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.

Newark charter school’s new $51 million facility to join wave of South Ward development

2026-08-17T18:33:13+00:00

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A charter school organization’s plans to transform the South Ward’s Clinton Hill corridor are moving forward.

The BRICK network’s new K-8 building for the Gateway Academy was approved by Newark’s Central Planning Board in May. In addition, the network’s wellness center is set to open in 2027 that will offer prenatal care among other services. BRICK is also planning on building 70 units of affordable housing for residents.

The charter network says its $51 million project to replace its old elementary and middle school campus will benefit the entire community, not just its students, and that its work will help create an “ecosystem” of care and housing for families. The new building will have the capacity to grow Gateway’s current student population at a time when Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León has fought to slow charter school enrollment growth citywide. Meanwhile, advocates for schools that provide wraparound services for students and their families say the charter network’s growing footprint in the South Ward should serve the entire community.

BRICK’s new building is also part of a broader wave of redevelopment happening in the South Ward.

Gateway Academy’s nearly 470 elementary and middle school students currently attend classes at a rented Clinton Avenue building with no windows, gym, or playground, according to charter school officials.

Students and staff have been in that building ever since the 2024 merger of People’s Preparatory and Achieve Community charter schools established Gateway Academy. People’s Prep left the previous space it rented from the district that same year, following a tense four-year legal battle with Newark Public Schools over contract and rent issues. That departure has allowed León to reclaim the space for district students, one of his top priorities.

The future Gateway is slated for a 2028-29 school year opening and will house 810 kindergarten through eighth grade students on Jelliff Avenue. It will include a full working kitchen, a community room, and a gym that BRICK officials say will be open to South Ward sports leagues and nonprofits.

Shavon Harris, managing director of housing and real estate for BRICK, said the new facility will be “more than a school” and will act as a community hub in several ways, while also improving opportunities for its students.

“We’re not trying to take on more than we can,” Harris said. “We need this for our babies. Our students deserve it. Our staff deserves it.”

Yet state advocates who provide academic and social services to families say all Newark students, not just those in the South Ward, also deserve and need what BRICK is promising to provide.

“I think that these community-based things are needed, are necessary, and as long as the entire public has access to these things then [that’s] fantastic,” said Julie Borst, co-founder and co-director of the New Jersey Institute for Community Schools.

The new Gateway Academy is just one notable project underway in the South Ward, where a $125 million Lionsgate film and TV studio is under construction and scheduled to open in 2027. The district is also expanding its presence in the area: New Media High School, which will focus on content creation and entertainment, will move its students to a building next to the studio in the 2027-28 school year.

Khaatim Sherrer El, executive director for Clinton Hill Community Action, a local advocacy group, declined to comment on the future Gateway Academy facility specifically, since it is outside the area his group focuses on. But he said all developers in the South Ward should think broadly about their projects’ impact.

“The South Ward deserves the investment, and all of these developers must answer to today’s residents — for whom are these projects intended?” he said. “This must include conversations about access to opportunity, good-paying jobs, and respect for the rich culture and history that is already here.”

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

New York loses millions in sex ed money after uptick in teen pregnancies

2026-08-14T20:30:20+00:00

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here.

Over the past two and a half years, 17-year-old Ana Ortega has visited dozens of high school classrooms across the South Bronx and Harlem, leading conversations about consent, healthy dating behaviors, and safe sex with students her own age.

“A lot of teenagers don’t want to talk to adults because they don’t want to be judged,” she said.

Ortega is a peer mentor with the teen pregnancy prevention initiative at Children’s Aid, which provides sexual health education to New York City youth in schools, community centers, and foster care facilities. But parts of the initiative will soon come to an end. Earlier this summer, the Trump administration launched an effort to gut and reshape an Obama-era federal program designed to prevent teen pregnancy, which Children’s Aid had relied on for over 10 years to provide sexual education in vulnerable communities.

As part of that overhaul, the federal Department of Health and Human Services notified the nonprofit that it was terminating its grant effective immediately, two years before it was set to expire. “The reason provided was that the initiative no longer aligned with HHS’s priorities,” said Rhonda Braxton, a vice president at Children’s Aid.

The organization is among three New York grantees that are losing over $4.3 million in annual federal funding to support evidence-based sexual health education for over 19,000 young people each year.

The funding cuts come at what reproductive health advocates describe as a critical time. Although the national teen birth rate remains near a historic low, teen pregnancy rates in New York state and New York City rose between 2021 and 2023 — the first increase in two decades, according to the latest available state and city data. (A vast body of research has linked teen pregnancy and birth to difficulty completing high school, pursuing higher education, and getting well-paying jobs.)

Of 67 federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants nationwide, all but 14 have been terminated as HHS shifts its focus to abstinence-based initiatives.

Last week, members of New York’s congressional delegation sent a letter to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. urging him to reinstate funding to the three programs that lost it.

Braxton said Children’s Aid’s initiative relies on building trust with youth, and goes beyond pregnancy prevention to address positive body image, sexually transmitted infections, and healthy decision-making.

Now, Braxton said, “young people are losing those trusted relationships in an era of misinformation and mistrust.”

Children’s Aid is looking for more funding to make up for the loss of the $936,700 annual grant. If it can’t find it, the nonprofit will have to eliminate most of its programming, including many of its peer mentors and sex ed at the city’s Children’s Center, a temporary intake facility for children awaiting placement in foster care. (Youth in foster care experience higher rates of teen pregnancy and childbirth than their peers, research shows.)

In their letter to HHS, lawmakers wrote that Children’s Aid was the only organization providing sexual health education “to a highly vulnerable population that may be at increased risk of trafficking, sexual abuse, and unplanned teen pregnancy.”

HHS also canceled funding for NYC Teens Connection, a city program that partners with schools, foster care agencies, and juvenile justice programs to improve teens’ decision-making skills and connect them with local health clinics. Since 2010, the initiative has worked with over 400 organizations and served nearly 130,000 teenagers across the five boroughs.

It’s now set to lose $3.9 million in funding over the next two years, putting 15 staff members at risk of losing their jobs. New York City Health Department spokesperson Rachel Vick said in a statement that the initiative and others like it have helped contribute to a 79% decrease in teen pregnancies in New York City over the last three decades.

“Teenagers want truth and honesty from the adults in their lives, and programs that center the real-world experience of the young people they serve,” Vick said.

There were over 20,000 fewer teen pregnancies in New York City in 2023 than in 2000. But lawmakers and advocates say that post-pandemic increases in the city’s teen pregnancy rate underscore the need for comprehensive sex ed: Between 2022 and 2023, teen pregnancy rates increased across all boroughs other than Brooklyn. It’s unclear what exactly drove the trend, but the city’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior survey reflected an increase in the number of sexually active students not using contraception since 2021.

The cuts also eliminate $1.4 million annually for the HOPE Buffalo program, run by health care nonprofit Cicatelli Associates. The program helped drive a 36 percent decline in teen pregnancy rates across high-poverty Buffalo neighborhoods from 2015 to 2020, according to the group.

Cicatelli Associates did not respond to a request for comment.

Meredith Ouderkirk, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York, which partnered with Cicatelli to offer the program, said that because New York is run by Democrats, people may assume that everyone has access to comprehensive sex ed. But the state’s sex ed mandate is limited and gives school districts significant discretion, she said, making a child’s access to evidence-based sex education dependent on where they live.

The state Department of Health, which does not currently receive funding through the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program, said it may be able to fill gaps left by the federal cuts through its own initiatives that fund community-based projects.

Reproductive health organizations are less optimistic.

“If this changes the ability to reach even one young person and that results in an unintended pregnancy, that can be life-changing and devastating,” Ouderkirk said.

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.

Inside the NYC courtroom where detained children face deportation without attorneys

2026-07-31T17:42:30+00:00

This story was originally published on July 31 by The City Reporter. Sign up here to get the latest stories from The City Reporter delivered to you each morning.

Throughout the summer, inside a small, fluorescent-lit courtroom in Lower Manhattan, hundreds of migrant children, some as young as 3, faced deportation hearings. Most appeared virtually. Some sat around desks in a classroom, while others bounced on bunk beds or rocked in chairs inside small offices or storage closets.

Detained in nearby shelters for unaccompanied minors, the vast majority did not have lawyers as they appeared before the court.

Internal federal regulations have long barred deportation proceedings from moving ahead when children don’t have legal representation, and federal law requires the government to make every effort to fund those attorneys or facilitate pro bono counsel. But inside the courtroom of Judge Lisa W. Ling, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement prosecutor appointed to the court by President Trump in 2018, none of those safeguards seemed to matter.

Over a series of hearings observed by The City Reporter in July, Ling, dressed in a black robe, peppered unrepresented children with questions that could profoundly impact their cases: “Why did you come to the United States?” “Are you afraid of returning to your country?” “Were you able to go to school?” “When you left Guatemala, were you running away or afraid of anything?”

When Ling began to question Evan, a preteen boy from Guatemala with sideswept dark bangs, a child advocate tried to intervene. (Child advocates are assigned to particularly sensitive cases but aren’t lawyers. The City Reporter has withheld Evan’s full name and those of other children described.)

“Your honor, if I may, we understand the court’s wish to expedite proceedings,” said Nicole Guerrero of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. Evan, she pointed out, “is not represented and does not understand immigration law.”

“Without legal representation, he is denied a full and fair hearing,” Guerrero warned.

The judge pressed on, despite the admonition.

Ling oversees what’s known as the “detained juvenile docket,” where all children held in shelters overseen by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in New York City, Long Island and the Lower Hudson Valley must appear for their deportation proceedings. Of more than 300 cases involving detained children before her between late June and the end of July, just over a quarter of those had attorneys assigned to them, according to court records.

What’s happening in Ling’s courtroom is already playing out across the country — and is about to kick into overdrive. On Friday, the Trump administration will allow a $356 million-a-year contract for such legal services to expire, barring any last-minute agreements. As a result, some 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children facing deportation across the country, including 1,300 in New York, could lose access to federally funded legal services.

“It’s an all-out war on their due process rights,” said Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, the nonprofit that oversees the nationwide contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is responsible for the care of unaccompanied migrant children. From the federal contract, Acacia then subcontracts with dozens of legal service providers across the country, nine of which are based in New York.

“We’re going to see a lot of kids railroaded into taking voluntary departure, aka self-deport, even where their protection needs are acute and where they would be facing real danger to their lives in their countries of origin,” Aber said.

For decades, across Republican and Democratic administrations, the federal government funded legal service providers, in accordance with a 2008 law that required HHS to “ensure to the greatest extent practicable” that minors had legal representation in deportation proceedings.

But that funding came under attack last spring when the Trump administration attempted to cancel Acacia’s contract. A federal judge intervened, requiring the administration to continue the contract temporarily.

Then late last year, HHS started delaying payments and requested new information about the children Acacia represents. Advocates decried the request as a breach of attorney-client privilege, and the millions in stalled payments are the subject of another ongoing lawsuit. In legal filings, the government has argued its requests were an effort to better account for how federal funds were being spent.

The funding cliff comes at a perilous time for unaccompanied migrant children. They’re staying longer in federal shelters, as the Trump administration has found ways to slow-walk their release from detention, from where it is much more difficult to find legal support. At the same time, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which oversees the nation’s immigration courts, has sped up proceedings for unaccompanied children.

That haste was apparent inside Ling’s courtroom. Instead of adjourning cases for several months at a time, which attorneys said had been the norm, she scheduled children to return to court every two or three weeks.

An analysis of immigration court records by The City Reporter shows a spike in the number of deportation hearings for unaccompanied minors detained in New York this year, with 1,400 to date, already surpassing the total for 2025.

“They’re cutting off access to lawyers for these children, but they need lawyers now more than ever,” said Beth Baltimore, the deputy director of the Legal Services Center at The Door, one of nine New York nonprofits with an expiring federal contract. “It was never a system that a child could navigate alone, but now it’s so much more complex and so much more difficult.”

With the wholesale cessation of all federal funding for their legal representation, advocates warn that deportations of vulnerable children are all but certain to climb.

“The feeling that we’ve been getting in the community that there’s a bit of a like closing in and targeting of children in a way that we didn’t see under the first Trump administration,” Emily Norman, the regional director of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) who oversees its New York City office.

Asked about the end of the Acacia contract, an unnamed spokesperson for HHS said the agency had asked the group for additional data on the people it represents, which the nonprofits declined to provide.

“The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) works to ensure the safety, well-being, and appropriate care of all children in its custody,” a statement read. “ORR remains fully compliant with legal and regulatory obligations and does not act in any way that could dissuade a child from seeking appropriate legal relief.”

‘The court has given you plenty of time’

Apart from federally funded legal services, the Executive Office for Immigration Review has its own protections in place for unaccompanied children. Immigration judges are not supposed to “accept an admission of removability” from any child without an “attorney or legal representative, a near relative, legal guardian, or friend.”

That admission would happen at what’s called “pleadings,” an early step towards deportation in which the Justice Department lays out its case against a migrant, and an immigration judge determines whether or not the migrant could be deported. If pleadings can’t go ahead for an unaccompanied child without a lawyer, none of the other steps in the deportation process can happen, including a deportation order, Aber of Acacia Center for Justice explained.

“The regulations are very clear,” said Aber.

But child advocates and attorneys in New York say that practice changed several months ago, when Ling appeared to stop following the department’s internal guidance, moving ahead on the cases of detained children whether or not they had attorneys.

Kathryn Mattingly, a spokesperson for EOIR, said the agency does not comment on the decisions of individual judges and called immigration judges independent adjudicators who make their own decision on a case-by-case basis. Advocates, however, say that what’s happening in Ling’s courtroom is taking place in other courtrooms where unaccompanied children appear.

Aber said judges across the country started moving ahead in cases involving children with no lawyers this spring, as EOIR also started scheduling unaccompanied children on “mega master” dockets and decreasing the time kids had in between hearings.

Mattingly declined to comment on any policy shift related to unrepresented children more broadly.

During a recent hearing, an attorney with Catholic Charities named Tonya Putnam, acting as “friend of the court,” someone who assists proceedings but does not legally represent any client, repeatedly interjected, telling Judge Ling she was out of step with current EOIR regulations.

“Per regulations, the court should not take pleadings from an unrepresented child,” interjected Putnam, urging Ling to pause proceedings in the case of a Guatemalan teen named Ambrosio, who appeared virtually from a room lined with butterfly wallpaper and book shelves.

“The court properly took pleadings,” Ling replied, giving Ambrosio, who was in a shelter and doesn’t have a lawyer, three weeks to fill out an asylum application in English.

The same exchange repeated in the case of Nilmar, a boy with shaggy bangs wearing a beaded necklace, who looked around the age of 15.

“Per regulations, an unrepresented child should not have pleadings taken without counsel,” Putnam repeated.

Ling continued the proceeding anyway, asking Nilmar if he was afraid of returning to Guatemala, to which he responded “No.” Ling repeated the question several times, with Nilmar responding negatively each time.

“Why did you come to the United States?” Ling then asked.

“To have a better life,” the child responded, through a translator.

Nilmar’s admission to the court during pleadings meant one of the only outlets of relief available to him while detained, applying for asylum, would no longer be an option.

Putnam tried to interject, “Your honor, as a friend of the court, I’m not sure the child understands the implication of what he’s saying.”

Ling asked Nilmar if he understood what she was saying, to which he replied he had, and again asked if he would feel unsafe returning to Guatemala, to which he replied again that he wasn’t afraid.

“I don’t know if you can give me some extra time to fill out what I was given, the asylum,” Nilmar asked through the translator.

Ling said it didn’t appear he was eligible for asylum, and began to explain that she would grant him voluntary departure and he would have to leave the country by Nov. 19 or have to pay a fine of up to $5,000.

“Can you give me more time to find a lawyer?” he wondered.

“Unfortunately I can’t do this any further. This is the eighth time that we’ve adjourned your case,” Ling said. “The court has given you plenty of time to find a lawyer.”

Nilmar ran his fingers through his hair and fidgeted in his seat, then asked Ling what would happen in his case and if he would be released to his sponsor, an uncle. She replied the court had nothing to do with his potential release to an uncle.

“This court is granting you voluntary departure,” Ling replied. “I wish you all the best.”

Olivia Cassin, a former immigration judge who oversaw a non-detained juvenile docket at immigration court at 290 Broadway before she was fired last fall, said piecing together whether a child has a potential asylum claim can take time, as children may be the victims of trafficking or abuse.

“It’s just so wrong just to ask a kid generically, are you afraid of going back,” Cassin, who now serves as legal director for Immigrant Children Advocates Relief Effort, said. “Maybe they don’t understand what that really means. Maybe they don’t want to admit it in that context. Maybe they were abused by their own parents, and they don’t want to say it.”

Children with attorneys aren’t typically asked in immigration court if they’re afraid to return to their countries, because their lawyer would have already screened them to determine what type of immigration relief they might be eligible for including asylum, advocates said.

‘So why wasn’t it done?’

For the unrepresented children who told Judge Ling they were afraid to return to their countries, Ling set tight timelines of two or three weeks for them to fill out asylum applications in English, a difficult task for an adult in their native tongue, let alone a child who doesn’t speak the language.

On a recent morning, a 17-year-old from Guatemala named Xavi sat with his head resting on his hands as he listened to his deportation proceedings through a Spanish translator. He’d spent months trying to reunite with his brother in New York after crossing the border and being held in a youth shelter in The Bronx.

While there are fewer children in ORR shelters, down to just 1,700 nationwide, the time they’re spending in them has gone up dramatically to 194 days on average in June, up from just a 30 day average last fiscal year, according to government data.

Ling gave the boy three weeks to fill out an application for asylum in English, though Xavi had no lawyer.

Sarah Caspari, a child advocate assigned to the case, begged Judge Ling for more time given the lack of attorney and the fact that, “Xavi does not speak, read or write in English.”

“This case will be proceeding,” Ling replied.

In other cases, Ling scolded children who hadn’t finished their asylum applications on the deadline she’d given them, as she did with Abimal, also from Guatemala.

“I told you at the last hearing with or without a lawyer you had to submit the application,” Ling stated. “So why wasn’t it done?”

“I haven’t done it yet, I wanted to have a lawyer,” Abimal replied through a Spanish interpreter.

“With or without a lawyer you have to file it,” Ling warned. “I’m going to give you one more week.”

Haidee Chu contributed additional reporting.

Gwynne Hogan is a senior reporter at The City Reporter covering immigration, homelessness, and many things in between.

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.

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.

From the Bronx to the Battery, more funding for free swim lessons

2026-07-14T15:28:21+00:00

This story was originally published on July 14 by The City Reporter. Sign up here to get the latest stories from The City Reporter delivered to you each morning.

Thousands more public school students will receive free swim lessons next year under new City Council funding, part of a long-term effort to teach every second grader in New York City how to swim.

The Council has allocated $1.5 million to the nonprofit group Wave Makers, which was first launched more than two years ago with funding from the Gray Foundation.

With the additional funding, the program will expand from serving 6,000 to 9,000 public school second graders.

The initiative stemmed from legislation sponsored by Councilmembers Julie Menin, who is now the Council speaker, and Shekar Krishnan, who at the time chaired the Parks Committee.

“Swimming and water safety are life saving skills,” Krishnan, who represents parts of Queens, told The City Reporter. “We’re reading every summer about drownings at the beach, about our youth in the water who don’t know how to swim.”

Kids swim at Manhattan's Thomas Jefferson Pool on June 27.

Wave Makers teamed up with Asphalt Green, which operates public pools on the Upper East Side and Battery Park City, setting out to teach 2,000 kids how to swim. Within a year, the program had taught nearly 3,000 students and developed plans for expansion – with the total number of students now at 6,000.

Asphalt Green partnered with other organizations to provide lessons at 15 pools across the city.

The program’s long-term goal is to provide universal swim instruction for every second grader in New York City public schools. A Wave Makers report earlier this year said it could cost around $45 million a year to expand to the estimated 70,000 public school second graders.

“We can teach every one of our second graders to swim every year and over time that just becomes a standard part of becoming a New York City public school kid,” Jordan Brackett, Asphalt Green’s CEO, told The City Reporter. “You learn to read, write, do arithmetic — and also learn to swim.”

One obstacle to expanding swim instruction is the limited availability of pools across the city, though Brackett said creative scheduling and reopening underused facilities could increase capacity.

One public elementary school pool in East Harlem had sat unused since 2015 because of a crack. Asphalt Green paid for an architect to assess repairs, and it reopened in 2024. Some CUNY campus pools, including the Olympic-sized one at Lehman College in The Bronx — where the new funding will be announced Tuesday — were unused during parts of the school week.

Wave Makers now uses the pool for lessons.

Brackett said offering lessons during the school day is critical because it removes transportation and cost barriers for families.

The report found that 61% of participating students had a parent or caregiver who could not swim, suggesting school-based instruction can help break generational barriers to swimming.

Their research also found a “sweet spot” of the number of swim sessions that solidified water safety ability and skill — between 25 and 30.

“You haven’t just taught the kid a life skill that might help them save a life,” Brackett said.

“You’ve taught them a little grit and resilience as well.”

Katie Honan covers New York City Hall for The City Reporter and is co-host of the FAQ NYC podcast.

At Hunter College, students tackle garbage — and a new way of shaping policy

2026-07-09T20:42:16+00:00

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here.

If Hunter College manages to reduce the roughly one ton of trash it produces each day — as required by a state order directing all public entities to cut their waste — it will likely be thanks to a new, highly democratic decision-making body known as a citizens assembly.

Over two months, some three dozen Hunter undergraduates met weekly to research the topic, grill the college’s waste managers and outside experts, tour the campus trash trail, and ultimately come to consensus on seven actions aimed at sending less garbage to recycling and landfills.

The CUNY Climate Assembly Project at Hunter, or CCAP, is one of the first citizens assemblies in New York state. The approach involves selecting participants at random, ensuring their demographics accurately reflect the community, and giving their recommendations real weight in decision-making. Also known as civic assembly, popular assembly, lottocracy, or citizen jury, it has been used in Europe for decades and is gaining traction in the United States and around the world.

Some of the Hunter College climate assembly participants were drawn by the $750 stipend. Others had nothing planned for spring break, when the assembly began. And some seized the opportunity to collaborate with others and achieve a tangible good.

“I’ve been in a phase of climate nihilism,” said Luisa Pellettieri, a senior in sociology. “I’m trying to say yes to more things. I’m hoping to get hope back.”

Over the summer, the group will present its recommendations to Hunter College leadership, which promised to review and respond to them. While college leaders did not commit to more binding language, they have been involved and supportive of the effort.

Assembly organizer Forrest Sparks said the project connects people in new ways. “The group that comes together looks like the larger public of Hunter,” he said, addressing the crowd gathered in the West Building’s eighth-floor conference room on a rainy Friday in February, waiting for participants to be drawn from a lottery spinner. Over 23,000 students received an email invitation to opt in to the lottery; 570 accepted the invitation, and 42 were selected by lottery.

“It really expands who decides and who designs within our democracy,” Sparks said to the group. “In our current political system, unfortunately, we don’t have too many pathways to do that. But y’all are leading the way.”

A custodial supervisor leads delegates on a tour of waste management on the Hunter campus as a custodian walks through carrying bags of trash.

A democratic innovation

Central to any citizens assembly is the selection of participants by lottery. In a given city, an invitation might be mailed to as many as 10,000 to 20,000 people. Of those who respond, several dozen participants are usually chosen with tools that select for both randomness and demographic representativeness.

Running a successful assembly is labor-intensive. Organizers must secure funding, get buy-in from decision-makers who have the power to act on the assembly’s consensus, and recruit a qualified team to plan and lead the process over weeks or months. CCAP was funded by a Mellon Foundation grant to the CUNY Center for the Humanities and led by professional facilitators and trained graduate students.

But the payoffs can be significant. Proponents say citizens assemblies surface genuine public opinion and generate creative solutions that politicians — constrained by loyalties and conflicts — might never reach. They build trust in public policymaking, and participants often report feeling more engaged in democracy, sometimes for the first time.

Former New York City comptroller and council member Brad Lander called for a citizens assembly on housing while campaigning for mayor last year. “At a time of catastrophically low trust in our democracy, I believe citizens assemblies can help to renew it,” Lander, who is now a candidate for Congress, told New York Focus.

The model also forges unusual bonds: Because a citizen assembly’s “mini-public” mirrors the demographics of its community, participants collaborate with people unlike them politically and socioeconomically, and elected officials get policy options with democratic legitimacy already built in.

Local leaders

The Hunter College climate project isn’t the city’s only citizens assembly.

Last month, New York City residents over the age of 11 voted on local projects in a city-sponsored deliberative process called The People’s Money. The five boroughs have $4 million total to spend on priorities selected through borough-level citizens assemblies.

Now in its fourth cycle, The People’s Money unfolds in four phases: open idea submission, a citizens assembly in each borough to choose finalist ideas, a public vote, and then implementation. Projects have included swim lessons for children in NYCHA housing, food-growing and cooking programs, and housing education for older adults.

The program is run by the Civic Engagement Commission, which was created by a 2018 referendum to initiate a citywide participatory budgeting process (in addition to the participatory budgeting programs run by many City Council members in their own districts).

“People themselves do know what is best, and they can arrive at conclusions that work for the community and that are legislatively feasible,” said Benjamin Solotaire, senior adviser at the Civic Engagement Commission, who helped to integrate the assembly component into The People’s Money process. “It is really the lived experience that makes it feasible.”

New York and beyond

The climax of the Hunter College assembly’s campus “garbage tour” was a visit to the trash compactor on East 67th Street, where delegates watched as custodians on a high platform emptied trash from the entire campus into a massive metal container before it was carted away by the Sanitation Department. The goal was to see the problem up close.

Rozen Kapadia, a junior studying psychology, said her role on the assembly was already changing her mindset. “I do feel responsible,” she said. “I feel expected to bring about change.”

A staff custodial supervisor answers assembly members' questions outside the compactor on East 67th Street.

Over the two months that followed, the delegates worked to achieve it. They sought information from outside experts. They met every Friday to learn, deliberate and ideate. A public forum on May 15 included the broader campus community. In early June, the assembly developed and voted on nine recommendations, passing seven with a strong consensus. Those include expanding the compost program, barring on-campus vendors from distributing styrofoam and single-use plastics, and redesigning and relocating trash receptacles to encourage recycling.

The results will be discussed with the administration over the summer. Then nine students will serve as post-assembly fellows, working with campus leadership to implement the proposals.

“This was a great experience,” said Hunter junior Tariq Bradshaw after the vote. “I think I’ll always look back on this time, because I never thought I would do anything like this before. It was great being part of something bigger.”

It’s unclear whether supporting citizens assemblies is a priority for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration; neither the mayor nor his new Office of Mass Engagement answered questions about it. (OME’s first initiative is quite different: a campaign to recruit tenants to testify at upcoming rent stabilization hearings.)

Across the country, meanwhile, citizens assemblies are proliferating. This spring, Los Angeles used one as part of a city charter review, as did Lexington, Kentucky. Akron, Ohio, just conducted a citizens assembly on housing; Raleigh, North Carolina, held one focused on urban planning. Beginning in July, Connecticut will hold a statewide citizens assembly on property taxes.

Abroad, notable examples include the standing assemblies of Paris and East Belgium — whose recommendations have been adopted into law — and the 2016 Irish assembly that led the country to legalize abortion two years later.

Citizens assemblies are not infallible. French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, overpromised and underdelivered on implementing the French Citizens Convention on Climate six years ago.

Still, the model may prove well suited to society’s emerging problems. Two western communities have already launched assemblies on artificial intelligence: the Central Oregon Community Solutions Assembly on AI and the Snohomish County, Washington Civic Assembly.

If elected, Lander said, he’d love to do the same in New York. A citizens assembly could “transform an extractive, profit-driven model of artificial intelligence by using a democratic model for amplifying our collective intelligence,” he said.

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.

NYC is getting more money for childcare vouchers. Why does the waitlist keep growing?

2026-06-04T20:02:18+00:00

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The waitlist for New York City’s enormously popular childcare voucher program for low-income families has ballooned to 25,000 kids and isn’t likely to shrink, according to officials and experts — even as its budget keeps growing.

Officials from the city’s Administration of Children’s Services, which administers the state and federally funded Child Care Assistance Program, haven’t let any new families in since last May, citing financial limitations.

And city officials haven’t made any commitments to enrolling families on the waitlist this year. Yet, state funding for the city’s childcare vouchers grew from about $1.45 billion last year to $2 billion in the recently passed state budget. This year, $475 million of that state funding is only available if the city contributes a matching amount.

Advocates and experts say the city could be doing more to chip away at the waitlist, pointing out that city officials have left hundreds of millions of dollars in potential state funding for the voucher program on the table. They argue city officials are being overly cautious in their financial planning.

The stakes are high for thousands of city families and scores of childcare providers. For many parents of young kids, the voucher program, which gives families a weekly subsidy they can use at any licensed childcare program, is the most direct and flexible way of defraying the often unaffordable costs of childcare.

And for providers, particularly home-based childcare operators, the subsidies are a key tool for increasing enrollment and ensuring income to pay their staff and cover their bills.

Adding to some advocates’ concern is a curious detail in last week’s state budget. State officials quietly adopted language allowing the city to spend up to $100 million that was previously earmarked for childcare vouchers on any cost “in support of children,” according to budget documents. That could theoretically give the city license to spend that $100 million on any number of programs from after-school programs to K-12 education.

“The big takeaway for me is that the city does have resources available to it to be serving more families than it currently is with the waitlist,” said Pete Nabozny, policy director at The Children’s Agenda, a nonprofit childcare advocacy organization, of the new state budget.

Lauren Melodia, the director of economic and fiscal policy at the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs, estimated the city would have to spend about $500 million this coming fiscal year to clear half of the voucher waitlist.

Nicolette Simmonds, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said the governor has invested a “record amount” in childcare vouchers. State officials noted enrollment has tripled in New York City since 2022, but did not respond to a question about the rationale for the $100 million budget carveout.

The city plans to claim the remaining $245 million in state funds for the city’s voucher program by the deadline in September, said Sneha Choudhary, a spokesperson for Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Here’s what you need to know about the voucher program, its waitlist, and its budget situation.

What is the voucher program and why is it so popular?

The Child Care Assistance Program has been around for years, but exploded in popularity following the COVID pandemic, when Gov. Kathy Hochul significantly expanded both who was eligible for the program and the value of the voucher.

Families now qualify for a low-income childcare voucher if they make under 85% of the state median income, or about $114,000 a year for a family of four. The vouchers can be used at any licensed childcare facility for kids from birth to age 12, and pay out an average of about $300 a week.

The model differs from the city’s prekindergarten, 3-K, and 2-K programs, which directly contract with childcare providers. That system gives the city more oversight of programs, and can offer parents a fully free option in some cases. Some families, however, prefer the voucher model’s flexibility, because it allows parents to use any provider with open seats. Some of those providers operate outside the standard daytime hours available in the city’s programs.

The program’s model is “what people actually envision of universal child care: I have a kid, I need care for specific hours, and regardless of the kid’s age, I can go to any licensed program and get care,” said Melodia. “There is a real demand for universal child care that is flexible, that meets parent’s demands now.”

Since state officials expanded eligibility and funding, enrollment in the low-income vouchers program has shot up to roughly 70,000 from less than 9,000 in 2022.

Why is the program facing a budget crunch?

To understand the voucher program’s precarious finances, it helps to know that there are actually two separate voucher programs.

The low-income program with the growing waitlist is often referred to as “non-mandated” vouchers.

But there is a separate, “mandated” voucher program only open to families receiving federal cash assistance. City and state officials are obligated under federal rules to offer a childcare voucher to any family receiving cash assistance that requests one.

Enrollment in the city’s mandated voucher program has fluctuated wildly in recent years, making it difficult for the city to make firm financial predictions.

During the pandemic, officials relaxed work requirements for federal cash assistance, keeping more families home and reducing their need for child care. Enrollment in the mandated voucher program cratered. Last year, when officials reinstated work requirements, many expected mandated voucher enrollment to surge back to pre-pandemic levels. But that hasn’t yet happened: Enrollment only ticked up by about 3,000 from February 2025 to a year later, according to the most recent data.

Nabozny said the “big issue” preventing the city from beginning to enroll families from the low-income voucher waitlist is that they want to have enough funding available in case mandated voucher enrollment does surge, although some question whether that’s the best approach.

“It’s a problem, because they could be serving other families who are on a waitlist now,” Nabozny said.

How much money does the city have to give out more vouchers?

Last budget season, as officials were preparing for a boom in mandated voucher enrollment and one-time federal funding from the pandemic dried up, the state offered a stopgap solution to keep the voucher program solvent.

In order to prevent the city from having to kick families out of the program, the state offered an extra $350 million, but with a catch: The state would only pay out as much from that supplemental pot as the city put forward from its own coffers.

A year later, the city has only tapped $105 million of the $350 pot, city officials confirmed. City officials say they plan to claim the remaining $245 million by the September deadline.

But due to the late change to the state budget, the city has the option of using $100 million of those unclaimed state funds for an entirely different purpose. A Mamdani spokesperson said the administration “intends to claim all available funding for child voucher related expenditures,” but did not specify how the city was planning to use the newly available $100 million.

For the coming year, the supplemental pot from the state is even larger. The city can claim up to $475 million for vouchers from the state, provided it matches with its own funds.

But city officials are still being cautious about making any commitments on if and when they will begin enrolling from the waitlist. Officials noted that some families on the waitlist may have enrolled in other city-funded childcare programs like 3-K and Pre-K, but couldn’t provide exact numbers.

Brooklyn Council Member Lincoln Restler urged officials to adopt a stopgap solution of offering a slew of new temporary, one-year vouchers.

“We don’t make an in perpetuity commitment that this child is going to have a voucher until they’re 13,” he said at a budget hearing last week. “But we add child care capacity for the coming fiscal year with the resources we know we have today.”

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

Away game: NYC students who play sports for other schools

2026-05-21T10:00:00+00:00

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What if your high school doesn’t offer your favorite sport?

Today’s disparities in access to sports teams stem from a policy pushed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg to replace large high schools with smaller ones. These new schools, largely serving Black and Latino students, didn’t have the enrollment to field an array of teams — creating a systemic deficit that still disproportionately affects students of color.

As part of a 2022 settlement of a class action lawsuit arguing that the Public Schools Athletic League, or PSAL, and the Education Department were discriminating against Black and Latino students, the city created the PSAL All-Access Program. Through “Individual Access,” students who want to play a sport their school doesn’t offer can join a nearby school’s team. Roughly 1,500 students participated on teams through the program in the 2023-24 school year, Education Department officials previously said.

Still, just 38% of Black and Latino students went to a school with 20 or more teams, compared to 61% of students who are white, Asian American, multiracial, or belong to other groups, one sports equity advocate found.

P.S. Weekly producers Jasper Mallorca and Roberto Bailey discuss the landscape of high school sports access in New York City schools. Jasper interviews Noah Moore about what it’s like to be on another school’s team. Noah, a senior at Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design, played football for Stuyvesant High School. Jasper, also an Art and Design senior, ran cross country for a team based at Lab Collaborative and the Museum School.

Their experiences offer a window into the city’s patchwork sports-access fix — and its limitations.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell. It’s available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reach us at PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org. New episodes drop on Thursdays.

P.S. Weekly is made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Transcript

News Clip: There’s been so much drama going around the PSAL playoffs and student athlete eligibility

News Clip: Now again, PSAL, you’re underfunded, you’re understaffed. Maybe you don’t have the people who can do this.

David Garcia-Rosen: Then there’s 17,000 who have access to nothing at all, which doesn’t even account for the tens of thousands that maybe have one bowling team at their school, or have a basketball team, but nothing else.

David Garcia-Rosen: The historic class action lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education, alleging that they’re violating New York City’s very own human rights law by not providing Black and Latino students with equal access to the public school athletically.

News Clip: Let them play. Let them play. Let them play. Let them play.

Jasper: Sports are the heart of the city in New York. There aren’t many places where you can go to a random park and play basketball with a bunch of new people with the same intent: to win the game. But sports in New York City aren’t all about winning. In fact, most of the pro teams don’t win that often.

They’re more about a culture that reflects the hustle and community of the city, which is why some people might be surprised to learn that access to school sports here in the city is actually pretty limited. The nation’s largest school system was sued over systemically denying students access to sports.

The DOE has responded by agreeing to some changes to expand access. Today, we take a close look at one of those changes to see how it’s working out.

Jasper: This is PS Weekly, the sound of the New York City school system. I’m Jasper Mallorca, a senior at the High School of Art and Design.

Roberto: And I’m Roberto Bailey, a senior at Hunter College High School.

Jasper: Roberto, do you like sports?

Roberto: Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m definitely a casual fan, but still a fan.

Jasper: Oh, what would you say is, like, your favorite?

Roberto: Oh, that’s hard. I really like to watch college basketball. I watch it with my dad, especially, like, during March Madness. He went to UVA, so he’s, like, super into it. So I would say basketball is probably my favorite.

Jasper: Basketball is, out of all the sports, it’s like an art form. It’s like the dribbling, it allows you to improvise in the same way like if you’re playing jazz music or if you’re, like, sketching in your notebook or something.

But definitely, like, my favorite sport to play is cross country, because I’ve been running on all my school teams since the third grade.

Roberto: So you’re on your high school team now?

Jasper: I’m actually not. Like, I go to an art school, so there isn’t that strong of a sports culture. Not a lot of people would want to join, and there’s not enough staff that would do it.

So I actually can’t really run my school, unfortunately.

Roberto: If your school did have a team, would you want to be on it?

Jasper: 100%, ‘cause it’s like, I already love my school, so I want, I wanna have that personal bias on my back, and I feel like I’d be playing with a lot more heart thinking about my school, like all my friends, and just that community while I’m playing.

I think it would be more inspiring.

Roberto: So, what did you end up doing? Like, did you have to just give up running completely?

Jasper: I mean, I actually didn’t have to give up running, ‘cause the PSAL All Access Program came in clutch, so...

Roberto: I’ve never heard about that before. So what’s the All Access Program?

Jasper: Well, it’s kinda within the PSAL, and the PSAL stands for Public School Athletic League.

It was made, like, a really long time ago, in like 1903. It’s basically the main sports league for all the public schools in New York City. 400 schools are in it, and 45,000 students play across 25 varsity sports. But the All Access Program was made because, despite its size, many New York City public schools still don’t offer enough sports, and looking at what schools don’t have access to revealed deeper inequity issues.

Chalkbeat reported that in 2024, just 38% of Black and Hispanic students go to a school with 20 or more teams, compared to 61% of students who are white, Asian, multiracial, or belong to other groups.

Roberto: So, how did this program get created?

Jasper: Well, in 2018, there was a class action lawsuit that argued the DOE and PSAL were discriminating against Black and Latino students by not giving them the same access to sports.

The suit highlighted that access to sports is essential for helping students maintain mental and physical health, and necessary for access to community building, teamwork skills, and college opportunities. So it wasn’t fair that Black and Latino students couldn’t have access to a diversity of athletic opportunities.

In 2022, the lawsuit was settled, and that’s what created the All Access Program, which lets students join sports teams at other schools if their own didn’t offer what they wanted to play.

Roberto: And how exactly does it work?

Jasper: So, like, in my case, like, my school didn’t offer cross country, so in the PSAL All Access Program, there’s, like, four different types of programs.

But the one, like, a lot of people could use to join teams around them is the Individual Access Program, where you could basically join another school and try out there, like, where it geographically works. So for me, I ran as a Gator at the Lab Museum School.

Roberto: Do a lot of kids end up, like, having to do this?

Jasper: According to the DOE, about 1,500 students participated in the Individual Access Program for 2023 to ’24 school year. But in my experience, this program isn’t advertised a lot, so a lot of students who could have benefited from the program didn’t actually really know about it.

Roberto: Yeah. And I feel like beyond that, it must just be weird in general, like, for these students showing up at a school where you don’t really know anyone and kind of just being like, “Hey, I’m on your team now.”

Like, what is that like?

Jasper: Yeah, it’s, it’s definitely, like, pretty awkward ‘cause it’s like they see you show up and, you know, you don’t go to the same school. So beyond knowing them as, like, a teammate, you’re learning about them basically as if you’re going to a new school where everyone already knows each other.

Roberto: Yeah. So are you the only kind of student at your school who’s been dealing with this, like, trying to balance the art side of things and the sports side of things?

Jasper: Definitely not. Actually, I think there’s someone I know we could talk to. A friend of mine, Noah Moore, is a fellow senior at Art and Design. He plays basketball and volleyball on our school team, but thanks to the PSAL All-Access Individual program and the fact that our school doesn’t have a football team, Noah travels from our school at East 56th Street all the way down to Tribeca to play on another school’s team.

Jasper: So you said you, like, played football at, like, another school, right?

Noah: Yeah. I played at Stuyvesant.

Jasper: Mm-hmm. What made you, like, wanna play football?

Noah: So at our school, I’ve been on, like, the basketball team and the volleyball team, but this year I also decided to play football at Stuyvesant. But that all came because last year, one of the players on the basketball team at our school, he’s not a basketball player.

He’s more of a football player, and he, I guess he inquired about playing football because our school doesn’t have a football team. But certain schools are, like, allowed to accept other students from other schools to play sports at their school if your school doesn’t have it. ‘Cause I feel like you did the same thing, no?

Jasper: Yeah, I did with cross country.

Noah: Right. So he wanted to play football, so they referred him to Stuyvesant, and he was telling me last year, he said his team needed receivers, and I was like, because I also tried volleyball that year, I was just like, “Ah, what the heck. I’m in the mood of trying things, so why not?”

Jasper: Did you decide Stuyvesant, or was it, like, a-

Noah: No, I don’t get to dec- y- I don’t think you get to decide the school that you... I mean, for me, it was because I was following the kid who comes to our school, he, who wanted to play football. I don’t know if he got to choose which school he, um, wanted to go to. But did you get to choose for cross country, or did they just put you in a school?

Jasper: Nah, they just, they put me there. I wanted to, like, run cross country, ‘cause that’s what I’ve been doing forever.

Noah: Oh, really?

Jasper: Yeah, like, since, like, second grade or whatever.

Noah: Oh, shoot. I didn’t even know that.

Jasper: Yeah, and I don’t know. That’s another thing, bro. Art and Design, like, somehow doesn’t have a running team, so–

Noah: Running’s very easy to do. You really just put one foot in front of the other quickly, but-

Jasper: That’s why I was surprised, though. I thought they would have, like, some sort of thing.

Noah: But at the same time, I think you need to have, like, a certain number of people on your roster, and I think if you can’t get that many people to sign up, then you can’t have a team.

‘Cause for our girls’ basketball team, I think every year since freshman year, I feel like I’ve seen less and less people come to tryouts. So then it’s like, you don’t have much of a team, and if one person’s missing, then you have to forfeit a game. So I think the fact that we don’t have that many people trying out is also a, a little bit of an issue.

Jasper: Mm-hmm.

Jasper: How, what was, like, the difference? Like, was the, was the tryouts really busy in Stuyvesant? Like, could you tell they were taking it serious?

Noah: Oh, for sure, but that’s also because you have so many people coming from so many different schools. ‘Cause it was only me and Jared coming from Art and Design, but you had people from Murry Bergtraum, Graphics, all these other schools, from, like, basically any school, like, from 56th Street, I think, and below, that didn’t have a football team. If you wanted to play football, I think they would refer you to Stuyvesant. And so we had a large number of people all trying to play for this football team, but there’s only but so many positions, so everything is, like, a battle, ‘cause you know you have, like, four or five other people who want your spot.

You know, it’s like an iron sharpens iron kind of situation, so you’re forced to get better whether you like it or not.

Jasper: What was your commute like?

Noah: Well, for me and Jared, they would expect us to get there a little late because we’re coming from an art school. And then once... And practice, depending on how well it goes, could go from, like, 3:00 to 5:00. But also, Pier 40 is a public field, so oftentimes we’d get kicked off by, like, a soccer program that has, like, the permit for the field.

But if they didn’t come, practice would r- run longer than it was supposed to. So then I’m not finishing practice till, like, 6:30. Then I have to hop back on the train to go home with, like, my football equipment in one hand, a heavy behind book bag.

Jasper: Do you ever have, like, to deal with, like, mentality shifts? ‘Cause I know, like, you know, we’re all familiar in art and design, like, you have all your friends and you have, like, an attachment to it. But, like, how’d it feel having to, like, kinda go from that to, like, a whole nother, like, environment and another school? Did you ever, like, go around there kinda missing art and design in a way? Like-

Noah: For sure, ‘cause I went... Like, when I would go to practice, like, the culture, not even, like, winning culture or anything, just, like, especially at a school like Stuyvesant, it’s a very different demographic. So oftentimes, like, I’d be at practice, and I’m sitting there, like, twiddling my thumbs, ‘cause I’m also not too, too much of a social person, so I’m not gonna go out of my way to, like, go make a bunch of new friends there.

But especially because people are coming from different schools and they’re kind of coming together, people surround themselves with the people from their school. But it’s only me and one other person. So if he’s out on the field practicing and I’m, like, sitting there ‘cause it’s not, like, a formation that I’m in, then I’m just sitting there, like, waiting, and I’m just killing time.

So I’m like, “Dang, I wish, like, I actually had people that I knew here that I could talk to,” ‘cause, you know, makes the time go by faster.

Jasper: Going to, like, the new school, do you remember, like, the first day where you got there, you’re like, “I don’t know any of these people”? And, like, what did your mind ... Like, what did you wanna do about it, kinda?

Noah: I remember the first day I walked in with Jared and his friend, I guess, who I assume invited him to the team maybe. I said what’s up to him, and then I met the coaches. I said hi, and then I threw my cleats on, and we started running practice. And so when I ran my first route, I’m running at 100% effort, and I’m a fast person, so my coaches started to, to realize that too.

But after a while, you start to meet a couple people, and you’re like, “Oh,” like, “I’m friends with these people. I’m fr- I’m not friends with these people.” And you find your s- place after a while. They definitely surround themselves with each other. So if you’re an outsider coming in, unless you’re doing something incredible for their team, nine times out of 10 you just fly under the radar.

Jasper: I think that’s another ... Like, people forget. Like, they think it’s kinda easy to, like, go to a new school, like, for the PSAL thing. But, like-

Noah: How was it for you?

Jasper: Low-key it was- it wasn’t terrible, but I feel like people kind of forget the whole social aspect of, like, having to go to all these people, like, unfamiliar. You know what I’m trying to say?

Noah: Yeah.

Jasper: ‘Cause I remember, like, I got there, me and Emilio were actually on the same team.

Noah: Yeah.

Jasper: But, like, when Emilio got injured, I was like, “What am I doing here?” So I had to, like, kinda ... I know I slowly kinda made some friends, but, like, it’s not the same as, like, being in Art and Design, you know what I mean?

Noah: Literally the other day they had a banquet for the Stuyvesant team, the football team. And, like, they ... I would’ve ... If I went, I w- there was free food. I think they, they were giving out awards and all this other stuff. But at the same time, I had a birthday party that I promised I was going to, like, months before they even invited me.

But then at the same time, it was like, I’m not exactly upset that I missed it, ‘cause at the same time, I don’t talk to half those people. So if I showed up, I would’ve been catching up with people. But they were, like, cool for when I... And there was def- there’s definitely close friends I’ve made, but for the most part, most of them, it’s just like we were teammates, and I respected you as a teammate, but I know deep down I’m, I’m not your friend, which is okay, ‘cause f- I don’t have to be everybody’s friend.

But going to a new school, you definitely get that feeling of being an outsider is a struggle in itself.

Jasper: How important do you think, like, being on a sports team... ‘Cause at least for me, like, I have fun doing my sport, but, like, that, I also wanna, like, have fun with the, the team. Like- Yeah ... how important do you think it is to, like, be able to go to practice and be, like, smiling to see everyone? You know what I mean? ‘Cause don’t you think that makes the sport more fun, too?

Noah: It definitely makes the sport more fun, and especially if you’re, if everybody’s having fun, it unites people, so then you start building those bonds, ‘cause you’re sitting there smiling, you’re laughing with other people, you’re joking with other people, and you really start to form a bond between teammates.

‘Cause once the fun aspect is gone, you really don’t wanna be there anymore, and so then you stop trying, ‘cause you’re just like, “I wanna get through practice to go home.”

Jasper: Are there other sports you would’ve wanted to play if you knew you could play at another school?

Noah: I always wanted to, like, explore track, and I just never did it, ‘cause I didn’t know that was a thing that we could...I didn’t know we could play sports at another school. I mean, they’ll make an announcement every now and again, but it’s not, like, pushed for you to be like- They don’t, yeah ... oh, go play at a different school. So-

Jasper: You have to, like, figure it out on your own.

Noah: Yeah. So there’s def- there’s a small number of people who will, like...Like, I know there’s a person who does swimming at another school. You guys do cross country. I did football. I don’t know what other sports people play at different schools, but they definitely don’t push it. So track would probably be one of the ones that I would’ve done that I never got the, uh, opportunity to, because I never knew about it.

Jasper: Yeah, definitely.

Noah: What about you?

Jasper: Let me think. Um, low-key, like, I mean, the only other sports I would, would’ve wanted to play, they already offer, so. Oh, like basketball? Yeah, but like, I’m not making that You could’ve. Yeah. Like, I should’ve. I, for, low-key, I regret not trying out this year, ‘cause this is my prime, but whatever. That’s a whole other thing.

So you know how, like, when we’re doing the high school process, we didn’t really think about a lot of the things we... You know, you probably like thought like, “Oh, I kinda wanna do some art,” but, like, do you have, like, any regrets at all? Because I know, like, Art and Design’s not s- centered towards sports, and you’re like a s- more of a sports-centered person.

So, like, do you think you have a regret about Art and Design?

Noah: I remember there was two moments where I thought, like, oh, I should’ve gone somewhere else. Number one being when we played Philip Randolph and they told me, “Leave the school.” Then I was like, huh, what would’ve happened had I not chosen to go to an art school?

I think had I gone to, like, an actual sports-related school, I probably would’ve gotten a lot better ‘cause you’re surrounded by different coaches or competition that’s gonna teach you, like, you’re gonna grow. Stuyvesant, I’ve made graphics for them, and they’ll post them on their official page. So I’m not upset at the fact that I came to art school ‘cause I definitely appreciate all the artistic opportunities we’ve been given.

But I know if I went to another school, I probably would’ve been a better athlete, but you know, maybe that’s just not my journey. That’s what my dad always likes to say. Everybody’s journeys is, uh, journey is different, so maybe this is just the way mine was supposed to go.

Jasper: All right. Lowkey, I, I love how that ended.

Noah: Thank you for inviting me. This was cool.

Jasper: Thank you, Noah Moore, for joining us today.

Noah: Of course. Anytime.

Jasper: Noah went to great lengths to play a sport, and I totally get it. I mean, I love cross country, and I just wanted to have another opportunity to play it, so having the PSAL Access Program to play, even though it was pretty hard, just like Noah said, like, meeting new people, kinda competing for the same spots as them, and how it felt like you’re kinda going to a new school where everyone knows each other, it was definitely hard, but it was definitely worth it just ‘cause I got to play the sport I loved.

Roberto: Yeah, I mean, I guess I didn’t realize just how big of an issue this is. I’ve always kind of thought of sports as something schools might automatically have, and I think especially because my school, Hunter, does have over 30 teams and very, like, active recruitment from coaches to get people to play. Most of the people I’ve talked to haven’t heard about this inequity or heard about the All-Access Program at all.

Jasper: Yeah. More people should definitely know about this. Like, there’s a lot of people, like, in a lot of schools, including mine, like, that I know that were just, like, so into a sport, and there was literally no posters, nothing about, like, the PSAL All-Access Program, so a lot of these people couldn’t even try it.

So, and especially ‘cause, like, in high school, you wanna, like, explore new things. Like, you’re young, you’re still trying to learn about yourself and do new things. So for me, like, and other people at my school, like, who wanna be both artists and athletes, this, like, kinda gives an outlet, and even beyond just people at our school.

Like, this gives an outlet to people who’ve had maybe a long day in academics, and they can just go and play their favorite sport.

Roberto: Yeah, and beyond just you and Noah, it’s kind of about this larger equity issue, right?

Jasper: Yeah, it’s, it’s definitely not just about, like, how much sports you have or anything, ‘cause the PSAL All-Access Program is about allowing people to follow their dreams or simply even just having the access to trying new things.

Like, race and zip code shouldn’t mean someone who wants to make the NBA can’t even have that shot.

Roberto: The PSAL did not respond to our request for comment.

Jasper: That’s all for today on P.S. Weekly.

Roberto: P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between The Bell and Chalkbeat, made possible by generous support from the Pinkerton Foundation.

Jasper: Producers for this episode were me, Jasper Mallorca.

Roberto: And me, Roberto Bailey.

Jasper: Our senior producer for the show is Maria Robins-Somerville, and our technical director is Jake Lummus.

Roberto: Executive editors are Amy Zimmer and Taylor McGraw. Additional production and reporting support was provided by Mira Gordon, Sabrina DuQuesnay, Zana Halili, and Katelyn Melville, and our friends at Chalkbeat.

Roberto: Music is from APM, and the jingle you just heard at the beginning of the episode was created by the one and only Erica Huang.

Thanks so much for tuning in, and see you next time.

We make transcripts available for our episodes as soon as possible. They are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.

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.

He didn’t think he’d see past 16. Now he’s saving lives with a beat.

2026-05-11T20:45:08+00:00

This story originally appeared on May 5 in the NYCity News Service, run by the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

JC Hall was not supposed to make it.

Growing up on Long Island, drowning in addiction, alcoholism, and major depression, Hall had plans “not to see 16.” He also resisted the one thing that might have helped. “I was very anti-therapy,” he said. “I just saw it as something for weak people, and I wasn’t going to ask for help.”

But hip-hop kept him alive long enough to see 38.

He found solace listening to artists like DMX, Tupac, Biggie, and Eminem talk about the kinds of pain he didn’t hear anywhere else. Hearing those artists confront desperation and survival so honestly gave him something to hold onto.

Hall’s healing began when he started creating his own raps at age 15. “There was something about taking all of the madness swirling around in my head and finding a way to put it to a beat—writing raps in rhythm and laying that chaos out in front of me on a page,” he said.

Decades later, Hall now runs a hip-hop therapy studio program at Mott Haven Community High School in the South Bronx. About 30 students participate each year, with eight to 12 students in the studio at a time. The moniker conjures up a vision of therapy with a playlist and a couch. But neither factor into the sessions.

In Hall’s program, hip-hop and traditional therapy are fully intertwined. Students participate in group as well as individual counseling. Technical coaching on breath control for rapping doubles as training in nervous system regulation. Learning to breathe deeply from the diaphragm not only improves vocal performance but also helps calm the body, sharpen focus, and manage anger or panic. The craft of writing strong verses that are specific, sensory, and present in a scene, naturally cultivates mindfulness.

Hall was taught the principles of using rap as therapy from his late mentor, Fordham University professor Edgar Tyson who coined the term “Hip Hop Therapy.” Tyson served as Hall’s advisor at the school’s graduate program in social work.

Hall arrived at Mott Haven Community High School as an intern in 2013 during the school’s initial year. In addition to his casework, he ran an informal after-school group. Upon graduation and licensing later that year, he was hired full-time and given the funding to build a professional studio and develop the full clinical program. While other schools incorporate hip-hop into school programming and therapy, it is mostly piecemeal. Hall’s program is the first in New York City to fully integrate a purpose-built professional studio with a therapeutic practice.

Hip Hop Therapy offers a cultural framework that many of his students already live inside.

“Conventional therapy reflects this Western, Eurocentric, very culturally incompetent thing,” Hall said. “Hip Hop Therapy is a contemporary approach to mental health treatment,” he said, one that taps into hip-hop’s roots in the African diaspora.

Hall said that doing this work in the South Bronx, “the birthplace of hip-hop,” represents a kind of poetic justice.

Hall traces some of his struggles to spending his 13th summer in a body cast. The devastating accident resulted from an ill-timed leap from a tree into a swimming pool, where his body hit only half his mark. Hall recovered in the hospital after breaking his femur in half, and found relief in the soothing flow of a morphine drip and pain pills. That first taste of relief doubled as escape. It took him the next year to learn to walk again.

Hall struggled with both internal and external demons. He leaned toward self-destructive behavior as a child, even before the accident, describing himself as a thrill seeker as far as he can recall. “I definitely showed tendencies towards these predispositions long before that, though, and there is certainly family history,” he said. “So both nature and nurture for sure.”

He said people in recovery describe a sense of searching that predates substance use—“I always felt like I was trying to fill a void within, as far back as I can remember.”

Hall’s teenage recovery process required medication, 12-step programs, psychiatric care, and a family with the resources to access all of it. “Hip-hop kept me afloat, right? But it alone was not enough,” Hall said. “It was really like a whole slew of things that, if even just one of them wasn’t there, I don’t see why I would be here today.”

And he describes himself as still in recovery. “It’s a process as opposed to an endpoint; in recovery rather than recovered.”

Mott Haven, a transfer high school, draws students who have already failed somewhere else or believe they have failed themselves. “In the community I’m in, it seems like there’s generally not much interest in these kids or what they have to offer,” said Hall.

Kryst Jackson, 19, said that Mott Haven and Hall’s studio opened another world.

“I got kicked out of my other school, you know, through the street stuff,” he said. “So I came here as, like, a second opportunity.” Even that felt fragile at first. “I ain’t gonna lie, I thought it was too good to be true, ’cause I never seen no school like that,” Jackson said. “JC, he helped me pursue that path. He just helped me get a voice for myself in terms of music.”

Victor Ferreira, 18, arrived with a similar story. At his previous school, he said he skipped classes, failed every subject, and stopped showing up altogether for six months. He walked into Hall’s program in September 2024, expecting, in his own words, “a whole bunch of bullshit.” He found something different. Hall’s studio has a rule: no lyrics glorifying gang violence. Ferreira had assumed that was simply what rap was, and the constraint opened a door. “Now you’ve got people thinking about becoming more lyrical with their songs — the stuff that people are really thinking about, like, deeply — that’s what comes out into the songs now,” Ferreira said.

Hall’s work is gaining attention for its innovation and success. In 2024, Hall won the David Prize, a $200,000 no-strings award for innovative solutions to New York City problems. In Mott Haven, where median household income hovers around $34,000, only 78% of students graduate from high school compared with a 99% graduation rate and roughly $157,000 median income on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Compared with their classmates, students in Hall’s program graduate at a significantly higher rate than students who don’t participate. Ferriera and Jackson made it across that stage last year.

Hall’s philosophy, lived and practiced, comes down to this: “The beautiful thing about hip-hop is you can still maintain strength through your vulnerability,” he said. “The artists with the greatest longevity are the ones who are the most vulnerable on the microphone.”

Mamdani to veto school protest ‘buffer zone’ bill

2026-04-24T21:08:10+00:00

This story was originally published on April 24 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani will veto a controversial bill approved by the City Council last month instructing the police department to establish anti-protest “buffer zones” around schools and educational institutions, his office announced Friday.

A related bill calling for security perimeters around houses of worship passed by a veto-proof majority.

In a statement, the mayor said he had reviewed both bills but found the one for education institutions “meaningfully different.”

“The problem is how widely this bill defines an educational institution and the constitutional concerns it raises regarding New Yorkers’ fundamental right to protest,” he said in the statement. “As the bill is written, everywhere from universities to museums to teaching hospitals could face restrictions.”

Mamdani’s statement echoed the concerns of labor groups and other allies who said many buildings could technically be considered an educational facility, further limiting protests.

Speaker Julie Menin, a moderate Democrat, pushed for both bills, saying they were needed to combat rising antisemitism. She and her allies have said the so-called “buffer zone” proposals are meant to provide greater accountability in the NYPD’s protest protocols, and won’t infringe on free speech rights.

In a statement Friday, Menin said the purpose of the bill was safety.

“Ensuring students can enter and exit their schools without fear of harassment or intimidation should not be controversial,” she said. “This bill simply requires the NYPD to clearly outline how it will ensure safe access when there are threats of obstruction or physical injury, while fully protecting First Amendment rights.”

The veto is the latest confrontation between Mamdani and the Council, with the most recent being over the city’s contentious budget negotiations.

The Council can attempt to override Mamdani’s veto in a new vote, or let it stand.

United Auto Workers Region 9A, which fiercely opposed the bill, sent a message to its members Friday morning taking credit for the veto and said it would begin whipping Council members to make sure any re-vote fails. The union represents thousands of educators and researchers at Columbia University and New York University.

Menin, the memo read, “is potentially going to attempt to override the veto by flipping multiple council votes.”

“We will begin a whipping strategy with Council members in the next week but for now, the most important thing is an overwhelming display of public support for this veto.”

The religious sites bill passed 44 to 5, a veto-proof majority, but the schools buffer-zone bill passed by a 30 to 19 margin.

Despite the overwhelming Council majority that supported the bill affecting places of worship, Mamdani, speaking in a social media video, portrayed his decision not to veto it as a matter of principle, adding that he nevertheless disagreed with “its framing of all protests as a security concern.”

In recent weeks, labor and community groups closely aligned with Mamdani have urged him to veto the bill, known as Intro 175, saying that it threatens free speech and worker rights. Legal groups including the New York Civil Liberties Union also strongly opposed the measure.

Menin’s bills came as an answer to the widely-criticized police response to protesters who picketed the Park East Synagogue, which had rented space to an organization that helps Jews move to Israel and to settlements on the occupied West Bank, as well as the 2024 pro-Palestine encampments on college campuses.

A consortium of prominent Jewish organizations including the UJA-Federation of New York rebuked Mamdani on Friday, calling the planned veto “a profound failure of City Hall to demonstrate to all New Yorkers that our safety is a priority.”

On April 17, a representative of Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su met with leaders of more than a dozen unions and the New York City Central Labor Council who pushed for a veto.

NYC moves to ease health department background checks for child care expansion

2026-04-24T20:36:38+00:00

This article was initially published by Healthbeat on April 24. Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free New York City newsletter here.

As New York City moves to offer 2,000 free child care seats by September, it falls to the health department to clear background checks for new providers. Concerned by a history of backlogs, the City Council this week held an oversight hearing and heard two proposals seeking to improve the process.

“If our city’s goal is universal child care, then we must ensure that the administration of that care, including the background check process, is as streamlined as possible, and that new facilities and employees don’t get held up in red tape,” City Council Health Committee Chair Lynn Schulman said at the Wednesday meeting.

“We must also ensure the relevant city agencies have the necessary bandwidth to complete these background checks and screenings in a timely manner. Unfortunately, it appears that DOHMH has struggled to keep up since the implementation of these comprehensive background checks,” she said of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s work to comply with federal requirements updated in 2019.

Expanding child care is among Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s priorities, and the city is in the process of issuing contracts to private child care providers who will get city funding to offer the initial 2,000 seats for 2-year-olds this fall.

Officials are rolling out the program in five school districts, covering areas in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Extensive background checks of the providers applying for licenses are required by law. Once a facility is open, the health department conducts unannounced inspections to promote compliance with health and safety mandates. Inspection results are posted on the health department’s website.

The permitting and inspections of the child care facilities are perhaps among of the lesser-known duties of the health department.

NYC’s new 2-K program will offer free child care 10 hours a day, 260 days a year, Mamdani says

New York City Council Majority Leader Shaun Abreu proposed a bill Wednesday to no longer require the health department to mandate a background check for a prospective child care provider, employee, or volunteer if they have already had one in the past five years and have been employed by a child care provider for more than 180 consecutive days.

A second bill, proposed by Council Member Tiffany Cabán, would require the health department to sooner notify parents and others of child care centers that close because of health hazards. The proposal would also require the health department to post a summary of child care service inspection reports no later than 24 hours after an inspection.

The first bill stems from general concerns that the health department has struggled to process background checks in a timely fashion, with some background checks taking up to a year to be processed.

In 2019, when new federal requirements were implemented statewide, a backlog of background checks stretched into the tens of thousands, according to a committee report submitted with the bill. Some applicants looked for jobs elsewhere as the process lagged, taking an average of 36 days.

The bill highlighted a day care center in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as an example. The facility could have served up to 170 children but closed its doors in August 2023 because of the lack of approved staff. It was waiting for staff clearance that had been submitted nearly five months earlier. Families with children enrolled in the program were left without child care for two months, while the provider lost over $250,000. Advocates said that such delays were not uncommon.

The health department created an online portal in May 2023 to improve background check processing. The agency testified in October 2023 that it had cleared some 5,000 backlogged applications since the portal was launched and whittled the number of applications to 140.

“Background checks are a critical safety requirement in most jobs, especially when it comes to safeguarding young children,” Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez, chair of the subcommittee on early childhood education, said Wednesday in prepared remarks. “Yet the current process has felt burdensome rather than an important step in safety. State, federal, and city requirements are layered on top of one another in ways that are not always well coordinated.”

Emmy Liss, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Child Care, said the city was planning to work first with existing child care providers as part of the expansion; they already have a license and staffing.

“We anticipate there will be some new hiring to support 2-K and 3-K as there always is in the lead-up to the first day of school, but we do not expect a huge rush,” Liss said. “We are continuing to monitor what the staffing patterns will look like with our partners at New York City public schools and with the health department to make sure that we are prepared.”

Liss added: “As we prepare for the fall of 2027, when we will be bringing many more 2-K seats online, we’ll be planning ahead with the Department of Health and New York City public schools to ensure that there is sufficient staff capacity for onboarding those providers.”

Corinne Schiff, deputy commissioner for environmental health at the health department, said the agency has hired 60 people in recent years who work solely on background clearances.

Other improvements include an online portal for providers, new access to a Department of Education fingerprint system, and a policy change allowing staff to move between child care centers within a 5-year renewal period without a full new background check, as long as they notify the health department.

The current median processing time is about 30 days, Schiff said, with several hundred applications exceeding the 45-day mark, the deadline as required under federal law.

“Do you have plans in terms of lowering those?” Schulman said. “Five hundred is a lot.”

Schiff said the department was “continuing to make upgrades to the to the portal.” She pushed back on “backlog” characterization, noting that some background checks require working with agencies out of state.

Trenton Daniel is a reporter covering public health in New York for Healthbeat. Contact Trenton at tdaniel@healthbeat.org or on the messaging app Signal at trentondaniel.88.

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.

Colorado legislation would require schools to share their plans for at-risk students

2026-04-02T00:31:47+00:00

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How do Colorado schools plan to help students who face the most challenges succeed?

A bill progressing in the Colorado Capitol would require each school to answer that question by adopting a plan and then posting it online for its community to see.

Sponsors of Senate Bill 103 say their bill wouldn’t necessarily put more demands on schools to help at-risk students, such as those who qualify for free or subsidized meals. Instead, it would make the ways that schools are helping such students more transparent for the public.

The Senate Education Committee advanced the bill with a 4-3 vote on Wednesday after a mid-March hearing. The proposal will now head to the full Senate for consideration.

Denver North High School student Matthew Pulido, who represented the Denver advocacy group Movimiento Poder during the March 18 hearing of the bill, said every student deserves a good education and the bill creates accountability and transparency.

“All we want is for Colorado districts to be intentional about where attention and support go,” Pulido said. “It’s about giving every student a fair chance.”

Under the bill, schools would need to have an Achieving Community Commitment to Equitable School Success, or ACCESS, policy that says how the school directs additional resources to at-risk students. The school would then post the policy on its own or district’s website.

The bill says schools may include community partnerships — such as access to health clinics, legal services, or college opportunities — in their plans. School leaders would also be allowed to include the wraparound support they provide, such as tutoring, mental health, or after-school programs. And the policy would also allow schools to highlight teacher retention efforts and family engagement strategies.

State Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat and a bill sponsor, said Colorado has directed more money to schools for at-risk students through the state’s funding formula. And most schools he’s talked to already have plans for at-risk students, he said.

“The bill gives them flexibility to promote these things,” Kolker said. “And it says ‘tell us,’ because we’re giving you extra money for this.”

Kolker said he expects further bill amendments because school districts and boards have said this bill replicates the improvement plans that districts must submit each year to the state education department.

The bill has the support of groups such as the Colorado Education Association, Attorney General Phil Weiser, and the Denver Foundation. Opponents of the bill include the Charter Advocacy Coalition, who say that these requirements would be redundant because charter schools already submit plans to the Colorado Department of Education.

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Denver asked for proposals for reusing vacant school buildings. Here’s a sneak peek at some ideas.

2026-03-03T03:25:43+00:00

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After controversial school closures last year, Denver Public Schools wants to turn one of its shuttered elementary schools into a child care center and another into a community center.

That’s according to two requests for proposals issued by the district last month. DPS would like Columbian Elementary, in northwest Denver, to become a child care center for babies and toddlers, as well as a training site for early childhood workers.

And it wants to turn the International Academy of Denver at Harrington into a community center for underserved neighborhoods in northeast Denver, offering food and housing help, after-school enrichment, adult education classes, and more.

The bids for both requests for proposals are due next week.

Meanwhile, DPS is working on developing requests related to teacher housing with the help of a company that specializes in turning municipal properties into homes for essential workers. Andrew Huber, the district’s executive director of enrollment and campus planning, said those requests will drop “once we have identified the right sites at which to pilot this concept.”

School closures are contentious, and parents often want to know how a district will repurpose a building that many consider the heart of the community. But the answer is rarely clear right away. The decision process can take years, leaving buildings vacant and families wondering.

Documents that Chalkbeat obtained through public records requests offer some clues.

Before DPS issued the recent requests for proposals, it put out a pair of preliminary “requests for information” last year. Chalkbeat obtained those documents, as well as 25 responses the district received from outside groups and real estate developers. Together, they shed light on how DPS and the community are thinking about repurposing closed schools.

One request for information asked for “affordable educator and staff housing solutions.” The other named five empty buildings — the former Fairview, Schmitt, Columbian, Harrington, and Remington elementary schools — and asked for “innovative proposals” to improve student well-being, expand access to child care or health care, or offer cultural enrichment.

“The District is only open to lease(s) or partnerships,” that request said. “Ideas that require sale of District assets will not be considered.”

Ten community organizations submitted ideas for reusing the buildings, the records show. Fifteen real estate companies submitted ideas related to teacher housing.

The companies were a mix of local and national. A few proposed turning the empty schools into apartments or townhomes. Others wanted to build new housing on the fields around them.

One Denver-based developer submitted an idea to move the tennis courts at North High School to a nearby park and build a four-story apartment building in their place, with 30% of the apartments reserved for educators.

Two companies offered to help teachers save for down payments to buy a house. Another developer that’s already building affordable housing in Denver proposed setting aside some of its apartments for teachers and offering them a month of free rent.

Those solutions are similar to ones DPS has already tried. The district has in the past partnered with an organization that helps teachers with down payments. And 26 DPS educators have gotten free rent in the past two years due to agreements with local developers, according to the Denver Public Schools Foundation, which brokered the giveaways.

DPS is now working with one of the companies that responded, Adaptive Commons, to develop a teacher housing strategy and issue one or more requests for proposals, Huber said.

Community centers were a popular response to earlier request

Last year’s requests for information also influenced the district’s strategy for the Harrington building, which DPS wants to turn into a community center, Huber said.

In response to the request seeking “innovative proposals” for the empty schools, six organizations submitted ideas for community centers, the records show. The details varied, with one organization focusing on mental and physical health for the Black community, while another focused on the arts. Two proposals promised intergenerational programming.

The Denver Public Schools Foundation, which raises money for the district, said it has since withdrawn its idea for a multi-use event space at Harrington. A foundation spokesperson said the proposal is “not a fit for our organization’s current capacity.”

But other organizations said they’re still in talks with DPS and eager for the process to continue.

Young Aspiring Americans for Social & Political Activism, or YAASPA, proposed replicating a project it did in Aurora, where it won a contract from the school district to turn shuttered Paris Elementary into the ABC Community Hub, which hosts several youth-serving organizations.

Even Denver school board members have floated ideas for the shuttered buildings.

At a meeting last month, member John Youngquist brought up transforming part of Harrington into a space for school board meetings. The meetings are currently held in a small conference room at DPS headquarters, and some members are worried that the size constraint is discouraging people from showing up to give public comments. Superintendent Alex Marrero said the district would calculate a cost estimate.

Albion SC Denver, a soccer club founded in north Denver, proposed turning the former Remington Elementary into an indoor and outdoor sports complex with turf fields, a full gym, a cafeteria, and free access for youth until 4 p.m.

“I’m a big believer that every kid deserves an opportunity,” said Maribelia Avalos, the club’s founding director. “It doesn’t matter the circumstances of their life.”

Three other proposals came from schools.

The French American School of Denver, a charter elementary that offers French immersion, proposed moving to the Harrington building. Rocky Mountain Prep, a charter network with 12 schools in Denver, asked to expand its preschool offerings by moving into Columbian and Schmitt. And the nonprofit organization that helps run Florence Crittenton High School for teen mothers proposed relocating the district-run school to the Fairview building.

DPS is conducting due diligence on the ideas submitted for Remington and Fairview, Huber said. The district is still vetting ideas for the reuse of Schmitt, he said.

DPS is losing students due to lower birth rates and higher housing costs that push families out of the city. The school board closed or shrunk 10 small schools last year, five of which were in standalone buildings. DPS has already repurposed two of them.

The former Palmer Elementary is now a preschool. The former Castro Elementary is the new home of Summit Academy, a dropout prevention school run by the district.

Clarification, March 3: This story has been updated to reflect that Rocky Mountain Prep proposed expanding its preschool offerings by moving into two vacant buildings, spreading its 12 schools across 14 sites.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@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.

Minnesota school district steps up to support students amid heightened enforcement

2026-02-18T11:57:00+00:00

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The operation starts before dawn and continues until late in the evening.

Volunteers pick up vulnerable Fridley Public Schools employees and make sure they make it to schools. These teams from Education Minnesota, the state teacher’s union, make sure everyone gets home safely too.

School leaders track unfamiliar vehicles and field calls from concerned families. One can’t make rent. Another is running low on food. They check in with the families of students who aren’t in school. Have they been detained by ICE?

Fridley Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Lewis watches for ICE agents encroaching on school property and checks in with principals on her morning rounds. She hopes her presence is a deterrent.

Superintendent Dr. Brenda Lewis also has a new morning routine: She visits every school accompanied by security.

“People are always like, ‘Did you see ICE?’ We see ICE every day, right?” Lewis said, as Steve Monsrud, a district security official, drove her around the perimeter of school buildings on a recent February morning.

At each stop, she checked in briefly with the principal before moving to the next school.

She was looking for more than just suspicious vehicles. She was watching for immigration agents encroaching on school grounds or interfering with the school day. And she’s making sure they know that she’s watching.

“Our role isn’t to spot ICE,” she said. “Our role is to ensure that our children and staff and families are safe at school.”

Fridley Public Schools is a diverse, tight-knit community just north of Minneapolis. Its 2,700 students include significant numbers of Somali and Ecuadorian students. The district has long been a place where school means more than just education, where social workers help families with basic needs.

A Hayes Elementary student boards the bus after school in Fridley, Minn., on Feb. 9, 2026.

Fridley Public Schools serves a diverse student population that has been heavily affected by immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities.

But Operation Metro Surge, in which the Department of Homeland Security flooded the Twin Cities area with some 3,000 immigration agents, has compelled this district to dramatically expand how it supports families.

A student works on their laptop in the Fridley High School library.

In Fridley, the school district has become more than a collection of schools. It has become the first line of defense: a logistical support system, a crisis response team, and for many families, a rare point of stability.

For Lewis, the role of public schools has never felt more clear — or more strained.

Lewis recalled walking through a school building recently when a student stopped her and asked if she was the “ICE fighter.” With a bewildered smile, Lewis said she responded that her job is to keep students safe.

“We shouldn’t normalize this,” she said.

Students are learning at home, but it’s not like COVID

Lewis said immigration enforcement became the district’s business when it disrupted the basic promise of public education: that children can access school without fear.

Enforcement has always been inconsistent and unpredictable, Lewis said, but in recent weeks, it has crossed new lines.

Crossing guards help Fridley students safely get to their bus after dismissal. Superintendent Brenda Lewis said ICE agents sometimes have interfered with crossing guards and refused to stop.

Lewis described an incident in early February when ICE agents blocked off a roundabout near a Fridley school, interfering with dismissal. Children couldn’t cross safely, and agents intimidated crossing guards, she said. Agents yelled at the principal and followed a school board member who lives nearby. They also followed a mother as she left pickup.

The incident occurred the same day Fridley Public Schools, along with Duluth Public Schools and Education Minnesota, filed a lawsuit against the federal government seeking to restore “sensitive locations” protections that would bar immigration agents from operating within 1,000 feet of schools.

Days later, the Fridley Police Department informed Lewis that it would send patrols to school grounds. Lewis is hopeful their presence will deter federal agents.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Lewis said she is “cautiously optimistic” that border czar Tom Homan’s promise to wind down Operation Metro Surge will give schools some relief.

Multiple school districts in the Twin Cities have created virtual learning programs for students whose families don’t want them to leave their home. Lewis said Fridley launched its program in just four days. The district has extended virtual learning through the end of February, with approximately 400 children signed up.

An empty hallway during a Fridley Tigers girls varsity basketball game against Columbia Heights. Fewer students turned out to cheer their team than normally would.

Some have compared the district’s shift to virtual learning to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lewis said, but this moment feels fundamentally different: “That was a virus. This is man-made.” The threat is more targeted and only directly affects certain students and families.

During the pandemic, Lewis said, everyone was home. “Now only some are, and they are afraid.”

For students with disabilities, the disruption can be even more difficult. Teachers and paraprofessionals are doing what they can within the limitations of virtual learning, but the kind of support that happens naturally in a classroom is harder to provide through a screen.

ICE detained her students. This Minnesota superintendent couldn’t keep quiet.

Students are also cycling in and out of school, and that instability creates its own challenges for learning and for district operations.

Lewis pointed to one student who was detained with their family and recently released. The student’s mother told her, “My son is so excited to come back.” But because the child had been out for more than 15 days, the district lost funding for that student.

District stepping up to help with groceries, rent

Multiple times a week, Danielle Thompson, Fridley’s director of student support services, delivers boxes of food and other necessities to families who are sheltering in place. In the beginning of January, she created an online form to track what families needed. Now her team is helping around 60 families.

Danielle Thompson, Fridley director of student support services, delivers groceries to a family sheltering in place.

The school pantry is overflowing. Staff shop directly for fresh ingredients. Thompson described using gift card donations to purchase specific items families request, even something as particular as fish tank conditioner.

Thompson’s official role is to oversee special education, food assistance, and other support services, but she said families’ needs have grown far beyond that. With parents afraid to go to work, rental assistance has become an urgent need. Thompson and her team spend full days coordinating financial assistance, gathering documentation, speaking with landlords, and triaging emergencies.

Boxes of food and other necessities fill the Fridley school district’s food pantry. The district's support services team tries to provide groceries tailored to families' needs.

Hygiene products stacked on a shelf in the Fridley school district’s food pantry. Many immigrant families are afraid to leave their homes even to go shopping and are short on cash because parents are afraid to go to work.

After work, her own children have asked her if they are going to go shopping for themselves or to help someone. She said she hopes, at least, that she’s providing an example for her kids.

Danielle Thompson, Fridley director of student support services, said she sometimes feels overwhelmed by the amount of need in the community right now.

When asked how long the district can continue operating like this, she said at some point, the money will run out.

She applauds her team, who are “working hours outside of their school day,” she said. “They are just going above and beyond, and they’re my people.”

Thompson looked out the window and began to cry.

“Every day just feels like, ‘OK, what am I doing? Am I actually helping?’” she said. “Last week there was a day, I just cried the whole day, because it was like, ‘How are we going to help everyone that needs help?’”

Community support can’t erase students’ burden

As dismissal time neared, Monsrud, the security officer, repeated his route, with neighbors waving as he passed by. His patrol has become part of their routine.

The route remained quiet at first. Then his phone rang.

Students leave Fridley Middle School on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. District security officials resume their patrols at dismissal time in effort to deter immigration enforcement.

A neighbor reported a suspicious-looking truck with out-of-state plates parked in front of a board member’s home. Steve turned down quiet suburban streets glazed with ice, scanning for vehicles that seemed out of place, checking in with other security officials at points along the way.

They could not locate the vehicle after its initial sighting.

Lewis described the aftermath of previous incidents, when the district put out calls and observers flooded in. Volunteers arrived to watch the entrances, standing nearby, bearing witness. She called it both “brutal and beautiful.”

It has been horrible, Lewis said, to feel like she needs to protect schools from a federal agency.

Amid this uncertainty, the normal activities that make up the school week continue.

Fans watch the Fridley Tigers girls varsity basketball game against Columbia Heights on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. Both suburban districts serve diverse immigrant communities and have been heavily affected by increased ICE activity.

The Fridley Tigers girls varsity basketball game against rival Columbia Heights would normally be packed. Due to fears around Operation Metro Surge, the game was sparsely attended.

The next evening, the Fridley High School gym filled with noise. Sneakers squeaked, cheerleaders practiced their routines, and band members carried their instruments to the upper bleachers.

Olga, 14, says she is always nervous when her parents go to work, even though they are legal immigrants. Despite her fears, she still came out to take in the Fridley Tigers girls varsity basketball game.

But the game was more sparsely attended than it normally would be. The students cheered loudly for the varsity girls basketball team, which was playing their rival Columbia Heights — another Twin Cities-area school district that has been heavily affected by Operation Metro Surge.

Fourteen-year-old Olga said she worries when her parents go to work because they are immigrants, even though they are here legally. Another student said they missed their friends and didn’t think any of this was fair.

The game ended with a win for Columbia Heights. The students didn’t linger, and the building quickly emptied.

Power in pride: This Brooklyn student wants to reclaim queer activism in NYC schools

2026-01-22T21:36:44+00:00

This originally aired on The Bell’s Miseducation podcast.

At my school, the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, or GSA, feels more like a social club than a space for activism. And I’m not alone in feeling that way.

In this episode, I look at how GSAs in New York City have drifted from their original purpose: organizing for change and uplifting queer voices. Once at the front lines of student activism, many GSAs now avoid political conversations and lack diversity, even as queer youth face mounting attacks across the United States.

It’s time for a GSA rebrand. To recenter activism and ensure every queer student feels seen and supported, GSAs must be spaces that are bold, inclusive, and purposeful.

Queer youth have played a key role in leading social movements, and history shows that when we organize, we create change. It’s time for GSAs to reflect that legacy and reclaim their role.

This is a video-first episode. You can watch it now on YouTube.

Miseducation is The Bell’s flagship podcast, which gives New York City public high school students the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Instagram.

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Unspent money, turnover, and tension: Chicago’s Sustainable Community Schools provide lessons for future

2025-12-19T23:25:00+00:00

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When Anna Vilchez became principal at Steinmetz College Prep four years ago, she had to quickly turn to an unexpected crisis.

Since 2018, the high school on Chicago’s Northwest Side had teamed up with the nonprofit Northwest Center as part of Sustainable Community Schools, a partnership between the school district and its teachers union. High-needs campuses and partner nonprofits receive about $500,000 a year to expand family outreach, wraparound student services, and after-school programs.

But as Vilchez took over, Steinmetz and Northwest Center were poised to part ways. Their visions for the program were at odds. Meanwhile, the nonprofit struggled to spend the money it received through the initiative. Vilchez set out to salvage the partnership.

As Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union gear up to expand the program from 20 to 70 schools in the next two years, their leaders say the initiative has been a boon to high-poverty campuses. It has allowed them to enlist key support staff, offer more programs, and give their communities more of a voice in school decisions.

Chicago is expanding its Sustainable Community Schools. They haven’t yet boosted student outcomes.

But a Chalkbeat analysis of program spending showed schools and especially their community partners have left more than $6.6 million on the table since 2018. The initiative has also faced leadership and staff turnover, and tensions between schools and their nonprofit partner, which — along with the pandemic’s disruption to its rollout — could help explain why the model hasn’t yet given the 20 pilot schools an edge in improving student outcomes, as a Chalkbeat analysis of academic and school climate metrics found.

Clear goals and firm leadership are key to realizing the promise of the community school model, said William Corrin, an expert at the think tank MDRC.

“For Chicago, this juncture seems really critical,” he said. “We’re about to create more community schools. So what could we do to set ourselves up to do it better?”

‘There was no blueprint’ for Chicago’s community schools

Steinmetz, in a grand building in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood, was exactly the kind of school the district and union were looking for when they negotiated a 20-campus Sustainable Community Schools pilot that started in 2018. A neighborhood campus that serves predominantly low-income Latino students, including many English learners, the school was also already a community hub, with a health clinic and a Parent University.

Deja Kirk, a senior at Steinmetz College Prep High School, sings in the school’s recording studio on Dec. 9, 2025, in Chicago. The space is used by students in the music program to create and record original work as part of the school’s STEAM initiatives.

Steinmetz teamed up with local nonprofit Northwest Center for its successful bid to join the program. Then COVID hit, disrupting the rollout.

Here, as on other campuses, turnover and some resistance from educators and staff have been key hurdles. Jesse Livingston, the resource coordinator with Northwest Center (formerly the Northwest Side Housing Center), said teachers have seen programs and reform efforts come and go over the years, leaving them skeptical that this latest initiative would last. Some have also balked at the idea of engaging students, parents, and the nonprofit in more school decisions.

“Our biggest challenge has been adult buy-in,” he said. “Every school community wants to function as a village, but there’s conflict and a clique mentality and old gunky energy.”

Earlier on, the school and the nonprofit also didn’t see eye to eye on what the program should accomplish and struggled to understand how the other did business.

Angel Gonzalez, at the time the school’s program coordinator who also had experience working at a nonprofit, tried to mediate. Lack of guidance and training were big issues, he said.

“There was no blueprint,” Gonzalez said. “You just had to figure it out as you went along.”

Money for community schools initiative left on the table

Northwest Center, like other community partners in the program, receives about half of the $500,000 allocated to Steinmetz. But records obtained by Chalkbeat show the nonprofit, and others in the program, are not spending all the money.

Livingston said unfilled positions and midyear turnover as well as the district’s cumbersome reimbursement process for vendors have been key challenges.

“We’ve gotten better every year,” he said. Data show the nonprofit left more than $142,000 unspent in the first year working at Steinmetz, while last year, they used all but $45,000.

Chalkbeat found money went unspent at many of the other 20 schools, though last year they came closer to using all of it. At Beidler Elementary, the school and its partner, Blocks Together, have failed to spend more than 45% of their overall SCS funding so far, which the district attributed to “operational challenges rather than a lack of need.”

The union in its last round of contract negotiations won a provision allowing schools to carry over up to $300,000 in unspent SCS dollars to the next year.

Spending and staffing data Chalkbeat obtained shows in more recent years, campuses in the program used the money to pay for relatively few staffers. Some principals said rising salary and benefit costs have meant the dollars don’t stretch nearly as much as they did in 2018. The district did not provide data on school staff hired by partner nonprofits.

Across the city from Steinmetz, Farragut High School on the Southwest Side used Sustainable Community Schools money to pay for valuable positions, including a college and career coordinator and a youth intervention specialist, principal Virag Nanavati said.

But even as the school dipped into non-SCS funds to pay for these staffers, its partner, Enlace Chicago, left more than $75,000 unspent the year before Nanavati started alone. At the time, that meant the money stayed with the district instead of flowing to the school.

Nanavati says the nonprofit struggled to staff after-school programs and ran some that were poorly attended. The nonprofit also hired a resource coordinator, an assistant to the resource coordinator, and two counselors, even as the school had to cut staff because of budget woes. Enlace did not respond to a request for comment.

The school and Enlace worked to rethink the spending, Nanavati said, pitching in for holiday celebrations that have brought in prospective families and other residents. Farragut also expanded its after-school offerings, offered attendance incentives, and launched a credit recovery program during the school day — initiatives he credits with a dramatic increase in the school’s graduation rate this year.

“Your lead partner needs to understand that it’s not their money,” he said he told a principal at one of the 16 schools joining the program this fall. “It’s money to serve students that they help manage.”

Overcoming tensions to honor the community schools model

In the weeks after she started at Steinmetz, Vilchez spent an entire day with staff at Northwest Center, talking about how to work better together and avert the looming breakup.

Vilchez says the partnership with Northwest Center is strong now. The nonprofit oversees the school’s Parent University classes, from yoga to financial literacy to suicide prevention, as well as student after-school programs. It also connects families with key resources, including foreclosure prevention, workshops for first-time home buyers, and help enrolling in public benefits.

District officials say they are trying to better prepare schools and partners to work together as 16 new campuses transition into it this school year. The district has spelled out clearer staffing and spending expectations, and provided more training to both schools and nonprofit staff, said Autumn Berg, the district’s community schools initiative director.

“There’s always going to be struggle in partnerships,” she said. “It’s a lot like being married. You have to figure out how to work together. You have to figure out how to communicate.”

Galadryel Arroyo, a senior at Steinmetz College Prep High School, is pictured on Dec. 9, 2025, in Chicago. She is a member of the school’s mural club, which is part of its STEAM programming.

Vilchez says the program is paying off at Steinmetz. The school’s restorative justice work powered by Sustainable Community Schools led to a reduction in more serious student misconduct and suspensions. The say in decisions the model gave students and parents boosted a sense of connectedness to school. This fall, a districtwide student survey captured that greater sense of belonging, she said.

But there is still a lot to do, particularly in improving student outcomes. Vilchez said she welcomes the greater focus from the district on how the program is affecting academic and other metrics.

“I just hope that they honor what the SCS model is about — giving schools autonomy and flexibility to meet the needs of that specific community,” she said.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s Sustainable Community Schools are growing. But few outperform neighboring schools.

2025-12-19T23:25:00+00:00

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Principal Anna Vilchez takes pride in how much Steinmetz College Prep has to offer:

More than a dozen student-led after-school programs, from photography to DJing. A 3D printer-equipped engineering lab. Some 30 classes each month through its Parent University.

These offerings are paid for through Chicago Public Schools’ Sustainable Community Schools initiative, a joint effort by the district and its teachers union that has given high-poverty schools about $500,000 annually to team up with community nonprofits to provide wraparound support.

Vilchez is grateful for the boost. But she also wants to see more gains in the school’s attendance, graduation rate, and test scores — growth similar community school programs have powered in other cities.

Unspent money, turnover, and tension: Chicago’s Sustainable Community Schools provide lessons for future

A Chalkbeat analysis of student outcomes at the 20 schools in the program since 2018 suggests the investments have not yet led to widespread improvement in how likely students are to attend school regularly, graduate from high school, or pass key reading and math tests. This is partly due to the pandemic’s disruption to the rollout, but also a lack of clear goals and guidelines, tensions between schools and their nonprofit partners, and money left unspent, Chalkbeat found.

Nevertheless, Chicago Public Schools is more than tripling the number of Sustainable Community Schools to 70 by 2027. The expansion will cost $35 million annually — a major investment at a time when the district is wrestling with budget deficits.

Supporters, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, say the initiative transforms some of the city’s most disinvested campuses into service-rich neighborhood hubs, bringing needed programs and support staff often seen as givens at higher-income schools.

“Schools are successful when every single child has everything that they need,” Johnson said last summer when he announced 16 additional campuses joining the program. “The success of a school is not just based on student outcomes.”

But critics say the district should have ensured the model is delivering measurable results before enshrining the expansion into its latest teachers contract.

District officials say they are spelling out clearer expectations and giving more guidance to schools, especially the 16 schools joining the initiative this school year.

“We’ve learned that giving schools money and partnering them [with nonprofits] does not give them the foundation of how to actually transform their school,” said Autumn Berg, the district’s community schools initiative director. “It took us a long time to get there.”

On traditional metrics, Sustainable Community Schools do not outperform

Before Steinmetz became a Sustainable Community School in 2018, the campus — which serves predominantly low-income Latino students — had few enrichment programs. And it never consistently gave students and parents a say in what it offered.

That changed with the program, which now funds a range of after-school activities, including an after-school K-pop dance club founded by junior Miguel Hernandez.

Hernandez, who came to the school as a freshman English learner, is now taking college-level arts classes at Columbia College.

He credits much of his growth to the club.

“I created a great bond with a lot of people,” he said.

Miguel Hernandez, a junior at Steinmetz College Prep High School, practices a dance routine on the school’s auditorium stage on Dec. 9, 2025, in Chicago. Hernandez founded the school’s K-pop dance club and is now taking dual-enrollment dance classes at Columbia College Chicago.

Hernandez’ experience reflects a community school promise: Engaging programs created with input from families give students a reason to go to school and do better in their classes. But the model hasn’t yet given most Sustainable Community Schools an edge in attendance and achievement.

Chalkbeat compared student metrics over time at the 20 pilot schools to those at 29 campuses that applied to the program but didn’t get in, which have an almost identical average poverty rate to the pilot group and also serve almost exclusively Black and Latino students. The analysis also looked at about 300 campuses with poverty rates of at least 80%, the minimum required to apply to the program.

Student outcomes shifted similarly in all three groups since 2018, with the SCS schools seemingly getting little academic boost from the program’s investments. Absenteeism shot up comparably during the pandemic and has remained well above pre-COVID levels, with Sustainable Community Schools struggling slightly more than other high-needs schools.

A district analysis last school year obtained by Chalkbeat did find that among students who regularly attend after-school programs at the 20 Sustainable Community Schools, chronic absenteeism was 13 percentage points lower than for their peers in the same school.

The pilot schools have also had consistently higher graduation rates than the campuses that didn’t get into the program. But over time, those campuses improved slightly more and narrowed the gap.

When it comes to test scores, all three groups saw the same trends on the SAT and the Illinois elementary proficiency test.

The Sustainable Community Schools have seen marked reduction in suspensions and, after a COVID-era uptick, in behavioral incidents. But so did other high-poverty schools.

On a University of Chicago-designed student and staff survey called 5Essentials, measures of school connectedness and climate have declined districtwide post-COVID. But the 20 pilot schools experienced a steeper drop than other high-needs schools, with almost half getting a rating of weak or very weak in the most recent year for which data was available.

And even as program supporters have held it up as a possible antidote to declining enrollment, the 20 Sustainable Community Schools have lost more than a fifth of their enrollment since 2018, while districtwide enrollment dipped about 11%.

Students move between classes at Steinmetz College Prep High School in Chicago on Dec. 9, 2025. The school is expanding its STEAM curriculum as part of the district’s Sustainable Community Schools program.

At Steinmetz, absenteeism, academic outcomes, and enrollment largely followed these pilot groups trends, with a sharper drop in suspensions than other high-poverty campuses.

In recent years, the community schools model has gained traction nationally, though the Trump administration recently cut some community schools grants.

Research has shown well-implemented programs can yield measurable student gains. Isaac Opper, a University of California, Los Angeles and RAND School of Public Policy expert who helped evaluate New York City’s community schools program implemented before the pandemic, said that several years in, that initiative had produced attendance gains, graduation rate increases, and modest but notable test score improvements.

“If you are seeing no difference, one story is that Sustainable Community Schools isn’t working,” Opper said. “Another is that it is working, but so are other things the district is doing.”

But there are outliers. Several schools in Chicago’s initiative have seen student outcomes markedly improve and enrollment stabilize. What they appear to have in common: consistent leadership through the seven years of the program, teacher and staff buy-in, and a clear vision for how to make the most of the added dollars.

At Richards High School on the Southwest Side, enrollment is up, graduation rate increases are outpacing the district’s, and absenteeism, though still high, has dipped below pre-pandemic levels. Metcalfe Elementary on the Far South Side saw improvements in test scores and attendance. Its 5Essentials rating rose to the highest possible.

Metcalfe Principal Stephen Fabiyi says the program has helped support smaller class sizes in the early grades and a robust, well-attended after-school program that blends enrichment and academic help from the school’s teachers. Getting family input on programs and curricula boosted engagement.

“My kids would have a snowball’s chance in hell of being successful in school without Sustainable Community Schools,” Fabiyi said.

With Sustainable Community Schools expansion, a promise of more accountability

Monique Redeaux-Smith, a former CPS teacher who now works at the Illinois Federation of Teachers and co-chairs the district’s Sustainable Community Schools task force, says that at these high-needs schools with histories of disinvestment, the program is “trying to rebuild after a series of hurricanes.”

“I’m not worried about not seeing outcomes,” she said. “I know from having conversations and from seeing and talking to these schools and school stakeholders often that it is making a difference in the experience that young people are having every day.”

The model just needs more time, Redeaux-Smith said.

Mayor Johnson echoes that sentiment. When pressed about the program’s outcomes, he has brushed aside critics, arguing metrics like test scores have been historically abused to justify disinvestment in neighborhood schools and even their closures.

The STEAM Makerspace at Steinmetz College Prep High School is shown on Dec. 9, 2025, in Chicago. The space is used by students for hands-on projects in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math as part of the school’s STEAM program.

Dwayne Truss, a former school board member who says he’s a fan of community schools generally, says the Sustainable Community Schools program shouldn’t be growing so much given the lack of measurable results and budget crisis, he said.

“It would seem that you would wait until you have the data before you that says this is the greatest thing since sliced bread and go forward with this massive expansion,” Truss said.

District leaders say they are working to harness the lessons of the program’s rollout as Chicago grows it in the coming years. CPS and the union have agreed to bring in outside experts to evaluate the program and its outcomes this school year.

Officials say there are clearer expectations for the schools and partners, and a longer, more supportive transition into the program.

And the district is pushing for a new process whereby schools that don’t meet a set of performance goals — still under discussion — could lose half and eventually all of their SCS funding.

Vilchez and other principals say they hope the new push to better track results won’t take away flexibility and the ability to let families and local communities shape the model’s priorities. At the same time, they want the program to power student gains.

“I am committed to owning our data,” Vilchez said, ”and working to improve it.”

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Holding the flashlight: How a nurse-teacher helps students find strength in storytelling

2025-12-09T19:22:43+00:00

This story was part of Healthbeat’s live storytelling event, “Aha Moments in Public Health,” held Nov. 18 at Powerhouse Arena bookstore in Brooklyn. Watch the full show here. Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free New York newsletter here.

I’m a bachelor-prepared registered nurse, but my work in the New York public school system focuses on guiding students to find, tell, and write their own first-person stories.

When anyone refers to me as “ex-nurse,” it’s so confusing. First, do they really think I don’t pick up a shift or two on weekends? Nurses (especially New York City nurses) are the original jugglers of multiple job types. I remember when we first heard people talk about “side hustles.” That seemed almost like a dare: “Hold my lanyard, here I go.”

Second, is it possible to stop being a nurse in everyday interactions? I can’t imagine not assessing my brother-in-law’s rapid pulse when we hold hands around the family dinner table on holidays. I’d have to be a different person.

But during the week, I swap my stethoscope for composition notebooks and writing prompts, and every day I’m reminded that nearly everything that matters to students is secretly (or not so secretly) health-related.

A kid forgets breakfast and can’t focus on an essay: blood sugar. Another keeps their head down; this isn’t defiance, it’s exhaustion from sleeping approximately 12 minutes the night before, thanks to a crowded apartment, the gentrifying bar next door that makes noise until very, very late, and the pull of watching just once more YouTube short. Someone shares about losing a cousin to gun violence: That’s trauma, grief, community health, and the broken places we’re all trying to live in.

Even grammar sometimes feels like triage: We can’t fix everything at once, but maybe if we get the comma in the right place, we can all feel better for a bit.

Early last semester, a student casually announced, “I think I caught the cortisol.”

“The cortisol?”

He nodded, very serious. “Yeah, I read about it online, I’m nervous all the time, and my stomach hurts.”

So we slowed way down. I started to explain that cortisol isn’t something you catch. And then I realized that’s not true. We talked about what might cause a release of stress hormones, and the student named that he absolutely could inherit a whole ecosystem of anxiety about rent spikes, sirens at 3 a.m., and metal detectors at school.

His shoulders dropped in relief. He wasn’t cured, but he did feel understood. And he understood himself. His reactions made perfect sense given his environment.

One student wrote about an uncle who refused to go to the doctor because “men don’t need checkups.” His last line was: “He didn’t die because he didn’t care. He died because he did what he was taught.” That sentence hit harder than any peer-reviewed article on what we as providers call “non-compliance.” Call it anecdotal evidence if you’d like, but it’s also data with a heartbeat.

And because I’m a nurse in my everyday interactions, the work doesn’t keep school hours. Like the night I got a 12:47 a.m. text from a trans young adult I know from queer kickball (yes, it’s a thing), asking “do I need to go to the emergency room for…”

As a provider, whenever I get a 12.47 a.m. text asking if someone (especially a queer or trans person) needs to go to the ER, they almost always know the answer is yes. They often just need some loving encouragement. Sometimes, firm loving encouragement.

My texting acquaintance hadn’t availed themselves of any health care since they came out as trans, and was worried they wouldn’t be able to advocate successfully, or be able to communicate what the problem was.

There was no way I could reach them to be their ER buddy; classic New York timing means crises always wait until the trains are running “every 28 to 47 minutes.” Or whenever they feel like coming.

“Tell me a story about a time you did stand up for yourself,” I texted.

There was a long pause. A pause long enough for me to consider the possibility that I’d accidentally invented the world’s worst crisis intervention technique. Then:

“Once I told my barber to stop giving me the ‘cute girl fade.’”

There it was. Strength. Humor. Agency. A tiny act of self-definition with a very uneven hairline attached.

“Great,” I texted back. “Use that energy. You don’t need medical jargon. You just need that same ‘nope, not today’ tone. Now go get the care you deserve.”

And they did. Not because I coached them through it, but because telling their own story reminded them that they already knew how to advocate for themselves.

My “aha” moment wasn’t a single beam of light. There wasn’t any celestial chorus singing the takeaway in breathtaking harmony, no brave student holding a metaphorical lantern. It was the slow, steady realization that every time someone tells their story — whether a teenager talking about their grandma’s diabetes medication or a scared queer young adult trying to get urgent care — they locate their own strength.

My job is just to hold the flashlight while they look.

Kelli Dunham is a nurse, a writer, an educator, and a comedian, sometimes all three at once. She is the author of the best-selling guide to puberty, “The Boy’s Body Book,” and host and executive producer of Good Get’s newest podcast, “Cared For.” Former New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio once called her a showoff. To her face.

How New York families can save for college — and how some have $100 already

2025-12-01T19:04:06+00:00

This story was originally published on Dec. 1 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

Costs of college are rising in New York, and across the U.S. How will you pay for it?

If you have a child in fourth grade or younger in a New York City public school, they probably already have a college savings account. How? Because of NYC Kids Rise, which starting in 2021 set up every kindergartener with an account and an initial deposit of $100.

The nonprofit’s Save for College Program works with the city Department of Education to automatically enroll every child in public or charter schools, unless their parent or guardian chooses to opt out. Those funds go to a NY 529 College Savings Direct Plan — a tax-free investment account designed specifically for higher education.

A 529 plan is a state-sponsored savings account whose earnings can be withdrawn tax-free for qualified expenses.

Here’s how the New York City saving plan works, and what else to know about saving for your New York kid:

How it works

Every student gets an initial $100, just for activating their NYC Kids Rise scholarship account. That happens automatically when a child enrolls in public school in NYC, currently through fourth grade. Families can take additional steps to earn more rewards, and community organizations have programs to add more money into these accounts (more on this below).

Families also have the option to open a separate personal savings account connected to the scholarship account, which gives them the option to deposit their own money into college savings. Parents can choose to make it an investment account or a traditional bank account that earns interest each year.

Starting in first grade, NYC Kids Rise will also match money deposited into the savings account up to $100 in a one-time contribution.

The program is funded by a mix of public and private dollars. The city’s budget for the program was $12.7 million in 2025.

Launched as a pilot program under the de Blasio administration, it was originally financed by the head of the investment firm Blackstone, John Gray, and his wife, Mindy. NYC Kids Rise was created to oversee the program, and was first chaired by Upper East City Council Member Julie Menin, who had the idea for the program while serving as the commissioner for consumer affairs.

The pilot program started in Community School District 30 stemming from Long Island City and Astoria to Corona and East Elmhurst in western Queens. In the first three years of the pilot more than 10,000 K-2 students accumulated more than $3.5 million in savings.

To opt out of the program, parents can return a signed opt-out notice or designate they want to opt out in their NYC Schools Account within a 30-day period from when their child enrolls in school.

Who’s eligible?

All students are eligible for the NYC scholarship account with $100 in it, and the program has been growing by a grade each year since its launch — so next year, all students in kindergarten through fifth grade can join. Students must attend a participating school for at least 60 days to be enrolled, and 2025-26 kindergarteners will be able to access their accounts in January.

Charter schools have the option to opt out, but most participate. Parents interested in sending a child to a charter school and utilizing the Save for College program should confirm the school participates.

What about kids who are older than 4th grade?

Students beyond fourth grade are currently not included in the NYC Kids Rise Save for College program. If families of these students have not started to save yet, Chris McGee, chair of the College Savings Foundation, says it’s not too late.

“There are a lot of guilt points with being a parent,” McGee said. “Don’t worry that you’re starting late. Don’t worry that you can’t save all of what it’s going to take to make your child’s post-secondary dreams realized, just start.”

Families can open a 529 plan with a financial institution at any time without the help of NYC Kids Rise, using a Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number.

Can New Yorkers who are not citizens get an account?

Immigration status does not affect a student’s eligibility to participate because individual parents or students do not own or manage the account; the nonprofit owns and manages NYC Scholarship Accounts on behalf of all students.

However, opening a savings account alongside the scholarship account does require a Social Security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number — a potential barrier for noncitizen students. The only difference between the scholarship account and the savings account is that students and their families can deposit their own money into the savings account, but not into the scholarship fund.

What can the funds be used for?

The scholarship funds can be used for tuition, fees, equipment, some room-and-board expenses, and textbooks, at higher education institutions in the U.S. and abroad, which includes four-year universities, graduate schools, community colleges, trade and vocational schools, and some apprenticeship programs.

How big of a difference can this account make, really?

Even if the account just has the initial $100 (or $300, if you open a connected savings account and maximize matching) in it, families could see that number double or even triple over the course of 13 years, the nonprofit said.

The scholarship account, and potentially the savings account, depending on which account a family chooses, are investment accounts — invested in things like stocks, bonds, mutual funds — and grow with rates of return similar to other invested money.

“This is really a tool for kids, for New York City as a city to come together to invest in our kids, making our statement to kids that we believe in you and that also giving real resources to that effect,” Debra-Ellen Glickstein, founding executive director of NYC Kids Rise, said.

She also adds that affordability is the current issue New Yorkers are facing and this program gives families the opportunity to build future generational wealth and assets by earning degrees and landing higher-income jobs.

Nadia Landy is a Medicaid coordinator and mother of three who lives in Astoria Houses, a public housing development in Queens. Landy lives in the pilot district of the NYC Kids Rise Program, and so her eighth grade daughter has had a scholarship account since second grade. Aside from the initial $100, Landy has opened a savings account in conjunction for her daughter that she adds money to from her paycheck each month.

Her daughter has also received funding awards donated by the Astoria Houses tenant association worth $1,000 and another award for students living in Queens public housing developments worth $126. (More on how to get local scholarships below.) Between the scholarship and savings account, she now has over $4,000 in savings.

Knowing that her daughter has some savings set aside for her future has made Landy feel more secure for what’s to come.

“I don’t want to wait until the last minute to scramble for funds or trying to find all these credit unions and stuff and getting the highest interest rates,” Landy says. “I dealt with that when I was in college…I had to know all of these costs. You have to pay so much fees, fees just to get into college. So just, I’m glad that this program exists for people like me.”

How can my student receive scholarships or additional rewards?

Community scholarships are opportunities for local organizations, businesses, neighbors and systems to donate directly to students’ NYC scholarship accounts.

Students can receive community scholarships based on their school or community district, grade level, ZIP code, or through NYC Housing Authority or other housing developments. If your child qualifies, funding will be deposited directly into their account.

By opening a savings account and connecting it to your child’s NYC Scholarship Account, you can unlock a $25 reward from NYC Kids Rise toward their scholarship account. Another $25 reward can be unlocked when you make your first deposit in their account. And as stated above, starting in first grade, NYC Kids Rise will match money deposited into the connected 529 account, up to $100.

What if my kid leaves NYC public schools at some point?

Once your child has received a scholarship account, they continue to have access to that account if they leave the NYC public school system. If they transfer to a private school or leave New York City, they will still be able to use the funds already in their scholarship account, but will not be eligible to earn additional rewards.

Even if a student were to drop out of high school in the future, they would still be able to use their scholarship funds for future educational opportunities up until 20 years after they completed kindergarten.

The rules around 529 accounts are subject to change based on federal or state tax laws and NYC Kids Rise has told THE CITY they will offer more detailed guidelines as the first class of students gets closer to graduation.

What if my kid doesn’t go to college?

Students need to use funds in their NYC Scholarship Account 20 years after they complete kindergarten, otherwise their funds will go back to NYC Kids Rise to support other students participating in the program.

However, the savings account, which you own, will have different rules depending on which type of account you choose to open.

What are the best ways for parents to save?

While there is no magic number for what the perfect amount is to have saved to prepare for a child’s future, the general advice is to save at least a little bit regularly.

Research shows that a low- to moderate-income child, even with a small amount of savings — $1 to $499 — is four times more likely to enroll in college than a child with no savings account. If a low- to moderate-income child has $500 or more in savings, they are five times more likely to graduate from college than a child with no savings.

Aside from saving, McGee from the College Savings Foundation says just talking about the future with kids helps them prepare for it.

“One of the most powerful tools parents can have is the kitchen table and just talking to their kids about their dreams after high school, what they want to do, what they’re good at, what they’re passionate about, and then finding ways to make that happen. It is not a one-time discussion. It’s a regular discussion,” McGee said.

Shenean Lindsay, superintendent of District 17 in Brooklyn, has said that since the program launched, she has heard students talk more about long-term plans.

“When I grow up, I’m going to this college, I’m going to start my own business,” Lindsay says, recalling things she has overheard kids in her district say.

I want to contribute to a college account for a family member or friend. How do I do that?

You can only contribute to a student’s account if their parent or guardian has taken the additional step to open a savings account in conjunction with the scholarship account and they chose the NY 529 Direct Plan Account.

529 plans have a gifting option, which allows for family and friends to deposit money into someone’s account on their behalf.

“I think 529s in particular are great in that it takes a village these days. I mean, higher education is incredibly expensive, and the parents scrimp and save. Student loans are at an all-time high — 1.5 plus trillion dollars,” McGee said. “And so 529 can help facilitate relatives and family friends to make contributions to that child’s 529 account.”

Contributions can be made by check payable to “New York’s 529 College Savings Program Direct Plan” and make sure to include the account number of the beneficiary. The account holder can also sign up for Ugift, link their savings account, and give family and friends a code that allows them to make online contributions to the students savings account.

Be aware that only account owners are eligible for the New York State income tax deduction on contributions made to their accounts.

Added benefit: Financial literacy for kids

While savings are the crux of the program, educators add the program encourages financial literacy and long-term planning from a young age.

Lindsay sees the program narrowing the gap between students’ school and home lives. She remarks that it’s easier to convince students why it’s important to pass a test or do their homework when she can tie in how committing to their studies will have a direct impact on whatever their long-term goals may be.

Lindsay, who suggests the program’s ultimate impact is economic mobility, has made efforts to implement educational opportunities to supplement the program in her district.

“We have financial literacy classes for our students. We also have college fair days, we have family workshops, we have goal setting activities,” Lindsay said. “We also encourage our schools to host things like Future Fridays where our students can explore careers and talk about how they can use their NYC Kids Rise account as part of the journey towards their careers in college.”

Meisha Porter, former chancellor of the city Department of Education, is now on the board of NYC Kids Rise and was running the school system when the program went citywide.

She talked to THE CITY about the impact the program has on students who previously may have thought college was not for them.

“I would also say for students of color, or first-gen students who might not have the example of someone who had family who’s gone to college, it activates that thinking about college and career readiness in the early grades for them,” she said. “And one of the indicators that we like to think about a lot is that simply having the account changes the mindset and belief about opportunities for young people to know that college is actually an option for them.”

Like Lindsay, Porter recognizes that a benefit of the program is teaching students about savings and personal finances in New York City Public Schools. It’s often the first time kids — typically with their parents’ help — will open a savings account, make investments and watch their money grow.

Detroit-based mother-daughter nonprofit aids underserved youth and people with disabilities

2025-11-06T18:03:12+00:00

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Six years ago, Christina Jordan was focused on becoming a tennis star.

At West Virginia University, the Detroit native played on the college team and majored in biochemistry. But, as Jordan entered her senior year, her interest in human behavior took precedence over studying living organisms.

The decision to switch her major to psychology was personal – Jordan’s twin brothers, Christopher and Christian, have intellectual disabilities and she wanted to find a way to assist them with life’s challenges, she told BridgeDetroit.

“I’m definitely inspired by my family, and I have a purpose that I’m trying to carry out,” Christina Jordan said.

After graduating from WVU in 2020, Jordan found that purpose by teaming up with her mother, Anisha Jordan, to establish Safeway Community Services, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving youth in underserved communities and individuals with disabilities. In the past three years, Safeway has served around 1,000 people through its autism awareness training, special education support, and community events, Christina Jordan said, including around 700 people in Detroit.

The organization also offers an independent living program for adults with disabilities.

“My mom and I created [Safeway] to help them [Christopher and Christian], and now we have them semi-independently living on their own,” Christina Jordan, 27, said. “They have support services, they are able to go to school and things like that. Once we figured out that the system that we created works, we wanted to be able to share that with other people.”

One of Safeway’s signature initiatives is a free youth summer sports camp, where kids can learn how to play football, tennis, and track and field, as well as cheer and dance. The camp has taken place at West Bloomfield High School and Metropolitan Racquet Club in past years. While the program was not offered in 2025, Christina Jordan said she hopes to bring it back next year.

Safeway has programming for a broad range of age groups, Christina Jordan said. About 80% of the children served come from Detroit Public Schools Community District, with others coming from nearby cities like Redford and Southfield.

“For the autism awareness program, those are typically all ages because we’re spreading awareness to not only the kids, but to the caregivers,” she said. “Our programs range from youth as small as three and it goes all the way up until 35.”

Another Safeway program is designed for people with or without disabilities who were formerly enrolled in college and wish to return.

“We’re working on bridging the gap and helping individuals go back to college,” added Anisha Jordan, a special education teacher. “We partner with Talladega University in Alabama, and we’re looking to expand that and get more colleges on board.

“We want to provide extended services to these individuals, whether it’s into homes, education, transportation.”

The majority of the nonprofit’s programming and events are self-funded by the Jordans. However, the organization has started to receive interest from donors this year, Christina Jordan said.

Safeway does not currently have a physical location open to the public, the organization meets the community in schools, libraries, and online, Christina Jordan said. She hopes to eventually open an office space in downtown Detroit.

On the Jordans’ agenda for next year is a plan to expand Safeway’s teen mentorship program, Safe Track. Along with the existing program in Detroit, Safe Track will be offered in Houston, Pittsburgh, and Charleston, West Virginia.

Houston has been home for Christina Jordan for the last three years and she has ties to Charlestown and Pittsburgh from her college years. In August, Safeway held a back-to-school drive in South Charleston and a financial literacy workshop for Pittsburgh Public Schools in September.

“I just noticed that those kids are eager to learn, and being able to spread and share the support that we have with other people is super important,” Christina Jordan said. “I want to be able to expand that across the U.S.”

Creating a safe space

Anisha Jordan began her teaching career more than 20 years ago at DPSCD, working with students at the Drew Transition Center and the now-closed Cooley High School. She’s now with the Redford Union School District.

The Jordans came up with the name Safeway because they want to provide a safe space for the people they serve, she said.

“That’s how I’ve always built my environments,” Anisha Jordan said. “It’s about safety first, whether they’re at home or in the schools. When working with people with disabilities, you gotta have the right people around you.”

The Jordans mostly work with people with cognitive disabilities like autism, as well as people with physical disabilities. People can sign up for the organization’s programs by calling or sending a message through the website. Donations to Safeway can be made via its Zeffy page.

Since the mother and daughter can’t handle everything on their own, they hire contract staffers and interns to facilitate programs and events, Christina Jordan said.

Keeping the faith

As an athlete, Christina Jordan knew she had to incorporate sports into Safeway’s programming.

One of the biggest events the nonprofit has hosted so far is its inaugural celebrity softball game in June at The Corner Ballpark in Corktown. The all-star local roster included R&B artist Ronnie “Detroit Zeus” Irons, Minnesota Vikings player Tavierre Thomas, former Detroit Lions player Joique Bell, and rapper Vae Vanilla.

The organization awarded its first $1,000 scholarship during the event to Lincoln Neely, a Plymouth Canton graduate who was part of the Safe Track program.

Neely, 18, is now studying computer science at Michigan State University. He said Safeway provided him with so much more than the funds. Christina Jordan worked with Neely to help him figure out where he wanted to apply to college, helped him with his essays, and explained the financial aid process. She also helped him with time management, which was essential since Neely was a high school swimmer and had trouble balancing practices with classes. As an athlete herself, Christina was able to help him prioritize.

“I faced some challenges adapting to AP classes in high school. I was going to drop them. Christina and the Safeway program helped me stick with it,” he said. “It felt good to know I had people behind me who wanted to see me be successful. Whenever I had a low point, I could go to her for help.”

Neely says he aspires to work for a company like Microsoft or Google to help create or adapt technology to make it easier for everyone to use.

Program lead Gia Thomas said it’s important that Safeway donors are able to see the impact of their contributions, whether it’s helping get someone like Neely into a good college or assisting other kids with confidence through sports.

“People will really support you when it’s a good cause,” Thomas said. “And a lot of people, when they’re donating their time and money, they sometimes don’t know where the money’s going. We make sure you see what we’re doing and that’s really important for our events.”

Christina Jordan is already seeing how Safeway is affecting her brothers.

Christopher Jordan is enrolled at Lawrence Technological University in its business management program and Christian is showing an interest in going to the college, she said.

“Seeing how much he’s [Christopher] grown, it really makes me super proud,” Christina Jordan said. “And my other brother, he’s making strides every single day.”

The Jordans said they are excited to see what comes next for Safeway.

“Just to see how far we have come is exciting and inspiring and it motivates us because now we know that we can do this. We only want to keep pushing forward,” Christina Jordan said. “Initially, our goal was to just serve the community in Detroit, but we said over the last year, we noticed that there’s a need in the US and all over the world, so we want to be able to grow as much as possible and serve as many people as possible.”

Meanwhile, Anisha Jordan is enjoying serving others with her daughter by her side.

“Being able to have Christina on my team really helps me,” she said. “I’m happy to be able to teach her to expand herself into the community and be able to help others.”

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

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.

As SNAP cuts loom, NYC schools scramble to stockpile food for families in need

2025-10-29T18:48:13+00:00

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With nearly 2 million New York City residents soon to lose federal food stamps, schools across the five boroughs are scrambling to create plans to quickly get extra food to hungry families.

Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have said they will stop funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, starting Nov. 1 if the federal government, which has been shut down for nearly a month, doesn’t reopen.

That would cut off benefits for roughly 1.8 million city residents who received $5 billion worth of food assistance in 2025, according to the Independent Budget Office. That count includes about 500,000 children.

It’s not clear exactly how many city students receive SNAP, but more than three-quarters of district and charter school students — roughly 806,000 — qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, or government benefits including SNAP, last year, according to city data.

School leaders say the abrupt loss of food benefits would be devastating and could set off a cascade of other challenges for kids that would show up in the classroom.

“I’m worried it’s going to be a crisis,” said Ben Geballe, principal of M.S. 131 in Chinatown, where nearly 90% of students live in poverty. “If you’re on SNAP, you’re living on the edge already. You give people a little push, and it can be very challenging.”

Schools like Geballe’s are now scrambling to set up their own ad hoc food distribution systems, tapping into their budgets, raising outside funds, and leveraging their relationships with parents and community partners to help ensure families don’t have to rely only on outside food banks that will be facing a crush of new demand.

Geballe’s school is restarting a school food pantry where families who are homeless or otherwise food insecure get a bag of groceries every two weeks. He’s asked a private donor who contributed money to help cover field trips to repurpose those funds for food. And the school is brainstorming ways to get kids involved as helpers, including by allowing them to donate prizes they earn for good behavior to the school’s food bank.

The school partners with a community based organization on an after-school program, and they are working together to expand meal service for those who stay later, so kids can count on three free hot meals — a breakfast before school, lunch, and a hot “supper” around 3:30 p.m.. All students get free breakfast and lunch in city schools.

State leaders pledge to help plug some gaps

State leaders have promised to step in to fill some of the federal funding gap. Gov. Kathy Hochul committed $30 million in state funds earlier this week to cover about 16 million meals at food pantries. State Attorney General Letitia James also joined a multistate lawsuit that seeks to force the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, to tap into billions of dollars in emergency reserves to continue funding SNAP.

So far, the city Education Department hasn’t launched any systemwide efforts to get extra food to families losing SNAP benefits.

“We are aware of potential SNAP disruptions that may affect our school community,” said Isla Gething, a department spokesperson, “and our students can continue to count on their school meals.”

Hochul has said she’s exploring the idea of using schools to send home additional food with families but hasn’t released any concrete plans.

In the meantime, city schools are continuing to devise their own food distribution plans.

At M.S. 50 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Principal Ben Honoroff said the school has spent years building systems to help families facing food insecurity. It now expects a big uptick in demand.

The school is planning to tap its federal Title I funds for students in temporary housing to give families vouchers they can redeem at local restaurants and subsidize orders on the online grocery site Fresh Direct. Families living in shelters, he noted, don’t have access to kitchens and need meals that don’t require much preparation.

Other schools are turning outwards to collect extra money.

Sally Schwab, an assistant principal at University Prep Charter High School in the South Bronx said roughly 85% of her students’ families receive SNAP. She launched a GoFundMe page Tuesday with the goal of raising $5,000, and had already surpassed that goal by Wednesday morning. The school plans to use the funds to buy grocery store gift cards and stock up on basics that they’ll distribute through a school food pantry.

At the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in downtown Brooklyn, administrators sent home a letter to families and staff earlier this week warning about the looming SNAP cuts and asking for donations to the school’s food and clothing pantry.

The school’s principal, Kiri Soares, said she’s trying to stockpile food that fits her families’ cultural backgrounds as well as other supplies like diapers and menstrual products that families use SNAP benefits to purchase.

Several school leaders said that if the SNAP shutdown drags on, they hope the city and state will launch a more comprehensive effort to tap public schools as a way of distributing food. During the COVID pandemic, schools became community food distribution centers, handing out millions of free meals to both students and families and other community members.

“The infrastructure is there,” said Soares. “It would be an easy switch to flip.”

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

How to improve restorative justice in NYC schools

2025-10-03T20:44:05+00:00

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This originally aired on The Bell’s Miseducation podcast on June 18.

In New York City schools, restorative justice – or RJ – has been around for almost a decade. It’s a way to repair harm by bringing together the person who caused it, the person affected, and the community.

Restorative justice circles are designed to help students heal, take accountability, and build stronger communities, but too often they feel like just another routine. Most RJ schools rely on circles — structured conversations that serve three tiers: Tier 1 community-building before harm occurs; Tier 2 conflict resolution when harm happens; and Tier 3 reintegration after healing.

At my Brooklyn high school, we sit in a circle twice a week, yet phones stay out and eyes glaze over. Far from the healing practice they’re meant to be, these sessions can become checkbox exercises.

As a peer mediator and RJ leader, I’ve seen both their promise and their pitfalls. Black students are suspended 3.4 times more than their white peers. Studies show that even minor suspensions can derail academic achievement for years. A 2022 citywide study found that some students “do not care, do not pay attention, or fall asleep during circle”. I see my peers doing the same. So I started asking: What would it actually take to make it work? And how should we reassess success — beyond suspension rates — to include trust, student voice, and genuine community healing?

Join me as I dig into the gap between adult-led and student-led circles, sit down with restorative justice facilitator Javon Lomax, and make the case that real healing demands students, not just staff, at the forefront.

This is a video-first episode. You can watch it now on YouTube.

Miseducation is The Bell’s flagship podcast, which gives New York City public high school students the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

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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.

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.

NYC summer jobs program heist likely had hacker help, say ATM experts

2025-08-04T20:08:04+00:00

This story was originally published on Aug. 4 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

Early in July, two young workers in the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) told their supervisor, an employee of a Bronx nonprofit, that strangers had approached them on the street offering goods or cash in exchange for a debit card issued by SYEP.

“In one instance it was, ‘Hey, I can get you a new phone and new shoes and a new watch if you give me your SYEP card,’” the employee said. The other participant, he said, was offered money — more than he could earn in wages over the entire summer.

“In both cases our students were like, ‘No thank you,’ and they walked away.”

The NYPD’s Financial Crimes Task Force is now investigating what happened next, after a heist carried out via ATMs in mid-July yielded $17 million in withdrawals on some of the cards used to pay tens of thousands of summer workers in the city Department of Youth and Community Development’s Summer Youth Employment Program.

Each debit card had just a few hundred dollars in wage payments on it, and machines have low daily limits on how much can be withdrawn from an account, but participants in the scheme were nonetheless able to use the cards to extract tens of thousands of dollars.

The longtime program recruits temporary youth workers from age 14 to 24 and places them part-time in work sites around the city for a six-week period, usually for minimum wage. Placements range from social service organizations to fast food restaurants. The agency says 100,000 young people participate each year.

Across social media platforms, users had been posting for weeks about the scheme.

One influencer asked young people on the street about the scams — with one replying he had been scammed by “my mans, we went to school together.”

One Tiktok user even made a four-part AI-animated video titled “SYEP Worker Gives up his DashPay card.”

“Listen, bro, whatever you do, don’t give up your DashPay card,” says one young person in a SYEP t-shirt to another. His friend responds: “Bro, but it’s literally 30K in the bank, why wouldn’t I?”

Following similar reports, the nonprofit employee, who works at one of the largest SYEP sites in the city, asked contacts at other nonprofit organizations if they had also been hearing of workers getting offered cash for cards. They had, in some cases more than $2,500.

Many of the jobs, such as summer camps, require participants to wear t-shirts with a logo that advertises them as SYEP workers — “so they’re very identifiable as, like, ‘Oh, here’s a person we can target for the scam,’” the nonprofit employee said.

He and his colleagues ended up advising students not to wear the shirts, and not to say they were affiliated with SYEP if they were approached on the street.

The agency provided a general statement in response to questions from THE CITY about how the heist happened and how thieves obtained cards from program participants.

“For each of the past three years, DYCD and our nonprofit providers have educated 100,000 Summer Youth Employment Program young people about financial literacy. This summer, we are doing it again — with another record number of participants learning about finances while experiencing the world of work,” said DYCD spokesperson Mark Zustovich. “But we are deeply disturbed by scammers preying on our participants just as they started their work assignments to support themselves and their families.”

He added: “No taxpayer dollars have been lost, and DYCD quickly launched an investigation with the vendors who oversee the SYEP pay card system, to make sure our participants’ earnings are as secure as possible.”

Around 30,000 SYEP participants received the payment cards, according to DYCD, as an alternative to direct deposit — in contrast to some youth jobs programs elsewhere that require participants to have bank accounts as part of training in financial literacy .

DashPay, the company that administers the payment cards, did not respond to a request for comment.

Who foots the $17 million bill?

If no taxpayer dollars were lost, who’s paying?

According to David Tente, executive director of the ATM Industry Association, store owners’ insurance may cover some of the losses.

“If they’re taking cash out of the ATM, somebody’s on the hook for it,” he said. “If it is the responsibility of the merchant, then they probably — hopefully — have insurance to cover that.”

Jon Weilbaker, who owns around 1,000 ATMs across the city, says none of his machines were affected by the scheme — and that in order for the debit cards to yield the millions the NYPD says were stolen, someone would have had to hack the software systems that operate the network.

“Somehow the hackers were able to blow through the limit on the cards and set their own limit,” Weilbaker said, noting previous incidents involving transnational criminal operations that broke into U.S. ATM networks and evaded limits on withdrawals.

“They hire guys on the street basically and get them the cards, and then they go to the ATM machine and empty the ATM of the ATM’s cash,” he added.

Tente acknowledged that such hacks have been known to happen with gift cards, using processes that could potentially be adapted for debit payment cards.

Reports have also emerged suggesting that some program participants may be exploiting the system, too.

In early July, an adult staff member who works at a day camp and after-school program in Brooklyn began seeing reports on social media about the “SYEP method.” She had received no information from her employer, but asked the SYEP participant at her worksite about it.

“He basically explained to me, through the online platform there’s been a glitch, and through that glitch they can basically take out more than they were given,” she said.

“When I brought it up, he thought it was so funny because it’s such a hot topic and a norm for them, but it’s such a crazy thing for us because we’re like, ‘What the hell?’”

The staff member said she was concerned that younger participants might be pressured by older ones to take advantage of the glitch. TikToks claiming to depict withdrawals using SYEP cards showed multiple sequential withdrawals at the $200 limit on a single card, and another showed a negative $100,000 balance.

“Some of them are very, very, very young and impressionable,” she said.

Employers and supervisors emphasized the importance of the program.

SYEP “has really been one of the most beneficial youth programs in terms of preventing kids from getting involved in the juvenile justice system,” said the Bronx employee. “You’re like 20% less likely to be involved in some violent crime if you’re participating in SYEP. So there are a lot of really good things about the program.”

Gregory Morris, CEO of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition, an association that represents workforce development organizations, said the incident has put a damper on an annual ritual for young people finding their way in their first jobs.

“The providers that I know were excited about the summer. They were accomplishing interesting, valuable, meaningful things, putting young people to work on their first job pathways, and this was surprising, concerning, frustrating.”

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.

Free back-to-school supplies, vaccines, and more in the Denver area for the 2025 school year

2025-07-25T20:29:54+00:00

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It will soon be the first day of school in Colorado. If you need back-to-school supplies, vaccinations, or even a fresh haircut, here’s where to get them for free.

If you know of any other back-to-school events in the Denver metro area that we missed, email community@chalkbeat.org so we can add them to this list.

Free supplies in the Denver metro area

Douglas County Schools Free Backpacks and Supplies

These events are for Douglas County School families only. Douglas County School’s Lend a Hand Foundation is giving away free school supplies and backpacks at three locations. Families must register to receive supplies.

Tuesday, July 29, 4-6 p.m.

Cherry Hills Community Church, 3900 Grace Blvd., Highlands Ranch

Saturday, Aug. 2, 9-11 a.m.

Pine Lane Elementary, 6485 Ponderosa Dr., Parker. This is a drive-thru event.

Thursday, Aug. 7, 5- 7 p.m.

Southridge Elementary, 1100 South St., Castle Rock. This is a drive-thru event.

Denver’s Back To School Fest — City and County of Denver

Saturday, Aug. 2, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

National Western Center, 4797 National Western Dr., Denver

Put on as a part of Denver Days, Denver’s Back to School Fest will include free school supplies, vaccines, and haircuts. There will also be games and entertainment.

Back to School Kickoff — Aurora Public Schools

Saturday, Aug. 2, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Town Center at Aurora, 14200 E Alameda Ave., Aurora

This event is for Aurora Public Schools families only. APS is kicking off the new school year with free backpacks, supplies, and immunizations at an event with food and entertainment. Parents can also register students for school and meet APS staff.

Packz 4 Kidz Denver - Kenzi’s Causes

Saturday, Aug. 2, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. or when out of backpacks

Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd., Denver

Kenzi’s Causes is giving away free backpacks filled with supplies on a first-come, first-served basis. Children are encouraged to choose their own backpack, and families who receive a backpack will be asked to complete a survey.

Back to School Bash — Adams 12 Five Star Schools

Saturday, Aug. 2, 8:30 -11 a.m.

Five Star Stadium, 9351 Washington St., Thornton

This event is for Adams 12 Five Star School families only. The back-to-school bash includes community resources and free backpacks and school supplies for students enrolled in the district.

Adams 14 School District Resource Fair

Sunday Aug. 3, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, 6000 Victory Way, Commerce City

This event is for Adams 14 School District families only. The district is hosting a fair with community resources and will be giving out free backpacks, school supplies, clothing, and other essential items. There will also be on-site enrollment help, complimentary food, and a kids zone with activities.

Back to School Event — City of Thornton

Saturday, Aug. 9, 9-11 a.m.

Community Connections, 9471 Dorothy Blvd., Thornton

The City of Thornton is giving out backpacks with school supplies to K-12 students while supplies last.

Brains Over Bullets Peace Jam and Supply Giveaway

Saturday, Aug.9, 1 p.m.

12000 E 47th Ave., Denver

The Struggle of Love Foundation is giving away backpacks and school supplies at its annual Peace Jam and Supply Giveaway. There will also be food, entertainment, and local vendors.

Denver Police Department, Denver Police Foundation, and Kroenke Sports Foundation School Supply Giveaway

Saturday, Aug. 9

The Denver Police Department and Kroenke Sports Charities are offering free backpacks with school supplies at six locations while supplies last.

9 a.m.-12 p.m. Colfax Elementary School, 1526 Tennyson St., Denver
9 a.m.-1 p.m.Skyland Park, 3380 Holly St., Denver
10 a.m.-12 p.m. McMeen Elementary, 1000 S Holly St., Denver
9 a.m.-12 p.m. Lighthouse Church, 5555 W Evans Ave., Denver
11 a.m.-3 p.m. Lincoln Tech, 11194 E 45th Ave., Denver
10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sonny Lawson Park, 2301 Welton St., Denver

Back to School with FACE — Denver Public Schools Family and Community Engagement

Denver Public Schools families can register for this event here. It will feature free backpacks, school supplies, shoes, groceries, lunch, and treats.

Saturday, Aug. 9, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Abraham Lincoln High School, 2285 S Federal Blvd, Denver

Wednesday, Aug. 13, 3-7 p.m.

Manual High School, 1700 E. 28th Ave., Denver

Saturday, Aug. 16, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Evie Dennis Campus, 4800 Telluride St., Student Union Center, Denver

Back-to-School Breakfast and Backpack Giveaway — Westminster Public Schools

Saturday, Aug.9, 8-10 a.m.

Westminster High School, 6933 N Raleigh St, Westminster

This event is for Westminster Public School families only. Westminster Public Schools is offering free school supplies and breakfast while also helping students connect with classmates and teachers for the upcoming school year.

An after-school program reenvisioned wellness for NYC middle-schoolers. The USDA terminated it.

2025-07-25T18:54:29+00:00

This story was originally published by Healthbeat: Public health, explained. Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free New York City newsletter here.

Dr. Tashara M. Leak spent years developing a pioneering program in nutrition education for adolescents in New York City.

Through the Advanced Cooking Education 4-H After School Club, seventh and eighth graders met once a week to learn about wellness, develop culinary skills, and gain exposure to careers in food and nutrition. The 12-week program worked with Brooklyn and Manhattan schools where a significant share of students come from low-income households.

“People think about hunger, but to be able to prioritize nutrition is a privilege,” said Leak, an associate professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University and an associate dean at the College of Human Ecology in New York City.

Dr. Tashara M. Leak, an associate professor at Cornell University, created a wellness program for New York City teens.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the ACE program with a 5-year, $990,000 grant, and Leak envisioned it as a new model for 4-H, expanding the reach of the agency’s youth development program. In January, Leak received a 2025 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed on early-career scientists and engineers by the federal government.

But in May, her program came to a sudden halt. Leak received a stop work order from the USDA, part of a wave of federal research grant terminations across the country.

Now, she’s hoping to find a way to continue the ACE program, which has been fully operational for two years and has served at least 60 students.

Here’s an interview with Leak about the program and the impact of the grant termination. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did the ACE program come to be?

If I think about nutrition education, it’s teaching a lot of adolescents how to make yogurt parfaits and fruit kebabs. But we have a whole subgroup of adolescents who are actually responsible for entire meals from start to finish. I thought about that “adultified” adolescent, and was like, “How do we support them? Where are they located?”

A lot of times, they’re located in big cities. They’re usually “adultified” for very specific reasons, maybe because they live in a single-parent household, or even in two-income households with shift work. Oftentimes, it’s affiliated with poverty. In New York City, you’ve got middle-schoolers riding to and from school on subways by themselves by the time they’re 10. We have quite a few “adultified” adolescents in New York City. What about their health and well-being, and how do we support them? That’s why I created the Advanced Cooking Education 4-H After School Club.

What does the ACE program involve?

It’s 12 weeks, specifically targeting seventh and eighth graders at schools that receive Title I funding. What we’re doing is exposing them to careers in food and nutrition, hoping that if they see themselves working in the field, maybe they will want to eat healthier and role model healthy eating. What we’re not doing is saying, “Eat healthy. Don’t eat this.” These are teenagers; they have a lot of autonomy.

The careers we’re exposing them to include food science, urban agriculture, and food photography. Culinary science is a huge part of this. Every other week, we send them home with a bag of groceries, and they take it home and complete a cooking lab at home. This isn’t just cooking for their family. They’re actually learning about sensory evaluations and various knife skills and, “Oh, this tasted too salty. How do you alter the recipe so it’s less salty?” At the end, they have a public speaking competition, which functions almost like a job interview.

New York City hospitals join ‘food as medicine’ movement, prescribing free boxes of fresh produce

At the beginning of every session, we have a mindfulness component. We start with a brief meditation, and then they stretch, and there’s a journal prompt that’s informed by the CASEL Framework around social and emotional learning. When we decided to do this, it was in response to so many of the adolescents talking about how stressed they were, not just about applying to high school but just stressed about life.

You could tell that they have been exposed to adult-level issues, and they were aware of their neighborhood poverty or various social issues. While I can’t solve these bigger problems, our goal is to give them tools to center themselves and create quiet spaces, even in the midst of living in this very large city.

With the recipes, we made sure to inquire about the identities of students in New York City and also the cuisines they’re exposed to. So they’re making plant-based dishes from various cultures — they’re making Korean food, they’re making Caribbean food. This idea that you have to abandon your cultural food to be healthy is not, indeed, factual. Whenever they’re cooking the dishes, they also learn about the cultural significance of the dish and the ingredients used in that dish.

The Advanced Cooking Education 4-H After School Club aims to help middle-schoolers learn about wellness, develop culinary skills, and explore careers in food and nutrition.

What would you hear from students about the program?

We’ve only gotten really positive feedback. With the mindfulness piece, we conducted focus groups at the end of every cohort, and [students] talked about how they use it during school, if they’re studying for a test, and how they acquired some tools to center themselves during challenging times.

Trying new foods is actually quite a privilege. If you’re on a limited income, it’s really hard to try new foods because you are concerned about food waste, and every dollar counts. The students talked about preparing dishes that they have never prepared before. They were like, “I didn’t know I would like a black bean burger, but I’m so glad I was able to try that in this program.”

With the public speaking competition, they are so nervous when they’re preparing, and then at the end, they always talk about how proud they are of themselves. They all have amazing skills, but I think they didn’t know how to tap into those skills, and then how to articulate that.

What was the research component of the program?

From a research standpoint, we wanted to know how the program was impacting their nutritional status. We were curious if, by the conclusion of the program, were they eating healthier? We use something called the Healthy Eating Index. It has 13 sub-components, and it really allows the students to choose where they want to improve, so it could be that they decide to eat more whole-grain snacks, or it could be that they decide to eat more vegetables or more fruits. We didn’t look at one food group. We gave them the option to set goals each week around how they wanted to improve their nutrition.

That was the primary outcome: their diet intake. Then we also were looking at cooking skills, attitudes, and self-efficacy. If these are kids who are at risk for being “adultified,” I can’t change the fact that now, or maybe in a couple years, you are going to have household cooking responsibilities; but maybe I can help you cook more efficiently and healthfully with limited resources.

With the mindfulness, we’re looking at improvements in their stress: Are they reporting that they’re less stressed? And then we also looked at a sense of purpose and identity: Do they see themselves in this program, and do they feel more centered and grounded in purpose after participating in this?

What was it like to receive the stop work order?

I was really blindsided, just because I’ve been so well supported by USDA for like a decade. This particular study has received so much local, statewide, and national attention. Then I get [the stop work order], and I’m supposed to call parents the next day and say, “Sorry, your kid can’t show up to after-school.” I just couldn’t do that, especially since we were so close to the end of the school year. So I’m very grateful that I had some money in reserves at my job, that I was able to use those funds to finish out the school year.

I was able to piece together funds so that the students weren’t aware of what was happening. But these schools, they’re expecting we were going to do this another year, and right now, I don’t have any funding for another year. I’m working really hard to identify alternate funding sources so I can fulfill my commitment to the schools and to the students.

Does it seem likely that you’ll be able to find other funding sources?

These are real people. I know these students, I know these teachers. I know these principals and the school nurses. I have been integrated into their communities. And so while I don’t know, today, how I’m going to pull this off, I’m going to pull it off. I can’t sleep at night knowing that I made a promise to schools that have historically had so many people make promises and break those promises. I know that all of my sites know that this is not of my choosing, but I am going to find a way to fulfill my commitment. I’m going to figure this out, because it’s just too important.

Eliza Fawcett is a reporter covering public health in New York City for Healthbeat. Contact Eliza at efawcett@healthbeat.org.

Trump cuts threaten Brooklyn youth environmental justice program

2025-07-23T16:32:43+00:00

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The bike club run by Brooklyn’s El Puente gives 16-year-old Karly Rosa a sense of peace as she explores New York City on two wheels.

For Karly, the club is more than an extracurricular activity; it’s a space for learning and emotional well-being. Through group rides, participants gain hands-on experience taking note of dangerous intersections and advocating for safer streets in their community.

“Here, you’re able to speak your mind…and think [about] how you can better the community,” Karly said about the bike club.

Students like Karly were poised to receive further training as community advocates through a $3.1 million Environmental Protection Agency grant to El Puente, a longtime youth and environmental justice organization. Those at two public schools, M.S. 50 and El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, Karly’s school, expected to be part of the nonprofit’s new Leadership Development Training Program to advocate for better air quality and climate resilience in their neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Bushwick, where high asthma rates and the effect of urban heat are daily realities.

Students explore the city by bicycle, learn about street safety and advocacy, and maintain their bikes in a dedicated room for storage and repairs.

But the organization lost that grant alongside other federal funding as part of a wave of cuts targeting environmental justice funding under the Trump administration in its effort to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The push is now threatening hundreds of organizations serving communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, forcing nonprofits nationwide to lay off staff and scale back vital programs.

At El Puente, the cuts have created a domino effect rippling through the organization, forcing it not only to reassess ambitious projects the group had expected to be federally funded, but also to pause its high school programs for the summer to prioritize its work with younger children.

“Some teams are becoming smaller, and we’re going to have to dig deep and prioritize really hard,” said Asenhat Gómez, El Puente’s interim co-executive director.

The organization is now faced with difficult decisions, which Gómez called a “balancing act.”

“Do we keep our staff, or do we put out these large events that we usually do that do require resources?”

The loss of funding has rippled through every corner of El Puente’s work, since the organization had to lay off 15 of roughly 100 staff members across multiple teams. The future of the annual WEPA! Festival, a September cornerstone celebration of local cultural heritage, is uncertain.

Now, only one staff member remains to lead the bike club after two others were laid off this spring. The club lost its only bilingual facilitator, who could assist with Spanish-speaking riders, and a younger mentor, who led bike repair workshops. The organization reduced club participation from 15 regular and six casual participants to just four or five experienced riders.

For the EPA grant, El Puente intended to use it to empower youth of color, public housing residents, and neighborhood elders to take the lead on tackling environmental health challenges in communities that have faced decades of pollution and climate impacts.

Students participating in the Leadership Development Training Program funded by the grant would have been able to run for Environmental Advisory Boards, or representative groups tasked with developing recommendations and plans for city officials on environmental issues. The goal was to empower youth and other neighborhood locals at decision-making tables to take charge of environmental justice in their neighborhoods.

But after months of planning and collaboration, the EPA canceled the grant in a May letter to the organization, saying that “the objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.”

This compounded the impact of no longer receiving its longstanding National Endowment for the Arts grant, for which El Puente never received a response after re-applying for a $60,000 award last year. The NEA grant allows organizations to apply for other arts funding, Gómez said.

The EPA and NEA did not respond to requests for comment.

El Puente was founded in 1982 by Luis Garden Acosta, who grew up in Williamsburg and witnessed the neighborhood’s disinvestment following Reagan-era budget cuts.

Funding cuts reshape nonprofit landscape

The Trump administration’s budget and policy directives have targeted both the EPA and NEA for sweeping cuts, with the aim of eliminating support for initiatives deemed “outside new priorities.” The EPA has canceled $1.5 billion in grants focused on environmental justice and DEI, despite Congressional designation that these funds reach disadvantaged communities.

These changes have had immediate, devastating effects. In New York alone, nonprofits receive nearly $29 billion of $300 billion in government funding that flows through the sector, said Jamie Levine Daniel, an associate professor at NYU Wagner who studies nonprofit funding.

Around 70% of nonprofits in the state are at risk of funding shortfalls without government grants. Nationally, government funding is the second largest source of revenue for nonprofits, and about 60–80% of organizations rely on some form of governmental support, according to the Urban Institute, a public policy think tank.

The centerpiece is La Madre Tierra, a signature artwork that first appeared at the 2014 People’s Climate March and has since become a fixture at El Puente’s civic engagement events.

Levine Daniel noted that while shifts in government funding priorities are common, what’s unprecedented now is the abrupt cancellation of grants after they’ve already been awarded and work has begun.

“To lose access to grants that were already allocated, to funding that was already allocated that inform budgets and informed ongoing activity, is certainly a change and happening on an unprecedented scale,” Levine Daniel said.

Raísa Lin Garden-Lucerna, El Puente’s environmental justice manager and daughter of the organization’s co-founders, described the EPA grant as the “intersection” of their work. Their program was designed to give community members a direct role in identifying local issues, shaping solutions, and advocating for change at the policy level, she noted.

Growing up with asthma and witnessing firsthand the health impacts in her own family, Garden-Lucerna discussed how she took her first steps at El Puente and was raised to understand the importance of environmental justice work in the neighborhood.

“What the hope would have been with this grant was to be able to build our own capacity as an organization, to be more active and have a greater bandwidth,” Garden-Lucerna said.

Raísa Lin Garden-Lucerna, works from a desk on June 16, 2025 at El Puente in New York, NY. Garden-Lucerna recalled growing up at El Puente, the organization her family founded.

South Williamsburg and Bushwick are designated environmental justice areas, shaped by decades of disinvestment and infrastructure like the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which cuts through the neighborhood. As more affluent residents have moved into the areas over the past years, Brooklyn’s Community Board 1 — its neighborhood government body that advises on local policy — has increasingly reflected the voices of newcomers rather than those historically from the area, Garden-Lucerna noted.

With government grants in flux, El Puente is urgently seeking new funding and rallying support from community members, local organizations, and advocates to keep its work alive. The work will still happen, just with less capacity. Investing in young people is sacred, said Gómez.

“Young people have so much to give and so much to offer, but they’re also growing and they’re exploring their passions, their curiosity, what they want to know,” said Gómez. “Why would you cut from young people?”

Taylor Jung is a New York City-based reporter.

Trump White House to release some after-school money but billions for education still frozen

2025-07-18T20:43:03+00:00

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Federal funds for before- and after-school programs that were frozen for weeks will start flowing to states, a senior official with the Office of Management and Budget confirmed Friday.

The budget office has finished reviewing the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program and will release $1.3 billion on Monday, according to a copy of the email sent to states by the U.S. Department of Education on Friday.

That money was put on hold after the Trump administration announced it was reviewing nearly $7 billion in education funds that schools expected to receive at the beginning of July.

The move will bring some relief to school districts that have been scrambling to figure out how to address sudden budget gaps, and whether they should move forward with plans to hire certain staff or run certain programs.

But school leaders and public education advocates caution they are not out of the woods yet, as billions more in federal funds, including money meant to boost academic offerings in schools and help the children of migrant farmworkers, are still on hold.

“For families and communities that want to see their children attend schools with well-trained teachers, with support for English learners, with well-rounded curricular offerings, the fight is not over,” said Sasha Pudelski, the director of advocacy at The School Superintendents Association, which has been lobbying for the full release of the frozen funds.

The decision to release the funds comes two days after 10 Republican senators, led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, sent a letter to Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, calling for the release of the funds. It was a rare example of Republicans openly criticizing the administration and spoke to how widely the cuts were felt.

On Friday, Capito said the release of the after-school funds was “in direct response” to the Republican senators’ letter in a post on the social media site X.

Two dozen states had sued the Trump administration seeking to pry the funds loose, and several Democrats in Congress and a group of Democratic governors had also urged the release of the funds.

In a press release, Jodi Grant, the executive director of Afterschool Alliance, which represents after-school providers and programs across the country, said that the release of the funds had brought “an enormous sigh of relief.”

But Grant warned that disbursement delays had already “caused massive chaos and harm, with summer learning programs abruptly shutting down and a large number of afterschool programs cancelling plans to open in the fall.” In other cases, programs fell behind on hiring staff, drawing up agreements with schools, and registering kids for the new school year.

Erik Peterson, Afterschool Alliance’s senior vice president of policy, said in an interview that the funding disruption had hit rural communities especially hard, and some programs had closed unexpectedly in Ohio, Tennessee, and Utah. Now, programs will have to put in extra work to rebuild trust with families and communities whose services were disrupted, he said.

“A lot of that damage potentially has been done,” Peterson said.

The Trump administration previously said it was looking into after-school and other grant programs because many had “been grossly misused to subsidize a radical leftwing agenda.”

The budget office official said Friday that “guardrails have been put in place to ensure these funds are not used in violation” of any of President Donald Trump’s executive orders. States will have to certify compliance with the U.S. Constitution and several federal anti-discrimination laws, and the Education Department will continue to review spending to ensure compliance, the email to states said.

Needing to comply with federal civil rights laws to receive funds isn’t new, but the Trump administration has advanced new interpretations of those laws to bar many common practices designed to make education programs more equitable. Democratic-led states sued over a similar Trump policy requiring schools to certify they are not engaging in certain diversity, equity, and inclusion practices to get federal funds.

Federal officials warned states that using funds on “unallowable activities” could result in the loss of funds. Some state education departments are reviewing the certification requirement, Peterson said.

This story has been updated to include additional information from the Trump administration and comments from Erik Peterson of the Afterschool Alliance and Sasha Pudelski of The School Superintendents Association.

Colorado bureau chief Melanie Asmar contributed reporting.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Norah Rami is a Dow Jones education reporting intern on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Reach Norah at nrami@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.

Lacrosse scores in Harlem

2025-07-02T19:49:10+00:00

This story was originally published on July 1 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

After putting points on the board for his team, Ace Liriano, 6, sprinted around the basketball court at the Madison Boys and Girls Pinkerton Clubhouse on Saturday in Harlem, just a block away from the famous Rucker Park.

But instead of the “B-ball” that the area is known for, Ace was playing “L-ball,” a 3-on-3 version of lacrosse that can be played on the hardwood.

“We gotta play one-on-one,” Ace said after their 3-on-3 game to his friend and teammate, 9-year-old Titan Isom.

Regarded as the fastest sport on two feet, lacrosse is traditionally played with 10 players each on two opposing teams who carry a stick with a meshed head that is used for catching, passing and shooting a small ball.

The sport has been growing in popularity in New York City over the last two decades. Organizations like Harlem Lacrosse and Bronx Lacrosse, founded in 2011 and 2018 respectively, have sought to teach the game — more commonly associated with leafy suburbs — to middle and high school-aged students in the city.

Uptown Lacrosse joined the fray last September, distinguishing itself from its peers as a youth organization that isn’t school-based. The nonprofit offers the sport for free to about 40 families, with 27 kids between the ages of five and 12 coming in each week over the course of its first season. The group, which has about seven volunteer coaches, uses equipment donated from manufacturer STX, Princeton University, and USA Lacrosse.

This past Saturday concluded Uptown Lacrosse’s first season. A day of clinics and games featuring active college players planned for June 22 was cancelled due to the chance of a thunderstorm. But a watered-down version was rescheduled for this weekend that included a skills clinic, one 3-on-3 game with an additional player as a goalie and a potluck.

Uptown Lacrosse kids wrap up their first season at Madison Boys and Girls Pinkerton Clubhouse in Harlem on June 28.

To protect its young athletes from injury, Uptown Lacrosse plays a non-contact version with players wearing protective goggles instead of helmets and using a softer ball.

“When I was a kid, lacrosse wasn’t even a thing, it was all basketball or nothing,” said Terrence Brown. He and his wife Nailah Ricco-Brown, both born and raised in Harlem, are now raising their three children in the historically Black neighborhood, including their 12-year-old son Akhil R.T. Brown, who began playing this January.

“The more I started playing, the more I started to like it,” goalie Akhil told THE CITY in a post-game interview, after enjoying mac and cheese his dad whipped up from a family recipe. He likes “the strategizing, and the way you can gain an advantage really fast.”

Tech entrepreneur and former Princeton University lacrosse athlete Bruce Lincoln launched Uptown Lacrosse after serving for three years as executive director of Harlem Lacrosse, which teaches students in New York City, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

“The key thing about Uptown Lacrosse is it’s about having fun,” said Lincoln, who honors the native Indigenous peoples that created the sport in North America. “We’re not trying to produce pro lacrosse players. We’re just trying to spread the reach of the game so more kids can enjoy.”

Players were putting some of their uptown razzle-dazzle into their new sport, with sliding celebrations, full-court passes and electric spin moves. They roared with excitement when scoring, eagerly pursued ground balls and aggressively defended their goal.

One of those players, Xander Scott Charlotin, 6, started playing earlier this year. He “was happy and a little bit nervous” about potentially getting hit and handling the ball.

But after some practice and guidance from the program’s volunteer coaches, Xander, who shot back up from the floor after falling down during the game, doesn’t feel nervous anymore.

“I feel terrific,” he said.

High school sleuths search fish guts for clues to plastics pollution

2025-06-23T12:00:00+00:00

This story about science careers was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter on climate and education.

The fish, glassy-eyed and inert, had been dead for decades. Yet its belly held possible clues to an environmental crisis unfolding in real time.

Forceps in hand, Mia Fricano, a high school junior, was about to investigate. She turned over the fish, a bluegill, and slid in a blade, before extracting its gastrointestinal tract. Then, she carried the fish innards to a beaker filled with a solution that would dissolve the biological material, revealing if there were any tiny particles of plastic — known as microplastics — inside.

Mia and two other high schoolers working alongside her in a lab this spring were part of a program at the American Museum of Natural History designed to give young people hands-on experience in professional science. Called the Science Research Mentoring Program, or SRMP (pronounced “shrimp”), the program enrolls roughly 60 high school juniors and seniors each year who collaborate with scientists on a research project.

Mia and her peers were matched with Ryan Thoni, an ichthyologist and curatorial associate in the museum’s division of vertebrate zoology. Thoni’s project to gather information on when and how microplastics began to enter the environment relied on the museum’s vast collection of fish specimens dating from more than a century ago — some 3.2 million in total.

Concern about the tiny pieces of plastic debris has grown in the last few years, along with early-stage research on the health risks they pose. The particles are found in human blood, breast milk, and even the brain — and in animals, including, as it turned out, nearly all the fish in Thoni’s lab.

“It was kind of shocking to see just how many we did find,” Mia said later. “We weren’t expecting to find more than two to three per fish, but in some fish, we would find over 15.” Specimens from the 1970s or earlier were less likely to contain high levels of microplastic, more than three or so pieces, and fish near urban centers seemed to have more of the plastics, on average, than fish from less populated areas.

“It really does make you realize just how much the environment has been affected,” said Mia. “There hasn’t been a lot of research on it yet,” she added. “Our project might be able to help future people who are also doing research on microplastics.”

Related: Want to read more about how climate change is shaping education? Subscribe to The Hechinger Report’s free newsletter.

SRMP, started in 2009, is operating at a time when the federal government is eliminating fellowships and other support for early career scientists, and defunding scientific research broadly. That both amplifies the need for, and complicates the work of, programs like this one, said Amanda Townley, executive director of the nonprofit National Center for Science Education. Over the last 15 years in particular, such programs have played a big role in giving students a chance to do the kind of applied science that is rarely available in K-12 classrooms because of money and time constraints, she said.

“Museums, university extensions, sometimes libraries, have really done this tremendous job of creating spaces for high school and younger students to engage with scientists doing science,” said Townley. “Those museums, libraries, and universities are all under attack.” She added: “We’re going to see a generational impact.”

While the American Museum of Natural History has received some federal government funding, the SRMP program’s money comes from private foundations and individual donors, with additional support from the New York City Council. Students in SRMP participate in a summer institute in August, when they learn basics like how to investigate research questions. Then they spend two afternoons a week during the school year on their projects.

Each student receives a stipend, $2,500 over the course of the year. “It’s really important for high school students to know their time is valuable,” said Maria Strangas, the museum’s assistant director of science research experiences. “They are doing something here that is really useful for the researchers; it’s an education program, but they aren’t the only ones who are benefiting.”

Ryan Thoni of the American Museum of Natural History, left, with high schoolers Mia Fricano (center) and Freyalise Matasar.

Students from New York City schools that partner with the museum can apply, as well as those who have participated in programs with the museum in the past. SRMP has also spawned a network of about 30 similar programs across the city, with institutions including Brooklyn College, Bronx River Alliance, and many others participating.

In the lab on the sixth floor of the museum, Mia, who attends the New York City Museum School, cleaned out a beaker, while Yuki Chen, a senior at Central Park East High School, sat at a metal table, dissecting a pike. Thoni inserted a slide containing material harvested from one of the fish under a microscope, and pointed out a few microplastics, which looked like threads.

Freyalise Matasar, a junior at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx, plucked a white sucker fish from a jar. She said SRMP had altered her career trajectory. Before the program, she was considering studying journalism in college, but her experience this year persuaded her to focus on engineering and data science instead.

“I have totally fallen in love with science,” she said. “It’s been an amazing experience to see what professional science looks like — and more than just see it, to be a part of it.”

Freyalise said she wanted to build those skills in order to help fight climate change, perhaps by working on weather models to predict climate risks and ideally spur people to action. “It’s the biggest problem faced by our generation. It’s inescapable and unignorable, no matter how much people try,” she said. “It’s everyone’s responsibility to do what they can to fight it.”

Microplastics contribute to climate change in several ways, including by potentially disrupting oceans’ ability to sequester carbon and by directly emitting greenhouse gases.

Interest in climate science among young people is growing, even as the federal government tries to zero out funding for it. Other climate-related topics SRMP students explored this year included the climate on exoplanets, the ecology of sea anemones, and aquatic wildlife conservation in New York City.

Sometimes the fish dissections were gross: Mia, who plans to study biology and machine learning in college, sliced into one large fish to find poorly preserved, rotten innards — and a major stink. Sometimes they provided a lesson beyond pollution: Yuki identified a small pickerel inside a larger one. (Pickerels prey even on members of their own species, the students learned.)

The scientists in the program, most of whom are postdoctoral fellows, are trained on how to be effective mentors. “Scientists are often not trained in mentorship; it’s something that people pick up organically seeing good or bad examples in their own lives,” said Strangas. “A lot of it comes down to: ‘Think about the impact you want to have, think about the impact you don’t want to have, think about the power dynamic at play, and what this student in front of you wants to get out of it.’”

Thoni earned rave reviews from the students, who said he ensured they understood each step of the research process without being patronizing.

Thoni’s next steps include working to publish the microplastics research, which could earn the students their first co-authorship in a scientific journal. “Aside from forgetting to put on gloves,” he said in a playful jab at one student, “they can operate this machine on their own. They do science.”

Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at preston@hechingerreport.org.

AmeriCorps’ work with students nationwide in limbo despite halt to federal funding cuts

2025-06-17T22:37:29+00:00

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When a federal judge earlier this month ordered the Trump administration to restore AmeriCorps funding, there was no relief for the hundreds of service groups that tutor children and staff summer programs in Republican-led states that sat out the lawsuit.

Even in the 24 Democrat-led states that challenged the cuts and won a temporary victory, the logistics of reinstating funding remain unclear. Some states are hesitant to turn on the tap when a higher court could still uphold the cuts. And with approximately 85% of AmeriCorps staff on paid leave, the department has limited ability to actually restore the grants and provide guidance to states. The uncertainty is complicating school partnerships and recruitment efforts for the next school year.

State commissions that oversee AmeriCorps now are navigating “a really uneven field,” said Kaira Esgate, CEO of America’s Service Commissions, a national organization overseeing state service commissions, governor-led public agencies that distribute AmeriCorps grants.

Rural communities who tend to rely on the agency to fund both public service and job opportunities have been particularly hard hit.

AmeriCorps supports educational programs, conservation efforts, and community service across the United States. It funds national programs such as CityYear and Teach for America as well as smaller grassroots organizations. For many communities, AmeriCorps programming also provides a pipeline for recruiting future educators.

More than 28% of organizations receiving direct funding from AmeriCorps are in states that did not have their funding reinstated, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

This partial restoration of AmeriCorps funding is one example of a broader pattern that’s emerged, as Democrat-led states challenge the Trump administration in court, while Republican-led states don’t. For example, federal courts have restored pandemic relief money and National Institutes of Health grants only to states that sued, leading to unequal access to services and funding across the United States.

This Wednesday, a U.S. District Court in Maryland will hear a lawsuit brought by AmeriCorps-funded nonprofits, educational advocacy groups, and the AmeriCorps Employees Union AFSCME Local 2027. The lawsuit seeks a nationwide injunction that would restore funding in every state and put AmeriCorps agency staff back on the job before the 2025-26 school year.

“Our summer school and after-school programs have a lot of AmeriCorps people who work there, and suddenly all those people are no longer serving,” says Chris Giorlando, the grant manager at Mahpiya Luta , an AmeriCorps-funded K-12 school whose funding was not reinstated. “It limits what we can do for students.”

Rural communities hit hardest by AmeriCorps cuts

Mahpiya Luta serves the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, a state that did not join the first lawsuit. The school is one of the plaintiffs in the AmeriCorps lawsuit to be heard on Wednesday.

AmeriCorps staff at Mahpiya Luta provided one-on-one instruction for students, worked as classroom aides, supported after-school programming, and coached the school’s state-recognized sports teams.

AmeriCorps members at Mahpiya Luta provide one-on-one support in classrooms as well as mentorship and extracurricular support.

“The AmeriCorps members who served here, the young Lakota people who served our program, really changed a lot of lives,” said Giorlando, an AmeriCorps alum. Giorlando received an email on April 25 notifying him that the school’s AmeriCorps grant would be terminated immediately by the federal government.

Following the termination of its grant, Mahpiya Luta was able to pay AmeriCorps members for the last three weeks of the school year by drawing from the school’s reserve budget. Originally, the AmeriCorps members would have been paid through the end of June, and AmeriCorps funding would have supported summer programming at the school.

Rural communities like Pine Ridge Reservation face especially high rates of teacher shortages and turnover. Many staff members at Mahpiya Luta came to the school through AmeriCorps programs.

“We used our AmeriCorps program as a kind of pipeline to get people interested in education and get into teaching,” said Moira Coomes, superintendent of Mahpiya Luta. “One of the really big problems in all rural areas is you just don’t have a bank of people waiting to become teachers.”

By offering job opportunities to people in the local community, AmeriCorps grants allowed Mahpiya Luta students to benefit from one-on-one mentorship from young adults on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Around 53% of children on the Pine Ridge Reservation live below the poverty line, according to 2023 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

When grants were terminated, Mahpiya Luta hosted 14 AmeriCorps members who worked 40 to 50 hours a week, as well as an additional part-time AmeriCorps member.

“It’s super important for kids, especially kids in a setting like ours, that they’re seeing adults who look like them, who come from where they come from,” Coomes said. “So that they see that as something they can aspire to.”

In the fall, Mahpiya Luta is hoping to find the money to hire at least kindergarten and first grade aides in the absence of grant funding, but without federal funding, the school’s ability to provide robust in-classroom support and after-school programming will be limited. Giorlando is still searching for alternative means of funding to help fill the void left by AmeriCorps cuts, but he noted that in rural communities, there are limited sources.

“Those are just holes that will not get filled,” Coomes said.

AmeriCorps funding uncertain despite federal judge’s order

Many of the states that should be receiving reinstated funds from AmeriCorps due to the federal judge’s order are still unsure when and how that will happen.

AmeriCorps notified nonprofits whose grants were reinstated the day after the June 5 injunction, but America’s Service Commissions is still waiting for further information from the agency in order to offer states guidance on next steps.

Following the grant terminations on April 25, a number of states placed “stop-service” orders in effect, immediately ending the work of AmeriCorps-supported programs by the following Monday, April 28. Many of these states have decided not to lift these restrictions as they wait for further clarity. The federal government has 60 days after the June 5 injunction to file an appeal, which could disrupt programs once again, although the federal government has yet to do so.

“We’ve got 52 commissions,” said Esgate of America’s Service Commissions. “I wouldn’t say that we have 52 different ways that people approach this, but quite a few different ways that we approach this.”

For example, AmeriCorps programs in Wisconsin have already restarted for the summer.

Easterseals Wisconsin, a summer camp for people with disabilities, is already in the process of onboarding new AmeriCorps members, a week after camp began. But Cally Ehle, the Easterseals grant manager, acknowledged that “there’s a possibility that they may shut us down again.”

“It’s a lot of scrambling now because there were a lot of things that needed to be done for enrollment and the handbooks and training. With everything being terminated, it just kind of shut down,” Ehle said.

By contrast, Michigan has kept its stop-service order in place, preventing AmeriCorps programs from returning to work, even despite the injunction. That’s hurt programs like the Michigan Education Corps, though some work can continue with other funding sources.

“The injunction got lifted, but that doesn’t mean that money is showing up,” said Holly Windram, the founder of Michigan Education Corps. “We lost about $130,000 of reimbursable dollars that we should have been able to get from AmeriCorps. With the injunction, in theory, we should be able to get that. Well, no one knows how that’s going to be facilitated.”

AmeriCorps grants for next school year are unsettled

As of now, AmeriCorps grants for the 2025-26 school year are still supposed to be allocated for all states. However, the majority of AmeriCorps staff has been placed on leave, severely limiting administrative ability. The case to be heard Wednesday seeks the reinstatement of this staff to ensure that grants for the next year can be properly allocated.

“We don’t know what that date is going to look like quite yet, but it is going to be later than normal, and I imagine that’s going to be incredibly disruptive,” Esgate said of when programs will get 2025-26 funding. “Typically education programs are always working to get members recruited, hired, trained, and that they’re ready to go the first day of school and that is definitely not going to happen this time around.”

The Michigan Education Corps has assured the schools in their network that they will continue providing programming, but they haven’t been able to follow up with individuals who have reached out to tutor with them for next year.

Given the delays in the group’s recruitment cycle, Windram worries that they might not have the volunteers they need to provide academic interventions for their students.

“It’s our kids that lose,” Windram said.

Correction: This article has been updated to correct the name of the nonprofit organization that oversees state service commissions. It is America’s Service Commissions, not the American Service Commission.

Norah Rami is a Dow Jones education reporting intern on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Reach Norah at nrami@chalkbeat.org.

School health clinics provide New York students with vital care. Here’s why a payment overhaul could change that.

2025-04-28T09:00:00+00:00

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For Panagiotis Sotiropoulos, a physician assistant, most days bring nosebleeds, ankle sprains, and headaches. There’s diabetes to control and asthma attacks to manage — sometimes so severe they require use of oxygen tanks.

To provide all this care, Sotiropoulous isn’t in a hospital or an urgent care facility. He’s just down the hall from where his patients, who range from 11 to 19 years old, spend most of their time.

Sotiropoulos is the medical provider for a school-based health center in the South Bronx.

“As soon as I walk out of the clinic, it’s like I’m in a different world,” he said. “I smell the food from the cafeteria, I see kids dressed up in uniforms.”

About 250 in-school clinics like this are scattered throughout New York state, reaching roughly 250,000 students in underserved rural and urban areas. But providers and advocates of these clinics fear that this system of care could soon be jeopardized due to a state overhaul of how school-based health centers are paid through the state’s Medicaid system.

For decades, these clinics have provided a wide range of health care to students, offering vaccines, teeth cleaning, and help for mental health struggles, all at no cost. The clinics are integral to their schools and neighborhoods, providing health services in areas where access to care can be limited and issues like asthma can be particularly widespread, advocates say.

The clinics are run by a range of providers, from major hospital systems to nonprofits to federally qualified health center systems like Urban Health Plan, which runs Sotiropoulous’s clinic, as well as others in the Bronx and Queens.

Under the current system, the clinics bill Medicaid on a fee-for-service basis. Last fall, however, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that a long-delayed school clinic payment overhaul would come due this spring. The clinics would be “carved in” to the state’s Medicaid managed care program, requiring them to negotiate a slew of contracts with private health insurance providers.

Providers at school-based health centers are worried the change could mean lower reimbursement rates, reduced services, and clinic closures. And they’re also concerned about what any cuts to Medicaid could mean for the system, as congressional Republicans seek $880 billion in budget cuts over the next decade.

“This is just the worst possible time for you to do anything to shake the foundations of your safety-net care,” said Sarah Murphy, executive director of the New York School-Based Health Alliance, an advocacy organization.

The state postponed its payment overhaul deadline, originally set for April 1, to Thursday at the earliest. Meanwhile, the state budget is nearly a month late, and lawmakers have expressed opposition to the transition, proposing to abandon it in their one-house budget proposals.

The Health Department told providers that the transition would occur no sooner than May 1, “but we cannot comment further at this time due to ongoing budget negotiations,” spokesperson Danielle R. De Souza said in a statement.

School clinics bring comprehensive care to students

New York’s network of school-based health centers has long been a national model, said Dr. Veda Johnson, a professor of pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, who helped open the first school-based health clinic in Georgia in the 1990s.

Johnson’s research into school-based health centers has shown that they are of “tremendous value,” she said, not only by improving preventative care for children, but also by decreasing the burden on the state Medicaid system through reductions in emergency room visits.

The clinics also solve the logistical problem of accessing children’s health care, said Adria Cruz, deputy director of health programs and integration at Children’s Aid, a New York City nonprofit that runs multiple school-based health centers.

“Often the parents have hourly paid jobs,” she said. “Taking time off from work to take their kids to see the doctor could mean that they’re not working that day.”

That could mean annual physicals that don’t happen on time, dental care that gets postponed, or a student coming into school sick because there are no other options. A school-based clinic means that care can happen as part of the school day.

Dr. Viju Jacob, the medical director and vice president of medical affairs at Urban Health Plan, received some of his own early dental care at a school-based health center in the Bronx.

“Many school-based health centers offer the whole-body experience that health care has been talking about forever and ever: integrating services and making sure that they have access to not just physical health, but mental health and dental health,” said Jacob, a pediatrician and vice chair of the New York School-Based Health Foundation.

How a payment overhaul could impact care

While the services that school-based health centers provide are essential, advocates and providers say, the system has always been somewhat financially tenuous. New York City has already seen some of its school-based health clinics close due to budget constraints, and advocates worry that the state’s reform plan could lead to further closures or service reductions.

The state has previously explained the payment overhaul as an effort to integrate school-based health services into the “larger health care delivery system” and coordinate services with children’s primary care providers.

Murphy, of the New York School-Based Health Alliance, said that the current Medicaid fee-for-service system is generally efficient and health centers already work closely with pediatricians.

Under the governor’s plan, school-based health centers will need to negotiate contracts with many private insurers. Advocates are concerned that will mean increased administrative burden on clinics, lower reimbursement rates, and payment delays. As the new deadline approaches this week, Murphy said that while negotiations are underway, they have been complicated, and in many cases, aren’t finished.

For two years following the transition, Medicaid managed care programs will be required to pay school-based health centers no less than the current rates they receive, but providers worry about what could happen next.

Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Bronx Democrat and chair of the Senate Health Committee, has been particularly outspoken in opposing the state’s plan. He sponsors a bill in the state legislature that would permanently carve out school-based health centers from the state’s Medicaid managed care program. Hochul has vetoed previous versions of this bill.

“The administration is insisting on doing a change that makes no sense, that nobody wants,” he said. “The schools don’t want it, the providers don’t want it, the insurance companies don’t want it, the kids and the parents certainly don’t want it. And they’re just, in a boneheaded way, going forward and doing it.”

A poster board in the waiting area of the school-based health center at the I.S. 158 Campus in the South Bronx.

A South Bronx clinic facing an uncertain future

On Friday, the waiting room at the school-based health center in the South Bronx was filling up. The clinic serves students from three schools: Bronx Latin, Bronx Career & College Preparatory High School, and the Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health & Science Charter School.

Nearly 70% of the students at the schools — more than 900 students — are enrolled in the clinic, according to Jacob. In addition to obtaining medical care, students can see a dentist, talk to a behavioral health specialist, or seek out reproductive and sexual health resources.

Carolyn O’Neal, a licensed clinical social worker and behavioral health manager, helps students navigate issues from relationship problems to anxiety and depression. Many behavioral health issues benefit from early intervention, she noted, and school-based clinics can be an ideal place to notice students who are struggling — and step in to help. The same is true for reproductive health care, she said.

“Sometimes you can just tell, when there’s a lot of nervousness, when they come with a group of friends — we know someone needs something,” O’Neal said.

Down the hall, Sotiropoulos jokes that he runs a mini emergency department. It’s a far cry from the in-school health care he remembers from his own education in Queens: a school nurse dispensing Tylenol in the basement.

The repercussions of the approaching payment overhaul are still uncertain, he said.

“I’m worried, honestly. I don’t know what will happen,” he said. “I just hope we stay open. I hope we still offer this. We’ve been doing this for years.”

Eliza Fawcett is a reporter covering public health in New York City for Healthbeat. Contact Eliza at efawcett@healthbeat.org .

After-school programs in the U.S. are closing, but Michigan is finding a way to keep some afloat

2025-04-24T11:17:01+00:00

This story about after-school was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

CLEVELAND — In a public school cafeteria here, 6- and 7-year olds were taking turns sketching their ideas for a building made of toothpicks and gummy bears. Their task: to design a structure strong enough to support a single subject notebook.

It was a challenge meant to test their abilities to plan ahead, work as a team, and overcome setbacks. But first, they had to resist the urge to eat the building materials.

Zayden Barnes, a first grader at Clara E. Westropp School of the Arts, picked up a blue gummy bear and sniffed it. “That smells good,” he said, licking his lips.

Mia Navarro, another first grader, held a green gummy bear to her nose and inhaled deeply. “I can’t stop smelling them!” she exclaimed. “I just want to eat it, but I can’t!”

The lesson in engineering and self-control was part of an after-school program run by the nonprofit Horizon Education Centers. It’s one of a dwindling number of after-school options in this Rust Belt city.

Last year, Horizon and other nonprofit after-school providers reached more than 7,000 students in Cleveland public schools, buoyed by $17 million in pandemic recovery aid. But when the money ran out at the end of that school year, nonprofits here had to drop sites, shed staff, and shrink enrollment. Horizon, which was in five public schools last year, is now in just one.

Similar setbacks can be seen across the country, as after-school programs struggle to replace billions in federal relief money. A few states, including Michigan, are helping to fill the gap; the state legislature has provided $50 million in funding for after-school programs in Detroit and elsewhere in each of the last two years. Ohio, though, isn’t among those states. And many providers nationwide fear more cuts are coming, as the Trump administration continues its campaign to slash government spending and end “equity-related” grants and contracts.

The after-school sector plays a critical role in the nation’s economy, providing close to 8 million students, or nearly 14% of all school-aged children, with a safe place to go while their parents work. It offers homework help, enriching activities, healthy snacks and physical exercise — often for a fee but sometimes for free.

Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education.

Done well, after-school programs can strengthen students’ social and emotional skills, increase their engagement with and attendance in school, and reduce their risk of substance abuse or criminal activity. In some cases, they can help improve grades and test scores, too.

Yet the sector, which has existed for more than 100 years, has long been hobbled by inadequate funding, staffing shortages, and uneven quality. There are long waitlists for many programs, and low-income families often struggle to find affordable options.

In a recent survey by the nonprofit Afterschool Alliance, more than 80% of program leaders said they were concerned about their program’s future, and more than 40% said they worried they’d have to close permanently.

“The state of after-school in America feels very grim,” said Alison Black, executive director of the Cleveland affiliate of America Scores, a nonprofit that teaches soccer and poetry to students in 13 cities across North America.

Nonprofits hit hard by loss of pandemic relief money

For a sector accustomed to scraping by, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, or ARPA, was like a winning lottery ticket.

Over three years, after-school programs received roughly $10 billion in ARPA aid — money they used to add staff, improve pay and benefits, and expand enrollment, according to the Afterschool Alliance. It estimates that programs were able to serve 5 million more kids as a result.

But the money has mostly been spent, and late last month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon told districts that their time to use any remaining funds was over. In Cleveland, which spent almost $28 million on out-of-school time programs between fiscal 2022 and 2024, Horizon and other nonprofits formed a coalition to try to convince the district to continue at least a portion of the aid. They held rallies, secured media coverage, and brought parents to testify before the school board. But the district wouldn’t budge, said David Smith, Horizon’s executive director.

“There’s no opportunity to go back to the scale we were at during the pandemic, and we still have the same problems,” said Smith. “Kids are getting in trouble after school, and they still need the extra academic help.”

The Cleveland Metropolitan District’s CEO, Warren Morgan, has defended his decision not to fund the nonprofit providers, noting that the district offers after-school sports and an arts program. But those extracurriculars vary by day and by school, and after-school advocates say many schools have been left without the consistent, comprehensive care working parents depend on.

“Our city is focused on workforce development without thinking about who cutting this care hurts,” said Black, of America Scores Cleveland.

Without continued support from the district, Black’s organization has had to dip into its rainy-day fund and drop fall soccer for middle schoolers.

Other nonprofits have been harder hit. The Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association, or NCA, has closed half of its locations in the district, leaving programs in seven schools. The Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio, which lost $3 million in pandemic relief dollars and other federal support this academic year, has shuttered 17 sites.

Dorothy Moulthrop, chief executive officer of Open Doors Academy, another nonprofit, thinks the losses might have been less severe if the after-school coalition had been able to show strong results for the federal money. Though individual programs handed over reams of data to the district, Moulthrop wasn’t able to get its leaders to share the data in a form that would allow providers to study their collective impact.

“We needed to be able to demonstrate our return on investment and we were not able to,” she said.

Mixed reviews on effectiveness of after-school programs

Questions about whether after-school programs are a good investment of public dollars have dogged the sector since the early 2000s. That’s when Mathematica Policy Research began publishing the results of an evaluation that found the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, the 27-year-old program that awards federal money for after-school programs via competitive grants through states, had little impact on student outcomes.

The study is controversial, with critics calling it methodologically flawed. But it remains among the only large-scale evaluations of after-school programs. Some analyses since have found after-school programs can boost reading and math achievement, promote positive social behaviors and reduce negative ones, but other studies have shown little growth in those and other areas.

Some of that inconsistency likely stems from differences in the quality of programs, researchers and advocates say. When funding is tight, after-school programs tend to focus their dollars on services, rather than professional development or program evaluation.

“Quality often feels like an extra,” said Jessie Kerr-Vanderslice, a consultant at the American Institutes for Research who focuses on out-of-school time programs.

Attendance matters too: Studies have found that students who attend regularly reap greater benefits than those who show up sporadically.

Yet more than half of students who participated in programs paid for with 21st Century grants in 2022-23 attended for less than 90 hours, a program evaluation shows. That works out to just 30 days for a three-hour program.

Detroit’s Downtown Boxing Gym keeps kids engaged

On the other side of Lake Erie, at Detroit’s Downtown Boxing Gym, students are required to attend at least three days a week. To keep them coming, the program offers a huge range of activities, from cooking to coding (but ironically, not boxing).

Inside the large building that houses the program, there’s a lab with a flight simulator and 3D printer, and a music studio paid for and built by one of Eminem’s former producers.

Outside, on a turf field where the program plans to build an addition that will enable it to double enrollment, a group of middle school majorettes is preparing for an upcoming dance performance.

Debra Beal, who became the caregiver to her niece’s two young sons when she was in her 50s, says the program saved her life — and theirs. It kept the boys, now 19 and 20, off the streets while she worked, provided them with exercise and tutoring, and even served them dinner. The staff became like family, supporting her when she struggled as a parent and offering to pay for counseling when one son lost his father and uncle from fentanyl overdoses on the same day.

“What they’re doing is life-changing,” said Beal, whose long denim coat had the word “Blessed” written in sequins on the back.

Financially, the Downtown Boxing Gym is on surer footing than its counterparts in Cleveland. The program recently received $3 million in funds from the state, a piece of Michigan’s $50 million allocation for after-school programs.

That doesn’t mean the program isn’t being pinched by the Trump administration’s cost-cutting campaign and purge of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, said Jessica Hauser, its executive director. Corporations the program was counting on for seven-figure gifts for the addition and program expansion are reconsidering their pledges, and a promised federal earmark now seems unlikely.

Hauser is also worried about potential cuts to federal child nutrition programs and student aid, which the program depends on for meals and college student tutors.

Back in Cleveland, the coalition Smith formed to fight for after-school funding has expanded to include the city, the county, and a local foundation, which hired a consultant to come up with the cost to deliver quality after-school programming. To longtime advocates like Smith and Allison Wallace, executive director of the The Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association, or NCA, it feels like the sector is having to prove itself, yet again.

Things could get even tougher in the next couple years, as the district shifts the costs of providing security and custodial services for after-school programs onto the nonprofit providers. Wallace estimates that the change will cost providers tens of thousands per site.

And future federal funding is far from guaranteed. Though the 21st Century program enjoys bipartisan support in Congress, Trump sought to eliminate it in every budget proposal he issued in his first term and is expected to do so again.

For now, though, after-school programs are still providing kids in Cleveland with caring staff, a safe place to spend the hours after school, and engaging activities like gummy bear construction.

The teams had 10 minutes to build structures that could support a notebook. When the timer went off, the structure built by Zayden and Mia’s group resembled a two-story house with a caved-in roof. Zayden wasn’t feeling optimistic.

“I think it’s going to fall,” he said.

“Think positive,” said Kathy Thome, a program administrator who is helping the group.

Ian Welch, the program’s site coordinator for Clara E. Westropp, picked up a notebook and approached the table. He reminded the teams that failure is part of the scientific method. If their structures collapse, they can try again, he said.

“It’s going to squish down,” Mia predicted.

She was right. But the flattened structure still held the notebook aloft. The kids jumped up and down, and Zayden did a little boogie.

“We’re so happy — we did it!” he said.

Welch rewarded their effort with some fresh gummy bears, and the kids, proud and hopped up on sugar, waited for their parents to pick them up.

Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, on Signal at CarolineP.83 or via email at preston@hechingerreport.org.

This story was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.

Still reeling from pandemic, NYC students call for more peer mental health support

2025-04-07T20:46:09+00:00

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After her father died during her sophomore year, Gisela Rosa felt pressure to complete her schoolwork and attend her classes, even though her mother encouraged her to stay home and take time to grieve.

Rosa struggled to readjust, though found some solace in the social worker at Manhattan’s Central Park East High School, who would track her down and pull her out of class to talk.

“Aside from her,” she said, “I didn’t feel like anyone at school understood where I was at in my life.”

Seven years after she graduated high school, Rosa now works as a therapist and is pursuing a doctorate degree at Alabama’s Auburn University for counseling psychology — a field she never anticipated entering while in high school. In recent years, she’s provided mental health support to college students, both as a therapist and as a peer mentor while she was still earning her undergraduate degree.

Increasingly, mental health professionals, like Rosa, have highlighted the importance of peer support in addressing mental health challenges, giving young people the space to speak openly with one another and training them to support their peers.

It’s a model that city and state officials have looked to since the onset of the COVID pandemic, when concerns rose about an uptick in students struggling with mental health challenges. A higher share of the city’s high school students reported feeling so sad or hopeless that they gave up their usual activities, as well as experienced suicidal ideation, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, based on 2021 Health Department data.

New York City Council members have passed legislation to bring mental health professionals into middle and high school wellness clubs, as well as expand informational materials for students seeking to start their own wellness club and training for students interested in peer-to-peer mental health programs.

Meanwhile, state officials have invested in programs to train high school students in recognizing and responding to signs of mental health and substance-abuse challenges among their peers. And New York City schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos is hoping to enlist students for peer-led anti-vaping and anti-bullying campaigns.

According to a national poll from 2022, teens were more than twice as likely to seek mental health information from their friends than teachers or other adults at school.

Though it’s been years since she graduated, Rosa still thinks about how her time in high school might have been different if she’d had access to mental health support from her peers — if she’d been able to talk with other students who could relate to the pain of losing a parent.

“I feel like my experience in high school would have been completely different,” she said. “It would have reminded me that I was a person, and I was allowed to grieve.”

Still reeling from pandemic, NYC students turn to peers

For students in New York City and across the country, the sudden onset of the pandemic in 2020 upended day-to-day life. Classes shifted online, and for many students, that meant a period of extended isolation from their peers. And as the virus spread, some saw their families experience personal or financial loss.

Though years have passed, educators continue to report lingering behavioral concerns. It’s something students, too, feel persisting.

“Every second, I still feel it,” said Cree Griffin, a senior at the Repertory Company High School for Performing Arts in Manhattan. “COVID really took its toll. It changed the world, and it will never go back to what it used to be.”

During her freshman year, Griffin led a mental health club for her peers, giving students space to speak openly about the challenges they faced. But the club eventually dissolved after Griffin faced a suspension at school, and though she tried to start it up again after a friend died during her junior year, she struggled to find support.

For Brandai Arnold, a freshman at the Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change in Manhattan, returning to school has meant grappling with an instinct to isolate.

“It’s like, since I didn’t have that space to talk before, now I don’t want to talk at all,” she said. “Even when there are a lot of people around, you’re still isolating yourself, because that’s what we got used to.”

Although Griffin and Arnold haven’t always felt they could confide in adults or peers at school, both students said they’ve felt embraced by the community at The Brotherhood Sister Sol, a Harlem-based nonprofit that provides support and programming for city youth.

The nonprofit was one of several groups to call on the city to invest further in peer-to-peer mental health support during a City Council hearing in November.

“Peers just trust each other more,” said Rox Costello, a licensed social worker who works at Brotherhood Sister Sol. “When we ask them, ‘Who are you more inclined to go to to talk about these issues?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to talk to my best friend. I’m going to talk to my partner. I’m going to talk to my girlfriend, or my boyfriend, or whoever it is.‘”

Though Costello said it would be ideal for every young person to have a trusted adult to confide in about mental health challenges, they noted that isn’t the case for many teenagers. For some, their families might not understand the mental health challenges they face, making it even more difficult to speak up.

Peer-to-peer models can be critical for adding another layer of support, Costello added, with young people trained to recognize signs their peers are struggling, give them space to speak openly about their mental health, and connect them to resources that will help.

Arnold said she generally feels more comfortable talking about mental health with people close to her own age.

“Most of the people close to my age, I feel like I can talk to them better than I could anyone older,” she said. “When you talk to someone older, it feels like they won’t understand you.”

NYC mental health organization invests in peer support

In New York City, the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City has been ramping up peer-to-peer support for teenagers.

Tamar Cox-Rubien, a youth peer leader at the alliance, leads a free, weekly support group for teens. As a near-peer leader, Cox-Rubien has drawn on her own challenges with mental health to connect with the students in her support group.

“When you’re working in a peer-led model, I can share what’s going on with me,” she said. “I can share what works for me, empathize with them, and let them know that I have been in their shoes.”

The organization also operates a helpline, providing callers with emotional support and connections to mental health resources like therapy. That helpline opened for teenagers in January.

For many of the teenagers that Cox-Rubien works with, the pandemic significantly disrupted development, she said. With schools shuttering and moving online during their third or fourth grade years, many teens missed out on critical time with their peers, experiencing immense social isolation, she said.

“Teens are far more likely to entrust the mental health symptoms or emotions they may be going through to their friends, as opposed to adults,” Cox-Rubien added.

Eventually, the support group will transition into being led by the students themselves, after the organization trains interested students to serve as volunteer facilitators. Cox-Rubien said she’s seen the peer support model play a critical role in countering feelings of isolation.

“It offers that chance for teens to connect with others who’ve had similar experiences to them,” she said. “Creating that space of complete non-judgment and empathy, where they are learning together, where they’re going through similar things together, and where they’re combatting that isolation that comes with dealing with mental health struggles.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

What Newark families need to know about the district’s free summer and mandatory programs

2025-04-04T10:00:01+00:00

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Newark families can now apply to Newark Public Schools’ free summer programs for students in elementary, middle, and high school.

Registration for summer programs began on April 1 and closes on May 16. Summer programs will begin on June 30 and end on Aug. 1.

Summer programs are available to all students living in Newark and include a combination of enrichment activities, specialized programs for high schoolers, and mandatory academic programs based on student attendance, grades, and state test scores.

Similar to last year, the district will continue to offer extended hours until 6 p.m. for enrichment programs, which are provided by teachers and community-based organizations.

Summer programs, which remain the same as last year’s, provide support to students needing additional help in math and reading, and also offer accelerated courses and post-high school planning for students. Summer classes are also available to English language learners and students with disabilities.

This year, the programs will take place at 15 elementary schools and 11 high schools across Newark.

Those who are Newark residents but were not enrolled in a public school this year are also eligible to attend, depending on availability.

Then there are summer programs some students are required to attend. Last week, Superintendent Roger León said it is crucial for students who require extra support throughout the school year to attend mandatory summer school. Students who are required to attend summer school have already been enrolled by the district.

How do families apply?

Newark families can apply by visiting the district’s summer programs website and selecting the program their child wishes to attend.

Parents of students who are required to attend mandatory summer school were notified during parent-teacher conferences on Feb. 13. If a parent has travel plans or questions about the mandatory program, they can contact their child’s teacher or school principal, León said.

After applications close on May 16, families will be notified on June 2 about their acceptance into the program.

Summer programming starts with breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and runs until 6 p.m. The district’s mandatory summer school sessions will be held between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. with lunch at noon. Enrichment programs and activities through the district’s Summer Quest program will run from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. with dinner included. Students can attend in the morning, afternoon, or the full day, León said.

Who must attend Newark’s mandatory summer school?

Students must attend mandatory summer school classes if they are failing in English language arts and math, did not pass the English language arts or math portions of the state test, and were absent more than 10% of the school year.

The extra instruction provided to students over the summer is meant to refine basic skills in English language arts and math, said León last week.

“If a student is doing well in our school, then they shouldn’t be failing on the state test,” said León during March’s school board meeting.

In 2023, the district identified about 10,000 students who needed mandatory summer school that year, due in part to the delayed release of state test scores in 2022.

Although no state mandate requires students to attend a mandatory summer program, the district may not promote a student to the next grade if they do not attend summer school or have certain privileges revoked, León added.

Elementary students who do not attend within the first three days of programming may lose their seats. After their third unexcused absence, they will be dismissed from their mandatory program, according to the district’s summer programs brochure.

What are other summer programs?

The district is also offering a kindergarten bootcamp program for preschoolers transitioning into the next grade this fall. Students will receive instruction focused on English language arts, literacy, math, science, approaches to learning, and social emotional and health development.

Students in grades 3-5 can also apply for the summer visual and performing arts academy, an arts-focused enrichment program that guides students through dance, musical theatre, and visual arts. The five-week Summer Visual & Performing Arts Academy takes place at Rafael Hernandez School and includes field trip experiences.

High school students can also apply to other programs such as the Future Business Leaders Program, a work-based learning initiative offering summer internships to the district’s career and technical education students. Students in the Montclair Teacher Academy will participate in their program at Montclair State.

A full list of programs offered can be found in the district’s summer learning brochure.

Programs for English language learners, students with disabilities

Students with disabilities can also apply for the Elementary Extended School Year program, focusing on maintaining skills developed throughout the school year. The program provides instruction based on the student’s Individualized Education Plan goals and addresses academics, instruction, social skills, emotional support, and communication skills.

But the district’s office of special education says not all students with IEPs are eligible for summer services. Child Study Team members assess each student by looking at a student’s risk of losing skills and knowledge during the summer break, according to the district’s office of special education. They also look at how long it might take a student to regain those skills lost over the break.

If a student is denied a spot, a parent can appeal.

Additionally, English language learners in elementary and high school can apply to programs to support their language skills. The Newcomers High School Summer Program is designed to support high school students who have recently arrived in the country. This program will be offered at Central, East Side, Malcolm X Shabazz, and Technology high schools, according to the district’s summer programs brochure.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

NYC looks to parent volunteers to help tackle chronic absenteeism in Aviles-Ramos’ first initiative

2025-04-03T20:58:42+00:00

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New York City’s Education Department plans to train hundreds of new parent volunteers to help families overcome challenges affecting school attendance, Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said Thursday.

The department will also launch new student-led anti-vaping and anti-bullying campaigns.

These programs are the first steps in a plan called NYCPS Cares, created in response to the problems Aviles-Ramos heard during a five-borough listening tour she held in recent months. Among the issues that came up at these sessions: youth struggles with mental health, students feeling unsafe commuting to school, calls for more support for new immigrants, and the need for expanded access to sports and other extracurriculars.

“We cannot punish parents when kids cannot get to school. We need to ask the question; ‘Parents, what is keeping your children from getting to school and how can we help you?‘” Aviles-Ramos said Thursday in East Harlem kicking off the initiative. “Our parent leaders are our best partners to make sure we give our parents everything they need so our babies can get to school every single day.”

The “family connectors” program will train participants on how to help families in their schools access such city resources as housing support, food benefits, and mental and physical health providers.

Officials will begin rolling the program out in 12 of the city’s 32 community school districts that have higher levels of poverty, chronic absenteeism, and teacher turnover, but said people from other districts can also apply. The city ultimately plans to have a family connector in each of the city’s 1,600 public schools, a spokesperson said.

The program is unpaid for parent volunteers, unlike a previous COVID-era initiative that paid parents $500 stipends to become “wellness ambassadors.”

Brooklyn parent leader NeQuan McLean, who spoke at Thursday’s event, joked that he was looking forward to “another unpaid job.” Many of the primary roles for parent leaders — including serving on Community Education Councils and the Panel for Educational Policy — are uncompensated.

But McLean said the effort could still be a “gamechanger” by “codifying” and offering additional support for the kinds of work that many involved parent leaders already perform.

The advantage of keeping the position unpaid is that parent volunteers may feel less beholden to the Education Department, he added.

“Once they begin to pay you, then you are limited to what you can say or do,” McLean said.

Aviles-Ramos echoed that the initiative is largely about “formalizing the work [parent leaders] are already doing organically.”

The anti-bullying and anti-vaping initiative is expected to tap students to deliver the message to their peers rather than adults, officials said.

Annual student surveys show that bullying, particularly online, is a rising concern for city students. Roughly 43% of students in the most recent survey reported seeing regular bullying and harassment online, up from 35% in 2024.

“These campaigns will tell you more than ‘don’t vape’ and ‘don’t bully’ because we know how effective that is,” Aviles-Ramos said.

Jesus Peguero, a middle school student wearing an “Escape the Vape” shirt at Thursday’s event said he’s been part of a group brainstorming effective messages to steer peers away from vaping. That includes, for example, telling athletes “they won’t be able to continue what they’re doing” if they vape, he saId.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the campaigns would require additional funding. State Attorney General Letitia James announced last year she was sending $27 million to New York City for anti-vaping campaigns. The money came from a settlement in a successful lawsuit against the e-cigarette giant Juul, which was accused of illegally marketing its products to youth.

The chancellor expects to announce other aspects of the NYCPS Cares plan closer to the start of next school year. It’s the first major initiative Aviles-Ramos has announced since taking over in October after her predecessor David Banks unexpectedly retired. She has largely committed to continuing Banks’ major initiatives, including literacy and math curriculum overhauls.

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

NYC teens take the mic: P.S. Weekly is back for Season 2!

2025-03-31T09:00:00+00:00

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P.S. Weekly is back!

Welcome to Season 2, bringing you the sound of the New York City school system from those who know it inside and out: students.

P.S. Weekly goes deep on the issues teens are talking about: AI, sex ed, politics, immigration, curriculums that reflect their own identity and experience, and more. The podcast — created by Chalkbeat and The Bell and led by veteran producer Ave Carrillo — puts students in the editor’s seat. Ten high school interns from schools across the boroughs are the show’s hosts, producers, and sound engineers.

Their one-on-one conversations with students, educators, and experts will illuminate how the biggest news stories of the day intersect with the lives of teens in the nation’s largest school system.

Through The Bell’s long-running internship program, students are learning the tools and skills needed to become the next generation of audio journalists. And with guidance from Chalkbeat’s team of seasoned reporters and editors, they’re digging into the nuts and bolts of education journalism. The partnership between the two organizations fills a critical void: A 2022 study found that about 1 in 4 New York City public high schools has a student newspaper or news site. Among high-poverty schools, only 7% have one.

P.S. Weekly episodes will come out on Thursdays, starting April 3.

The Season 2 teaser is available below. Listeners can subscribe to P.S. Weekly on all major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Meet your new guides:

From left, Annie He, Aponi Kafele, and Bernie Carmona Pereda.

Annie He, senior

John Dewey High School, Brooklyn

Annie manages the Arts Honors Society and participates in her school’s journalism club and senior committee. In Annie’s free time, she enjoys writing short stories and going for walks around her neighborhood.

Aponi Kafele, junior

Essex Street Academy, Manhattan

Aponi is a Brooklyn-born-and-raised lover of dramatics, which shows in her school band performances and the fiction writing she’s published. She is the president and founder of her school newspaper, “The Flare,” and has dreams of publishing and producing her own creative stories.

Bernie Carmona Pereda, senior

The Beacon School, Manhattan

Bernie has been active as a student reporter at The Bell and a member of The Bronx Documentary Center. When Bernie isn’t taking pictures or doing his homework, he is usually walking around the city or cooking a new dish at home.

From left, Isabella Mason, Jasmyn Centeno, and Jojo Fofana.

Isabella Mason, senior

Midwood High School, Brooklyn

Isabella finds intersections between advocacy and performing arts at her high school. She writes for Midwood’s “Argus” newspaper and dances in a variety of cultural productions. Her devotion to social justice was sparked by docuseries and video essays highlighting the injustices she witnesses in her community. She is passionate about a range of urban issues, from redlining to gentrification, but also exploring the world in all its pain and glory. Isabella has been published in City Limits News, and works with the Youth Journalism Coalition to channel her passion for social justice into legislative advocacy. Outside of advocacy, Isabella plays volleyball, gardens, and builds computers.

Jasmyn Centeno, senior

Uncommon Leadership Charter High School, Brooklyn

Jasmyn is a member of her school’s photography club, student government alliance, and health information program. When Jasmyn isn’t going insane applying to scholarships or universities, she loves to listen to a wide variety of music and watch movies like Lady Bird.

Jojo Fofana, senior

Fordham High School for The Arts, The Bronx

Jojo frequently works on short films with his friends or personal projects. His latest film was a documentary short, and a new film is currently on the way. He’s a member of the International Thespian Society and has produced two original plays for New York Theatre Workshop. If Jojo isn’t feeding on Magik in Marvel Rivals, he’s probably watching Dandadan.

From left, Katelyn Melville, Mateo Tang Oreilly, Roberto Bailey, and Sanaa Stokes.

Katelyn Melville, senior

Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts, Brooklyn

As an explorer and avid seeker of knowledge, you can usually find Katelyn wandering through the city or knee-deep in an internet rabbit hole. Since childhood, she has loved writing, and when she’s not searching the web endlessly, you’ll find her eyes glued to old Grey’s Anatomy episodes, writing a poem, or reading her friends’ tarot cards!

Mateo Tang Oreilly, sophomore

Central Park East High School, Manhattan

Mateo is a member of his school’s debate team and National Honor Society. He has a passion for the field of business and trying new foods.

Roberto Bailey, junior

Hunter College High School, Manhattan

Roberto serves as news managing editor of his school newspaper, editor-in-chief of its research journal, and public forum novice director of the speech and debate team. Outside of school, Roberto loves to try new cafés and spend time with his cat.

Sanaa Stokes, senior

Professional Performing Arts High School, Manhattan

Sanaa is majoring in drama at PPAS. She is the vice president of the Black Student Union as well as the Women’s Advancement and Liberation Club. When she’s not rehearsing her lines, she enjoys watching romantic comedies. In the fall of 2025, Sanaa will attend Spelman College as an English major.

Ave Carrillo, left, and Carolina Hidalgo.

Ave Carrillo, executive producer

Ave has been in the business of making radio and audio stories since the late 1990’s. Most recently she was executive producer of local podcasts for WNYC where she launched the thrice daily show NYC Now. Before that she served as senior producer of The New Yorker Radio Hour. There, she was a key member of the team that helped shape the editorial direction of the show, making it one of the fastest growing podcasts and radio programs at WNYC. Prior to that, she worked for several shows including the Peabody Award-winning program Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, PRI’s Fair Game, Metropolitan Opera Radio, and more.

Carolina Hidalgo, engagement editor

Carolina is an audio producer, photojournalist and educator from Queens, New York. She’s the former senior producer of WNYC’s Radio Rookies program, where she worked with teens and young adults to produce award-winning radio stories about their lives and communities.Throughout her career as a photographer and reporter at various newspapers and public radio stations, Carolina has focused on stories about inequality, justice reform, and social movements. She has reported from the U.S.–Mexico border as an International Women’s Media Foundation fellow and has taught at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Her work has been recognized by the Third Coast International Audio Festival and the Gracie Awards, among others, and she was previously named one of The Lit List’s “30 photographers to watch.”

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between The Bell and Chalkbeat, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.

Changes to next year’s student OMNY cards? Digital access, more durable cards

2025-03-13T19:37:45+00:00

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The switch to OMNY cards for the New York City public school system has been a boon to students across the boroughs.

And as the Education Department and Metropolitan Transportation Authority gear up for the coming school year, some major changes could be afoot — including the material they’re made of, the ability to use them on cellphones, and who is eligible, Education Department officials said Thursday at a Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee meeting.

More than half a million students received OMNY cards through this year’s new initiative, providing up to four free rides all day, 365 days a year. (Previously, Metrocards only offered three daily rides during limited hours on school days.) New York City paid the MTA roughly $50.5 million for 1.5 million cards, and has so far delivered about 60% of those cards to schools, Education Department officials recently told Chalkbeat.

But complaints from parents and schools have been growing louder about damaged, lost, and deactivated cards as the school year enters the spring term. Some schools have reported long waits to get replacement cards, prompting concerns especially for migrant students who could face severe consequences, including possible deportation, for jumping a turnstile to get to school. Education Department officials, however, have said schools should get replacement cards about a week after requesting them.

Here’s what could change next year:

The flimsy paper material used for the student OMNY cards could soon be a thing of the past.

The Education Department is in discussions with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the vendor who makes the cards to explore changes to the cards’ material and durability, La-Nikka Parker-Moore, from the Education Department’s Office of Pupil Transportation, told members of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee on Thursday.

“Mom puts it in the wash by mistake, it’s in the pocket, or kids’ juice is spilling,” Parker-Moore said. “They’re getting damaged more.”

MTA officials confirmed they are looking into more durable materials for student OMNY passes.

Another way Parker-Moore hoped to address the issue was to move to having virtual student OMNY cards, she said.

Anticipating some wear-and-tear and lost cards, the Education Department this year provided extra cards to schools so they have replacement cards on hand, Parker-Moore said.

“If your student OMNY card is damaged, please return the damaged card to your school,” Parker-Moore said. “The school will replace it right away. We send many cards to the school with a buffer to ensure that schools always have cards on hand.”

A program piloting virtual student OMNY cards will launch in the fall.

Students will soon have the option to link their OMNY cards to a device so they will no longer need to carry a physical card, Parker-Moore said. But before rolling the program out citywide, the Education Department plans to pilot it. Officials declined to provide more details on the scope of the pilot.

Students who don’t have devices will still be able to get physical cards. Those with devices will have to choose whether they want an actual card or one linked to their device.

“We all know not every student will have a physical device. Maybe parents don’t want them to have a smartphone or things like that, so they will still have the option of the physical card,” Parker-Moore said. “But it wouldn’t be both.”

The number of students eligible for OMNY cards might expand.

Student OMNY cards are only available to children who live at least half a mile away from their school, much to the frustration of families whose children live closer but can’t get the other benefits of the cards such as the weekend and summer hours or rides to and from sports, extracurriculars, or internships.

Similarly, students with disabilities and others who ride yellow school buses don’t get the cards, since they’re only allowed one mode of transportation, Parker-Moore said.

That could potentially change.

“We do recognize the extended benefits of being able to travel outside of school hours,” Parker-Moore said. “So these are, these are ongoing discussions.”

For students without OMNY cards who need transit for school-approved programs, their school can request “special program OMNY cards,” which offer two trips and two transfers per day, officials said.

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

Flimsy student OMNY cards and replacement delays cause schools frustration

2025-02-28T22:04:05+00:00

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Some New York City students who have lost, damaged, or otherwise non-working school-issued OMNY cards have been waiting over a month for replacements, parents and educators said.

They are especially concerned that the delays could hurt attendance for recent immigrants, who might fear that jumping a turnstile to get to school could lead to deportation.

Education Department officials insist, however, that new cards — which they receive from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — can be delivered within a week of requesting them.

The student OMNY cards, issued for the first time this school year, offer up to four free rides 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It’s a major upgrade from the previous cards that allowed three rides during limited hours on school days. New York City paid the MTA $50.5 million for 1.5 million cards for roughly 500,000 - 600,000 eligible students. So far, the Education Department has delivered more than 890,000 OMNY cards to schools, officials said.

The need for new cards may be mounting as the school year enters its second half and wear-and-tear is starting to show on many of the paper-thin bright green cards. (MTA officials advised against laminating the cards, and while schools often encourage their students to keep them in protective cases, the cards still might easily bend.) Lost, stolen, or damaged cards are the most common reasons for replacement card requests, officials said, declining to provide a specific breakdown.

“These cards are made of paper. They’re at the bottom of the bookbag. They’re crumpled. They have juice on them,” said Jorge Izquierdo, transportation coordinator at P.S. 145. He estimated receiving about 60 new card requests, with a steady stream of parents showing up at the Upper West Side school since November.

Some cards also “looked perfect,” but families said they had stopped working, Izquierdo said. Several parents across the city have also reported that cards appearing in mint condition have stopped working, and while cards can be deactivated after the MTA flags possible misuse to schools, the number of cards that have been deactivated for this reason was low, Education Department officials said.

P.S. 145 parent Naveed Hasan said about a third of the school’s students live in temporary housing, and a large number are newly arrived in the country.

“Leaving them without official transportation is opening them up to detention by the Feds,” worried Hasan, who is on the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, the school board that authorizes Education Department contracts. “As you can imagine, attendance is not helped by this situation.”

A nearby middle school saw a similar delay in getting new cards.

“Please help your child figure out a system for securing their OMNY card,” Principal Elana Elster of M.S. 54, wrote to parents on Jan. 31.

The 700-student school has received 144 replacement card requests, with some students losing their card multiple times, she wrote.

“It takes a while to get new cards. It’s taken over a month recently,” Elster wrote. “Although we have complained to the city about this and about the flimsy cards, we haven’t had any luck in getting replacement cards faster.”

The principal from M.S. 54 did not respond for comment. But a parent from the school said her daughter, who had lost her card more than a month ago, got a replacement card this week after Chalkbeat sent the Education Department an inquiry about the delay.

P.S. 145 also received 50 new cards this week, after Chalkbeat’s inquiry, Izquierdo said.

Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle urged schools who are experiencing delays to flag it for their superintendents or transportation liaisons.

“New York City Public Schools works every day to ensure that our students have the resources they need to get to and from school,” Lyle said in a statement. “If schools are experiencing any delays or issues with getting replacement cards, they should reach out to their superintendent or transportation liaison.”

Questions and confusion about deactivated cards

Izquierdo, P.S. 145’s transportation coordinator, didn’t understand why mint condition cards had stopped working, and wondered if parents might be confused on how to use them. For instance, maybe they didn’t realize the cards only offered four rides a day, he posited. But he also worried that cards may have been erroneously deactivated.

MTA officials explained that they might flag cards for possible misuse if a card issued to a particular school has seen a flurry of activity, but none of those swipes are near that school. Some students have been selling their OMNY cards online for upwards of $1,500, the New York Post reported.

The transit authority knows which cards are tied to specific schools, but only the schools know which cards are assigned to specific students. When there are no swipes near a particular school, the MTA might deactivate a card. The transit authority alerts the Education Department, which in turn contacts the school, Education Department officials said. The school can request the card not be deactivated if the student is actually using it. Otherwise, Education Officials said they ask the school to issue a replacement before the card is deactivated so a student should always have a working card.

“In the relatively few situations where student passes are being used improperly, as we’ve said repeatedly those cards will be deactivated, and we defer to NYC Public Schools to resolve those matters with any students involved,” MTA Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara said in a statement.

Izquierdo said he has never been contacted about possible misuse of any OMNY cards.

He suggested that the school system create some sort of kid- and parent-friendly guidance or FAQ sheet to hand out to families, in multiple languages, explaining the terms of how to use the cards, how to care for them, and the consequences of misusing them, which students would be required to sign before obtaining their cards.

“Having guidelines, something that you sign to acknowledge what you’re responsible for, would have been helpful,” Izquierdo said.

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

Bronx youth clubhouse avoids shutdown with new ownership

2025-02-26T00:49:40+00:00

This story was originally published on Feb. 25 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

Commonpoint, a growing Queens nonprofit that runs community centers, has taken over operations at the former Madison Boys and Girls Club Joel E. Smilow clubhouse in Crotona, after purchasing the building for $7.9 million late last year — saving a storied youth facility from closing.

Beginning this Thursday, the Bronx Center will be fully open to the public, restoring services and an after-school space for hundreds of local youth at the site of a famous gang treaty. A newly renovated pool will open in March, after years out of service.

The center is Commonpoint’s first full-service location in The Bronx. The Queens-centered organization, whose services include job training and high school equivalency courses, health and wellness classes, and programs for youth, families and older adults, has expanded aggressively in recent years to serve about 100,000 people at more than 80 locations.

“We still imagine ourselves to be a bit on a listening tour,” Commonpoint President and CEO Danielle Ellman told THE CITY in a visit this week to the Bronx center, at 1665 Hoe Avenue.

“We recognize that this community building will only be successful if community feels their voice and their choice is represented in it,” said Ellman.

Ellman estimated that the 37,000-square-foot center is currently serving 250 to 350 people per week but hopes to expand that to 2,000 while offering new services, including fitness and wellness classes for older adults and swim instruction for all ages and skill levels while continuing to provide dance and music instruction, a rec room and a computer room.

While under the management of the Boys and Girls Club, the pool had been inoperable, with water leaking out through holes and crevices. Commonpoint spent $200,000 to renovate it, along with an additional $500,000 for a complete “facelift” of the building’s interior that included new paint, signage, lighting and redoing the floors and walls.

Construction workers were using an automated vacuum to clean the floor of the pool, replacing and cleaning out the gutters and powerwashing the deck tiling when THE CITY visited on Monday.

Commonpoint repaired what had been an unusable swimming pool, Feb. 24, 2025.

Meanwhile, an ESL and a high school equivalency class were taking place in two classrooms on the first floor.

ESL students Kimberly Wright, Luz Castillo and Brenda Duran told THE CITY that they’ve made strides in their English language skills one month into a free six-month course. The mother of two boys, a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old, Wright is hoping to improve her English to help them be bilingual and as she plans to reenter the workforce when her youngest enters 3-K.

“We’re here trying to improve our English,practice every day,” said Wright, who immigrated five years ago from Panama, where she worked as a compliance officer. “I live in the neighborhood, so one day when one friend told me, ‘Oh yeah, look they have some classes,’ I came here and let’s go.”

Closing and a grand re-opening

The Boys and Girls Club had run the facility since 1967, but in July of 2023, it reached a $22 million bankruptcy settlement to pay off a trust covering 149 people who sued under the New York Child Victims Act. The plaintiffs alleged they had been abused by Dr. Reginald Archibald, a pediatric endocrinologist who volunteered from the 1940s through the 1980s at other clubhouses operated by the organization.

Last April, CEO Tim McChristian announced the “heartbreaking” decision to shutter the Smilow clubhouse by August, leaving hundreds of local youth without their after-school hang-out.

That same Spring, Commonpoint found out its lease for a site in Mott Haven, where they had operated a high school equivalency program and vocational training for teenagers and young adults since 2022, was not going to be renewed. Apex Development Group, a Long Island-based real estate developer and construction management company, suggested that Commonpoint look at the Hoe Avenue location, which had a restrictive covenant with the city from a 2015 funding agreement mandating that the building only be used as a community and recreation center through 2030.

Ellman said Apex had been looking at the space as a potential charter school, which would have involved filling the pool with concrete to create more classroom space.

“The idea that a pool that existed in a borough that has too few pools already would no longer exist kind of piqued our curiosity,” said Ellman. “To the credit of the Madison Girls and Boys Club, the building was very loved and we could see that.”

Commonpoint’s purchase averts the shutdown of a clubhouse that has historically been a safe haven for youth, especially those involved in gangs.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Black American and Puerto Rican gangs including The Black Spades, Savage Nomads, Ghetto Brothers and the Savage Skulls fought for territory in the South Bronx.

As the violence got deadlier, the Ghetto Brothers sought to become peacekeepers, organizing clothing drives and a free breakfast program that was inspired by the mutual aid efforts of the Black Panther Party. The Ghetto Brothers assigned Cornell Benjamin, better known as “Black Benjie,” as their top peace counselor.

A throwback violence interrupter, Benjamin was murdered for his efforts on Dec. 2, 1971, trying to de-escalate a dispute between rival gangs in Horseshoe Park on East 165th Street and Rogers Place. After his death, his mother, Gwendolyn Benjamin, helped convince the Ghetto Brothers not to retaliate against anyone and instead seek the peace he’d wanted.

That led to a meeting of about 40 gang leaders at a neutral site: the Hoe Avenue Boys Club.

Now the storied building begins a new chapter.

Eddie Guzman, one of the few people who can recall that meeting and a former peer counselor at the club, praised Commonpoint’s arrival. “I think it’s gonna be good for the community,” said Guzman, president of the Hoe Avenue Alumni Association, expressing excitement for their high school equivalency classes, after-school program, and planned swim lessons for seniors. “They’re offering what Boys Club was supposed to been offering all the time.”

Weeks after the Boys and Girls Club closed the site at the end of August, Commonpoint began programs there. By December, the sale was finalized and Common Point began renovating the building.

Now, the group is primed for its ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday as the start of a collaborative expansion in The Bronx for a group whose home base was long the suburban neighborhoods of northeast Queens, under the name Samuel Field YM & YWHA.

“Sky’s the limit,” said Ellman. “I’m gonna be corny for a second, but we try to be the common point of community. We recognize that over a lifetime, your needs can evolve and change, but we can be a constant and a common point for you.”

Some NYC families can get $120 per child in summer food benefits. Here’s how to apply.

2025-02-21T21:30:08+00:00

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New York City families: You may be eligible for $120 per child in summer food benefits this year.

The Summer EBT program, which rolled out for the first time last year, is intended to help low-income families cover costs for meals usually provided at school.

The federal benefits followed a similar program that began during the COVID pandemic and operated for several years. But though advocates described that program as a critical lifeline for families in need, some New Yorkers never redeemed their benefits, and millions of dollars in potential aid were routinely left on the table. Some critics blamed the unused funds on insufficient state outreach.

For families who have been able to take advantage of the funds, the federal programs have offered some reprieve amid rising costs. Across the state, 79% of New Yorkers reported it had become harder to afford groceries last year, with more than half of public school families experiencing signs of food insecurity, according to a poll from No Kid Hungry, a campaign from the non-profit Share Our Strength that seeks to end childhood hunger and poverty.

Still, there are key differences between the two programs. All New York City public school families received the pandemic-era benefits, but a smaller number of families are eligible for Summer EBT. And among those eligible, some New York City families will have to apply in order to receive them — a potential barrier for those who may be unaware of the requirement.

Although hundreds of thousands of New York families were eligible to receive the benefits if they applied last year, just 17,158 applications were submitted across the state, according to data obtained by David Rubel, an education consultant who has raised the alarm over unused federal benefits.

Families who had to apply represented just a fraction of those receiving the roughly $250 million in food benefits, with the funds issued automatically to more than 2.1 million eligible children last year, according to the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which oversees the summer meal programs. In New York City, more than 1.1 million children received the money, officials said.

And this year, families have a longer timeline to apply for the benefits.

“Last summer, families only had two months, which is a very small window,” Rubel said. “The good news is that New York State kept the application on their website. It’s there right now, and any family can go on their website, fill it out, and submit it for summer 2025.”

Rachel Sabella, director of No Kid Hungry New York, praised the benefits, adding “we have a chance this year to reach more families who weren’t automatically enrolled or pulled in through last year’s outreach.

“This money makes a real difference when parents get to the register at a grocery store,” she said in a statement. “It’s on all of us to keep pushing and to find new ways to get families the benefits they’re entitled to.”

Here’s what New York City families need to know:

Who is eligible for Summer EBT benefits?

Under federal guidelines, a child is only eligible for the program if they attend a school with free lunch and meet household income requirements for free- or reduced-price school meals. (The income requirement varies based on household size, and families can check whether they are eligible here. A family of four, for example, would qualify with an annual income at or below $57,720.)

How can you apply for the benefits?

Most eligible families, including recipients of SNAP, Temporary Assistance, or Medicaid, will automatically receive the funds. Those who will automatically receive them should be notified via a letter in the summer, according to state officials.

Others will need to apply. Families can access the online application here.

When is the deadline to apply?

Families have until Sept. 3 to apply for this year’s summer food benefits. The benefits will be retroactive for those applying after the summer. All benefits expire 122 days after being issued.

Could Summer EBT be impacted by cuts to federal funding?

As a federal program, some observers wonder whether Summer EBT’s continuity could be at risk as President Donald Trump’s administration dramatically slashes government funding for many agencies and federal programs.

Stefan Lallinger, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, noted Republicans have proposed large, “fairly indiscriminate” cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates the Summer EBT program.

“It’s hard to say exactly how those are going to be implemented, but I think the bigger point here is that all of this is causing unnecessary confusion and chaos for low-income families,” he said.

Though Lallinger hasn’t yet seen a direct proposal to cut funding from Summer EBT, he said he was concerned that Republicans in the Senate rejected a proposed amendment that sought to protect against cuts to the federal school meals program — a move that signaled to Lallinger that programs like Summer EBT could be impacted in the future.

“It’s not hyperbole to say that this program is potentially in jeopardy,” he said.

Darren O’Sullivan, a spokesperson for OTDA, emphasized that Gov. Kathy Hochul remains committed to combating food insecurity among the state’s families and children.

“Programs like Summer EBT and SNAP are vital to helping families and individuals in New York, and across the country, that are struggling to make ends meet and New York State is prepared to fight back to protect these programs,” he said in a statement.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Graduation gift: NYC high school seniors get free membership for deeply discounted Broadway shows

2025-01-16T21:18:38+00:00

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How can the next generation of New Yorkers become lifelong theatergoers in a city where the average price of a Broadway ticket costs well over $100?

TDF, the nonprofit that offers steep discounts to Broadway shows and other live performances, has one solution: It’s offering a free membership as a “graduation gift” to all New York City high school seniors from public schools, including charters, the nonprofit announced Thursday.

The free one-year TDF membership will give soon-to-be grads access to hundreds of theater, dance, and music shows at up to 70% off, bringing ticket prices down to $11 - $60. (Members can get up to nine discounted tickets per show.)

“We talk a lot here about belonging, and reframing the conversation from bringing young people to the theater, and instead talking about introducing them to their birthright: Everyone should feel like they belong in our performing arts spaces,” said Deeksha Gaur, executive director of TDF.

The application for the free membership is live and will remain open until the end of the summer. Seniors must have a student ID, known as an OSIS number, to fill out the online application. School principals are expected to send their students in the Class of 2025 more information about the program, TDF officials said.

Roughly 2,200 graduates, or roughly 4% of the Class of 2024, took advantage of the membership when it launched last year, according to TDF, which aims to diversify performing arts audiences by removing financial, physical, and other barriers to participation.

(TDF membership typically costs $42 a year, and is only available to select groups, including teachers, nonprofit workers, and union members.)

The organization has other programs related to accessibility and education, including shows that are open-captioned, audio described, and ASL-interpreted, as well as autism-friendly ones. TDF also runs programs that serve between 10,000-12,000 New York City public school students each year, connecting students to artists, introducing them to the performance world through theater, dance, and playwriting workshops, and bringing them to live shows.

“We hear from our teachers, the theater-outing days are where truancy is at its lowest and students are really excited to come into school because many of them haven’t even been to Times Square or Midtown Manhattan before,” Gaur said. “The conversations last for a long time afterwards.”

Theatergoers have gotten somewhat more diverse in terms of racial demographics, according to an analysis of the 2022-23 Broadway season conducted by the Broadway League, which represents theater producers and owners. Roughly 29% of audience members identified as people of color, which was the highest percentage since the League began keeping track nearly 20 years ago.

In terms of age, roughly 11% of theatergoers that season were under the age of 18, while about 12% were between the ages of 18-24. The report noted that kids and teens were the least representative age groups in audiences compared to their numbers in the wider population, but that barriers such as cost, late show hours, or inappropriate content might play a role.

“We know in New York so many of our colleagues and partners do amazing work in the education space, but we noticed when you’re between 18 and 25, you’re sort of forgotten about in terms of who’s serving that group of people before they fully enter the workforce,” Gaur said.

Arts education saw a boost in many places when state used federal COVID relief dollars to expand such programs as a way to address mental health, but not only have those dollars dried up, President-elect Donald Trump will likely put arts education cuts high on his to-do list, Heddy Lahmann, professor of international education at New York University, wrote in a recent op-ed.

She warned against that, citing her research into how art education not only helps mental health but also might contribute to more peaceful societies.

“The arts connect us to our own humanity and to the humanity of others, providing opportunities to complicate notions of ‘us’ versus ‘them,’” she wrote.

Kids who participate in arts education see other tangible benefits, she said, including higher engagement with school and increased likelihood of earning a four-year college degree.

The threat of cuts, Gaur said, makes the work TDF does by providing free programs to schools “all the more important.”

“We’re going to look at ways to deepen that work,” Gaur said. “We know how helpful art can be both to escape but also to process what’s happening in the world right now.”

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

New York City tries cash transfers as a way to improve the health of homeless moms

2024-12-19T19:19:15+00:00

This story was originally published by Healthbeat. Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free New York City newsletter.

In 2020, Daniela DeJesus Gutierrez was barely getting by — and had a baby on the way.

As the Covid-19 pandemic raged, she’d lost most of her employment and was trapped in a harmful relationship. But a lifeline emerged: a pilot program distributing cash to 100 low-income mothers in New York City.

When the first payment arrived in 2021, Gutierrez cried. And the support kept coming: $500 each month, for three years. Bolstered by newfound financial stability, Gutierrez was able to care for her newborn, leave her partner, and eventually find a new job.

“I was able to just go anywhere I wanted to go, and buy whatever food I wanted to get for my kid,” said Gutierrez, now 31, who lives in Central Harlem. “When he was sick, if I needed to get medicine and the insurance didn’t cover it, I could buy it.”

Last week, the New York City Council launched a new version of the initiative, with $1.5 million in city funds. The program, run through The Bridge Project organization, will provide unconditional cash support to 161 pregnant women who are homeless, at risk of losing housing, or facing domestic violence. Participants will receive a $2,500 stipend before giving birth, $1,000 per month for 15 months, and $500 per month for the following 21 months.

Overdose is New York City's leading cause of pregnancy-associated death, Health Department says

It’s the first time that New York City has funded a guaranteed income program, according to local leaders, and reflects an emerging movement in the United States to alleviate poverty and improve health outcomes through the simple act of cash distribution. In recent years, guaranteed income programs have sprung up in cities like Jackson, Mississippi, Gary, Indiana, and Stockton, California, and a growing body of scientific research is exploring the impact of cash transfers on families' health and early childhood development.

Earlier this year, Dr. Mona Hanna, a Michigan pediatrician, launched Rx Kids, which provides no-strings-attached financial support to every pregnant mother in Flint, through each baby’s first year.

“We haven’t been able to tackle a kind of root-cause pathogen, which is poverty,” Hanna said. “We increasingly know the science of what happens when you are born into, and grow up, in poverty. When it’s early, when it’s chronic and when it’s concentrated — when your neighbors are poor — it is a pathogen. It alters your entire life trajectory, especially in that prenatal, early childhood window.”

A ‘moral’ intervention from city government

New York City’s guaranteed income program is launching in a city where about 1 in 4 children live in poverty, and where more than 146,000 students experienced homelessness during the last school year, a record high. Supporters of the initiative say it’s both an anti-poverty measure and an attempt to reduce rates of maternal mortality, which disproportionately impact Black and Hispanic New Yorkers.

“We always say a budget is a moral document, and by investing in these families, we’re showing that we care about the future, and we want to make sure that everybody has the same opportunity to thrive,” said Council Member Crystal Hudson, who sponsored the bill that enabled city-backed unconditional cash assistance.

In 2021, about a quarter of the 58 people who died of pregnancy-associated mortality in New York City had experienced homelessness at some point, according to city data.

The city’s shelter system is especially difficult to navigate for pregnant women and young mothers, since shelters are often far from prenatal care and children’s schools, said Dave Giffen, the executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless. In 2023, more than 1,700 babies were born into the shelter system, according to city data obtained by Giffen’s organization.

Many people in the shelter system just need a few thousand dollars to get back on track, Giffen added. And while direct cash transfer programs are not a solution for everything, he said, they represent “a solution for a lot of people.”

“It’s the most intuitive response you can think of: somebody doesn’t have resources and money, and you give them money and their life gets better,” he said.

The Bridge Project received more than 1,000 applications for just 161 spots, said Laura Clancy, the organization’s executive director. Participants had to be at least 18 years old, city residents, at least 23 weeks pregnant, and meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of homelessness.

Through previous cohorts of its cash transfer initiatives, The Bridge Project has tracked improvements in participants’ housing security, access to food, and ability to meet day-to-day expenses, Clancy noted. While the program does not provide full case management, it does help participants connect to other organizations and agencies, she said.

The first payment for the city’s new program went out a few weeks ago. Participants can use the funds however they want.

“There’s tremendous dignity in giving people cash and basically saying, ‘We trust you. You’re going to make good decisions,’” Clancy said.

The research behind cash transfer programs

As guaranteed income programs emerge across the country, supporters say they offer common-sense solutions to intractable social and public health issues. Many draw on research conducted throughout the world linking cash transfer programs to improved health outcomes, from fewer preterm births to lower rates of postpartum depression.

Hanna, the pediatrician — who helped expose Flint’s water crisis a decade ago — said she was inspired to create Rx Kids, in part, by the success of the expanded Child Tax Credit, which cut child poverty in half in 2021.

In Flint, Rx Kids has “prescribed” more than $5 million to more than 1,200 mothers and babies this year, Hanna said. Program participants have reported expanded access to prenatal care, decreased postpartum depression, improved food satisfaction — and no evictions. The program, funded through a public-private partnership, will soon expand to other parts of Michigan, Hanna said.

An article published last year in Nature found that large-scale, government-led cash transfer programs in low- and middle-income countries worldwide were associated with “significant reductions” in mortality among women and children under age 5.

In an interview, lead author Dr. Aaron Richterman, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, noted that the cash transfer initiatives that have emerged in America, like New York City’s effort, are far smaller than the large-scale programs his team studied.

“People are trying to figure out, how do these kinds of things fit in, and do they work, and what do they work to do?” Richterman said. “There are some very entrenched issues in the U.S., and I think it’s an open question how a program like this is really going to be able to fight against these sort of structural issues that people are exposed to for their entire lifetime, in terms of our food environment, or racial segregation.”

Gutierrez, for her part, isn’t sure how she would have survived those difficult years of early parenthood without regular cash infusions.

Unpaid utility bills didn’t weigh on her, she said, and she could obtain the early intervention she needed for her son, who has autism. Her self-confidence increased because she wasn’t “so suffocated.”

“I had that financial stability,” she said. “Honestly, those $500 stretched a long way. Now, I’m actually feeling it, because it’s not there anymore.”

Eliza Fawcett is a reporter covering public health in New York City for Healthbeat. Contact Eliza at efawcett@healthbeat.org .

NYC expands career education program, offering students experience in HVAC industry and more

2024-12-02T19:55:32+00:00

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New York City is expanding a career education program to serve a total of 135 schools, city officials said Monday. The program will also add two new career pathways for students, offering experience in the professions of heating ventilation and air-conditioning, as well as human and social services.

FutureReadyNYC, a signature initiative of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, provides schools with resources to launch new career tracks, along with paid work experience, in the education, technology, business, and health care sectors. The roughly $53 million initiative, which partners with CUNY, SUNY, Northwell Health, and Google, among other companies, invests $30 million directly to public high schools, with funds allocated based on the number of students enrolling in the career pathways at schools, according to city officials.

Under the expansion, the program added 36 new schools, serving roughly 15,000 students.

At a press conference at the Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn on Monday, Adams said the program had taken on a renewed urgency in light of the recent presidential election, in which concerns over the state of the economy and the job market had been a defining issue. In recent years, some efforts to expand access to career and technical education at school have seen bipartisan support across the country.

“There’s a gap for far too many, particularly in communities like Brownsville, Bedford Stuyvesant, South Jamaica, and the South Bronx, where there’s not an automatic transition into college,” Adams said. “Through FutureReadyNYC, we’re building a pipeline to employment, a pipeline to jobs, a pipeline to possibilities.”

Through the initiative, students have a chance to secure college credits, credentials, and work-based learning experiences before they graduate. In the past year, public school students earned roughly $8.2 million through work-based learning experiences, said schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos.

“This is a true testament to the difference career connected learning is already making in the lives of our students, putting them on a trajectory that will not only impact them, but their entire families,” she said.

The program’s HVAC pathway will provide students with instruction in construction safety, electrical and mechanical applications, installation and maintenance, and building decarbonization, city officials said. Meanwhile, the human and social services pathway will offer courses in human growth and development, counseling and mental health, and psychology.

Grecian Harrison, principal of the Boys and Girls High School, said the HVAC program would provide her students with valuable experience in a growing field.

“This is a high demand industry, and our scholars are learning about energy efficient systems and the integral ways that this knowledge can open doors for them,” she said.

The new pathways, and the 36 schools joining the program, have already begun running this year, city officials said.

Adams, who shared his own experience working as an auto mechanic prior to enrolling in higher education, said concerns over affordability are particularly high across the five boroughs. The FutureReadyNYC expansion kicks off an “affordability week” that will see Adams announce further investments in economic programs, according to city officials.

“Our young people are really afraid,” Adams said. “It’s almost like a cliff once they graduate. The system basically says, ‘Okay, we’re done with you. Figure it out on your own.’”

“By doing this, we are taking some of that fear out,” he added.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Candidates promised a bigger child tax credit. Will that actually happen?

2024-11-27T16:18:01+00:00

This story originally appeared in The 19th and is republished with permission under a Creative Commons license. Subscribe to The 19th’s newsletter here.

In the lead up to Election Day, presidential candidates had big ambitions for the future of the child tax credit, which is set to expire next year. That looming deadline means Congress will have to take up the credit in 2025, deciding whether to let it lapse, lock it in as is, or expand it further. But despite what had been proposed on the campaign trail, there is unlikely to be a major expansion coming to one of the most popular policies for American families.

During the election cycle, candidates were proposing expansions that would have doubled and tripled the existing tax credit, from the $2,000 it is today to as much as $5,000 or $6,000. But the feasibility of those proposals is now being tested.

In 2021, a one-time change to the child tax credit showed what was possible if it was significantly expanded. In the wake of the pandemic, the credit went up so that families received at least $3,000 per child and as much as $3,600 if they had kids under 6. The credit also came via monthly checks to households, instead of one annual lump sum.

And, critically, it was expanded so that the poorest families qualified for the first time. The impacts were immediate: Child poverty was cut in half, to 5.2%. But that expansion expired in 2022 and the credit went back to $2,000 — 18 million kids became ineligible again, most of them children of color. The child poverty rate also rose back up to 12.4%. Today, it stands at 13.7%.

Federal child tax credit cut poverty and hunger by a lot

Both versions of the credit show the different paths Congress could take next year, and those conversations are already beginning, according to several advocates lobbying for the credit.

Republicans will go into the negotiations with control of the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, which means they can “fast-track legislation,” said Meredith Dodson, the senior director of public policy for the Coalition on Human Needs. She said early conversations indicate members of Congress are working to iron out details of what could be in the tax package so they can get started as soon as a new Congress is sworn in.

In 2017, Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act raised the child tax credit amount from $1,000 to $2,000 and made it available to families earning up to $400,000, instead of those earning up to $110,000. But at least 20% of the poorest children still didn’t receive any or most of the credit because their parents earn too little to pay income taxes. That’s how the tax credit has been structured since it was introduced in 1997.

At minimum, it’s likely the credit will not be allowed to expire, which would return it to $1,000 per child and cut more higher-income families out of the benefit, experts told The 19th. The current Republican platform outlines a goal of making the 2017 expansion permanent, which makes the possibility of the credit just remaining as it is now the most probable starting point.

It’s possible the credit could be indexed to inflation so that it retains its value over time. A proposal in Congress this year would have done just that, as well as make other modest changes to the tax credit. Three-quarters of House Republicans supported it, but ultimately the bill failed because Senate Republicans opposed some parts of the plan.

Historically, Republicans have opposed any provisions that they view as disincentivizing work. One of the most hotly contested components of the child tax credit proposal from earlier this year was a provision that would allow people to use their prior year’s income to qualify for a larger credit, which would allow caregivers who are not working this year to still claim the money. Proposals for increasing the dollar amount of the child tax credit may also lead parents to reduce their work hours, Republicans have argued. But proponents say that money instead aids parents in paying for child care or other needs, which is how much of the 2021 expansion dollars were used by families, at least in the short term.

All of that shapes the kind of child tax credit changes that Republicans may now consider. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who sits on the influential Senate Finance Committee and was one of the Republicans who voted against the expansion proposed this year, has been supportive of an approach that would index the credit to inflation, for example.

Dodson said there is “a lot of interest” in indexing the credit to inflation, making that one of the most likely changes that could be on the table next year. If the credit stays at $2,000, that would mean it would be worth less today than it did in 2017. Indexing it to inflation would raise the credit to around $2,500.

Still, that approach would continue to leave out about 18 million children who would still not be eligible.

“We can still sometimes see a real disconnect between what families are saying they need, what the evidence shows, and then what actually ends up happening. The details really matter,” said Megan Curran, the policy director at Columbia’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, which has done much of the research and analysis on the child tax credit. “What the child tax credit has the potential to do, and that we have seen that it has done in very recent history — that’s a different child tax credit from what we have on the books and what is the baseline on the books for negotiation in 2025.”

The best evidence that some in the new administration would consider going a more ambitious route has come from Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, who said on the campaign trail he would support a $5,000 child tax credit for “all” families. No further details were released and the definition of “all” could be immensely consequential if it meant making the credit universal.

Trump himself has said far less on the credit, but he has at least indicated that he does “support it and I want to have it.” In an interview with CBS News, he alluded to there being two to three variations of the child tax credit on the table, but those details have not been released. A campaign official told Semafor in August that Trump “will consider a significant expansion.”

The Trump transition team did not respond to multiple requests for comment to clarify what kind of expansion the president-elect might push.

Still, two of the biggest Republican child tax credit champions are also leaving Congress — Utah Sen. Mitt Romney is retiring, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has been tapped to lead the State Department.

Also in the mix is how Republicans plan to pay for any extensions of the 2017 tax provisions. To offset some of the costs, Republicans said last week they are considering making cuts to Medicaid and food stamps. That may be unlikely if it alienates moderate Republicans who oppose that approach in the House where the GOP only has a slim majority, said Michelle Dallafior, the senior vice president for budget and tax at First Focus Campaign for Children, a bipartisan advocacy organization. Some of the proposals on the table would create new work requirements and spending caps on the programs, impacting some 70 million low-income people.

“If the approach they take on this is to pay for some of these tax cuts and to pay for them with things that cause a lot of pain to kids and families, communities and people most in need, they start losing votes and they don’t have many to lose in either chamber,” Dallafior said.

If Republicans do choose to consider a broader child tax credit expansion, one place they might look is at some form of “baby bonus” for very young children. During the campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris proposed a $6,000 bonus for families during the first year of a child’s life, when costs are highest.

Others have also supported versions of that idea, including various conservative groups that signed on to a memo outlining their view for what form the credit should take. They support raising the amount to $3,000 and adding a $2,000 credit for families with newborns.

The groups argue it is one of the best ways to signal support for families who choose to have children, particularly at a time of falling fertility rates and after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

“In a post-Dobbs, low birth rate, high deficit environment, a baby bonus will give the biggest political and cultural bang for the buck, and thus should be prioritized accordingly,” wrote Patrick T. Brown, a fellow at the conservative think tank the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

As politicians decide where they land, parents like Tia Simmons are stepping up their advocacy efforts.

Simmons is part of the Automatic Benefit for Children Coalition parent advisory board, a group of about a dozen parents who are working to lobby Congress on the child tax credit. She joined the coalition earlier this year after being cut out of the 2021 expansion because of an issue with child custody payments for a child she put up for adoption nearly two decades prior. Simmons has a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old, and cares for her 9-year-old niece. If she had received the credit in 2021 for all three, it would have amounted to about $900 a month that year — nearly enough to cover her mortgage payment.

“It made me realize that I can’t be the only one who has small kids who are not getting credit for whatever reason,” she said. “These kids are missing out on the money, not the parents.”

The coalition is advocating for a universal child tax credit — available to all kids no matter how much their parents earn — that is at least $6,000 a year.

“It needs to be something that is enough that it can be helpful,” Simmons said. “So many of the times you get SNAP or housing assistance that just isn’t enough.”

Child care alone, for example, cost families between $6,500 and $15,600 for just one child in full-time care in 2022, the most recent year data is available from the Department of Labor.

Simmons is now in her third year of law school and still struggling to support three children. She hasn’t received the tax credit for her niece in recent years because the way the credit is structured, the money goes to the person who claims the child as a dependent in their tax returns, not necessarily the one doing the caregiving. It’s all those small policy decisions that will be before Congress, and she wants to remind members that each decision could have a big impact on individuals’ lives.

“While they’re in Congress arguing about it and to determine whether or not it’s going to make us quit our jobs, we are out here with no incomes, struggling to make ends meet — their attitudes about it are totally wrong,” Simmons said. “Every month we worry: ‘Is there going to be a gas cut-off notice? Do we have to pick between buying Christmas gifts for our kids?’ So these things are real. There are real families who need this funding, and that’s what we want them to know the most: We are here and we are struggling, and we need these funds to come in and it might seem removed from them, but it’s our reality.”

1 in 8 NYC students experienced homelessness last year, a record high

2024-11-18T11:00:00+00:00

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The number of New York City students experiencing homelessness grew to more than 146,000 last school year, an increase of 26,000 students, according to a new analysis.

That meant roughly one in eight students in the nation’s largest public school system were living in temporary housing during the 2023-24 school year, a record high, according to a Monday report by Advocates for Children, which has been tracking the number for more than a decade.

New York City has long struggled to address its housing crisis, with the number of students in shelters, living “doubled up” with friends or relatives, or otherwise without permanent housing eclipsing 100,000 for each of the past nine years. The current high comes in part due to the thousands of asylum-seeking and other migrant families that have come to the city in recent years.

Students experiencing homelessness can face significant challenges at school. Just showing up can be a hurdle: Students in shelters are disproportionately impacted by transportation issues, with 40% of students attending school in a different borough from their shelter placement, according to Jennifer Pringle, director of the Learners in Temporary Housing Project at Advocates for Children.

In the 2022-23 school year, half of all students living in temporary housing — including 67% of students living in shelters — were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 18 days of school, according to the Advocates for Children analysis. For students in permanent housing, just 34% were chronically absent that year.

The share of students in temporary housing scoring proficient on state English and math exams was more than 20 percentage points lower than their peers. Students in temporary housing were also more likely to face suspensions or transfer schools. And students in shelters dropped out of high school at a rate three times higher than those in permanent housing.

The compounding obstacles can place additional strain on students and schools, Pringle said.

“Schools that have a large number of students in temporary housing have a lot of churn within their student population, and that means it takes that much more operational work and personnel to adjust,” she said. “You think about getting to know your students, getting to know what their needs are, and adapting your classroom practice to meet those needs — but what if your classroom composition is constantly changing? It takes time and effort to have a nimble response.”

Schools need additional staff and resources to adequately support students who are experiencing homelessness, from academic intervention and tutoring, to family outreach and engagement, to partnering with community organizations to provide wraparound support at school, Pringle said.

She suggested other ways the city can better support its students in temporary housing, including ending a requirement that families in some shelters exit the system every 60 days and either find alternative housing or re-apply for shelter, as well as hiring more staff to support students in shelters.

The city currently employs 107 school-based community coordinators who work with students in temporary housing, as well as 160 shelter-based community coordinators, according to Education Department officials.

Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said the city remained committed to supporting students in temporary housing through field and enrollment support, transportation services, counseling, immunization assistance, and academic support.

“Our students who are experiencing homelessness are among our most vulnerable,” she said in a statement. “We are also proud to provide attendance supports strategies that allow districts and schools to provide families with access to food, clothing, hygiene supplies, and health services.”

Tull added the city had updated its school funding formula last year to send additional funds to schools serving students in temporary housing.

Advocates call for more support for homeless students

Among the students living in temporary housing, 54% were doubled up, or temporarily sharing the housing of others, while 41% spent time in the city’s shelters. The number of students experiencing homelessness rose in every school district across the five boroughs.

Students experiencing homelessness were especially concentrated in upper Manhattan, southwest Bronx, and parts of northeast and central Brooklyn, a trend in line with prior school years, according to Advocate for Children’s analysis.

In the Bronx and Manhattan, nearly one in six students did not have a permanent home.

Advocates have called for further support for students living in temporary housing, particularly as the state reworks its nearly two-decades-old school funding formula.

That formula, known as Foundation Aid, was implemented in 2007, and sends roughly $24.9 billion to school districts — including more than $9.5 billion to New York City schools. As part of a state budget agreement earlier this year, the Rockefeller Institute is currently conducting a study on how to revise the formula and will issue recommendations by Dec. 1.

Many education experts, politicians, and advocates agree that the formula is no longer a sufficient measure of student need. In September, a coalition of more than 100 New York organizations, including Advocates for Children, urged the state to overhaul Foundation Aid.

“Student homelessness has skyrocketed over the past decade, but right now, districts receive no additional per-pupil funding from the State to help meet the educational needs of students in temporary housing,” said Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children, in a statement.

And as the number of New York City students experiencing homelessness could continue to grow, Pringle said it’s critical that education remains a focus.

“Education needs to be part of the conversation about solving family homelessness,” she said. “Young adults who don’t have a high school diploma are four and a half times more likely to experience homelessness.”

Tackling the education challenges students currently living in shelters face is crucial in breaking the cycle to help prevent them from experiencing homelessness as adults, Pringle said.

“We need to make sure that they are getting educational support and services now,” she said. “So that they can thrive in school, get their high school diploma and more, and be successful, independent adults.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

New learning community to bring Newark educators together to address ‘urgent’ literacy crisis

2024-10-29T21:25:20+00:00

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Newark organizations are launching an initiative aimed at improving student reading rates and early learning outcomes by supporting educators in tackling the city’s “urgent” literacy crisis.

My Brothers Keeper Newark, in partnership with Rutgers University Newark, is hosting the Newark Early Literacy Professional Learning Community, which will focus on strengthening educators' understanding of foundational literacy skills and practices in the classroom.

The goal is about not only acquiring new skills, but also fostering a community of educators who are equipped to navigate the literacy challenges students are facing since the pandemic, according to Jhanae Wingfield, who is working with My Brothers Keeper to launch the professional learning community.

The project will span nine sessions starting in November and cover pre-K to third-grade literacy topics such as phonics, writing fluency, comprehension, and cultural response literacy learning, among others. The sessions will also review recently signed literacy legislation taking effect next school year to prepare educators to meet the needs of young students and ensure all children can read at or above grade level.

“The need is already here, and we really wanted to think about how we can establish, or start to build out a literacy ecosystem,” said Wingfield, assistant professor of professional practice at Rutgers University Newark. “How are we creating full systems that address this literacy concern from different angles, but also create more sustainable pathways to keep the success and growth going?”

Professional learning communities, a widely used strategy in education, bring together administrators, teachers, literacy coaches, and community partners to discuss school development and student achievement. Last summer, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka declared an “urgent” literacy crisis throughout the city and launched a 10-point Youth Literacy Action Plan that calls on schools, programs, and city leaders to help students refine foundational reading and writing skills.

This school year, Newark Public Schools’ proficiency rates on spring statewide assessments rose by roughly 2 percentage points in English language arts but remained behind pre-pandemic levels, pointing to students’ slow post-COVID academic recovery. English language arts performance among the city’s public school third-graders remains the lowest of any grade for a third year in a row, but higher than last year’s proficiency rate – now at 23.4%.

Newark has many assets, said Mark Comesañas, who is leading the new initiative as the executive director of My Brothers Keeper Newark. His organization is focused on “better coordinating all of those assets” by leveraging the community resources already available for students.

He said he believes that city students have been among the hardest hit by remote learning, and that illiteracy is an “urgent crisis” Newark leaders should remain committed to ending.

“There’s a long way for everyone to go in moving literacy outcomes, and we hope that this is one way to help us do that together,” Comesañas added.

The work of the learning community will be “foundational, but rigorous,” Wingfield said. Educators will be challenged to reflect on their literacy practices and ask themselves how they can make adjustments in their classrooms to support student’s understanding of basic reading and writing skills such as learning to spell, improving their handwriting, and refining their vocabulary. The sessions will also cover best practices to support English language learners and students with disabilities, who remain the furthest from academic recovery since the pandemic. And the learning community will focus on preparing parents through a parent academy by explaining high-level literacy topics and equipping them with the skills needed to engage their children with reading and writing at home.

Experts from My Brothers Keeper Newark will facilitate the sessions in combination with literacy leaders from Rutgers University Newark and professionals like Mary Ann Reilly, former Newark Public Schools’ assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, who has more than 40 years’ of experience in public and charter districts.

The group will also review new state legislation aimed at improving student reading proficiency by mandating literacy screenings for K-3 students, using high-quality literacy instructional materials, and implementing data analysis strategies for literacy instruction and intervention. The legislation, signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in August, takes effect next school year and is intended to require an early intervention program and establish a new office in the state’s education department dedicated to equity and academic recovery, all of which hold special significance in Newark where youth literacy rates are struggling.

The professional learning community will hold its first session on Nov. 19 and is currently recruiting participants. Those interested can register online or email info@mbknewark.org for more details.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

A high needs Manhattan neighborhood reels from losing after-school seats in state funding overhaul

2024-10-24T21:58:38+00:00

One Manhattan neighborhood that’s recently welcomed more migrant students is reeling from a loss of funding for after-school programs.

While the state awarded nearly $39 million in grants to 74 New York City organizations that provide free or low-cost after-school programs in high needs areas, a program called Fresh Youth Initiatives in Washington Heights lost out.

The grants, announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday, are part of a larger $100 million effort to expand after-school initiatives across the state and restructure funding for such programs, officials said. Under the changes, several organizations that the state had previously funded lost their grants. Other groups were tapped to serve particular neighborhoods.

Washington Heights, a largely immigrant neighborhood at the tip of Manhattan, was particularly hard hit.

Fresh Youth Initiatives applied for a state grant to provide several local schools with reading intervention, sports, civics, mental health services, and other programs. The organization got positive feedback on its application, but ultimately was not funded, said Catherine Shugrue dos Santos, the organization’s executive director.

Now, not only is Fresh Youth unable to offer the additional 220 seats it was aiming for, it must cut 200 seats from its existing programs, Shugrue dos Santos said. And those seats are not being picked up by other organizations.

“It’s really heartbreaking,” she said. “We’ve had parents calling and sobbing and raging because the kids need the services.” Her organization, which employs many graduates of the program who live in the neighborhood, had to lay off a third of its staff, she said.

Uptown Stories, the one organization funded in Washington Heights and Inwood‘s District 6, is planning to use its $450,000 grant to offer up to 54 seats across three schools, it’s program director said. That translates to $8,300 per seat.

The state’s Office of Children and Family Services is “committed to expanding access to affordable, high-quality after-school programming for families across New York,” spokesperson Karen Male said in a statement. The grants were awarded “through an incredibly competitive bidding process.”

Fresh Youth Initiatives had previously been funded through two separate state funding streams, Empire State After-School Programs and Advantage After School Programs. The state, however, consolidated the grant programs this year into one called Learning and Enrichment Afterschool Program Supports, or LEAPS, requiring providers to reapply. Organizations in other parts of the city also found themselves without funding through the new program.

In response, the city, in collaboration with the state’s Office of Children and Family Services, made a one-time commitment to plug some of the gaps for organizations that lost funding in the restructuring, including allowing schools to use it to offer their own programs. That funding is reportedly prioritizing programs in Brooklyn and the Bronx, leaving Manhattan behind.

A principal at one of the schools Fresh Youth had worked with is using her own school’s budget for a shortened after-school homework help session, but that funding will run out in January, Shugrue dos Santos said.

“I don’t know what these families are going to do, because they’re going to have to choose between having their kids go home and not be well-supervised, or having to change their work schedule and lose all their money and maybe not pay their rent,” she said. “These are untenable choices for families.”

The loss in seats came as the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development recently cut some after-school programs.

In the meantime, Shugrue dos Santos launched a petition to support after-school programs and she’s echoing a state lawmaker’s call for universal after-school programs in the five boroughs. She hopes the city can potentially step up in other ways to help.

City officials from the Youth and Community Development department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dorkys Ramos, the program director at Uptown Stories, said her organization was hoping to offer more seats but was constrained by the classroom capacity allowed under their license.

Ramos said Uptown Stories — which offers writing workshops and compiles student work into an anthology sold in local businesses — is excited to expand into more schools and that the programs will make it easier for families given the area’s child care needs.

“We’re really excited to do this and have this be the stepping stone in providing more support for our neighborhood’s children,” Ramos said.

The organization will start its new programs on Monday.

State officials said that families who lack after-school programs may be eligible for the state’s Child Care Assistance Program to cover some or all of their child care costs. (NYC families can learn about the application process through a video tutorial, and apply through the MyCity portal). Additionally, the New York City Child Care Resource and Referral Consortium has a parent referral line to help eligible families.

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

Extended-stay hotels offer relief from homelessness, but can lead to health problems for kids

2024-10-15T22:15:49+00:00

This story was originally published by Healthbeat. Sign up for their public health newsletters at healthbeat.org/newsletters.

As principal of Dunaire Elementary School, Sean Deas has seen firsthand the struggles faced by children living in extended-stay hotels. About 10% of students at his school, just east of Atlanta, live in one.

The children, Deas said, often have been exposed to violence on hotel properties, exhibit aggression or anxiety from living in a crowded single room, and face food insecurity because some hotel rooms don’t have kitchens.

“Social trauma is the biggest challenge” when students first arrive, Deas said. “We hear a lot about sleep problems.” To meet students’ needs, Deas developed a schoolwide program featuring counselors, a food pantry, and special protocols for handling those who may fall asleep in class.

“Beyond the teaching, there’s a social part,” he said. “We have to find ways to support the families as well.”

Extended-stay hotels are often a last resort for low-income families trying to find housing. Nationally, more than 100,000 students lived in extended-stay hotels in 2022, according to the Department of Education, though officials say that is likely an undercount. Children living in hotels are considered homeless under federal law, and in some Atlanta-area counties about 40% of homeless students live in this kind of housing, according to local officials.

And with rising rents and evictions, and decreased access to federal public housing, the use of extended-stay hotels as a long-term option is becoming more frequent. Like other forms of homelessness, hotel living can lead to — or exacerbate — physical and mental health problems for children, say advocates for families and researchers who study homelessness.

In the Atlanta area, inspections of extended-stay hotels have revealed ventilation issues, insect infestations, mold, and other health threats. Children living there also can experience or witness crime and gun violence. The increasing use of extended-stay hotels is a warning sign, observers said, a reflection of the lack of sufficient affordable housing policy in the United States.

And the crisis is having “lifelong consequences,” said Sarah Saadian of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “The only way that we can really address that shortage is if there are significant federal resources at scale. Build more housing and bridge the gap between rents and wages.”

Often, evictions force families into hotels — and can keep them trapped there. Many landlords refuse to rent to people with evictions in their credit history, even if the tenant isn’t responsible for the displacement, said Joy Monroe, founder and CEO of the Single Parent Alliance & Resource Center, a nonprofit group in metro Atlanta that has helped hundreds of families move from hotels to apartments or rental homes.

Black women and other women of color, often with kids, are evicted at much higher rates and are more likely to find themselves living in extended-stay hotels, advocates say.

Some residents are also families fleeing domestic violence, they say.

Hotels offer immediate relief, but host other problems

Hotels often don’t require security deposits, application fees, or background checks, thus providing immediate relief for families seeking shelter. While there are higher-end options, the average rate for an economy-class extended-stay room was $56.68 a night during the first three months of 2024, according to the Highland Group, a research firm that focuses on the hotel sector — which works out to more than $1,700 a month.

And while the rooms offer respite from other forms of homelessness — like sleeping in a car or in a tent — a hotel “is no place to raise children,” said Michael Bryant, CEO of New Life Community Alliance, which helps families in South Dekalb, a part of metro Atlanta, move from hotels to homes.

Children living in hotels are often behind on vaccinations, and they may end up in the emergency room because of delays in care, said Gary Kirkilas, a pediatrician in Phoenix who helps children, teens, and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. About 75% of children with unstable housing whom he sees have at least one developmental delay, and others experience significant emotional and behavioral issues.

Tanazia Scott, who has bounced between two extended-stay hotels for several months, said her three children “feel depressed and upset” over hotel life.

An eviction sent Kassandra Norman, 58, and her two daughters into a months-long journey of staying in Atlanta-area hotels. For three months, they slept in a car outside a convenience store. “It’s hard to do homework in a car and in the hotel,” said 19-year-old Kazuri Taylor, Norman’s younger daughter.

Three people who recently stayed at Haven Hotel in Stone Mountain, Georgia, hold rolls of toilet paper given to them by community volunteers. The hotel charges residents $1 per roll, they say.

Some hotels prohibit kids from playing outside in their parking lots, leading to additional stress, advocates say. That was the reason Yvonne Thomas, 45, and her family were evicted from an extended-stay hotel in DeKalb County, she said: “They put us out for nothing.”

And there are other problems. More than a dozen students at Dunaire Elementary live on an extended-stay property called Haven Hotel. In August, DeKalb County’s code enforcement division said the hotel had “not maintained minimum life safety standards.” Roaches and spiders live in rooms and breezeways, according to state health inspection reports. Residents say they have been charged $1 for a roll of toilet paper.

The hotel’s owner and manager could not be reached for comment after multiple attempts.

“No one is talking about these families,” said Sue Sullivan, a community advocate and a volunteer with the Motel to Home coalition in Atlanta, who brings toys, bookbags, food, and toiletries on her hotel visits.

A February public health inspection at another DeKalb County hotel found several rooms with poor ventilation, insect infestation, and mold, among other potential health threats. In May, two people were fatally shot there.

Children who witness violence can develop anxiety, depression, and other disorders, said Charles Moore, director of the Urban Health Initiative at Emory University School of Medicine. “They can feel emotional aftershocks,” said Moore, who has visited Atlanta-area hotels.

Advocates are finding creative solutions

Closing such hotels, however, can hurt families, given the shortage of affordable housing, the absence of national federal renter protections, and a dearth of places to go, said Terri Lewinson, an associate professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Extended-stay hotels do “offer a low-barrier option for families who have no other options,” she said.

To alleviate the housing problem, county officials and nonprofit organizations around the country have been creatively filling the gap. In the Seattle area, for example, King County officials purchased hotels and converted them into affordable housing, said Mark Skinner of the Highland Group.

In metro Atlanta, SPARC and the local United Way’s Motel to Home offer funding to help people transition into an apartment.

In DeKalb County, where Dunaire Elementary School is located, more than a third of the 1,300 homeless students live in hotels, according to Commissioner Ted Terry.

“I hope we can rescue the children,” he said. “It’s not a safe environment for them.”

Advocates who seek to help people living in hotels propose the construction of more affordable housing and stronger protections for renters against eviction. The federal government has failed to invest in repairs needed to maintain current public housing units, and 25-year-old legislation effectively prohibits the construction of new public housing.

It’s also “extremely fast, easy, and cheap” to evict tenants in Georgia, said Taylor Shelton, an associate professor of geosciences at Georgia State University, whose research focuses on social inequalities and urban spaces. “The playing field is tilted heavily toward landlords.”

Under such circumstances, the cycle of poverty is difficult to break, said Jamie Rush, a senior staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Most parents would want their kids in a safe, stable home,” Rush said. “You can’t budget your way out of poverty.”

Andy Miller and Renuka Rayasam are reporters with KFF Health News, Healthbeat’s national reporting partner.

Kids like free school meals. States are trying to reel in the costs.

2024-10-03T11:50:00+00:00

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A few years ago, so few high schoolers ate breakfast in Vermont’s Essex Westford School District that the cafeteria looked like “a ghost town” in the morning, recalls Scott Fay, the director of child nutrition.

But now that breakfast is free for all students, kids are packing the cafeteria to talk, munch on fresh cranberry-orange bread, and finish homework before the first bell.

“It’s really amazing to see that transition,” said Fay, who helped lobby for the Vermont law that expanded free meals. That’s “what real equity looks like in our cafeterias,” he said. “It’s all these kids coming together in the morning, eating.”

Fresh-baked breakfast bread has been a hit with students in the Essex Westford School District.

The number of kids eating breakfast and lunch has jumped in the eight states that now have universal free school meals. The policy has attracted extra attention since Vice President Kamala Harris named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who helped bring universal free school meals to his state, as her running mate.

Proponents say that rise in participation is a success story because it means fewer kids are hungry at school and that families have more money to spend on groceries at home. But it’s also brought some logistical challenges and — perhaps more importantly — higher-than-expected costs. That’s raising concerns in some states about the long-term sustainability of these programs. In their first year of operation, universal free school meal programs came in over budget in at least six of the eight states that offer them.

And there may be a limit to how far universal meals can expand. There’s a federal bill in Congress, but so far the policy has passed only in Democratic-controlled legislatures. Republican-led states have generally opposed universal meals due to concerns about cost and parental responsibility.

“The Legislature has added $20-30 million in property tax pressure to pay for school meals for all students, including those from affluent families,” Vermont’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott said in a statement last year when he allowed the bill to pass into law without his signature. “This will be paid for by all Vermonters, including those with low incomes.”

Why universal meal programs cost more than expected

The main reason several states’ programs are over budget is that more kids ate breakfast and lunch than expected. Most of the kids who are new to eating for free would have paid full price in the past, and now states are picking up their tab.

Some states had a more sophisticated method for devising a budget, while others used estimates from the pandemic — when the federal government paid for all students to eat for free. That didn’t turn out to be great predictors of demand because so many kids were absent during that time. On top of that, the cost of food is high, and federal reimbursement rates for meals aren’t keeping up.

“Anytime you are trying something new and bold like this — and this is bold and big — it’s going to take awhile to really get the modeling down of how much things cost,” said Alexis Bylander, who oversees child nutrition programs and policy for the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center. “We’re learning a lot from these states that are implementing first.”

Related: Quesadillas, fajitas, tacos: Parents helped create 15 new recipes this Colorado district is trying this year

When Michigan launched its program last school year, for example, the state budgeted $160 million, but needed an extra $30 million to cover the actual costs. This school year, the state budgeted $200 million.

New Mexico’s program ended up costing twice as much as the $20 million budgeted by state lawmakers. State education officials, who said they knew that estimate was too low, expect to spend $49 million this year.

Colorado’s program cost $162 million last school year. State lawmakers had to dip into state reserves to add $56 million after an unexpected shortfall.

Vermont lawmakers, meanwhile, allocated $29 million for the first year of their program, but the state needed less: only $24 million.

State officials say they are doing a lot to rein in costs, including signing up more schools for the federal program that reimburses for meals at the highest rate. That program recently expanded which schools are eligible. Colorado hired a consultant to help districts figure out steps they could take to get the most federal money possible, and formed an advisory group that’s working to lower state costs.

No state is looking to get rid of universal free school meals due to higher costs. But some officials are expressing worries about their fiscal impact.

Vermont's Essex Westford School District has been able to provide students a greater variety of fresh and locally sourced foods under the expanded school meals program.

Minnesota Sen. Zach Duckworth, a Republican who voted in favor of the law, told Minnesota Public Radio last month he worried about whether the state could afford its program long-term without a new revenue source. The state initially thought it would need around $200 million a year for universal meals, but costs came in around $40 million higher.

If the state can’t keep that up, he said, school districts may have to “pinch pennies” to fund their own programs.

Diane Golzynski, the deputy superintendent who oversees child nutrition for the Michigan Department of Education, worries that right now universal meals aren’t guaranteed in state law. That means they’re vulnerable to the annual budgeting process that could “rip this rug out from underneath the feet of our families,” she said.

Earlier this year in Vermont, where the program did not go over budget, the governor proposed repealing universal free school meals to save the state $20 million as part of a bid to curb an expected property tax hike. But that idea didn’t go anywhere.

Schools see many benefits from universal free meals

Breakfast and lunch participation has continued to rise in several of the states that offer free meals to all students. That trend is especially notable because many other states were not able to sustain their pandemic-era participation rates and saw big drops when the national free meals provision ended.

When California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont rolled out universal free meals during the 2022-23 school year, they saw increases in the average number of kids eating breakfast each day ranging from 8% to 13%. Students eating lunch went up by 4% to 7%, according to data compiled by the Food Research & Action Center.

States that launched universal meals more recently have seen similar upticks. New Mexico, for example, saw a 4% increase in kids eating breakfast and lunch last school year, state education officials said.

Related: Food for thought: Museum exhibit highlights Philly’s crucial role in the history of school lunch

The increase in breakfast consumption is an especially big deal, educators and state officials say, because it can set kids up for success for the rest of their school day. Now, more schools put grab-and-go kiosks in the hallway, allow kids to eat breakfast in the classroom, or serve a “second chance” breakfast later in the morning.

“Breakfast and learning are so closely tied,” said Deanne Kelleher, Michigan’s director of health and nutrition services.

Her state has seen the biggest increase in breakfast consumption among middle schoolers, who often have an early start time but are too sleepy to eat before school.

Some research has found that universal free school meals can boost students’ test scores and attendance rates. It also can decrease stigma and bullying in the lunchroom.

Some schools have faced challenges stemming from serving more students, such as longer lines and kids not having enough time to eat. Some schools are considering longer lunch periods or limiting how many kids line up at once.

And though more kids eating for free can throw off the state budget, it generally means that at the district level, schools are taking in more money. That often means they can afford to cook more from scratch and offer more options to kids.

April Liles, the director of food services for Waltham Public Schools in Massachusetts, was able to use her extra funds to hire a part-time dietician who helps adapt meals for kids with gluten allergies or who need a vegetarian meal. Her high schools now offer 15 options for lunch each day — from a panini to a grilled veggie burger to a taco bar — to help guarantee kids can find something that meets their needs.

Rosie Krueger, Vermont’s director of child nutrition programs, said now that districts in her state have guaranteed revenue coming in and aren’t chasing after unpaid meal debt, they’re able to put higher food quality standards in their contracts. Instead of asking: “What is the bare minimum that you can offer for the lowest possible price?” she sees schools include requirements for more fruits, vegetables, and locally sourced food.

Universal free school meal programs have allowed many schools to offer more fruits, vegetables, and locally sourced food. Colorado's Jefferson Junior/Senior High School recently set out apples for students.

In the Essex Westford School District, Fay’s school nutrition budget typically ran a deficit of $70,000 to $100,000 before Vermont launched universal meals. Now he can afford to buy local beef to make homemade meatballs. Kids liked them so much that the kitchen staff got sore hands from all the scooping. With the extra funds, Fay was able to buy a $25,000 machine that could shape those meatballs more quickly.

The programs can also help families trust schools more. Fay found that when the district stopped calling families asking for unpaid meal debt, that school principals were able to get through to those families more easily to talk about things like their child’s behavior or a support they could offer.

“The more phone calls we made collectively, made them less and less apt to pick up the phone when the school called,” Fay said. “It was driving a wedge between the district and some of those families who needed us the most.”

Will more states offer free school meals to all?

Proponents for universal free school meals, like Bylander, say they don’t think the higher-than-expected price tags have deterred supporters or created new opposition to the policy.

“The people that really balked or were upset about the policy costing more than expected probably weren’t the people who strongly supported it to begin with,” she said.

Still, efforts to create a permanent universal free school meals program at the national level haven’t gone anywhere. And while former President Donald Trump approved the pandemic program that temporarily made school meals free for all, it’s unlikely he would support that again.

Other efforts to make pandemic-era policies that expanded the social safety net permanent have been polarizing.

When federal officials created a permanent Summer EBT program, for example, some Republican-led states said they didn’t want to pay the administrative costs or that their families didn’t need the extra food assistance.

Opponents often say the state shouldn’t cover the cost of feeding kids whose families can afford to pay and that limited state funds could be better spent elsewhere. Proponents counter that many families who do not qualify for free or reduced-price meals also struggle to afford food. This school year, a family of four that makes over $58,000 didn’t qualify for any school meal aid.

Some Republican-led states have taken steps toward expanding free school meals without making them universal. In South Carolina, Republican State Sen. Katrina Shealy was able to convince her colleagues to make previously reduced-price meals free, since it had a much smaller price tag than the universal program she initially wanted.

In South Dakota, House Rep. Kadyn Wittman, one of 11 Democrats in the state legislature, introduced a bill to make all school meals free, but that swiftly died in committee.

“I got my ass handed to me,” she said.

So she went back to the drawing board and built a coalition of school staffers and other advocates who lobbied lawmakers to support a different bill to make reduced-price meals free. That came with a price tag of around $630,000. But the bill still failed.

“I don’t think it was the price tag,” Wittman said. “There is still this belief that we should not be ‘raising other people’s kids.’”

Wittman is trying again. She plans to highlight the origins of the school lunch program — one of which was making sure kids were well-fed and healthy enough to defend the country in times of war — and how this financial investment could pay dividends later for academic achievement and attendance.

“How do you eat an elephant?” she said. “One bite at a time.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

R&B superstar Usher promotes importance of after-school programs in Detroit visit

2024-09-13T21:01:00+00:00

As a child growing up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, R&B superstar Usher realized his dream of becoming an entertainer thanks to a counselor at the local chapter of the Boys & Girls Club.

Now, he’s working to return that favor.

The singer stopped by the Dick and Sandy Dauch location of the Boys & Girls Club on Detroit’s west side ahead of concerts Thursday and Friday at Little Caesars Arena as part of Usher’s Club Takeover.

The two-day event at the facility is aimed at spreading awareness about a critical issue affecting youth nationwide: lack of access to quality after-school programming, the youth organization said in a news release.

“I can remember something that my counselor said to me,” Usher told a group of about 250 kids in a gym that had been transformed into a skating rink. “‘Seeing is believing, and once you see it, then you have to say it in order for it to be a reality.’ The next part is making it happen.”

The Club Takeover is a part of a national partnership between Usher’s nonprofit New Look, the Afterschool Alliance, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan, and the Michigan Afterschool Partnership to drive awareness of the need to expand after-school programs. About 25 million youth across the country do not have access to high-quality after-school programs, including 750,000 children in Michigan, according to the Boys and Girls Club.

Club Takeover also includes activities kids can participate in, such as roller skating, learning how to fly a drone, how to administer CPR, and even how to perform a mock tonsillectomy.

As part of the Past, Present, Future Tour, Usher’s Club Takeover is traveling to cities across the country to raise awareness about the need for afterschool programs.

The tour has already made stops in Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Boston; and Brooklyn. Upcoming stops include Atlanta; Inglewood, California; Denver; Oakland, California; Dallas; Miami; St. Louis; Minneapolis; Seattle; Las Vegas; Phoenix; Houston; and Baltimore.

During his speech to the teens, the iconic artist shared his story of working with that counselor in his hometown and how it inspired him.

“You may not know that you’re passionate about music, you may not know that you’re passionate about fashion, you may not know that you’re passionate about technology. You may not know what it is that you want to do in your life, but it’s a beautiful thing to come to the Boys and Girls Club to be influenced in a way that you could create a career, create a business and be a contributor to your community, as well as be creative in any industry.”

It was also announced Thursday that Usher will be the honorary chair of Lights on Afterschool, a national initiative promoting the importance of after-school programs.

“I’m happy to be able to share my experience with you, but it started a long time ago. This is part of the reason that I do what I do, and I’m so happy for the past 25 years to have been able to connect to things that I think are going to be helpful,” he said.

D’antae H. had the opportunity to talk to Usher for a few minutes about the content creation room he’s helping to design for the club. He said it was a “cool” experience. The 14-year-old student at Detroit Leadership Academy just joined the organization in July and is enjoying being a part of the BGCSM’s Design Industry Club, where teens receive paid workforce experience.

“It’s been a nice experience,” said D’antae, whose full name was withheld by the BGCSM to protect his privacy. “I’m playing football right now, but I might be interested in doing more design, too.”

BGCSM President and CEO Shawn Wilson said he has known Usher for a couple of decades and helped the singer start New Looks, a youth mentorship and leadership organization in Atlanta. He said the idea for the Usher Takeover came together about six months ago when Wilson found out Usher was making a stop in Detroit for his tour.

Wilson said over the two-day event, BGCSM will serve between 1,600 to 1,800 kids. The majority of them will be from Detroit, with others coming from cities like Highland Park, Hamtramck, Inkster and Eastpointe.

“He understands the power of giving back,” Wilson said about Usher. “He understands that we’re blessed not to be a blessing to ourselves, but to actually be a blessing to others. And so, this is consistent with the man that I’ve come to know over the last 20 years.”

Logan also had the chance to talk to Usher, showing off some of the outfits made by the Design Industry Cub. The senior at University Prep Art and Design High School has been a part of BGCSM since her freshman year. During her time in the organization, Logan has experienced opportunities like visiting the headquarters of New Look and appearing in New York Fashion Week earlier this year.

“The Boys and Girls Club has taught me that you need to speak up for yourself and that when you want something, you need to go out and get it,” she said. “The Boys and Girls Club will throw so many opportunities at you, but it’s all on you to take those opportunities. It’s on you to make sure that you’re taking advantage of all the exposure or networking that you get into.”

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

For some NYC students, a summer job means helping combat local gun violence

2024-08-29T20:21:20+00:00

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Jahsani Peters, a rising senior at Forest Hills High School in Queens, said that two years ago, he didn’t think about community violence at all.

At the time, he’d been looking for work as a barista, eager to earn extra income over the summer. But after striking out, he applied to the city’s longstanding Summer Youth Employment Program and got placed through LaGuardia Community College with Community Capacity Development, a Queens-based nonprofit that works to support marginalized communities and prevent gun violence by fostering neighborhood healing and growth.

Peters said he was thrilled to find paid work and eager to impress his managers. In the time since, though, he’s begun to think more deeply about community violence and seen firsthand how organizations like CCD are making a difference.

“We don’t have to leave it up to the police to make sure our people are all right,” he said.

This year, Peters spent his second summer working with CCD through the Summer Youth Employment Program, or SYEP. He said he’s spent days canvassing residents of Woodside Houses and helping connect community members with critical resources. It’s been rewarding work, and he feels the organization has made a difference in the community, Peters said.

“We just try to help people see the good in life,” he said. “That there are other ways to handle problems without violence or having to raise your voice and get crazy with somebody.”

For decades, SYEP has provided the city’s young people with paid opportunities to explore possible career pathways. It’s also expanded in recent years, with Mayor Eric Adams adding 25,000 seats in 2022, bringing it to 100,000 spots in total. Last year, the program made an additional commitment to matching LGBTQ+ youth with “supportive work opportunities.”

City officials say the program can improve school attendance, reduce incarceration rates, and help keep young people safe over the summer.

The Department of Youth and Community Development, which oversees SYEP, noted that young people are increasingly working with violence interruption organizations and other groups seeking to reduce local gun violence. This year, more than 650 young people worked with 12 “Cure Violence” partners that use violence interruption strategies, while more than 1,000 were placed across 36 organizations through the city’s Anti-Gun Violence Employment Program, according to DYCD officials.

“These programs are transformative for young people,” DYCD Commissioner Keith Howard said in a statement. “DYCD is proud of Jahsani and his peers for contributing to the city’s economy, and helping to keep New Yorkers safe.”

Community-based violence intervention groups like CCD take a public health approach to stopping gun violence, with outreach workers who build personal relationships in neighborhoods, help to mediate local conflicts, and prevent retaliation before it occurs. Often, such groups also connect individuals with social services and counseling, as well as employment and educational opportunities.

“They’re able to stop the violence, and have conversations, and mediate conflicts,” said Judy Fears, a community coordinator at CCD. “We don’t carry weapons. We don’t have bulletproof vests. It’s all words, and language, and talking to the community.”

It’s a model that has seen some measurable success around the country. In Baltimore, for example, a report on the city’s violence interruption program found neighborhoods saw homicides and nonfatal shootings decrease by 16 to 23% on average.

The city’s partnerships with CCD and other groups through SYEP are one part of its broader effort to address community violence, particularly its impact on young people.

In 2022, the city launched Project Pivot, partnering hundreds of schools with a range of community groups that provide mentorship, counseling, and violence interruption programs. This year, the city also kept some summer youth programs open later to offer kids more time in supervised settings and to help reduce the risk of crime.

Though violent crime has trended down over time, particularly in New York City, some surges did occur around the country as the COVID pandemic upended life and disrupted efforts to reduce violence. Nationwide, firearm injuries were the leading cause of death among children and teenagers in 2020 and 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For Peters, employment through SYEP has meant an opportunity for personal growth. Before, he said he didn’t know the basics of the workplace, like what a resume was or how to successfully apply for a job. At CCD, his coworkers have taken him under their wing and taught him how to thrive in the workplace.

With a laugh, Peters said the extra income from the program has helped fuel his “spending problem.” He’s hoping to upgrade his phone soon, with additional storage he can devote to editing videos and music.

“Being realistic and serious, though,” he added, “the money has helped me learn independence and money management.”

Canvassing in the Woodside community has also helped him step out of his shell, learn to be more social and overcome his nerves when interacting with others. It’s taught him to better resolve conflicts in his own life, too, Peters added.

“It’s changed me for the better,” he said. “Now, I’m more open minded. I think, ‘You know what, that person might have had a bad day. They might have lost somebody today.’ You never know.

“So I’m just like, ‘All right, I’ll give you space. I’ll let you say what you’ve got to say,” Peters added. “And when you feel better, I’ll try to uplift you.”

Nate, a human justice ambassador who works with Peters at CCD, described him as “one of a kind.” Over the past two years, he’s seen Peters become more confident and outgoing, he said.

“At the Woodside office, 70 to 80% of the kids are from Woodside, so he didn’t know them at first,” he said. “But now, he’s like a leader to them.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

How do you boost school attendance? In Rhode Island, with public rankings and Oprah-style giveaways

2024-08-27T22:03:20+00:00

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When crossing a busy street kept a child from catching the bus, George J. West Elementary School Principal Lisa Vargas-Sinapi had a practical solution: Let’s move the bus stop.

When kids are sick, they’re offered appointments at the school’s health clinic.

And if families share plans to take children on an extended vacation, Vargas-Sinapi explains why that could hurt their education and helps identify child care so they can stay in school.

“We do walk a fine line,” Vargas-Sinapi said. “We keep the expectation, but we’re offering the support — whatever that may be.”

There’s no lone cause of the absenteeism crisis, and no catchall solution either. But one factor for improving school’s attendance is constant — effort.

In Rhode Island, attendance expectations are front and center, reactions to potential problems are swift, and everyone from mayors to doctors stresses the issue. When students miss school, it shows up right away on a dashboard for anyone to see. The governor checks the dashboard several times a day, and schools get a call if he spots a problem. Meanwhile, school staff like Vargas-Sinapi are solving problems big and small that keep kids from coming to school.

Experts say this kind of comprehensive approach is what it takes to move the needle on chronic absenteeism. Rhode Island’s work has earned praise from the White House and was spotlighted by a bipartisan coalition urging schools to prioritize better attendance. And other states like Nevada and Hawaii have reached out to Rhode Island to learn about its strategies.

But state and school leaders say they still have a lot of work to do to get more kids in school — and to keep them there. Sustaining the momentum is hard, especially as schools get closer to pre-pandemic rates of absenteeism, leaving the most challenging attendance issues to solve.

“We are not taking our foot off the gas,” said Angélica Infante-Green, Rhode Island’s education commissioner. “We don’t want people to think: ‘OK, we’re good enough.’ It’s not good enough.”

Why Rhode Island’s attendance model stands out

Before the pandemic, 19% of Rhode Island students were chronically absent, meaning they’d missed 18 or more days of school. That rate shot up to 34% during the 2021-22 school year — when absenteeism peaked across the nation — then dropped to 29% the following year. It was the fourth-largest decline among states that year, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and Stanford University Professor Thomas Dee.

Last school year, Rhode Island’s rate dipped again to 25%.

Asa Messer Elementary School in Providence, Rhode Island hosted a dance marathon to celebrate improvements in school attendance.

Education policy experts who’ve examined Rhode Island’s attendance strategy say there are two key components that make it stand out.

The first is the Rhode Island Department of Education’s public “leaderboard” that displays attendance metrics for every school. It updates daily and is connected to how students are performing academically. Everyone from parents to mayors can see how kids who are absent a lot tend to score worse in reading and math.

“It has been shocking for people,” Infante-Green said. “When we say ‘every day counts,’ now they see the difference.”

The second is a push to get people outside of schools working to reduce chronic absenteeism. Governor Dan McKee, a Democrat who has made improving attendance a statewide priority, asked mayors and town managers to sign an agreement listing concrete steps they’d take to boost attendance, such as offering kids leadership opportunities in their hometowns. In return, they’d be eligible for a new state grant that can be used to build and expand community centers that offer services like tutoring. All but one signed on.

Other state departments got involved, too. Rhode Island’s secretary of commerce asked local businesses not to schedule high schoolers to work during school hours, and the health department tasked pediatricians with asking families about how often their kids miss school when they come in for a check-up.

That’s a real shift from the past, when educators tackled absenteeism mostly on their own, said Thomas Toch, the director of FutureEd, a Georgetown University think tank.

“One of the oddly silver linings of the pandemic is that it has helped policymakers, both within education and without, understand that the education of students is a community responsibility,” said Toch, whose think tank published a report this month about Rhode Island’s attendance work. “There are many other student- and family-serving public entities and the private sector, as well, in the form of employers, who have an important role to play in getting kids to school.”

Prior to the pandemic, 37% of students in Providence Public Schools were chronically absent. That spiked to 57% during the 2021-22 school year, then dropped over the next two years, eventually hitting 36% last school year.

George J. West was among the most improved. After peaking at 58% three years ago, the school brought chronic absenteeism down to 29% last school year.

District and school leaders credit that drop to a few strategies. Officials formed a district-level attendance team to support teams already working in schools, and started using a new data platform that made it easier to flag students as they racked up absences. Staff used data to pinpoint which kids would benefit most from a home visit before knocking on doors.

Schools paid attention to younger children, in particular. Nationally, absenteeism in kindergarten has been especially high.

Principal Cassandra Henderson attended a dance marathon with students at Asa Messer Elementary School in Providence, Rhode Island to celebrate attendance improvements.

At Providence’s Asa Messer Elementary, the school social worker called the parents of kindergartners who weren’t showing up regularly to see if there was any support the school could provide, while emphasizing that kids who miss lots of kindergarten tended to be absent a lot in the school’s later grades too.

“Once parents realize that, then it’s like: ‘Whoa, let me get my child to school,’” said Cassandra Henderson, Asa Messer’s principal.

Providence uses incentives and inclusion to boost attendance

One of the most difficult things about the absenteeism crisis is the number of factors driving it.

A parent may be struggling to get their child to school on time between jobs, or a teen may be missing class to care for a younger sibling. Pressure to work, mental health issues, and fears about falling behind at school can all keep kids from attending.

No one intervention solves all of those issues, and it’s not uncommon for schools to find that none of their attendance strategies are particularly effective, according to research released Tuesday by the RAND Corporation.

In Providence, working with a parent’s schedule is crucial, said Carina Pinto de Chacon, the district’s chief of family and community engagement.

A parent might need an early dropoff or a late pickup time. Finding a child an after-school slot or transferring siblings so they’re in the same building could be a big boost. Asa Messer Elementary helped one anxious second grader who missed a lot of school ease in with a shortened schedule and check-ins with the social worker.

Some Providence schools even deployed parents or school staff to pick up kids at their homes and walk them to school — dubbed a “walking school bus.” Some student advisory council members also started calling classmates to see if they needed a ride, Pinto de Chacon said.

Rewards for improved attendance, like pizza parties and gift cards, have also been helpful.

George J. West Elementary School in Providence rewarded students for good attendance with incentives like ice cream socials and extra recess time.

Still, school staff say many of the incentives kids like best don’t cost anything.

At George J. West Elementary, Vargas-Sinapi spun a wheel to award prizes like extra recess or computer time. At Asa Messer, kids got shoutouts for improved attendance over the loudspeaker or a chance to play freeze dance with their principal. Sometimes, the attendance team would “bum rush a classroom” to give kids high-fives and little gifts in an “Oprah-type of thing.”

“Students would then be a positive influence on their peers,” Henderson said.

Henderson also created a student council and invited kids to participate who wouldn’t normally be selected. Knowing they had to show up to make a meeting helped boost attendance.

And providing tutoring to English learners helped them bond with classmates, feel less anxious about language barriers, and enjoy coming to school more.

The Providence district’s goal is to lower chronic absenteeism to 20% over the next two years — nearly as low as the pre-pandemic rate in Rhode Island.

George J. West identified 56 students who improved their attendance a lot last school year, but still missed more than 18 days. The school’s counselor called their families this summer to see how the school could help them get out of that chronically absent category this year.

“We encouraged them: ‘You did a great job getting those kids here,’” said Assistant Principal Mary Bergeron. But then came the second part of the school’s message: “They are not where they need to be yet.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Immigrant learners struggle to find English classes as NYC funding lapses

2024-08-22T15:15:04+00:00

This story was originally published on Aug. 19 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

When 28-year-old Lilybet Barcenas first moved to New York City a year and four months ago, she didn’t know many fluent English speakers who could help her master the language. As she attempted to navigate the city, conversations often became complicated and confusing compared to what she had been used to as a furniture salesperson in her native Mexico.

Her English only began to improve, she said, when she started attending free English for Speakers of Other Languages, or ESOL, classes near her Woodside apartment at a local nonprofit, where she became quick friends with other newcomers who were also studying English four days a week.

“We all put in a lot of effort in learning English,” Barcenas told THE CITY in Spanish, speaking of her classes at Sunnyside Community Services. Like herself, she said, many of her classmates had hoped that improving their English would help boost their job prospects: “I’ve never met anyone that went to the classes just for the sake of going.”

That ESOL program is now suspended along with those at several other city-funded learning centers, including Queens Community House and CAMBA.

Lilybet Barrens Soto has been working in an Astoria market while studying English as a second language, Aug. 15, 2024.

That’s because the city Department of Youth and Community Development earlier this year adjusted the eligibility criteria for $8.3 million in ESOL contracts to prioritize areas where the U.S. Census shows low English proficiency and high poverty rates — locking some long-time providers out of funding.

DYCD spokesperson Mark Zustovich said this new funding approach reflected Mayor Eric Adams’ commitment to “bringing equity to all New Yorkers.”

But city funding has yet to roll out to the two dozen organizations selected to provide ESOL and adult literacy classes in those priority areas. And because previous contracts with DYCD ended June 30, thousands of students are now left with few places to turn to continue their English studies in the meantime.

Five of DYCD’s new priority areas, moreover, do not currently have eligible contractors to provide ESOL classes. Zustovich, however, said the agency intends to award contracts for all priority areas and that reviews for some proposals are ongoing.

“DYCD continues to make sure communities most in need for literacy programs are getting the services they need,” said Zustovich, who added that the agency will distribute information to students about the new providers to facilitate the transition to new funded programs.

A public hearing was scheduled last week on the new contracts. In the meantime, Barcenas is not sure where to continue her education.

Students study English as a second language at Sunnyside Community Services.

“Right now they’ve told me they don’t know when the next classes are, and I’m still hoping that they call me back,” she said. “It’s been difficult because there’s nothing like learning daily. Even when I was tired after work I always showed up to class. I never had an absence.”

Also in the lurch is Wendy Tapia, 43, an airline customer service representative who emigrated from Ecuador a dozen years ago and had been studying English at Queens Community House to improve her job prospects. She has been looking into ESOL classes at private learning centers — many of which she said can cost about $300 a month.

“It’s so expensive,” said Tapia. “I can’t pay that one.”

‘You start not from zero, but from minus five’

Long-time providers that have lost DYCD dollars told THE CITY the new funding formula had deprived them of the money they need to continue classes. That’s because the agency would only consider their bids if none came from within the priority areas.

DYCD’s official funding rejection notice for Sunnyside came in July — just a month before new sessions of classes were supposed to start in August, said the nonprofit’s Director of Adult and Immigrant Services Johan Lopez.

The Sunnyside program had been serving 660 students in 39 classes, with some 200 additional students on a waitlist hoping to get into a class, Lopez said. Now, just three classes are available for about 40 students, while four of the center’s staff and nine of its instructors have been laid off.

While class providers who spoke to THE CITY supported DYCD’s intention to serve those who are most in need, they said the new approach — based on the 2020 census — failed to account for the needs among migrants who have arrived in the last two years, with more than 200,000 of them staying staying in city shelters over that span.

“We know that populations have significantly shifted, and we know that the closest thing we have to an understanding of that is from the folks who are working in those communities, day in and day out,” said Lena Cohen, senior policy analyst at United Neighborhood Houses, an organization that advocates for a number of nonprofits who has lost ESOL funding from DYCD, including Queens Community Houses.

The Queensbridge-Ravenswood-Dutch Kills area of Long Island City, Queens, for example, was not prioritized for ESOL funding despite being home to 21 migrant shelters — the most of any neighborhood in the city, according to City Council data. Overall, just four of the 10 neighborhoods with the most migrant shelters were listed on DYCD’s geographic priority list for ESOL funding.

Lopez said the demand for ESOL classes among new asylum-seekers had been on a steady climb at the Sunnyside center, which is located just one neighborhood east of Long Island City.

“About a year ago, I would say that, still, the majority of our students were established immigrants,” Lopez said. “Last fiscal year, we saw that about 50% to 60% were recently arrived immigrants.”

An ESOl student wrote a testimonial.

A number of those students began writing letters to their elected representatives in the winter and spring as they became aware that they may lose classes come summertime.

“I think thar [sic] we all need to have acess to education regardless of the migratory and economic status that each one has in this country,” one student pleaded. “I go to school at night, 4 nights a week even when I am very tired, because in the future, I am sure I will be rewarded when I learn English,” another student wrote. A third declared: “I would like to become an American citizen. So as an immigrant, I need to learn English.”

As part of the budget process, the City Council in June approved $10 million in discretionary funding for adult literacy initiatives, including ESOL classes. But those dollars that have yet to reach the nonprofits that lost funding, Cohen said.

The Council will decide how that money will be allocated after DYCD completes its award process, said Rendy Desamours, a spokesperson for Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens), because it is intended to fill in funding gaps for organizations locked out of DYCD dollars.

Meanwhile, Council member Julie Won (D-Queens), whose district includes Sunnyside, said she will “continue to advocate for nonprofits that have provided these classes for decades to receive adequate funding.”

Svetlana Saratchilova, who had been teaching ESOL for two years at Sunnyside before getting laid off this summer, said she’s “heartbroken” for her students, most of whom she said were newcomers from South America and Asia.

“In order for them to get the help they need, they need to speak English, and you understand when you come from another country, you start not from zero, but from minus five,” said Saratchilova, 60, herself a native Bulgarian speaker who moved to the city about 25 years ago. “It’s mind-blowing how hard they work. They work for eight hours — or however many hours they work — and then they come to school, and they stay for three more hours, and they are focused on everything that they do.”

Some of Saratchilova’s students had told her that they dreamed of going to college, while others aspired to pursue a professional career. Several aspire to open up businesses, she said.

“English is actually a way for everyone to not only chase their dreams, but eventually to achieve everything that they want to,” Saratchilova added. “I was kind of hoping for a miracle. That eventually, who knows, maybe at the very last moment, something will turn, something will change and they would not have to cut the classes.”

‘It Really Did Change My Life’

Rosaura Vazquez, 52, moved from Puerto Rico to the city 17 years ago. At the time, she had hoped to continue working as a veterinarian but struggled to find work because she could not express herself well in English.

She now runs a pet grooming business from home serving mostly a Spanish-speaking clientele, but said her 11-year-old son’s education has given her a reason to study English again.

She started taking classes at Sunnyside about a year ago, she said, so she can be more involved in the school’s parent teacher association.

Rosaura Vazquez shows homework from her English as a Second Language class, Aug. 8, 2024.

“I’m now able to understand more of what the teachers are saying and how my son is doing in school,” Vazquez told THE CITY in Spanish as her elder son translated. “I’m also able to understand his homework better and help him if he needs it.”

These days, though, she’s having a hard time finding a new provider that works with her life, schedule, and finances.

The Sunnyside program was the first to allow her to bring her sixth grader to class, she said, so that she didn’t have to choose between child care and her own education. And she loved dancing with and reading stories in English to seniors who frequent the center, too.

“Thanks to the learning center, I was able to explore more things out there and keep myself more active,” Vazquez said. “I’ve learned that English is not only a language, but that there’s more things to it. It really did change my life.”

Baercenas also credited the Sunnyside program for connecting her with people and services that helped her navigate her first months in the city. The center not only helped her troubleshoot issues with her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits, she said, but it also allowed her to meet other immigrants and new migrants whom she now calls her “second family.”

“I’ve had really good classmates,” Barcenas told THE CITY in Spanish. “A lot of them helped me look for a job because I couldn’t find anything myself. They’d say ‘Don’t worry, I’ll help you’ and they’d invite me to breakfast — it’s something that I’ll never forget because they’d offer me a plate of food when I was hungry.”

Barcenas now works at a grocery store in Astoria where she moves and lifts boxes of inventory for about eight hours a day. And conversations with her Italian, Korean, and Arab coworkers have gotten a little easier since she started taking ESOL classes, she said. Though, she also hopes that she’ll soon find a job that feels easier on the body.

“I think I need to learn a bit more English because there are words that I get wrong, but I’m not as lost as I used to be,” she said. “But I’d like to find something that isn’t so strenuous for me, though I have to wait and be patient for it.

“But here I’ll be, in the meantime,” she continued. “In the supermarket.”

Additional reporting by Jonathan Custodio.

Newark students can get free school supplies and books at back-to-school giveaways this month

2024-08-16T18:38:34+00:00

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The end of summer means thousands of Newark students are getting ready to head back to school.

The return to classes also means students need supplies such as pencils, notebooks, and backpacks. But paying for new school supplies can have a significant financial impact on some families. This year, the National Retail Federation estimates that parents of children in elementary through high school plan to spend an average of $874 on clothes, shoes, and other supplies.

To help offset some of those back-to-school costs, local groups in Newark are giving away free haircuts, backpacks, helmets, and other supplies. Here’s a list of back-to-school events happening this month.

Saturday, Aug. 17

Where: KIPP Newark Collegiate Academy, 129 Littleton Ave, Newark, NJ 07103

Time: Breakfast at 11 a.m. Program and activities at 11 a.m. Giveaways at 12 p.m.

Former city council candidate Chigozie Onyema and the Maroon Project in Newark are hosting a free breakfast and school supply giveaway for city students. Every child who attends will receive a free book and bookbag and families can enter a raffle to win gift cards for school uniforms while supplies last. Community members can also donate supplies to students through the group’s Amazon Wishlist page.

Saturday, Aug. 17

Where: Allen AME Church, 56 19th Ave, Newark, NJ 07103

Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Allen AME Church will give away food, backpacks, and other school supplies and is open to everyone in the community. The event will feature entertainment, face painting, and a bounce house for kids. For more information call: 973-373-7753

Saturday, Aug. 17

Where: Urban League, 508 Central Avenue, Newark, NJ 07107

Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Essentially From The Heart and The Mommy Connection are giving away school supplies and providing games and food. The event is open to all Newark residents.

Thursday, Aug. 22

Where: Hawkins Street School, 8 Hawkins St, Newark, NJ 07105

Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Newark Public Schools is hosting a back-to-school kick-off event where families can apply for free lunch for students and after-school programs. The event will also offer free school supplies for city students while supplies last.

Thursday, Aug. 22

Where: Boylan Street Recreational Center, 916 S. Orange Ave. Newark, NJ 07106

Time: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Newark leaders, Teach For America New Jersey, and other local organizations are hosting a back-to-school giveaway offering free haircuts, backpacks, and other items, while supplies last.

Friday, Aug. 23

Where: West Side Park Community Center, 600 S. 17th St, Newark, NJ 07103

Time: 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The United Community Corporation is hosting its annual “Backpacks and Snacks” giveaway. The organization is giving out backpacks, school supplies, and free haircuts on-site to the community on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Friday, Aug. 23

Where: Newark Police Department 7th Precinct, 159 N 10th St, Newark, NJ, 07107

Time: 12:30 pm. to 4:30 p.m

The Eric Muñoz Trauma Center at University Hospital is hosting the Back to School Bike Rodeo.

The event will feature a safety and health fair that offers helmet fittings, ambulance tours, sidewalk CPR demonstrations, and bike safety tips. Families will also receive free school supplies, refreshments, and more.

Saturday, Aug. 24

Where: Nat Turner Park 251-289 18th Avenue, Newark, NJ 07108

Time: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Bless A Bag will host a free backpack and school supply giveaway offering food, snacks, and activities for kids.

Saturday, Aug. 24

Where: Southward: 98 Rose Terrace, Newark, NJ 07108

Westward: 373 South 19th Street, Newark, NJ, off of South Orange Ave

Time: Southward: 2 to 5 p.m. Westward: 3 p.m.

Helping Handz Inc. and Creative Minds Daycare are giving away more than 250 bookbags filled with school supplies to students. The book bag drives will be held in Newark’s West and South wards.

Thursday, Aug. 29

Where: FOCUS, 441 Broad Street, Newark, NJ 07102

Time: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m

FOCUS will be hosting a back-to-school celebration and school supply distribution. The event will feature games, giveaways, live music, and more.

Friday, Aug. 30

Where: Vailsburg Park, Oraton Parkway Side

Time: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m

The Vailsburg Park Community Conservancy, Essex County, and other organizations are hosting a bookbag giveaway event that includes free haircuts, food, and activities for kids.

Friday, Aug. 30

Where: 84 Clinton Place, Newark, NJ 07108

Time: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Leaders for Life, Brookline Sports + Brookline Sports Outreach, and Mr. Urban Sports are giving away free haircuts and backpacks to Newark students. For more information, call 908-455-1734.

Saturday, Aug. 31

Where: Peshine Avenue School Playground, 433 Peshine Ave., Newark, NJ 07112

Time: 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The Frierson Foundation and Changing Paths are hosting their annual back-to-school bookbag and supply giveaway while supplies last. Contact Mr. Armstrong at 201-577-4396 or Mr. Frierson at 973-207-6507 for more information.

Saturday, Aug. 31

Where: Ivy Hill Park, 5 Manor Dr., Newark, NJ 07106

Time: 4 p.m.

The Girls Live, Love, Laugh organization founded by Newark Public Schools board member Allison James-Frison will be giving away school supplies to city students. The event was rescheduled to Aug. 31 due to expected weather conditions.

Sunday, Sept. 1

Where: Ahavas Sholom Synagogue, 145 Broadway, Newark, NJ 07104

Time: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The Ahavas Sholom Synagogue will host a school supply giveaway day filled with activities for students and the community. All Newark students are welcome and families must RSVP on the Eventbrite page.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Tim Walz helps Democrats make the ‘prairie populist’ case for public schools

2024-08-11T23:08:54+00:00

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The photos have emerged as perhaps the most iconic image of Tim Walz.

The Minnesota governor and longtime high school teacher had just signed into law a bill making school breakfast and lunch free to nearly all children in the state. In the pictures from last year, Walz is surrounded by children who happily embrace him, and he beams with joy.

Teachers and teachers unions have embraced Walz as the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee with similar joy. The last major party candidate to previously have led a K-12 classroom was Lyndon B. Johnson.

And they say they’re excited about not just his background but his record.

As governor, Walz focused on providing schools with more money and resources, addressing the affordability of child care and college, and working to reduce child poverty. Walz has connected these policy priorities to his time in the classroom, and Democrats increasingly have embraced them as the solution to what ails public education.

This emphasis on resources and social factors outside the classroom sidesteps education issues that have divided Democrats and differs in key respects from former President Barack Obama’s tenure, when Democrats backed education reform policies like merit pay for teachers and pushed low-performing schools to improve or face closure. It stands in even sharper contrast to Republican attacks on public schools as places where children are at risk of indoctrination.

Critics of the Walz pick say it reflects Harris’ deference to teachers unions and likely closes the door on any major push to improve school performance through federal policy. But many political observers say Walz represents a chance for Democrats to embrace a positive vision of public schools and the teaching profession, after several years in which conservatives claiming to represent parents’ rights have largely driven education politics.

“It feels like an opportunity to turn the page on the way education has been discussed for the last few years,” said Jon Valant, who heads the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. “Democrats have been reluctant to engage on some of these issues, and now we’ll have someone on the forefront who is very natural and compelling when he talks about it.”

Walz’ ability to listen and respond to what he hears by working for solutions has struck Joe Nathan, who heads Minnesota’s Center for School Change and has worked on education policy and charter school issues in the state for years.

One example that stands out to Nathan emerged from the aftermath of pandemic disruptions. When many businesses shuttered in 2020, Minnesota at first issued unemployment benefits to some teenagers who applied. But then, citing a 1939 law, the state tried to take back thousands of dollars that, for students from low-income families, had already gone to rent and utility bills. To qualify for assistance, the students would need to drop out of high school, curtailing their education to help parents and siblings.

Students organized and successfully sued the state, then worked to change the law. Walz met with the students and became an ally in their cause.

“It’s a very rare politician who listens to kids and says ‘you’re right’ and then does something,” Nathan said.

Why Walz resonates with teachers and students

Since Walz became Harris’ running mate, stories have poured out from former students who’ve described how Walz connected with them when other teachers couldn’t, how he noticed something they were trying to say, or stood up for them. Yes, he coached Mankato West’s winless football team to a state championship, “but he was a pretty great coach even when we weren’t winning,” one former player told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

“We’ve all had that teacher. We’ve all known that teacher,” said Mark Sass, a retired high social studies teacher in Colorado. “That’s very relatable.”

Teachers respond to Walz on yet another level, said Sass, who serves as policy director for Teach Plus Colorado and works every year with cohorts of teachers doing policy research.

“They feel like there’s somebody who’s been through this, and they feel like there is someone who will go in and fight for them,” he said. “And it will be interesting to see what happens. There’s a difference between fighting for the teachers and fighting for the kids.”

It’s rare for someone with extensive classroom experience to have such a seat at the table where decisions get made, said Jal Mehta, a Harvard education professor.

“Teachers feel really excited that they might have one of their own in the White House,” he said.

It might also appeal to voters in general. Poll after poll finds that large majorities of parents like their kids’ teachers, said Jennifer Berkshire, an education researcher and author of the book “The Education Wars.”

“That is the mainstream view, and Walz reminds us of that,” she said.

That excitement could yield benefits beyond the campaign trail. Teachers report working longer hours for less pay than their peers who also do jobs that require college degrees. Teacher turnover is high. Polls find that most parents wouldn’t want their children to enter the teaching profession.

Harris campaigned on raising teacher pay back in 2019, and the federal government could leverage its money to improve pay and working conditions, Mehta said. But he also noted that at their first rally together in Philadelphia, Walz thanked Harris for “bringing back the joy” to the campaign.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, leaned into her VP pick Tim Walz's background as a teacher and coach when she introduced him at rally in Philadelphia on Aug. 6, 2024.

“We’re also missing a lot of joy in the classroom, and they could channel that joy into how they talk about schools,” Mehta said. “If it’s just that and no policy proposals, it will feel light after a while, but the combination of the rhetoric and some policy could be really invigorating for the teaching profession.”

Walz not shying away from culture war issues

A key point in Walz’s biography is that he served as the first faculty advisor to Mankato West’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA). Such clubs were once controversial, and Walz thought it was important that a straight married military veteran who coached the football team take on that role.

GSAs, now more commonly known as Gender and Sexuality Alliances, are federally protected under the same law that allows Bible study groups to meet on school grounds. But they’re under renewed scrutiny as Republican-led states pass laws restricting how teachers talk about gender and sexuality at school or what books students have access to.

With Democrats already taking the blame for extended school closures and mask mandates that were unpopular with some parents, they were slow to respond to the conservative parents’ rights movement to a certain extent.

But as governor, with the help of a supportive legislature, Walz has tackled so-called culture war issues head on instead of evading them. He made Minnesota a “trans refuge” state for people fleeing restrictive laws, banned book bans, and expanded ethnic studies and Indigenous history.

Related: In Tim Walz, many teachers see themselves — and an opportunity

These issues could be front and center in a future Trump administration. The Republican platform calls for removing federal funding for schools teaching “inappropriate” lessons on race and history, and for rolling back new Title IX rules that expand protections for LGBTQ students and staff. Already, Republican-led states have sued to block implementation of the Title IX rules.

Conservative parent groups were quick to blast Walz. On Fox and Friends, Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice called him “the most anti-parent candidate that Kamala Harris could have chosen.”

Some Republicans have mocked Walz as “Tampon Tim” for backing a law that requires schools to make period products available at no charge to all menstruating students in the restrooms they regularly use. The law’s wording covers transgender boys who use the boys’ restroom.

If Walz were a teacher today stepping up to sponsor his school’s GSA, Berkshire said, the GOP would “demonize him as a groomer” and then argue: “This is why we don’t need schools, and we should have education savings accounts.”

Walz helps Democrats link public schools, family policy

Johnson’s time teaching impoverished students in South Texas influenced his Great Society initiatives, which significantly expanded the social safety net, said Kal Alston, professor at Syracuse University’s school of education. Johnson also spoke up for the value of public school as a place where people from different backgrounds come together in common purpose.

“He spoke from the White House about how being a teacher really shaped his view of the opportunities that came to him from attending public school,” Alston said.

Similarly, Walz’s “experience in the classroom may have informed why he thought it was important that kids not come into the classroom hungry,” said Sass, the retired Colorado teacher. “He understood the impacts that economic conditions can have on student achievement, and it seems like he took that to heart when he became governor.”

Cole Stevens was one of the Minnesota students who faced the loss of unemployment benefits back in 2020. He said Walz’s administration encouraged students to hold the line on their priority, which was ensuring that students were treated just like other workers whose employers had paid into the state’s unemployment fund.

Stevens, now the director of impact at Bridgemakers, a youth-led organization he co-founded, said he appreciated that Walz took young people seriously and didn’t patronize them. Stevens, who was speaking for himself and not for Bridgemakers, hopes that Walz takes that approach to Washington and helps find bipartisan solutions to education problems.

“Our schools are still not effective as a whole,” he said. “If you live in a low-income ZIP code, your whole life trajectory is determined at that point. We need to fund schools differently. We need to hold schools accountable in different ways, with more practical skills for youth and more personalized learning opportunities for students to unlock their full potential.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz attends the Farmfest agricultural forum in August 2023. Democrats hope that Walz's small-town bonafides broaden the ticket's appeal.

Few observers expect substantive K-12 policy to come out of the federal government any time soon, though there is work to be done. Pandemic recovery is woefully incomplete even as federal COVID assistance is expiring. The Every Student Succeeds Act, which is supposed to hold schools accountable for student achievement, is overdue for reauthorization. So is the federal law that governs special education but provides a fraction of the promised funding.

Policy on charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run, is also in flux. Once embraced by many Democrats, charter schools have not found the same kind of support in the Biden administration. But Nathan, the Minnesota education advocate who helped pass the state’s first-in-the-nation charter school law in 1991, said he’s always found Walz to be “fair-minded” and that the governor ensured charter schools shared in increased school funding.

“There is no question he is a very strong union guy and a very strong public education guy, but he is also fair-minded,” Nathan said. “He understands charter schools are part of the public school system, and he understands that a significant percentage of charter school students are low-income students of color.”

Walz’s emphasis on child poverty, wraparound services, and increasing resources for schools aligns with Harris’ “care economy” agenda that focuses on child care, elder care, and family leave. Valant, of the Brookings Institution, said Democrats for too long ceded the language of “parents’ rights” to conservatives, while Walz’s approach offers a new way of talking about building education systems that meet parents’ needs.

Making that case might have been more complicated had Harris picked Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. A top contender for the VP slot, Shapiro last year publicly backed vouchers; Republicans have made school choice a crucial part of their education platform.

Having Shapiro on the ticket would have elevated “a candidate who makes the same argument that Republicans are making” when “we’re having this key debate about whether we should have public schools,” Berkshire said. It also would have upset key constituencies, like the two national teachers unions. But that calculation is one reason Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, was disappointed Harris chose Walz.

“People would say, ‘Wow, she showed some real courage in breaking with some parts of her base,’” he said. “That doesn’t mean a Harris-Shapiro administration would have promoted private school choice. But it would have been an important indicator she was really fighting for the center.”

In Walz, Petrilli said he sees “a lot of love for kids, and that’s great, but I don’t see any tough love for schools that are doing a poor job.”

A decade ago, Democratic candidates might have been talking about test scores and charter schools, Berkshire said, but no longer: “We’re not going to hear that. We’re going to hear the prairie populist argument for public schools.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

NYC families: Just weeks remain to apply for $120 per child in summer food benefits

2024-08-08T20:03:50+00:00

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Some New York children are already receiving summer food benefits as part of a new federal program rolling out this year, but hundreds of thousands of eligible families still have yet to apply, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday.

So far, the state has issued nearly $200 million in benefits to more than 1.5 million children through the new Summer EBT program, with eligible families receiving $120 per child. Some families have already received the funds, while others will see them arrive in the coming weeks, according to state officials.

“No child should ever, ever go hungry because the cost of living was just too damn high for their parents and their families,” Hochul said during a Thursday press conference on the Lower East Side. “My jaw drops when I see the cost of groceries right here in our city and across the state of New York.”

The new benefits follow a similar federal program that began during the COVID pandemic and operated for several years, intending to help cover costs for meals usually provided at school. But though advocates described that program as a lifeline for families in need, some New Yorkers never redeemed their benefits, and millions of dollars in potential aid were routinely left on the table. Some critics blamed the unused funds on insufficient state outreach.

There are also key differences between the two programs. All New York City public school families received the pandemic-era benefits, but a smaller number of families are eligible under Summer EBT. Some New York City families will also have to apply in order to receive them — a potential barrier for those who may be unaware of the requirement.

“Here’s the issue: there are still hundreds of thousands of kids who are eligible, and their parents have not taken advantage of this,” Hochul said.

State officials estimate roughly 2 million children across the state are eligible for the benefits.

Families have just weeks left to apply to the program. Here’s what New York City families need to know:

Who is eligible

How to apply

Most eligible families, including recipients of SNAP, Temporary Assistance, or Medicaid, will automatically receive the funds. Those who will automatically receive them will be notified via a letter, state officials said.

Others will need to apply. Families can access the online application here, and must apply by Sept. 3.

When do benefits expire

Summer EBT funds will expire 122 days after they are issued.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

A summer youth jobs program placing students in school kitchens offers a taste of culinary careers

2024-08-05T19:12:03+00:00

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Edgar Cordova, a rising 12th grader at Xavier High School in Union Square, has spent his summer working in a school kitchen — bagging milk, cleaning tables, and cutting up fruit.

But even though he’s surrounded by cooking constantly, he said he was excited to see a firsthand demonstration tailored to students.

Last month, he sat among roughly a dozen students in a kitchen at Essex Market, a food hall on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, watching as Chef Lily Chin mixed gochujang, honey, water, and vinegar for a sauce for bibimbop, a Korean rice dish.

Though Cordova isn’t doing much cooking in his current position, he added, “Maybe, if I practice more in the kitchen, I’ll improve.”

Cordova is one of about 150 students who found work as a culinary aide through this year’s Summer Youth Employment Program, a New York City program that connects young people between the ages of 14 and 24 to paid work experiences in July and August. Employment through the program has offered Cordova more than just the chance to improve his cooking skills — it’s given him income that he can put toward college and the future.

“I’ve been trying to save it up as much as I can,” he said.

For decades, the Summer Youth Employment Program, also known as SYEP, has provided the city’s youth with paid opportunities to explore potential career pathways. In recent years, it’s also expanded, with Mayor Eric Adams adding 25,000 seats in 2022 — bringing it up to 100,000 spots in total. Last year, the program also made a commitment to matching LGBTQ+ youth with “supportive work opportunities.”

City officials say the program can improve school attendance, reduce incarceration rates, and help keep young people safe over the course of the summer.

Cordova and other SYEP participants attended the cooking demonstration in late July as part of a series of four professional development days for those employed as culinary aides in New York City public school kitchens. These events were organized by the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy. (Adams has repeatedly emphasized the importance of healthy eating, and has included steering kids toward a better diet among his policy initiatives.)

In addition to a tour of Essex Market, students also attended panel discussions on careers in “food advocacy, justice, urban farming, and the connections between food and personal and planetary health,” according to a press release. Students also toured the Staten Island Composting Facility.

Darren Wong, a rising junior who has spent the summer prepping meals at Sunset Park High School in Brooklyn, said even though he works in a kitchen every day, he doesn’t know how to cook. His work has mainly consisted of cleaning the kitchen, preparing pizza and mozzarella sticks for summer school programs, or packaging cold lunches for other school programs.

Still, Wong likes the extra source of income. He said he plans to invest his earnings from the summer.

“I want to try to make more money using what I’ve earned,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jadore Baptiste, a student at the High School for Medical Professionals in Canarsie, said she’s been saving money from SYEP to help her move later this year. Working in the kitchen and helping to serve breakfast and lunch to students at P.S. 181 in Brooklyn has been a fun experience, she added.

“I’m learning,” Baptiste said. “In the kitchen, sometimes when they don’t have things, chefs improvise. So I’m learning how to improvise on meals.”

Chin went on to show students how to cook seasoned watercress, before offering a presentation on the nutrients within different foods. She emphasized the importance of eating calcium-rich foods like watercress. Between the ages of 19 and 30, bone mass in the body is increasing, Chin said. Without sufficient calcium during that time period, individuals become susceptible later in life to osteoporosis, a disease that causes bones to become weak and brittle due to a loss of density and mass.

She also took students on a tour of the market’s rooftop gardens, and then to Mille Nonne, an Italian restaurant on the ground floor, where students spoke with the owners about the work that led to opening their restaurant.

Students tour the rooftop gardens of Essex Market as part of a professional development day provided by New York City's Summer Youth Employment Program on July 26, 2024.

Chin, who teaches cooking classes to both students and seniors, said she’s enjoyed speaking with students interested in potential culinary careers and sharing her own path into the industry as a chef who learned by working at restaurants and did not attend culinary school.

But Chin hopes that if students take anything away from their experience at Essex Market, it’s not strictly about kitchens or cooking. It’s the nutritional information she shared about calcium.

“I didn’t learn about this until I turned 30 — no one told me,” she said. “Everyone says you should have calcium, but never exactly why.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Get free school supplies and vaccines at these back-to-school events for Memphis families

2024-08-02T17:38:40+00:00

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The first day of school for Memphis-Shelby County Schools students is Aug. 5, which means back-to-school preparations are in full swing for many families.

Below is a list of events for Memphis students, parents, and families looking for free school supplies, backpacks, vaccines, school registration help, and more to get ready for the 2024-25 school year.

If you know of any other Memphis back-to-school events, email community@chalkbeat.org so we can add them to this list.

Preparing the Legacy School Supply Giveaway

Date: Saturday, Aug. 3

Time: 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Location: Memphis Sports & Events Center, 995 Maxwell Blvd. Memphis

This event, hosted by Memphis-Shelby County Schools, will have free backpacks and a school supply giveaway, in addition to free immunizations and help with school registration. There will also be more than 30 vendors offering resources and information, interactive sessions and games, and performances by the Rozelle Dancers and the Grizzlies Dance Team.

The event is sponsored by Desmond Bane, shooting guard for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Back to School Supplies Giveaway

Date: Friday, Aug. 9

Time: 1-5 p.m.

Location: East Shelby Library, Tween Scene & Children’s Room, 7200 East Shelby Dr., Memphis

Memphis Public Libraries’ annual back-to-school supplies giveaway will go on until supplies last, so arrive early.

Back to School Family Day

Date: Saturday, Aug. 10

Time: 1-5 p.m.

Location: Stax Museum of American Soul Music, 926 East McLemore Ave., Memphis

This free event featuring live music, food trucks, arts and crafts, and games spans the entire Soulsville Foundation campus. In the gym, families can get vaccinations, sports physicals, health screenings, haircuts, backpacks, and school supplies — all free.

21st Annual “Stop the Killing” Back 2 School and Family Community Initiative

Date: Saturday, Aug. 10

Time: 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

Location: F.F.U.N. House #1, The FFUN Center, 3214 S. 3rd St., Memphis

Freedom from Unnecessary Negatives is hosting a drive-thru school supply giveaway. Line-up and registration begins at 10 a.m., and free food will also be available for families. Children must be present, and there can be no more than four kids to a vehicle.

4th Annual Back to School Extravaganza

Date: Saturday, Aug. 17

Time: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Location: Whitehaven Library outdoor grounds, 4120 Mill Branch Road, Memphis

If you miss the earlier back-to-school event hosted by Memphis Public Libraries, you can still come to this one at Whitehaven Library, featuring food and games. There will also be backpack giveaways while supplies last.

Teen Back To School Block Party

Date: Saturday, Aug. 24

Time: 2-5 p.m.

Location: East Shelby Library, Meeting Room A & B, 7200 East Shelby Dr., Memphis

This event from Memphis Public Libraries is for teens and their families. There will be food trucks, games, music, and a lip sync contest with prizes.

NYC public schools, a fencing powerhouse and home to Olympians

2024-08-01T20:44:12+00:00

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Fencing is often seen as an elite sport, the province of pricey private schools on Manhattan’s Upper East or West sides.

And while the sport is certainly not cheap — startup equipment costs upwards of $450 — there’s a small, but thriving fencing scene at New York City’s public high schools, spawning Olympian fencers, including Anne Cebula, a Brooklyn Tech alum from Bensonhurst, representing the U.S. this year in the women’s épée competition. Her Olympic teammate in the foil competition Lauren Scruggs, a Queens native, attended Packer Collegiate, a Brooklyn private school.

Of New York City’s roughly 400 high schools, there are 22 girls and boys fencing teams in the Public Schools Athletic League, or PSAL, said Loweye Diedro, a PSAL sports coordinator overseeing fencing, double dutch, cricket, stunt, and table tennis.

Athletes from these teams are often part of the city’s larger fencing community, fencing each other at private fencing clubs in Manhattan’s Chelsea and elsewhere, said Diedro, a fencer and fencing coach herself, who is hoping this year to launch a “Mayor’s Cup” for top fencers at the city’s public and private schools to play each other.

About half of the public school teams are based at some of the city’s most prestigious high schools, including Bronx Science, Stuyvesant, Beacon, and Townsend Harris. Others are at large comprehensive high schools, like Francis Lewis, Cardozo, and Tottenville. And some teams draw from smaller schools that share a campus, such as Bronx United, which is composed of students from the Community School for Social Justice and Health Opportunities High School, as well as a team on Brooklyn’s John Jay campus, which serves several schools.

Students from other schools can fence on these teams as well, through PSAL’s “access program,” which allows students to try out for teams at other schools within their district when their own school doesn’t have the sport. A student from Edward R. Murrow High School, for example, fences on Brooklyn Tech’s boys team, Diedro said.

The teams at public schools help students get over the “hurdle” of the expensive equipment and costly travel to competitions, Diedro said. “We give you all the equipment,” she said. “We travel within the five boroughs, so everything is pretty accessible.”

Efforts to make fencing a more diverse sport

Nowadays, kids often start learning to fence by the age of 8, Diedro said, but she estimated that more than half of the fencers who play on their high school teams don’t pick it up until later, like Cebula, who didn’t start until the age of 15, when she attended Brooklyn Tech.

Cebula, who is currently ranked No. 2 in the U.S. for her discipline, did not win any medals in Paris. But Scruggs — the third ranked American in women’s foil — took the silver this week to make history as the first Black fencer to win a medal for the U.S. in an individual women’s event. Scruggs also was part of the U.S. women’s foil team on Thursday taking home the gold against Italy. It’s the first ever gold medal for a U.S. fencing team in the Olympics.

Lauren Scruggs celebrates winning against Team Italy during the Fencing Women's Foil Team Gold Medal match on Aug. 1, 2024 in Paris.

Fencing, Diedro said, offers a way in for a variety of students who might feel that other sports have been off limits to them.

“In the weight room, the basketball players and the football players always made remarks that we fencers didn’t look like we played a specific sport. Like, we don’t really look like track athletes, or we’re not tall like basketball athletes,” she said. “Fencing is a sport for everybody. Everybody’s beatable. You could be 5’1” or you could be 6’3,” and you just kind of have to start at the same foundation and just really hone in on discipline and skills that are going to help you in so many other areas in life.”

Diedro is deeply entwined with the city’s fencing community: She started when she was 5 years old through the Peter Westbrook Foundation, an organization started by the first Black Olympian to win a fencing medal.The Westbrook Foundation has worked to diversify the sport, particularly among Black fencers, by offering students like Diedro scholarships to cover equipment and competition travel. Scruggs is a member of the foundation, along with past Olympic fencer Keeth Smart, another Brooklyn Tech alum.

In fact, watching Smart’s dramatic win in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he won a silver medal on the men’s saber team, inspired Cebula to pick up an épée and follow in his footsteps.

“It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life,” Cebula told THE CITY.

Anne Cebula reacts after victory in the Women's Épée Individual Table of 32 match between Rossella Fiamingo of team Italy on day one of the Olympic Games in Paris on July 27, 2024.

She was 10 at the time. Her parents were immigrants from Poland — her mother, a nurse, and her father, an electrician – couldn’t afford lessons, Cebula told THE CITY. But she held onto her dream and opted to go to Brooklyn Tech because of it.

Scruggs started fencing at the age of 7, inspired by her Star Wars-loving brother. But she was aware that she looked different from a lot of other kids at fencing clubs and competitions.

“Fencing has largely certainly been a non-Black sport,” Scruggs told the Washington Post. “I hope that people who look like me, girls who look like me, feel they have a place in this sport.”

Fencing requires focus and being ‘meticulous’ about technique

To be successful at fencing, like most sports, takes dedication, said Diedro, who like Cebula, fenced for Columbia, which is known as a fencing powerhouse. (Though this year’s Olympic team has a fair number of Harvard students, including Scruggs.)

“You have to really be very focused, and you have to be very, I would say, meticulous about getting the right technique, getting the right foundation, because that really takes you to the next level,” Diedro said. “It’s a lot of practicing every day, not just not every other day.”

New York City Public Schools Athletic League's Girls Fencing Invitationals in April 2024 at Long Island City High School.

Diedro is hoping that more young New Yorkers will discover fencing, and she’s hoping that some schools that discontinued their fencing teams will re-launch them, especially since those schools have already invested in the equipment.

“You might not think that you’re the type of person that should be a fencer or be on a fencing team,” Diedro said. “If the opportunity presents itself, definitely take advantage of it, because we’ve had so many successful fencers who come from all different types of backgrounds.”

Correction: Based on incorrect data, this story initially said there were 25 girls fencing teams. There are 22.

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

Free school supplies, haircuts, vaccines, and more. Check out these 2024 back-to-school events

2024-07-26T21:05:37+00:00

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Summer is almost over, and families are getting ready to head back to school next month.

In preparation, families have to fill out school lunch forms, make sure their kids’ vaccinations are up to date, and go shopping for school supplies. To help families out, several organizations are offering free school supplies.

Below are some of the upcoming giveaway events. If you know of others we should include on our list, email co.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Saturday July 27

Time: 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Where: Fire Station 39, 9150 E. 50th Ave., Denver

The city of Denver is launching Denver Days with an event that includes pancakes and a backpack giveaway.

Saturday Aug. 3

Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Adams City High School, 7200 Quebec Parkway

The annual Adams 14 resource fair will include a school supply giveaway and assistance with school registration.

Saturday Aug. 3

Time: 9 a.m. to noon

Where: Island Grove Event Center, 501 North 14th Avenue, Greeley

The annual school kickoff community celebration hosted by the Greeley-Evans School District 6 in partnership with the Success Foundation will give away more than 4,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to children enrolled in the district and present at the event.

Saturday Aug. 3

Time: 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Where: Town Center, 14200 E. Alameda Ave., Aurora

Aurora Public School’s annual school kickoff will include free backpacks and school supplies for district students and low- or no-cost immunizations. The event is also an opportunity to register children for school and meet staff.

Saturday Aug. 3

Time: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Where: Sloans Lake park, West 26th Avenue and Tennyson Street, Denver

The Silva Family Foundation and several other organizations are giving away more than 3,500 backpacks to students who are present at the event.

Saturday Aug. 10

Time: 9 a.m. to noon

Where: Community Connections, 9471 Dorothy Blvd., Thornton

Community Connections and other organizations are partnering to give away school supplies to students who attend this event. There will also be food trucks.

Thursday Aug. 15

Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: 3131 W 14th Ave., Denver

Servicios de La Raza will provide school supplies, food, haircuts, and other resources. You must bring a school ID, birth certificate, or have the child present.

Saturday Aug. 17

Time: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Barnum Park, 360 Hooker St., Denver

The Southwest Denver Coalition is having a back to school resource fair giving free backpacks to students from southwest Denver. Students must be present, and must live in one of these zip codes: 80219, 80204, 80223, 80236, 80227.

Sunday Aug. 18

Time: 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Where: 158 S. Federal Blvd., Denver

The Skyline Chapter and Krazy Chicanos Car Club are hosting their annual back to school event where they will be giving away backpacks, school supplies and water bottles.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

NYC students to get free OMNY cards, allowing for year-round travel any time of day

2024-07-25T16:30:10+00:00

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Goodbye, student MetroCards.

New York City students will receive free OMNY cards in the coming school year, allowing for more flexible travel on weekdays and weekends, Mayor Eric Adams announced Thursday.

The new cards — which will be available for the 2024-25 school year — allow for four daily trips, and can be tapped 24 hours per day, seven days per week, for the entirety of the calendar year, city officials said Thursday during a press conference at Transit Tech High School in Brooklyn.

Previously, student-issued MetroCards allowed for just three free rides per day between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. on school days. Students were issued new cards each semester, and couldn’t use them on evenings or weekends, which was a burden for students who come home late from internships or jobs or attend weekend classes or sporting activities. It also limited students who had to commute for other reasons, such as ferrying their siblings around. (Kids could only use MetroCards in the summer if they were enrolled in summer school.)

Now, students will receive one card that remains active until the start of the following school year. The initiative is supported by a mix of state and city funds. New York state will provide $25 million to the student OMNY card program, while the city contributes $50.5 million, up from $45 million, according to a press release.

“No more hourly restrictions, no more restrictions that you can’t use it on the weekends, and no more restrictions that you can’t use it out of the school year,” said MTA Chair Janno Lieber during the press conference. “It is about flexibility. That’s the difference.”

New York City’s subways and buses operate 24-hours a day all year, and the fare is $2.90 per ride for most straphangers.

The OMNY cards will allow students to travel on MTA subway lines, local, limited, and select buses, on the Staten Island Railway, the Roosevelt Island Tram, and the Hudson Rail link, according to a press release. Cards will be distributed by schools at the start of the year, with the MTA and Education Department partnering to promote card usage across the city’s school districts.

Students in K-12 grades who live half a mile or more from their school are eligible for the free transportation cards, according to the city’s Education Department. On Thursday, students from Transit Tech High School — which offers training for students interested in careers in the transit industry — praised the expanded flexibility of the new OMNY cards.

“I’m a student athlete, so we have games on Sundays and Saturdays, and not having the ability to travel for free, it kind of hurts sometimes,” said Malik Inniss, a student at the school, of the prior transit card rules. “As a full-time student, I don’t always have the ability to participate in internships and work.”

The new cards come as Adams has cracked down on fare evasion, increasing police presence in subways and suggesting links between fare evasion and violent crime.

“When it comes down to students, they are doing it out of necessity,” Adams said. “They are trying to get to school. They’re trying to pick up their niece, their nephew, their sibling, and they just don’t have the money to do so. We are attempting to make it easier to not have these young people have a record because they’re trying to carry out an activity that they must do.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Retrasos en los EBT de verano han dejado a familias esperando para recibir beneficios cruciales de comida

2024-07-23T23:48:48+00:00

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Millones de niños en seis estados que son elegibles para los beneficios de comida de verano respaldados por el gobierno federal no los recibirán hasta justo antes de que empiece la escuela. Y en Delaware, Montana, y Nevada, medio millón de niños no los recibirán hasta que empiece el nuevo año escolar.

El EBT de verano, también conocido como SUN Bucks, brinda a las familias con bajos recursos $120 por cada niño en edad escolar para comprar alimentos durante el verano. Es un ejemplo inusual de un programa de la época de la pandemia que el congreso hizo permanente, y la mayoría de los estados lo están ofreciendo por primera vez este año.

Pero el programa ha sido perjudicado por retrasos y problemas para lanzarlo. Algunos estados han identificado cientos de miles de niños más que son elegibles para el EBT de verano de lo que esperaban en un principio. Esto ha acentuado la necesidad generalizada de asistencia alimenticia y reforzará el impacto del programa. Pero también es complicado poner en marcha el programa. Estos problemas han dejado a familias que inicialmente se les había dicho que la ayuda llegaría antes luchando para llegar a fin de mes.

Muchos estados y escuelas hicieron tan poco para promocionar el EBT de verano que las familias no tienen ni idea de cuándo o cómo recibirán sus beneficios.

“Esto daña a familias que contaban con que el beneficio sea depositado para una fecha determinada, y ahora tienen que esperar varias semanas o meses,” dijo Kelsey Boone, que monitorea el lanzamiento del EBT de verano para la organización sin ánimo de lucro Centro de Investigación y Acción Alimentaria.

Sin embargo, muchos estados pudieron iniciar sus programas a tiempo. Los funcionarios dicen que la ayuda que ha llegado a las familias está marcando una diferencia, especialmente cuando los precios de los alimentos siguen estando altos. Las familias tienen cuatro meses para gastar los beneficios, incluso si llegan retrasados.

Ha habido “una respuesta muy numerosa a este programa,” dijo Boone. “Realmente muestra lo mucho que tantas familias necesitan este programa.”

Los tres niños de Felina Romero desayunan y almuerzan gratis en la escuela. Pero durante el verano, los beneficios de comida se acaban a mediados de mes. El cereal y el jugo que ella consigue del banco de alimentos generalmente duran sólo unos días.

La mamá de Colorado había planeado usar su EBT de verano para comprar agua embotellada y snacks para ayudar a que sus niños estén saciados.

Pero tras semanas de llamadas a la línea de ayuda de su estado — “Se ha retrasado, se ha retrasado,” oía que le decían repetidamente — Romero recientemente se enteró que hay familias que no recibirán sus beneficios hasta agosto, cuando muchas escuelas ya retoman sus clases.

“Si nos lo hubieran dado durante el verano,” ella dijo, “nos habría ayudado tanto.”

El EBT de verano se originó en la ayuda durante la pandemia

Los defensores de la lucha contra el hambre por mucho tiempo han considerado el verano una de las épocas más difíciles para llegar a los niños.

Muchas escuelas sirven comidas gratuitas en el verano. Pero a los padres les cuesta llegar a ellas, porque están muy lejos o están abiertas sólo durante horas laborales. Las familias que dependen de los bancos de alimentos dicen que a menudo no encuentran los productos básicos que sus niños necesitan, como leche. Y frecuentemente, la comida está casi vencida.

El EBT de verano permite a las familias hacer las compras por cuenta propia — y forma parte de una tendencia de la época de la pandemia para proporcionar a las familias ayuda más directa.

“Los padres y sus familias son los únicos que saben que es lo mejor para ellos y para sus hijos — lo que realmente van a comer, lo que son capaces de comer,” dijo Hope Lane-Gaven, que dirige políticas de nutrición y los programas para la Asociación de Bancos de Comida de Ohio, el cual está ayudando a pasar la voz acerca del EBT de verano. “La mayor parte de los bancos de comida no pueden adaptar una caja a un niño que no consume gluten.”

El EBT de la pandemia, que fue lanzado cuando las escuelas estaban cerradas, ayudó a establecer el trabajo preliminar. Los estados notaron que a las familias les gustaba el programa, y ayudaba a que las agencias establecieran nuevos sistemas que ahora están ajustando para el EBT de verano.

Treinta y siete estados se inscribieron para poner en marcha el EBT de verano este año, mientras que los otros 13 estados optaron por no hacerlo. Algunos gobernadores republicanos se opusieron a proporcionar a las familias más asistencia gubernamental. Otros estados dijeron que no tenían ni los fondos ni la capacidad de poner en pie un nuevo programa en un par de meses.

Por qué los beneficios del EBT de verano están llegando tarde

Se suponía que los estados que decidieron participar debían empezar a distribuir los beneficios cuando la mayor parte de las escuelas terminaban las clases y empezaban las vacaciones de verano. Pero muchos estados señalaron complicaciones que hicieron que los beneficios no se distribuyeran a tiempo.

En Montana, un contratista externo desistió a último momento. En Nevada, la legislatura no aprobó la financiación para los costos administrativos hasta junio. En Pennsylvania e Illinois, los funcionarios dijeron que se necesitó tiempo para desarrollar nuevos sistemas, y que los beneficios se distribuirán más temprano el año que viene.

Colorado tuvo que contratar a un equipo nuevo e identificar a niños que automáticamente cumplían con los requisitos para el EBT de verano debido a su participación en otros programas, como el Programa de Asistencia Nutricional Suplementaria y el programa de comidas escolares gratuitas y a precio reducido.

Colorado terminó identificando a 550.000 niños que cumplían con los requisitos para el EBT de verano — unos sorprendentes 190.000 más de los que el estado había calculado inicialmente.

Un ejemplo de la tarjeta del EBT de verano que las familias de Colorado recibirán por correo.

Fue un “problema muy afortunado,” dijo Laura Kriebel, que supervisa el programa para la Oficina de Seguridad Económica de Colorado, pero también un “gran esfuerzo.”

Por ejemplo, el estado tuvo que trabajar con las escuelas para obtener domicilios actualizados y llevar a cabo chequeos de datos para asegurarse de que no enviaran beneficios duplicados.

También tuvo que establecer un proceso de aplicación para las familias que no cumplían los requisitos automáticamente por medio de otros programas. Esto representó un gran cambio con respecto a la EBT de la pandemia, la cual no tenía una aplicación.

El estado empezó a enviar cartas la semana pasada informando a las familias si cumplían los requisitos. Las tarjetas de beneficios podrían llegar a fin de mes. Pero es posible que las familias tal vez no las reciban hasta mediados de agosto, cuando muchos estudiantes ya habrán vuelto a la escuela.

“Me doy cuenta de lo difícil que es la pregunta de Colorado de: ¿A dónde están mis beneficios?” dijo Kriebel. “Pero solo estamos intentando ser considerados ya que el primer año del programa tiene muchos desafíos para distribuir los beneficios correctamente.”

Cómo algunos estados han puesto en marcha el de EBT de verano correctamente

Carolina del Norte es uno de alrededor doce estados que ha exitosamente distribuido beneficios a principios del verano. El estado identificó unos 266.000 niños elegibles adicionales, sin embargo distribuyó los beneficios a mediados de junio.

Madhu Vulimiri, subdirectora del Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos de Carolina del Norte, atribuye la capacidad del estado a cumplir los plazos a la “comunicación constante” entre el estado y el emisor de beneficios. Fallos en la comunicación contribuyeron a retrasos en otros ámbitos.

Las relaciones establecidas durante el EBT de la pandemia con la agencia de educación de Carolina del Norte y la Banda del Este de Indios Cherokee ayudaron a que los datos de los estudiantes llegaran rápidamente a los Servicios de Salud y Humanos.

Y fundamentalmente, Carolina del Norte dio el paso adicional de identificar a familias que probablemente cumplirían los requisitos pero necesitaban llenar papeles. Luego, el estado les envió invitaciones para aplicar por mensaje de texto, email, y por teléfono en junio — algo que otros estados no hicieron.

“Hemos visto una buena respuesta” dijo Vulimiri. “Dado que es el primer año, nosotros queríamos asegurarnos de que se corriera la voz e intentar minimizar las chances de haber salteado a alguien.”

En Arizona, la planificación inicial ayudó al estado a proporcionar beneficios para aquellas familias que automáticamente cumplían los requisitos mediante el Programa de Asistencia Nutricional Suplementaria (SNAP, por sus siglas en inglés) u otros programas a comienzos de junio. Para los niños que necesitaban una nueva tarjeta, el estado también decidió agrupar los beneficios por familia, lo cual aceleró los tiempos de envío.

“Si se demora demasiado tiempo, antes de que te des cuenta, el verano llega y nadie se compromete a llevar a cabo el programa,” dijo Ernest Baca, un administrador adjunto del Departamento de Seguridad Económica de Arizona.

Ahora, una gran meta es asegurarse que las familias sepan que sólo tienen 122 días para gastar los beneficios de EBT de verano una vez que los reciben — un plazo más corto que otros tipos de ayuda alimenticia.

Eso es especialmente importante después de que cientos de millones de dólares en ayuda del EBT de la pandemia se vencieron sin ser gastados, según datos recopilados por el especialista en educación David Rubel. Frecuentemente esto fue porque las familias nunca habían recibido sus tarjetas, o habían tenido problemas para utilizarlas.

Para evitar esa situación, Colorado estableció un sistema para ver cuales familias todavía tienen que gastar su ayuda y enviará recordatorios antes de que se venza el EBT de verano, dijo Kriebel.

En el futuro, funcionarios del país entero dicen que sus estados proyectan emitir los beneficios antes. El Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos anunció recientemente que otorgaría $100 millones en subvenciones para ayudar a los estados y a las naciones tribales a modernizar sus sistemas tecnológicos para que el EBT de verano funcione de manera más eficaz.

Las familias que aún esperan sus beneficios dicen que tienen la esperanza que los estados puedan hacerlo mejor en el futuro.

Esto incluye a Stephanie Hall en Nuevo México. Su estado no tiene previsto enviar los beneficios de EBT de verano hasta principios de agosto — justo antes de que la mayor parte de los niños de Nuevo México vuelvan a la escuela. La ayuda hubiera sido especialmente útil para comprar snacks para su hija de 15 años, que es pre-diabética y necesita comer cada varias horas para regular su nivel de azúcar en la sangre.

“En realidad estoy luchando para mantener a mi familia,” dijo Hall. “Nos decepcionaron.”

Kalyn Belsha es reportera nacional de educación basada en Chicago. Puede ponerse en contacto con ella enviando un correo electrónico al: kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Flavia Melia Franco

Summer EBT delays have left families waiting weeks or months for crucial food benefits

2024-07-17T18:23:17+00:00

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Millions of children in six states won’t get federally backed summer food benefits they’re eligible for until just before school starts. And in Delaware, Montana, and Nevada, half a million kids won’t get them until the new school year begins.

Summer EBT, also known as SUN Bucks, provides low-income families with $120 per school-age child to buy groceries over the summer. It’s a rare example of a pandemic-era program that Congress made permanent, and most states are offering it for the first time this year.

But delays and start-up challenges have dogged the program. Some states have identified hundreds of thousands more children who are eligible for Summer EBT than they initially expected. That’s underscored the widespread need for food assistance and will bolster the program’s impact. But it’s also complicated getting the program off the ground. Such problems have left families who were initially told the aid would arrive sooner scrambling to make ends meet.

Many states and schools did so little to publicize Summer EBT that families have no idea when or how their benefits will arrive.

“This hurts families who were counting on the benefit to be deposited by a certain date, and now they have to wait several weeks or months,” said Kelsey Boone, who’s monitoring the Summer EBT rollout for the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center.

Still, many states did manage to get their programs up and running on time. Officials there say the aid that’s reached families is making a difference, especially at a time when food prices remain high. Families will have four months to spend the benefits, even if it arrives late.

There’s been “a very massive response to this program,” Boone said. “It really just shows how much this program is needed by so many families.”

Felina Romero’s three kids eat breakfast and lunch for free at school. But during the summer, her food benefits often run out mid-month. The cereal and juice she gets from food pantries often last just a few days.

The Colorado mom had planned to use Summer EBT to buy bottled water and snacks to help her kids stay full.

But after weeks of calls to her state’s helpline — “It’s delayed, it’s delayed,” she kept hearing — Romero recently found out that families may not get their benefits until August, when many schools are back in session.

“If they would have gave us that during the summer,” she said, “it would have helped us so much.”

Summer EBT has roots in pandemic aid

Anti-hunger advocates have long considered summer one of the toughest times to reach children.

Many schools serve free summer meals. But parents often struggle to get to them, either because they’re far away or open only during work hours. Families who rely on food banks say they often can’t find staples their kids need, like milk. And often, the food is nearly expired.

Summer EBT allows families to shop for themselves — part of a pandemic-era trend to provide families with more direct aid.

“Only parents and families know what’s best for themselves and their children — what they’re actually going to eat, what they’re capable of eating,” said Hope Lane-Gavin, who directs nutrition policy and programs for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, which is helping get the word out about Summer EBT. “Most food pantries can’t really tailor a box to a gluten-free kid.”

Pandemic EBT, which launched when schools were closed, helped lay the groundwork. States found that families liked that program, and it helped agencies set up new systems they’re now tweaking for Summer EBT.

Thirty-seven states signed up to run Summer EBT this year, while the other 13 opted out. Some Republican governors objected to providing families with more government assistance. Other states said they didn’t have the funds or capacity to stand up a new program in a few months’ time.

Why Summer EBT benefits are arriving late

States that chose to participate were supposed to start distributing benefits around the time that most schools let out for summer break. But many states reported a number of complications that led to benefits not going out on time.

In Montana, a third-party contractor backed out at the last minute. In Nevada, the legislature didn’t approve funding for administrative costs until June. In Pennsylvania and Illinois, officials said it took time to develop new systems, and benefits will go out earlier next year.

Colorado had to hire a new team and identify kids who automatically qualified for Summer EBT through their participation in other programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the free and reduced-price school meal program.

Colorado ended up identifying 550,000 children who qualified for Summer EBT — a whopping 190,000 more than the state initially estimated.

An example of the Summer EBT card that Colorado families will get in the mail.

It was a “very happy problem,” said Laura Kriebel, who’s overseeing the program for the Colorado Office of Economic Security, but also a “pretty big lift.”

For example, the state had to work with schools to get up-to-date mailing addresses and run data checks to make sure it didn’t mail out duplicate benefits.

It also had to set up an application process for families who didn’t automatically qualify through other programs. That represented a big change from Pandemic EBT, which had no application.

The state started sending out letters to let families know if they were eligible last week. Benefit cards could arrive later this month. But families may not get them until later in August, when many students are already back in school.

“I realize how tough it is to get the question mark from Colorado of: Where are my benefits?” Kriebel said. “But we are just trying to be thoughtful about this since this first program year does have a lot of challenges with getting the benefits out the door accurately.”

How some states rolled out Summer EBT smoothly

North Carolina is one of around a dozen states that successfully distributed benefits earlier in the summer. The state identified an additional 266,000 eligible children, but still got benefits out in mid-June.

Madhu Vulimiri, a deputy director at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, attributes the state’s ability to stick to its timeline to the “constant communication” between the state and its benefits issuer. Communication breakdowns contributed to delays elsewhere.

Relationships built through Pandemic EBT with North Carolina’s education agency and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians helped get student data to Health and Human Services quickly.

And crucially, North Carolina took the extra step of identifying families that would likely qualify but needed to fill out paperwork. Then the state sent them invitations to apply via text, email, and phone in June — something other states did not do.

“We’ve been seeing a good response to that,” Vulimiri said. “Given that it’s the first year, we wanted to make sure we got the word out and tried to minimize the chance that we might miss somebody.”

In Arizona, early planning helped the state get benefits to families that automatically qualified through SNAP or another program in early June. For kids that needed a new card, the state also decided to group benefits by family unit, which sped up mailing times.

“If you wait too long, before you know it, the summer is here and no one is committed to doing the program,” said Ernest Baca, a deputy administrator in Arizona’s Department of Economic Security.

One big goal now is to make sure families know they have only 122 days to spend Summer EBT benefits once they receive them — a shorter timeline than other forms of food aid.

That’s especially important after hundreds of millions of dollars in Pandemic EBT aid expired without being spent, according to data compiled by education consultant David Rubel. Often that was because families never got their cards, or had trouble using them.

To head that off, Colorado set up a system to see which families have yet to spend their aid and will send out reminders before Summer EBT expires, Kriebel said.

Going forward, officials across the country say their states plan to issue benefits earlier. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced it would award $100 million in grants to help states and tribal nations make updates to their technology systems to run Summer EBT more smoothly.

Families still waiting for their benefits say they hope states can do better in the future.

That includes Stephanie Hall in New Mexico. Her state isn’t planning to send out Summer EBT benefits until early August — just before most New Mexico kids go back to school. The aid would have been especially useful for buying snacks for her 15-year-old daughter, who is pre-diabetic and needs to eat every few hours to regulate her blood sugar levels.

“I’m actually fighting to sustain my family,” Hall said. “They let us down.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools get $150 million for cafeteria upgrades and $20 million extra to save popular food items

2024-07-03T19:00:18+00:00

Café-style seating. Deli-like grab-and-go meals. This is what school lunch looks like in nearly half of New York City’s middle and high schools.

And soon, the rest will get similar upgrades.

With $150 million in capital funding committed through the city’s recently passed budget, thousands more middle and high schools students will see their cafeteria experiences transformed over the next five years. This funding builds on $125 million previously secured for the initiative, and it will allow the Education Department to also begin exploring an expansion to elementary school cafeterias, officials said.

The changes are designed to make the school dining experience more palatable and the food more appealing. The effort to date, seems to have paid off — perhaps too well. When the Education Department slashed popular items like chicken tenders, dumplings, and cookies from cafeteria menus in February, the city’s budget director blamed it on the fact that too many kids were eating in these newly designed cafeterias.

“Bear in mind, the city made some significant investments in school cafeterias,” Jacques Jiha, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said at a March City Council hearing.”So what you end up with, you have a lot of kids hanging out in cafeterias now and eating more and more and more and more.”

The city responded by slashing some of students’ favorite items from the menu, but eventually reversed course after a massive outcry. And to guard against that happening again, the city’s final budget included an additional $20 million for school meals.

“There was a lot of pushback, and [the city] responded accordingly,” said Liz Accles, executive director of Community Food Advocates, which has pushed for the cafeteria upgrades. One of the big things that came out of the experience, she said, “you had students talking about what they liked about school food. How often do you get that?”

Accles praised the Office of Food & Nutrition Services for streamlining the process of the cafeteria upgrades over the past three years. The modern design has made a difference in how students approach school food, she added.

“Food is critical for all students, especially the kids who rely on the food,” Accles said.

Child hunger continues to be a growing problem in New York City. Roughly 78% of families said the cost of food was rising faster than their income, with 70% indicating it had become harder to afford groceries in the past year, according to a March poll conducted by the No Kid Hungry advocacy group. One in 4 New York City children are experiencing food insecurity, City Harvest said.

To encourage more kids to eat school food, Accles’ group has long been fighting to remove the stigma from it, and won a huge victory when New York City school lunch became universal. The cafeteria upgrades, she said, also help, particularly for older students.

“What this does is expresses the value of school meals, the value of the students themselves,” she said. “The updated seating, diner style booths, round tables — it looks more grownup…This is like a café. It feels good.”

Community Food Advocates found that high schools with redesigned cafeterias saw a 35% increase in student school lunch participation.

To find out whether a school cafeteria has been updated, check out the school kitchen dashboard the city launched last year. The website also includes such information as the number of meals served, whether there’s a salad bar, or if a school has a garden.

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

Newark students can benefit from free meal programs, summer activities

2024-07-02T21:11:09+00:00

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Free city and school programs are available to Newark families this summer to keep students academically engaged and reduce hunger, which is more pronounced when kids are out of school.

Studies show summer learning programs can prepare students for the upcoming school year. In Newark, more than 6,000 public school students are attending summer programs, a combination of mandatory academic programs and specialized and recreational programs.

Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León said summer school is about “moving kids forward” by helping students refine basic skills in math and reading and offering accelerated courses and internship programs.

Families can also get extra food assistance from citywide meal distributions and federal aid programs. In New Jersey, more than 550,000 children are receiving state food benefits under the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, a new federal program to help low-income families purchase food for their school-aged children during the summer months, according to a state department of agriculture press release.

“New Jersey students rely on school breakfasts and lunches to get the nutrition they need to learn, grow, and thrive,” said Gov. Phil Murphy in the department’s release.” With the new Summer EBT program, we are bridging the gap to ensure that our students have access to nutritious foods, even when school is not in session.

Here’s a list of summer meal giveaways and programs for families to access:

Newark Public Schools summer program

This year, the district began its summer programs on June 27 at 16 elementary schools, up from 14 last summer, and across 10 high schools. It also extended hours for enrichment programs – which are provided by teachers and community-based organizations – to 6 p.m. this year.

The summer school day begins at 8:30 a.m. with breakfast and offers enrichment programs, which are provided by teachers and community-based organizations. Students who are not attending summer school can pick up breakfast or lunch at a summer school site until Aug. 2, when summer school ends, district officials said.

The district is also installing air conditioners across all schools, and has installed them in instructional spaces at summer school sites, according to June board committee reports. Additionally, the district says 124 out of 838 contactless water fountains remain to be installed districtwide, a $5 million project that began in 2022.

Summer school registration is closed but you can learn more about the district’s summer programs on its website.

Newark ‘Summer Fun’ activities

For a tenth year in a row, the city is hosting “Summer Fun in Newark,” which includes a list of activities and programs for families. Residents can look forward to pop-up play streets, movie nights, summer camps, and other activities for students and their families.

You can find a list of activities and recreational programs on the city’s website.

Summer federal meal programs

The state is also providing families with a one-time $120 per eligible child for the summer to buy food for their children at grocery stores, farmers markets, and other retailers – similar to how SNAP benefits are used.

Newark families can also benefit from the Summer EBT program, which is expected to distribute more than $66 million in federal food security benefits in New Jersey. Students in low-income households who receive free and reduced-price meals, are enrolled in SNAP, TANF, or are in foster care are eligible for the Summer EBT program, regardless of where they attend school, according to the state.

Applications will be accepted throughout the summer and families should contact their local school district to apply.

For more information, visit https://www.nj.gov/summerebt/.

City and local meal distributions

Newark leaders are also hosting free meal giveaways across the city this summer. Through the SuNup or Summer Nutrition Program, the city works with local nonprofit organizations to provide breakfast and lunch for children 18 and under.

Through the program, the Newark Public Library is offering free lunch, Monday through Friday at its main library, between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., and Tuesday and Friday, at the branches, at the same time. The program runs from July 6 until Sept. 10 and no registration is required. Free lunches are available on a first-come first-served basis.

Visit the Newark Public Library’s website for more information.

The city is also hosting its weekly meal distribution event in partnership with Hello Fresh. The next food giveaway is scheduled for Wednesday, July 3 at 10 a.m. on Broadway and Grafton Avenue where 1,000 boxes of food will be given away. The city’s distribution is a year-round event hosted every Wednesday. Food boxes include fruits, vegetables, and chicken.

For more information on this week’s giveaway and others, visit the city’s website or Facebook page.

La Casa de Don Pedro in the city’s North Ward will host its first summer meals program starting on July 5 until Aug. 30. Children under the age of 18 can visit any of their giveaway locations for breakfast and lunch, Monday through Friday. Families must pre-register online to pick up their boxes at one of the following locations:

221 Broad Street
43 Broadway
93 St. Francis Street
23 Broadway
317 Roseville Avenue
282 First Avenue
140 Mt. Prospect Avenue

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Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

As millions in pandemic food benefits expire in NYC, a new summer meals program approaches

2024-06-07T12:00:00+00:00

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For families across New York City, unused food benefits from the final installment of a pandemic-era program have already begun to expire — but some will see additional funds through a new program that lays on the horizon.

The funds — known as the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, or P-EBT — have been disbursed in several installments since 2020 to help cover meal costs for families whose students usually receive free meals at school. Because New York City’s public schools have universal meals, all families were eligible for the program regardless of household income.

But as P-EBT ends, tens of millions of dollars from the most recent disbursement remain unspent, according to figures provided to Chalkbeat.

As of April 22, more than 381,000 P-EBT cards with funds issued for the summer of 2023 had not been used in New York City, meaning over $45 million in potential benefits was at risk of expiring, according to data provided by David Rubel, an education consultant who has been raising alarm about the unspent federal benefits. For the state as a whole, more than 740,000 cards had not been redeemed, leaving over $88 million in total on the table.

Those funds began rolling out to families in August last year, state officials said. Since the benefits expire 274 days after they were last used, families who never used the cards may have already seen their funds expire.

While advocates have praised the P-EBT program as a lifeline for families struggling with food insecurity, the rollout of the federal funds left some struggling to access them. Parents previously told Chalkbeat they never received their cards, or had trouble getting help using their cards from a state hotline. Meanwhile, community organizations said language barriers posed an issue in disseminating information about the benefits to families who needed them.

“There are very important lessons to be learned from P-EBT in order to have a successful Summer EBT program,” said Rubel, who obtained the data through a state records request.

To Rubel, school districts are best positioned to conduct outreach about the summer meal funds, sharing information directly with families.

Officials from the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which has overseen the summer meal programs, said the agency is working closely with state and city education departments, as well as community partners, to conduct outreach and education efforts for the Summer EBT program, including information and guidance that can be distributed directly to families.

“OTDA worked tirelessly to follow federal guidelines and provide Pandemic EBT benefits to millions of eligible school children throughout the state who lost access to free and reduced-price school meals as a result of school closures during the public health emergency,” said a spokesperson for the state agency.

Officials added the agency conducted “extensive public outreach,” and partnered with advocacy groups across the state to raise awareness about the benefits.

There are key differences between P-EBT and the new Summer EBT program. Unlike the pandemic-era program, not all New York City families will be eligible to receive the summer funds.

Under federal guidelines, a child is only eligible for the program if they attend a school with free lunch and meet household income requirements for free- or reduced-price school meals. And families who do receive them will have fewer days to use them. Summer EBT funds will expire 122 days after they are issued.

While officials note most eligible families — like recipients of SNAP, Temporary Assistance, or Medicaid — will automatically receive the funds, some families may need to apply. Families who will automatically receive them will be notified via a letter this summer, state officials said.

For others, an online application will open in July, with applications due by Sept. 3, according to state officials.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

How one Brooklyn high school became a Minecraft powerhouse

2024-06-05T23:43:38+00:00

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John Dewey High School senior Jayla Mallette had an unusual request for her teacher after 9 p.m. a few months back. She was so excited about a project that she wanted permission to work on it through the night.

Jayla and her peers at the Brooklyn school were collaborating on a design to repurpose the Kingsbridge Armory, a hulking landmark in the Bronx that has fallen into disrepair. But the online platform — Minecraft Education — requires permission to log on outside of approved hours.

Their teacher, Mashfiq Ahmed, signed off right away. “I would leave it on overnight,” he said. “Sometimes I would wake up in the morning and would see them still in the server.”

The Minecraft team from John Dewey High School in Brooklyn -- they are the defending champions of NYC's citywide Minecraft esports competition called "Battle of the Boroughs."

The project the students were so excited about that they could hardly sleep? Their submission to the city’s annual Minecraft competition.

Four years ago, New York City officials created a citywide tournament called Battle of the Boroughs that allows public school students to compete in an annual Minecraft challenge. Students typically must submit projects — or “builds” in Minecraft parlance — following specific prompts that are supposed to get students thinking about principles of urban planning, sustainability, and community development to improve the city.

As interest in the competition has grown, with about 500 submissions this year, the team at John Dewey has become a powerhouse. They’ve won multiple titles, including last year’s citywide championship. They’re the subject of a short documentary released by Minecraft Education. Later this month, they’re headed to a national competition in Denver — the first New York City public school Minecraft team to win the honor, according to city officials.

And they’ve worked to spread Minecraft to teachers from Dewey and across the city, explaining how they can use the game in their lessons. Those efforts prompted two Dewey English teachers to guide their students to use Minecraft to build a dystopian society.

“It’s a sandbox game – you can do anything,” explains Jayla, the president of Dewey’s Minecraft club. “It just captured my mind. You can show your creativity.”

Unlike many other video games, Minecraft generally does not have set rules or goals. Any player can use it to tinker, write code, build a world, or even create their own mini-games. Experts often compare it to open-ended toys like Legos that allow nearly infinite permutations. It has grown to become one of the most popular video games of all time.

From a Minecraft competition to career planning

Jayla first got into Minecraft when she was about eight, but didn’t play it much until COVID forced school buildings to shutter.

“School got easier so I was talking to my friends more and playing Minecraft throughout the school day,” Jayla said. “It’s just really easy to connect people.”

Chemistry teacher and the team coach, Mashfiq Ahmed, poses for a portrait on Monday, June 3, 2024, in Brooklyn.

That’s also when John Dewey’s Minecraft club began. Ahmed, who teaches chemistry in addition to coaching the Minecraft team, saw it as a way for students to “de-stress” and build social connections during the pandemic.

But the club has morphed into much more than that to Jayla and her classmates. For a few of them, it’s helped guide their planning for college and beyond.

“Seeing how you can fix things in the community just hits a spot in my brain,” Jayla says. She estimates she spent about 72 hours on the build submission for this year’s tournament over about three months. “Without this club, I don’t think I would have ever realized I wanted to go into city planning.” She plans to study the subject at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in the fall.

As the team prepares to defend its citywide title against other high schools this Saturday at the Brooklyn Public Library, Jayla has been reading on her own about what makes a “walkable” neighborhood. The five students on the official team will only learn the prompt just before they start building — with about 45 minutes to conduct research and roughly 30 minutes to complete their design followed by an oral presentation of their project — but Jayla figures the reading might come in handy.

Earlier this week, Dewey senior Rayden White and the rest of the Minecraft club, were preparing for the championship and showing off the team’s initial Kingsbridge Armory submission to a gaggle of television reporters.

Perched on one of the special gaming swivel chairs the team won as a prize in last year’s city championship, Rayden navigated through cavernous rooms that included a library, market, art gallery, and other amenities like a roller skating rink. After conducting research about the surrounding Bronx neighborhood, including its poverty rates, Rayden and his classmates opted to include a food pantry and clothes donation site.

The process made him begin to notice food access issues in other areas of the city. “I didn’t really take into account how much that might be needed in a community,” he said.

High school senior Rayden White reviews the build they submitted to get into the Minecraft competition on Monday, June 3, 2024, in Brooklyn.

Each student often takes a slightly different role in the builds. Jayla, whose teammates refer to her as the “ideas person,” used her apprenticeship experience at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to design a greenspace. Rayden is especially adept at using “redstone,” essentially the game’s internal circuitry. He used that expertise to electrify a digital sign outside an arcade the team built in the armory, with each letter repetitively lighting up in sequence.

He grew up taking apart his family’s old computers but he said Minecraft has turbocharged his interest in technology. “It started with Minecraft,” he said. “I learned how it worked and that’s how I got into coding.” He plans to study computer science next year at the New York City College of Technology.

Dewey’s reputation rises after Minecraft club’s wins

Dewey administrators said the Minecraft club has helped bring welcome attention to the school, which narrowly avoided closure more than a decade ago due to poor performance and whose former principal was implicated in an illicit credit recovery program. In recent years, the school has rebuilt its reputation as a leader in career education, scoring a visit from schools Chancellor David Banks.

Assistant Principal Nancy Woods said the attention around the Minecraft club has helped displace old stories about the school, including one about a student who was allegedly seen with a gun in a classroom in 2008.

“When you Googled our school, that’s what you saw,” Woods said. “These great stories are now creating our new digital footprint where we’re on the map. Kids want to go to school here.”

The students in Dewey’s Minecraft club are mostly happy to be bringing attention to their school. But as reporters peppered them with questions on Monday, they felt the pressure ratchet up.

“I’m spewing confidence out my pores – it’ll be so embarrassing if we don’t win,” Jayla said after the television crews left. “Now we have to defend our title.”

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

How do teens get into activism? New book shows they can take many paths to fight for change

2024-06-05T17:30:00+00:00

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Sonali Kohli has always liked young adult novels.

They’re fun to read. They don’t shy away from serious, or even traumatic, subjects. And they are deeply rooted in hope.

So when the California-based journalist set out to write “Don’t Wait,” her new nonfiction book out this week, she sought to capture that same sense of “realistic hope” as she shared the true stories of three young women of color fighting for change in America.

Each activist takes on an issue important to her life.

Nalleli Cobo protests the urban oil fields that sicken her and other kids in the Los Angeles neighborhood she grew up in. The campaign she launches with her mother, People Not Pozos, eventually helps shut down the oil well across from her childhood home.

When Kahlila Williams faints from dehydration at her school’s picnic, a school police officer asks if she’s having a drug overdose. The encounter spurs Williams to advocate for the removal of school police from Los Angeles Unified schools. Her work helps persuade the school board to cut the school police department’s budget and reinvest the money to hire counselors, school climate coaches, and other staff to support Black students.

Sonia Patel Banker, meanwhile, grows up in San Francisco with access to arts classes at school and private choir lessons. But when she finds out many California students don’t have access to arts education, despite a state law saying schools are supposed to provide that, she reaches out to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California to work on their funding campaign. Her advocacy helps lead to a successful voter referendum that now requires the state to give schools extra funding for arts education.

Kohli hopes young people who read the book will be able to learn from the three girls and their different approaches to activism.

“I want people to just be able to say they learned something from it, and that it helped them engage in their community in any way — big or small,” Kohli said.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

“Don’t Wait” comes from a speech Kahlila gives to her school board. Why did you choose that as your title?

Part of writing for teens, and writing about these young women, is that I wanted to highlight their voices as much as possible. When I heard Kahlila say it at the school board meeting, I thought: This so deeply embodies what she did. She didn’t wait.

[For] adult activists, you work toward something your whole life and there are setbacks, and you keep going. But when you’re doing activism as a young person, or say in high school, you have four years, right? So there is an urgency.

It also embodies the book’s message to young people: You don’t have to wait until something horrible happens to you or someone you love. You don’t have to wait until you’re an adult. You have agency now. And if you want to effect change in your community, you can do that.

You talked with youth about what they wanted to see in a book like this. What did they share with you?

My audience was always very clear to me. I was writing to teenagers.

Some of it was: We want to see people from our community who are doing this work. [They also] wanted to see advice.

Kids wanted to know: How do you get involved in activism? If you want to change something at school, how do you do that? Is a petition around dress codes enough? What else can I do? What does activism look like? How do I know who to trust?

How did you land on the three movements you focused on in the book?

I wanted to focus on movements where the people who I was following were rooted in California, because that’s the state that I’m from.

Californians, especially Californians in the big liberal cities, see ourselves as these bastions of equity. The reality is inequity is absolutely present. And it’s insidious. So, in the place that we consider the most liberal, the most welcoming, where are the problems, and how are people fighting them here? And how can that be useful to other people around the country?

Defunding school police — that’s a movement that’s really relevant. Environmental justice was very important for me to include in the book, and environmental racism, more specifically, because a lot of the narratives we read and hear about environmental justice work tend to be focused on white folks. Arts education is something that people don’t think about as much when they think about activism, but the reality is, art is so vital to our lives.

It also depended on having a mix of young women who are doing this work, and who are doing different kinds of work, and had different paths to their work.

Sonia says she feels like arts education is being treated like a second-tier social justice issue. What did she want people to know about the value of arts education?

Where that comes up in the book is when it’s being left off of a petition, that is [called] “Counselors, Not Cops and Arts, Not Arrests.” And the ACLU attorney wants to take off the “Arts Not Arrests” part. But arts and arrests are really connected.

In her new book "Don't Wait," Sonali Kohli chronicles how Sonia Patel Banker joined an ACLU campaign to fight for expanded access to arts education in California.

When you provide students more access to education outside of what is required of them, you offer students the option to develop passion, to explore different kinds of activities, to have a safe place to work, to feel joy, to express their emotions in a healthy way. I think giving that weight is important.

Think about how much we all turned to art, in all of its forms, during the pandemic. In our darkest times, art is vital. And it has great impacts for children to have access to it.

In the book, there’s a moment where Kahlila wonders: What do I do with this bullhorn? And there’s another moment where Sonia is like, should I just email the ACLU? Why was it important to include these moments where the girls are not sure how to get started?

A lot of the narratives we hear about youth activism are very savior-y. Every generation tells the generation below them — it happened to Gen Z, and now it’s going to happen to Gen Alpha — You’re the ones who are going to save us, I’m so excited for what you’re going to do. And it’s really not fair. Lionizing kids in this way also takes away their humanity.

Internal conflict and being a little bit unsure of how to proceed is a really relatable feeling. And it’s something that a lot of kids go through. I don’t like what’s happening around me. And I do want to do something, but like, I’m not Malala. I’m not a Parkland youth.

We hear a lot about the experiences of activists who have one huge catalytic event. And then they’re activists, and that’s it, and they’re going for it, they’re out in front of hundreds of thousands of people.

But the reality is, to get to that point there’s a lot of little things. There’s being nervous, there’s not knowing what to do with a bullhorn, there’s feeling awkward, there’s missing class. Hopefully, if somebody is reading this, and they’re like: I feel really awkward going to a protest, I don’t really know anyone, they can think about Kahlila and how she dealt with it.

Activism can be disruptive to the girls’ lives. Nalleli had to change schools. Kahlila has trouble sleeping. Why did you want to show some of the mental and physical challenges of activism, alongside their victories?

I wanted a book that’s rooted in hope, but also reality. There’s a lot that’s positive about how engaging in activism impacts you as a person [and] your mental health.

There are also moments where it can be really hard. And I wanted people to see that that is something that these girls experienced, and how they dealt with it. [That] it’s okay to take a break, it’s okay to step back. It’s okay for your activism to look different than other people’s based on what your needs are.

What role did school play in the girls’ activism?

For some of them, their activism was deeply rooted in their community [and] their school. Kahlila was trying to get police off of her campus. For some of them, it was about the home, and the home being safe. Part of Nalleli’s work also is about getting oil wells away from schools. Sonia sought out this work outside of her school, and realized that she had access to so much art, in and out of school, and others didn’t.

But I do think that school-based movement work is a very large part of student activism. Organizations like Students Deserve, which Kahlila is a part of, are deeply rooted in school and also in corrective data-gathering.

Kohli's book documents how student activist Kahlila Williams (wearing mask) advocated to remove police from Los Angeles schools and reinvest the savings in academic and mental health support.

Before I started the book, I was covering [Los Angeles Unified School District] and there were reports from Students Deserve at a bunch of different schools of school police pepper spraying kids on and right off of campus. LA’s school police department is subject to public records laws. So we asked them to tell us how many instances they’d had of pepper spray in the last year [or so], and they told me none!

And I said: Okay, well, what about this day? I have a video. And this day, at this time? And that existed because [of] these students, who started their activism in their schools, and then met as a collective, [and] realized that this was happening at multiple places. And then, all of a sudden, [the school police department said]: Oh, yeah! Actually, we do have reports of that.

Each of the girls is a leader in her activism work. But they also turn to adults for support. What would be helpful for teachers, parents, and mentors to keep in mind about the different ways they can support young people in their activism?

These girls each have a question, or they have an experience, or they have a problem. And they seek out adults to support them. The support tends to be along the lines of: Here’s how you can find the information you need for yourself. And here are some things that people do to address these problems.

In Nalleli’s case, her mom is the most grassroots of organizers. Her mother and other mothers were calling authorities to come and get the air quality checked [where they lived] because their children were having extreme health effects [from a nearby oil-drilling site]. And then that became a passion for Nalleli, also, as a child, to speak up for herself.

I think that agency is really important, and creating scaffolding and support so that young people can have that agency.

[That can mean] arming kids with the skills to do their own research and fact-check, and not putting down their sources of information, but rather empowering them to get more.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Amid record high NYC homeless student population, calls grow for laundry machines in schools

2024-05-21T21:11:04+00:00

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More than a decade ago, Principal Joseph Mattina noticed students at P.S. 23 Carter G. Woodson were consistently arriving at the Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, elementary school without their uniforms.

Initially, Mattina grew frustrated with the students, asking why they couldn’t wear the clothes that had been supplied by the school.

“One day, one of the kids turned around and said to me, ‘Well, it’s dirty, and my mom can’t wash it,’” he said. “That really resonated with me, because it was something that I had never thought of before. It was an obstacle that I didn’t realize existed.”

Today, P.S. 23 is one of just a fraction of the city’s more than 1,600 public schools that offers on-site laundry services, allowing students who live in temporary housing or who otherwise lack access to such facilities to wash their clothes while at school.

As of November 2022, 119 public schools in the city had washers and dryers installed, according to the city’s Education Department.

Still, it’s a tool that some have looked to as a means of combating chronic absenteeism, preventing cases where a lack of clean clothing causes students to miss class. Earlier this year, some lawmakers in Albany sought to make it easier for the city’s schools to install laundry machines — putting forward a bill that would have established a grant program for just that purpose. But that effort stalled after legislators failed to secure funding for it during budget negotiations.

And the need for laundry facilities in schools may be especially relevant this year, as the city’s homeless student population reached a record high and as pandemic-era jumps in chronic absenteeism linger. Last year, roughly 36% of New York City students were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 18 days of the school year, according to city data.

In New York City, at least one City Council member has been working to draw attention to the issue. In February, Manhattan Council member Gale Brewer sent a letter to schools Chancellor David Banks, seeking additional support for more than 30 schools in her district that were serving students who live in temporary housing but did not have laundry facilities in their buildings.

“I’ve been talking about this for like two years,” Brewer said. “Kids will not come to school if they’re smelly. They just won’t come.”

Community donations support Brooklyn school’s laundry machines

Before P.S. 23 installed its washer and dryers, school staff had tried raising money to purchase laundry detergent on behalf of families who couldn’t afford to pay for laundry services, Mattina said. Still, the financial cost to access laundry machines posed a barrier for some families.

Through community donations, the school was able to install a washer and two dryers — with one of the machines sourced through a local Home Depot, where Mattina said he begged a manager to contribute a dented floor model. But he added that avenue isn’t necessarily available or apparent to other schools.

“When you go to school to be an administrator, they don’t teach you all of these nuances,” he said.

Now, families can come during the school day to wash their students’ clothes, or drop off laundry for the school to clean. Mattina said he frequently throws loads of laundry into the washer in the morning. The school’s speech therapist also shares an office with the machines and often moves clothes over to the dryer, he added.

The result, Mattina said, has been a stronger sense of community among students.

“We’ve always struggled with chronic absenteeism,” he said. Last school year, about 57% of students were chronically absent — though that figure had dropped about 10% from the year prior, according to city data. But he added that kids largely want to attend class and participate in the school community, which recently added a hydroponics lab, sensory room, makerspace, and more to support students.

“We’re trying to create this warm and welcoming environment, and I think it makes a difference,” Mattina said.

The school itself is located near five shelters, with about a third of the student body living in temporary housing, he said.

“Often when we tell parents that we have this service for them, they break down and cry,” he said. “Because of the unspeakable things that they’ve gone through and the trauma that they’ve experienced. This is just one less thing that they have to worry about.”

But funding for the machines, their upkeep, and other associated costs wouldn’t have been possible without community donations. At times, when the school runs out of laundry detergent, they’ve continued to rely on the community.

“We’ve been lucky with the generosity of the public,” Mattina said. “That funding has to come from someplace, because a school can’t sustain it out of their own budget.”

Space, funding pose barriers for many schools

P.S. 23 was fortunate in more ways than one. Its building, constructed in the 1960s, had an old home economics classroom, with sinks and stoves that allowed for machines to more easily be installed, Mattina said.

“Space is an issue,” he noted. “For us, it was fairly easy, because we had an existing room that we were just repurposing. There already was the water line in there, we just had to have the electricity upgraded, and that was an easier fix than actually running in piping.”

But for other schools, it can be far more difficult to install machines.

In Manhattan’s District 3, just seven out of 45 public elementary, middle, and high schools had a washing machine on campus, according to a survey conducted by Brewer’s office. Among those, one school did not have a dryer, while two others reported their washer and dryer no longer worked.

Out of the 38 schools without any machines, 31 had at least 10 students who were living in temporary housing.

For schools seeking to install machines, the financial barriers can be significant. The city’s School Construction Authority told Brewer’s office that upgrades to a school’s electrical and water facilities could cost between $50,000 and $100,000, according to her letter to Banks.

David Clarke, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department, said the department was “reviewing the letter” and looked “forward to continuing this conversation with her.”

“We believe in supporting the whole child, and that means helping students gain access to the services and resources they need to be successful in our classrooms,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, in Albany, a bill sponsored by state Sen. Roxanne Persaud and Assembly member Brian Cunningham, sought to establish a pilot program that would provide funding for laundry facilities to schools with a higher proportion of low-income students — with priority given to schools serving higher shares of students in temporary housing, as well as those with a significant population of students experiencing “frequent absenteeism due to a lack of clean clothing.”

The issue first came to Persaud’s attention in 2022, when a school in her Brooklyn district contacted her about their need for laundry services. Through a collaboration with Lowe’s, Persaud and students from the school were able to secure laundry machines for their community. But in the aftermath, more and more schools expressed having a similar need.

“So we came up with a suggestion: How do we have the state sponsor these laundry rooms?” Persaud said.

At first, Persaud introduced legislation that would have created a statewide program. But after some hesitation from colleagues, it was scaled back to a pilot program based solely in New York City. Though the state Senate allocated $2.5 million to the program in its budget proposal, that funding was ultimately not included in the final state budget agreement, meaning further action on the bill is unlikely to occur this year.

Brewer pointed to “community schools,” which partner with nonprofits to provide wraparound support to students like mental health and dental services, as a broader example of how schools should be supporting their local communities. Some of these schools already offer laundry facilities as part of their services.

“In 2024 and into the future, I think we have to think differently about schools,” she said. “I don’t know that every school needs a washer and dryer, but an awful lot of schools do.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools could lose 400 nurses as federal relief funds expire

2024-05-14T00:39:41+00:00

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New York City public schools could lose hundreds of nurses next year, as the city faces the expiration of billions of dollars in one-time federal COVID relief funds.

For years, many education programs have been propped up by the federal funds, including $65 million that supported roughly 400 contracted nurses, some of whom provide care at buildings that previously lacked a school nurse. But as that money dries up later this year, the future of those nurses and other school programs funded by the federal dollars remains uncertain.

Last month, officials announced the city’s Education Department would see its budget shrink by 2.4%, or $808 million, in the next fiscal year — largely spurred by the expiring federal funds. With the disappearance of the relief money, Mayor Eric Adams’ latest budget proposal allocated more than $500 million in city and state funds to preserve some of the programs it funded, including hundreds of social workers, staffers in homeless shelters, and preschool for 3-year-olds. Others, however, remain at risk.

Currently, every public school has a nurse or school-based health center, according to city officials. If a school nurse calls out sick or is otherwise unavailable, then a contracted nurse is deployed to that school to provide coverage.

“We’re grateful to the stimulus funding that has allowed us to ensure every school has a school nurse on site, and we will continue to advocate for and prioritize this need through the budget process,” said Jenna Lyle, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department.

Prior to the pandemic, at least 137 schools serving roughly 70,000 students did not have a school nurse, according to Advocates for Children, an organization that works on behalf of low-income families.

Without a school nurse in the building, kids with particular health needs like those with asthma or diabetes are at a higher risk of experiencing complications, said Anna MacEwan, a former school nurse who previously worked at a K-12 campus in downtown Brooklyn. It also shifts further responsibilities onto teachers, she added.

“You have to have a nurse in the building … to manage all the things that come up,” MacEwan said.

Nurses also provide families with additional peace of mind, said Noelia Gomez, an after-school program director with Good Shepherd Services, a nonprofit organization that supports children and families.

“Having nurses gives families a safeguard,” she said. “Somebody that they can trust — that’s going to care for their child like they would at home.”

She noted her program serves more than 500 students at P.S. 246 in the Bronx, each of whom may at some point need medical attention or support.

“It’s a very scary thought,” Gomez said. “What happens if the nurse isn’t there?”

With the mayor’s proposed budget still subject to negotiations with the City Council, advocates and local lawmakers are continuing to push for funding for initiatives that have relied on the federal dollars. The city must finalize its budget by July 1.

Council members will discuss the city’s Education Department budget at an Education Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools can now donate cafeteria food to fight hunger and reduce waste. Here’s how.

2024-05-10T19:30:40+00:00

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New York City’s Education Department recently launched a program allowing schools to donate unused packaged food to local food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters — an effort nearly two years in the making.

After a small group of schools piloted a food donation program, officials trained roughly 400 school food managers, supervisors, and directors earlier this year on how to set up their own programs, Chalkbeat has learned.

Every school will have the opportunity to opt into the effort, officials said. The Office of Food and Nutrition Services will help schools set up the procedures and equipment for donating untouched food, while a school’s administration will facilitate the donation to school community members or local pantries.

The program is gearing up at a critical moment, as pandemic-era family benefits dry up and childhood hunger is a growing concern. New York City has seen a 100% increase in the number of visits to food pantries by children and their families from pre-pandemic levels and 1 in 5 children don’t always know where their next meal will come from, according to food rescue group City Harvest.

Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams plans to reduce funding by about 56% for an emergency food program that works with about 500 community kitchens and food pantries citywide.

The school-based food donation program was “informed by conversations with several food pantries and best practices from existing school-based food pantries and ad hoc student-led food donation programs,” said Jenna Lyle, an Education Department spokesperson.

Since the program is just getting started, officials do not yet have data on participating schools, but said they plan to track how many opt into it.

Students, advocates, and elected officials have long tried to push the nation’s largest school system — which serves roughly 880,000 meals a day — to come up with a plan to divert food waste from landfills and into the hands of hungry New Yorkers. A Department of Sanitation study found that more than 40,000 tons of trash from New York City’s school buildings can be recycled, composted, or reused.

“There’s so much food being wasted,” said Eila Gandhi, a student at East Side Middle school.

Through the Middle School Leadership Council in Manhattan’s District 2, Eila has been working with Zoya Baulin, another East Side student, and Anya Bravin, from the Clinton School, on advocating for leftover packaged food from schools to go to homeless shelters and other anti-hunger organizations. But they kept hitting roadblocks, finding complicated rules and strict guidelines for donating the food and for shelters accepting the food.

They were happy to hear about the Education Department’s new program and are in touch with their principals about how their schools might participate.

“We feel like it could help so many different groups of people,” Anya said. “It can help people who have food insecurity. It could help schools get rid of this food. It can help homeless shelters to not have to feed so many people from their own money, and it could also help the environment.”

The Education Department’s food service team has been working to reduce excess food or leftovers whenever possible, said Lyle. “We applaud our students who are advocating for their communities and looking to support their local organizations and shelters.”

Rachel Sabella, director of No Kid Hungry New York, was encouraged to hear about the food donation program — especially now. Her advocacy organization recently polled public school families and found that nearly 9 in 10 reported that food prices were rising faster than their incomes.

“We look forward to learning more about this program expansion and the ways it can relieve the difficult choices too many families are forced to make between food, rent, and other necessities,” Sabella said in a statement.

Here’s what schools should know about participating in the program.

What’s the first step a school can take to participate in the program?

A school needs to set up what’s called a “share table,” where students can discard unopened packaged food or whole pieces of fruit from their trays, letting their peers pick up the food if they’d like.

Because of federal school food reimbursement regulations for meals — which are free for all New York City public school students — kids cannot, for instance, just take a cookie or an apple, but instead must take a complete meal with a protein and other food items. Because of that, many kids often end up tossing a lot of untouched food.

Several schools already have share tables set up in their cafeterias as a way to reduce food waste. (Education Department officials said they are in the process of collecting data on which schools have share tables.)

What food items are eligible for donation?

Only food from share tables can be donated.

The food must be non-perishable or unspoiled and must be donated within 36 hours of being served.

Where will the food donations go?

School leaders have two options:

They can donate the food directly to their school community, with school leaders selecting students and families to participate, according to a January presentation given to schools. “[This] enables students and families in need, access to food right in their own schools,” the presentation stated. “This program will help to make balanced, nutritious meals a reality.”
They can partner with an established local community food pantry or program that serves New Yorkers in need. The school can work with an organization to determine the food pick-up or delivery system.

Who will run the program at a school?

Principals must identify a “designee” to oversee the program. The designee can be a school staffer or a school community volunteer, such as a parent or guardian.

Students may volunteer to assist and support the program under that person’s guidance.

How will the food get from a cafeteria to families or organizations?

After each meal, whoever is running the program will evaluate food items left on the cafeteria’s share table. They — or student volunteers— will then place all eligible food items in a designated refrigerator or milk chest.

Each shelf must then be labeled with the date the items were placed there. And at the end of the last meal served (some schools serve breakfast, lunch, and after-school snacks), the person overseeing the program must complete a “daily food donation receipt,” submitted to an assigned kitchen staff member.

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

More than academics: Aurora’s community schools are an example as interest in the model grows

2024-04-23T23:45:27+00:00

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When Bishnu Rai’s children started school at Aurora’s Crawford Elementary five years ago, she initially felt lost. She wasn’t very social and she struggled to help her children, she says.

But thanks to Crawford’s community school model, she’s been getting more involved, learning English, and now feels confident enough she’s helping come up with a plan for empowering other immigrant parents.

Crawford Elementary is one of six schools in Aurora that are using the community schools model. Five of them are part of the ACTION Zone, a group of schools near Denver’s border that have high levels of poverty and large numbers of language learners. The district grouped the schools years ago as part of a plan to better support the schools with similar needs.

At Crawford, some of the work has gone on for almost 10 years, but evolved as the zone schools committed to a “community schools” model in the past five years. The approach focuses on using community partners to address whole family needs, with the end goal of ensuring that children have fewer social and emotional barriers to learning.

In Colorado, nonprofit organizations and the state education department are increasing their focus on how they support schools that want to use the community schools model. Some of these leaders say they see an untapped potential for improving communities.

At Crawford, 97% of the school’s 540 students qualify for subsidized meals, a measure of poverty, and students come from 40 different countries speaking about 25 different languages.

Through the community schools model, Crawford works with organizations to test students’ eyesight at school, helps parents learn how they can continue lessons at home, and brings families together to share about their various cultures. Rai also has taken advantage of English classes, health classes, and parent leadership classes.

Parents are involved in big school decisions. For instance, parents helped pick this year’s new principal by participating in interviews and hosting a forum where parents could ask questions of the applicants and fill out scorecards.

“If we empower our parents, this helps our kids,” Rai said. “They teach me how to raise my voice, how to speak up.”

At Crawford Elementary, students come from 40 different countries and speak about 25 different languages. The school celebrates its diversity.

Supporting the model takes resources

Colorado Department of Education officials recently visited Crawford and Boston K-8, two of Aurora’s zone schools, as part of the state’s work to better understand how the community schools model is implemented and what resources can be shared with other schools looking to try the same model.

State lawmakers in 2022 added adopting the model to the menu of improvement options for schools on the state’s watchlist for low performance. The state education department had some support for the model spread across various departments but now is creating a team focused just on supporting the community schools model.

“We’re happy to connect schools with resources,” said Dana Scott, director of the office of student supports for the state Department of Education. “We want to be a place where we can really create some good connections for them so schools don’t have to start from scratch.”

The state doesn’t track how many districts are using the model, but nationwide, some experts believe the model has had growing interest, and more so since the start of the pandemic. Even as schools shut down, they served as hubs for various help to families in the community, providing meals, internet, COVID tests, shots, and more.

Katie Wilberding Cross, senior director for youth initiatives and education for Mile High United Way, helps lead a coalition of organizations that want to support community schools. The coalition just started meeting in the fall.

She says the idea behind community schools is that students have needs that can be a barrier to learning, but schools should not be expected to be everything for everybody.

“There are partners that provide these different needs,” Wilberding Cross said. “United Ways are uniquely positioned to convene folks, to bring these various organizations and sectors together.”

She said part of the work is getting more districts to learn about the model. It’s hard to say how much interest is in Colorado.

“What I keep hearing is there’s a lot of percolating interest, but it’s something that hasn’t been fully tapped into,” Wilberding Cross said.

In the metro area, Adams 14 has had national support in trying to start using the model at Central Elementary, one of the district’s lowest-performing schools, which is under a state-ordered improvement plan of its own. The hope is that the model will eventually help improve student achievement.

The Harrison school district of Colorado Springs also uses the model at one of its schools, and Pueblo 60 uses it at two of its schools.

Chicago Mayor visits high school to advocate for more Sustainable Community Schools

Many more schools are likely doing much of the same work community schools focus on, such as starting a food pantry for families, or partnering with community organizations to provide another service for students or families, but they don’t have the community schools label or a plan with the intentionality that the model would provide.

Having a community schools coordinator on staff ensures that the partnerships belong to the schools and not an individual teacher or principal who might leave, that those partnerships are responsive to the needs in the community, and that they are providing something for the families. With those elements in place,the work is more likely to be successful and to continue beyond just a year or two, experts said.

Schools trying to use the community schools approach generally hire a community schools coordinator. At Crawford, Maggie Lautzenheiser-Page, the community schools coordinator, helps plan and run the various programs offered for that school’s needs, which are different than the programs offered at the next school using the model.

Family liaisons at Crawford speak multiple languages and meet with parents regularly.

“Then it’s not burdening or putting more weight on educators,” said Christa Rowland, Western regional deputy director for the Coalition for Community Schools from the Institute for Educational Leadership, a national nonprofit group based in Washington D.C. “Rather it should lift it.”

The community school coordinator is key, leaders agree. The person should have some decision-making authority at the school level to help drive the work, Wilberding Cross said. There should be district buy-in. And the plans need to be designed with the community, evaluating needs and existing assets, experts said.

If schools are following Colorado’s definition of community schools as laid out in Colorado statute, then they have to assess the community’s needs every year.

Hiring that community school coordinator to implement this model does require an investment. Experts say research has shown the investment can pay off with more resources coming to the school, and improved measures of attendance, parent engagement, and eventually, other student outcomes.

Aurora has made some of that investment. The community school coordinators, one at each of the zone schools, are district-funded. The district is working to find permanent funding for some of the other positions, including community health coordinators and family liaisons for special populations that speak different languages.

The model has helped improve family and community engagement and enabled parents such as Rai to feel empowered to help their children’s learning. But, based on state ratings, the schools in the zone haven’t seen much improvement in students’ academic achievement. Aurora Central High School, the district’s longest-struggling school is part of the zone and has continued to have low state ratings.

Leaders celebrate other measures of community school success

Crawford Principal Aubri Dunkin, who is new this year, said most school leaders want their schools to be hubs for the community.

“But this truly is a hub,” Dunkin said, noting that the community school model allows the school to support parents and help them navigate potential barriers so students come to school more regularly and “ready to learn.”

In Aurora, the district's six community schools have two food clinics where families can access free food and other help. A Crawford parent is one of the coordinators who helps set parents up with the help.

At Crawford, 50 parents, including Rai, regularly attend leadership meetings. The zone’s two food clinics, which provide food and connect parents to other resources, host regular events to give out local food. Last school year, they served more than 4,700 individuals in the events. Within the district, leaders say students whose families are engaged are showing better outcomes than those who aren’t.

And across the zone, “definitely more than half of our families are attending and participating in events on a regular basis,” said Elizabeth Lewis, the district’s community schools impact manager.

At Crawford, which recently received a large number of new migrant students, parent leaders want to pass on what they’ve learned to help the new migrant parents be involved for their children, Rai said.

She’s also hoping to raise another issue beyond her school: pedestrian safety. She said families who walk to the school want a new stop sign at one of the busy intersections. Parents years ago successfully lobbied the city to install one outside the school, but now there’s a need for another, she said.

Experts say it’s that kind of drive by parents that really creates sustainability, and a model that is responsive to the evolving needs of the community.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

An attempt to roll back protections for trans students in sports angers NYC students and families

2024-04-23T16:57:31+00:00

Rebeca moved to New York City a year ago to protect her daughter, now 8, from increasingly trans-restrictive laws in Florida.

So it came as a shock when she received a 7 a.m. text from a parent at her children’s school on March 21. A Manhattan parent-led advisory board had voted 8-3 the night before calling on the Department of Education to revisit guidelines on trans girls’ sports participation.

Rebeca — who asked that we use only her first name and a pseudonym, Sophie, for her daughter, who is transgender — had thought of herself as a political refugee from a state where each legislative session threatened her daughter’s identity.

“It’s very triggering just to see the rhetoric so close,” she said of the largely symbolic resolution passed by the Community Education Council, or CEC, in Manhattan’s District 2, the second largest of the city’s 32 local districts.

NYC schools Chancellor David Banks made it clear that he did not support the CEC’s resolution. But for Rebeca, whose daughter attends school in a nearby district, and other trans youth and allies, the resolution marked a troubling first for New York City, and old fears were awakened.

“You get scared to talk to anybody, because you don’t know if somebody’s supportive or not,” Rebeca says. “Once the rhetoric is there, it’s not just sports, soon it’s bathrooms, soon it’s curriculum.”

The parents who passed the resolution claimed they were seeking to open a dialogue, but many of them are part of or endorsed by PLACE NYC, or Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, a group seen as pushing a pro-screened school and anti-integration agenda. Additionally, Maud Maron, the resolution’s lead sponsor and co-founder of PLACE, has made anti-trans comments.

Last week, Maron received a letter from the Education Department, following an investigation under a new process to address parent leader misconduct allegations, that instructed her to “cease engaging in conduct involving derogatory or offensive comments about any New York City Public School student,” or face suspension or removal from the CEC, as first reported in The 74.

Some experts worry that the resolution itself, even though it’s only advisory, will have a negative impact on trans youth who already experience bullying and harassment.

“I’m a little emotional because this is my community once again being attacked by individuals who have zero idea what it’s like to walk in my very high heels,” Athena Rivera, a trans teen who is a member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, said at a recent meeting of the citywide board. “I find it utterly appalling that we still today have grown adults making anti-trans or bigoted proposals.”

Tension between NY laws and parent rhetoric

New York state education law prohibits discrimination in physical education classes and athletics, a fact raised repeatedly by speakers at March’s Community Education Council meeting. But the resolution’s co-sponsor was undeterred.

“A lot of our resolutions, whether it’s on issues related to social issues or educational issues, are all geared towards putting parents more front and center,” said Leonard Silverman, who is CEC 2′s president.

Actor Elliot Page (right) with Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the ACLU who is also a District 2 parent, at the District 2 CEC meeting on March 20, 2024.

His views echo proponents of parents’ rights bills nationwide that limit educators’ ability to teach about race, gender, and sexuality. PEN America reports that nearly 400 “education intimidation” bills were introduced between January 2021 and June 2023, and 39 are now law.

As of last summer, 23 states had passed laws excluding trans youth from participating in the sport that aligns with their gender, according to ESPN.

“We know that hostile legislation undermines LGBTQ+ young people’s well-being and puts them at higher risk of harassment, so there are good reasons to believe this resolution alone has negatively impacted NYC trans youth,” said Jennifer Jennings, a District 2 resident and Princeton University professor currently teaching a course titled “Schooled: Education, Opportunity, and Inequality.”

Education Department officials said the District 2 CEC resolution would be rejected, and the city does not intend to revise the guidelines. At the March Panel for Educational Policy meeting, held on the same night CEC 2 approved the resolution, Banks condemned the misinformation in the resolution and its intent to target trans youth.

“It’s especially troubling because we know sports build a sense of self-confidence and belonging,” said Banks. “Rather than excluding our trans students, we ought to be working together to wrap our arms around them. They need our love and encouragement, and support, not political attacks.”

Still, despite the Education Department’s assurances, Oliver Duffy, a District 2 seventh grader, said what happens in these meetings could have ramifications across the city.

He and his peers were talking about the CEC’s rhetoric even before the vote. In January, Duffy wrote CEC 2 members a letter after some of their anti-trans internal chat messages leaked to The 74. The messages were particularly upsetting to him, he said.

Maron has become a polarizing figure: At Stuyvesant High School, where Maron is on the Student Leadership Team, a student started a petition asking for her removal. The petition expresses concern that Maron will “alter school policies in more subtle ways that may prove detrimental to students of color and LGBTQ+ students.”

“I wanted the CEC to know that their words have impact,” said Duffy, who started a Gender and Sexuality Alliance, or GSA, in his elementary school. “Maud tweets a lot of anti-trans stuff on social media, which kind of sometimes influences kids. And a lot of kids see it, and it just makes them feel more bad about themselves.”

When asked on last year’s NYC School Survey whether or not students harass, bully, or intimidate each other because of their gender, gender identity, or gender expression, 34% of the students citywide in grades 6-12 who participated said this happens some or most of the time.

Of the 41 students who identified as nonbinary, gender fluid, or gender expansive who took the survey, 66% reported seeing this behavior in their schools.

Tamuira Reid, Duffy’s parent, sees the resolution as an opportunity to strengthen the Education Department’s guidelines on gender inclusion – not just to see whether or not trans and nonbinary students feel safe going out for the sport of their choice, but to ask, “Does every school have a GSA? Does the staff there have the funding to run the programs that actually affirm and keep kids safe?”

Alaina Daniels, executive director of Trans formative Schools, an after-school program centering trans joy and social justice, addresses the District 2's Community Education Council on March 20, 2024.

Though supporters of District 2′s resolution said it wasn’t anti-trans, Maron, also a member of the far-right parent organization Moms For Liberty, has made it clear she would exclude trans girls from playing the sport that aligns with their gender. “When you say trans girl, what you’re talking about is boys,” Maron told Chalkbeat. But Maron said her positions are distinct from the resolution. “My personal opinions and the resolution are two separate things,” she said.

For fellow CEC member, Gavin Healy, making this separation isn’t possible. “If you’re a representative of families on a public body and you say ‘trans kids don’t exist,’ then how can you represent the families of trans kids,” asked Healy, who opposed the resolution. He also noted that the council is supposed to include one student representative. “Could a trans kid or even any queer student be on CEC 2 and feel safe and protected and affirmed? I think that would be really difficult.”

In response to the Education Department’s sanctions against her, Maron wrote, “I have no idea what conduct I’ve been found guilty of.” She said she was never provided copies of any charges. Her statement was included in a lawsuit she and others are filing against the Education Department and other parents over the new parent leader investigation process.

She added, “I have only been accused of exercising my First Amendment rights to criticize transgender theory.”

Potential consequences of District 2′s resolution

Experts say exclusionary policies, whether they are passed or not, can endanger trans youth. Barnard College Professor Rebecca Jordan-Young, who is trained in sociomedical science and co-authored the book “Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography,” said, “There’s this boogeyman idea that trans girls and women are just going to completely dominate all sports if in fact equity-based policies are opened up. That has not proven to be the case at all.”

Keeping trans girls off girls teams puts them at serious risk, Jordan-Young said. A recent Washington Post analysis found states with laws that exclude or restrict trans students or limit what can be taught about LGBTQ+ topics experienced a massive increase in K-12 hate crimes, including intimidation and assault.

In addition to external violence, LGBTQ+ youth are at risk for self-harm — 41% seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, according to a 2023 The Trevor Project survey. One in four Black transgender and nonbinary youth surveyed said they had attempted suicide.

“There are huge conversations to be had around equity and what it would take to actually truly support girl and women athletes,” Jordan-Young said. “This is all about trying to split this tiny little paltry pie and kick some of the girls out.” Instead, Jordan-Young said, people should be advocating for equal training facilities and focusing on building all girls’ confidence in their physical capabilities.

One byproduct of gender inclusive policies people might not expect is that they create environments where all students are safer, said Travers, a professor of sociology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, who uses only one name and they/them pronouns. “If you want your female child to have a better experience in school, put her in a school with gender inclusive policies,” they said.

Finding a world of difference in New York from Florida

Since Sophie was 3 years old, Rebeca has been protecting her right to live as herself in school. When she was in prekindergarten, parents complained when Sophie, who identified as a boy at the time, went to school in a tutu. While the principal said she supported Sophie’s dress-up choice, the school stopped hosting events where she could dress up, Rebeca said.

This experience coupled with the passage of what’s commonly known as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill soon afterward made Rebeca nervous about sending her child to a public school. The law, which was challenged in court, was widely interpreted as outlawing lessons or books that mentioned sexual orientation or gender identity. Over the next few years, Rebeca tried different school settings she hoped would affirm, or at least not disparage, Sophie. Once Sophie’s father said he wouldn’t fight Rebeca’s choice to move to New York, Rebeca put her two kids on a plane and had them in a school in NYC by the following week.

Rebeca is not alone in moving out of state as a way to better ensure her child can grow up supported. UCLA’s Williams Institute surveyed 113 LGBTQ+ parents in Florida in 2023 and found 16% had already taken steps to move to another state. More than half were considering doing so. Until March 21, Rebeca hadn’t been feeling the constant fear for Sophie’s safety she’d lived with in Florida.

“When we came here, and she started going to school,” Rebeca said, “all of that was not even an issue anymore.”

Sophie’s activity of choice is dance. Her experience in dance class in New York is quite different from the atmosphere she and Rebeca encountered in Florida, where Rebeca was told Sophie would only be allowed to compete as a boy.

“Now she’s doing modern dance,” said Rebeca. “They’re very supportive. Nobody cares that she’s trans — in a good way.”

She hopes that doesn’t change.

Liz Rosenberg is a New York-based reporter.

A civics roadmap for teens: New online clearinghouse created ‘by youth, for youth’ aims to help

2024-04-12T22:17:31+00:00

Looking to run a voter registration drive at your school? Want to learn how to earn a high school diploma with a “seal of civic readiness,” demonstrating civic skills and knowledge? Trying to find out more about the NYC Mayor’s Office internship program?

Or maybe you want to get a head start on registering for the upcoming election, whether you’re 18 or not. (Those who are 16-17 can now pre-register so they are automatically registered when they turn 18.)

This information and more can be found on the “Youth Civic Hub,” an online portal launched on Friday, designed “by youth, for youth,” to increase youth civic engagement and electoral participation.

Led by the NYC Youth Agenda and Civic Coalition, this one-stop clearinghouse includes a wealth of information, ranging from internships and volunteer opportunities to voter registration tools and an elections portal with scorecards rating candidates on young people’s issues. It will soon have a “power map” explaining the different roles of elected officials, a glossary outlining the language commonly used in civic spaces, and a directory of various local organizations for young people to connect with.

The young people behind the portal are hoping to get it in the hands of New York City teachers, so they can share it with their students and expose them to “high-quality” civic opportunities across the five boroughs.

Creating the hub has been a yearslong project spearheaded by YVote, a teen-focused civic engagement nonprofit that is helping lead the larger NYC Civic Coalition.

“We’re not just helping voters, we’re trying to make the connections — who oversees what,” said Mia Payne, a 2022 graduate of Manhattan’s Talent Unlimited High School, alumnus of YVote, and a youth co-chair on the education transition team for Mayor Eric Adams.

“We just want to connect the dots of the roles and responsibilities [of government officials],” she said. Though young people often “just see whoever’s on the TV,” which is often the mayor or governor, it might make more sense to reach out to their city council member for school community issues, she said.

When Payne joined YVote in her sophomore year of high school, she asked why it was so hard to find out who represents you and what they do and believe. It turned out the organization was already working on solving this problem by building the hub. She believes the work they’re doing can serve as a blueprint for other states.

The portal comes at a pivotal moment, just months before November’s presidential election. In the 2022 midterm elections, just 7.6% of eligible Bronx voters ages 18-29 cast ballots and 15.3% of Queens young people voted, according to CIRCLE, an independent youth civic engagement research organization based at Tufts University. About 18% of Brooklyn voters in this age group cast ballots along with 18.8% in Manhattan and 23.4% in Staten Island. The statewide average, 19.8%, was lower than the national average of 23%.

The nation’s political polarization can turn young people off from wanting to be civically involved, Payne said, but she also believes that the hub can help provide different points of access for young people to feel more empowered.

“There’s a lot of mistrust and misinformation. We want to make this as cross-partisan as possible and straight facts,” Payne said. “The goal of the hub: You may not agree or be proud of your elected officials, but at the end of the day, the power is in the people’s hand. You have the ability to hold them accountable and elect someone else.”

Written in “teen-friendly” language the hub aims to reach young people, especially those in “civic deserts,” where there’s less broadband access and less exposure to election-related news and information.

Through the portal, young people can learn about various opportunities to get involved with communities: You can find out how to volunteer at a farm in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, apply for an internship at a design museum in Manhattan, or try and land a civics-focused fellowship centered on such issues as criminal justice, voting rights, and media literacy.

“Many youth don’t know of any opportunities besides the ones in their schools, and the hub aims to change that,” said Afsana Rahman, a member of the hub youth working group and senior at the Queens High School for the Sciences at York College. (She became involved in the hub through her work in CUNY’s Intergenerational Change Initiative.)

The hub will be officially unveiled on Monday at the NYC Youth Agenda Policy Party, where young people will also share their policy recommendations for how to make the city more equitable for youth, based on thousands of surveys of teens across the city.

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

Newark’s summer school programs aim to move kids forward, Superintendent Roger León says

2024-04-08T10:00:00+00:00

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With the end of the academic year quickly approaching, Newark Public Schools summer school applications are now open for students in elementary, middle, and high school.

This year, the district is hosting programs at 16 elementary schools, up from 14 last summer, and across 10 high schools.

Summer school is a combination of mandatory academic programs, which are based on attendance, grades, and state test scores, enrichment activities, and specialized programs for high schoolers. The district is also extending hours for enrichment programs – which are provided by teachers and community-based organizations – to 6 p.m. this year.

Similar to last year, summer school is about “moving kids forward” by helping students refine basic skills in math and reading and offering accelerated courses and internship programs for high schoolers, Superintendent Roger León said. District leaders expect a rise in English language learners and students with disabilities next fall and are providing programs this summer aimed at integrating new multilingual learners and supporting students with Individualized Education Programs over the break.

Registration for summer school began on March 28, and closes on May 15. Due to an earlier end to the school year, summer school will begin on June 27 and end on Aug. 2. Students enrolled in the district during this school year are eligible for summer school. Those who are Newark residents but were not enrolled in a public school this year are also eligible to attend depending on availability. Students who do not live in Newark cannot attend summer programs.

Last year, more than 10,000 Newark Public Schools students attended summer school, with more scattered throughout city charter schools. Federal COVID relief dollars helped expand summer programs last year, León said, and this fall, the district is facing the end of those funds.

What families can expect this summer

Not all school sites will be open for summer school, but students can report to the school closest to their home for programs, León said.

Parents of students who are required to attend Summer Achieve, the district’s mandatory summer school program, were notified last month and do not need to register for summer classes, district leaders said. Students wanting to enroll in enrichment programs such as summer sports camps and STEM academies must apply online by selecting the program through the district’s online application.

This year, summer school starts with breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and runs until 6 p.m. Summer Achieve sessions will be held between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. with lunch at 12 p.m. Enrichment programs and activities through the district’s Summer Quest program will run from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. with dinner included. Students can attend morning, afternoon, or sessions all day, district leaders said.

Elementary students who do not attend within the first three days of programs may lose their seats and, after the third unexcused absence, will be dismissed from their mandatory program, according to the district’s summer programs brochure. High schoolers enrolled in accelerated programs must attend every day to keep their spots.

At the beginning of this school year, Newark residents experienced sweltering conditions with some students learning in hot schools. Other students reported having little to no access to cold water in fountains at their school.

Stephanie McNeil is a per diem aide at 13th Avenue School who in past years, has worked for the district’s summer school program. This year, she’s decided not to apply for a summer position because of the hot conditions that make working in city schools “unbearable.”

“It is way too hot and it’s too hot for the kids to even learn in those types of conditions,” McNeil said.

Last month, the district said it will prioritize air conditioner installations at summer school sites before the start of programs in June. The district said it will also install them at other schools this summer, but has not said which ones.

In 2022, the Newark school board approved a nearly $5 million contract to purchase and install touchless water fountains districtwide, but the work is ongoing. More than 150 contactless water fountains need to be installed in schools and the district’s Office of Facilities Management says it plans to install them by May.

Programs for English language learners, students with disabilities

English language learners in kindergarten through 11th grade are eligible for the English-plus program meant to help students with their academic and language skills. The district says it focuses on developing reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills in English.

Multilingual students who have recently arrived in the country and will enter high school in the fall can also participate in the newcomers high school summer program. The program is offered at two high schools – Barringer High School in the North Ward and East Side High School in the East Ward – and intends to support students academically, socially, and culturally.

Students who live more than two and a half miles from either school and want to attend the program are eligible for bus tickets, according to the district.

Students with an Individualized Education Program receiving special education services may be eligible to enroll in the Extended School Year program. But the district’s office of special education says not all students with IEPs are eligible for summer services.

Child Study Team members will assess each student to determine their eligibility for the program by looking at a student’s risk of losing skills and knowledge during the summer break, according to the district’s office of special education. They will also look at how long it might take a student to regain those skills lost over the break. If a student is denied a spot in the extended school year program, a parent can appeal that decision.

Nyemia Young is the mother of Nasariah, a kindergartener at Salomé Ureña Elementary School who receives special education services from the district. For the last two summers, Young has enrolled her son in the district’s Extended School Year summer program but wasn’t happy with the care and attention he was getting. During Nasariah’s first time in summer school, he went to Rafael Hernandez School and was struggling with sensory issues that some teachers, Young said, were not prepared to deal with.

“They’re not even putting these kids with the appropriate staff,” Young added. “This year I might send him but I’m not all the way sure.”

The Extended School Year program is offered at nine elementary schools and three high schools, including the district’s specialized high schools: New Jersey Regional Day and John F. Kennedy School.

Who works during summer school?

León says the district is working to staff all its summer school sites. Current district teachers and staff members are eligible to apply for one of dozens of positions districtwide. Each school site is managed by a summer school principal and vice principal who are different from administrators who oversee schools throughout the regular year.

The district has posted positions for administrators, teachers, aides, nurses, and case managers, among others. With enrichment programs running until 6 p.m. this year, some positions require staff to stay for the full summer school day.

Educators like McNeil say it might be tough for teachers to commit to that schedule “on top of working during the regular school year.”

“It’s already difficult during the school year so, I don’t want to have a tough summer too,” McNeil added.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

139,000 NYC families submit applications to Summer Rising, far more than available seats

2024-03-28T20:02:52+00:00

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Roughly 139,000 families submitted applications for Summer Rising, New York City’s free summer programming — far more than the number of available seats.

“It’s a testament to this program’s continued popularity with families — and I can’t wait to see what the summer brings,” schools Chancellor David Banks told reporters after revealing the application numbers on Thursday.

The numbers mirror last year when 45,000 families were initially not offered a seat. The program once again has 110,000 slots, though a portion of those are typically reserved for children who are mandated to attend summer school. It’s possible additional seats will open later as not all families will accept an offer.

Launched in 2021 as a response to the pandemic, the Summer Rising program gives students in grades K-8 a mix of academic instruction delivered by Education Department teachers and enrichment activities supported by a network of community-based organizations that partner with schools.

This year, city officials moved the application process up by about a month so families are slated to receive offers in mid-April, leaving more time to plan. Last summer, thousands of families were forced to scramble for child care over the summer after learning in May that they didn’t have a slot.

Several groups of students are supposed to receive priority for Summer Rising seats, including certain children with disabilities, those who attend after-school programs operated by the Department of Youth and Community Development, children who live in temporary housing or foster care, and students applying to a summer school site housed in the school they attend during the regular school year. Still, falling into one of those categories still does not guarantee a spot.

Despite the program’s popularity, its future is murky. Summer Rising was initially funded with one-time federal relief funding that is now expiring. Mayor Eric Adams has infused the program with city dollars to help replace the federal money that has been spent, but he has also reduced its overall budget.

The cuts mean that middle school students will have fewer hours of enrichment, including no programming on Friday, which is when many sites planned field trips. You can find more details about the program’s hours and structure here.

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

A push for universal after-school gains traction in Albany

2024-03-27T18:45:53+00:00

A Brooklyn state senator’s push for universal after-school programs is gaining traction among his Albany colleagues.

After Zellnor Myrie’s monthslong effort discussing the importance of expanding after-school programs, the state senate tucked a line into its recent spending proposal: “The Senate is interested in exploring pathways to achieving universal coverage for afterschool programming.”

Though the senate’s proposal — released in advance of finalizing Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget due April 1 — is largely symbolic and sets no price tag for such a program, the nod is significant. It’s the first time the legislative body included such a reference to universal after-school, according to Myrie, whose office did a deep dive into the archives.

Building on that momentum, Myrie last week introduced legislation directing the state’s Office of Children and Family Services to conduct a feasibility study for a statewide program, looking at how much it might cost to provide year-round after-school programming to every child who wants a seat.

Myrie believes that it’s all the more urgent for the state to step in as New York City is cutting back on some after-school programs, as Chalkbeat recently reported.

“This should be at the top of our agenda if we are in fact serious about public safety, the future of our children, and the health of our communities,” said Myrie, who represents a swath of Brooklyn from Crown Heights and East Flatbush to Park Slope and Windsor Terrace.

As food, housing, and transportation have gone up, paying for child care has become increasingly difficult. In 2022, the city lost an estimated $23 billion from working parents who either left the city or cut back on hours because of child care needs, according to the city’s Economic Development Corporation.

Myrie believes the after-school programs he attended growing up, such as his middle school step team and the Crown Heights Youth Collective, helped put him on his path to college, law school, and now as an elected official in Albany representing the community in which he was born and raised.

“After-school was a lifeline not just for me because of the skills and confidence I was able to acquire, but also for my mom — that I had a safe place to stay,” he said. “I truly credit after-school for keeping me off the streets.”

He also cited data from the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention that violent crimes committed by children ages 7-17 spike between the hours of 3-6 p.m.

Calls for universal after-school in NYC have stalled before

New York City officials said they would review whatever bills come their way on the matter.

“Support from all our government partners in providing services to young people is always welcome,” Mark Zustovich, spokesperson for the Department for Youth and Development, said in a statement.

Creating such a pricey program for the nation’s largest school district has faced hurdles before. After former Mayor Bill de Blasio vastly expanded free after-school programs for middle schoolers a decade ago, aiming to reach all children in grades 6-8 who wanted a seat, New York City Council has tried to expand after-school even further, unsuccessfully introducing legislation in 2018 and again last year.

For its roughly 900 after-school programs — reaching more than half of the city’s 1,600 schools — the city spent about $420 million last fiscal year on “out of school time” programs and is projected to spend $393 million for the upcoming fiscal year, according to public documents. The city was serving about 104,000 students in after-school programs as of October, according to the mayor’s management report.

The city also runs 92 school-based Beacon community centers and 99 Cornerstone programs based at public housing complexes.

Myrie believes that planting the seeds to build the political will for universal after-school could help it follow in the footsteps of New York City’s effort to make prekindergarten available to all 4-year-olds. That ambitious initiative has been a huge boon for families, saving them upwards of $15,000 a year, and the Adams administration’s plan to scale back pre-K for 3-year-olds has faced fierce opposition.

Earlier this month, a group of City Council members urged the governor and other Albany leaders to support universal after-school programming.

“Beyond alleviating the financial burdens facing families, expanding access to afterschool would also generate substantial economic advantages for the city,” City Council member Rita Joseph, who chairs the education committee, and 18 other council members wrote in a March 8 letter. “By enhancing the accessibility of after-school programs, New York could enhance productivity, retaining more adults within the city during their peak working years.”

Universal after-school as an integration tool

Parents on the Community Education Council for District 1 had been pushing for universal after-school in their Lower East Side and East Village schools when they launched a diversity admissions policy before the pandemic to integrate their schools.

“One of the determining factors parents look at for schools is after school,” said Naomi Peña, former president of the parent-led advisory council.

Schools that did not have a high enough concentration of families from low-income households often had after-school programs that charged fees, which was a hurdle for many parents.

“We argued that providing free afterschool would help integrate these schools, and it helps lift the burden off of families,” she said.

Advocating for the plan, however, lost momentum once the pandemic hit.

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

After-school cuts catch NYC programs by surprise

2024-03-21T17:00:55+00:00

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A group of after-school programs are scrambling to figure out what to do next year, after learning recently their contracts would not be renewed due to Mayor Eric Adams’ budget cuts.

The entire COMPASS Explore program, which offers specialized classes to grades K-12, will be affected. Another program for middle schoolers, the SONYC, or Schools Out NYC, also will lose a number of seats.

The nonprofit organizations running the programs received an email earlier this year from the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development alerting them that their contracts would end on June 30 and would not be renewed.

The cuts, which total nearly $7 million for both programs, came without warning, program directors said.

“We were thinking the agency itself would be hit but not the program itself,” said Derwin Greene, of the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center, which runs a COMPASS Explore program at Bronx Theatre High School.

COMPASS Explore serves grades K-12 and typically focuses on a single subject — such as art, music, STEM, or leadership — to give students time to go deep into a particular passion. Some of the programs are specifically aimed at serving LGBTQ youth or students with disabilities. (COMPASS Explore is smaller and offers more specialized services than regular COMPASS, which stands for Comprehensive After School System of New York City programs.)

Cutting the $2.7 million Explore program could have ripple effects beyond the loss of its nearly 1,900 seats, some organizations fear, potentially hobbling their ability to staff other programs since they often cobble together funding from various contracts to offer a fuller array of services.

Of SONYC’s 50,000 seats, the city is cutting about 1,660 slots to achieve a $4.2 million savings, according to public documents.

The Explore program Greene’s organization runs at Bronx Theatre offers juniors and seniors college counseling services, trips to college campuses, and job readiness training. They also work on social-emotional learning, and have a paid youth council where students earn a stipend for advocacy work. During the school day, they have one-on-one office hours for students who might need extra help.

The organization has a separate COMPASS contract for the work they do at the school with freshmen and sophomores. But having only one contract would not be sufficient to keep them afloat at the school.

“The contracts that we have already aren’t even enough,” Greene said. “We supplement with other funding.”

After-school enrollment is trending upward

City records show that the cuts were supposed to be aimed at underutilized programs — ones that did not meet the participation numbers under their contract. But that’s not what happened, according to a survey from United Neighborhood Houses, an umbrella organization working with settlement houses across the city.

Greene said his Explore program often over enrolls students to guard against teens dropping out, but this year they saw fewer kids leave.

Of the COMPASS Explore programs surveyed, most were meeting their benchmarks. Some SONYC providers said they were not meeting their targets, but several contributing factors complicated the narrative as to why, including delayed licenses and background checks for staff, stagnant contracts limiting their ability to pay competitive wages, and changing demographics of their student communities.

City officials said they prioritized the main COMPASS program over Explore since the latter is offered fewer days a week and that they targeted “lesser used” seats based on available data to minimize the impact on families.

“The city is committed to providing high-quality, engaging, and safe afterschool programming,” DYCD spokesperson Mark Zustovich wrote in an email. “DYCD is working with our COMPASS providers to serve as many young people as possible as the budget process continues in the coming weeks.”

Concerns about taking money out of after-school system

Once these after-school seats are cut they are not redistributed to other parts of the system, and that’s a concern as interest in after-school seats has been increasing, nonprofit providers say.

Participation in both city-run programs increased nearly 3% in the first four months of fiscal year 2024 compared to the year before, according to the mayor’s management report.

“Cutting COMPASS Explore and SONYC is taking money out of the after-school system when every dollar is precious,” said Nora Moran, policy director at United Neighborhood Houses. “They’re taken as a savings out of the system, so the overall pot that DYCD has to work with is smaller.”

That’s especially concerning, she said, as the price per participant is higher because other costs have gone up, such as minimum wage.

Farida Mohammed, a senior at the Orchard Collegiate Academy on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, is one of about 30 high schoolers in a COMPASS Explore program run by Grand Street Settlement, which is focused on college awareness and career exploration, as well as life skills, financial literacy, and study habits.

“It’s very helpful,” the Bronx 17-year-old said. Through the program, she’s learned how to create a resume, use Notion AI to create a daily planner to help her stay on top of assignments, and improve her public speaking skills. “My counselors at school — they don’t teach stuff like that.”

Grand Street Settlement operates another COMPASS Explore program at P.S. 158 in East New York focused on health and wellness for about 75 students, with a mix of instruction on nutritional eating and making sure kids are physically active.

Thanh Bui, Grand Street Settlement’s chief program officer, is especially concerned about the high school program.

“A lot of times, high school kids are dealt the short end of the stick. They don’t have a lot of services,” she said. “High school kids need a lot of life skills. They are also going through a lot of mental health issues.”

Bui’s organization also lost 15 of 50 SONYC seats it operates at a Catholic school, due to outdated enrollment data, she believes.

Her organization will now have to spend “double time” trying to find other sources of money, likely competing with others vying for the same pool of philanthropic dollars.

“Other organizations are going through the same process of trying to find that supplementary funding,” Bui said.

She was, however, holding out hope that the cuts might be restored.

“The mayor did some magical math a couple of months ago and restored some money back to DOE,” she said, referring to the mayor’s recent funding restorations. “Maybe there’s some magical math that’s going to happen soon.”

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

Newly arrived young adults face challenges to NYC school enrollment

2024-03-19T20:24:30+00:00

This article was republished from City Limits, an independent, investigative news source.

The 20-year-old from Mauritania arrived in the city four months ago with the dream of graduating from high school in the United States.

”I want to make my life better. I am still a baby, and I should go to school to have more experience, to have more knowledge,” the youth—who preferred not to be identified by name, citing past experiences with other media—said in fluent English, something he quickly picked up from daily interactions, adding to the multitude of languages he already speaks. “I don’t want to lose my time.”

In only four months, he has moved from one shelter to the other: living first in Manhattan, then Brooklyn, and now the Bronx, after the city instituted a 30-day shelter limit for adult migrants in the city last year, which was extended last week to 60 days for adults under 23 as part of the city’s “right to shelter” settlement.

Over 852 single immigrant youth between the ages of 17 and 20 were in the city’s shelter system as of March 3, according to City Hall. Dozens of them have told shelter staff they want to graduate from high school, but haven’t been enrolled—even though they are entitled to do so under federal law, according to several community-based organizations (CBOs) that are trying to assist them.

Eight local organizations that provide services to immigrants and/or youth described delays and difficulties in enrolling young migrants recently. The organization with the highest number of cases was Safe Horizon’s Streetwork Project, a drop-in center for homeless youth that has been serving an increasing number of asylum seekers since last year, which says it has referred around 60 cases of migrants directly to the New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) since January.

But only six have been enrolled so far, lamented Sebastien Vante, associate vice president of Safe Horizon’s Streetwork Project in Harlem.Other organizations—Afrikana, an East Harlem community center that serves young immigrants; Artists Athletes Activists, which greets asylum seekers upon arrival and connects them with support services; the Coalition for Homeless Youth; The Door, which offers legal aid, counseling, and various support services to youth; and the New York Legal Assistance Group—told City Limits that the youth they serve have faced difficulties in school enrollment.

Some have been told there is no space, some have been put on waitlists and others said they were only given the option of taking the General Educational Development (GED) high school equivalency test, according to these groups.

When asked about these complaints, a New York City Public Schools spokesperson said the education department “does not track enrollment referrals and students are not asked to disclose how they received information about the enrollment process.”

“Enrollment does not work on a referral basis,” added the spokesperson in an email.

The department said it is working to ensure that older students who want to attend classes are afforded academic options including traditional high schools, transfer schools—which serve students who are behind in credits or need alternative forms of education—as well as adult GED programs.

“Since the inception of Project Open Arms, we have made it clear—we cannot do this work alone,” the spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the city’s initiative to offer educational support to new immigrants and asylum seekers.

But stating now that enrollment does not operate on a referral basis, advocates said, has created confusion, departing from how the city has historically enrolled unhoused young people referred by social services organizations.

“Providers have always utilized certain processes through relationships with students in temporary housing liaisons,” countered Jamie Powlovich, executive director for the Coalition for Homeless Youth. “If that process is no longer something NYC Public School supports, they didn’t tell anyone.”

Under the McKinney-Vento Act, a federal law that protects the educational rights of homeless children and youth, these young adults should be enrolled in school immediately, even in the absence of documentation such as proof of residency, immunizations, school records, or other documents normally required.

The New York State Education Law stipulates that those between the ages of 5 and 21 who have not received a high school diploma are “entitled to attend the public schools maintained in the district in which such person resides without the payment of tuition.”

Further, State Education Department guidance notes that, “Districts may not force such individuals to forego a full-time high school program to pursue this alternative option [GED test], or otherwise steer such individuals toward this alternative option.”

“I feel like almost all my clients in that specific situation—17 to 20, trying to get into high school—are almost always pushed towards the GED program,” said Salina Guzman, immigrant youth advocate at The Door. “I think very often, there are many barriers that our clients face when trying to get into high school.”

Since July 2022, about 36,000 students in temporary housing have enrolled in city schools, according to NYCPS, though the agency could not detail how many of them were aged 17-21.

To enroll, the department stated, prospective students must go through a Family Welcome Center, with locations in each of the five boroughs to handle year-round registration and admissions to traditional high schools.

But advocates say many immigrant youth have learned the hard way that they needed an appointment at these sites before showing up.

“[It] doesn’t sound like a huge issue,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students Rights Project at Advocates for Children of New York. “But if you’re brand new to the country, and you’re already very confused and trying to make a lot of pieces fit together, and make the trip to the Family Welcome Center, and they tell you that you can’t be there, that you have to go back—that might be a reason alone why a family decides to just stop trying.”

A NYCPS spokesperson disputed that appointments are required at Family Welcome Centers, saying they are recommended but that walk-ins are accepted too. Welcome Centers can provide referrals to students interested in transfer schools, but for other pathways to graduation, such as adult education programs, prospective students should visit a referral center instead, the spokesperson said.

However, migrants who do make appointments at these welcome centers are sometimes told there is no space or they have to go on a waiting list, advocates say.

In an email, a NYCPS spokesperson acknowledged the presence of waitlists at some of its Welcome Centers—one in Downtown Brooklyn, for example, had less than 20 students waiting at the time of publication—but said names are taken off those lists daily thanks to rolling admissions, and that prospective students have the option of applying through other enrollment centers if their local spot is full.

But advocates say what should be a relatively smooth process now takes several weeks to a little over a month, and depends on a variety of circumstances: available seats, the type of school (transfer school, international high school, etc.), the needs of the student, and the time of year.

“The biggest problem: there’s no room in GED or high school alternatives,” explained Chia Chia Wang, NY Director of Church World Service (CWS), an organization that works with unaccompanied children who have come to reunite with their family members, which has been assisting many young people who are 17 or older with enrollment.

A CWS case manager explained that it took a month for one migrant, who will turn 18 in April and is living in a youth shelter without a guardian, to be enrolled after visiting the Family Welcome Center and being placed on a waiting list. “Despite reaching out to several transfer schools, he remained on waiting lists,” the caseworker said in an email.

“His absence from an educational environment,” the case manager added, “was starting to impact his mental well-being, as he expressed feeling down while observing his friends attending school while he remained at the shelter.”

To enroll migrants, advocates have made appointments, visited the Family Welcome Center, and called a bunch of high schools directly. “And that’s how, you know, we get students in school,” described Rodriguez-Engberg.

But according to the law, and reiterated by both the U.S. Department of Education and the NYS Department of Education, enrollment should be immediate. A U.S. Department of Education spokesperson said that anyone who meets the eligibility requirements and who is identified as homeless by a local liaison that serves students in temporary housing and their families in schools, should be able to attend classes right away.

A spokesperson for the New York State Education Department (NYSED) said that NYCPS has not reported any difficulties, delays, or problems in enrolling immigrant students in this age group, nor in failing to enroll them promptly, as required by the McKinney-Vento Act. NYSED would provide direct technical assistance to ensure compliance, added the spokesperson.

As a recipient of McKinney-Vento funds, the NYCPS has submitted proposals and annual reports ensuring compliance with the act, NYSED explained.

The New York State Attorney General’s Office encourages people who have been denied enrollment to contact its office or to file a Civil Rights Bureau complaint form.

Aging out of classrooms

An applicant approaching 18 complicates enrollment, several advocates explained. Turning 18 often makes it even harder.

“I had difficulty enrolling a client that was 17 and a half,” a Church World Service caseworker said via email. “The family was told that he was going to be 18 years old soon and that he should go to take a GED program instead of enrolling him in high school.”

The two young men City Limits spoke to during a visit to the Safe Horizons drop-in center in Harlem, one 20 and the other 18, said they had both asked staff at their shelters to be enrolled in school, to no avail. Nor were they referred to a family welcome center.

The young man from Mauritania said he did not persist or revisit the request because, under the city’s previous 30-day stay limit rules for adult migrants, it would be too difficult to fully focus on his studies without a stable place to live.

“So if I finished that one month, I should wait two weeks—three weeks, or one week, whatever—to get a shelter. I cannot sleep in a church, or sleep in a mosque, and then wake in the morning and go to school and come back tired,” he said.

CBOs told City Limits this age group easily falls through the cracks of the city’s shelter system and tends to be perceived as adults, not as young adults or unaccompanied youth.

“For newly arrived migrant youth of that age group—17 to 20—it’s rare that somebody will identify them as a [school-age] student, as a youth who needs to be in school,” Rodriguez-Engberg said. “They’re looked at as like adults, or they’re overlooked, period.”

Many young adults are entering adult shelters, where it’s harder to access the programs designed to help them.

Young people under the age of 24 are eligible for specialized runaway and homeless youth shelters under the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), but with only 813 beds, it has long been near or at capacity. In addition to school enrollment assistance, these shelters provide mental health services, access to legal aid, job training, and other services.

After two years of new immigrants arriving from all over the world, organizations say it’s hard to know the magnitude of the problem: how many young people who could be enrolled who are not in school right now, and how their lives could have been changed with such access.

“A bigger problem is the fact that we don’t really even know what the actual need is,” Rodriguez-Engberg said. “How many are there actually, who just gave up and are working or trying to do something else, because they had no idea they could be in school.”

In 2020, the Migration Policy Institute estimated that 3,800 newly arrived immigrants in New York City, ages 16 to 21, were neither enrolled in city schools nor had a diploma.

While NYCPS expanded programs for new immigrants enrolled in the city’s transfer high schools in 2022, the same year that more immigrants began arriving in the city, advocates say it’s still not enough to keep up with demand.

Enrollment challenges have affected both young adults living alone in the city as well as those living with their families. “The problem that exists with the lack of options and the Family Welcome Centers referring students to GED programs, happens regardless of whether the student is here alone or they’re here with their family,” Rodriguez-Engberg explained.

The youngest, those between 17 to 19, advocates explain, have a better chance and more time to navigate the laborious enrollment process, but for older youth, time is limited, since federal law only guarantees their right to attend through age 21.

“Every beginning is hard, but in the end, it’s going to be okay, but we don’t want to lose time,” the young man from Mauritania told a City Limits reporter. “We’re not allowed to work, so we should go to school to get information. If we were allowed to work, that information can help us in the future.”

He cited his own multilingual skills as something he and many other immigrant youth can offer the local job market—if they can access it.

“Maybe, the U.S. is going to need us one day,” he said.

Editor’s note from City Limits: This story has been updated since original publication to include additional information provided by NYCPS.

Jóvenes inmigrantes recién llegados enfrentan dificultades para matricularse en escuelas de Nueva York

2024-03-19T20:24:18+00:00

Este artículo se publicó originalmente en inglés el 18 de marzo en City Limits, una publicación independiente de investigación. Traducido por Daniel Parra. Read the English version here.

El joven de Mauritania de 20 años llegó a la ciudad hace cuatro meses con el sueño de graduarse de secundaria en los Estados Unidos.

“Quiero mejorar mi vida. Todavía soy un bebé, y debería ir a la escuela para tener más experiencia, para tener más conocimientos”, dijo en un inglés fluido —-aprendido rápidamente en interacciones diarias y que se suma a la multitud de idiomas que ya habla— el joven, quien prefirió no ser identificado por su nombre por experiencias pasadas con otros medios de comunicación. “No quiero perder el tiempo”.

En sólo cuatro meses, ha pasado de un albergue a otro: viviendo primero en Manhattan, luego en Brooklyn y ahora en el Bronx, después de que la ciudad instituyera el año pasado un límite de 30 días de estadía en refugios para los inmigrantes en la ciudad, y que fue ampliado la semana pasada a 60 días para los adultos menores de 23 años como parte del acuerdo sobre el “derecho a refugio” de la ciudad.

Más de 852 jóvenes inmigrantes solteros entre 17 y 20 años estaban en el sistema de albergues de la ciudad al 3 de marzo, según la alcaldía. Decenas de ellos han pedido al personal de los refugios que quieren terminar el bachillerato, pero no se les ha matriculado, a pesar de que tienen derecho a ello en virtud de la legislación federal, según varias organizaciones comunitarias que intentan ayudarles.

Ocho organizaciones locales que prestan servicios a inmigrantes y/o jóvenes describieron retrasos y dificultades para matricular a jóvenes inmigrantes recientemente. La organización con mayor número de casos es Safe Horizon y su Streetwork Project, un centro de acogida para jóvenes sin hogar que atiende a un número creciente de solicitantes de asilo desde el año pasado, afirma haber remitido unos 60 casos de inmigrantes directamente a las Escuelas Públicas de la ciudad de Nueva York (NYCPS por sus siglas en inglés) desde enero.

Pero hasta ahora sólo se han inscrito seis, lamentó Sebastien Vante, vicepresidente asociado del Proyecto Streetwork de Safe Horizon en Harlem.

Otras organizaciones —como Afrikana, un centro comunitario de East Harlem que atiende a jóvenes inmigrantes; Artists Athletes Activists, que recibe a los solicitantes de asilo a su llegada y los pone en contacto con servicios de apoyo; la Coalition for Homeless Youth; The Door, que ofrece asistencia jurídica, asesoramiento y diversos servicios de apoyo a los jóvenes; y el New York Legal Assistance Group— dijeron a City Limits que los jóvenes a los que atienden han tenido dificultades para matricularse en la escuela.

Según estos grupos, a algunos de los jóvenes se les ha dicho que no hay cupos en los colegios, a otros se les ha puesto en listas de espera y otros afirman que sólo se les ha dado la opción de presentar el examen General de Desarrollo Educativo (GED por sus siglas en inglés) de equivalencia de bachillerato.

Cuando se le preguntó acerca de estas quejas a NYCPS, un portavoz dijo que el departamento de educación “no rastrea los casos referidos de inscripción y no se pide a los estudiantes que revelen cómo recibieron la información sobre el proceso de inscripción”.

“La matriculación no funciona en base a referidos”, añadió el portavoz en un correo electrónico.

El departamento dijo que está trabajando para asegurar que los estudiantes mayores que quieran asistir a clases tengan opciones académicas que incluyan escuelas secundarias tradicionales, escuelas de transferencia —que sirven a los estudiantes que están atrasados en créditos o necesitan formas alternativas de educación—, así como programas de GED para adultos.

“Desde el inicio del Proyecto Open Arms, hemos dejado claro que no podemos hacer este trabajo solos”, dijo el portavoz, refiriéndose a la iniciativa de la ciudad para ofrecer apoyo educativo a los nuevos inmigrantes y solicitantes de asilo.

Pero afirmar ahora que la inscripción no funciona con referidos, dijeron los defensores, ha creado confusión, apartándose de la forma en que la ciudad ha inscrito históricamente a los jóvenes sin hogar remitidos por las organizaciones de servicios sociales.

“Los proveedores siempre han utilizado ciertos procesos a través de las relaciones con los estudiantes en los enlaces de vivienda temporal”, refutó Jamie Powlovich, directora ejecutiva de la Coalition for Homeless Youth. “Si ese proceso ya no es algo que apoye NYCPS, no se lo han dicho a nadie”.

Según la Ley McKinney-Vento, una ley federal que protege los derechos educativos de los niños y jóvenes sin hogar, estos jóvenes adultos deben ser matriculados en la escuela inmediatamente, incluso en ausencia de documentación como prueba de residencia, vacunas, expedientes escolares u otros documentos normalmente exigidos.

La Ley de Educación del Estado de Nueva York estipula que las personas entre 5 y 21 años que no hayan recibido un diploma de secundaria tienen “derecho a asistir a las escuelas públicas en el distrito en el que resida dicha persona sin el pago de matrícula”.

Además, la directriz del Departamento de Educación del estado señala que “los distritos no pueden obligar a estas personas a renunciar a un programa de escuela secundaria a tiempo completo para seguir esta opción alternativa [examen del GED], o de otra manera dirigir a estas personas hacia esta opción alternativa”.

“Siento que casi todos mis clientes en esa situación específica —de 17 a 20, tratando de entrar en la escuela secundaria— casi siempre son empujados hacia el programa de GED”, dijo Salina Guzmán, defensora de los jóvenes inmigrantes en The Door. “Creo que muy a menudo, hay muchas barreras que nuestros clientes enfrentan cuando intentan ingresar a la escuela secundaria”.

Desde julio de 2022, alrededor de 36,000 estudiantes en viviendas temporales se han inscrito en escuelas de la ciudad, según NYCPS, aunque el departamento no detalló cuántos tenían entre 17 y 21 años.

Para matricularse, dijo el departamento, los futuros estudiantes deben pasar por Centros de Acogida para Familias (Family Welcome Centers), con sedes en cada uno de los cinco condados para gestionar las inscripciones y admisiones durante todo el año.

Pero los defensores dicen que muchos jóvenes inmigrantes han aprendido por las malas que necesitaban una cita en estos lugares antes de presentarse.

“No parece un gran problema”, dice Rita Rodríguez-Engberg, directora del Proyecto de Derechos de los Estudiantes Inmigrantes de Advocates for Children of New York. “Pero si eres nuevo en el país, y ya estás confundido y tratando que un montón de piezas encajen, y haces el viaje al Centro de Bienvenida Familiar, y te dicen que no puedes estar allí, que tienes que volver, eso podría ser una razón por sí sola por la que una familia decida simplemente dejar de intentarlo”.

Un portavoz de NYCPS negó que los Centros de Acogida para Familias requieran cita previa, afirmando que es recomendable, pero que también se aceptan visitas sin cita previa. Los Centros pueden referir a los estudiantes interesados a escuelas de transferencia, pero para otros programas de graduación, como los programas de educación para adultos, los interesados deben visitar un referral center (centro de referencia) en su lugar, dijo el portavoz.

Sin embargo, los inmigrantes que tienen cita en estos Centros de Acogida para Familias a veces les dicen que no hay cupo o que tienen que inscribirse en una lista de espera, dicen los defensores.

En un correo electrónico, un portavoz de NYCPS reconoció la presencia de listas de espera en algunos de Centros de Acogida para Familias: uno en el centro de Brooklyn, por ejemplo, tenía menos de 20 estudiantes esperando en el momento de la publicación, pero dijo que los nombres se eliminaban de la lista diariamente gracias a las admisiones continuas, y que los futuros estudiantes tenían la opción de ir a otros centros.

Sin embargo, los defensores de los estudiantes afirman que lo que debería ser un proceso relativamente sencillo tarda ahora varias semanas o un poco más de un mes, dependiendo de diversas circunstancias: cupos disponibles, tipo de secundaria (escuelas de transferencia, escuela internacional, etc.), necesidades del estudiante y la época del año.

“El mayor problema: no hay cupos en las escuelas alternativas de GED o bachillerato”, explicó Chia Chia Wang, directora en Nueva York de Church World Service (CWS por sus siglas en inglés), una organización que trabaja con menores no acompañados que han venido a reunirse con sus familiares, que ha estado ayudando a muchos jóvenes de 17 años o más a matricularse.

Un gestor de casos del CWS explicó que un migrante que cumplirá 18 años en abril y vive en un refugio de menores sin tutor, tardó un mes en ser matriculado tras visitar el Centro de Acogida para Familias y ser incluido en una lista de espera. “A pesar de contactar a escuelas, seguía en lista de espera”, dijo en un correo electrónico.

“Su ausencia de un entorno educativo”, añadió el gestor de casos, “estaba empezando a repercutir en el bienestar mental, ya que el joven expresó sentirse decaído al observar a sus amigos asistir a la escuela mientras él permanecía en el refugio”.

Para matricular a los inmigrantes, los defensores han concertado citas, han visitado el Centro de Acogida para Familias y han llamado directamente a un montón de escuelas. “Y así es como, ya sabes, conseguimos que los estudiantes vayan a la escuela”, describió Rodríguez-Engberg.

Pero de acuerdo con la ley, y reiterado tanto por el Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. y el Departamento de Educación del estado de Nueva York, la inscripción debe ser inmediata. Un portavoz del Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. dijo que cualquier persona que cumpla los requisitos de elegibilidad y que sea identificada como persona sin hogar por un enlace local que atiende a los estudiantes en viviendas temporales y a sus familias en las escuelas, debe poder asistir a clases de inmediato.

Un portavoz del Departamento de Educación del estado de Nueva York (NYSED por sus siglas en inglés) dijo que NYCPS no ha informado de ninguna dificultad, retraso o problema para matricular estudiantes inmigrantes en este grupo de edad, ni sobre matricularlos con prontitud, como exige la Ley McKinney-Vento. El NYSED proporcionaría asistencia técnica directa para garantizar el cumplimiento, añadió el portavoz.

Como beneficiario de los fondos McKinney-Vento, el NYCPS ha presentado propuestas e informes anuales que garantizan el cumplimiento de la ley, explicó el NYSED.

La Oficina de la Fiscal General del estado de Nueva York anima a las personas a las que se haya negado la inscripción a ponerse en contacto con su oficina o a presentar una queja a la oficina de derechos civiles.

Envejecer fuera de las aulas

Estar cerca a cumplir 18 años complica la inscripción, explican varios defensores. Cumplir 18 años a menudo lo hace aún más difícil.

“Tuve dificultades para matricular a un cliente que tenía 17 años y medio”, dijo por correo electrónico un gestor de casos de CWS. “A la familia le dijeron que pronto iba a cumplir 18 años y que debía ir a un programa de GED en lugar de matricularlo en el instituto”.

Los dos jóvenes, uno de 20 años y el otro de 18, con los que City Limits habló durante una visita al centro de acogida de Safe Horizons en Harlem dijeron que ambos habían pedido al personal de los refugios que los matricularan en la escuela, sin éxito. Tampoco los remitieron a un Centro de Acogida para Familias.

El joven de Mauritania dijo que no insistió en la solicitud porque, según las normas anteriores de la ciudad sobre el límite de estadía de 30 días para inmigrantes adultos, sería demasiado difícil centrarse plenamente en sus estudios sin un lugar estable donde vivir.

“Cuando termine el mes, debo esperar dos semanas —tres, o una semana, lo que sea— para conseguir un refugio. No puedo dormir en una iglesia, o dormir en una mezquita, y luego levantarme por la mañana e ir a la escuela y volver cansado”, dijo.

Las organizaciones de base comunitaria dijeron a City Limits que este grupo de edad fácilmente queda fuera del sistema de albergues de la ciudad y tiende a ser percibido como adultos, no como adultos jóvenes o jóvenes no acompañados.

“Para los jóvenes migrantes recién llegados de ese grupo de edad —de 17 a 20 años— es raro que alguien los identifique como estudiantes [en edad escolar], como jóvenes que necesitan estar en la escuela”, dijo Rodríguez-Engberg. “Se les mira como adultos, o se les pasa por alto, sin más”.

Muchos jóvenes ingresan en centros de acogida para adultos, donde es más difícil acceder a los programas diseñados para ayudarles.

Los jóvenes menores de 24 años pueden ir a los albergues especializados para jóvenes fugados y sin hogar del Departamento de Juventud y Desarrollo Comunitario de la ciudad, pero con sólo 813 camas, hace tiempo que están casi o al límite de su capacidad. Además de ayuda para matricularse en la escuela, estos albergues ofrecen servicios de salud mental, acceso a asistencia jurídica, formación laboral y otros servicios.

Tras dos años de llegada de nuevos inmigrantes de todo el mundo, las organizaciones afirman que es difícil conocer la magnitud del problema: cuántos jóvenes que podrían estar matriculados no están escolarizados ahora mismo y cómo podrían haber cambiado sus vidas con acceso.

“Un problema mayor es el hecho de que ni siquiera sabemos realmente cuál es la necesidad real”, dijo Rodríguez-Engberg. “Cuántos hay en realidad, que simplemente se dieron por vencidos y están trabajando o tratando de hacer otra cosa, porque no tenían idea de que podían estar en la escuela”.

En 2020, el Migration Policy Institute estimó que 3.800 inmigrantes entre 16 y 21 años recién llegados a la ciudad de Nueva York no estaban matriculados en las escuelas de la ciudad ni tenían un diploma.

Si bien el NYCPS amplió los programas para los nuevos inmigrantes matriculados en las escuelas secundarias de transferencia de la ciudad en 2022, el mismo año en que más inmigrantes comenzaron a llegar a la ciudad, los defensores dicen que no es suficiente por la demanda que hay.

Los problemas de matriculación han afectado tanto a los adultos jóvenes que viven solos en la ciudad como a los que viven con sus familias. “El problema que existe con la falta de opciones y los Centros de Acogida para Familias que remiten a los estudiantes a los programas de GED, sucede independientemente de si el estudiante está aquí solo o está aquí con su familia”, explicó Rodríguez-Engberg.

Los más jóvenes, los que tienen entre 17 y 19 años, explican los defensores, tienen más posibilidades y más tiempo para navegar por el laborioso proceso de matrícula, pero para los jóvenes de más edad, el tiempo es limitado, ya que la ley federal sólo garantiza su derecho hasta los 21 años.

“Todos los comienzos son duros, pero al final todo va a salir bien, pero no queremos perder tiempo”, dijo el joven de Mauritania a un reportero de City Limits. “No se nos permite trabajar, así que debemos ir a la escuela para informarnos. Si nos dejaran trabajar, esa información podría ayudarnos en el futuro”.

Él citó sus propios conocimientos multilingües como algo que él y muchos otros jóvenes inmigrantes pueden ofrecer al mercado laboral local, si pueden acceder a él.

“Tal vez, Estados Unidos nos necesite algún día”, dijo.

Este artículo ha sido actualizado desde su publicación original para incluir información adicional facilitada por NYCPS.

Grocery cards and car repairs: How COVID aid changed the way schools can help homeless kids

2024-03-14T21:15:14+00:00

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Mollie Eppers tried for years to give students experiencing homelessness prepaid grocery cards that would allow their families to shop for food.

But the student services specialist in Juneau, Alaska, couldn’t devise a system that would satisfy the spending rules for both her local school district and the federal program that helps homeless students.

So when Congress sent schools COVID aid for homeless students with fewer restrictions, Eppers knew her first order of business: Get the grocery cards.

She found a local Safeway that accepted prepaid cards, then bought them in bulk. Families can get $100 to $200 cards at a time, depending on how many kids they have. The aid has made it easier for families sleeping in their cars or who don’t have a stove to choose foods they can eat. That’s been especially helpful as Alaska works through a huge backlog of applications for food benefits that left many families waiting months to get aid.

The Juneau School District in Alaska purchased $25,000 in grocery cards to help students experiencing homelessness buy food.

“It’s been a lifesaver,” said Eppers, who’s spent $25,000 on grocery cards so far, and plans to buy more. “They don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Across the country, Eppers and other school staff are doing things to help homeless students that they’ve never been able to before. That’s in part due to the size of the aid package. But it’s also because federal education officials said explicitly that schools could spend this money on items like prepaid store cards, gas cards, and cell phones that schools were often reluctant to buy in the past for fear of running afoul of various spending and record-keeping rules.

That’s meant more schools are providing families with direct aid that allows them to choose which foods, clothing, and other supplies will best meet their children’s needs. It’s one more way that schools have stretched beyond their typical roles and used pandemic assistance to help families in dire straits in new ways.

But schools might stop doing this soon — unless federal officials spell out that other funds can be used like this, too.

“You can provide somebody a pair of shoes, but if you say: ‘Here’s a store card, pick out the shoes for your child that your child will wear,’ there is a sense of dignity, and there’s also a sense of agency,” said Barbara Duffield, the executive director of the nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection, which recently gathered data on how often schools are spending COVID aid in this way. “And what that has translated to is trust and engagement. A store card is much more than a store card.”

Schools used to face more limits on helping students

In a survey of more than 1,400 school liaisons earlier this school year, SchoolHouse Connection found that 40% had purchased gas cards for families and 34% had bought store cards. That was double the share who planned to purchase cards when the nonprofit did a similar survey in 2021.

“These unusual uses may be the very ones that are the most impactful and strategic in meeting broader goals of increasing enrollment, attendance, and performance,” the report concludes.

In Washington state, one liaison said gas cards were now among the top-requested forms of assistance by families. The offering made families feel heard and open to more collaboration, the liaison wrote on the survey.

In Rhode Island, another liaison said that it had been a “huge plus” to give families store cards so they could buy sneakers and underwear. “I would argue that being able to make their own selections is better for the kids, physically and emotionally,” the liaison wrote.

In the past, some schools did provide this kind of assistance to homeless students. But Duffield said it often boiled down to a judgment call.

The federal education law that outlines the rights of homeless children, the McKinney-Vento Act, says that schools can provide “extraordinary or emergency assistance” to make sure homeless kids can attend school and participate in school activities.

While some schools interpreted that to include prepaid store cards, many other districts or states didn’t allow schools to buy store cards. Officials worried about how they would show the cards benefitted a particular student, Duffield said, and some feared giving away prepaid cards could be ripe for misuse or fraud — a long held, and often misplaced, complaint among critics of public assistance programs.

For that reason, Duffield and others are calling on the federal government to issue guidance saying that schools can use McKinney-Vento funding in the same ways that were permissible with the COVID aid.

“Having clear federal guidance saying that you can, that then shapes what a state allows,” Duffield said. Getting something in writing is key, because many school business officers will ask: “Where does it say that?”

How cell phones and car repairs help students

Still, school liaisons like Eppers say they’re taking lots of precautions. The grocery cards Eppers hands out to families don’t allow for the purchase of alcohol or tobacco, and she locks up the cards in her office to keep them safe. Families have to sign for each grocery card, too.

“I don’t want anything to come between my ability to provide that to the students,” she said.

In the suburbs of Madison, Wisconsin, Claire Bergman used COVID aid to buy five cell phones with internet hotspots for homeless teens who live on their own without the support of their parents. Each month, the Sun Prairie Area School District pays their phone bills.

The new initiative has helped social workers stay in touch with students who tend to move around a lot and may be parents themselves. That’s helped ensure their ride to school shows up in the right place and that students are connected with child care.

The phone hotspots enable unaccompanied teens to use the internet on their school-provided Chromebooks, so they can do their homework wherever they’re staying. And the district also allows the teens to download certain social media apps so they can stay in touch with classmates — an added benefit for kids who often feel isolated from their peers.

“The phones have really opened up lines of communication and supported attendance efforts,” Bergman said. That success has helped Bergman make the case the district should keep paying for cell phones when the COVID aid is gone.

“Our business office has been really open to exploring different opportunities and understanding the connection piece of the phones,” she said. “Once these funds run out, it will be a little bit more of a: ‘Is this really a priority?’ question.”

In North Dakota’s Bismarck Public Schools, COVID relief funding has allowed Sherrice Roness to make more “outside the box” purchases that she is hoping to continue, too.

With COVID aid, the district now covers up to $500 in critical car repairs, such as fixing brakes or power steering. It’s a strategy advocates for homeless youth say can be more cost-effective than paying for a bus pass or taxi, and it has the added benefit of helping families get to work and doctor’s visits, in addition to taking their children to school.

“It gives them that pride of: They’re able to do that — provide that normalcy for their kids,” Roness said.

Roness has also paid for children’s medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when a family’s insurance has lapsed, and she purchased a post office box so a 17-year-old who was no longer living with her parents could still get her college and financial aid letters in the mail.

When unique needs like that pop up, Roness said, it’s made a big difference to be able to tell students: “You know what? I can help you with that.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s youth shelter system locks out hundreds as migrants seek entry

2024-03-12T19:10:05+00:00

This story was originally published on March 12 by THE CITY.

In the depths of January, without a coat on his back, an 18-year-old orphan from Guinea named Mamdou spent a week riding the subways, before a stranger handed him a $20 bill and led him to the Roosevelt Hotel, the city’s main intake for newly arriving migrants. He got a 30-day shelter stint in a converted office tower in Midtown and a few weeks of relative peace after a perilous journey across the world.

But his anxiety built as his eviction day neared. He’d heard about Covenant House, a special youth shelter for people under the age of 21 overseen by the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, and was determined to secure a bed there.

“I went there every day, sometimes two or three times a day. They know me there,” he said in French on a recent afternoon, two days after he’d been ejected from his Midtown shelter after his 30 days ran out, under Mayor Eric Adams’ strict limits on stays for adult migrants in shelters.

Both nights since his eviction he’d slept outside on the sidewalk. “But every day when I go there they tell me there’s no room.”

The migrant crisis is increasingly intertwined with another crisis: an explosion in the number of homeless youth. Data obtained by THE CITY shows a dramatic increase in young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 reported as having been turned away from specialized shelters that serve young people in that age bracket, with 473 youth rebuffed in the second half of 2023 — up from seven in the first six months of the year.

Last year, DYCD funded about 800 youth shelter beds, with most of those available only to those under age 21, the agency reported to the City Council.

Service providers and advocates had warned for months that the city’s migrant response does not address the needs of the many young people arriving in New York on their own. Those advocates now say the official rejection numbers don’t begin to document just how many young people are unable to find a spot in a homeless youth shelter.

“I’ve been doing this work for 20 years,” said Jamie Powlovich, the director of the Coalition for Homeless Youth, a statewide consortium of more than 60 groups. “I have never seen the level of unmet needs and young people being further traumatized and forced to endure homelessness, especially street homelessness, ever.”

The coalition tallied more than 200 young people turned away from youth shelters in a 12-day period last fall, including seven children under the age of 18, after which they stopped keeping count.

“The list was getting too long, and it wasn’t moving,” Powlovich said. “We didn’t want to add people to a list and give them false hope.”

Advocates have been pressuring the city to make some concessions for youth in the adult migrant shelter system, urging that at the very least adopting the more forgiving 60-day shelter stay limits used for families with children under the age of 18.

“We’ve been told for about four months now that that is something that they’re working on,” Powlovich said. “But it hast happened yet.”

A spokesperson for City Hall didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly defended the city’s handling of the arrival of migrants from the southern border.

“This is a national problem that has been dropped in the lap of places like New York and Chicago, Massachusetts and others who have similar programs, 30‑ and 60‑day programs,” he said at a press conference this week. “We’ve done our job. New Yorkers have done their job, and we’re going to continue to do our job, but this is a national issue.”

While the city’s “right to shelter” court consent decrees are supposed to guarantee a bed that day to anyone who requests one, no legal requirement exists for teens or young adults to be placed in an age-appropriate shelter.

As a surge of teen and young adult migrants arrived last fall, they were funneled into the same tent shelters, converted warehouses and office buildings as other adult migrants without children. The city’s migrant intake centers don’t distinguish migrants in their late teens or early 20s from other adults, and the city doesn’t keep separate data about that age group.

Through the organizing of mutual aid and community groups, some newly arriving migrants have found their way into the specialized youth shelter system, which allows youth to stay longer and offers more specialized support services. But last fall, that system became overwhelmed and securing a bed within it became next to impossible, as reflected in the new city data.

After their 30 days in shelters run out, migrant youth are directed to the East Village “reticketing site” inside an old Catholic school, where they can get in line for another shelter cot, a wait which takes days or weeks. Those seeking new shelter placements are directed to spend nights in outer-borough waiting rooms where they can rest on the ground, but a city survey found that, like Mamdou, hundreds spent the night on the streets or trains instead.

THE CITY reported last month that the city Office of Emergency Management was working on plans to close the “overflow” locations.

‘A human cost’

The city’s eight youth drop-in centers, run by nonprofits, are the formal gateway into the youth shelter system, providing young homeless New Yorkers with clothing, food and showers, and linking them up with case workers who can help connect them with youth shelter beds if they become available. Those centers, too, have seen a sustained spike in usage over the past several months.

In January, 1,600 youth spent time in city drop in centers, a 28% increase from July according to monthly data reported by the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development. Case workers at those drop-in sites served 1,700 people in the first four months of the fiscal year, 300 more than the city had planned to serve in the entire year.

Yet Adams’ preliminary budget released in January proposed slashing $2 million from the $52 million allocated for runaway and homeless youth, eliminating 16 positions that help young people access permanent housing options. The Adams administration is also refusing to implement a recently passed law that would allow people in youth shelters to access CityFHEPS housing vouchers, saying the mandate is too expensive.

Mark Zustovich, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development said funding to shelters themselves remained the same in Adams’ proposed budget.

The department and the nonprofits that run shelters for homeless youth “are providing vital services to all youth who seek support — even as the number of young people accessing drop-ins has increased,” he said.

The surge in homeless youth comes a year after a controversial order by the Adams administration banning people from sleeping in 24-hour drop-in centers.

Youth who can’t find shelter are in jeopardy, advocates warn.

“A young woman had recently been discharged from her shelter because her 30 days was up. She didn’t know anybody in the city, spent a night on the street, and was brutally assaulted. That’s preventable,” said Joe Westmacott, a project assistant at Streetwork, which runs a drop-in center for homeless youth in Harlem, referring to an incident that THE CITY has not independently verified.

“We know from decades of research that street homelessness is expensive…. And there’s also a human cost.”

‘They want to go to school’

Many employees at youth facilities are taking the surge in new arrivals in stride, scaling up programs, deftly finding ways to communicate with hand signals in a plethora of languages, and retooling day-to-day operations like how much food they serve on site.

On a busy day before the latest surge in new arrivals, Safe Horizon’s Streetwork daytime drop-in center on 125th Street served about 50 young people a day who would pop in to use computers, eat a meal, peruse the closet of free clothing, or drop off dirty laundry.

Now the center sees about 100 people a day, almost exclusively newly arriving migrant youth who’ve learned about their services through word of mouth. Last fiscal year, the program enrolled 306 new youths into their programs. Four months into this year, they’ve enrolled 542.

Sebastien Vante, associate vice president at Safe Horizon, said they had to halt all new intakes, unable to accommodate any more people. While they can’t connect their clients to specialized youth shelter beds, there are other ways they can support them, he said.

They’ve taken to sending advocates to the East Village reticketing center with their clients, in order to try to advocate for them to get beds in shelters closer to schools if they’re enrolled. They offer referrals to immigration attorneys, and on a recent afternoon, dozens of migrant youth crammed into a back room of the facility intently listening into a demonstration about the asylum application process held in French and Arabic.

“Right now, this is who this is who’s walking through our doors,” Vante said. “Their needs are no different. They’re looking for shelter. They want long-term housing. They want to go to school. They wanna do all these different things.”

But, Vante went on, with its staff already working at capacity, “we spend a significant amount of time managing the expectations of the young people who come into our space,” Vante said.

Deadline extended for NYC summer youth jobs program. What families should know

2024-02-29T17:01:12+00:00

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This story was updated to reflect the new deadline, March 15.

Sixteen-year-old Martha Martin’s reason for applying to last year’s New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program was simple.

“I had nothing to do over the summer,” she said.

But to her surprise, she loved the work.

Through the program, Martha was employed as a teacher’s aide in Bay Ridge, taking care of 3-year-olds. With the extra income, Martha was able to pay for her books and school supplies for the upcoming school year, while giving some extra money to her mom to help her family.

Now, Martha, an 11th grader at Pace High School in Manhattan, is considering a career in early childhood education.

“I realized that I like working with kids, and probably see that in my future,” she said. “I never expected myself to actually be working with kids, but I’m so glad that I did.”

What Martha experienced last summer mirrors that of thousands of other young people across the five boroughs. The Summer Youth Employment Program, also known as SYEP, has for decades provided the city’s youth with paid opportunities to explore potential career pathways.

But for those who want a chance to participate this year, the deadline is fast approaching: Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, March 15. The city extended the deadline by two weeks.

The application period was moved up from last year’s mid-April due date to allow for earlier enrollment and to give community-based providers and worksites more time to prepare, according to officials.

In recent years, the program has expanded, with Mayor Eric Adams adding 25,000 seats in 2022 — bringing it up to 100,000 spots in total. Last year, the program also made a commitment to matching LGBTQ+ youth with “supportive work opportunities.”

City officials have praised the program, noting participation can improve school attendance, reduce incarceration rates, and help keep young people safe over the course of the summer.

Applicants are asked to indicate three areas of career interest among a wide range of industries, as well as three providers they want to work with.

Where can I apply?

Young people can apply online at: https://application.nycsyep.com/ApplicationPages/NYCIDLogin

Who is eligible?

The program is open to New York City residents between the ages of 14 and 24 who are legally eligible to work in the United States.

Participation in the program is not based on income, and applicants are not required to submit any documentation related to parental income.

Though undocumented youth aren’t eligible for the program, they and others who face enrollment obstacles are eligible for a smaller Department of Youth and Community Development program known as SYEP Pathways. It offers summer project-based learning to a number of young people.

That program, which had more than 800 spots last year, recruits through local community-based organizations, and young people interested in participating can check with their local organizations, according to officials.

The SYEP Pathways program has been praised for offering opportunities to undocumented youth, but has also raised some concerns that pay is inequitable compared with SYEP. Last year, the program provided participants with a stipend of about $500 for 60 hours of project-based learning.

How much will I earn? What will I be doing?

Programming and pay for the Summer Youth Employment Program vary based on the individual participant’s age.

Participants aged 16 and older will be assigned to work 25 hours per week for six weeks, earning $16 per hour. Meanwhile, younger participants will work about half as many weekly hours and earn up to $700 over the course of the program.

Younger participants are assigned projects by one of the more than 40 participating community-based providers, offering them a chance to explore future career opportunities and develop leadership and other skills over the course of the program.

Older participants are matched to a worksite based on their interests. Work sites can range between public, private, and nonprofit organizations. Last year, the program saw youth placed across nearly 18,000 worksites in industries that included finance, fashion, philanthropy, technology, arts, engineering, health care, legal services, real estate, transportation, advertising, hospitality, media, retail, and more.

Some young people who face particular barriers to employment — like those who are justice-involved, NYCHA residents, experiencing homelessness, attending District 75 schools, and more — also qualify for tailored experiences.

Am I guaranteed a spot?

The program has 100,000 spots, but applications typically exceed that number. The city fills the majority of seats by random lottery, according to DYCD. As of March 1, more than 140,000 people had applied.

Last year, more than 176,000 people applied for a spot in the program.

How long does the program run?

The program runs for six weeks in July and August.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Unaccompanied homeless youth are overlooked. A new book shows what it means to give them support.

2024-02-16T01:00:00+00:00

When Vicki Sokolik first started working with teens experiencing homelessness living on their own without a parent, she would host “lunch and learns” at local high schools.

Her goal was to explain to social workers, assistant principals, and other staff who qualified as an unaccompanied homeless youth, and how schools could refer those students to her nonprofit for housing and other services.

Sixteen years later, Sokolik says there is still a lack of awareness of these students and their particular social, emotional, and educational needs.

“People still — no matter if they’re in the schools, if they’re lawmakers, if they’re medical professionals — really do not understand what an unaccompanied homeless youth is, or even what to look for,” Sokolik said.

Her new book, “If You See Them: Young, Unhoused, and Alone in America,” details her experience working with these students in Florida’s Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

The latest federal data show that nearly 111,000 students were identified as unaccompanied homeless youth during the 2021-22 school year — a number many experts and advocates, including Sokolik, say is an under-count. Other estimates that include older teens and youth in their early 20s put the number much higher.

The needs these students have are often great. Many are survivors of rape or sexual assault. Many have experienced suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide. Some were kicked out of their homes because they identify as LGBTQ. Many have had contact with child protective services, but were not removed from their homes. Often they have a juvenile record, sometimes for stealing basic necessities.

Vicki Sokolik's book looks at the particular needs of unaccompanied homeless youth. Shaq, now 27, participated in a program run by Sokolik's nonprofit and shares his experience with students.

It’s also common for these students to be chronically absent from school, and to have undiagnosed learning disabilities. Sokolik recalls one student who entered her nonprofit’s program a few years ago as a 12th grader who could not read. He needed intensive help from a reading coach and a special education plan.

And these students are caught between being treated as children and adults by various legal systems. A student Sokolik worked with lobbied Florida lawmakers to make it easier for youth living on their own to obtain their birth certificate, for example.

Chalkbeat spoke with Sokolik about what she’s learned working with unaccompanied homeless youth through her nonprofit — Starting Right, Now — and what educators should keep in mind.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Why can it be hard for schools to identify students as unaccompanied homeless youth?

This is a very invisible population because the kids actually don’t want to be found. They are so afraid of what will happen if someone figures out that they’re not with their parent or guardian. Will they put them in foster care? What will happen to their siblings? Because of that, they tend to hide.

There’s a lot of shame associated with being a homeless unaccompanied youth. They carry this burden of: They did something wrong. Until they get to the point where they just don’t know what to do anymore, they don’t seek help.

Schools can refer students to Starting Right, Now. What are some of the gaps that your organization is able to fill in that schools can’t?

Unfortunately, schools can’t get to the root of the problem for an unaccompanied homeless youth. The first thing is, obviously, stable housing. So we provide stable housing, we provide food security. We provide academic support, social services support, life-skills training, and then we help the kids plan what their next goal is going to be.

One percent of our kids go to the military, about 9% go to vocational training and the rest go to higher education. And then we provide case management to those kids until they actually get into their career. In addition to that, every single student in our program is matched with their own mentor, so they have this incredibly reliable adult in their life.

You talk in the book about the link between being an unaccompanied homeless youth and chronic absenteeism. What are some of the barriers that prevent the students you work with from attending school regularly?

The kids do what we call couch-hopping, where they’re asking a friend every night: Can I sleep at your house? And a lot of times they’ll get farther and farther away from school. We had a student who was walking six miles each way to get to school. And if it was pouring down rain, she wasn’t going. Transportation becomes a major barrier.

A lot of times, the kids work. And because they have to survive, they end up going to work during school hours. Their employer should not even allow that, but they do. And then the other thing is they don’t have access to laundry facilities. They don’t want to go to school because their clothes are not clean.

The share of students you work with who’ve had a visit from child protective services at some point in their lives is incredibly high. And a lot of them do not have a positive experience with the state. How does that shape the services you provide?

Most of our kids are so afraid of authority, in general, because they’ve watched their parents being taken away. They’ve watched their siblings being taken away. They’ve been taken away.

It shapes everything that we do. When a student walks into our program, we know for sure that they’re not going to trust anything we say or do. And they’re going to probably try to get kicked out because they just know it isn’t going to work out — they already have that in their head.

We have to develop trust by having our actions align with our words, and making sure that when we say we’re going to do something, it’s unquestionably done at the time we say. It takes a long time to build that trust. You have to show up day after day.

We do a lot of activities that require not only them to be vulnerable, but our staff to be vulnerable. We open up with the “Snowballs” activity in the book [which asks staff and students to write down and anonymously share something they’re afraid of, something they’re ashamed of, and something they succeeded at]. When the veil is lifted, I just think that kids realize we’re people, too.

One student in your book writes about feeling like she’s disintegrated, and she’s having these intense feelings of loneliness. How do mental health struggles complicate the lives of the students you’re working with and their education opportunities?

Trauma just creeps into everything. Because [our kids] have been so busy, just trying to survive day to day, their trauma gets a little bit pushed back. But the minute they get stably housed, after about 30 days of being in the house, [they] start having these horrible flashbacks of all different things that have happened to them.

Among the students featured in Vicki Sokolik's book is Taylor, who experienced homelessness as a youth and now works as a school social worker.

It can impact eating, it can impact sleeping — they just want to lay in bed all day. It can impact going to school, even being able to listen to their teacher. That’s usually the moment that we kick in the mental health specialists.

The other thing we see all the time is, because our kids are so angry — and rightfully so, people that should have protected them have let them down — they end up saying things to a teacher that they obviously shouldn’t say. And so they end up getting a [discipline] referral at school, and a lot of times end up being released for the day, when, really, they need help.

It’s so hard to point your finger at the schools and say: “You should be doing this or that,” because they’re doing the best they can with the resources that they have. I think they need more resources.

You try to strike the right balance between providing meaningful guidance and support, and also letting young people advocate for themselves and make their own choices. You write that a lot of times, unaccompanied homeless youth have learned to be incredibly resourceful and resilient, but they also lack basic skills, like cooking for themselves.

It’s hard. The way that I approach everything now — which is not how I did it previously — is that [I say]: I’m trying to look ahead for your future. [For example], every year we do an etiquette class. The majority of our kids have never been to a restaurant, they’ve never ordered off a menu. And we talk about: This isn’t about today. We’re not judging you. We don’t care that you don’t know. However, when you have your first interview over a meal, you’re going to be expected to know this.

It also comes down to: Is my help going to matter in that moment? Or should I back off, because it’s not dire right this second. I find that when I give the kids space, they’re more willing to listen. I let both of us just calm down, and then come back to it, and come up with a strategy that works.

In the book, some students say: There’s this white woman in front of me asking me personal questions, I don’t know if I trust her, I don’t want to be seen as a charity case. How have you learned to navigate some of the racial and socioeconomic divides between yourself and the kids?

I am who I am. I don’t think I try to change that divide.

There was a student in our program who said to me: “You’ll never understand me.” They’re in our program right now. And I said: “Well, try me, is there something going on?” [The student said]: “I can’t tell you, and you’ll never understand me.”

[Then one Saturday, the student called me] and she’s hysterically crying. And I find out that she’s so upset because her mother was investigated again by [Florida’s Department of Children and Families]. We probably were on the phone for an hour, just talking. By the time she hung up, she said to me: “Thank you for answering your phone.” And I said: “I’ll always answer my phone, that isn’t even a question. I’m here for you.”

And that changed everything. I do understand her now, in her eyes.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Millones en beneficios de comida por la pandemia podrían caducar el mes que viene

2024-01-31T17:57:05+00:00

Read in English.

Millones de dólares en beneficios de comida por la pandemia en Nueva York que no se han usado podrían empezar a caducar el mes que viene, ya que la fecha límite para que las familias los usen se está acercando.

Los fondos — conocidos como Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer, o P-EBT— se enviaron a todas las familias de las escuelas públicas de Nueva York en varias rondas durante los últimos cuatro años. El propósito de los fondos es ayudar a cubrir los costos de las comidas que de otro modo serían recibidas en la escuela.

El año pasado, el estado distribuyó múltiples rondas de fondos, incluyendo $120 por niño para el verano de 2023, y por lo menos $391 por niño para el verano de 2022 y el año escolar 2021-22. (Los fondos de este último pago podrían ser de hasta $1,671 por niño según las ausencias relacionadas con el COVID o los días de aprendizaje remoto durante el año.)

Ahora, el último pago está por caducar para las familias que no los han usado todavía. En octubre, al menos 90,000 beneficios en la ciudad no habían sido canjeados por las familias, lo que significa que al menos $35 millones estaban en riesgo de caducar.

David Rubel, consultor de educación que ha seguido de cerca los beneficios de comida, teme que miles de familias perderán dentro de poco tiempo los beneficios que quizás no sepan que tienen.

“Imagínate que mañana por la mañana leamos que los principales programas de distribución de alimentos perdieron la mitad de su presupuesto”, dijo. “En realidad, esa es la magnitud de lo que estamos hablando”.

Las preocupaciones de Rubel surgen en parte por los datos que pidió y obtuvo bajo la Ley de Libertad de Información del estado, y que los funcionarios estatales confirmaron. Los datos mostraron que para los beneficios P-EBT emitidos para el verano de 2021, casi 600,000 estudiantes en todo el estado nunca canjearon el dinero.

Eso significa que más o menos un 27% de los más de 2.2 millones de estudiantes que recibieron los beneficios nunca los usaron — un total de beneficios sin usar de aproximadamente $222 millones.

A Rubel le preocupa que el estado no haya tenido suficientes actividades para informar a las familias sobre cada ronda de los fondos. Dijo que les ha pedido a los funcionarios estatales que soliciten al gobierno federal una enmienda a los plazos del programa.

La Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance del estado, o OTDA, que supervisa el programa P-EBT, dijo que el vencimiento de los fondos se basó en estatutos y regulaciones federales.

“La fecha de caducidad no se puede extender”, dijeron los funcionarios en una declaración.

En otros estados, los funcionarios han enmendado sus programas P-EBT para efectivamente extender la fecha límite para que las familias usen sus beneficios. En California, por ejemplo, los funcionarios permitieron que los hogares pidieran el restablecimiento de sus beneficios si se habían caducado sin que las familias los usaran.

Los funcionarios de Nueva York, sin embargo, dijeron que no tenían planes de pedir una aprobación federal para enmendar el programa P-EBT.

Esto es lo que las familias deben saber:

¿Cuándo empezarán a caducar los beneficios?

Los beneficios de P-EBT caducan automáticamente 274 días después de la última vez que se usaron, es decir, unos nueve meses después. Más del 60% de los beneficios del verano de 2022 se distribuyeron a las familias en mayo pasado, lo que significa que los fondos de quienes no los hayan usado todavía s empezarán a caducar en febrero.

Cuando las familias utilicen los beneficios, el plazo para caducar empieza a contar desde 0 nuevamente y tendrán otros 274 días antes de que los fondos corran riesgo de vencerse.

¿Cómo las familias pueden reemplazar sus tarjetas?

Las familias que hayan perdido su tarjeta P-EBT pueden obtener una de reemplazo llamando al 1-888-328-6399.

¿Por qué algunas familias no están usando los fondos?

Desde que comenzó la pandemia, la OTDA ha emitido más de $6,300 millones en beneficios P-EBT, de los cuales cerca del 60% han ido directamente a las cuentas existentes de hogares que ya estaban recibiendo beneficios del Programa de Asistencia Nutricional Suplementaria (SNAP). Otras familias recibieron los fondos en tarjetas P-EBT emitidas por el estado.

El estado mantiene información detallada sobre los beneficios en su sitio web y opera una línea de ayuda: 1-833-452-0096.

Los funcionarios de la OTDA le dijeron anteriormente a Chalkbeat que han llevado a cabo una extensa campaña de información para el público y han trabajado con grupos de defensa para ayudar a crear conciencia sobre los beneficios de comida. El Departamento de Educación del estado también envió mensajes sobre los beneficios a todos los distritos escolares locales, añadieron los funcionarios.

Las familias con números de teléfono válidos registrados en su distrito escolar también deberían haber recibido un mensaje de texto cada vez que había beneficios nuevos disponibles, según los funcionarios estatales.

Algunas familias, sin embargo, dijeron que nunca recibieron mensajes de texto, y otras han tenido dificultades para tener acceso a los beneficios.

“Debemos lograr un 100%”, dijo Angela Trude, profesora de la NYU que ha estudiado el acceso a comida y beneficios del gobierno. “Queremos que todo el mundo aproveche los beneficios”.

Trude dijo que ella ha trabajado con familias que suponen falsamente que usar los beneficios podría restarles dinero a otras familias más necesitadas, o que el gobierno en algún momento les pedirá que devuelvan los fondos.

Es crítico combatir estos conceptos erróneos, dijo ella, y a la vez comunicar que todas las familias deben utilizar los beneficios.

“Si estas familias sienten que les están quitando a otras, entonces en vez de no utilizarlos, pueden comprar alimentos no perecederos y donarlos a organizaciones comunitarias y despensas de alimentos”, añadió Trude.

Rubel cree que casi todas los beneficios caducados del desembolso del verano de 2021 ocurrieron entre familias que no son beneficiarias del SNAP, ya que los hogares del SNAP recibieron los beneficios en sus cuentas existentes y pudieron seguir gastando como de costumbre para utilizarlos.

Para las familias que han podido aprovechar los beneficios, los defensores han dicho que pueden tener enormes consecuencias. Rachel Sabella, directora de No Kid Hungry New York, dijo que los fondos del P-EBT “pueden ser la diferencia un niño que pasa hambre o uno que tiene una comida sana y nutritiva”.

“Sabemos que las familias están sufriendo — 3 de cada 4 nos han dicho que ahora ha sido más difícil poder comprar alimentos que en 2022 — así que esperamos que todos los hogares con derecho al P-EBT aprovechen este beneficio”, dijo en una declaración. “Sabemos cuán importante es dar a conocer estos fondos antes de que caduquen, y les pedimos a las familias a que revisen sus cuentas de EBT y tengan sus tarjetas a la mano”.

Nueva York necesita más programas de información, dice un experto

Wendy De La Rosa, profesora adjunta de marketing en la Wharton School de la Universidad de Pensilvania que ha estudiado los beneficios públicos, dijo que Nueva York y otros estados deberían hacer más para comunicarse de forma eficaz con las familias.

Usar mensajes de texto para avisarles a las familias sobre sus beneficios es un método “fundamentalmente defectuoso”, según De La Rosa.

“Las estafas están por las nubes, y todos los expertos en seguridad nos dicen que tengamos miedo”, dijo. “¿En qué mundo pensaríamos que un solo mensaje de texto — que con frecuencia proviene de un número desconocido — va a lograr que más gente lo reciba y capte?”

Agregó también que, en el caso de estudiantes con vivienda inestable, los números de teléfono que están en los archivos de los distritos escolares pueden tener errores o no estar actualizados.

“Tiene que ser un mensaje de texto, y un email, y una carta, y llamadas telefónicas, aparte de realmente determinar ¿A qué padres no hemos llegado?”, dijo De La Rosa. “Y luego hay que hacer un esfuerzo concertado para llegar a ellas y que todos estén informados”.

Algunas familias también responden mejor a cierto tipo de comunicación cuando se trata de beneficios. Lograr que las familias sientan más de los beneficios son suyos puede hacer que los aprovechen más, dijo De La Rosa. Es más probable que las familias usen beneficios presentados como un derecho, que los presentados como un programa de ayuda.

Programa permanente de beneficios de comida de verano a la vuelta de la esquina

A pesar de sus preocupaciones, a De La Rosa le satisface que Nueva York está entre los estados que han optado por adoptar un programa permanente federal de beneficios de comida en el verano. En todo el país, 9.5 millones de estudiantes que hubiesen sido elegibles para los beneficios probablemente se quedarán sin ellos este año, ya que por lo menos 12 estados no quisieron participar en el programa.

“Cuando se pone en ese contexto — que los niños de familias en algunos estados están pasando hambre porque los legisladores no han querido adoptar esta política — es evidente que Nueva York les lleva ventaja”, dijo ella.

Julian Shen-Berro es un reportero que cubre la ciudad de Nueva York. Comunícate con él enviándole un email a jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Nearly 10 million children won’t get summer food benefits as states opt out of new federal program

2024-01-10T21:02:51+00:00

Across rural North Dakota, many school districts struggle to staff summer meal programs, and families might live 20 miles from the nearest meal site.

So state officials eagerly got on board when they learned the federal government was launching a permanent summer program that gives low-income families $120 for each of their school-aged children. Families can use the money, which comes loaded on a prepaid card, to buy their own food and cook at home.

“In North Dakota, the summer food service program doesn’t meet the needs of a lot of the students,” said Linda Schloer, who directs child nutrition for the state’s Department of Public Instruction. “For a modest effort both financially and personnel-wise, it just makes sense that we would do whatever we can to try to get the program going as soon as possible.”

States had to tell the federal government by Jan. 1 if they planned to run a Summer EBT program in 2024. As of Wednesday, 35 states said they would. Together they are expected to reach more than 20 million school-aged children — a rare example of a pandemic-era assistance program sticking around after the end of the public health emergency.

But another 9.5 million students who would have been eligible will likely go without after their states declined to participate this year. Some states cited cost and administrative burden, while in others governors balked at accepting federal money.

South Dakota, which serves a similar student population as its neighbor to the north, is among those opting out.

“Federal money often comes with strings attached, and more of it is often not a good thing,” Ian Fury, the chief of communications for Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, wrote in an email. He cited low unemployment, the administrative burden of running the program, and South Dakota’s “robust existing food programs.”

That news came as a disappointment to school leaders like Louie Krogman, the superintendent of the White River School District in South Dakota.

The district serves around 400 students, most of whom are Native American and come from low-income families. The district runs a summer meal program in June, but families are on their own until school starts seven weeks later.

“We do have some families that would have definitely benefited from that additional EBT money,” Krogman said.

Timeline and cost keeps some states from offering Summer EBT this year

Summer EBT will work a little differently depending on the state, but generally states will identify which families qualify for the $120 or more in benefits and either mail out EBT cards for the summer, or load the value onto existing benefit cards. Then families can use that money to buy food at their local grocery store.

The newly permanent program will run similarly to the Pandemic Summer EBT program that operated for the previous three summers, as well as a federal pilot program that tested the concept over the last decade. A 2016 review of that program found that offering these summer benefits reduced child food insecurity and helped kids eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

The extra money is coming at a much-needed time, said Kelsey Boone of the Food Research & Action Center, a nonprofit that advocates for anti-hunger policies, including Summer EBT.

“In the last year, a lot of the boosts to SNAP benefits ended,” Boone said, referring to the temporary pandemic-era increases to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which ended last spring. Summer EBT “can help offset those cuts,” she said, “especially at a time when food prices are so high.”

In declining to participate, Georgia and Nebraska pointed to their states’ existing summer food programs, while Mississippi said it did not have the funding or staff capacity to run the program. During the pandemic, the federal government covered the full cost of the benefits and running the Summer EBT program, but now states have to split the administrative costs.

Texas said it wasn’t feasible to participate because the final rules and guidance for the program came just days before states had to tell the federal government if they’d be opting in. The state also needs additional funding from the state legislature to run the program, a spokesperson for the state’s health and human services department wrote in an email.

Vermont, too, said the state is working to secure funding and put the necessary IT systems in place. “The goal is to be able to offer this important summer nutrition benefit for eligible children starting in the summer of 2025,” a spokesperson for Vermont’s Department for Children and Families wrote in an email.

Still, in several Republican-led states, the program seemed to get caught in a longstanding political debate over whether the government should provide more publicly funded benefits to families — a debate that’s also raged over whether states should provide free school meals to all students.

Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, for example, issued a statement saying her state opposed participating in Summer EBT because the program didn’t have tight enough restrictions on what foods families could buy and it would cost the state $2.2 million to run — though Iowa students were in line to receive around $29 million in food benefits and the program follows the same nutrition requirements as SNAP.

“Federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don’t provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families,” Reynolds said. “An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.”

In Oklahoma, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt cited concerns about the program not being “fully vetted.” He also said that it would help relatively few children — though an estimated 403,000 school-aged children would qualify for food benefits in his state.

Three of Oklahoma’s largest Native American tribes are stepping in to run Summer EBT programs on their reservations, an effort that could reach at least 50,000 children.

Florida said it opted out of participating because it already had summer food programs and didn’t want to follow additional federal rules.

“We anticipate that our state’s full approach to serving children will continue to be successful this year without any additional federal programs that inherently always come with some federal strings attached,” Miguel Nevarez, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families wrote in an email.

But Sky Beard, the Florida director for No Kid Hungry, an initiative of the nonprofit Share Our Strength that advocated for Summer EBT, sees a big need for the additional summer benefits.

Her organization conducted a poll last year that found around a quarter of parents of school-aged children worried their households wouldn’t have enough to eat.

“There are summer meal sites available throughout the state, but there are real challenges with families accessing those,” she said. Existing programs “just don’t reach all children that participate in school meal programs over the school year.”

Some Republican-led states are embracing the program. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for example, issued an enthusiastic statement about her state’s participation in the anti-hunger program.

“We are leveraging every resource at our disposal to fight this crisis, and Summer EBT promises to be an important new tool to give Arkansas children the food and nutrition they need,” she said.

For now, many states are already working to get Summer EBT up and running by the time school lets out in a few months.

In North Dakota, Schloer is focused on making sure the state has up-to-date addresses for eligible students so families can get their EBT cards in the mail.

The state is preparing to send out lots of emails and texts to families, too, to make sure they know about the new program, and whether they might need to fill out some paperwork to get their benefits.

“If we can get a message on that smartphone and from a reliable source, we’re hoping that they will read it,” Schloer said. Schools, too, can play a part by making sure families know: “It’s legitimate, please pay attention!”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.