students learning English are dropping out of school early to take jobs, he said.

ELLIS Prep, another high school in the Bronx geared toward older newcomers, has also seen slower enrollment this year, Principal Norma Vega said. The school is down about 30 students from last year and roughly 20 students under its projection for this year. That meant Vega would have had to pay back roughly $333,000 if the city had followed through with the midyear clawback.

Keeping that money will allow her to continue funding field trips, computers for students, and extra tutoring, she said.

Vega already missed the deadline for this school year to cut teachers, which means she would have started next school year with a deficit and likely would have lost her English as a New Language coordinator, one of her newest hires.

“It’s a blessing” to not have to pay back the funds midyear, Vega said.

Before the pandemic, schools typically had to give money back to the city during the middle of the school year if they enrolled fewer students than projected. (Those that enrolled more students would get extra funds midyear.)

The policy to keep school budgets afloat despite enrollment, known as being “held harmless,” was initially enacted during the pandemic when many schools saw their rosters dwindle but had mounting needs to support students academically and emotionally.

Enrollment citywide has been on the decline for a decade, but went into freefall during the pandemic, dropping by nearly 100,000 students. This year’s enrollment decline is the largest since the 2021-22 school year, when enrollment fell by around 36,000 students, or 3.8%, from the previous year.

The city halted the hold harmless policy in the 2023-24 school year only to bring it back last year.

Last school year, the decision not to claw back school budgets midyear meant schools hung onto $157 million they would have otherwise had to give back. City officials committed a separate $126 million in June to ensure that no schools started out this school year with less funding than they had at the start of last school year.

This year’s total is far larger, given the steeper enrollment decline.

Emily Paige, the principal of Urban Assembly Unison, a small Brooklyn middle school, said she was on the hook for roughly $100,000 because of enrollment losses — enough to cover an entire teacher salary.

While the hold harmless policy is widely popular among school staff and families, it can be an unsustainable practice, some observers say, artificially inflating schools’ budgets and creating even more difficult financial decisions down the road as the city confronts increasingly expensive small schools.

The union representing principals, the Council for School Administrators, or CSA, claimed the move as a victory for its members, saying in an email to principals on Sunday its “top priority” this year has been ensuring the city kept its promise to hold schools harmless.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school calendar: November brings holidays, half days, and child care burdens

2025-11-03T15:30:21+00:00

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New York City parents, brace yourself: There are no full five-day school weeks for many students during November.

The month starts with a day off for students on Tuesday for Election Day, and then elementary school students have a half day on Thursday for parent teacher conferences.

The following week, students are off Nov. 11 for Veterans Day, followed two days later with a half day for parent teacher conferences at middle schools and those in District 75, which serves students with disabilities.

Students attending K-12 schools, 6-12 schools, and high schools then have a half day on Nov. 20 for parent teacher conferences.

And finally, the last week of the month has two days off for Thanksgiving.

Having no school on days when most parents are still working can cause child care burdens on many families. Some schools might offer programs for students on these days off, and local after-school centers often spin up programs that families can pay for – but it can still cause logistical and financial headaches.

The stop-start nature of partial school weeks can also be hard on educators trying to build momentum and maintain their students’ focus. It can also put a dent in their efforts to improve attendance, a top priority for many schools. About 1 in 3 New York City students were chronically absent last year, which is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year.

Many parents have expressed frustration with the city’s calendar this year, which only includes 176 days for students, rather than the state-required 180 instructional days. The Education Department, however, is still in compliance since the state allows up to four staff development days to count as instructional days.

Parent leaders from District 1’s Community Education Council, representing Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village, recently passed a resolution calling on the Education Department to make calendar decisions in future years with input from the “broader school community,” including parents and students. Currently, the calendar is created with input from the teachers union.

“We’re calling for more transparency on how the school calendar is put together, and for [Community Education Councils] to be more involved in that process,” council member Alejandro Epifanio Torres said at the meeting in which members passed the resolution.

Julissa Martinez, the Education Department’s director of instructional time policy, told parents at the meeting that officials were working on that very issue.

“We are planning right now, by the end of the year it should be out, a web page on our DOE site that really outlines the calendar process, so that … people know it’s not arbitrary,” she said. “It’s a set formula.”

She also said that the Education Department is not likely to put out three years-worth of calendars like it did recently, but expects to return to the practice of putting out one year’s schedule at a time.

“It is better to take it year by year, and that’s what we’re doing next year,” she said.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Voter guide: Where the NYC mayoral candidates stand on the future of education

2025-10-24T20:40:06+00:00

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New York City’s next mayor will oversee the nation’s largest school system: more than 1,600 schools serving roughly 900,000 students with about 150,000 employees.

Its $40 billion budget makes it the largest city agency.

And yet, the candidates have not made education a central theme.

Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s affordability agenda includes free child care, but he has a slim K-12 platform. He’s offered some hints that he’d want to focus on the system’s most vulnerable children, including students with disabilities and the growing number of homeless students. A record high of the city students — 154,000 — lived last year in shelters or doubled up in homes with friends or family.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, has positioned himself as the champion of selective admissions, calling for doubling specialized high schools and expanding gifted and talented programs — both of which serve a fraction of the city’s students and disproportionately enroll white and Asian American children.

And Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa vowed to slash $10 billion from the Education Department’s budget, roughly 42% of how much the city spends on schools. (Mamdani has also called for tackling wasteful department spending.)

Perhaps the most consequential education idea Mamdani has espoused about the city’s school system: having less control over it.

Here’s a closer look at some of the educational issues that have come up on the campaign trail.

What might the future of mayoral control look like?

Ever since Michael Bloomberg won sweeping control over the school system in 2002, including the power to appoint the schools chancellor, every mayor has lobbied state lawmakers to keep this governance model in place.

Mayoral control’s supporters say it creates a clear line of accountability: The buck stops with the mayor, who wields enormous influence over the Education Department’s budget.

Mamdani has vowed to “end” mayoral control, embracing a longstanding critique that it gives little say to parents and educators on decisions that directly affect them. The frontrunner has promised a system of “co-governance” with existing parent councils and school-level leadership teams, though has offered scant details on how that would work.

At the same time, he has said, the mayor should still be held accountable for the public school system — raising questions about how much power he is willing to relinquish.

“I remain opposed to mayoral control, and I also believe that the mayor is accountable for that which happens in this city,” Mamdani said in this week’s debate.

Both of Mamdani’s opponents support mayoral control.

Cuomo recently said it would be a “terrible mistake” to roll it back.

“That’s probably been the most dramatic educational reform in 40 years,” Cuomo said. “We’d go back to the old system that had local school boards, which were corrupt patronage mills.”

Whoever is elected must soon negotiate with state lawmakers over mayoral control, which is up for renewal in 2026. (It’s typically extended every couple years.)

How will the city meet the challenges to shrink classes?

Over the next two years, all New York City public school classrooms must be capped between 20-25 students under a state law. That will require thousands of new teachers, billions of dollars, and thorny tradeoffs at overcrowded campuses.

Mamdani, who was endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers, recently unveiled a plan to recruit 1,000 teachers a year by offering tuition assistance in exchange for a three-year teaching commitment. The $12 million plan won’t be enough to fully staff smaller classes, Mamdani acknowledged. To speed up the process of building new classroom space, he has also called for filling vacancies at the School Construction Authority, the agency overseeing such projects.

During the primary, Cuomo expressed support for the class size law, though he cautioned it would be difficult to implement without an infusion of new funding from the state. In recent weeks, however, the former governor’s tone has shifted considerably. In a town hall meeting with parent leaders last month, he decried the law as “detached from reality” and “reckless.”

“It is an impossibility without funding,” Cuomo said. Sliwa shares that position.

What will happen to Mayor Eric Adams’ curriculum mandates?

Mayor Eric Adams’ main educational agenda has focused on overhauling reading and math instruction. All elementary campuses must now use city-approved reading curriculums. High schools transitioned to a standard Algebra 1 program. A growing number of middle schools must use city-approved literacy and math programs, too.

In a rare instance of agreement, the candidates have said they generally support the reading curriculum changes. Cuomo has raised concerns about whether the mandated math curriculums are as strong. Mamdani said teachers should have more control over how the curriculums are implemented.

Yet in a recent debate, Mamdani took a more pessimistic tone on the reading curriculum changes — and the school system more broadly.

Mamdani has not laid out a detailed vision for improving instruction, but in a meeting with business leaders over the summer, he suggested artificial intelligence could be a useful tool in crafting lesson plans and reduce the number of employees at the Education Department, the Wall Street Journal reported. More recently, he walked back some of those comments, saying AI should supplement rather than replace staffers.

How can NYC fix its failing schools?

Mayors have taken widely different approaches to the city’s lowest-performing campuses. Bloomberg closed many large high schools and opened new, smaller ones in their place. His successor, Bill de Blasio, flooded campuses with social services and academic support, viewing closures as a last resort.

Cuomo has indicated he would shutter schools in the bottom 5% of reading and math performance on state tests, or those with graduation rates below 60%. In their place, the city should open new programs, including charters or high schools that offer students early college credits, he said. (Opening new charter schools would require approval from state lawmakers who have generally been hostile to the sector.)

Mamdani has not outlined a clear plan for improving schools, which Cuomo seized on in the final weeks of the campaign. The Democratic nominee indicated that he is more in line with de Blasio’s vision and said he would support a network of more than 400 community schools that provide wraparound support, pointing to mental health services, tutoring, and other social services.

“While the research on large-scale school improvement initiatives is limited, it is critical to implement strategies that are grounded in data,” Mamdani wrote in response to a Chalkbeat questionnaire, pointing to some encouraging evidence on the community school model.

He has also expressed reservations about the charter sector, which enjoyed support under Bloomberg, arguing they siphon resources from traditional public schools and has vowed to audit them.

What might happen to gifted programs, specialized high schools?

Debate over the city’s gifted and talented program heated up again after Mamdani indicated he wanted to eliminate the classes that start in kindergarten and keep the program starting in third grade. Cuomo and Sliwa both said they would expand gifted programs with kindergarten entry.

Adams had opened dozens of new programs for third graders in underserved areas, a way to address a thorny issue vexing the city’s gifted system: It admits disproportionately few Black and Latino students compared to their share of the population citywide.

For kindergarten gifted and talented classes, students win seats based on prekindergarten teacher recommendations. Though acceptance no longer relies on testing 4-year-olds, a much criticized process, educators still have concerns about sorting kindergartners. Many of the new third grade programs, however — which invite students to apply based on their report cards — are failing to attract applicants.

While Mamdani has expressed interest in curtailing certain gifted programs, he has backed away from his previous stance calling to eliminate the Specialized High School Admissions Test, which serves as the sole basis of entry for eight schools including Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, and Mamdani’s alma mater, Bronx Science. Many integration advocates have blasted the test as fueling the lack of offers to Black and Latino students. He previously told Chalkbeat that he would analyze the test for gender and racial bias.

Cuomo called for expanding the number of specialized high schools to 18 and said he would consider bringing back more selective admissions for other schools. Sliwa has also expressed support for increasing the number of specialized schools.

Who will be the next schools chancellor?

One of the most significant personnel decisions the next mayor will face is who to appoint to lead the nation’s largest school system.

Mamdani has said little about how he will make the decision or if he will conduct a national search. He has indicated that he is open to keeping Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the current schools chancellor appointed by Adams, which would represent a break from previous mayors who have appointed their own schools chief.

It’s also unclear whether he would be willing to give up any of his power to appoint a schools chancellor, a major element of mayoral control.

Cuomo declined to say who he would select when asked during a recent debate. Sliwa said he would appoint Robert Holden, a Queens City Council member.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Free pre-K isn’t enough: Why families with young kids are leaving NYC before kindergarten

2025-10-22T19:00:47+00:00

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Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s big education agenda, free child care for all, aims to keep families with young children in New York City.

But would the program, costing an estimated $6 billion a year, convince families to stay for elementary school?

Child care is just one piece of an interconnected web of affordability and education issues that influence whether families leave the city when they have children. Also in play: housing, availability of after-school programs, school quality, and navigating school admissions, whether for kindergarten or looking ahead to middle and high school. For many, having a second or third child also changes the calculus, several parents told Chalkbeat.

The city’s free prekindergarten program didn’t stop thousands of families who applied to the program for 4-year-olds last year from leaving the public school system before kindergarten this year, according to Education Department application data.

Roughly 52,400 children submitted applications for pre-K seats in the 2024-25 school year. But when it came time for those children to apply to kindergarten the following year, there was a considerable dropoff to about 46,370, a dip of about 12%.

In the prior two years, the number of kindergarten and preschool applications more closely matched.

It seems unlikely that the difference is explained by families moving to private school for kindergarten. Enrollment in the early grades in private schools has declined the last few years, said Ryan Coughlan, an associate professor at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. (Enrollment at private schools has increased at middle and high schools.)

Alan Gu’s twins would have entered kindergarten in New York City this year, but he and his husband left their brownstone in Brooklyn for Jersey City. Finding a suitable public school with an affordable after-school program that aligned with their work schedules felt untenable.

Concerned about the performance of the neighborhood school, Gu felt fortunate last year to get his kids into a sought-after free pre-K program in Manhattan’s Chinatown, but that required waking up at 5:30 a.m. and commuting about an hour on two subway lines to a 15-minute walk with his then 4-year-olds. His kids were exhausted and mentally drained. So was Gu.

For the first three weeks, the school offered no after-care program. When after-care finally launched, it ended at 5 p.m., forcing Gu to leave work early, around 4 p.m. Sometimes, he’d bring his kids back to his office so he could get more work done. Often he was late and felt like a “bad parent.” The cost, $150 per child each week, didn’t make sense to him.

Gu, who works in human resources and had lived in New York for more than 10 years, previously thought he “would die” before moving to New Jersey.

Then he visited the Newport area in Jersey City. It felt safe and had about a 25-minute commute to Manhattan. He was impressed by the local public school.

“Not only were they helpful, it didn’t seem like it was a secret on how to get into the school,” Gu said.

The school had morning care starting at 7 a.m. and after-care lasting until 6 p.m. — and it cost less than his kids’ program in Chinatown. He pulled the twins out and moved across the Hudson River two months before the school year ended.

Now that they’re not traveling nearly an hour each way to school, his twins have energy for an array of activities, like ballet, tap, hip hop, and jiu jitsu — paying almost less combined than for their swim lessons in the city. And he no longer feels like he has to fight for things, like he did in the city, such as speech therapy services for his children.

Out of 14 families of his twins’ pre-K class, only three stayed in the city for kindergarten, he said.

“I felt like New York City did not want me there once I had kids,” Gu said.

Schools and housing often a reason for leaving the city

The mayoral candidates have all embraced the need to bolster child care, with Mamdani making it one of his three signature platforms, alongside a rent freeze and free buses.

“It’s pricing out New Yorkers from the city,” he said during last week’s debate.

Education Department officials said a variety of factors might influence application rate fluctuations, and in summer 2024, they did a research survey to help understand how families make school choices. The survey found that 40% left the school system because they moved out of the city, and of those who left, the top three reasons were: a “better environment to raise kids,” “concerns about schools,” and “more housing space.”

Kristyna Frantz, a mom to a preschooler and twin babies, left in December after a decade in Washington Heights, moving to New Jersey’s Union County and commuting more than an hour to her communications job in the Financial District.

She had spaced her pregnancies so the older would be in 3K, the city’s free pre-K program for 3-year-olds, when the second was born and could be in day care. But having twins changed everything. The day care at her older son’s program increased in price more than 11% from when he started as a 5-month old, bringing the total to more than $2,000 a month per kid, which was prohibitive for her.

It sped up their timeline to move to New Jersey, where her husband is from, and where her in-laws still live and could provide an extra layer of child care.

“The 3-K was really what got my husband to stay for our first kid,” Frantz said. She believes the economics would have worked if they had free or subsidized child care for the twins. “We could have crunched the numbers and I could have said, ‘I know you want to move to New Jersey and mow the lawn, but this math isn’t mathing.”

The scene at a Sept. 7 New Yorkers for Child Care rally.

Both Frantz and Gu have been advocating for affordable child care through the grassroots group New Yorkers United for Child Care, which on Wednesday released a roadmap on how to achieve free child care for 2-year-olds within four years. Along with the policy organization United Neighborhood Houses, they called for an initial focus on the city’s highest poverty areas.

Rebecca Bailin, executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, believes the initiative is key to keep the city’s diversity and help families here grow.

“We have seen people say when their kids are 0 to 2: I just have to make it to 3K or pre-K,’” said Bailin, “but I imagine as they’re thinking about that second kid they’re realizing, ‘Oh God, I have to do this all over again and potentially get a bigger apartment and pay for after care.”

Families with young kids flee NYC at double the rate

Households with young children were twice as likely to leave New York City than those without young children, according to a 2024 analysis from the Fiscal Policy Institute. Black and Latino New Yorkers were also leaving at higher rates, the report found. In terms of school demographics, the number of Black students fell 13% over the past five years, along with a 6% drop in the number of white students.

The lack of affordable housing forced Jasmine White to leave Coney Island, the Brooklyn neighborhood where she was born and raised.

Jasmine White with her daughter, Mackenzie White.

On her salary providing physical assistance to adults with disabilities, White barely had savings after paying for her car insurance, cellphone, groceries, and her $340 weekly child care bill for her daughter — even while staying with her mom.

“Add it up after a while, you’re just left with lunch money,” White said.

She moved to Maryland the summer before the 2020-21 school year, during the COVID pandemic, after her daughter had been wait-listed at a kindergarten program White hoped she could attend instead of the local school. By the time her daughter got off the wait-list, they were already gone. And now White, who works as an office manager, says she has more than just lunch money.

Coughlan, the Baruch professor, said there’s been a lot more volatility since the pandemic in terms of families leaving New York City.

“There’s all kinds of questions around where people are choosing to live post-COVID,” he said, noting that some families are now more inclined to leave, worried about a repeat pandemic.

While schools often help root families to their neighborhoods, he’s also seen a rise in “decoupling school from place” — when children don’t attend local schools — which can leave people “feeling untethered,” and that could affect whether families decide to stay as well.

“It’s untenable to pay for child care in the city and be a person who makes a normal income and so that needs to be addressed,” Coughlan said. “But I also think we need to think of how people remain connected beyond that.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC high school applications: Your essential guide to navigating the admissions process

2025-10-07T17:30:09+00:00

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The clock is ticking.

New York City’s high school applications opened Tuesday, giving families of eighth graders two months to sort through 700 programs at 400 schools across the five boroughs.

Navigating the process often requires time and savvy to sign up for tours and open houses and figure out what might be the best fit for your child. And not to stress out families even more, but if you’re only starting now, you’re a bit behind. Tours started in September. Open houses at many schools have already filled up.

“Don’t wait for a counselor or PTA meeting; or a DOE information session to start your research,” said Laura Zingmond, senior editor at InsideSchools, a free resource that offers nuanced reviews of schools across the city. “Exploring schools should be your main focus throughout October and November.”

Applications are due Dec. 3, and offers are expected to be sent by March 5, 2026.

Families might have their make-or-break criteria: Do they want their kids to stay local or can they commute more than an hour each way? Is a volleyball team a must-have? Do they want a school with a strong robotics program?

But a family’s wants or needs aren’t the only factor given the level of competition for certain schools, many of which screen students based on GPAs from seventh grade.

With such a labyrinthine admissions process, many families are hungry for information and often seek help from their school’s counselors, other parents, or even through paid consultants.

“NYC high school admissions are citywide, but support is hyperlocal and uneven,” Zingmond said. “Knowing the rules and deadlines is only half the battle.Figuring out which schools to apply to is the real work.”

Chalkbeat talked to experts with years of experience helping families to help make sense of the process, and provide insights on what questions to consider when ranking schools.

New York City has lots of selective programs with different entry requirements

The city is home to more schools that screen students based on academic performance than other large school districts nationwide.

Roughly 120 programs “screen” students based on seventh grade GPAs in core subjects. About two dozen also use essays and interviews. Roughly two dozen programs require auditions. Eight schools base admissions solely on the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, and the application process for these schools, along with LaGuardia High School, is completely separate from the rest of the process.

About 45 schools are part of the city’s “Diversity in Admissions” program, setting aside a portion of seats for students from low-income families, English learners, or other underrepresented groups. Schools also set aside a certain number of seats for students with disabilities.

You can rank an unlimited number of high school programs, but make an ‘informed list’

Like last year, families can rank an unlimited number of schools on their list.

To help build those lists, families should understand their child’s “random” number, often referred to as a “lottery” number. Their child’s “tier” also can help families understand their odds at certain selective schools, with children in tier 1 having a better chance. (The tier cutoffs were tweaked slightly this year, with tier 1 for students in the top 15% of their school’s eighth graders or with a GPA above 94.33 in seventh grade core classes.)

“The hardest part of admissions is the research,” said Joyce Szuflita, a consultant with NYC Schools Help. “Reaching beyond the usual suspects is a challenge for even the most experienced and energetic families.”

While specific school names or interests can help students identify schools, many 12- and 13-year-olds don’t have a deep interest yet, she said. They just want “a nice normal well-rounded school.”

MySchools includes a helpful applicant-to-offer ratio for general education students as well as for students with disabilities. For example, Eleanor Roosevelt High School, a coveted school on the Upper East Side that gives priority to families living in Manhattan, had 29 applications per seat for general education students, and six applications per seat for students with disabilities.

MySchools also shows your odds of getting into various programs.

Once your MySchools account is active and complete — along with your child’s grades sorted into the “tiered” groups for screened schools, ED Opt group (needed for certain schools), and random number — you will be able to see up to three bars, showing whether you have a high, medium, or low chance of getting into a particular program.

While it’s fine to list programs that show a low likelihood of getting in — no matter what order you rank them — Szuflita advises families to have at least three programs showing a high likelihood somewhere on your list “to make sure that you get a placement from the schools you prefer.”

Go on NYC school tours — and take your child when possible

Many middle schools know their eighth graders might miss class for high school tours, and some schools organize their own tours. It’s not always easy to get time off of work for school visits, but experts agree that it can be helpful to see schools in person.

Pamela Wheaton, a co-founder of InsideSchools who now runs School Scout NYC, suggested buddying up with other families to spread the work, sharing information and offering to take their child on tours when you can and vice versa.

“There’s nothing like seeing a school in action and getting a feel for the building and vibe, as well as the commute,” Wheaton said. “I look at the work on the walls and also the bulletin boards which list upcoming activities. You get such a good sense of the school’s energy.”

Consider schools a little out of your comfort zone — and cover your bases

That’s the advice Szuflita gives to families.

“If your child has only been in small progressive schools, consider something a little bigger and more traditional or vice versa,” she suggested. “Many parents feel like if it is not broken, don’t fix it, but if your child can potentially do well in a different environment, a view of a wider world (different population, commute, size, pedagogy) is as much a part of their education as the subjects they will be studying.”

The variety of experiences, she said, can help provide students with insights into their strengths and preferences when considering their next steps to college and beyond.

Wheaton advises families to cover their bases if their child has an arts talent or is willing to prep for the SHSAT.

“That way they will have more chances at acceptances and may end up being able to choose between several schools,” she said, adding “There are a few good charter high schools too and that gives yet another option.”

Don’t dismiss the academics at arts programs

Parents of very academic — and talented — kids might think that schools requiring auditions don’t focus enough on academics or that such schools might not be a good fit for a college-bound kid who isn’t interested in an arts career.

But that’s not so, Wheaton said.

“Many audition schools offer excellent academics and are a good place for kids to excel in both,” she said. “Taking arts classes leads to a well-rounded college applicant and helps students become more focused and happy.”

A lot of schools have gender imbalances

Families are often surprised to learn that many programs have significant gender imbalances. Arts programs, for instance, skew female, while tech-focused schools skew male.

Roughly 17% of the city’s high schools were at least 65% male or female, meaning boys outnumbered girls 2 to 1 or vice versa, a 2023 Chalkbeat analysis found.

“It may not make a big difference for some students, but it is something that is worth being aware of when looking at school culture,” Szlufita said.

There’s more to a school than its graduation rate

A high graduation rate might not translate into a strong academic program, Zingmond said. She’s talked to families at schools that don’t offer physics or their children have to take language or advanced courses online. There are also a lot of great career and technical programs, but at some, not many students graduate with the CTE endorsement, she said.

Zingmond’s preferred metric to look at: the College and Career Readiness, or CCR, rate, which takes into account how students do after four years at the school in terms of their grades, advanced courses completed, and certifications earned for CTE schools. She advises to look for schools that have a College and Career Readiness rate at or above the citywide average of 52%.

“And yes, there are plenty of schools that don’t screen for grades with strong academics reflected in good CCR scores,” she said, noting that InsideSchools includes the stat on all high school profile pages.

Parents and students: Double-check your application

Some parents may not realize that they can apply separately to different programs at one high school, Wheaton said.

“If there’s a school you really like, apply to as many of the programs as makes sense for your child. It will improve their chance of acceptance,” she advised.

Zingmond’s main advice: Seek help.

“Everyone — parents and students — needs help,” she said. “Talk to your counselors and families in your community. Check out school websites; attend open houses and borough fairs.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

AI, tutors, parents: Why this NYC school is forcing students to write admissions essays in person

2025-09-30T21:38:23+00:00

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In the dog-eat-dog world of New York City high school admissions, some eighth graders have figured out ways to get a leg up when it comes to the essays coveted schools require.

Some students turn to ChatGPT. Some hire writing tutors. Some have help from their parents.

Now, at least one school is trying to fight back against this tide: Manhattan’s Beacon High School tweaked its admissions process this year to require that applicants complete their essays in person rather than at home.

Beacon, which last year saw 4,210 applicants vie for 282 seats, is making the move due to concerns that students have been getting help on their essays from several sources, whether artificial intelligence, families, or paid tutors, educators at the school said.

“It became disheartening to see in the past couple of years, we’re reading things that don’t feel authentic,” said a Beacon teacher, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the change. The school’s teachers grade the application essays and increasingly found examples of “excellent” writing that garnered high scores under their grading system, but didn’t feel like they were written by 12- or 13-year-olds, the educator said.

The school posted a note about the shift on its website this weekend, and is expecting to soon share “several dates” in November for eighth graders to come to its campus to complete two 500-word essays. The school has already shared the essay prompts, along with the rubric on how the writing will be graded.

The high school application process runs from Oct. 7 through Dec. 3. Offers are expected to be sent March 5, 2026. Last year, the Education Department tweaked the process to allow students to rank an unlimited number of schools, which may have increased the number of students applying to Beacon.

Though the school didn’t yet mention how much time students will get, it mentioned that students with disabilities will receive extra time if they are entitled to such accommodations.

The school’s educators said the principal informed them of the change at a staff meeting last week. Beacon’s principal did not respond for comment.

The changes sent “shockwaves” through families of prospective high school applicants, said Elissa Stein, who runs High School 411, which aims to help families navigate the admissions process.

“While I always tell families that schools want to hear from kids in their own voices, no doubt some worked with tutors or coaches or had parent input in essay writing,” Stein said. “Having the essay take place in person can certainly cause anxiety for both parents and students, both from a content point of view but also it introduces performance stress.”

Requiring students to come in person can bring additional challenges, whether because of distance or availability — though it could help families understand the realities of the commute to the school.

Beacon also changed how much weight the essay carries for the application. The essay will now count for 50% of the application, with the rest based on grades from seventh grade core classes. Previously, the essay counted for 80%, Stein said.

“For students who didn’t have a strong random number, having an essay count for the majority of a rubric opened opportunities up to a wider range of students,” she said. “This is closing that door a bit.”

Beacon is not the first school to have in-person assessments. Pre-pandemic, the school conducted in-person interviews along with a pre-written essay for admissions, Stein said. Last year, the schools run by Bard Early College went back to in-person assessments.

Out of New York City’s roughly 700 programs at 400 public high schools, roughly two dozen use some criteria, such as essays, on top of students’ scores from seventh grade core classes. Nearly 24 schools have programs that require students to audition. And eight schools base admissions on the Specialized High School Admissions Test.

Last school year, multiple schools that require auditions or essays — including Beacon — emailed applicants asking them to resend materials, raising concerns that technical snafus may have prevented schools from viewing materials submitted by hundreds of students.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Dylan, Bronx high schooler detained by ICE, loses asylum case, faces possible deportation

2025-09-24T21:45:54+00:00

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Dylan Lopez Contreras, a Bronx high schooler arrested by federal immigration agents in May, was denied asylum and ordered to be deported back to Venezuela, his attorneys said Wednesday.

His legal team from the New York Legal Assistance Group, or NYLAG, plans to appeal the decision made Tuesday by a Newark immigration judge and push for his release on bond. The appeal will stop the deportation process, and Dylan will remain detained in a Pennsylvania facility.

Dylan’s lawyers have 30 days to file the appeal.

“It’s certainly not the outcome we were hoping for and not the outcome he deserves,” said Lauren Kostes, a NYLAG attorney, adding that evidence was “overlooked and ignored.”

Four months ago, Dylan showed up at his routine immigration court date at Manhattan’s 26 Federal Plaza and became the first known public school student to be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Dylan’s case, which was first reported by Chalkbeat, offered a stark example of how the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown affected New York City school communities — and how educators have tried to reassure families with mounting deportation fears. Dylan’s school, ELLIS Preparatory Academy rallied to his defense, connecting his family with legal support, raising money, and sending him letters, while also trying to reassure its other students who feel threatened by the current political climate.

Several schools across the five boroughs have since grappled with detentions of their own students, including Grover Cleveland High School in Queens, Brooklyn’s Frontiers High School, and P.S. 89, a Queens elementary school that saw a 6-year-old student deported to Ecuador.

The Education Department said they could not share how many public school students have been detained by ICE, especially since they do not track or ask families to disclose country of origin or immigration status.

But hundreds of young people in New York City have been caught in the federal government’s wave of arrests: About 275 people in New York City who were born in 2004 or later have been detained by ICE, according to government data provided by ICE in response to a public records request to the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by Chalkbeat.

Whether someone wins or loses their asylum case, Kostes said, might depend on the luck of the draw in terms of their judge, which “demonstrates a lot of the problems with the immigration system.” In Dylan’s case, his judge had a 95.8% denial rate, Kostes said, noting that the judge’s ruling was not public.

“You can have wildly different interpretations of the same law by different judges,” she said, “so different judges can have wildly different grant rates.”

Immigration Judge Maria Akalski, who oversaw Dylan’s case, had a much higher asylum denial rate than judges nationwide, according to an analysis of 2019-24 data by the nonprofit Transactional Records Clearinghouse.

The appeal process might also be challenging.

The Trump administration has fired many immigration judges, Kostes said, and many in the legal community worry that the firings have targeted those who tended to have higher asylum-granting rates.

Crackdown brings immigration slowdown

When Dylan made the trek from Venezuela across the U.S. border in April 2024 he requested asylum and was permitted to enter the country and work under a Biden-era humanitarian program. The 20-year-old made his way to New York, enrolling in ELLIS Prep, which typically serves older students who have been in the country less than a year. Dylan picked up a part-time job as a delivery worker to help his mom who worked multiple jobs. He helped her save enough money so they and Dylan’s two younger siblings could move out of a city-run shelter and into their own apartment.

Kostes said Dylan did everything right but was still being punished.

“Even with cases that should win under the law, they are not winning,” Kostes said. “It’s doing what it’s supposed to do, which is convincing people to leave and convincing people to stop fighting and convincing people to get out. And that’s heartbreaking and horrifying because they’re getting sent back to places they fled when they had a right to stay.”

President Donald Trump campaigned on promises of mass deportations and has made immigration a focal point of his second term. In his inaugural address, he pledged to return “millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.” In the months that followed, many immigrants without legal status and without criminal histories — like Dylan — have been detained across the nation at routine immigration hearings.

Department of Homeland Security officials have criticized former President Joseph Biden’s policy allowing immigrants like Dylan to enter the country, saying previously, “ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.”

The federal government’s approach has dramatically slowed immigration into the country. In July, the number of immigrants unlawfully crossing the U.S.-Mexico sank to a historic low. New York City saw the effects in its shelter system: In the same month, the rate of new migrants entering city-run shelters dropped to fewer than 100 per week from a high of more than 4,000 per week two years before.

A photo of Dylan Lopez Contreras before he was detained by ICE agents.

Dylan has spent most of these past months in Pennsylvania’s Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest detention facility in the Northeast. Many have been calling for the facility’s closure, following a federal complaint filed over insufficient medical and mental health care and inadequate translation services.

Dylan recently told Chalkbeat he remained committed to learning English and continued to hold out hope to pursue a college degree in the U.S.

“This unjust detention has frustrated and paralyzed my education and effort momentarily,” Dylan wrote in Spanish a few weeks ago in response to questions Chalkbeat sent through his legal team. “But it won’t make me give up on working hard toward my educational goals.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams targets transgender student bathroom access

2025-09-18T20:58:59+00:00

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that the city’s public school system should rethink its policy of allowing transgender students to use bathrooms and other facilities that align with their gender identity.

“We’re going so far away from common sense,” Adams said at an unrelated press conference. “My utmost importance is to ensure that when my children are in school, they’re in a safe environment. And I do not believe a safe environment is allowing boys and girls to use the same facility at the same time.”

He added: “I’m going to look at my authority and power to change that,” referring to the Education Department’s current rules. “We have become so politically correct that we are incorrect.”

Adams’ comments line up with an aggressive push by the Trump administration to roll back protections for transgender students but are at odds with city and state guidelines on restrooms. They drew swift rebuke from civil rights advocates and Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner to become mayor next year. The state’s Education Department cast doubt on whether Adams has the authority to change the rules.

“Under the State Human Rights Law, transgender and gender expansive students are entitled to use the restroom or locker room that aligns with their gender identity,” state Education Department spokesperson JP O’Hare wrote in a statement. “The mayor is well aware of this fact, which was reiterated in joint guidance issued by the Department and Office of the Attorney General earlier this year.”

The mayor acknowledged he would need to seek advice from the city’s lawyers on the extent of his power.

Adams’ comments come as rumors have swirled about a possible Trump administration job opportunity to lure him out of the mayoral race so his opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, could take on Mamdani. It also comes shortly after the Trump administration threatened to hold up federal grant funding to New York City for magnet schools because it believes the city’s policies on transgender students violate civil rights laws.

To receive that money, New York City public school officials must affirm “that it will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs or occupy intimate facilities designated for females,” wrote Craig Trainor the U.S. Department of Education’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.

Mamdani blasted Adams’ comments on social media.

“Awful and dangerous to hear the Mayor echo the transphobic bigotry coming from the Trump administration,” Mamdani wrote on X. “It’s completely at odds with the values of our city and another reason why his single, disgraced term in office cannot end soon enough.”

A city Education Department spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos agrees with the mayor’s position on bathroom access for transgender students.

Fights over transgender issues have popped up in New York City schools before. Some parents unsuccessfully tried to push the Education Department to reconsider its policy on transgender girls’ access to sports teams.

President Donald Trump has targeted states and school districts with more inclusive policies toward transgender students. His administration took the highly unusual step of placing five Virginia school districts on “high risk” status and withholding federal funds because of their policies allowing students to use bathrooms aligning with their gender identity. The department also found a Denver high school in violation of Title IX after it converted girls’ and boys’ restrooms to all-gender restrooms.

Federal courts have split on whether schools must allow transgender students to use bathrooms that align with the gender identity and whether denying such access amounts to sex discrimination. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court said that a transgender boy in South Carolina should be allowed to use the boys’ restroom while a challenge to that state’s bathroom bill plays out in court.

In response to the mayor’s comments, the New York Civil Liberties Union echoed that he could not alter the Education Department’s policy.

“Let’s be clear: the mayor has no authority to ban trans students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman wrote in a statement. “Such a move would be illegal under New York State and New York City laws and an affront to our shared values.”

National editor Erica Meltzer contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Dylan, estudiante de secundaria detenido por ICE, revela cómo es su vida ahora

2025-09-17T18:20:02+00:00

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Tres meses de detención han pasado factura a Dylan López Contreras, el estudiante de la ciudad de Nueva York arrestado por agentes federales de inmigración en mayo.

Pero las cartas de sus compañeros de clase han sido un bálsamo, dijo en una entrevista con Chalkbeat, la primera que da desde su arresto.

“Las cartas que he recibido y el apoyo que he recibido me han ayudado a seguir adelante”, dijo el joven de 20 años en español, respondiendo preguntas por escrito a través de sus abogados del New York Legal Assistance Group (Grupo de Asistencia Legal de Nueva York). “Aun así, es extremadamente estresante y angustiante. He visto peleas, racismo e incluso muerte. Me han dado muchas pesadillas”.

Dylan se entregó en la frontera estadounidense en abril de 2024 tras un viaje desde Venezuela. Solicitó asilo y se le permitió entrar al país. Se dirigió a Nueva York y se matriculó en la Academia Preparatoria ELLIS. Fue arrestado por el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés) en mayo en una cita judicial de rutina y ha pasado la mayor parte de los últimos tres meses en el centro de procesamiento Moshannon Valley Processing Center en Pensilvania, el centro de detención más grande del noreste.

Chalkbeat dio a conocer la noticia del arresto de Dylan, lo cual se convirtió en un claro ejemplo de cómo la represión migratoria de la administración Trump se está extendiendo en la ciudad de Nueva York y está afectando a los estudiantes. Chalkbeat también ha relatado cómo los estudiantes y el personal de ELLIS, una escuela secundaria del Bronx que admite a estudiantes con menos de un año en el país, se movilizaron en su defensa, recaudando fondos para su caso y enviándole cartas.

Dylan López Contreras en una fotografía sin fecha antes de ser detenido.

“Nunca imaginé que recibiría tanto apoyo”, escribió Dylan. “Sinceramente, fue una sensación muy hermosa y llena de esperanza”.

El caso de asilo de Dylan continua el lunes, 15 de septiembre, cuando regresará a la corte de inmigración. [Durante una audiencia el viernes 13 de junio, un juez de inmigración aceptó una moción para reconsiderar la desestimación indebida del caso de asilo de Dylan.]

Cientos de jóvenes neoyorquinos detenidos este año

Cuando el presidente Donald Trump asumió el cargo, prometió “iniciar el proceso de devolver a millones y millones de extranjeros delincuentes a sus lugares de origen”. Meses después, muchos inmigrantes —quienes, como Dylan, se encontraban sin estatus legal, pero tampoco tenían antecedentes penales— fueron detenidos en el número 26 de Federal Plaza, en el Bajo Manhattan, y en otros juzgados de todo el país durante audiencias de inmigración rutinarias.

La administración Trump ha descrito esto como un enfoque de “sentido común”, que les permite encontrar sus objetivos sin tener que dispersarse por los barrios, y dijo que están cumpliendo la promesa de deportaciones masivas que impulsaron la victoria de la campaña de Trump.

Los funcionarios del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional no respondieron de inmediato a las preguntas sobre el caso de Dylan o Moshannon Valley.

Desde que ICE detuvo a Dylan en mayo, se han producido otros arrestos y deportaciones de jóvenes de la ciudad de Nueva York.

El Departamento de Educación de la ciudad dijo que no podía compartir cuántos estudiantes de escuelas públicas han sido detenidos por ICE, especialmente porque no rastrean ni piden a las familias que revelen el país de origen o el estado migratorio.

Este año, ICE ha detenido a unas 275 personas en la ciudad de Nueva York nacidas en 2004 o después, según datos gubernamentales proporcionados por ICE en respuesta a una solicitud de registros públicos al Deportation Data Project (Proyecto de Datos de Deportación) y analizados por Chalkbeat. La mayoría de los detenidos eran hombres, y aproximadamente dos tercios provenían de Latinoamérica. Entre los detenidos se encontraban niños de tres y cuatro años provenientes de Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras y Venezuela.

En agosto, una niña de 6 años que asistía a la escuela pública 89 de Queens fue deportada a Ecuador con su madre, según informes. Ese mismo mes, Mamadou Mouctar, un joven guineano de 20 años que asistía a la escuela secundaria Frontiers de Brooklyn, fue detenido. Al igual que en el caso de Dylan, educadores y líderes municipales expresaron su apoyo.

Del aula del Bronx a la celda de detención

Dylan dijo que sus días en Moshannon Valley han sido monótonos: recuentos de personas a altas horas de la noche y a primera hora de la mañana, y tratando de hacer poco ruido para evitar que las otras 60 personas en su celda le dijeran que guardara silencio. (Cientos de manifestantes se congregaron cerca del centro el mes pasado exigiendo su cierre, tras una denuncia federal presentada contra Moshannon Valley por atención médica y de salud mental insuficiente y servicios de traducción inadecuados.)

“La mayoría de la gente aquí está deprimida”, escribió Dylan. “Pasan la mayor parte del tiempo hablando de su última o próxima decisión judicial, de su familia en el exterior o de la injusticia de estar aquí”.

Dylan López Contreras se dedicó a sus estudios y a apoyar a su familia.

Antes del arresto de Dylan, estaba concentrado en sus estudios y en ayudar a su madre a cuidar a sus dos hermanos menores, en parte gracias a lo que ganaba trabajando como repartidor. Estaba ocupado haciendo amigos en ELLIS, compartiendo arepas con ellos durante el almuerzo. Dijo que esperaba seguir aprendiendo inglés para obtener una licenciatura en Estados Unidos, una meta que, según él, aún planea alcanzar.

“Esta detención injusta ha frustrado y paralizado mi educación y mis esfuerzos momentáneamente”, dijo Dylan. “Pero no me hará renunciar a esforzarme por alcanzar mis metas educativas”.

Dylan sueña con el día en que pueda ser liberado y abrazar a su familia, comer bien y dormir bien. También bromeó sobre tener que recuperar terreno perdido tras perder su racha de 230 días en Duolingo.

Dylan dijo que quería que Trump recordara que los inmigrantes contribuyen a la economía y argumentó que el dinero gastado en medidas drásticas contra la inmigración podría destinarse a otros ámbitos, como la educación. A principios del verano, el Congreso aprobó un proyecto de ley de gastos que destinó una cantidad sin precedentes de $170 mil millones a la aplicación de la ley migratoria.

“Entiendo el punto de vista del presidente al querer que su país sea mejor, pero debe recordar que esta es una nación de migrantes, construida por ellos”, escribió.

Es posible que la audiencia de Dylan no tenga un resultado inmediato, según informaron miembros de su equipo legal. El equipo planea presentar testimonio detallado y pruebas que respalden su solicitud de asilo, lo que podría extender el plazo para una resolución. También existe la posibilidad de que permanezca detenido si obtiene el asilo, pero el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional presenta una apelación. También podría apelar si se le deniega el asilo.

Esta traducción fue proporcionada por The Latino Spirit, en asociación con el Centro de Medios Cooperativos de la Universidad Estatal de Montclair, y cuenta con el apoyo financiero del Consorcio de Información Cívica de NJ. La historia fue escrita originalmente en inglés por Chalkbeat y se vuelve a publicar en virtud de un acuerdo especial para compartir contenido a través del Servicio de noticias de traducción al español de NJ News Commons.

This translation was provided by The Latino Spirit, in association with the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University and is financially supported by the NJ Civic Information Consortium. The story was originally written in English by Chalkbeat and is republished under a special content sharing agreement through the NJ News Commons Spanish Translation News Service.

This NYC teacher is learning how to fight burnout and improve educators’ well-being

2025-09-17T11:31:38+00:00

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Natalie Yasmin Soto pours herself into her job teaching English as a new language to students at a Manhattan transfer school.

For 10 years she’s been at the James Baldwin School, serving students who tend to have struggled in traditional settings and are at-risk of dropping out. For the past three years, she’s also worked as her school’s teacher co-director, closely watching how local and national policy shifts affected not only students and families, but also educators and support staff.

Natalie Yasmin Soto studied well-being practices this summer she plans to share with her colleagues.

This summer, she had the time, space, and funding to grapple with these matters and dream up some possible solutions. Through the Fund for Teachers, she enrolled in “Resilience and Well-Being Strengths for Teachers” and “Energy Tools and Mind-Body Activities for Self-Care” courses in Barcelona, Spain and Florence, Italy. (This year, 351 teachers across the nation won grants between $5,000 to $10,000 for self-directed summer study.)

“We are deeply invested in supporting our young people to become self-sufficient adults who are compassionate, healthy, inquisitive, and joyful contributors in the world. But doing this work IS work,” Soto said. “And you cannot pour from an empty vessel.”

Over the course of this year, she hopes to share the new skills she’s learned with her colleagues to help them feel more balanced while increasing their “capacity to serve and respond as we weather the changes ahead.”

In many ways, Soto said, the challenges of working with young people remain the same: making sure that students are learning things that feel relevant and useful. But now, there’s an added layer of doing that amid “an individual and collective fear and threat to the safety of themselves and their families,” especially for her students who are undocumented or from mixed status families.

She tries to stay grounded by finding the small victories.

“It’s when a student makes it to class on time or meets a deadline despite the responsibilities of work or sibling care. It’s when they become comfortable enough to talk to another student and they have lunch together,” she said. “The triumphs are in the moments when, despite all of the pressures and fears and noise, they get to be kids. They get to be learners.”

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

I’ve realized my answer to this varies over time – shifts in perspective and all that. But I think the truth is I fell into teaching from a place of curiosity and indignation.

While in a Ph.D. program at an Ivy League institution in my early 20s, I taught a course I’d designed on short stories. From a compositional and grammatical perspective, students’ writings were often without major error. Their analyses were arguably adequate, but lacking in depth.

Shortly thereafter, I found myself teaching in a very different setting. Almost all of my students were first-generation college attendees, many children of or themselves immigrants from the Caribbean, and at least half were adults 20+ years my senior attending college for the first time.

But what I found, consistently, was that despite their depth of analysis in discussion and the nuance in their understanding of the connections and complexities of family dynamics and inequities, their writing – from a composition perspective – didn’t capture their brilliance, insights, analyses, or experiences.

I’d had students when I was teaching in the Ivory Tower who never once doubted their skills or their right to sit in a college classroom, despite an absence of life experience and still-developing critical thinking skills, and yet here were students who looked like me who lacked the confidence to continue. I thought, “How do I lower the first-year college dropout rate?” and figured, “Well, I’ll just leave academia and get licensed to teach high school.”

It makes me laugh a little that, to me, the solution was both so obvious and so simple – and maybe naive? But, years later, here I am.

Can you tell us a bit more about some of the challenges you’ve been seeing with those students and how this summer’s work might help?

For many in New York City Public Schools, the influx of newcomers in our classrooms has raised unanticipated challenges – ones that exceed the need for added language acquisition support and test the unconscious biases that even the best-intentioned harbor.

I’m really proud to be a part of a community that, I think, does consistently admirable work in meeting the emotional regulation needs of our students and their families – newcomers, long-term [English language learners], and home language speakers of English alike. I genuinely watch my colleagues and administrators in amazement at the skills they have in this regard.

But that skill demands a lot of labor and effort, no matter how many years in you are. It’s my hope that in expanding our adults’ reservoirs in this arena, we’ll be better positioned as a community to take on the work of learning how to increase our instructional capacity across English language proficiencies to better teach our city’s newcomers.

Any best practices you can share with other teachers regarding working with English language learners?

A best practice that I think too often gets overlooked is being deliberate in our communications with families and loved ones. Don’t assume because a child is not a designated [English language learner] that their families wouldn’t prefer communications in a language other than English. Confirm in which language families prefer written communications versus spoken ones. When utilizing an interpreter, direct your communications to the family member, not the interpreter.

Remember that, for so many families, schools can be scary. They can be intimidating places of judgment and even chastisement, and no matter a student’s behavior or academic performance, families are our partners in the work and deserving of dignity and respect.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

At Baldwin, we have crew (advisory), and two of my absolute favorite lesson series to run in advisory are one based on unconscious bias and the other is more financial literacy related.

The first is great to run at the start of the year whenever you have a new-ish group. It’s fun for students because it gives them the permission to outline all of their assumptions about you and then work collectively to interrogate/reflect on what they’re basing those assumptions on. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it builds community and I’m all for it!

The other is both sociology- and financial literacy-based. It comes up whenever a student says they can’t wait to move out on their own after high school. (And there is always at least one!) We do a StreetEasy deep dive, project necessary budgets, and conduct asset mapping to interrogate what accounts for the differences across ZIP codes.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom (or your school)?

Censorship in education, at both the national and local level, is an undeniable force that both interferes with the education of young people and undermines the professional integrity and skills of teachers. There is a moral imperative to provide young people with information that is rooted in fact and teach them how to identify falsehoods, verify sourcing, and interrogate perspectives so that they can draw their own conclusions, take their own stands, and determine how they want to show up in the world.

When narratives are falsified, limited, and/or manipulated, when explicit and implicit gag orders are issued, we rob young people – and society – of the opportunity to build a compassionate world that is solutions-oriented and responsive, rather than retaliatory, self-righteous, and violent.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

In his own words: Dylan reveals what it’s like for the high schooler 3 months into his ICE detention

2025-09-12T21:10:07+00:00

Leer en español.

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Three months in detention have taken a toll on Dylan Lopez Contreras, the New York City student arrested by federal immigration agents in May.

But letters from his classmates have been a balm, he said in an interview with Chalkbeat, the first he’s given since his arrest.

“The letters I have received and the support I’ve been given have kept me going,” the 20-year-old said in Spanish, responding to questions in writing through his attorneys at the New York Legal Assistance Group. “Still, it is extremely stressful and distressing. I have seen fights, racism, and even death. It has given me many nightmares.”

Dylan turned himself in at the U.S. border in April 2024 after a trek from Venezuela. He requested asylum and was permitted to enter the country, making his way to New York and enrolling in ELLIS Preparatory Academy. He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in May at a routine court date and has spent most of the past three months at Pennsylvania’s Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest detention facility in the Northeast.

Chalkbeat broke the news of Dylan’s arrest, which became a vivid illustration of how the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is playing out in New York City and affecting students. Chalkbeat has also chronicled how the students and staff at ELLIS, a Bronx high school school that enrolls students who have been in the country less than a year, rallied to his defense, raising money for his case and sending him letters.

Dylan Lopez Contreras in an undated picture before he was detained.

“I never imagined I would receive so much support,” Dylan wrote. “Honestly, it felt very beautiful and hopeful.”

Dylan’s asylum case continues Monday, when he is expected to be back in immigration court. The hearing could determine whether he’s released from detention or deported.

Hundreds of young New Yorkers detained this year

When President Donald Trump took office, he vowed to “begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.” Months later, many immigrants — who, like Dylan, were without legal status but also had no criminal histories — were detained at Lower Manhattan’s 26 Federal Plaza and other courthouses across the nation at routine immigration hearings.

The Trump administration has described that as a “common-sense” approach, enabling them to find their targets without having to fan out into neighborhoods, and said they are fulfilling the promise of mass deportations that fueled Trump’s campaign victory.

Department of Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to questions about Dylan’s case or Moshannon Valley.

Since ICE detained Dylan in May, other arrests of New York City youth — and deportations — have followed.

The city’s Education Department said they could not share how many public school students have been detained by ICE, especially since they do not track or ask families to disclose country of origin or immigration status.

This year, ICE has detained about 275 people in New York City who were born in 2004 or later, according to government data provided by ICE in response to a public records request to the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by Chalkbeat. Most of those detained were male, and roughly two-thirds were from Latin America. Three- and 4-year-olds were among those detained from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, and Venezuela.

In August, a 6-year-old who attended P.S. 89 in Queens was deported to Ecuador with her mother, according to reports. That same month, Mamadou Mouctar, a 20-year-old from Guinea who attended Brooklyn’s Frontiers High School, was detained. As in Dylan’s case, educators and city leaders spoke out in support.

From Bronx classroom to detention cell

Dylan said his days at Moshannon Valley have been monotonous: late night and early morning head counts and trying to make little noise to avoid being told by the other 60 or so people in his cell to be quiet. (Hundreds of protesters gathered near the facility last month calling for its closure, following a federal complaint filed against Moshannon Valley over insufficient medical and mental health care and inadequate translation services.)

“The majority of the people here are depressed,” Dylan wrote. “They spend most of the time talking about their last, or next, court decision, their family outside, or the injustice of being here.”

Dylan Lopez Contreras was dedicated to his studies and supporting his family.

Before Dylan’s arrest, he was focused on his studies and helping his mom care for his two younger siblings, in part, through the money he made working as a delivery driver. He was busy making friends at ELLIS, sharing his arepas at lunch with them. He said he hoped to continue learning English to pursue a degree in the U.S. — a goal he said he still plans to work toward.

“This unjust detention has frustrated and paralyzed my education and effort momentarily,” Dylan said. “But it won’t make me give up on working hard toward my educational goals.”

Dylan dreams of a day he might be released and be able to hug his family, eat good food, and sleep well. He also joked about having to make up ground after losing his 230-day Duolingo streak.

Dylan said he wanted Trump to remember that immigrants contribute to the economy, and he argued that the money being spent on an immigration crackdown could be dedicated to other things like education. At the start of the summer, Congress approved a spending bill that set aside an unprecedented $170 billion for immigration enforcement.

“I understand the president’s point of wanting his country to be better, but he must remember that this is a nation of migrants, built by them,” he wrote.

It’s possible that Dylan’s hearing on Monday will not yield an immediate outcome, members of his legal team said. The team plans to present detailed testimony and evidence supporting his asylum claim, which could extend the timeline for a resolution. There’s also a chance he could remain in detention if he wins asylum, but the Department of Homeland Security files an appeal. He also could appeal if he’s denied asylum.

Chalkbeat Senior Data Editor Thomas Wilburn contributed.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools have 176 days of class, not the required 180. Here’s why.

2025-09-09T20:04:22+00:00

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Most New York City families think their children are in school for 180 days.

That’s the minimum number of instructional days New York public schools are required to provide under state law to qualify for state aid.

New York City students, however, will only be attending school this year for 176 days.

And it turns out, State Education Department officials say that number still meets the requirements — to the dismay of some parents, who worry that students are missing too much instructional time.

Under the regulations, school districts can count up to four “superintendent” or “chancellor” conference days as instructional time, state officials said.

The city’s Education Department confirmed that it counted four staff development days to meet the requirement: the two days teachers came in before students’ first day, Election Day on Nov. 4, and Anniversary/Chancellor’s Conference Day on June 4.

“We always ensure our students receive the required number of instructional days, in accordance with New York State Education Law,” Isla Gething, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department, wrote in an email.

New York City’s school calendar — which the Education Department creates in collaboration with the teachers union — has undergone several changes in recent years, with the addition of several holidays including the Muslim holiday of Eid (which city officials made an error on last year), Lunar New Year (with New York the first state to make it a school holiday), and Diwali, the “festival of lights” celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains around the world.

Additionally, because of this year’s “dog leg” day after winter break — students would have returned to school on Friday, Jan. 2 — the city ended up making that a day off. Something similar happened last school year when Monday, Dec. 23 was originally slated to be a school day before the city declared at the last minute that it would be a day off.

And schools no longer have snow days, instead going virtual for inclement weather, but the Education Department’s track record on pivoting to remote hasn’t been great.

As someone who likes to plan ahead, Robert Murtfeld, a parent leader in District 1, which spans Manhattan’s Lower East Side and East Village, began taking a closer look at this year’s calendar as he entered school holidays in his personal and professional calendars.

“I started to feel that the days off are quite excessive,” said Murtfeld, who chairs the Parent Teacher Association advocacy committee at the Neighborhood School, an elementary school in Manhattan’s East Village.

After counting the number of days students are in class, Murtfeld raised the issue with his local Community Education Council as well as with the Education Department’s Office of Policy and Advocacy, which responds to resolutions and concerns raised by the local elected parent boards.

Murtfeld was confused: In presentations from the Education Department, particularly about chronic absenteeism rates, which continue to be high, officials often stress that each day of instruction matters.

He feels that this year’s calendar sends the “wrong signal,” and at the least, he would like the Education Department to provide a more detailed explanation to families.

“For professional development, we parents want to know what is actually done on those days,” Murtfeld said. “Be transparent about what you are doing.”

On Wednesday, Murtfeld’s committee was expected to host City Council education chair Rita Joseph about this year’s educational priorities, and he planned to press her on the calendar as well.

Queens mom of three Ellen Smith went down a rabbit hole of counting the days off last year after the teachers at her children’s elementary and middle schools voted to go remote on the half days for parent-teacher conferences, and she felt more incensed when the city canceled the extra day for winter break.

“For me, it’s part of my general frustration with the school calendar and the way it’s Swiss cheese,” Smith said. “I feel like there’s no parent voice. There’s no way for parents to say, ‘This calendar is not made for working families, parents, and kids.’”

The “checkerboard” of new school holidays can damage the continuity of learning, said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. “Students need as many instructional days as possible.”

Once new holidays are added, it’s politically difficult to remove them, Bloomfield said. But he suggested an alternative: “The most feasible solution is to begin public school before Labor Day, now commonplace across the country.”

That could also solve a problem many families have with finding camp or child care at the end of the summer.

State regulations allow for staff development related to implementing new standards and assessments, staff orientation, and curriculum development, as well as parent-teacher conferences. They do not allow that time to be used for such routine school administrative matters as grading assignments or preparing assignments or lesson plans.

Cellphones out, Chromebooks in: NYC to give 350,000 students new laptops with free internet

2025-09-08T20:37:05+00:00

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New York City students may no longer access their cellphones during the school day, but many will soon have new school-issued internet-enabled Chromebooks, Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday.

The city is distributing 350,000 LTE- or 5G-connected Chromebooks to students across roughly 1,700 schools over the “coming months,” officials said, in an effort to replace outdated equipment that no longer meet instructional needs or current security standards.

Students will be able to take home the free devices — and keep them until they graduate, officials said. Since they come with internet access, the devices will allow students to go online wherever they live, whether they have broadband or not, a move aimed at closing the digital divide, Adams said.

More than 30% of New York City households, with more than 2.5 million residents, lack broadband, according to city officials.

The city is expected to spend $129 million in capital costs for the devices and $198 million in operating expenses over the next four years, city officials said. Part of the program is expected to be paid for with savings from a deal the Adams administration made earlier this year with T-Mobile, tapping the company as the major carrier for city operations (including the school-issued Chromebooks).

“This is a monumental investment in our young people’s potential and working-class families in our city,” said Adams, announcing the initiative from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. “We’re going to focus on the locations where the needs are the greatest, so that students are able continue to keep on learning, take advantage of remote opportunities, and apply for jobs and colleges.”

He continued: “We may have taken away cellphones during the day, but you got Chromebooks for the entire day.”

City officials plan to use data to target the neediest areas for the phased-in rollout of the devices. Schools will receive priority if their devices are older than five years or they don’t have enough devices for each student, schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said. The next priority will go to students in temporary housing, followed by high-poverty schools (with at least 86% of students from low-income families), new schools, and those that have filed appeals.

New York City purchased an estimated 725,000 devices over multiple years when schools pivoted to remote learning during the COVID pandemic, costing about $360 million. Those devices are now out of warranty, officials said. The Education Department’s plan to count those devices two years ago hit a snag and was halted, but officials noted that 400,000 devices were reported as working last year.

Matthew Fraser, the city’s chief technology officer, called the Chromebook initiative a “great equalizer” and “lifeline” to students.

“When you come into a space where you may not have the economic means to have the best clothes, the best toys, the best cars, the best tools, one of the things that can get you out of that systemic cycle of poverty is access to education,” he said. “As time progresses, technology becomes the underpinning of how education is delivered.”

The initiative also comes at a time when the city is limiting student’s personal devices, including lap tops. Under the state’s bell-to-bell ban, students are no longer allowed to use any devices that connect to the internet, and some families expressed concerns that students used their own laptops to complete schoolwork during the school day.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC school year starts with new schools, a phone ban, and looming mayoral election

2025-09-04T21:00:48+00:00

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Middle schoolers arrived at I.S. 5 in Queens Thursday morning with a mix of first-day emotions. They mourned the end of summer, nervously awaited classroom assignments, and some shed tears despite the bouquets of “welcome” balloons.

Seventh grader Gabriel Chrisman said he would miss sleeping late and playing video games. He hoped for hands-on learning rather than textbook-oriented lessons. Aarav Patel was anxious to learn whether he’ll make it into honors classes at the Elmhurst school. “I’m hoping mostly I’ll get good grades,” said the seventh grader.

The new school year brings an array of changes and challenges to the nation’s largest school system, with a new cellphone ban, looming class size requirements, and a mayoral race that could bring new leadership to the Education Department midway through the school year.

Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and Michael Mulgrew, president of the teachers union, visited I.S. 5 to highlight the school’s efforts to reduce class sizes and its success banning cellphones. About a 48-minute transit ride away in another part of Queens, Mayor Eric Adams joined the city’s schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos at HBCU Early College Prep High School, one of seven new schools opening this fall.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running for mayor as an independent, did not have any public first day of school appearances. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa planned to visit a Queens K-8 school after dismissal.

Adams, who trails all of the other candidates in most polls, returned not far from where he grew up to make the case that he has invested in underserved neighborhoods by opening high-performing schools.

“Oftentimes communities like Southeast Queens are overlooked,” Adams told the crowd during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at HBCU Early College Prep. “Not in this administration. We are going to make sure you get the same skills and tools that will prepare you for the future.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams appeared alongside other elected officials and school administrators during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at HBCU Early College Prep, a new high school in Southeast Queens, on the first day of school on Sept. 4, 2025.

The first-of-its-kind school aims to foster academic excellence and a sense of belonging among Black and brown students by drawing on the legacy of historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs.

Through a partnership with the HBCU Delaware State University, students will be able to take online courses with professors at the university, who will also serve as faculty mentors. They can earn a tuition-free associate degree while still in high school, and they’re also guaranteed admission to Delaware State.

The selective school admits students based on grades, which account for 30% of a student’s admissions application. Students must also complete two writing prompts and a video.

“This is a huge opportunity for us, and we’re excited,” said Far Rockaway resident and parent Trudy Quintyne.

Quintyne first heard about the new school last spring when her son — now a senior at Delaware State — showed her an Instagram post announcing its opening.

“My son is actually the first one to go to college. So now to have her follow in his footsteps — it’s amazing,” Quintyne said Thursday as she dropped off her 14-year-old daughter, Maliya, for her first day.

“I feel good to be in a school that represents me,” said Maliya, who is among the roughly 100 students in HBCU Early College Prep’s inaugural freshman class. “To be somewhere where you’re supported, where people love you, and want to see you succeed … it’s just amazing to be in a place like that.”

Students arrive at HBCU Early College Prep, a new high school in Southeast Queens.

Ringing in a statewide cellphone ban

Besides being at a new school, Maliya was still adjusting to the cellphone ban before classes began.

“I love being on my phone!” she said.

Her mother interjected, laughing: “No, I love the ban.”

Roughly half of the city’s schools already had some restrictions on cellphones in place, whether they collected devices or had students carry them locked in pouches. But the new state law requires all public schools ban students’ personal internet-enabled devices from “bell to bell,” with some exceptions.

Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani on the first day of school at I.S. 5.

I.S. 5 has required students to place their phones in lockable pouches since 2024, which Mulgrew and Mamdani trumpeted as a model for other schools.

“To be young in this moment is to feel a relentless amount of pressure to not only be online,” Mamdani said, “but to be subject to the incentives and the imperatives of an algorithm.”

He said the ban should help reduce bullying and other disciplinary issues.

Adams, too, talked about the need to reduce bullying. The share of New York City students who report that their classmates harass or intimidate each other online has grown in the wake of the pandemic.

“Young people met and sat down with us and stated that they’re tired of the bullying on the cell phones,” Adams told students and community members at HBCU Early College Prep. “They’re tired of the violence that comes from the cellphones. … they’re tired of watching their friends go through depression, suicidal ideations.”

Zahidul Amin, whose daughter is starting sixth grade at I.S. 5, had mixed feelings about the cellphone ban. He worried about contacting his daughter in an emergency, though he acknowledged that students may surreptitiously use their phones to play games during class. Ultimately, he agreed that schools should collect them.

He said his main hope for the school year is for his daughter, who is on the autism spectrum, to make progress in math, a subject that has tripped her up. He’s also hopeful that she’ll become more independent.

“It’s the very first day of middle school, it’s a new chapter of her life, and as a parent I’m delighted,” he said.

Families gather for drop off at I.S. 5.

Thousands of new teachers in NYC classes

Schools across the city are hiring thousands of new teachers to comply with a state mandate to sharply reduce class sizes — and Mulgrew pointed to I.S. 5 as an early success story.

The school received funding for 21 new teachers, the second highest number of roughly 740 schools awarded more than $400 million to shrink classes. That will allow all of its classes to have 23 or fewer students, meeting the new caps, said Principal Kelly Nepogoda.

The city so far hired about 3,200 of the 3,700 additional teachers needed, Mulgrew said. (An Education Department spokesperson declined to confirm current hiring figures.)

Luisa Zapata, a parent association leader at I.S. 5, said her son, a seventh grader, had 30 students in his classes last year. She believes the change will make it easier for him to pay attention and get more individual support from his teachers.

Luisa Zapata, a parent leader at I.S. 5.

“It’s really a big deal because the classroom will be less crowded,” she said.

Mamdani, who won the teachers union’s endorsement in the November general election, indicated he would not waiver from implementing the law, which passed after intense lobbying from the union.

“The question of compliance has too often been a negotiation,” Mamdani said, “as opposed to something that we are all equally working alongside to fulfill.”

Mayoral election hangs over the school year

On the campaign trail, Mamdani often talks about how out-of-school factors, such as affordable housing and groceries, can improve student outcomes, since children facing housing and food insecurity often struggle to show up to class or concentrate on school work. The mayoral frontrunner has also promised to make child care more affordable and give communities a greater say in Education Department policies, though he has not released a detailed K-12 platform.

Asked on Thursday how he would improve the city’s highest-need schools, Mamdani said he would eliminate wasteful spending on contacts and consultants and direct more funding to classrooms.

But he did not outline any specific policy proposals or commit to releasing a more comprehensive plan before the election. “We are continuing to develop policy,” he said.

Adams’ education agenda has focused on overhauling reading and math instruction as well as expanding access to career opportunities before graduation. His mayoral opponents have largely signaled they will continue the literacy program mandates.

Cuomo recently released his plans to replace “chronically underperforming” schools with a “high performance model,” such as early college high schools, “innovative” or “specialized” schools, or charter schools.

Sliwa released his schools plan on Thursday, calling for more theme-based and vocational schools and an end to the state’s charter school cap.

The mayoral election, however, was far from many parents’ minds at I.S. 5.

After the press conference wound down just a few feet from the school’s main entrance, some families snapped photos and shook Mamdani’s hand. Several others remarked that they weren’t sure who he was.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Seyma Bayram is a New York City-based journalist. You can reach her at sbayram@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Back-to-school: 6 things to watch as NYC students return to class

2025-09-03T16:01:43+00:00

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As the new school year begins, the nation’s largest school system stands at the center of major changes at the local, state, and federal policy levels.

New York City is bracing for a possible shift in leadership with the mayoral election approaching in November. As scandals continue to plague Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, he faces increasingly long odds to remain in office — which means the city’s Education Department could come under the helm of a new mayor and chancellor midway through the school year.

The city’s public schools are also contending with big directives from the state, including meeting the caps required under the class size reduction law and the new school cellphone ban.

This will also mark the first full academic year of President Donald Trump’s second term. In its first seven months, his administration announced executive orders and other policy changes related to public education at a dizzying pace.

Here are the six things we’ll be watching this school year:

A pivotal mayoral election approaches

As the November election approaches, Adams is polling in the single digits. If Adams loses, his successor would likely replace Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos. It also opens questions about the future of the mayor’s major initiatives, including the math and literacy curriculum overhauls.

The frontrunner in the mayoral election, Queens state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, has a relatively thin record on K-12 education. The Democratic primary winner’s most attention-grabbing proposal so far has been scaling back the mayoral control system that grants city executives far-reaching authority over public schools.

Mamdani faces Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who are running as independents, as well as Republican Curtis Sliwa — at this point.

If Mamdani wins, his chancellor would play a key role in one of his signature policy proposals: a free child care program from birth to 5. (The city Education Department oversees most of the existing city-funded child care system.)

Class size bill compliance grows tougher

Under the class size law, 60% of New York City’s classrooms this school year must meet the caps mandated by the state, which range from 20-25 students, depending on the grade.

Many schools have gone on hiring sprees: 750 of the city’s nearly 1,600 schools received money to hire about 3,700 teachers to comply with the law. (That’s on top of the roughly 4,000 to 5,000 teachers hired in a typical year.) The city has spent $450 million this year to meet the mandate, Aviles-Ramos recently said on WNYC.

How will this affect schools? Educators and advocates are hopeful that smaller class sizes will improve instruction as well as teacher morale and classroom management. But training a wave of new teachers might also be a lift. There are also equity concerns, including warnings from experts that high-poverty schools could experience an uptick in teacher turnover as more affluent campuses hire thousands more teachers.

The city also has to start laying the groundwork for the 2026-27 school year, when 80% of classrooms must comply with the mandate — a goal that may be hard to achieve without adding new buildings.

Statewide ‘bell-to-bell’ cellphone ban takes effect

Roughly half of the city’s public schools already have some restrictions on cellphone use, but starting this week, all schools must bar students from using them from bell to bell. The details are up to individual schools as to whether they collect students’ internet-enabled devices (including smart watches, iPads, or other personal devices), have students carry their devices locked in pouches, or mandate students keep their devices in their lockers.

The bell-to-bell ban means students cannot use devices on campus during the school day, including during lunch, in the school yard, or on athletic fields. Students who go off-campus for lunch, however, will be allowed to get their phones — potentially causing some logistical headaches. And there are exemptions for medical conditions, translation needs, and special education. Student caregivers might also be allowed to keep their devices on a case-by-case basis.

The city sent more than $16 million to schools to implement the ban, according to budget documents.

No ban is foolproof: Some kids find ways around the policies, whether storing dummy phones, or buying magnets to unlock the pouches.

While school officials can’t suspend solely for using devices during the school day, they can for repeated refusal to surrender or store phones.

The ongoing toll of immigration enforcement

In May, Dylan Lopez Contreras became the first known New York City public student to be arrested by Immigration Customs and Enforcement, or ICE, since Trump’s second term began. Since then, several schools across the city have already seen students or their parents detained, and sometimes deported, as the Trump administration has ramped up ICE arrests to meet its goal of the “largest deportation program in American history.”

Advocates worry that deportation threats will keep immigrant students home from school or extracurriculars. And immigration is now on the decline: The nation’s foreign-born population fell by 1 million people as of June, marking the first decline since the 1960s, according to the Pew Research Center.

The implications for the school system could be significant. The influx of immigrants over the past few years has propped up New York City’s shrinking enrollment. Declining immigration will not only affect the city’s “international schools,” which exclusively serve newcomers to the country, but will likely affect many other schools across the system that have welcomed migrant students.

Expanding curriculum mandates to upper grades

The Adams administration has made overhauling literacy and math curriculums the centerpiece of its educational agenda.

As all elementary schools start either their second or third year under the reading curriculum mandates, the system continues to expand the approach to older grades as well as requiring intervention programs to specifically support struggling readers.

Roughly 100 middle schools across eight districts this year will be required to use city-approved reading curriculums their superintendents selected.

For math, 84 middle schools in six districts are being added to the mandate. That’s on top of 100 schools that were already part of the mandate. (There are about 530 middle schools in all.)

Students line up for their first day of school at John F. Hylan P.S. 257 Magnet School of the Performing Arts on Sept. 5, 2024.

City officials pointed to rising state tests scores for grades 3-8 as proof of the reading overhaul’s effectiveness. The city’s rosy framing is complicated, however, by other data: Districts in other parts of the state without similar mandates also saw their significant gains. New York City’s charter schools, which also are not part of the curriculum mandate, saw their scores rise even more dramatically than schools run by the city’s Education Department.

Graduation requirements are getting overhauled

As part of the state’s multi-year effort to rethink graduation requirements, education officials are continuing to define what students in the coming years will need to earn their diplomas.

This summer, the Board of Regents approved a new framework, known as the “portrait of a graduate,” to define the general goals for high school graduates as the state phases out Regents exams as a graduation requirement beginning in the 2027-28 school year.

In the future, students will have a variety of ways to show they meet six characteristics — that they are academically prepared, creative innovators, critical thinkers, effective communicators, global citizens, and “reflective and future focused.”

They might, for instance, demonstrate critical thinking skills by participating in debates or research projects, or complete service learning projects to show their commitment to global citizenship.

Educators and families are still awaiting more details on what the new system will look like in practice and how students will be assessed once the Regents exams are no longer required.

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Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael atmelsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Deadline nears for $120 per child in summer food benefits for NYC families

2025-09-02T19:30:33+00:00

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New York City families eligible for $120 per child in summer food benefits have just a few more days to apply.

As the Sept. 4 application deadline looms, millions of dollars could be left on the table for the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, program, which aims to help low-income families cover costs for meals usually provided at school. (Families can apply online and check their income eligibility here.)

The 2025 Summer EBT program is expected to provide more than $250 million in food assistance to an estimated 2.2 million low-income, school-aged children, said officials from the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. That’s roughly the amount the summer program provided last year, the first year of the program.

While most of the money is sent to families automatically, some families must apply to receive the benefits, and as of Aug. 25, about 12% of that money had yet to be issued, with $194 million in benefits sent to 1.6 million of the state’s school-age children. And of the money that had been issued, many families have yet to touch the benefits: As June 18 about $123 million had been issued, and 24% of those dollars have still not been redeemed.

Some observers wondered if some eligible families, particularly from immigrant households, were too afraid to use or apply for the benefits because of the federal government’s immigration crackdown.

“It’s unclear at the moment whether the main driver is immigrants leaving the U.S. or immigrants in the U.S. increasingly afraid to take up benefits for their children, most of whom are U.S. citizens,” said Jennifer Laird, an associate professor of sociology at Lehman College in the Bronx.

The foreign-born population is going down, and historically more than 10% of eligible households are headed by an adult who is a non-citizen, she noted. Additionally, immigrants are increasingly afraid to sign up for the benefits, she said. Even naturalized citizens, Laird added, now fear denaturalization, and that could affect enrollment in benefit programs as well.

The food assistance program is especially helpful as concerns about childhood hunger increase. President Donald Trump’s budget bill passed by Congress last month significantly cuts access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits.

“At a time when federally funded nutrition programs like SNAP are under attack in Washington, Governor Hochul has been laser-focused on making New York more affordable for families across the state who are struggling to make ends meet,” Darren O’Sullivan, a spokesperson for the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance said in a statement.

Though most families — particularly recipients of SNAP, Temporary Assistance, or Medicaid — automatically receive the funds, some still need to apply. State officials said out of last year’s 2.1 million recipients, roughly 4,000 received the benefit through the application process.

State officials have tried to raise awareness of summer EBT through a social media campaign, working with local community groups, and text messages sent to recipients, including reminders to check their cards when benefits are issued. Officials said they sent three rounds of text messages to more than 707,000 recipients with such reminders. (Families have 122 days to spend summer EBT dollars after the state issues their cards.)

Officials also said they provided EBT information to schools.

Last year as well, nearly a quarter of families who received summer EBT last year had not spent the dollars at least two months after being issued the money, said David Rubel, an education consultant who closely tracks food benefit usage.

“If a family didn’t spend anything by now it’s likely one of the following happened: They lost or misplaced the old card they got last summer; they were issued a new card but it went to a wrong address, or the family moved,” Rubel wrote in an email. “Schools can help here with alerting families that the summer EBT cards were issued new money or new cards were mailed out.”

Correction: This article initially stated a higher number of families were eligible for summer EBT through the application process. About 99% last year received it automatically.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

The back-to-school interview: NYC students talk with Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos

2025-08-25T20:30:02+00:00

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As roughly 900,000 New York City students prepare to return to school on Thursday, Sept. 4, three student journalists got a preview of the year ahead from the head of the nation’s largest school system.

In this special back-to-school episode of P.S. Weekly, schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos shared her thoughts on pressing education issues ranging from the cellphone ban to restorative justice and whether she’d encourage her middle school daughter to take the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT.

On the cellphone ban, the chancellor acknowledged there will be a “detox” period and promised the Education Department is working “behind the scenes” to develop a way for students and families to communicate issues with their schools’ rollout. For restorative justice — initiatives that focus on conflict mediation rather than punitive punishment — Aviles-Ramos said she “completely” supports the practice and expects to “amp up” the focus on it. And for the SHSAT, she said she’s not encouraging her daughter to take it, but will follow her daughter’s lead and support whatever decision her daughter chooses in terms of pursuing the test or not.

Student journalists Aponi Kafele of Essex Street Academy, Roberto Bailey of Hunter College High School, and Autumn Wynn of Park Slope Collegiate also pressed the chancellor on her commitment to the city’s Journalism for All initiative and asked what students can do if they don’t feel their schools are sufficiently academically rigorous.

Aviles-Ramos, a former student journalist herself, said the Education Department was looking for ways to successfully implement journalism programs across schools. And she encouraged students to think critically about whether they are being challenged in class, not in terms of the amount of homework they’re getting but rather whether they’re learning to think for themselves and build new skills.

“We’re outlining what a classroom should look like and what the teacher should be doing, what the students should be doing, and what the family should be doing and experiencing,” she said, previewing a push for the new school year to give students and families a new tool to understand whether they’re getting a quality education.

“This is how we build accountability,” Aviles-Ramos said.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Can AI act as a writing coach for reluctant writers? This Brooklyn educator is betting on it.

2025-08-21T15:40:34+00:00

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Like many students, Nicole Acevedo has come to rely on artificial intelligence.

The 15-year-old recently used it to help write her speech for her quinciñera. When she waits too long on completing homework, Nicole admitted, she leans on the technology so she can hand assignments in on time.

Her school, located in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, has also embraced artificial intelligence. But it is hoping to harness it in ways that supplement learning rather than supplant it.

This past school year, Nicole’s freshman seminar class at Northside Charter High School incorporated an AI writing tool created by the school’s tech-forward chief academic officer, Rahul Patel. The Center for Professional Education of Teachers, based at Columbia University’s Teachers College, acted as an adviser on the project.

Called Connectink, the tool acts like an on-demand writing coach, providing students with such support as sentence starters when they get stuck, or prompts to encourage them to stretch their work using dialogue, descriptions, or rhetorical questions. It seeks to provide immediate feedback for students since educators can only provide so much attention to individual students in a given period.

As New York City, as well as the federal government, promise to incorporate more AI tools into classrooms, concerns abound, not only related to students using the technology to cheat on assignments but also about possible racial bias in AI teacher tools. Recent findings revealed bias in tools designed to support classroom planning, lesson differentiation, and administrative tasks.

Patel is hopeful Connectink might offer some early lessons on how to approach AI’s educational potential thoughtfully.

The Center for Professional Education of Teachers researched a pilot of the tool with about 360 students at three high schools in the last six weeks of the school year. The tool was used to help students write personal narratives as a way to build confidence in developing their own voice as well as use their writing as a way to build empathy and connect with others.

Preliminary findings showed promise. In a pre-project survey, just 37% of the students considered themselves “good writers,” though 68% said they liked getting feedback on their writing. Nearly half said they felt more connected to themselves or to their classmates through their writing but only a fifth believed their writing could have an impact on their world around them, said Roberta Lenger-Kang, director of the Center for Professional Education of Teachers.

In their reflections at the end of the project, students shared insights about themselves as writers, acknowledging they had good ideas but needed help organizing them or getting started, Lenger-Kang said. Many of the students’ writing transformed over the course of the pilot: Several could only write about four sentences after 30 minutes at the start. At the end, many students were writing multiple paragraphs and weaving in thoughtful descriptions.

As Nicole wrote an essay about a fight she had with a childhood friend while in the field with her softball team, she used the tool to help her broaden her choice of words and add more details.

“I struggle a lot with repeating things like ‘because.’ I use that a lot,” Nicole said. “This tool helps me kind of get out of using those words. It makes it more, like, professional because my writing was kind of like middle school, elementary.”

Using AI to get over writer’s block

Patel, who just completed his first year at Northside’s helm, was inspired to create an AI tool after using the technology to create a book while his wife was pregnant to read to their soon-to-be-born son about their family. Working with Teachers College, however, he realized how important it was to have a tool that inspired writing but didn’t do the writing itself.

“It’s more about trying to get them jazzed about writing because our students don’t write a lot on their own,” he said. “They send text messages … But they don’t write.

Often, they seem stuck, he said, recounting a prompt to write about a time they stood up for themselves.

“They’re good at, ‘The one time I had to stand up for myself is,’ and then they can’t go any further,” Patel said. “I think a lot of it has to do with: They don’t believe in themselves.”

Many students are indeed using AI to write assignments for them, Lenger-Kang acknowledged, and she cautioned against tools that do that at this stage of learning for students.

“Research is already revealing that this is a short-cut solution to developing critical thinking, reading, and writing skills,” she said. “That short-cut increases self-doubt, increases future stress, and creates gaps in the learning process for skills that are deeply needed across all industries.”

A renewed focus on writing as literacy grabs spotlight

The tool comes at a time when a confluence of factors has pulled the focus away from writing instruction. Not only has improving writing instruction been overshadowed by the attention on reading, many educators tend to teach the type of writing that exists on tests, Lenger-Kang said.

“Instead of developing an understanding of the writing process that includes using writing as a way of thinking, or a form of self expression, or a method of persuasion, or an art form — writing has predominantly become a performance,” Lenger-Kang said. “Students focus on writing the answer — rather than the idea. Because of this focus, the act of writing is painfully wrapped up in the performance anxiety of getting the right answers.”

Additionally, since the pandemic, when even very young children went remote, much of writing is now mediated by the computer, which impacts how much time students spend thinking about their words, and also is often “disrupted by the red squiggly line indicating they’ve made a mistake,” she said.

Patel is hopeful that educators consider the effects of AI as various tools are more widely used in classrooms.

“I think right now it sort of feels like a money grab, like it’s the shiny toy, and everyone’s after it,” he said. “I do think we’re going to start to see some negative impact if we don’t shift the educational tools that use AI.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

How is your NYC school preparing for the state cellphone ban? Help us investigate.

2025-08-12T20:18:32+00:00

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All schools across New York state must implement “bell-to-bell” cellphone bans this school year under a new state law. But policies could differ from school to school.

Some might collect phones at the start of the day in cubbies or let students carry their phones locked up in Yondr’s cloth pouches. Some might even let kids just stash their phones in their lockers.

The ban includes all personal electronics that connect to the internet such as smart watches, tablets, and laptops — though devices issued by schools are exempt.

We want to know how your school is approaching the ban. What do you think the benefits will be? What concerns do you have?

To comply with the state law, New York City’s Education Department recently revised its cellphone policy. When the city’s Panel for Educational Policy last month voted to approve the changes, some students and parents voiced concerns.

One student predicted the ban “would simply push the usage underground,” rather than stop kids from using their phones. A member of a school leadership team — the local school bodies made up of parents and educators — complained that principals didn’t consult their teams, which don’t meet over the summer.

And Henry Rubio, president of the union that represents school administrators, expressed concern about the burden on principals to implement the ban.

“We agree that a bell-to-bell restriction, if implemented thoughtfully, can help restore focus and foster deeper real world relationships,” he said. “However, policy is only as effective as its rollout. Implementation depends on real world tools and support.”

Officials said schools would get $29 million to implement the ban and the Education Department has distributed $16 million so far.

Let us know what you think about the cellphone ban — and how your school is planning for it — by filling out the form below.

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How much is your NYC school getting for state’s new cellphone ban?

2025-08-07T21:10:28+00:00

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How much money is your school getting to implement the statewide “bell-to-bell” cellphone ban this school year?

Each New York City public school is entitled to one-time funding amounting to $25.90 per student, determined by the number of students in grades 3-12, according to Education Department documents.

For the city’s most densely populated schools, the price tag to implement the bans is eye-popping: Brooklyn Tech, the nation’s largest high school, is getting more than $145,000. Francis Lewis High School in Queens is getting more than $122,000, and Brooklyn’s James Madison High School is receiving more than $110,000.

In all, the city is sending more than $16 million to schools, according to the July 24 budget documents. City officials had previously said they earmarked $29 million, with the city contributing $25 million and the state kicking in $4 million. When asked about the discrepancy, Education Department officials said they plan to use the additional money to support schools as needs arise.

The funds can go toward purchasing pouches or setting up cellphone lockers from Education Department-approved sellers, including at schools that already had bans in place. Roughly 800 of the city’s 1,600 schools already collected phones or allowed students to carry their phones locked in pouches.

As of last month, 26 states banned or limited cellphone usage in K-12 schools, according to Ballotpedia.

Many New York City educators have been longing for a more consistent approach to cellphones. But some students — and their parents — are concerned about time-consuming storage logistics and the ability to connect during emergencies. Even though schools must provide at least one way for parents to contact their children in the case of an emergency, including a direct number for the school, some families say those numbers don’t always work.

And no policy will be foolproof: Students have found ways around the rules, putting dummy phones in storage lockers or figuring out ways to unlock the pouches. Possible consequences for violating the rules include confiscating devices. Though schools cannot suspend students solely for using devices during the school day, they can suspend for repeated refusal to surrender or store phones, the Education Department’s rules state.

Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos emailed a letter to families earlier this month, urging them to review the city’s recently revised school cellphone policy.

Her note included an anecdote from Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology’s principal about how implementing a ban last year transformed the vibe in and out of the classroom.

“Within the first week, teachers were saying they were finishing lessons they used last year 5-10 minutes faster, because of the lack of interruption from phones and the increased engagement,” Principal Kristina Dvorakovskaya wrote. “The cafeteria actually felt like a high school! Students at tables were talking to each other. The yard was packed with kids playing sports.”

Students will not be allowed to use internet-enabled devices — including cellphones, tablets, and smart watches — during school hours while on campus, including school yards and athletic fields. (Students can take their devices if they go off campus for lunch.)

Exceptions to the ban include students with medical conditions, translation needs, and devices required by a student’s special education plan. Student caregivers might also be allowed to keep their devices on a case-by-case basis.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Mentorship, tutoring, fun: Social workers in training tackle middle school mental health

2025-07-30T18:25:31+00:00

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Eric Tate felt tired.

The 12-year-old from Brooklyn was up late again, playing on his phone and watching movies. He would rather have been home sleeping than in school on that Friday in May.

But Eric perked up when Marshall “Mars” Leonard pulled him from a schoolwide town hall to hang out with him in a space carved out on the second floor in the massive building housing the Meyer Levin Middle School.

Frankly, the tween said, he doesn’t much like school at all, with a major exception.

“I like being here,” said Eric, who wrapped up seventh grade last month.

Eric’s rapport with Leonard goes deep. They bond over horror movies. They play Crazy Eights. And Leonard recently relearned how to teach math to help Eric, who moved his grade up from a 55 to 80. (Leonard admitted to using ChatGPT to help him.)

Leonard is Eric’s mentor. He’s a graduate social work student at Adelphi University, who was placed at the East Flatbush middle school through an organization called the Arthur Project, which prepares clinicians-in-training to provide mentoring that focuses on school, family, friendships, and health to students with unmet academic, social, or mental health needs.

The program takes a therapeutic approach, but it’s not therapy. The students set individualized goals with their mentors through fun 1-on-1 activities and in small groups. For their Saturday community programs, they’ve taken students to the movies, to an escape room, and to play paint ball. The program exclusively focuses on middle school, an often overlooked but challenging time for kids as their bodies and brains are rapidly changing. It’s also an age where professionals are seeing greater mental health challenges.

“We know that kids feel extraordinarily lonely, that they consider self harm and suicide way more often than we want them to,” Jessica Greenawalt, executive director and co-founder of the Arthur Project. “It used to be pretty rare to hear a 10- or 11-year-old-talk about and seriously contemplate or attempt or complete even suicide, and it has become way more common.”

A 2023 Health Department survey on New York City teens found that most worry about the future or something bad happening to them or their families — a potential sign of anxiety, according to city officials. The survey found 48% of teens experienced depressive symptoms, with 11% experiencing severe symptoms, and 16% of the respondents saying they had seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months.

The Arthur Project has seen significant improvements in youth mental health, with 67% of its participants experiencing improvement in symptoms of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder over the 2023-24 school year, according to the organization’s most recently available data.

Greenawalt said her organization takes into account serious mental health issues while also exploring how they intersect with academic engagement and social emotional wellness. And they look for ways to help students even if they don’t explicitly talk about mental health with a student.

“We’re still supporting mental health by giving our kids a voice, by supporting their engagement, their feelings of connectedness and belonging, their essential skill development,” Greenawalt said. “We might not ever even talk about mental health with a particular student, but their mental health improves because they’re getting this really deep, intensive, self-determined type of support and opportunities, [and to] practice those things in a safe environment with safe adults.”

Eric Tate, 12, a student at the Meyer Levin Middle School, plays a game about identifying emotions with Marshall "Mars" Leonard, a mentor through the Arthur Project.

For Eric, getting help on math was a gamechanger. As Eric’s math grade rose, so did his confidence.

“Remember we were doing long division and I had these crazy methods of doing it because I was kind of just trying to do it intuitively,” Leonard said to Eric, “and it occurred to me … I’m not teaching this right. So then after that I went to chatGPT, and I was like, OK, how do seventh graders do long division?”

Together they figured it out, and math is now Eric’s favorite subject, he said.

Eric and Leonard also talk about emotions, not always an easy feat for many of the tweens. So the mentors sometimes give kids incentives or other prizes to encourage them. And while the mentees might not directly talk about mental health, they do fill out mental health assessments to see how they’ve changed throughout the year.

The program is not mandatory, Leonard said. Giving the students the choice of whether to come is helpful, he believes. His job is to make a space they want to be part of.

“I’m not a teacher. I’m not a disciplinary figure,” Leonard said to Eric. “You get to kind of be yourself and do what you wanna do … Even if we’re not talking about your most intense stuff, it’s still just kind of like a nice zone to relax.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools to get $29 million for cellphone ban. But when will funds arrive?

2025-07-16T21:11:00+00:00

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With just six weeks to go before all New York schools must comply with a “bell-to-bell” ban on cellphones, officials said they are putting $29 million behind the effort for New York City’s public schools.

But the funding — $25 million from the city and $4 million from the state — has not yet been distributed to schools, and officials did not say when it would become available.

Many school leaders have been planning to implement cellphone bans for months, and more than half of the city’s schools already restrict cellphone use, Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said Wednesday at a Bronx press conference with the governor. On many campuses, students use lockable pouches or store their phones in bins or lockers before they head to class.

But other principals may still be devising their policies, decisions that could be complicated by the uncertainty about the availability of funding.

A city Education Department spokesperson did not respond to questions about when funding would be distributed. Officials said some schools that recently purchased storage devices could be eligible for reimbursement.

The $29 million earmarked for New York City represents roughly $35 per student in grades K-12, which is about the cost of Yondr pouches, cloth devices with metal locks that students keep with them during the day. The state’s contribution, which is designated for secondary students only, will be made available to districts on Aug. 29.

During a joint appearance with Aviles-Ramos on Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul stressed that the policy is meant to reduce distractions, boost learning, and improve students’ mental health.

It may be a difficult transition for students, she acknowledged. “We have to prepare the parents for really what will be a detoxing period for them,” Hochul said.

In New York City, Aviles-Ramos said principals must be ready to restrict phones on the first day of school and will not be granted leeway to slowly phase in the new policy.

“If we slowly trickle it into the school year, what ends up happening is we miss the moment,” Aviles-Ramos said. “Habits are built from day one and so we are going to be ready on day one.”

New York City officials have already updated the Education Department’s guidance, which had been on the books for nearly a decade, after former Mayor Bill de Blasio lifted the school system’s cellphone ban over equity concerns. (He worried that students at schools with metal detectors were hit harder by the ban, forcing many kids at low-income schools to pay $1 a day or more to store their phones at bodegas.)

The new guidelines call on schools to come up with a plan to store all internet-enabled devices — cellphones, smartwatches, laptops, tablets, MP3 players, and game consoles — that students bring to school. Possible methods include: school storage lockers, students’ assigned lockers, or Yondr pouches. Schools are also on the hook for providing a way for students to access their stored devices during school hours “when necessary.”

“The law is very flexible, and it does not state that we must collect, and so there are a number of methods that schools can use,” Aviles Ramos said.

Officials outlined a host of exceptions, such as for specific education purposes, to monitor medical conditions, or for student caregivers. Devices might still be used for translation services, for student emergencies, or for reasons related to a student’s special education plan. (And students can have access to their devices if they go off campus for lunch, which adds another logistical complication for schools.)

Schools must also provide families with their direct phone number or any other ways they can contact their children in an emergency during the school day. Schools must clearly explain how students will be disciplined for cellphone ban violations as well policies for confiscating devices when students violate the rules. Students may not be suspended solely because they violated their school’s cellphone ban and accessed a device during the school day, the city’s guidance states.

The city also requires schools to consult their school leadership teams, which include principals,teachers, and parents, on developing their cellphone policies. These teams, however, don’t typically meet during the summer.

The rules are expected to be voted on by the Panel for Educational Policy on July 23.

This story has been updated with an additional response from the city Education Department.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

How small group instruction transformed an East Harlem high school math program

2025-07-16T12:00:00+00:00

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Park East High School was deemed a “School In Need of Improvement” on a state list and in danger of closing when Lauren Brady started teaching math there 20 years ago.

Among the reasons the state flagged the school: its abysmal math Regents scores.

Brady accepted the challenge, eyes wide open, and immediately dug into the data.

Brady suggested trying something different — small group instruction for students at risk of failing. She piloted the program, refining it over time. Those efforts resulted in a 100% passing rate.

Two decades later, Brady’s approach continues to produce strong results, and Park East High School, in Manhattan’s East Harlem, is no longer threatened with closure. Brady, who teaches small group instruction for ninth grade algebra as well as 12th grade statistics, was recently recognized by Math for America with the prestigious Muller Award for Professional Influence in Education, which comes with $20,000 in prize money for the winning teacher and $5,000 for their school.

Brady is a highly decorated educator. She won a 2014 Sloan Award for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics, is a master teacher through the NYC Teacher Career Pathways, and is a four-time Math for America master teacher. Brady’s statistics lessons have been published by the U.S. Census Bureau, her teaching strategies appear in a book by the educator Doug Lemov, and she’s also an accomplished spoken word poet.

She credits her own teaching style to her favorite math teacher from high school, Ms. Young, for whom Brady acted as a “teaching assistant.” Ms. Young advised Brady to teach through questioning instead of directly telling students how to solve problems.

“During small group instruction, questions are practically my only form of communication,” Brady said. “I radically embraced this strategy, which has profoundly impacted my instructional approach.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

At 14, I penned a plan to teach ninth-grade math in Harlem. Early experiences like tutoring for Athletes Helping Athletes, under Mr. Rosen, reinforced teaching was the right fit. At 16, I started a tutoring business; guidance counselors referred students preparing to retake Regents exams. During college, I participated in community research on high school dropout rates and taught an adult GED course.

I wavered between [studying] psychology and teaching math, and enrolled in NYU’s Psychology Ph.D. program. It took all of six days to realize I was more invested in my teaching assistantship lecturing graduate statistics than in my psychology research and coursework.

I immediately withdrew and, per my plan from age 14, started teaching ninth-grade math in Harlem in the middle of the school year. Twenty years later, I’m still at the same school: Park East High School.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

I love teaching election decision methods in statistics. Students are presented with a set of completed ranked-choice ballots and asked who they think should be elected. Many rationales emerge from ‘the one with the most first-place votes’ to ‘the least hated.’ We examine various election decision methods (e.g., plurality, types of run-offs, Borda count, Condorcet) and determine who would win using each. It turns out a different winner emerges with each election decision method, raising larger questions about how to count ballots.

A gerrymandering lesson in the same unit is also a favorite. Students draw boundaries to create districts in a hypothetical region. They’re shocked when they discover how to rig the party with less votes overall to win the majority of the districts. What I love about these lessons is they bring together concepts and procedures in a real-world context.

I know you’ve talked about how math acts as a gatekeeper at two critical times: with having to complete Algebra I by ninth grade to take upper-level math courses, and requiring college math courses for some post-secondary degrees. Can you tell me a bit about how you’re addressing these issues in your classroom?

The majority of Algebra I students at my school enter below grade level, so we invest in small group instruction. Ninety-eight to 100% consistently pass the Algebra I course and Regents by ninth grade, ensuring three years of upper-level math.

The small group instruction model is really quite simple and works if a few core elements are in place. At-risk students (identified by data) are pulled from math class twice a week in groups of four. They solve the same problems as the larger class, but with oral questioning and prompts tailored to the needs of each individual. It’s really a tutoring model: one teacher with four students.

Lauren Brady, pictured with Park East High School students.

Seniors at Park East are given a choice, with guidance based on career goals, of statistics, pre-calculus, or calculus. I find it tough to prepare my statistics students for core curriculum requirements in college. I encourage them to reflect on their mathematical strengths in considering whether to satisfy core requirements via algebra- or statistics-based pathways. We talk about how some colleges may automatically enroll them in algebra, so they should self-advocate if they prefer statistics. And we address how some colleges, unfortunately, won’t offer a choice at all. I spoke at Critical Issues in Mathematics Education [an annual workshop series] on this issue, as the work here is really to advocate for colleges to expand options.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom or your school?

For over a decade, my statistics students have been writing letters to the U.S. Census Bureau, advocating for changes to the race and ethnic origin questions. Once, the Census Bureau’s Associate Director and chief of the Racial Statistics Branch responded in person with a visit to my classes. Finally, in 2020, the Census Bureau addressed my students’ most significant complaint: “Negro” was removed as an answer choice. They continue to advocate for revisions, such as a combined race and ethnic origin question and the option to identify with more than one ethnicity.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I began kindergarten in the Malverne [Long Island] school district 22 years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke there and led a march in support of its desegregation. It was the first school district in New York to be given a state-level desegregation order, which was upheld after multiple appeals, including a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court. I received an excellent K-12 education there, both with respect to academics and community. The experience also compelled me to grapple with systemic racial bias in education and face my own privilege. It instilled a value of racial equity in education, which influenced my decision to teach public school in New York City and to serve on the equity teams at my school and Math for America.

I also attended New College of Florida, a tiny, unconventional school that championed student choice and innovation. Classes were small and rigorous. Students regularly initiated independent study and conducted original research. And there were no required core classes or grades. This unique experience influenced me to value intrinsic motivation and create space for students to conduct original research in my statistics course. Unfortunately, the educational freedoms signature to New College are being dismantled. I hope they will be restored one day.

What are some of your hobbies, and how do you relate them to the classroom?

A hobby of mine is spoken word poetry. I was a member of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe’s National Slam Team. My work has appeared in an international film festival, an Off-Broadway play, and a motion picture. At Math for America, I facilitate a writing workshop for STEM teachers. I also taught a poetry elective at my school. Students generated writing and audio recordings, plus spoken word poets performed live for the class each week. After school, I hosted schoolwide open mics and brought some students to record tracks in the studio.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Queens student to be released from ICE detention after month in Texas facility

2025-07-15T23:04:09+00:00

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A New York City public school student who was detained more than a month ago by immigration agents was set to be released on bond this week from a Texas facility, his lawyers said Tuesday.

Derlis Snaider Chusin Toaquiza, a 19-year-old from Ecuador, was completing his junior year at Grover Cleveland High School in Queens when he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents at a legal hearing seeking asylum on June 4. He was sent to an ICE facility in Livingston, Texas, on June 8, and remained there until a Texas immigration judge granted his release on a $20,000 bond, which was posted Tuesday by Envision Freedom Fund (formerly the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund). The organization is working with Derlis and his family to coordinate the teen’s trip back to New York.

Grover Cleveland High School student Derlis Snaider Chusin Toaquiza was ordered released on bond by a Texas immigration judge from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Livingston, Texas, where he has been detained since June 8. He was the second New York City Public School student detained by ICE agents following a scheduled immigration hearing.

Derlis was the second known New York City public school student to be arrested by ICE agents. The first student, Dylan Lopez Contreras, who attended ELLIS Prep in the Bronx, is still being detained in a Pennsylvania facility since his arrest at an immigration court hearing in May. Both students are being represented by the New York Legal Assistance Group, or NYLAG.

NYLAG attorneys secured the bond hearing for Derlis through a habeas corpus petition challenging the validity of his detention. New York City’s Law Department then filed an amicus, or friend of the court, brief in support of Derlis’s immediate release.

Derlis was “was caught in a trap laid by immigration authorities in a courthouse in Manhattan, where federal, state, and local courthouses cluster within a few blocks,” city officials wrote in their legal filing. “These tactics risk driving underground those otherwise inclined to follow the country’s immigration laws, undermining the very system that those laws are designed to serve.”

NYLAG filed a similar legal petition on Dylan’s behalf, claiming that his due process rights were violated. The city also filed an amicus brief calling for Dylan to be released. But lawyers are still waiting for a judge to rule on the habeas corpus petition for Dylan.

Both students were part of a wave of arrests by ICE agents at immigration courts across the country in efforts to carry out President Donald Trump’s push to boost deportations. That tactic led to a sharp increase in immigration detentions in the five boroughs starting in late May. A Massachusetts student whose detention gained attention was recently released. But another student in Detroit was recently deported back to Colombia.

“We are beyond thrilled that Derlis will soon be returning home to New York to be with his family where he belongs,” Rebecca Rubin, a NYLAG attorney and a member of Derlis’ legal team, said in a statement. “At the same time, our happiness does not erase the fact that Derlis was unjustly detained at his immigration court hearing, torn away from his family and community, and detained in a prison with adult male strangers for over a month.”

Before being transferred to the Texas facility, Derlis spent days in an overcrowded holding room at Manhattan’s 26 Federal Plaza, where he was fed just one meal a day and forced to sleep sitting upright due to lack of space, his lawyers said.

Derlis had been doing well in school, playing on Grover Cleveland’s soccer team, and was awarded “Most Improved” by his high school teachers, according to the city’s legal filing. He was also active in his church before his life was upended last month, his lawyers said.

“He has been suffering greatly in detention, as has his family,” Rubin said. “Derlis was complying with his requirements, had applied for asylum with his family and was attending immigration court when he was unjustly detained.”

Chalkbeat New York reporter Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Trump cuts top STEM teaching award. Winners say it will hurt education and innovation.

2025-07-15T19:10:42+00:00

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All 25 students in Sharon Collins’ Advanced Placement Calculus AB class focused intently on the problem she posted on the whiteboard at the front of the class, trying to figure out the rate of change for sales of a video game a few months after it was released.

In some ways, the juniors and seniors were forced to engage with their whole bodies: by standing up and doing the work in randomly selected groups of three or four at dry-erase sheets taped around the walls of the classroom at upper Manhattan’s New Heights Academy Charter School.

Though Collins has been teaching for 27 years, she’s constantly incorporating new approaches, such as having her students do problems standing at white boards, which she learned from Peter Liljedahl’s “Building Thinking Classrooms” model. She’s the kind of teacher who makes math fun even for the self-proclaimed math-phobic students. She sets high expectations for her students — and figures out how to help meet them, for instance, by supporting her Spanish-speaking students at the largely immigrant school through bilingual vocabulary guides and alternative assessments like roundtables.

Collins’ energy, enthusiasm, and dedication have not gone unnoticed: She was one of two teachers in the state selected in January by then-President Joseph Biden and the White House to win the 2023 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, the nation’s highest honor for K-12 STEM teachers.

But she and the other teachers in each state to win January’s presidential award could be the last.

The initiative, created by Congress in 1983 and run by the National Science Foundation, has been cut by the Trump administration. Up to 110 winners a year get $10,000 for their school’s STEM programs through the award and an all-expense trip to Washington, D.C. for an awards ceremony. Last year, it had a total budget of about $4.5 million, including recognition events and coordinator meetings, according to people familiar with the program.

As the award’s loss reverberates among past awardees, many are mounting a campaign to save it, calling their state’s senators and representatives, members of the House Education Committee, Science Committee, and Appropriations Committee, as well as leaders at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

At the first award ceremony 42 years ago, President Ronald Reagan said, "America’s future depends on excellence in education. And that means we must reward and encourage excellence in teaching."

Winning the recognition has had longstanding effects for many teachers, reverberating beyond their individual classrooms and creating a national community of educators committed to elevating STEM in their states. Some pursued doctorates in mathematics or math education and assumed leadership roles in their district or at the state level, giving them a larger say in curriculum issues, according to a survey conducted by a group of awardees. Others started national robotics programs or computer science initiatives. Many went on to conduct teacher training or presented at state conferences, sharing best practices with colleagues at other schools.

For Collins, the award gave her confidence to begin seeking out editors and agents for a teaching memoir she’s long been working on, and she’s considering a graduate degree to pursue her dream of opening her own STEAM-focused school.

“It changes your perspective on yourself to go for other opportunities,” Collins said, noting that after winning she put in two proposals to speak at math education conferences and she spoke at an alumni event for Teach for America. “I definitely want to influence the students in my room, but I do want to have a bigger impact in STEM education on a school level, on a state level, and even on a city level.”

Students in Sharon Collins' AP Calculus class do problems standing at whiteboards.

Trump administration targeted DEI nods in winners’ bios

Collins had an inkling something might happen to the award program after President Donald Trump took office. His administration almost immediately took down the page with the awardees’ biographies and quotes. In her quote, Collins had written, “This award recognizes my unconditional love for my immigrant students and shows them they matter, are seen, and like this first generation college graduate, can achieve the American dream.”

In early May, the Trump administration eliminated the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM along with other divisions at NSF. Collins, who was supposed to be on this year’s panel to select the 2025 winners received an email from NSF saying the panels had been canceled and thanking her for her service. The website for the program, however, remained live, and Collins held out hope that the program was just on pause.

A screenshot of Collins' deleted bio from the U.S. National Science Foundation website.

The bios of the recent winners were reinstated in early June, Collins said, but with certain phrases or words omitted. For instance, Collins had written in her bio, “Sharon is passionate about advancing equity through women in STEM initiatives and is dedicated to humanizing education.” Collins told Chalkbeat this referred to her practice of taking female students to STEM programs like Woman STEM Night at the New York Hall of Science in Queens and forming a Female Equity Mission. When her bio was reposted, the line had been changed to: “Sharon is passionate about advancing fairness in STEM initiatives and is dedicated to humanizing education.”

Collins was flummoxed. “It astounds me that it is controversial to talk about women in STEM initiatives, since it is well documented that females are underrepresented in STEM,” she said.

A few days after the bios were back up, however, the program was officially eliminated from NSF’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The Trump administration reduced the NSF budget from $9.1 billion to $3.9 billion, zeroing out funding for the Excellence Programs along with other STEM research.

At the end of June, the awards program asked the most recent winners to update their bios, giving them a week to answer three questions, such as “Using your platform as a Presidential Awardee, how do you hope to advance our nation in STEM?” Those responses have yet to be posted.

NSF officials declined to comment.

The award’s immediate effect on New Heights Academy

A sign congratulating Collins on her award hangs proudly in New Heights Academy’s lobby, where students have long counted the math teacher among their favorites.

Rosalia Lacen, a recent grad who took Collins’ statistics class this past year and hopes to pursue a degree in biology, credited her teacher with keeping her “on track.”

“I’m not much of a math girl, in particular,” Lacen said. “But the way she teaches, she makes it easy to understand. … She brings a really good energy to the environment that just keeps you on track … Every morning, the same enthusiasm, even on her bad days.”

By solving problems in small groups while standing at white boards, Sharon Collins' AP Calculus students at New Heights Academy actively engage with the work.

Collins’ award is having an immediate effect on sharpening her school’s STEM focus. Next year, she will oversee a new program for New Heights Academy’s middle and high school students, creating a robotics program for middle school and launching an AP Computer Science course for high school. (This past school year, the school only offered one non-AP computer science class, and it was reserved for top-performing seniors.)

“That conversation happened after my director found out I won the award,” Collins said. “It will have a huge impact on all of the students here.”

And other teachers felt like they were having a broader effect as well, she said.

“In the United States, to have engineers, to have people working in technology, to have doctors, we need a strong STEM education,” Collins said. “And that’s what’s being provided by these [presidential award] winners. They’re influencing their students to provide STEM education in high school and college, and they’re becoming our STEM workforce.”

Collins’ efforts seem to have paid off in her students’ scores. She learned this week that 90% of her AP Calculus students achieved a 4 or 5 on the AP Calculus AB exam. The class average was 4.36 compared to the state’s 3.15 average, Collins said. And 90% of students in that class plan to major in STEM in college, she added.

Correction: New Heights Academy Charter’s STEM program will have robotics for middle school, not high school. The school will also be offering AP Computer Science for the first time.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

A federal program helps NYC families eat healthy meals. Trump’s new legislation cuts it.

2025-07-11T19:30:47+00:00

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On a sweltering afternoon this week, Ana Garcia, 41, and her 3-year-old son, Elliott, arrived at the Goodhue Community Center on Staten Island to pick up their weekly haul of fresh, affordable produce.

Garcia tasted a sample of tabbouleh salad. She and her son surveyed a spread of leafy greens, zucchini, summer squash, and peaches. For eight years, her family has returned regularly to buy a box of locally sourced produce. This week’s box — priced at $14, or $7 for those with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits — included a bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables, plus a recipe for tabbouleh.

“It’s awesome,” Garcia said. “We love coming here.”

But the Food Box program, administered by the nonprofit Children’s Aid, may not exist much longer. President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” — passed by Congress and signed by Trump last week — eliminated funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education, or SNAP-Ed, and made other changes to SNAP. SNAP-Ed, which funds nutrition education and anti-obesity initiatives nationwide, is set to expire on Sept. 30.

That will mean the disappearance of programs that help people on a limited budget eat healthier and shop smarter, teach children and families how to cook meals from scratch, and promote physically active lifestyles. Those efforts seem to align with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, initiative, but will be impacted nonetheless.

Advocates are bracing for how the legislation will affect childhood hunger across the city and state. Changes to SNAP, including new eligibility rules, could result in hundreds of thousands of parents losing their food benefits. In all, New York state is facing up to $1.4 billion in annual SNAP cuts and cost shifts, with the state expected to start covering $1.2 billion for the program by October 2027.

“Not just in New York, but nationwide, we will see increases in child hunger,” said Dr. Jennifer Cadenhead, a research assistant professor at Columbia’s Teachers College, who focuses on diet, food quality, and food insecurity issues. “That really makes me sad.”

While SNAP cuts might affect free school meals in other districts, New York City’s universal breakfast and lunch program is safe because the city’s high poverty rate will continue to qualify the whole school system for the program. But individual families will likely be hit hard, which could in turn lead to higher absenteeism rates and affect student performance.

On Staten Island, Garcia said that the end of the Food Box program would mean less fresh produce in her family’s diet — a loss for her two children.

“I want my kids to have all the vegetables,” she said.

Small program has a big impact

A roughly $536 million annual program with a 30-year history, SNAP-Ed is among the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s largest nutrition education programs. In a 2024 paper from the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, researchers described it as a “critical pillar in the nation’s public health infrastructure.” Still, it’s a fraction of SNAP’s $99.8 billion in total spending in fiscal year 2024.

By offering evidence-based nutrition and food education, SNAP-Ed pays dividends for families’ long-term health, said Cadenhead, of Teachers College.

“A lot of times, a doctor will say, ‘You need to eat better,’ but people don’t know how,” she said. “They don’t know how to prepare a balanced meal. They may not have time. They don’t understand what they need to do, they can get overwhelmed in the grocery store.”

Funded with $29 million in federal dollars, New York’s SNAP-Ed programs reached over 2.2 million individuals across the state last fiscal year, through efforts like Eat Well Play Hard. That program educates preschoolers on how their food is grown and encourages their caregivers to prepare and serve local produce to their families.

Fresh produce is displayed at the Food Box pickup site run by Children's Aid at the Goodhue Community Center on Staten Island on Tuesday.

Darren O’Sullivan, a spokesperson for the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, said in a statement that the federal legislation eliminating SNAP-Ed “increases the risk that New Yorkers in need will experience food insecurity, health issues, and economic hardship.”

Through the $1 million grant Children’s Aid gets through SNAP-Ed, the organization operates Food Box sites throughout the city, as well as programs in schools. Currently, the organization is running youth nutrition workshops and cooking demonstrations at Summer Rising sites, the city’s free summer school program.

“We hear from parents that their kids are coming home and asking, ‘Can we make this recipe at home?’” said Taisy Conk, director of food and nutrition programs at Children’s Aid. “This is opening up their palettes and their minds and getting them excited about it. It really makes an impact on children’s health.”

Through SNAP-Ed, Children’s Aid brought nutrition education to 20 sites, including 11 schools last year. The organization analyzed its programs’ impacts for the year before, and found that across its 176 workshops that reached nearly 430 kids, young people improved their vegetable consumption by 35%, with more than 60% reporting eating at least two fruits a day at the end of the course.

Conk said she worries that changes to SNAP will have far-reaching effects, with people assuming they’re no longer eligible or struggling with new requirements. She said Children’s Aid is urging the city and state to explore some bridge funding to keep the programs going and is looking to philanthropy to help plug the gaps.

Families brace for reductions in fresh produce

On Staten Island, the Food Box stand was open during dismissal for a summer camp at the Goodhue Community Center. Some families stopped by to learn about the program or buy armfuls of corn.

“It’s been great to have affordable produce,” said Tara Messenger, 50, as she and her 9-year-old daughter collected their Food Box.

Without the Food Box program, Messenger, an art teacher, said she’d have to rely more on her local grocery store, and they’d likely eat more processed food.

“It wouldn’t be as fresh, as local, as affordable,” she said. “I probably wouldn’t have as many vegetables and fruits in our diet.”

This "Food Box" includes fresh produce, including ingredients for tabbouleh salad and the recipe for it, at the Goodhue Community Center on Staten Island on Tuesday.

Sarah Kabalkin, 46, a local culinary educator, said she worried that cuts to SNAP would have a “devastating” impact on her community, with more residents going hungry.

Losing the Food Box program would affect her family, she said. Without their weekly boxes of fresh produce, Kabalkin said she’d have to find a way to grow more in her community garden plots.

“I can’t produce this kind of variety,” she said. “So it will limit what we’re eating at home.”

Eliza Fawcett is a reporter covering public health in New York City for Healthbeat. Contact Eliza at efawcett@healthbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Teachers union backs Zohran Mamdani for mayor after primary snub

2025-07-08T23:06:13+00:00

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The United Federation of Teachers is now throwing its support behind Zohran Mamdani in the general election for mayor of New York City, after the union declined to endorse a candidate during the Democratic primary.

The UFT’s delegate assembly voted Tuesday to endorse the 33-year-old Queens state assemblyman, less than a month after it refused to endorse the Democratic socialist in the primary.

At that time, union President Michael Mulgrew said there were unbreachable rifts among the rank-and-file over the candidates’ level of experience to manage the city and their positions on non-education issues, including Israel and the crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Members who cared most about affordability, he said, favored Mamdani. Other members supported former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former Comptroller Scott Stringer.

But now that the primary is over, it is unsurprising that the union would throw its weight behind the Democratic candidate.

Other major unions have made similar moves, including the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council; Local 32BJ SEIU, representing building workers, including doormen; and the New York State Nurses Association, all of whom supported former Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the primary.

The teachers union is the city’s second largest with nearly 200,000 members, including about 60,000 retirees. District Council 37, the largest municipal union, endorsed City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, with Mamdani as its No. 2 choice.

“As a union, we have to protect public education, public employees, and public service from attacks from Washington, DC. We have to make New York City safer and more affordable for working- and middle-class families,” Mulgrew wrote in a statement. “We have to make the jobs of educators and nurses more attractive with better pay and benefits, and retain those already doing the work. We need a mayor who understands the task before us and who will help us get it done.”

Mamdani said he was honored to have the UFT’s support.

“Public education is under attack from [President Donald] Trump’s authoritarianism on the outside and an affordability crisis from the inside,” he said in a statement. “The need for a true fighter for New York City teachers and students has never been higher.”

The general election will be held Nov. 4. Mayor Eric Adams is planning to run as an independent, along with lawyer Jim Walden. Cuomo has not yet decided whether he’ll run. Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa is on the Republican ballot.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

16 U.S. state attorneys sue Trump administration over $1 billion cut to school mental health funding

2025-07-01T19:59:21+00:00

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A Trump administration directive terminating more than $1 billion in federal funding for school-based mental health services is the latest ruling being challenged by a group of 16 Democratic attorneys.

Led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, the lawsuit filed this week calls on the court to reinstate the grants, calling the cut unlawful, unconstitutional, and ideologically driven.

The grants were created by Congress under a bipartisan law passed after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, when an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 elementary school children and two teachers. The money was used to hire staff, diversify the mental health profession, and prepare educators to work with kids from diverse backgrounds — specifically in high-need, low-income, and rural schools — but with President Donald Trump’s attempts to root out programs incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion, his administration pulled the funding for many states and schools two months ago.

Without offering evidence that the cuts were based on grantees’ performance standards, the lawsuit says the administration instead applied an ideological litmus test after terminating the program. The administration sent grantees boilerplate language, according to the lawsuit, which claims it was an “arbitrary and capricious” move that did not account for any individualized reasons for the change, nor consider the harmful impact to children dependent on the mental health services or the effect on the pipeline for the chronically understaffed mental health workforce across the nation.

“The cost to our children’s safety, well-being, and academic success is incalculable,” the lawsuit stated. “These grants were designed to respond to America’s school shooting crisis and fill a critical need in schools. Without them, many children in rural and lower-income schools will go without mental health services and will suffer the attendant consequences: short- and long-term health problems; lower grades; increased absenteeism, suspensions, and expulsions; and a higher risk of suicide and drug overdose.”

In the grant program’s first year, nearly 775,000 students received mental or behavioral health services, according to the lawsuit. The grants helped hire more than 1,200 school-based mental health professionals, and student wait times for services dropped by 80%. A sample of projects reported a 50% reduction in suicide risk at high-need schools, improved attendance, and stronger student-staff relationships.

The federal Department of Education did not respond for comment.

Among the decimated programs, Teachers College at Columbia University had begun training five graduate students to provide mental health services in Harlem and East Harlem schools serving large populations of newly arrived immigrants and families struggling to find stable housing. The program was in the process of sending out acceptance letters to eight more students when the funding was cut.

The $4.9 million, five-year grant aimed to prepare mental health professionals, many of whom were bilingual or first-generation students who couldn’t have afforded graduate school otherwise and planned to commit to working in school-based mental health for their careers. The cuts not only affected the program’s short-term ability to provide high-needs schools with critical services for free, said Prerna Arora, an associate professor of psychology and education at Teachers College who was overseeing the grant, but also decimated the future pipeline of professionals dedicated to this kind of work.

If the lawsuit is successful, restarting the grant would not be impossible, Arora said, but it would take time to scale services back up, and the program and the schools are on a typical school calendar, which could affect timelines.

“The funds are definitely needed to address the mental health workforce shortage in our school,” she said in an email. “However, because of the cuts, which were effective immediately, additional time would be needed to rehire staff, recruit and admit students to the training program, and restart the formal partnership with our community schools.”

In all, New York stands to lose at least $19 million in previously approved funding as a result of these cuts, including more than $7.6 million for the State University of New York system, James’ office said.

Chalkbeat senior national reporter Kalyn Belsha contributed reporting.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Zohran Mamdani on education: The Democratic primary winner’s plans for NYC schools

2025-06-25T17:22:28+00:00

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If presumptive Democratic candidate for mayor Zohran Mamdani wins in November, he would oversee the nation’s largest school system – but he doesn’t want to do it alone.

The 33-year-old democratic socialist told Chalkbeat he is “opposed to mayoral control in its current iteration” and would advocate for a system that would lean on partnerships to govern the system of roughly 911,000 students and 1,600 schools.

The Queens assemblyman doesn’t have a long track record when it comes to city schools, but he is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and a former standardized testing tutor who would like to study racial and gender bias in the specialized high school exam.

Despite a stunning apparent victory Tuesday, Mamdani has a long road ahead of him to get to City Hall. If he formally clinches the nomination after ranked-choice ballots are counted, Mamdani will still face in November Mayor Eric Adams, who is running a third-party campaign, and potentially former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is mulling the same. Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder, is running on the Republican ticket, and Jim Walden, a former assistant U.S. attorney, will be on the ballot as an independent.

While more of New York City’s budget goes to the Education Department than any other city agency, education wasn’t a focal point during this year’s primary race. But city schools could take on a larger role in the general election – and observers will be watching the United Federation of Teachers, which is the city’s second largest union and declined to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary because of deep division within its members.

Here’s what we have learned about Mamdani’s views on city schools during his campaign:

Focus on child poverty, homelessness

The city’s affordability took center stage throughout Mamdani’s campaign and shaped his language around education. During the first primary debate, when Mamdani was asked about education, he talked about how 500,000 children go to bed hungry each night and how 100,000 of the city’s students are homeless. According to his platform, Mamdani would expand the city’s Bronx pilot “Every Child and Family Is Known,” which pairs children living in shelters with a “caring” adult who provides daily check-ins with them and weekly check-ins with their families.

During the second debate, when asked about supporting students with significant disabilities whose needs can’t be met in their neighborhood schools, Mamdani mentioned leaning on “high quality” tutoring. He also discussed ways to meet the state’s mandate to limit the city’s class sizes, including passing a City Council bill pushed by the teachers union to increase the wages for paraprofessionals, or teachers aides. The city is currently facing a shortage of these staffers, who often help students with disabilities. Mamdani also mentioned a push to cut down on Education Department contracts to consultants.

On his website, Mamdani’s K-12 platform discusses “strong” after-school programs, mental health services, and integrated student bodies. His platform focuses heavily on free child care from birth to five years old, and Mamdani called for raising the salary of child care workers to be on par with public school teachers.

He also supports a bigger city and state investment into the CUNY system and has long championed a “new deal” for CUNY to make the system tuition-free, increase funding for infrastructure and staff salaries, and provide free OMNY cards for students to reduce their public transit costs to and from class and work.

Mamdani said he would also create car-free streets in front of every school in the city as a way to prevent traffic deaths, foster outdoor play, and reduce pollution around schools. His vision is to make car-free school streets universal, he said, instead of the current opt-in system.

Mamdani’s views on thorny issues facing schools

Mamdani is one of the few candidates who opposes mayoral control (at least in its current form) and proposes instead to try to create “a more participatory educational system.”

That could include co-governance through the Panel for Educational Policy (the board that approves contracts and school closures) and school leadership teams (school-based teams consisting of school administrators, teachers, and parents), for instance. The city school governance system is up for renewal from the state in 2026.

Overhauling the city’s reading and math instruction with curriculum mandates has been Adams’ major school initiative. A new mayor will need to grapple with whether to continue, tweak, or scrap these changes. Mamdani called the city’s literacy program “a step in the right direction.” But he said the Education Department should increase teacher development and also provide more support to adapt materials for students struggling to access the curriculum as well ensuring it’s culturally responsive.

“I would work with our school communities to find the right balance of maintaining focus on literacy and the initiative, while adjusting the program to ensure we enable more teacher discretion,” he said in a statement in response to questions on several issues that Chalkbeat asked the mayoral hopefuls.

Ensuring the city’s compliance with the class size mandate will be another massive task for the next mayor. Meeting the targets will require a hiring spree projected to cost as much as $1.9 billion annually and potentially many billions more to create new classroom space.

Mamdani told Chalkbeat he would work with the School Construction Authority on a capital plan and would ensure the Education Department has enough funding to hire thousands of teachers. He provided few details on how he’d pay for that, though he said he would undertake a major audit to find inefficiencies to help the Education Department save money to invest in class size compliance.

Mamdani said he’d consider capping enrollment at overcrowded schools as well as consider mergers “where appropriate.”

As a graduate of Bronx Science and a former standardized test tutor, Mamdani told Chalkbeat he’s seen “firsthand the promise and the failure of our specialized high schools and their admissions process.” He said he supported an independent analysis of the Specialized High School Admissions Test for gender and racial bias, and he would address the city’s highly segregated school system by implementing recommendations from a 2019 school diversity advisory group. (The specialized high school admissions test, which is the sole basis for entry to eight schools, is enshrined in state law.)

When it comes to addressing New York City’s shrinking school safety force, Mamdani told Chalkbeat he would want to invest instead in guidance counselors, social workers, and mental health support, as well as expand free after-school and summer programs. He also would establish a youth advisory committee on hate violence prevention.

“As Mayor, I will focus on these investments along with restorative justice models, which allow our students to remain in schools, learn from mistakes, grow conflict resolution skills, and improve academic outcomes,” Mamdani said.

And Mamdani pledged to stand up to the Trump administration’s threats to cut education funding over diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

“I am running to protect New Yorkers from Trump,” he said in a statement to Chalkbeat. “My policies will deliver protections from his rising prices, safety from his attacks on immigrants and LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers, and protections from his attacks on funding for vital services.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Mamdani leads Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary. Here’s a look at their education records.

2025-06-25T03:08:18+00:00

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Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is leading in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, setting the stage for a surprising upset in the race for City Hall.

Results could be a week away since no candidate garnered enough first-choice votes to win outright Tuesday night, but former Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded the race and called Mamdani to congratulate him.

With 90% of first round votes counted, Mamdani won 43.5%, according to the Associated Press. This put him ahead of Cuomo, who came in with 36.3% of the votes, followed by city Comptroller Brad Lander with 11.4%.

Since the 33-year-old democratic socialist secured less than the 50% threshold needed for an immediate win, the city’s ranked choice system kicked in. The elections board is expected to release a preliminary tabulation of the ranked choice results as early as July 1, with an official, certified tally expected three weeks after the election.

But Mamdani’s opponents were treating Tuesday’s results as a victory for the upstart candidate.

“Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won,” Cuomo told supporters Tuesday night. “We are going to take a look and make some decisions.”

In past elections, the winner of the Democratic primary had a strong shot at the mayor’s office, which oversees the city’s school system. But this year, the candidate who moves onto the Nov. 4 general election on the Democratic party line may still face an uphill battle.

In New York, third parties can nominate candidates who are already running under the major parties. So if Cuomo ultimately loses the Democratic nomination, he can run in the general election on an independent ballot line called Fight and Deliver, a party he created.

Mayor Eric Adams, who sat out the Democratic primary race, is running as an independent under the“EndAntiSemitism” or “Safe&Affordable” ballot lines. Additionally, Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, is running on the Republican ticket, and Jim Walden, a former assistant U.S. attorney, will also be on the ballot as an independent.

The mayor of New York City has a tremendous amount of power over the nation’s largest school system. Under mayoral control, which became state law in 2002, the city’s chief executive unilaterally picks the chancellor who oversees the Education Department’s $40 billion budget, roughly 150,000 employees, and nearly 911,000 students attending about 1,600 schools.

Mamdani’s education record

Mamdani doesn’t have a deep record when it comes to New York City’s K-12 schools.

As a legislator, he was among several sponsors of various education-related bills that have not been signed into law. One would require all school districts in the state to participate in the national school lunch program to serve free meals to students (as New York City already does).

He also sponsored a bill to overhaul how schools handle misconduct, banning suspensions for minor infractions like tardiness or dress code violations, and requiring schools to have professional development on restorative justice practices, which emphasize conflict resolution and relationship-building over punitive approaches.

Mamdani signed on to sponsor a bill to provide language assistance services for parents who don’t speak English and another to bolster school-based health clinics. He supported a bill to make the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha school holidays across the state, as they currently are in New York City.

He signed onto a bill that would provide grants for schools to install solar panels, one that would require elementary and high schools to provide an Asian American history curriculum, and a bill to mandate instruction on climate change.

Mamdani also supported the Student Journalist Free Speech Act, which would protect students’ free speech rights in public high schools, and a bill requiring schools to include instruction on eating disorder prevention in health education for students in grades 6-12.

Cuomo’s education record

Cuomo touts his education record as a bright spot during his time as governor, but he often faced pushback from educators and advocates while he was leading the state. He came out of the gate with an aggressive reform agenda, attempting to overhaul teacher evaluations by tying them to state test scores. But he ended up relenting in the face of backlash of the massive opt out movement in the suburbs.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo leaves after voting in the Democratic primary at the High School of Art and Design Tuesday. He conceded to state Rep. Zohran Mamdani after the first round of votes were counted.

The former governor resisted massive increases in education spending, only to give in later by boosting state aid to schools. For years, he refused to fully fund Foundation Aid, a state funding formula that sends more money to high needs schools. According to that formula, created after a long-running lawsuit found the state failed to provide a “sound, basic education” to New York City, Cuomo short changed city schools by billions of dollars, advocates complained. (Still, New York spends more per pupil than any other state.)

Cuomo’s proposal to fund “free college” attracted much fanfare, but it ultimately was more style than substance thanks to the fine print: Students had to live and work in New York for as many years as they received free tuition, and if they left, they’d have to pay the scholarship off as a loan.

And while leading New York’s response during the pandemic, Cuomo had initially said he’d leave the decision whether to close schools to the state’s roughly 700 school districts, before pivoting on his plans for New York City, giving the Big Apple just 24 hours to come up with plans.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools are getting financial coaches. See which 15 districts are first to get them this fall.

2025-06-18T18:32:09+00:00

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Starting in the fall, 15 of New York City’s local school districts serving 350,000 students will get financial educators who will provide free financial counseling and workshops to students and their families, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday.

The “financial literacy for youth,” or “fly,” initiative — which Adams previewed in his January State of the City address — is expected to expand to all 32 local school districts by 2030. The program will also pilot in-school banking to give students hands-on experience with saving and managing money with access to affordable banking options, city officials said.

The program will cost $25 million over five years, city officials said, with financial educators covering such topics as credit and money management basics, different types of banking products, and spotting consumer financial scams.

“We teach our children and our scholars … chemical bonds but not stocks and bonds,” Adams said at a press conference at Brooklyn Collegiate Preparatory High School. “We have to learn both. We have to learn treasury bonds and chemical bonds. We have to learn how to save, how to use our money.”

The districts in this first group were selected because they include neighborhoods with high rates of families without bank accounts, and they also participate in the Education Department’s FutureReadyNYC program,a signature Adams administration initiative that provides schools with resources to launch new career tracks, along with paid work experience, in the education, technology, business, and health care sectors. Six out of the 15 districts are in the Bronx, followed by four in Brooklyn, three in Manhattan, and one in Queens and Staten Island.

There’s been a growing push for financial literacy in schools from city and state leaders and beyond. At least 35 states require students to take a personal finance course to graduate, according to a 2024 report from the Council for Economic Education. In New York, the state said it’s adding new mandates for financial literacy to its updated graduation requirements — something that some students from across the city have been pushing for.

“Financial literacy is not a topic only some students should get to understand,” Anisha Singhal, previously wrote for Chalkbeat about Stuyvesant High School’s financial literacy elective. “It’s like a health class: a field of critical knowledge every high schooler needs (yes, even if that means yet another graduation requirement).”

But some critics argue that the push for financial literacy puts the onus on the consumer rather than on strengthening regulation of the players in the financial world, such as banks, investment firms, and insurance companies — many of whom are big advocates for school-based financial literacy. Some research has cast doubt on the effectiveness of financial literacy programs, and some observers are concerned that programs, many of which are offered free of charge to schools and sponsored by banks, could be used as marketing tools in an attempt to get potential customers.

In-school banking has been explored in other parts of the country and the state. City officials declined to provide more information about the in-school banking branches, saying to expect more information on that “soon.”

Here are the districts in the first wave of the new youth financial literacy program:

Manhattan

District 2 (Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Upper East Side)

District 3 (Upper West Side, Central Harlem)

District 5 (Central Harlem)

Bronx

District 7 (Hunts Point, Melrose, Longwood)

District 8 (Belmont, Crotona Park East, East Tremont)

District 9 (Concourse, Highbridge, Mount Eden)

District 10 (Bedford Park, Fordham North, Norwood)

District 11 (Castle Hill, Clason Point, Parkchester)

District 12 (Baychester, Eastchester, Williamsbridge, Wakefield)

Brooklyn

District 14 (Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bedford-Stuyvesant)

District 19 (Brownsville, Canarsie)

District 21 (Brighton Beach, Coney Island)

District 23 (Brownsville)

Queens

District 30 (Astoria, Long Island City, Jackson Hights, North Corona)

Staten Island

District 31

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

This historian believes teaching Jewish American history in NYC schools can combat antisemitism

2025-06-16T12:00:00+00:00

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In late 2023, New York City Education Department officials approached historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela to be the lead scholar on a new curriculum focused on Jewish American history. The project would be part of the city’s Hidden Voices initiative, centering diverse historical figures left out of typical textbooks.

Petrzela, a history professor at the New School, was initially surprised. Though a historian of American politics and culture — her book, “Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession,” is being turned into a documentary — Jewish studies is not her primary field of study. But the more she understood the goals of the Hidden Voices project, the more she realized how well-suited she was for the task.

“The work of amplifying ‘hidden voices’ who may not be central to conventional historical narratives is core to what I do as a teacher and a scholar,” said Petrzela, who began her career as a New York City classroom teacher. “Also, much of my scholarship has been about the teaching of divisive issues in K-12, particularly around identity, and the controversy that often follows.”

Education Department officials said the materials will be available to all students next school year. They are also piloting the resource in five New York City districts that will provide feedback on the lessons. City schools already have access to Hidden Voices materials focused on LGBTQ history, Asian American history, the African diaspora, and Americans with disabilities.

Officials had announced the Jewish American materials were forthcoming as well as materials focused on Muslim Americans after a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents increased following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel and devastating war in Gaza that followed. Lessons on the Latino community are expected to be completed by the end of the school year.

Petrzela hopes that students and teachers will not only learn about a series of important individuals but also be inspired to ask new questions about the nation’s past and present. The project was also especially meaningful for Petrzela post Oct. 7.

“As a Jew, in addition to my professional roles, I have been speaking up when I think appropriate to address the unfortunate polarization that I see taking hold in many educational environments and our culture,” she said, noting that education is a critical way to get beyond this. “I hope that learning about Jewish experiences and identity across history — and not just in regards to the Israel/Hamas war — will take the temperature down on some of those conversations, and make them more informed and empathetic.”

Petrzela spoke recently with Chalkbeat New York.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Why did it feel so important to take this project on?

It was disappointing, if not totally surprising, to me that the New York City schools did not already have a coherent set of materials to teach Jewish American history, given how important Jews are in New York City history and vice versa. For me, witnessing the disturbing aftermath of Oct. 7 in many educational environments, including, but not limited to, New York City, infused real energy into addressing that omission. That is, I think the antisemitism that we have seen flare is due, at least in some part, to ignorance.

I was horrified and depressed to see false claims and antisemitic tropes circulating unchallenged at schools and colleges, supposed bastions of enlightenment and inclusion, but I realized that despairing or engaging in an endless game of what I describe as “antisemitism whack-a-mole” was depleting and unproductive.

I remain idealistic that education can be an important part of the solution to this situation, and leading Jewish American Hidden Voices, or JAHV, feels like a valuable way to make a proactive and unique contribution.

It’s hard to discuss this project in isolation from what’s been happening in some New York City public schools since Oct. 7, not only with the high-profile incidents, like the Hillcrest High School teacher targeted by students over her support of Israel, but also a broader rise of antisemitism in schools. We recently saw the chancellor issue apologies for “offensive” communications that went out to educators and families. How do you hope the Hidden Voices materials can combat some of what’s been happening in schools?

I hope that it contributes to reducing the antisemitism that has been on display not only in NYC but in many other places, as it will be freely available online. I think JAHV adds something really important to two existing approaches to teaching about Jewish experiences: Holocaust and antisemitism education, the former is required in many states, and the latter is often introduced as the result of an incident.

Hidden Voices is complementary but very different, as it introduces Jewish-American experiences as intertwined with the long span of U.S. history, and widens the lens beyond incidents of antisemitism and the specific and seismic trauma of the Holocaust, although it of course addresses both as well.

Can you tell us about your process? How long have you been working on it? Where did your research take you? How did you decide what to keep and what to cut?

After I accepted this offer, we set about brainstorming two lists: of individuals to include as profiles and of experts we hoped would write for us. The hardest part was cutting both of those down and finessing them to be representative in a range of ways.

The idea of Hidden Voices is to highlight individuals in an identity group that has often been overlooked in history, and also to teach about people who are not only the most famous figures in a given group. So, yes, there are profiles of luminaries such as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and poet Emma Lazarus, but also of fascinating figures, such as Harry Lender, the entrepreneur who made frozen bagels a supermarket staple, and Nancy Lieberman, the basketball star and women’s sports trailblazer.

One way we distilled the list was to focus on people whose stories illuminated aspects of Jewish American identity and that allow teachers to make fruitful connections to broader historical themes, both to deepen and challenge them. While this is a project of the NYC schools, and New York City is clearly such an important site in American Jewish life, we also really tried to select individuals whose lives and careers took them all over the country, itself an effort to challenge the stereotype of the “New York Jew.”

As for what we decided to keep in or cut, it was important to me that we explain, in every profile, how a figure’s Jewishness related to their life. For some of the figures we profile, being Jewish is a major part of their identity and career; for others, it can feel almost incidental. To us, that difference in itself is important in understanding the different ways Jews have inhabited their identity throughout U.S. history.

We kept in mind that it was especially important to resist any simplification of figures to heroes or villains, especially if there was a risk of perpetuating stereotypes. Our contributors did a great job with this.

What were some of the most surprising things you learned while doing the research?

I am not sure about surprised, but as challenging as this sprawling project is, I was gratified at how easy it was to illuminate so many diverse realms of American culture through the experiences of Jews in this country. This tiny minority — about 2.4% of the United States population today — has made incredible contributions, from the arts to athletics to organizing to industry, and it was not all that difficult to convey this range and diversity through our materials. Now people just have to use them!

Are there any figures that you’re especially excited for students — and teachers — to learn about?

Don’t make me choose — they are all so good! But since I absolutely love using pop culture to get at deeper historical themes, I am biased to be especially excited about profiles like that of Gold Rush entrepreneur Levi Strauss, who gave us denim as we know it, and of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the Holocaust survivor who got a generation of Americans talking openly about sex.

I’m wondering if you have thoughts about teaching Holocaust history in a post-survivor world?

When I was growing up, it was almost commonplace to learn about the Holocaust through survivors who would generously give talks at all kinds of venues, including schools. I remember their bracing accounts like it was yesterday. That era is all but over, and I think Hidden Voices will be one resource valuable in teaching about some of that history that too many people are ignorant of, or even deny. While [Jewish American Hidden Voices] is not organized around the Holocaust, this tragedy is so central to understanding modern Jewish experiences that, of course, it is addressed across our materials.

In general, what is your hope for how students and educators engage with these materials?

On the broadest level, I hope that these materials push educators and students to think about who identity-based curricula are for. Yes, of course, it is important for minority groups to “see themselves” represented in curricula, but I think that ambition is far too parochial for our current reality. We should all be curious about each other’s experiences, because when we turn inward and away from each other, we are left with an incomplete and inaccurate picture of the past and are ill-equipped to engage in our complicated present. Because Jews are such a tiny minority, I hope a curriculum like this sparks people to think about this question and invigorates them to commit to a pluralism and universalism that I personally think is the beating heart of a healthy community, in the classroom or beyond.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC mayoral candidates on education: Your guide to their plans for nation’s largest school system

2025-06-13T18:04:29+00:00

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This is part of a series in which Chalkbeat asked the mayoral candidates questions about important education issues that will likely define the next four years. The primary is June 24, with early voting from June 14-22.

The candidates running for New York City mayor have not made education a central issue, yet operating the nation’s largest school system is one of the top responsibilities for the chief executive of the Big Apple — and it commands the most resources.

The mayor controls the Education Department, appointing a chancellor who oversees its $40 billion budget, roughly 150,000 employees, and 1,600 schools serving nearly 911,000 students.

The next mayor will face entrenched issues — from disparities in student performance to school segregation — that the candidates have largely sidestepped.

They also must address pressing questions about how to implement the state’s class size mandate — an expensive task that will require hiring thousands of new teachers. Meanwhile, they will confront a Trump administration that aims to slash federal funding and root out diversity and equity programs.

Chalkbeat asked the mayoral candidates seven questions about education issues that will likely define the next four years, including whether they would follow through on Mayor Eric Adams’ reading and math curriculum overhauls and whether they would move to close the growing number of tiny schools. (The mayor declined to participate because he is not running in the Democratic primary.)

Here are our main takeaways from their responses. You can read their full answers by clicking on each headline.

Would you continue the current administration’s curriculum mandates for literacy and math?

Eric Adams’ most prominent education initiative is a massive overhaul to reading instruction, requiring schools to use city-approved curriculums. The move is part of a national “science of reading” movement that has drawn attention to flawed approaches to reading instruction many schools have long embraced.

The mayoral candidates generally support the reading curriculum changes, though several said teachers need more support and training. Several also suggested the mandate should be less rigid.

Queens state Rep. Zohran Mamdani wants to “enable more teacher discretion” in how the curriculums are implemented. Echoing concerns from some parent leaders, city Comptroller Brad Lander and former U.S. assistant attorney Jim Walden both want schools with a track record of success to have more leeway to skirt the curriculum changes.

The candidates were much more skeptical of the city’s effort to standardize math curriculums, particularly high Algebra I courses, a change that has drawn pushback from some educators and the teachers union. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos each expressed misgivings about the math changes and Lander said he would “ask my Chancellor for a full review of the data” and consult with educators before making a decision about whether to scrap it.

How would you continue implementing the mandate to reduce class sizes?

Under a 2022 state law, New York City must sharply reduce class sizes. Meeting that mandate will require hiring thousands of additional teachers, creating more classroom space, and finding billions of dollars.

Reducing class sizes is a major priority of the city’s teachers union and nearly all of the candidates said they would comply with the law’s requirements, which mandate that classrooms shrink to 20-25 students depending on the grade level by September 2028.

The mayoral candidates generally agreed that funding is a major hurdle and vowed to press state officials to cough up more money to implement it. Former city Comptroller Scott Stringer and Mamdani said they would also cut waste and repurpose existing funding within the Education Department’s budget to help pay for it, though they did not offer specifics.

Former Bronx state Rep. Michael Blake plans to boost the teacher pipeline with apprenticeships and “grow your own” programs. Lander also indicated that he would prevent schools from shedding teachers if their enrollment declines, a common practice as funding is typically tied to student headcount. The candidates largely did not address a host of difficult tradeoffs, including whether to cap enrollment at popular campuses or which schools should receive exemptions.

Two candidates said the law should be overhauled or scrapped. Walden said it should be revised to focus on high-need schools. (Higher poverty schools already tend to have smaller class sizes, which means the law is likely to benefit more affluent campuses.)

Former hedge-fund executive Whitney Tilson said the law should be rescinded entirely. “The class-size mandate is a costly giveaway to the teachers unions that will do nothing to help kids,” he said.

What’s your take on the city’s selective school admissions as well as the Specialized High School Admissions Test?

New York City’s notoriously complicated high school application process has long created a tiered system with dozens of “selective” schools basing admissions on grades, and the eight specialized high schools using an exam for entry.

Nearly all of the candidates would keep the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, which is enshrined in state law. Several called for expanded test prep access. It’s a sea change from four years ago when several candidates (including Stringer) called for eliminating the exam, which is often blamed for the low numbers of Black and Latino students at these schools.

Several mayoral hopefuls are also calling to increase the number of screened schools.

Blake was the only candidate calling to replace the SHSAT with “multiple measures, such as academic records and lived experience.” Mamdani, a Bronx Science alum and former standardized test tutor, said he’d support an independent analysis of the SHSAT for gender and racial bias. Lander said he’d keep the SHSAT but double the number of specialized high schools, with the new ones accepting the highest performers from middle schools across the city, a move he hopes would “alleviate the pressure families face to invest heavily in test preparation.”

How would you approach school safety and security, as the city has seen the number of school safety agents dramatically drop?

During the last mayoral election, New York City schools were planning to shift the school safety division from NYPD supervision to the Education Department, and several candidates explicitly backed the idea of redirecting financial resources from the Police Department toward mental health and other student support.

The Adams administration reversed course on taking away NYPD’s authority of school safety agents, who are uniformed but unarmed police officers stationed at schools, and public conversation calling for systemic reform of school safety has receded. At the same time, however, the number of school safety agents has shrunk from 5,000 during the 2019-20 school year to 3,600 currently, a drop of roughly 28%. Many principals have concerns about the drop, but some critics of the current system see the declining headcount as an opportunity to rethink school safety.

Many candidates support staffing up the school safety agent force. Lander called for a pay increase for the job that has an annual starting salary of $36,000. He and others also called for expanding mental health support. Several called for bolstering restorative justice approaches to help address conflict resolution. City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams believes that schools should get to decide their own safety approach, providing support for school communities that want more safety agents.

With a growing number of small schools, would you consider ramping up closures or mergers?

Nearly 200 schools enrolled fewer than 200 students last school year, almost double the number from about a decade ago.

And enrollment drops are expected to continue in the coming years.

With funding tied to student headcount, the next mayor will likely have to grapple with the growing number of tiny schools.They’re often costly to run, yet unable to afford a full complement of programs. Several candidates said they would support mergers or closures, with some saying they’d like to ensure community engagement in the process.

Cuomo said it would be “irresponsible” to take mergers and consolidations off the table. Mamdani said he’d consider mergers as well as capping overenrolled schools. Lander, who had issued a report on this as comptroller, favors mergers that intentionally integrate under- and over-utilized schools, through a lengthy community-involved planning process.

Adrienne Adams, however, said school closures are “not an option of particular interest,” and she would create a working group with teachers, parents, students, and city and state education officials to tackle the small schools issue.

What’s your take on mayoral control?

Under mayoral control, which became state law in 2002, New York City’s chief executive has a tremendous amount of authority over the nation’s largest school system.

Supporters of this system say that making one person responsible for the system’s performance ensures a clear line of accountability. Opponents argue that the system is anti-democratic and makes the system vulnerable to political winds with each new administration.

The state legislature will once again consider the fate of mayoral control, when it’s up for renewal in 2026, putting the onus on the next mayor to make a case for what the city’s governance model should look like.

Most of the candidates support mayoral control, but several called for greater transparency and including more parent voice.

Lander called for “municipal control,” with centralized management reporting to the mayor, but also space for parents, students, and other local elected officials to weigh in. He would, for example, “seek advice and consent” from the City Council on appointing a chancellor.

Mamdani said he opposed mayoral control “in its current iteration” and would create a more “participatory educational system” with “co-governance” from the Panel for Educational Policy, school leadership teams, and Community Education Councils. Ramos said she would consider bringing together teachers, parents, students, and experts to develop an alternative to mayoral control.

How would you respond to the Trump administration’s threats to revoke federal funding from schools?

Pushing back on the Trump administration has been front and center for many mayoral candidates.

Donald Trump has taken a particular interest in decimating the federal Department of Education, and in his efforts to root out diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from schools, Trump has threatened to withhold federal education funds. (The city gets roughly $2 billion a year in federal funding.)

Several of the candidates vowed to continue challenging the legality of Trump’s moves to withhold congressionally authorized funding. Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, for example, said he’d consider using the city’s financial contributions to the federal government as leverage: “New York must explore a nuclear option of withholding any state or local remittances to the federal government if Trump ignores a court order to give our city its funds.”

Cuomo said he would fight on behalf of the school system and that he had the most experience in standing up to Trump, but he also took a more conciliatory tone, saying, “I will work with the Trump administration to get the best possible treatment for the New York City school system and its students.”

Mamdani, meanwhile, claimed that Trump would have leverage with Cuomo, who he says “is backed by Trump’s donors.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools’ scheduling snafu: Principals annoyed by last-minute switcheroo

2025-06-03T22:10:48+00:00

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New York City’s 2024-25 school calendar was set more than a year ago.

But the Education Department made a scheduling error for this week’s Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and didn’t communicate about it until Tuesday morning, frustrating some principals as the school year entered the June homestretch.

New York City schools faced a particularly strange week: All schools are closed on Thursday for Eid al-adha/Anniversary Day. On Friday, though 6-12 and high schools are open, elementary and middle schools are closed to students while their staffers were expected to show up for a “clerical” day.

Schools typically use the day for grading and collaborating on planning for the year ahead. They often use the time to take tech inventory or address other classroom housekeeping issues. Some schools schedule kindergarten or sixth-grade student orientations and tours.

But in Tuesday’s weekly email from the Education Department to principals, amid a litany of other news, officials included a brief note that Friday would not be an in-person staff day as planned because of Eid. The holiday starts Thursday evening and goes into Friday. Several principals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, expressed annoyance at the last-minute change, questioning why it had not been communicated earlier or in a direct and transparent manner with officials owning up to their mistake.

One Manhattan elementary school principal wondered whether the Education Department failed to understand when the Muslim holiday began. The observance of the holiday is dependent on moon sightings, and it can shift year-to-year, officials said.

“The change was made to provide greater flexibility for educators to complete various end-of-year tasks,” Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement. “We are working closely with school leaders to support them in adjusting plans as needed.”

Students in grades 6-12 schools who need to be absent, late or depart early for observance of Eid may be excused, Education Department officials said.

“We had already planned a full day, including an in-person orientation for our incoming sixth graders,” said one Manhattan middle school principal, who scrambled on Tuesday to find teachers willing to volunteer to come in person to avoid canceling the orientation while also reworking the other staff activities for the day.

“Most of what we planned won’t translate to remote, or at least won’t translate without significant changes,” the principal said.

A Brooklyn middle school principal echoed similar concerns.

“We had a planned-out day dedicated to June-planning on teams and class list-making,” the principal said. “While that can technically happen remotely, it will greatly diminish productivity and actual preparedness for the close of the year and the start of next year. It’s a real shame.”

Some school leaders, however, were pleased with the change — even if they were critical of the way it was communicated.

“I think the impact is relieved happiness overall and for some staff members who are observing Eid, overall relief,” one Bronx assistant principal said. “I anticipated this was going to be a low staff attendance day anyway.”

This isn’t the first time New York City schools made a last-minute pivot to remote on this particular day. Two years ago, air pollution from Canadian wildfires forced schools to go remote for staffers on clerical day as well as students in schools that run from grades 6-12.

“But that was an external and last-minute thing due to an emergency,” one Manhattan elementary school principal said, unlike this year’s switcheroo.

Another Manhattan elementary principal recalled having to cancel a kindergarten orientation that day of the wildfires — and having to do damage control the entire next year for the parents who were still upset over not being able to have an in-person tour. That principal no longer uses that day for orientations, but was still scrambling on Tuesday to come up with a Plan B for school staffers, including office staff, whose work is harder to do remotely.

“The last-minute scramble and the gaps in communication — it’s a frustrating pattern that has happened over multiple chancellors,” the principal said. “It’s a whole ripple effect.”

Many principals were pleased, however, that the Education Department has already addressed an issue with next year’s calendar, making Friday, Jan. 2 a day off so there isn’t a one-day week after winter break.

“This isn’t the biggest thing, but it just doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence,” the Manhattan middle school principal said of this week’s last-minute change. “On the positive side, they did take away Jan. 2… but at least with that one there is plenty of advance warning so everyone can plan accordingly.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC high school admissions and the SHSAT: Here’s where the mayoral candidates stand

2025-05-28T18:36:10+00:00

The New York City high school process is notoriously complicated.

And a small piece of it that occupies an outsized amount of attention — the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, which is needed to get into eight of the city’s most prestigious schools — is often considered a political third rail.

The application algorithm (for schools other than the specialized high schools) is meant to make the system fair by opening up schools across the city to students, but it favors families with the wherewithal to navigate the system. The level of screening in schools across the five boroughs is unparalleled, exacerbating the city’s dubious distinction as one of the most segregated districts in the nation.

Last year, out of nearly 71,000 high school applicants, about 19,000, or 27%, received offers at the dozens of selective schools that base admissions on grades. Fifty-one percent of those offers went to Black and Latino students, who make up about 60% of students citywide.

Nearly 26,000 students took the SHSAT, with roughly 4,000, or about 16% of test-takers, receiving offers to the city’s eight specialized high schools that base admissions solely on the test. Of those offers, 12% went to Black and Latino students.

So how can New York City make admissions more equitable? And what happens to the system as a whole when there’s a group of schools that can select their students based on grades, while others can’t?

Mayor Eric Adams’ response has been to further embrace sorting students, pushing to open more “academically accelerated” schools in historically underserved neighborhoods.

Many of the mayoral candidates seem to agree with that approach, calling for opening additional specialized or screened schools. One suggested the new schools would draw the top students from every middle school across the city. Nearly all would keep the SHSAT (which is enshrined in state law) but called for expanded test prep access. One candidate mentioned the importance of ensuring that non-specialized schools have access to more challenging curriculums.

Chalkbeat sent a questionnaire to the leading candidates on March 25 to find out their views on seven pressing issues. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said he declined to participate since he isn’t in the primary.

We asked each of the candidates how they would approach screened admissions and whether they supported the SHSAT. Here’s what they told us.

Responses may have been edited for formatting or trimmed for length, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted, including hyperlinks.

Hundreds of NYC students walk out of class for ‘anti-Trump, nonpartisan’ protest

2025-05-27T23:21:28+00:00

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Hundreds of high school students in New York City walked out of class Tuesday for what organizers called an “anti-Trump, nonpartisan” protest against attacks on democracy under President Donald Trump’s administration.

Teenagers representing dozens of high schools, many sporting red, white, and blue apparel and face paint, met in Union Square. Organizers made the case that pushing back on President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on universities and student protesters while ramping up immigration enforcement is a matter of standing up for constitutional rights rather than partisan politics.

“We want to unite kids from all political stances around protecting the constitutional rights that we believe are being threatened right now by the Trump administration,” said Nava Litt, a senior at the Bronx Science of High School who helped organize the protest. She noted that members come from a range of political backgrounds, from “serious pro-Palestinian activists to people who have parents who voted for Trump and have gone to Trump rallies.”

Students touted signs including, “Fascism is bad, actually,” to, “WE’RE NOT RADICAL. WE JUST PAY ATTENTION IN HISTORY CLASS.”

A student displays a handwritten sign at Tuesday's rally in Union Square.

The rally, which follows mass protests in cities across the country in recent months, represents one of the first large-scale mobilizations of New York City K-12 students since Trump took office in January.

One attendee noted that unlike many adult or even college-age protesters, most high school students cannot vote — making it critical for them to raise their voices in other ways.

Litt created a student group called “We the Students” with some of her peers in February as a “nonpartisan, pro-democracy group.” For the walkout, she tapped her social networks, connecting with students from about 20 schools and deputizing “captains” at those campuses to organize their classmates.

Some attendees said they’ve been yearning for a chance to make their voices heard about how the Trump administration’s policies are affecting them and leapt at the chance to protest.

“I lead the political science club at my school, so I’m just kind of constantly looking for stuff like this,” said Madeline LaGreco, a freshman at the Clinton School in Manhattan, who found out about the rally on Instagram, then posted it on her own account to share with friends.

Others had to overcome some hesitation before attending the rally.

“I know a lot of people close to me, a lot of my friends who do go to my school judged me for wanting to go to this,” said Samantha Kim, also a freshman at the Clinton School. “It’s one of those things where they don’t believe in politics. But at this point, it’s not politics, it’s human rights.”

Students at Tuesday's rally display signs demanding more protection for students and schools.

The specific issues that rally attendees and speakers highlighted ran the gamut from the crackdown on academic freedom in higher education, to immigration enforcement, to the targeting of law firms. Several attendees said they were deeply concerned about the effects of threats to pull federal funding from colleges they would be applying to in a matter of years.

Others pointed out that Trump’s efforts to dismantle the federal education department could affect them immediately. Many students raised concerns about the prospect of friends or relatives facing immigration enforcement.

The day before the rally, Chalkbeat reported on a 20-year-old high school student in the Bronx who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, after showing up to a routine court date — the first known case of a current city public school student detained by immigration officials.

“The administration has done so many things, you really can’t even pinpoint one specific thing,” said Abigail, a student at Brooklyn Technical High School who asked to use only her first name. “It calls for just a massive expression of anger directed towards the administration.”

Litt said the idea of walking out of school was rooted in a practical New York City tradition. “Walkouts are something New York City kids do and have done before and understand how they work and understand the tradition of it,” she said. “And there’s a real robust protest culture in New York City high schools, and we want to tap into that energy and tap into that enthusiasm.”

Some students said they were expecting consequences like detention for attending the protest. To minimize academic disruptions, student organizers decided to wait until after AP exams, which took place earlier in May.

City schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said that students who left school before dismissal would be marked absent from any classes they missed.

“We respect the voice of students as they speak out on the difficult issues of our time and advocate for their peers,” she said in a statement. “As we have said repeatedly, our students should remain in school to continue to get the world-class education they deserve.”

Some students said that when they weighed the possible short-term consequences of missing school against the longer-term importance of speaking out, they came down firmly on the side of attending the rally.

“You can be worried about … current repercussions,” said LaGreco, the Clinton School freshman. “But the further this administration does the things that they’ve been doing, the actual repercussions in the real world, not just our school, completely outweigh everything.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael atmelsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

NY Attorney General, mayoral candidates condemn ICE detention of Bronx high schooler

2025-05-27T22:31:12+00:00

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Politicians across the city rallied on Tuesday around a Bronx high school student who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after showing up for a routine immigration court hearing, calling for his immediate release.

Among those decrying the arrest of Dylan, a 20-year-old asylum seeker from Venezuela, was New York Attorney General Letitia James, who called his arrest “despicable.” Mayoral candidates also questioned the detention, with one describing it as “sick and twisted,” while Mayor Eric Adams took a more muted stance.

Dylan attended ELLIS Prep, which caters to older newly arrived immigrants, and remained determined to make it to college. He is the first known current New York City public school student detained by ICE during Trump’s second administration, as Chalkbeat first reported on Monday.

He fled his homeland in April 2024 under a Biden-era entry program, reuniting with his mom and two younger siblings, who he helped support as a part-time delivery worker. He requested asylum and was permitted to stay as he awaited his court date.

Dylan, third from left, poses with his mom and younger siblings.

Dylan went to last week’s court hearing without a lawyer and unwittingly relinquished his legal protections, his mom, Raiza, previously told Chalkbeat. He was promptly arrested by ICE agents who followed him out of the courtroom and into the courthouse lobby. He has no criminal record, his mom added.

(The family requested using only first names for fear of retaliation from immigration authorities.)

Similar scenes are playing out in courthouses across the country, with government lawyers asking immigration judges to dismiss cases against migrants, then immediately reopening them as “expedited removal” cases. The tactic allows authorities to arrest their targets on the spot and fast-track the deportation process with fewer legal checks, according to lawyers and numerous news reports.

A Department of Homeland Security official confirmed that Dylan was arrested and placed in “expedited removal proceedings.”

“Most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject to expedited removals,” the official wrote in an email. “Biden ignored this legal fact and chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.”

The official said that those with a “valid credible fear claim” will continue to wind their way through the process. “But if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation.”

A spokesperson for the New York Legal Assistance Group, or NYLAG, which is representing Dylan, pushed back.

“Dylan entered with permission from the United States. He was paroled in to seek asylum. To characterize his entry any other way is false,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

In the six days since his May 21 arrest, Dylan has been shuttled between four different states, including New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania, his lawyers and mom said. The constant movement has prevented his lawyers from connecting with him since it typically takes several days after a transfer to coordinate a consultation, said an attorney from NYLAG.

Additionally, Dylan suffers from extreme stomach issues, and his mother, who has been in touch with her son by phone, said he has not received medical care and has spent most of the time with his hands and feet cuffed.

Following Chalkbeat’s reporting on Dylan’s arrest, Mayor Eric Adams was asked about the situation at an unrelated press conference on Tuesday and emphasized that it didn’t happen at school.

“I want to be extremely clear. That did not happen in the school,” Adams said. “Children should be in school. I told parents that, and I lived up to that. We have had no raids in our schools.”

The city does not coordinate with ICE on civil enforcement, he added.

“We don’t know what happened in court, what caused this action,” Adams said. “Federal authorities handle ICE. I don’t control the borders.”

He continued: “My message to all immigrants, documented and undocumented … follow the law. If the law was that you had to show up to court, follow the law.”

Adams did not answer when asked if he would use his relationship with Trump administration officials to push for Dylan’s release.

Several other politicians expressed strong support for Dylan.

New York Attorney General Letitia James took to social media to rail against his arrest.

Dylan is a 20-year-old student who followed our legal process and is trying to get an education and provide for his family.

ICE took advantage of his court date to arrest him.

It's despicable.https://t.co/NFHuIMqtWX
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) May 27, 2025

Two mayoral candidates also came to Dylan’s defense. City Comptroller Brad Lander said he would “work to make sure New Yorkers like Dylan have the legal protections and representation they deserve to fight back against ICE’s inhumane actions.”

And state Rep. Zohran Mamdani, wrote: “This is where Eric Adams’ silence and complicity has led us. Free Dylan now.”

This is sick and twisted. A NYC student who followed all legal requirements, arrested because of ICE trickery and a lack of legal representation.

When I'm Mayor, we'll work to make sure New Yorkers like Dylan have the legal protections and representation they deserve to fight…
— Brad Lander (@bradlander) May 27, 2025

Trump's ICE is now kidnapping New York City high school students. This is where Eric Adams' silence and complicity has led us.

Free Dylan now. pic.twitter.com/0vzuCQw2VJ
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) May 27, 2025

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who is running for city comptroller, also posted in support of Dylan, writing, “We must demand his immediate release.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael atmelsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Federal judge blocks Trump’s Education Dept. shutdown, orders reinstatement of laid off staff

2025-05-22T19:01:36+00:00

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A federal judge on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order to shut down the U.S. Department of Education and said the agency must reinstate the employees who were fired as part of mass layoffs.

After U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced the agency’s plans in March to slash its workforce by roughly half, she called it a first step in getting rid of the agency. Trump followed days later with his executive order aiming to eliminate the department, a move he has long wanted.

But only Congress can actually eliminate the department, and the administration’s attempt at getting around that influenced U.S. District Judge Myong Joun’s Thursday ruling.

The Trump administration argued that they implemented agency layoffs to improve “efficiency” and “accountability,” the Massachusetts judge wrote, but then said: “The record abundantly reveals that [the administration’s] true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department without an authorizing statute.”

Joun added: “A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all. This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the Department’s employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the Department becomes a shell of itself.”

Within hours of the Joun’s ruling, the Trump administration filed an appeal.

“This ruling is not in the best interest of American students or families,” Madi Biedermann, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications, wrote in a statement.

Calls for the injunction came from lawsuits filed by the Somerville and Easthampton schools districts in Massachusetts along with the American Federation of Teachers, other education groups, and 21 Democratic attorneys general.

They argued that the gutting of the department rendered the agency incapable of performing many of its core functions required by Congress.

For example, all of the attorneys from the agency’s general counsel office who handle grants for K-12 schools and grants under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, had been fired. The dismantling of the Office for Civil Rights made it difficult to enforce civil rights protections. The department’s Financial Student Aid programs, which provide financial assistance to almost 12.9 million students across approximately 6,100 postsecondary educational institutions, were also hampered.

Trump’s executive order instructed McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities” to the “maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”

At the same time, the order said McMahon should ensure “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

Trump said he would move the agency’s student loan portfolio to the Small Business Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services would replace the Education Department’s role in “handling special needs.”

Before the layoffs, the Education Department was the smallest of the 15 cabinet-level departments in terms of staffing, according to the judge, with around 4,100 employees. And the plaintiffs said the agency was strained meeting its obligations even then.

The ruling was not based on the employees’ job rights, but rather how the agency was able to fulfill its obligations.

“It’s not about whether employees have a right to a job,” said Derek Black, a University of South Carolina law professor. “It’s about whether the department can fulfill its statutory obligations to the states and to students.”

The case made by former department employees, educational institutions, unions, and educators, Joun wrote, paints “stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America’s most vulnerable student populations.”

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten heralded the judge’s ruling, calling it “a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity.”

But Biedermann, from the Education Department, said the ruling was unfair to the Trump administration.

“Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs, and issued an injunction against the obviously lawful efforts to make the Department of Education more efficient and functional for the American people,” she said in a statement.

Chalkbeat national editor Erica Meltzer contributed reporting.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Parent leaders demand overhaul amid dysfunctional school council elections

2025-05-13T21:59:43+00:00

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Parent leaders across the city are raising alarms about New York City’s local school council elections, citing “gross mismanagement” of the process by the Education Department.

At issue are Community Education Council races, which are held every two years to elect parent leaders in each of the city’s 32 local districts and four citywide councils representing English learners, students with disabilities, and high school families. Families vote online through their New York City Schools accounts, or NYCSA, through May 13.

The Education Department’s office of Family and Community Engagement, known as FACE, runs the elections which saw just 2% of voter turnout during each of the past two cycles. This will be the third election in which all parents with public school children can vote; previously, PTA leaders selected candidates.

The problems in this election cycle range from inconsistently listing candidates on ballots, with some appearing with their last names first and others in the reverse order, to larger problems that have interrupted voting or erased some votes entirely.

This year’s election cycle got off to a bumpy start. Hours after voting began April 25, Education Department officials took the system offline to fix “technical issues.” The system was down for about 11 hours.

In Manhattan’s District 1, which covers the Lower East Side and East Village, one parent vying for a council seat was left off the ballot. Voting had already been underway for a week, but FACE staffers told families who had already voted, that they would have to vote again.

Meanwhile, the Citywide Council for High Schools contends that FACE has not properly overseen candidate forums, “allowing various violations of the rules by candidates without interruption from the FACE representative on duty who was either passive or left prematurely.”

Three councils — District 1, District 20 in Brooklyn, and the high school council — have drafted resolutions calling for FACE to be overhauled or dismantled and urging local and state elected officials to intervene.

“The persistent and systemic failures in FACE’s administration of these elections undermines parent trust in the process and threatens to depress parent participation in school governance,” according to language from all three resolutions, which are advisory and are expected to be voted on this week.

An Education Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the resolutions. Officials said only that they are extending the deadline for voting — from 5 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. on May 13. They said state law prevents them from extending it further.

Community Education Councils’ main formal role is to approve boundaries that define geographic areas from which schools may draw students. They have little policymaking power, though they offer an important feedback mechanism from parents to Education Department officials. Some have taken up hot-button issues in recent years, from transgender students’ participation in sports to protecting students from immigration enforcement at school.

As some councils have waded into the culture wars, this year’s elections have garnered more interest from parents who previously had paid little attention to these democratic bodies.

Critics have raised concerns for years about the election process, often noting that participation is frequently dismal. In 2023, the city spent about $224 per voter, or nearly $4.3 million, to operate that election, department officials told parent leaders.

A Chalkbeat investigation after the last election highlighted numerous concerns as to how FACE conducted the process, including how the office was gripped internally by turmoil and factions, potentially affecting the turnout and its outcomes. City Comptroller Brad Lander proposed a series of reforms last November to improve outreach and set clearer campaign rules.

Fivel Rothberg, who worked as an outreach consultant supporting the education council elections until last month, said he is disappointed that the process remains so dysfunctional.

“FACE had two years, from 2023 to 2025, to organize a better election rollout,” Rothberg said. The Education Department’s “mismanagement of the [education council] elections is disheartening because there is so much possibility … for parental involvement in improving schools.”

Some District 1 families said they worry there is no easy fix for leaving a candidate off the ballot. Even as the Education Department extends the voting window, it’s unclear if every family who had already voted will cast another ballot.

City officials told parent leaders this week that 83 parents had voted prior to canceling and restarting the ballots, but they didn’t provide information on how many of those parents revoted, said Noah Harlan, the president of District 1’s council. He said he had “serious concerns about disenfranchisement” of the parents who votes were cancelled and did not have the same voting window as those in other districts after the vote restarted.

“It’s unpredictable where this will go because it’s so messy,” said Robert Murtfeld, a District 1 parent and former education council member. “Even if we extended the voting for a week, where’s the fairness?”

The dysfunctional elections process suggests the Education Department sees the councils as an afterthought, said Erika Kendall, president of the education council in Brooklyn’s District 17. But for her, the councils are an important conduit for parent voice and driving additional resources to the district. The council recently advocated for the city to open a local school geared toward students with reading challenges, she noted.

“The idea that we don’t have to be taken seriously, that we’re just kind of this burden that everybody tolerates, I find it very disrespectful especially considering the meaningful work that we can do,” Kendall said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org.

This Brooklyn mentor understands why students don’t show up. He was once in their shoes.

2025-05-07T21:49:33+00:00

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As a success mentor at Brooklyn’s A-Tech High School, Keiron Darnley helps students at risk of being chronically absent.

A big reason he clicks so well with them: He was in their shoes less than a decade ago.

Darnley, who graduated from Brooklyn Collegiate in 2018, had a complicated relationship with school. Though he was passing his classes, he didn’t really see the point in showing up, he said. He typically stayed home one or two times a week, watching TV, playing video games, or sleeping. When he did attend, he’d often arrive late.

“The idea of going to school was like a fulfillment to make sure my parents don’t have any issues,” he said, “or that it’s just a placeholder in my day.”

After a school counselor’s check-ins with Darnley fell flat, he connected Darnley with a colleague who changed his trajectory. This staffer, from Counseling in Schools, a nonprofit that provides counselors to dozens of New York City public schools, made Darnley feel that school was “worth it.” She would greet him at the school’s front door. He’d go to her office during lunch to do schoolwork.

Eventually, the counselor got him a high school internship that put him on his current path as a Counseling in Schools success mentor at A-Tech, where he’s worked the past five years.

As the school, formerly known as Automotive, has been transforming in various ways, moving beyond car mechanics into digital design and business, its gender balance is slowly shifting. This year’s freshman class enrolled the most girls it’s ever had, Darnley said. The school was 89% male last year.

That shift is changing the school’s vibe — and possibly helping boost attendance as well, Darnely believes.

At the end of Darnley’s first year at A-Tech, the chronic absenteeism rate was 49%. This school year to date, it’s about 15%, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat. The school has leaned heavily on data to pinpoint whether students are on the cusp of being chronically absent — defined as missing at least 10% of the school year — enabling staffers to target interventions, including credit recovery programs and mentors, like Darnley.

“It takes time, but it’s definitely worth it to build that relationship, because some of them very well need it, and kind of just need to know there’s somebody here who cares,” said Darnely, who is also studying to be a nurse.

Chalkbeat spoke recently with Darnley.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How did you decide to become a success mentor?

It’s always so funny how life works out. I was never really like a ‘school person.’ I never saw myself working at a school working with kids, but when I was in high school, I interned for my counselor and mentor, and she got me an internship with Counseling in Schools, so I’ve kind of been on and off with them. One day, she reached out to me after I graduated and was like, “Hey, I have a job opportunity.”

Are there any anecdotes you can tell me about a particular student who, like yourself, didn’t want to come to school, and how you got that student to come to school?

I work with the idea of, hey, I’m trying to get them not to be like me.

Last year, when one of my old students graduated, he was telling how much it really meant to him and how much of a difference it really made. All I really did was the same thing somebody did for me. I was there when he was in the building. First thing he saw in the morning was a ”good morning,” a good smile. Like, “Hey, how are you doing?” When he was late, I would text him like, “Hey, what’s up?” or “Where are you at? Are you coming to school today?”

[When he was absent], I would get his work for him. I’d make sure he was staying on top of what he has to do, even though he’s not in the building, because being online now, more than ever, things are a lot more accessible, so they can still do their work.

I even went to the extreme because he loved to tell me that he slept through his alarm. So I used to take his phone, set all his alarms for him, and know when they go off, so I used to call him after his alarm goes off, because I know kids love to hit their snooze button. So their 8 a.m. alarm turns into a 10 a.m. alarm.

For some students, if they’re not going to school, the further behind they fall. That makes them even less likely to want to go to school because there’s the stress of having to catch up. How do you address that?

I’ve had a lot of students who felt like there was no point in even coming anymore, because they’re like, “I’m missing credits, I’m failing the class. I don’t have the motivation to do it. It’s too much work.” And I’m just like, “It’s too much work, but you can have help doing the work.”

What I’ve noticed, specifically in this school, is that they have so many methods to catch up, whether it’s through after-school tutoring, somebody like me, or even just the teachers themselves willing to stay back past their hours. Even over the breaks, they’ll all log in, and they’ll do online work together. The teachers will push back some of the due dates.

It sounds like you’re really able to connect with the students. Can you tell me more about that?

They very well see me as a student myself.

Maybe it’s because of the dialect, or how young they think I look. And the same issues they went through, I went through. So it’s easy to connect to them and understand, “Hey, I’ve been there. I know what’s going on. So let me just help you.” And I think, when they see you from the first minute they walk into the building to their lunch period to the end of the day, they’re like, “Hey, this is somebody I can trust and talk to.”

And we have a wellness room where they come and they do their work at lunch, or if they just want to come and hang out. One of their key moments of the day is their lunch period because this is their decompress period. They get to come here, [and] they don’t have to worry about the pressure of education, or their grades, or their teachers.

And I think just being able to relate to somebody like me who can talk to them outside of their teacher [makes them] feel comfortable opening up about their problems, about their education issues, or just how school in general makes them feel.

I know you’re also working toward a nursing degree. Why nursing?

My goal has kind of always been to help people. I think that’s why I clicked so well with this job — kind of helping people who are like me. At first, I wanted to be a doctor, but being how much I don’t like school, I can’t see myself doing all those years in school, medical and residency, so I’d rather start with nursing and kind of work my way through. As long as I’m in a profession where I’m giving more than I’m getting, I think I’ll be happy,

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

‘Technical issues’ take NYC parent council elections offline on first day of voting

2025-04-25T19:22:27+00:00

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Just hours into the first day of voting for New York City’s elected parent councils, Education Department officials took the system offline to fix “technical issues,” a spokesperson said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what officials were fixing. But on Friday multiple parents reported glitches and mistakes in the online voting system, including parents appearing on ballots for seats for which they are not running.

As of early Friday afternoon, a message on the online voting page said “voting has been paused, as there are updates being made to the site. We are hopeful to resume this afternoon.”

The setback was frustrating for some Community Education Council candidates who said they’ve been working hard to remind parents to vote and help them troubleshoot, and worry that the technical glitches Friday will make an already complicated process that much more difficult.

“It’s just extremely disappointing because we’ve been working so hard to have our school parent community be involved in this process,” said Alejandro Epifanio Torres, an elementary school parent running for the council in District 1 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

During the last election cycle in 2023, only 19,000 parents — or 2% of eligible voters — cast their ballots in the council election. A 2023 Chalkbeat investigation found mismanagement of both outreach and voting administration during the last council elections.

Department spokesperson Onika Richards said a vendor was addressing the “technical issues” with voting. “In the interest of ensuring a fair and accurate process, we have temporarily paused voting,” Richards said. “We are working diligently to resolve any issues by this afternoon, and we expect to resume voting promptly thereafter.”

Debbie Kross, the parent of a high school student in the Bronx who is running as the Bronx borough representative for the Citywide Council on High Schools said when she logged in to vote this morning, she discovered that her name appeared on both the Bronx and Brooklyn ballots.

“I wrote to them immediately and said, ‘remove me,’” she said. Kross said she hadn’t heard back as of early Friday afternoon.

Even though she’s technically eligible to be a Brooklyn representative since she has a child in school there, Kross said she didn’t indicate that she wanted to run there and doesn’t “know anything about Brooklyn schools … I don’t think I would be a good representative.”

Gavin Healy, a council member in Manhattan’s District 2, said he heard widespread complaints from parents about the voting process.

The advocacy group Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, known as PLACE, sent a press release just before 10 a.m. Friday urging the city to pause the voting process because of “incorrect ballots.”

The Education Department emailed parents shortly after 10 a.m. to notify them the elections were paused — just minutes after sending a reminder to vote, according to screenshots obtained by Chalkbeat.

Education Department officials didn’t immediately say how many parents voted before the site was taken offline and whether they would have to recast their ballots.

Voting remains open until May 13, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether the Education Department would extend that window. Parents vote through their New York City Schools Account, or NYCSA, and can cast ballots for up to three candidates.

Votes for the city’s district-based Community Education Councils and its citywide councils are held every two years. The elected volunteers on the councils have few formal powers outside of voting to approve rezoning proposals, but play an important role in communicating with district officials and representing parents in policy debates.

In recent years, the councils have waded into charged political issues, passing advisory resolutions on sports policy for transgender students and protections for students against President Donald Trump’s executive orders.

Friday’s voting snag comes after critics have repeatedly raised concerns about the city Education Department’s management of the elections. Last November, city Comptroller Brad Lander issued a set of recommendations to improve the election process by shoring up outreach and setting clearer rules for campaigning.

Fivel Rothberg, who until recently worked as an outreach consultant supporting the CEC elections, said the entire concept of relying on NYCSA accounts for voting was “doomed to fail” regardless of glitches because some parents struggle to access them.

“Parents and guardians already have so much on their plate,” he said. “The NYCSA system created one more twisted maze for everyone to navigate in an already complex bureaucracy.”

Healy said the fact that problems continued at the start of this election cycle was unsurprising.

“I do wish at some point they would send this to the Board of Elections,” he said. The Education Department’s Family and Community Engagement department “isn’t really able to do this kind of project, so send it to someone else,” he added.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.