Chalkbeat

Eric Adams inked a $200 million internet deal for student Chromebooks. Mamdani is canceling it.

2026-08-27T16:58:47+00:00

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A year ago, former Mayor Eric Adams launched a sweeping, and costly, new plan to bridge the digital divide in the city’s public schools: purchasing 350,000 new Chromebook laptops equipped with free T-Mobile internet service.

The four-year contract, set to cost the city nearly $330 million, aimed to help schools with large shares of low-income and homeless families whose students lacked internet access outside of school.

But a year into the contract, Adams’ successor, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is canceling the T-Mobile internet service portion of the contract, which costs the city roughly $3.5 million per month, officials said Thursday. Over the full four years of the contract, the internet service was expected to cost around $200 million.

Mamdani’s administration, which is looking to cut costs amid a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, said the city was paying for more internet coverage than necessary and could secure internet service for students who need it at a lower cost. Officials didn’t immediately say how much they expect to save.

The T-Mobile contract “duplicated existing resources at an unnecessary cost,” Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said. “By discontinuing this component of this contract, we are saving taxpayer dollars while continuing to deliver the internet connectivity we know our school communities rely on.”

The move also comes amid a growing backlash against the reliance on technology in city classrooms. Critics, including some parents and educators, say screen time has become too pervasive, detracting from learning.

Even before the city inked the T-Mobile contract, an existing program allowed principals to secure LTE service for students who need it for $10 per student per month, Education Department officials said. Officials said that service comes through Verizon, and can add internet to any school-issued Chromebooks or iPads.

Officials notified principals Thursday that the T-Mobile student data plans will end Aug. 31. They asked school leaders to compile lists of students who need internet access and purchase service through the Verizon program by the start of school on Sept. 10. Officials said they have already purchased all 350,000 Chromebooks and distributed them to schools, but didn’t say how many were given to students or how many students were using the internet service.

Several principals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, described mixed experiences with the massive internet-enabled laptop distribution.

At one Manhattan high school, about one in five students used the new devices and relied on them to connect to the internet at home, according to the school leader.

The principal worried that ending the T-Mobile contract would shift more costs to the school’s budget.

But at a Brooklyn high school, dozens of the computers sit unused in a storage room.

“It’s a tremendous waste,” the principal said, adding that students prefer to access the internet through their phones. Plus, the school has shifted away from using Chromebooks during class because of concerns that an overreliance on technology was getting in the way of student learning, the principal said.

Some officials and lawmakers began expressing concerns about the T-Mobile contract in the months after it was signed, New York Focus reported last December. One official told the outlet that the city did not approach competing wireless providers, and was stuck paying a flat fee for the service regardless of how many students used it.

Lawmakers also worried the city was paying for internet service for far more students than needed it. A state Education Department survey from 2020 estimated that about 13% of the city’s public school students lacked sufficient internet at home, according to New York Focus. The city’s public schools currently enroll about 793,000 K-12 students, meaning about 104,000 would lack internet if the 13% estimate held.

City officials said in 2025 that about 30% of households, containing around 2.5 million residents, did not have both home broadband and mobile internet access. City officials have separately launched efforts to improve Wi-Fi in homeless shelters.

Adams said the T-Mobile school internet deal was funded in part by savings the city made through another deal that made T-Mobile the city’s major service carrier.

The Education Department spends roughly $13 billion a year on contracts, and Mamdani has identified the agency’s contracting — and particularly its spending on student devices — as ripe for cost-cutting.

Officials said the T-Mobile contract was approved by the Panel for Educational Policy, which oversees Education Department contracts, but was held by the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation.

City officials purchased and distributed some 725,000 devices for students during the COVID pandemic but have not tracked how many of those devices remain operational.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who instituted a statewide bell-to-bell cellphone ban last school year, is considering imposing limits on screen time for younger kids. The Education Department is revising its artificial intelligence guidance for schools and has barred schools from purchasing new software until the guidance is finalized.

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

Zohran Mamdani must work with Eric Adams’ school board, at least for now

2026-01-27T23:37:47+00:00

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A day before taking office, Zohran Mamdani said he wanted to retain sweeping power over New York City’s public schools, abandoning a major promise while campaigning for mayor.

But Mamdani will have to wait at least six months before he gains one of the biggest powers under mayoral control: appointing the majority of the school board. That body, known as the Panel for Educational Policy, votes on major Education Department contracts, changes to agency regulations, and school mergers and closures.

Of the panel’s 24 members, 13 are mayoral appointees. Under tweaks to state law shortly after Mayor Eric Adams took office, panel members serve one-year terms that run through June — meaning for the next six months, Mamdani is mostly stuck with his predecessor’s appointees. He’s the first mayor since the city transitioned to mayoral control in 2002 who cannot immediately appoint the majority of the board.

That sets up an unusual dynamic, as Mamdani must navigate a school board that he does not control. Meanwhile, he’s continuing to get pressure to give up major elements of mayoral control. A group of 43 advocacy organizations called on state lawmakers Tuesday to phase out the mayor’s majority on the board after two years while a commission rethinks the governance system.

“In some ways it’s a good test in terms of what it would look like to have a more independent board,” said Greg Faulkner, the current board chair who was selected by Adams from a list created by state lawmakers and is serving on a term that runs until September. “We want to work cooperatively.”

Experts and Education Department insiders largely agree that the board is unlikely to be a major obstacle to Mamdani until he can choose a full slate of appointees. Adams left behind two vacant mayoral seats, which Mamdani can fill anytime. (Aside from the mayoral appointees, five members are selected by parent leaders and each of the five borough presidents appoint a board member to represent them.)

“There’s a lot of goodwill towards the mayor that could tamp down efforts of the panel to go rogue,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University Teachers College who has studied the city’s public schools. “I’m not expecting there to be a lot of conflict around the mayor’s priorities,” he added, “not least because we don’t have much of a sense of the mayor’s priorities.”

Still, the board has sometimes thrown curveballs at new mayors. Just a few months after Adams took office, the board voted down the city’s school funding formula, creating pressure for the administration to make tweaks later on.

In recent months, the board repeatedly bucked City Hall, voting down millions worth of AI contracts, refusing to approve long-term extensions of school bus contracts, and raising concerns about administrative spending. Kiddom, a company that offers a digital platform for teachers to access curriculum materials and had been previously voted down, is back on the board’s agenda for a vote on Wednesday evening — the first panel meeting under Mamdani.

Kamar Samuels, Mamdani’s schools chancellor, has signaled interest in merging schools to address the growing number of small campuses and to promote integration. Those proposals, which often generate pushback from families and educators, are subject to board approval — though observers said it’s unlikely the new administration will propose many of them right away.

Still, one contentious plan to relocate an Upper West Side campus while eliminating the middle school grades of another Manhattan school is already in the works. Samuels helped launch conversations about that plan in his previous role as the superintendent of District 3, though it has not been formally proposed for a vote.

Mayoral control debate isn’t going anywhere

Questions about how the nation’s largest school system should be governed will be front and center in the coming months.

Mamdani must negotiate with state lawmakers over extending mayoral control, which is set to expire at the end of June. Gov. Kathy Hochul gave Mamdani’s effort a boost last week by proposing a four-year extension of the power.

The new mayor is also under scrutiny from advocates and progressive groups, dozens of whom are pressuring him to make good on his promise to make the system more responsive to students, parents, and teachers. Their Tuesday letter urged Mamdani to create a commission to help think through how to make the school system more democratic.

“Mayor Mamdani must partner with communities to build a governance model with meaningful checks and balances and far greater community leadership,” the letter states.

City Hall did not reply to questions about whether Mamdani is open to changes to the school’s board’s structure or when he plans to fill the remaining vacancies on the board. A Mamdani spokesperson, Jenna Lyle emphasized that the mayor is committed to “clear accountability and genuine community empowerment.”

“Building thoughtful and productive relationships with current and future Panel for Educational Policy members will be a priority,” she added.

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

Zohran Mamdani’s thin education agenda didn’t stop a surge of donations from NYC DOE employees

2025-12-03T20:51:57+00:00

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Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani received the highest number of individual donations from New York City Education Department employees than any other winning candidate since mayoral control was implemented, a Chalkbeat analysis of more than 20 years of election data found.

Over 500 city residents working in the city’s largest school district donated approximately $40,000 to Mamdani’s campaign, according to the city’s Campaign Finance Board where donors self-report.

However, while Mamdani had more individual donations from Education Department employees than any other winning candidate since 2002, Mayor Eric Adams received the most amount of money donated by DOE employees when he ran in 2021. Roughly 300 DOE employees donated to Adams’ campaign in 2021, which received over $55,000 from those working for the city’s Education Department.

The United Federation of Teachers endorsed Mamdani in the general election after avoiding picking a candidate during the Democratic primary. And even after the union came out in favor of Mamdani, members continued to debate his thin political record as well as the candidate’s position on Israel and the crisis in the Gaza strip, causing some turmoil within the union.

Mamdani won just over half of the city’s vote in November. Among his few K-12 ideas, Mamdani’s push for ending mayoral control and removing the gifted and talented program for kindergartens sparked controversy, yet teachers Chalkbeat spoke to were drawn to his affordability plan.

Mamdani’s campaign galvanized New Yorkers across the city, attracting about 53,890 donations. That’s more than twice as many donors as Mayor Eric Adams had when he won four years ago and former chief Bill de Blasio for his 2013 and 2017 victories.

In terms of total amount raised, Mamdani’s roughly $4 million was the least among the winning candidates since mayoral control of the city’s Education Department began. After Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who donated over $200 million to himself in total for his three campaigns from 2001 to 2009, de Blasio led with over $11 million in 2013.

No employee from the city’s education department donated to Bloomberg’s campaign, according to available records.

Chalkbeat’s analysis only included donors who listed the education department or a specific public school in the employment section.

More than half of DOE donors who supported Mamdani’s campaign identified themselves as teachers, including substitute and special education teachers.

Jonathan Collins, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University, said it’s not surprising that New York City teachers, whose salaries range from $68,902 to $123,939 for this school year, support a candidate whose leading campaign promise is affordable housing, transportation, and living.

“Amongst the professions where you see degree earners … teachers tend to make the least and so they’re underpaid relative to their level of educational attainment,” Collins said. “They are middle class people paid like working class people. They’re particularly interested in these affordability campaigns.”

Some teachers who donated to Mamdani’s campaign acknowledged his K-12 education agenda was not a big part of his platform.

Emma Webley, a bilingual teacher at P.S 89 Cypress Hills in Brooklyn, said while canvassing for Mamdani, many educators would question his lack of education policies. She agrees with Mamdani’s opposition to mayoral control but admits the mayor-elect needs to polish his stance more, such as clarifying whether Adams’ mandatory reading curriculum, known as NYC Reads, will continue in his administration.

“It would make sense for him to be focusing on housing and other issues first and then moving on to what is happening in the classroom. But if that didn’t happen ... in the first year of his leadership, then I would be asking questions,” she said.

Kyle DeAngelis, a third grade teacher at Harlem’s P.S 368, also known as the William Lynch School, met Mamdani in February at an “Educators for Zohran” meetup, a coalition of teachers independent of the campaign, advocating for the mayor-elect. DeAngelis was impressed by the candidate, he said, and discussed hiring more counselors and social workers to provide mental health services for students. Mamdani agreed and from there, the third grade teacher knew he would rank the Queens assemblymen first.

He felt compelled to donate and volunteer for Mamdani’s campaign because living on a teacher’s salary in the city is challenging, and his salary raises have not kept up with inflation. He was also drawn to Mamdani’s affordability agenda since food and housing insecurity is a constant issue his students have brought up in class.

“It’s not just what’s going on within the four walls of the classroom,” DeAngelis said. “When children cannot afford or families can’t afford childcare, when they can’t afford groceries, when they can’t afford rent, when they can’t afford healthcare, these are all things that have a profound impact on the work that we do in classrooms every day.”

Ananya Chetia is a reporting intern with Chalkbeat NY. Contact Ananya at achetia@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s child care voucher waitlist hits 10,000, leaving working parents in crisis

2025-12-01T20:48:29+00:00

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Naomi Veerasammy and her 2-year-old daughter leave their Jamaica, Queens, apartment weekday mornings by 6:30 a.m. and head to the home of whichever friend or relative has agreed to watch the toddler that day.

Veersammy, a paraprofessional at a public elementary school, relies on a rotating cast of relatives and friends to watch her daughter for little to no pay, so she can still make it to work by 8 a.m. on the city bus.

The single mom nets under $2,000 a month in income and can’t afford full-time day care, which costs between $1,500 to $2,000 a month for the average city toddler.

“It’s very, very hard on me financially, mentally, physically to find a sitter for my daughter every day,” Veersammy said, adding that her daughter needs stability.

Hoping for more stable child care, Veerasammy applied for child care vouchers worth an average of $300 a week for kids up to age 13 from low-income families across the state.

Veerasammy met the income criteria, but the city stopped enrolling new families in May. She’s now on a waitlist that has mushroomed to 10,000 city children. It’s a glaring indication of both the exploding child care affordability crisis for the city’s middle- and low-income families and the insufficiency of the current publicly funded options to help defray those costs, experts said.

The massive waitlist is also an acute crisis in and of itself — one that threatens to push more families with young children out of the city and shutter small child care providers who rely on vouchers for income.

Andrea Davilar, a family child care provider in St. Albans, Queens, currently has only four of her 12 full-day seats filled. She suspects there are families on the waitlist who are interested in enrolling their kids, but can’t until they receive vouchers.

“Are they trying to force us out of business?” she said of the city’s waitlist. “They have to remember we are the backbone behind the workforce.”

Losing family child care providers is something the city can ill afford at a time when incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani is hoping to provide universal child care — an expansion that would likely lean heavily on home-based programs.

That’s part of why some observers are encouraging Mamdani to make clearing the voucher waitlist his first step on what could be a long road to building free child care.

Issuing vouchers to those 10,000 kids would bring “virtually free child care immediately” to a wide swath of city families, said Lauren Melodia, an economist at the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs who studies child care.

“It’s not the big vision … but you want to be able to deliver services to people while you’re building the big vision,” she added.

Mamdani’s transition team didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Vouchers are a key tool for infant, toddler, after-school care

The vouchers can be redeemed at a wide range of child care providers or even used to pay approved relatives or friends. They’re an especially critical resource for families with kids 2 and under who don’t qualify for the city’s free 3-K and prekindergarten programs as well as those who need care outside of school hours.

Separate from the vouchers, the city funds a limited number of free seats for kids 2 and under from low-income families. But families often don’t know about the seats or how to apply, experts have said. Roughly 40% of those seats were unfilled last year.

Officials in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration said the voucher program’s costs are soaring because of the program’s popularity, an increase in the voucher’s value, and a growing number of families who are supposed to receive subsidized child care as a condition of their federal welfare benefits.

Officials predict the city will need a total of $2.9 billion from the state in the upcoming budget — $1.8 billion more than the city typically receives — just to maintain the program.

Melodia, the economist, said the cost of providing vouchers to all the families on the waitlist for a year would be more modest: around $155 million.

Gordon Tepper, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said “no one has done more to support and expand child care statewide” than the governor, noting that she has doubled funding for the voucher program and wants to reach universal child care.

Demand for vouchers boomed as eligibility widened

The voucher program’s current budget crunch traces back to a series of pandemic-era changes.

Prior to the pandemic, the city issued the majority of vouchers to families receiving federal cash assistance, whose child care the city is required to subsidize because their benefits come with work requirements.

Those work requirements relaxed during the pandemic, keeping more families at home with less need for child care. The number of vouchers going to those families fell from over 55,000 in 2017 to under 19,000 in 2022.

That drop, combined with a one-time infusion of federal relief funds, allowed Hochul to significantly expand the eligibility criteria for the vouchers, opening them to families who make under 85% of the state median income, or roughly $114,000 a year for a family of four.

At the same time, Hochul nearly doubled the value of the vouchers, from an average of $154 a week in 2019 to $301 a week last year. The change made the vouchers more attractive to families and providers — and expensive for the state.

City families flocked to the vouchers. Enrollment in the low-income voucher program skyrocketed from under 9,000 2022 to nearly 70,000 this year.

The changes created a major budget cliff.

After federal pandemic aid dried up, city officials resumed enforcing work requirements, bringing an expected surge of families who receive federal assistance to request vouchers.

To avoid kicking thousands of families out of the program each month, city officials asked the state, which has historically funded most of the voucher system, to commit an additional $900 million to the $1 billion city program.

Hochul eventually agreed to free up an additional $350 million for the program, contingent on the city chipping in the same amount.

That infusion allowed the city to continue offering vouchers to the majority of families who were already enrolled, city officials said. But it wasn’t enough to enroll new families.

Starting last May, the city began placing eligible new applicants for low-income vouchers on a waitlist, which has grown from 1,500 in August to its current 10,000.

Parents on voucher waitlist are desperate for relief

For families stuck on the waitlist, shouldering the costs of child care on their own often comes at the expense of other basic needs.

Milana Kochishvili, a mother of two elementary school children in southern Brooklyn, applied for vouchers after her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, leaving the family to rely on her $72,000 annual income as a payroll specialist at a plumbing company. But she has been on the waitlist for months.

The only after-school option that works with her schedule costs about $800 a month. With $4,500 a month in take-home pay — nearly half of which goes to pay rent — it’s an expense she can’t afford.

“I’m in a position now where I can only afford basics,” she said. “God forbid the car breaks or something like that, that’s it.”

Adams recently launched an expansion of free, city-funded after-school programs, with a pledge to add 20,000 seats by 2027. But for some parents who work longer hours, the schedule of the city’s free programs don’t fit their needs.

Kimberly Watson, a single mom of an elementary student in Brooklyn, works as a caseworker in a hospital and needed an after-school program with longer hours. The private program she found costs $450 a month — an untenable expense for Watson, who takes home roughly $2,700 a month in income and spends $1,200 on rent.

She applied for a child care voucher and cleared the eligibility threshold, but was placed on the waitlist. Paying for child care has left her behind on some utility bills — and even on her rent, she said.

Getting a voucher would mean she can “just cut back on one thing that I have to worry about so I can catch up on other things.”

For Veerasammy, the paraprofessional with a 2-year-old, there could be some economic relief on the horizon: a bill supported by both Mamdani and a supermajority on City Council that would give paraprofessionals a $10,000 recurring annual bonus.

But she said that money would go toward paying off credit card debt, leaving her still in need of a voucher.

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

A wave of immigration buoyed dozens of NYC schools. Now, their enrollment is plummeting.

2025-11-26T00:12:42+00:00

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New York City’s public schools enrolled tens of thousands of new students during a wave of historic migration starting in 2022.

The surge transformed some campuses as educators adapted to meet the needs of children coming with limited English, trauma from their journeys, and little access to basics like food, clothing, and housing.

ATLAS, formerly known as Newcomers High School, in Long Island City, Queens, took in perhaps the largest number of new arrivals. Enrollment more than doubled in just three years, swelling to a high of 1,428 in the 2023-24 school year, compared to 676 in 2020-21, according to city data.

At P.S. 111, which sits amid a cluster of emergency homeless shelters blocks away from ATLAS, enrollment ballooned from under 300 to 564 in four years. After a 3,500-person migrant shelter opened in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, enrollment at nearby P.S./I.S. 157 leapt from 250 to nearly 400 in a matter of months.

But over the last year, the boom came to an abrupt halt, a Chalkbeat analysis of preliminary enrollment data found. Citywide, enrollment fell 2%, the largest drop since the pandemic, with steeper declines at those schools that enrolled the most migrant students. Chalkbeat identified 60 schools that likely took in the largest shares of migrant students between 2022 and 2024. Combined, they lost 11% of their enrollment this year, nearly wiping out all the gains from the previous three years, the analysis found.

Chalkbeat’s analysis is the first attempt to systematically understand how migration has reshaped enrollment in the nation’s largest school district in recent years.

Like other cities across the country, New York City lost students as President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign drove some families to leave for fear of immigration enforcement — and dramatically slowed the pace of new arrivals. Compared to 2023, encounters at the U.S. southern border have plummeted by 77%, while the number of newcomers entering city shelters shrunk from a high of 4,000 a week to around 100.

Amid that slowdown, the number of new students registering in city schools this summer has fallen significantly: down 7% compared to the same period last year, Education Department officials said.

Federal enforcement efforts are not the only change that has contributed to the sudden shift in enrollment patterns. As Mayor Eric Adams attempted to deal with the surge, his administration enacted policies that made it difficult for migrant families to find stable housing, forcing many to switch schools or leave the city, educators and advocates said.

The enrollment reversal isn’t just a problem for individual schools, who may lose staffers and programs because school budgets are tied to student numbers. If the decline persists, as the city’s own projections predict, the Education Department will have to confront thorny questions about closing or merging underenrolled schools.

“That’s going to mean a big cut to the city’s federal funding, and that’s going to mean tough decisions for the NYC schools system as a whole, and that will trickle down to individual schools,” said Loredana Valtierra, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and former official at the U.S. Department of Education.

At several of the schools that took in the most migrant students during the influx, enrollment has fallen just as dramatically as it rose.

The student headcount at ATLAS fell from over 1,400 to just 829 as of this fall, a 42% drop over two years. At P.S./I.S. 157 in Clinton Hill, enrollment cratered after the city closed the nearby migrant center in June — from nearly 400 last school year to 278 this fall, a 29% drop.

Though schools with big losses got a temporary reprieve from budget cuts this year if they fell short of enrollment projections, it’s not clear how long that support will last.

Lara Evangelista, the executive director of the Internationals Network, a nonprofit that supports city public schools geared toward newly arrived immigrants, said that schools were grateful to avoid midyear budget cuts, but she noted that principals will have to plan for the future. “What do you need to put in place this year to prepare for lower budgets going forward?”

Schools opened their doors to a historic influx of immigrant students

New York City enrolled an estimated 48,000 migrant students in a two-year period, officials have said, with many hailing from Latin America and West Africa.

City schools do not ask families for their immigration status or national origin, making it difficult to track enrollment of migrant students. But because many of the new arrivals took up residence in the city’s homeless shelters, Education Department officials used the number of homeless students newly enrolling in city schools as a proxy for migrant students.

To identify which schools took in the largest shares of migrant students, Chalkbeat compiled a list of schools with the biggest increases in both homeless students and English language learners, relative to their overall size, starting in 2022. Several education data experts said the approach was a reasonable way to approximate the number of new migrant students.

Migrant students often enrolled in schools near emergency shelters. Many of those were in midtown Manhattan and Long Island City in Queens, where officials converted hotels into shelters.

But enrollment patterns also depended on which schools had the space — along with the expertise and willingness — to take migrant students.

In East Harlem’s District 4, school and district leaders were “strategic” about opening their doors to newcomer families living in nearby Manhattan shelters, said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a parent in the district and president of its Community Education Council. The district had both space, after years of declining enrollment, and a large number of dual-language programs to offer.

The district’s share of English learners doubled from 9% to 18% between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years — the largest percentage jump in the city — leading to District 4’s first overall enrollment gain in at least a decade, according to city data.

Central Park East II, a K-8 school in East Harlem, took in roughly 100 newcomers, said Principal Naomi Smith. The school worked with district officials and partner organizations to connect families to free food and clothing, along with MetroCards and legal and emotional support, Smith said.

“I am proud of our school, our district, the [Education Department] in general for supporting our families,” she said. “I’m proud of what we do.”

NYC’s shelter policies threaten migrant enrollment

Some principals at schools with large migrant influxes anticipated the enrollment numbers would eventually level off as families left the shelter system, settling in different neighborhoods or leaving the city.

That accelerated in early 2024 when Adams — who said the pace of migration could “destroy the city” — began limiting stays in migrant shelters to 60 days to relieve an overburdened shelter system. Advocates and educators said the move made it difficult for families to remain in their schools and pushed some out of the city altogether as they struggled to find affordable housing.

“The piling on of one inconvenience after another made it impossible for people to stay at first in their school and then in the city,” said Naveed Hasan, a Panel for Educational Policy member who has supported schools with large numbers of new arrivals.

When Trump began his second term in January, his Justice Department pushed prosecutors to drop federal corruption charges against Adams, in part, so the mayor could aid the new administration’s immigration crackdown.

As the number of migrants in city shelters fell rapidly, city officials shuttered dozens of migrant shelters starting in early 2025. At some schools, the effect of the shelter closures was immediate.

P.S. 46 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, which was several blocks away from a 3,500-person mega-shelter that opened in summer 2023, took in dozens of migrant students in the 2023-24 school year.

After the shelter closed earlier this year, “many families and friends were separated and isolated,” said Carolina Zafra, a teacher at the school. Over the past year, enrollment has fallen by 16%, according to city figures.

At Central Park East II, some families have moved to schools closer to their new accommodations, or left the city for states like Texas and Florida, Smith said. Enrollment at the school is down about 40 students, or 10%, this year.

Across District 4, schools have seen a similar pattern, Salas-Ramirez said. Seven of District 4’s 29 schools saw enrollment drops of 15% or greater from last year to this one, according to Chalkbeat’s analysis. Districtwide, enrollment is down nearly 6%, the second-largest drop in the city.

In August, when city officials closed The Row hotel in midtown Manhattan, the last remaining large family migrant shelter, 138 families in East Harlem schools were displaced, she said.

“It’s been hard to track the families,” she said. “A lot of our principals and assistant principals have spent a lot of effort … just trying to figure out where they are.”

Trump’s immigration crackdown exacerbates enrollment losses

Attendance dipped among many immigrant families as Trump took office. Then, as immigration enforcement intensified in the spring, educators and advocates said they saw more families go into hiding or leave the country voluntarily to avoid being detained.

At least five city students have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, though several have been released. Dylan Lopez Contreras, the first known city student detained by ICE during Trump’s second term, remains in detention in Western Pennsylvania six months after he was arrested during a routine court hearing. A judge denied Dylan’s asylum claim in September, and his lawyers have filed an appeal.

Schools across the city have also seen ICE sweep up students’ parents.

“People are leaving, or they’re staying in hiding,” said Power Malu, the co-founder of an aid group called ROCCNYC that has been helping connect migrant families with services since the beginning of the influx.

John Sullivan, the superintendent overseeing transfer schools for older students who have struggled in traditional high schools, said at a recent City Council hearing that his district has also seen a growing number of English learners leaving school for jobs. English learners have long dropped out of high school at higher rates than their peers, and some educators worry the pressure to earn money has increased as students worry they may have limited time in the U.S.

Despite the challenges, many educators are doing all they can to keep their newcomers.

Across schools in the Internationals Network, enrollment has largely stayed flat — a pattern Evangelista attributed in part to her schools’ strong relationships with families and ability to connect them to services, such as housing.

At East Harlem’s Central Park East II and Brooklyn’s P.S. 46, while some families displaced from their shelters have left, others still crisscross the city each day so they can stay enrolled, educators said.

Educators said the loss of a single student can reverberate across the entire school.

“Students are still really struggling,” said Valtierra, the Century Foundation fellow. “Having their friends and classmates not showing up … having to explain where those kids are going, that’s tough.”

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

Zohran Mamdani wants to end mayor control of NYC schools. It has eroded under Eric Adams.

2025-11-21T21:29:39+00:00

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Zohran Mamdani campaigned on ending mayoral control of New York City’s public school system — by far his most significant education promise.

As debate intensifies over whether the mayor-elect should follow through on that pledge, a significant shift has flown under the radar: Under Mayor Eric Adams, the chief executive’s power over the school system has weakened.

On paper, the city’s mayor still exerts near-complete authority over the city’s schools. The mayor hires and fires the head of the school system and appoints a majority of the school board, known as the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP.

But from his first months in office, Adams struggled to manage the board, which voted against several administration proposals. During his term, state lawmakers diluted the mayor’s power, adding new parent representatives to the panel while preventing the mayor from removing appointees who vote against the administration’s proposals.

More recently, as a lame duck, Adams has ceded more power. He has allowed three of his 13 mayoral seats on the 24-member board to go unfilled, handing the majority to board members selected by others.

And in recent months, the panel has repeatedly voted against City Hall’s proposals — an extraordinary departure from boards under previous administrations that only occasionally bucked the mayor. On Wednesday, in an unusual move, they voted down the Education Department’s budget.

“The idea that we are rubber stamps and aren’t making judgments — that’s in the past,” Greg Faulker, the chair of the board who was appointed by Adams, said of the board’s larger role.

Six months after Mamdani takes office, it will be up to lawmakers in Albany whether to extend mayoral control in its current form. The question for Mamdani is whether he will lobby lawmakers for sweeping reforms or embrace a PEP that has become detached from City Hall.

PEP seen as ‘mere formality’ under some mayors

During the campaign, Mamdani pledged to end mayoral control and replace it with a system that shares power with families and educators, though he has not said what that means.

His critique of mayoral control has zeroed in on the PEP, which he contends does not take community input into account, especially on contentious school closure, mergers, or re-location proposals.

“They go to a hearing about the future of a school that their children go to — eight hours of testimony,” Mamdani said in a recent television interview. “Meanwhile, the decision was actually made weeks and months prior, and this is just a mere formality.”

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg won mayoral control of the school system in 2002. He did not tolerate dissent from the PEP — and famously fired two of his own appointees for opposing a plan to end “social promotion” of students from one grade level to the next. After replacing them in what was dubbed the “Monday night massacre,” the proposal passed.

Ultimately, Bloomberg’s board passed numerous controversial proposals, including dozens of school closures despite community resistance.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who ran in opposition to many of Bloomberg’s education policies, vowed to give the board’s mayoral appointees more independence. But little changed in practice. The board typically voted in lockstep with the administration’s wishes, with only a few exceptions. In one episode, a mayoral appointee cast a decisive vote against two school closures proposed by the administration. In short order, she was off the board.

Adams loses his grip on mayoral control

From his first months in office, Adams lost the tight grip on the PEP that other mayors have enjoyed.

Adams was slow to appoint panel members early in his term and was forced to hastily withdraw one of them after her anti-gay writing came to light. With a vacant slot, City Hall lost a routine vote to approve the city’s funding formula. (It was approved at the next month’s meeting after the chancellor vowed to review the funding scheme.)

But managing the board has also grown more complex. The PEP has nearly doubled in size since 2019 — a response from state lawmakers to concerns that the governance system is not responsive to community input.

It now includes 24 voting members, including five selected by parent leaders, one chosen by each of the five borough presidents, 13 mayoral appointees, and a chair selected by the mayor from a list devised by state lawmakers. (The schools chancellor, a secretary, two students, and a representative from the comptroller’s office serve as non-voting members.)

The city's Panel for Educational Policy has voted down some Adams administration proposals at recent meetings.

Members serve one-year terms, and the mayoral appointees can’t be removed if they vote against the administration’s wishes, a change state lawmakers made just months after Adams took office.

“Having PEP members who can’t be summarily dismissed as Bloomberg did is an important structural difference,” said Jeffrey Henig, a political science professor at Columbia University. “It can be a more vital body that sometimes stands up to the mayor.”

The larger board means more panel members are weighing in on any given decision, making it harder to forge a majority if there are more dissenting voices. City Hall must also devote more effort to recruiting panel members to fill the mayor’s 13-member majority.

Asked why the mayor has not filled three vacancies on the board, a City Hall spokesperson said it can be difficult to quickly find qualified people. The position is unpaid and requires attending monthly public meetings that sometimes stretch past midnight.

“Our administration continues to work hard to ensure this panel is well-staffed,” City Hall spokesperson Zachary Nosanchuk wrote in an email.

Notably, Mamdani may not be able to appoint a majority to the PEP when he takes office because the current members’ terms won’t expire until June.

‘You need to listen to us’: A more independent PEP opposes the administration

No issue has reflected the changing power dynamics between the mayor and the PEP more than the recent negotiations over school bus contracts, which cost nearly $2 billion each year.

After the contracts expired over the summer, city officials agreed to a five-year extension with the bus companies. But dozens of parents and advocates flooded PEP meetings to argue that they should approve a shorter extension to give officials more room to overhaul the troubled system entirely.

“Don’t reward bad behavior,” parent Christi Angel said at the September PEP meeting. “This is a broken system.”

Despite the companies’ handshake agreement with the city for a five-year contract, the PEP passed a resolution saying they wouldn’t support it — including the mayoral appointees. The bus companies later threatened to lay off their workers, potentially grinding the whole system to a stop. The PEP held firm.

“Once that resolution passed, it was game over,” Faulkner said, noting the administration encouraged the PEP to approve a five-year deal. “And the fact that it passed unanimously was a further indication that you need to listen to us.”

On Wednesday evening, the PEP approved a three-year extension of the contracts.

Shortly after, the chancellor, who is in the running to keep her job under Mamdani, signaled her support of a more independent PEP.

“With an incoming administration that has really spoken about its values around community engagement, it’s a great time to reset,” Aviles-Ramos said.

Her comments came at a remarkable moment. Minutes earlier, the board voted down the Education Department’s budget after concerns surfaced about growing administrative spending, including on the chancellor’s office. (The budget could be approved at a future meeting.)

Growing PEP independence stirs debate

The panel’s newfound power has earned varied reactions.

Last month, the board voted down more than $4 million in technology contracts after families and educators raised concerns at a PEP meeting about the companies’ use of artificial intelligence.

One of them was a deal with an AI company launched by former football star Colin Kaepernick, who appeared at a conference alongside Aviles-Ramos a week before the vote. It was an embarrassing setback for the chancellor, who has recently touted efforts to bring AI into schools.

“I was really surprised and thrilled,” said Leonie Haimson, a student privacy advocate who criticized the AI contracts before the vote at last month’s panel meeting. Still, Haimson believes the PEP should have even more independence from the mayor, noting that the board has still approved proposals under Adams despite intense community pushback.

“A lot of important decisions are made without the transparency and accountability that should be required,” she added.

Others have been frustrated that the mayor has lost power over the PEP, arguing the increasingly sprawling board doesn’t always have expertise in what they’re voting on. One technology contract they voted down was a $1.5 million deal with Kiddom, a digital platform that helps teachers access curriculum materials.

Abbas Manjee, Kiddom’s cofounder and chief academic officer, said the company’s use of artificial intelligence is teacher-facing and felt the PEP members didn’t seem familiar with the platform before lumping it in with other AI companies.

He noted the company helps schools access reading and math materials that are at the center of Adams’ curriculum mandates, a top mayoral education priority.

“It’s almost like you’re shooting yourself in the foot,” Manjee said. “Where is mayoral control?”

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

These 15 NYC schools will get on-site banking services in effort to boost financial literacy

2025-11-12T16:25:48+00:00

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Fifteen New York City public schools will offer information about banking services on site next year through a pilot program designed to expand financial literacy and access, city officials announced Wednesday.

The program is part of Mayor Eric Adams’ “financial literacy for youth” initiative, which the mayor revealed in January and is now beginning to take shape.

“If you don’t teach people how to use their money, they will lose their money,” Adams said in a statement. The program will “bring banking services directly to students and give them hands-on experience opening up a safe, affordable bank account, learning about financial products, and starting careers in banking and finance.”

The 15 schools were chosen in part because they are in neighborhoods where families have historically lacked access to banking services. Each campus will also have access to financial educators who provide one-on-one counseling, lead workshops for families, and help teachers devise classroom materials.

Those educators will cover topics that range from money management basics to spotting financial scams and will eventually work in other schools as well. City officials have pledged to expand the program to reach 350,000 students and families by 2030, a project that is projected to cost about $25 million. It will be up to Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to see the effort through.

A City Hall spokesperson indicated that the partnering banks will offer young people safe and affordable products, such as accounts to students over 16 that they can control.

Financial literacy has been a growing push among state and city leaders — with dozens of states requiring a personal finance course to graduate. New York State leaders are also planning to include financial literacy in their revamped graduation standards.

Still, some critics worry that financial literacy programs don’t address root problems with the financial sector and shift the onus away from policymakers to ensure the system is fair and transparent.

Financial institutions are also often big supporters of school-based financial literacy and may stand to gain from marketing their products to students and families. City officials said 12 financial institutions are partnering with schools so far including a mix of major commercial banks and local credit unions.

Here is a list of the first 15 schools that will receive on-campus banking services:

Manhattan District 2: Urban Assembly Early College High School of Emergency Medicine

Manhattan District 3: The Urban Assembly School for Green Careers

Manhattan District 5: Mott Hall High School

Bronx District 7: The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology

Bronx District 8: Longwood Prep

Bronx District 9: Bronx High School for Medical Science

Bronx District 10: Fordham High School for the Arts

Bronx District 11: Bronx Lab School

Bronx District 12: East Bronx Academy for the Future

Brooklyn District 14: High School for Enterprise, Business and Technology

Brooklyn District 19: World Academy for Total Community Health High School

Brooklyn District 21: John Dewey High School

Brooklyn District 23: Brooklyn Collegiate: A College Board School

Queens District 30: Long Island City High School

Staten Island District 31: The Eagle Academy for Young Men of Staten Island

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

NYC won’t claw back $250 million midyear from schools as enrollment declines

2025-11-03T17:11:03+00:00

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New York City schools with fewer students than projected will not have to give back money midyear, Education Department officials announced Monday, as the public school system saw its biggest enrollment drop in four years.

Enrollment in the city’s K-12 and preschool programs fell by about 22,000, or 2.4%, compared to last year, according to the Education Department’s preliminary numbers. A total of 884,400 students were enrolled in the city’s traditional public schools as of Oct. 31, according to the figures.

Nearly two-thirds of the city’s roughly 1,600 schools had fewer students than projected, officials said. In past years, those schools would have had to pay back a total of more than $250 million to the city. But those funds will now stay with schools.

“As we navigate enrollment fluctuations and uncertainty around federal funding, we’re committed to providing stability and ensuring every school has the resources it needs,” schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said in a statement.

The remaining third of schools whose enrollment was higher than projected will receive extra money to account for the additional students, officials said, but didn’t say how much that will cost.

In some ways, Mayor Eric Adams’ parting gift to schools could become a headache for the next mayor, who will have to confront the costly but popular initiative.

City officials did not immediately offer an explanation for the enrollment drop, but it’s likely that changing immigration patterns played a role. Over the three school years prior to this one, city schools absorbed an influx of roughly 50,000 migrant students.

That surge helped offset declining enrollment, keeping the city’s student numbers relatively flat between 2022 and 2024. But immigration into the country and city has ground to a halt under President Donald Trump’s enforcement efforts. Adams has closed many of the emergency shelters the city opened to house migrants.

Several educators at schools with large immigrant populations have noticed sharp enrollment declines this year, driven by existing students leaving and fewer new ones showing up.

“We definitely have seen a decline this year in our schools that serve newcomers,” said John Sullivan, the superintendent overseeing transfer schools geared toward older high school students, at a hearing last week with the City Council.

Manhattan’s Liberty High School Academy for Newcomers is down about 200 students this year compared to its average enrollment in recent years, Sullivan said. More students learning English are dropping out of school early to take jobs, he said.

ELLIS Prep, another high school in the Bronx geared toward older newcomers, has also seen slower enrollment this year, Principal Norma Vega said. The school is down about 30 students from last year and roughly 20 students under its projection for this year. That meant Vega would have had to pay back roughly $333,000 if the city had followed through with the midyear clawback.

Keeping that money will allow her to continue funding field trips, computers for students, and extra tutoring, she said.

Vega already missed the deadline for this school year to cut teachers, which means she would have started next school year with a deficit and likely would have lost her English as a New Language coordinator, one of her newest hires.

“It’s a blessing” to not have to pay back the funds midyear, Vega said.

Before the pandemic, schools typically had to give money back to the city during the middle of the school year if they enrolled fewer students than projected. (Those that enrolled more students would get extra funds midyear.)

The policy to keep school budgets afloat despite enrollment, known as being “held harmless,” was initially enacted during the pandemic when many schools saw their rosters dwindle but had mounting needs to support students academically and emotionally.

Enrollment citywide has been on the decline for a decade, but went into freefall during the pandemic, dropping by nearly 100,000 students. This year’s enrollment decline is the largest since the 2021-22 school year, when enrollment fell by around 36,000 students, or 3.8%, from the previous year.

The city halted the hold harmless policy in the 2023-24 school year only to bring it back last year.

Last school year, the decision not to claw back school budgets midyear meant schools hung onto $157 million they would have otherwise had to give back. City officials committed a separate $126 million in June to ensure that no schools started out this school year with less funding than they had at the start of last school year.

This year’s total is far larger, given the steeper enrollment decline.

Emily Paige, the principal of Urban Assembly Unison, a small Brooklyn middle school, said she was on the hook for roughly $100,000 because of enrollment losses — enough to cover an entire teacher salary.

While the hold harmless policy is widely popular among school staff and families, it can be an unsustainable practice, some observers say, artificially inflating schools’ budgets and creating even more difficult financial decisions down the road as the city confronts increasingly expensive small schools.

The union representing principals, the Council for School Administrators, or CSA, claimed the move as a victory for its members, saying in an email to principals on Sunday its “top priority” this year has been ensuring the city kept its promise to hold schools harmless.

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

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

NYC schools pilot ‘panic button’ for instant 911 access during active shooter emergencies

2025-10-27T22:34:10+00:00

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New York City public schools are piloting a new emergency alert system that gives direct and immediate access to 911 if an active shooter is present at their buildings, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday.

“[It] is capable of initiating a 911 response in under 10 seconds,” said Adams, noting that the pilot is the nation’s first of its kind initiative.

The city plans to test the device at 51 public schools located in 25 school buildings across the five boroughs this academic year, Adams said. The schools will have multiple buttons affixed to certain locations as well as wireless lanyards that staffers can wear that can activate the emergency system.

Adams showed off the new Emergency Alert System at Brooklyn’s Spring Creek campus, holding it in his palm, the word “POLICE” written in black and a red button with the word “PUSH” written in white.

He and Alicia Arjune, a student at the Academy for Young Writers, pressed the red button together. Within a second an alarm rang. A screen behind the two then showed an alert was coming from Spring Creek Community School.

“This panic button pilot will offer additional peace of mind to myself and my fellow students so we can spend our time in school figuring what our passions are and just being kids,” Alicia said at the press conference.

The device comes after the debut of SaferWatch, an app designed by a Florida-based tech firm that has a “panic button,” allowing school safety agents to respond quickly to emergencies, including shootings. (That app, piloted at five schools, faced scrutiny after company officials enlisted the help of a consulting agency owned by the brother of then-schools Chancellor David Banks to expand its footprint in city schools.)

The new system was developed in-house by the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation along with the help of vendor SOS Technologies.

In 2023, the city’s technology office, along with the Emergency Management division, the Mayor’s office, Education Department, and NYPD’s School Safety Division began researching school-based panic buttons with a direct line to 911 during an active-shooter emergency.

The current emergency alert relies on transferring calls through a remote system in another state before rerouting to the city.

The pilot builds on the other safety measures implemented at schools, said schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos.

“This includes the Safer Access Program, which locks main entrances to our buildings, NYPD School Safety Agents in every school, and emergency protocols that keep our schools safe,” she said in a statement.

The number of School Safety Agents plummeted from 5,050 in 2019 to 3,613 in 2024-25, according to data from the Independent Budget Office and the Education Department’s website.

The new tool bypasses the 911 call flow, going straight to dispatch, and it can initiate a response from 911 quickly, Adam said at Monday’s press conference. The schools will also have audible and visual indicators notifying everyone that 911 has been alerted and that the schools are on hard lockdown. NYPD School Safety and DOE officials will also get electronic notifications.

Over 3,000 K-12 school shooting incidents occurred in the United States between 1966 and September 2025, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database (The dataset includes all shootings happening on school property at any time of the day or week with intent to harm. This includes sports games, after-school events, and gang violences.) School shootings peaked at 351 in 2023, and the number of victims shot, both fatal and wounded, peaked at 276 in 2024.

This month, a 17-year-old high school student was found with a loaded pistol at East Brooklyn Community High School, according to police.

Similarly in September, a 16-year-old Queens high school student had a loaded gun in his backpack at Cardozo High School in Bayside. Police said the teen posted a threat on Instagram.

At the press conference Monday, Adams noted his administration’s efforts during his tenure to confiscate illegal guns from across the city. This year, the administration has removed over 4,100, according to the press release.

“We’ve already taken more than 24,097 illegal guns off our streets, and now we’re making sure our classrooms have the strongest, fastest protection possible,” Adams said.

Ananya Chetia is a reporting intern at Chalkbeat. Contact Ananya at achetia@chalkbeat.org.

NYC is piloting free child care for kids ages 2 and under. These neighborhoods get priority.

2025-10-27T16:55:37+00:00

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For the first time, New York City is preparing to open hundreds of free, publicly funded child care seats for kids ages 2 and under, regardless of their parents’ income.

The roughly 240 seats are set to open in January and are part of a $10 million pilot funded in the city’s budget agreement from June. City Council leaders who pushed for the program said they hope it will offer a blueprint for future efforts to expand free child care to a wider swath of the youngest New Yorkers.

“This latest critical investment in child care gives the City the tools necessary to build a system to provide care for families with children from birth to five years old,” said Rendy Desamours, a spokesperson for Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Queens Democrat.

The city already funds preschool seats for nearly 100,000 3- and 4-year-olds, and the push to expand that system has gathered steam in recent months. Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani has pledged to provide free universal child care starting when children are six weeks old, and Gov. Kathy Hochul has said expanding child care is a top priority.

The new seats, unlike the majority of those in the city’s 3-K and Pre-K programs, will be subsidized for up to 10 hours a day year round, rather than following the K-12 school schedule, which runs six hours and 20 minutes a day, from September through June.

A City Council spokesperson said the seats will open in January, but officials didn’t immediately clarify when families could start applying or when enrollment would begin. Applications for Pre-K and 3-K programs starting September 2026 open in January.

Contracts between the city and providers who will be offering the new seats have yet to be finalized, but officials have now narrowed how they will award them, according to information provided by the City Council.

City officials will prioritize high-needs neighborhoods including Hunts Point and Mott Haven in the Bronx, Sunset Park in Brooklyn, and Jamaica, Queens for the new seats. (See the full list of priority neighborhoods below.)

Officials selected those neighborhoods based on their poverty rates, estimates of how many eligible children aren’t in child care, and the number of families who fall just above the income threshold to qualify for city programs geared towards low-income families.

Education Department spokesperson Dominique Ellison said the pilot will “expand access to care for infants and toddlers in communities with the greatest need.” But officials stressed they are still working out the final number and location of the new seats.

Some of the $10 million will also go towards outreach to ensure families know about the new seats.

Before the new pilot program, publicly funded free child care seats for kids 2 and under were available only to families who make below 85% of the state median income. That comes out to about $91,000 a year for a family of three and $109,000 for a family of four.

The city Education Department has struggled to fill all of those seats, with 6,250 infants and toddlers enrolled last year and more than 4,100 seats unfilled, according to city data. Advocates and experts say the application process for the income-based programs can be onerous for families.

A separate state-run voucher program, using the same income threshold, gives families an average of $300 a week to defray child care costs, and has exploded in popularity.

But as the costs of child care have continued to rise, it has become a crippling expense even for families with higher incomes — helping drive an exodus of families with young children from the five boroughs.

For the new seats, city officials will tap child care centers and home-based programs that already have contracts for other programs.

Families will apply for the new seats through the same MySchools portal used for Pre-K, 3-K, and income-based programs, a council spokesperson said.

Here’s the full list of priority ZIP codes, with their borough and neighborhood names, along with alternates:

Highest Priority Neighborhoods (with ZIP codes)

Bronx

Hunts Point and Mott Haven, 10459

Hugh Bridge and Morrisania, 10452

Northeast Bronx, 10466

Central Bronx, 10460

Brooklyn

Sunset Park, 11220

Southern Brooklyn, 11224

Borough Park, 11219

Bushwick and Williamsburg, 11206

Manhattan

Central Harlem, 10027

Queens

Jamaica, 11432

Staten Island

Port Richmond, 10304

Alternates:

Bronx

Bronx Park and Fordham, 10467

Brooklyn

Borough Park, 11204

Borough Park, 11230

Southern Brooklyn, 11223

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

Mamdani’s opponents want to grow NYC’s gifted programs. Attracting students isn’t easy.

2025-10-17T16:54:51+00:00

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When mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani reiterated his intention in Thursday night’s debate to eliminate gifted programs for the city’s youngest students, his opponents quickly shot back with promises to move in the opposite direction.

Curtis Sliwa and Andrew Cuomo pledged to open up more gifted classes.

“We don’t have enough slots,” said Sliwa, the Republican nominee, who pledged to double the size of the kindergarten program.

Cuomo, the former New York governor running as an independent, touted his plan to expand gifted and talented programs.

Meanwhile, a group of state and city lawmakers are hoping to go even further, introducing legislation last week that would force the Education Department to scale up gifted classrooms across the city.

But funneling more students into gifted classrooms, which disproportionately enroll white and Asian American students, might be easier said than done.

Three years ago, Mayor Eric Adams made a similar pledge to expand accelerated learning opportunities. The city opened dozens of gifted programs in underserved areas, with 38 schools hosting new gifted programs for rising third graders and eight more programs for kindergarteners, which has historically been the main entry point, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of Education Department data.

Supporters of gifted programs argue these classes help keep families in the public school system. Yet the overall number of students formally admitted to gifted programs citywide fell by more than 1,000 between 2019 and 2023, the Chalkbeat analysis found.

To fill empty seats, schools have moved students to gifted classrooms even if their families didn’t apply, more than offsetting the decline. With those students included in the total, nearly 18,000 students, about 5% of elementary students, were enrolled in gifted classes last year, an increase of about 2,000 children since 2019, department officials said.

New programs are slow to gain traction with families

According to city data, 44 of the schools offering the program — around a third of the citywide total — had fewer than 18 students enrolled in at least one of their gifted classes last year. Over half those schools were newer programs, Chalkbeat’s analysis found.

Experts and educators point to several factors that have made it difficult to grow the program through the formal admissions process. Many families don’t know gifted tracks are available. Another major reason: The third grade entry point adds logistical hurdles for families.

“It’s harder for parents to make a decision to change schools in third grade because of friendships, because of siblings, because of convenience and location reasons,” said Allison Roda, an associate professor at Molloy College who has studied the city’s gifted program.

An Education Department spokesperson said the agency has tried to make it easier for families to learn about and apply to gifted programs by making it part of the regular kindergarten application process.

Adams argued it is fairer to assess students for gifted programs after they’ve had a few years of formal schooling, and experts have criticized the city’s practice of tracking students at age 4, which few other school districts do. Mamdani has indicated he plans to keep the program starting for third graders.

It can take time for schools with new gifted offerings to establish enough of a reputation to attract applicants from other communities, Roda said, noting that some white families have expressed reluctance to accept a gifted seat if it means switching to a school that is predominantly Black and Latino.

About 62% of students in gifted classrooms are white or Asian American, even as they represent just 35% of the public school system as a whole. And while more Black and Latino students are now enrolling in gifted programs, they continue to be vastly underrepresented.

P.S. 279 in Crown Heights opened a gifted program starting in third grade in recent years, but had only admitted nine students as of 2023, according to city data. Outside the school on a recent weekday, several parents said they had no idea the program existed.

Caesar Ashley, a parent at the school, said his daughter was placed in the program last year even though the family never applied.

“If you do good on your work,” his fourth grader said, “they’ll put you in the class.”

Typically, second graders in the top 10% of their school based on report card grades are eligible for gifted programs that begin in third grade. In the wake of the pandemic, city officials eliminated an admissions test for kindergarten gifted programs and now rely on nominations from prekindergarten teachers.

Schools are allowed to move students into gifted classrooms without an application as long as they use “academic criteria,” a department spokesperson said.

Some principals may be reluctant to encourage their students to enroll in gifted programs elsewhere, because school budgets are directly tied to student enrollment. If a student leaves and isn’t replaced, that means fewer dollars for art, music, and afterschool programs.

Underenrolled gifted programs end up costing the city more. Schools usually cover the costs of gifted classes from their own budgets, which are based on student headcount. But for schools without enough students enrolled in gifted classes to cover the cost of a full-time teacher, the city chips in to make up the difference, paying out roughly $2.9 million to 44 schools last year.

Research on whether gifted programs benefit students who attend is limited, though one study focused on New York City found the programs can meaningfully boost reading and math scores, particularly among Black and Latino children. The Education Department’s own research on that question is less conclusive.

Families may not see clear benefits to sending their students to gifted programs, which sometimes move at a faster pace but often use the same curriculum as traditional classrooms, said Roda, who has interviewed numerous families about gifted programming.

“There’s skepticism among parents about what is actually different,” she said.

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

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

NYC sues Trump officials for revoking $47 million in school grants over trans student protections

2025-10-16T19:24:48+00:00

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New York City has filed a lawsuit to restore $47 million in grant funding the Trump administration yanked from schools because city officials refused to scrap policies that protect transgender students.

In cancelling the grants issued through the U.S. Department of Education’s Magnet School Assistance Program, the federal government put “politics before public schools,” claimed the complaint filed Wednesday in federal court.

“The Department’s unprecedented actions — undertaken without notice, investigation, hearing, or opportunity to respond, and without a valid substantive basis — represent a blatant attempt to avoid the exacting process required by law,” the lawsuit stated.

The magnet grant funding supports 19 schools across the city and is designed to help spur racial integration by launching a range of new programs, including in journalism, math, science, performing arts, and civic activism, according to the complaint. Grants for school districts in Chicago and Fairfax, Virginia, were also canceled.

The grant cancellation marked the first known attempt by the Trump administration to revoke funding for the city’s public schools because of its contested interpretation of civil rights laws. The lawsuit notes that the feds had routinely signed off on the city’s compliance with federal law in past years and appeared to be using the grants as leverage to pressure the city on unrelated policies designed to protect trans students.

Officials for the U.S. Education Department said the lawsuit did not have merit. They reiterated the administration’s position that the grant could not be certified because the city’s policies allowing transgender students to use facilities in line with their gender identity violate Title IX, prohibiting sex discrimination at educational institutions receiving federal funding. The Trump administration has mounted an aggressive push to roll back protections for transgender students and has targeted districts in Virginia, Colorado, and Illinois.

The city’s legal challenge is notable because Mayor Eric Adams previously signaled that he agreed with the Trump administration’s position that the city’s protections go too far. After federal officials threatened to cancel the grant funding, Adams railed against city policies that allow transgender students to use bathrooms and participate in sports teams in accordance with their gender identity.

A press release from City Hall announcing the lawsuit included a statement from the schools chancellor and the city’s top lawyer, but not the mayor. (City Hall spokesperson Zachary Nosanchuk noted that the mayor posted on X in support of the case.)

“While many talk about change, the Adams administration has always been about real, meaningful action — which means challenging the federal government’s unfair, illegal, and actually impossible demand for New York City Public Schools to change a state law,” Nosanchuk said in a statement.

The fight over the funding began a month ago, when the federal government threatened to withhold funding over Title IX violations, giving the city a week to agree to adopting “biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female.’”

The city asked for more time, but Trump administration officials said they needed to certify compliance before its fiscal year ended on Sept. 30. When the city did not meet the deadline to overhaul its policies, the federal government announced it would not release the grant money.

City lawyers contend that the Trump administration failed to follow rules for revoking funding under Title IX, including offering an opportunity for a hearing, communicating findings on the record, and filing reports with congress.

“Department actions are a clear attempted end run around the Congressional directive that school funding not be pulled on a whim,” the suit claims. It asks the court to restore the $47 million grant and block the Trump administration from canceling it in the future.

Roughly 7,700 New York City students attend the affected schools, which are predominantly Black and Latino, according to the suit. City officials previously said about 8,500 students would be affected; a spokesperson did not explain the discrepancy.

The mayor’s desire to rethink the city’s policies on transgender students drew fresh attention to his ties to the Trump administration, which has reportedly considered offering him a job. Last year, the Justice Department successfully pressed federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against Adams.

This week, the mayor said he is mulling three “dream jobs,” though he has not said what they are.

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

Eric Adams ends reelection campaign, clearing the way for new leadership over NYC schools

2025-09-28T22:42:20+00:00

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With a little more than a month before Election Day, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday that he is ending his bid for reelection, all but guaranteeing the nation’s largest school system will soon be under new management.

The move ends speculation in recent weeks that Adams would drop out, as he has consistently polled in last place in the four-way race and multiple news outlets reported that he was negotiating with the Trump administration for a potential job.

“Who would have thought that a kid from South Jamaica, Queens, growing up with learning disabilities, could one day become the mayor of the greatest city in the world,” Adams said in a brief video announcement Sunday.

The mayor, who did not immediately endorse any of the other candidates, indicated that he plans to serve out the remainder of his term and said this “is not the end of my public service.” He will still appear on the ballot on Nov. 4 as an independent because the deadline for removing him has passed.

Adams’ decision to quit the race will not likely have an immediate effect on the city’s public school system. But it raises questions about the future of his education policies once he leaves office in January, including his signature reading and math curriculum overhauls that are still being phased in on many campuses. Observers widely expect the next mayor will appoint a new schools chancellor to replace Melissa Aviles-Ramos, though she is respected by many educators and Education Department staff.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo could see a boost from Adams’ departure, though the mayor’s sinking popularity in the polls suggests many of his supporters already fled to other candidates. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa has pledged to stay in the race despite pressure from President Donald Trump to drop out to set up a one-on-one race between Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani, a Queens assemblyman and the current frontrunner.

“Donald Trump and his billionaire donors might be able to determine Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo’s actions but they will not dictate the results of this election,” Mamdani said in a statement.

Under New York City’s system of mayoral control, the city’s chief executive exerts enormous influence over the city’s public schools. Exactly how the next mayor will put their stamp on the system remains a question mark.

Mamdani has pledged to ensure schools are properly funded and to end mayoral control in favor of a more democratic governance model that includes input from educators and families, though he has not laid out detailed plans. He has also vowed to create a universal child care program, part of his campaign’s broader focus on affordability, but has said little about how he would improve K-12 education.

Cuomo has recently tried to draw attention to his own education agenda and attack Mamdani’s lack of detailed education plans. Last month, the former governor unveiled a plan to shut down the city’s lowest performing campuses and replace them with other school models, including charters.

Both Sliwa and Cuomo support expanding gifted programs and preserving test-only admissions to several elite high schools, programs that supporters argue helps keep families in the system but are also starkly segregated by race. Mamdani has said he favors school integration efforts and supports a study of the admissions test. He also won the teachers union’s endorsement.

The mayoral candidates have generally spoken favorably about Adams’ signature education initiative — overhauling the way elementary schools approach reading instruction. Still, they have voiced more skepticism about a related effort to overhaul how schools teach math. Schools may not see an immediate retreat from those curriculum changes, however, as the next mayor will take office in the middle of the school year.

Other elements of Adams’ education record have been more contentious. He repeatedly drew headlines for slashing early childhood education programs, including free preschool for 3-year-olds. In other areas, such as the city’s summer school program, Adams used city dollars to avoid major cuts as one-time federal emergency relief dollars ran out in the wake of the pandemic.

In his video announcement Sunday, Adams said he felt “immense pride” in the accomplishments of his administration and hoped his successor would continue and expand his policies.

“We raised test scores and attendance through bold education reforms,” he said.

Adams’ tenure marred by scandal

Corruption investigations have dogged Adams — the first sitting mayor to be indicted in modern history — and led to the resignations of several senior officials, including at the Education Department. His first schools chancellor, David Banks, stepped down after federal investigators searched his home and seized his phone. (Banks has not been accused of wrongdoing.)

The Trump administration successfully pushed federal prosecutors to drop the charges against Adams, saying publicly that they did so to free up Adams to aid their crackdown on immigrants.

In recent days, Adams has articulated education policy views aligned with the Trump administration as well. After the federal Department of Education threatened to cancel $36 million worth of magnet school grants if the city did not scrap protections for transgender students, Adams began to publicly question the city’s own policies that allow trans students to use bathrooms and other facilities in line with their gender identity.

To some in Adams’ orbit, the mayor’s rightward shift has undermined some of the administration’s accomplishments.

Adams’ growing connection to the Trump administration “has tarnished his image and almost usurped so much of the work that was done,” Banks said in an interview with Chalkbeat before Adams dropped out of the race. “I’m sad about the fact that there were so many good people who gave such good work and a lot of their reputations kind of got sullied.”

Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate and a frequent Adams critic, said he was once hopeful the mayor could improve the city but has instead watched the administration fall into disarray.

“Sadly, his tenure has been marked by an inability to self-reflect or course-correct after sustained and continued bad decisions,” Williams wrote in a statement. “There is no joy in today’s announcement, even if there is some relief.”

Cara Fitzpatrick contributed.

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

NYC students post significant gains in reading and math, state test scores show

2025-08-11T20:21:12+00:00

A searchable list of school-level test results can be found at the bottom of this story.

Reading and math scores shot up across New York City’s public schools last school year, according to state test results released Monday.

Among students in grades 3-8, nearly 57% of students were considered proficient in math, an increase of 3.5 percentage points. The gains were even sharper in reading. About 56% of students were proficient in the subject, a 7 percentage point increase.

Those gains come after Mayor Eric Adams has made overhauling reading instruction his signature education priority, an effort that has won support from union leaders and even candidates vying to unseat Adams in this November’s election. Top city officials argued Monday that their efforts are bearing fruit, as all elementary schools were required to use city-approved reading curriculums last school year through an initiative known as NYC Reads.

“This is what happens when we stay focused on evidence-based instruction and never lose sight of what’s possible for our young people,” schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said in a statement.

Experts said the test score gains were encouraging, but cautioned that many factors can influence them and it’s impossible to isolate the effect of the curriculum overhauls.

“It’s at least suggestive that there’s real improvement,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College who has studied school performance and accountability systems. Results from a separate battery of assessments also hinted at some progress.

At the same time, Pallas noted test scores increased statewide by a similar magnitude as in New York City, which “does tamp down a little bit that it’s something special New York City is doing.” The city’s overall proficiency rates are slightly higher than those statewide, where 53% of students are proficient in reading and 55% are proficient in math.

City Education Department officials also mounted an aggressive test preparation effort last year targeting students who were at the cusp of passing the exams, which may have played a role in the test score increase. Some experts criticized that approach because it could create incentives for schools to focus on students close to proficiency rather than those furthest behind.

Officials noted that reading scores increased more sharply in earlier grades that were subject to the reading curriculum changes. There was an 11.6 percentage point jump in reading proficiency among students in grades 3-5 who were in the first phase of schools that started using the new curriculums two years ago. Among the second phase of schools, which implemented the curriculum changes last year, reading scores increased 10.4 percentage points.

Overall, Pallas said that more data is needed to draw firm conclusions about student proficiency over time. “If there’s real growth, it should be sustained. And that requires looking at scores over the next couple years,” he said.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the teachers union, said in a statement that the test score increases are “a testament to the hard work by New York City educators and our students. He singled out Aviles-Ramos, noting she “fought the Education Department] bureaucracy to make sure the needs of students and school communities came first.”

The state test results continued to reflect deep disparities between different student groups, though in some cases those gaps narrowed somewhat.

Black students, for instance, posted the largest test score increases in reading and math in the city’s public schools of any racial group. But they still lag their white and Asian American peers.

About 75% of Asian American students and 73% of white students were proficient in reading compared with 43.5% of Latino children and 47% of Black students. (Black students’ proficiency jumped about 8 percentage points.)

Meanwhile, nearly 81% of Asian American students and 75% of white students passed state math exams while only 43% of Black and Latino students were considered to be on grade level.

Only 29% of students with disabilities were proficient in math and nearly 27% were in reading. Even as students with disabilities made some gains in reading and math, the gap between those children and their nondisabled peers widened slightly.

Among students learning English as a new language, nearly 30% were proficient in math and 12.5% were proficient in reading — a gain of more than 4 percentage points in both categories.

The state exams have undergone a series of tweaks in recent years that have sometimes made it difficult to draw comparisons from the results year over year. For the last two years, the tests have remained stable, meaning the results should be comparable.

The state Education Department has expanded computer-based testing in lieu of paper exams and all students will take digital versions of the test next school year. Pallas said it is unlikely that will dramatically skew the results, though some schools have struggled with glitchy platforms.

Curious about school-level test results? Here is a searchable breakdown of math and English scores across all of the city’s public schools. (Charter schools are included in the table but not in the district’s overall numbers above.)

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

Fewer Black and Latino students win offers to attend specialized high schools

2025-08-01T14:57:19+00:00

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Fewer Black and Latino students were offered seats at New York City’s specialized high schools for this fall, potentially deepening segregation at some of the city’s most coveted campuses.

Just 3% of offers at eight of the city’s specialized schools went to Black students, down from 4.5% last school year, according to Education Department data released Thursday. Meanwhile, 6.9% of offers went to Latino students compared with 7.6% a year ago. Across the city’s public schools, nearly two-thirds of students are Black or Latino.

Asian American students received nearly 54% of the offers, a slight increase. The proportion of offers that went to white students, about 26%, was flat. Nearly 17% of public school students are Asian American and about 15% are white.

Specialized high schools command outsized attention because they are widely considered to be some of the most prestigious public schools in the country, even as they only enroll about 5% of the city’s public high school students. They also contribute to the city’s status as one of the nation’s most segregated school systems.

Admission to eight of the city’s nine specialized high schools depends entirely on a student’s score on a single standardized exam. Five of the eight specialized schools that rely on the Specialized High School Admissions Test, or SHSAT, admitted 10 or fewer Black students this year. Out of 781 offers to Stuyvesant High School, the most selective of the specialized schools, just 8 went to Black students.

Overall, nearly 26,000 eighth graders took the SHSAT, and 4,000 were offered a seat based on their score, according to the data.

On Friday, a day after department officials released the admissions data, spokesperson Jenna Lyle wrote in an email that “when our schools are segregated, students lose out on the incredible education that a richly diverse, inclusive environment carries.”

She noted that the city greenlit three new selective schools where most students are Black or Latino. And she pointed to an existing program that allows schools to set aside seats for students in underrepresented groups.

Lyle did not address questions about the timing of the release. For at least a decade, the Education Department has released the high school admissions statistics by mid-June, raising questions about whether officials delayed the release deeper into the summer to draw less attention to the issue. After Chalkbeat published a story on Thursday about the delay, officials released the data.

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein indicated on Thursday morning that the statistics were delayed because officials were waiting to verify new data. When asked what new data was included in the release that caused the delay, Brownstein pointed to a list of admissions deadlines.

The persistently low percentage of Black and Latino students who gain admission to the specialized high schools has fueled calls to scrap the test, which critics contend unfairly excludes many students who could thrive in those schools.

But the exam’s supporters argue that it is an objective assessment that does not factor in prior academic achievement and which levels the playing field for students who work hard to prepare. The majority of students admitted to the city’s specialized high schools are Asian American, many of whom come from immigrant and low-income families.

Before he was elected mayor, Eric Adams blasted the test-only admissions process and said officials were “tolerating a Jim Crow school system.” Since taking office, Adams hasn’t advanced any proposals to reform the admissions process at those schools, nor has he prioritized school integration policies more broadly.

“We’re seeing the story get worse, and I think this is indicative of the lack of approach this administration has taken to addressing segregation across the city and in the specialized high schools,” said Matt Gonzales, a longtime integration advocate and the campaign director of New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools. “It’s time for serious action on this.”

None of the major candidates running for mayor have proposed significant changes to the SHSAT, which would require approval from lawmakers in Albany. In 1971, the state legislature required the city to begin using a single test for admission at three specialized high schools (the city later designated five more test-only specialized schools).

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor and a graduate of Bronx Science, a specialized school, previously said he supports “an independent analysis of the Specialized HS exam for gender and racial bias.” He has not proposed any specific reforms.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running an independent campaign, supports using the SHSAT while expanding access to test preparation, an idea that has historically not moved the needle. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa also supports the exam and wants to open more specialized schools.

Any proposal to overhaul admission to the coveted schools would likely invite intense backlash. The specialized schools are often seen as a springboard into top colleges, though studies have found that students with similar academic qualifications who attend different schools end up with similar SAT scores and college admissions offers.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed scrapping the exam in favor of a system that would automatically admit the top-performing students at each middle school, a reform that officials projected would dramatically increase Black and Latino enrollment. Still, the proposal would have sharply reduced offers to Asian American students, prompting fierce pushback from community leaders who argued they had not been included in shaping the policy.

Complicating matters, de Blasio’s proposal failed to gain traction in Albany, and lawmakers have brushed off other proposals to change the law.

City officials on Thursday also released statistics on admissions offers to programs outside the specialized schools.

Across roughly 72,000 eighth graders who received a high school admissions offer, 59% got their first choice, up from 51% last year. Officials said roughly the same proportion of middle schoolers were matched with their top choice as last year, or about 77%.

Unlike last year, city officials did not immediately release the overall demographics of students who were admitted to screened high schools other than the specialized schools. On Friday, officials released statistics that showed there have not been major demographic shifts on those campuses.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional responses from the Education Department that were provided after this story was published.

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

NYC’s highly anticipated high school admissions data faces lengthy delay

2025-07-31T19:29:18+00:00

Shortly after this story was published, the Education Department released admissions data. Read our coverage here.

New York City’s Education Department has yet to release highly anticipated high school admissions statistics, marking the first time in more than a decade that officials have not disclosed the results by mid-June.

The figures include demographic breakdowns of offers to the city’s specialized schools — widely considered among the nation’s most prestigious public high schools — and often command national headlines because the campuses enroll tiny numbers of Black and Latino students.

School integration advocates, government accountability groups, and even former department officials have begun to question the delays.

“It’s a completely reasonable public expectation that this information is published as soon as it’s available,” said John Kaehny, the executive director of Reinvent Albany, a group that pushes for government transparency. “It’s right to ask the mayor, ‘Where the heck is this?’”

Under Mayor Eric Adams, the Education Department began releasing high school admissions figures in June, months later than his predecessor. In recent weeks, education officials repeatedly promised to disclose the data imminently, though they have yet to do so.

The figures often generate fresh debate about the status of the city’s schools as among the country’s most segregated. New York City is home to an unusually large share of public schools that enroll students based on academic performance, including eight specialized high schools that only consider a student’s performance on a single exam.

Although they only enroll about 5% of the city’s students, the specialized high schools command outsized attention because they are widely considered to be among the country’s most prestigious public schools. Still, the campuses’ demographics do not reflect the student body as a whole, prompting longstanding debate about whether the admissions process should change. Even as offers to Black and Latino students inched up last year, four of the eight specialized schools that rely on a single test offered admission to 10 or fewer Black students.

Some observers have wondered if the delay could reflect an effort by Adams, who is seeking reelection, to release the specialized high school figures over the summer when they might get less attention. In response to a social media post making that claim, former Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer wrote on July 3 that “they should’ve had this data out at least a month ago.”

Styer, who left the department in April, added that he encouraged the department to release the high school school admissions statistics in June instead of earlier in the spring to include them along with middle school, kindergarten, and prekindergarten figures all at once instead of in separate batches. (Those groups have slightly different admissions timelines.)

Typically, the statistics also include the share of students who got into programs they ranked at the top of their application and other basic information about the number of applicants for each grade level.

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said the data has not been released because the department is planning to include a new set of statistics this year that need to be vetted for accuracy. She declined to elaborate.

“We are working on it — that’s all I can really say to you right now,” Brownstein said during a brief phone call. She later wrote in an email the results would be published on Thursday.

Matt Gonzales, a longtime integration advocate and the campaign director of New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools, argued the delayed statistics are part of a pattern.

“When it comes to transparency around data, and when it comes to addressing issues around segregation, this administration has made it pretty clear that they don’t care,” he said.

A City Hall spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Other advocates wondered if the department is simply overwhelmed, as the federal government freezes education funding and some families have been caught up in more aggressive immigration enforcement.

“2025 is like no other year prior in my lifetime in regards to everything that is happening,” said Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, co-executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education, an advocacy group.

She noted that it is unlikely that the admissions figures will reveal significant demographic shifts at the specialized schools, but she was intrigued by the promise of new information about the admissions process.

“It would be interesting to see what new data they’re trying to parse out,” Shaakir-Ansari said.

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

40 NYC schools will get 5,000 new after-school seats this fall. Here’s the list.

2025-07-22T20:12:22+00:00

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Forty schools across New York City will receive 5,000 new after-school seats this fall under a plan from Mayor Eric Adams to significantly expand such programs in the coming years.

The slots are expected to be available for students in grades K-5 across all five boroughs, free to families, and operate from the end of the school day to 6 p.m.

“This fall, those 5,000 children in neighborhoods in most need will have a safe place and nurturing place to go when the school day ends,” Adams said at a press conference at P.S. 152 in the Bronx, one of the campuses that will get new seats. “It’s critical, not only for the children, but also parents.”

By fall 2027, officials hope to add another 15,000 after-school seats, bringing the total number of elementary and middle public school students in city after-school programs to about 184,000. The city plans to assess how many more seats would then be needed to make the program universal. The expansion is projected to cost about $331 million a year by 2027.

Students in after-school programs should have access to a range of activities, including sports, art, and robotics, Adams said.

The after-school expansion, initially announced in April, comes after multiple candidates in the Democratic primary proposed efforts to dramatically grow the city’s after-school offerings. The eventual Democratic nominee, Zohran Mamdani, campaigned on a universal child care program. Given Adams’ unpopularity, it maybe up to his successor to implement the proposed after-school expansion.

The move also comes as the Trump administration froze billions in education funding earlier this month, including for after-school programs. The administration has since released some of that money, though the broader freeze is the subject of a lawsuit from two dozen states including New York. A slew of advocates and elected officials rallied in Manhattan Tuesday calling for the release of the money that had already been allocated by Congress.

Comptroller Brad Lander criticized a freeze of billions in federal education funding at a Tuesday rally outside the Education Department's Manhattan headquarters.

New York City Education Department officials said that up to $130 million is at risk if the funds remain frozen, though officials did not immediately say if that includes funds that have since been released. Teacher training, community schools, and class size reduction efforts could be affected, though a spokesperson emphasized that “we will always provide every school with the resources they need to give our students a world-class education.” (City Comptroller Brad Lander indicated the amount of frozen federal funding for the city’s schools could be closer to $170 million.)

For his part, Adams said the after-school expansion would be safe regardless of uncertainty at the federal level.

“Whatever plays out on the landscape of the federal government, we’re going to be fiscally smart and look at these important programs,” he said. “They will move forward.”

City officials considered a range of factors in determining which campuses received new seats, including poverty levels, crime rates, gaps in after-school support, and proportions of students with disabilities and those who are learning English.

A full list of the 40 campuses, including three charter schools, that will get new after-school programs this fall is here.

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

NYC reading scores reveal some progress. Is Eric Adams’ curriculum mandate working?

2025-07-07T21:15:35+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams’ flagship education initiative, shaking up New York City’s approach to reading instruction, has yet to answer a fundamental question: Is it working?

City officials pointed to a new data point last week showing that elementary reading scores are ticking up year-over-year, according to short assessments, or screeners, that students across the city take three times a year to help their teachers gauge if students need extra help. Several experts, however, said the screener data should be interpreted with caution.

The figures show that 41.6% of children in grades K-5 scored above the national median this spring, a 2.5 percentage point increase compared with spring of 2024. Schools that were required to begin making curriculum changes two years ago saw slightly larger gains than schools that adopted new programs last school year.

Top education officials contend the figures represent early evidence that the literacy mandate known as NYC Reads, which requires all elementary schools to use one of three city-approved reading curriculums, is taking root. The new curriculums are meant to align with longstanding research about how students learn to read, known as the science of reading.

“It’s really, really promising news, because what it’s showing is progress,” First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg told the Daily News.

City officials also released the results of math screeners, which show that 38.4% of students in grades K-5 scored above the national median this spring, a 3.2 percentage point increase compared with the previous year.

In a press release, Adams and schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos linked those gains to a math curriculum shakeup called NYC Solves, which requires schools to adopt city-approved math programs. But NYC Solves does not include students in elementary grades. An Education Department spokesperson noted that some elementary districts have begun changing math curriculums even though there is no requirement to do so through NYC Solves.

The scores come at a delicate moment as the current administration works to expand the reading and math curriculum overhauls. If Adams does not win reelection in November, decisions about the curriculum mandate, known as NYC Reads, will fall to a new mayor who could change course if the program is not seen as a success. Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, previously said NYC Reads is “an important step in the right direction” while noting teachers may need more leeway to implement it as they see fit.

Meanwhile, experts said the screener data can’t definitively show whether the curriculum changes are taking hold.

“These results are good news, but it is too early to determine whether this is a useful step towards the intended goal or irrelevant noise,” said Timothy Shanahan, a reading expert and professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who reviewed the data at Chalkbeat’s request.

Shanahan added that scores were ticking up on the screeners even before the curriculum changes were implemented. “I would be uncomfortable claiming these [curriculum] changes were the cause of the gains,” he wrote, noting that other factors such as changes in student attendance could affect the scores.

Screeners are generally less comprehensive than state exams students must take every year, according to literacy experts. They are designed to help teachers quickly identify which students need extra support. The assessments in grades K-2, from a company called Acadience, can be administered by a teacher in minutes. In higher grades, students take adaptive computer-based assessments, meaning the questions change based on whether a student is answering them correctly.

Adrea Truckenmiller, an associate professor at Michigan State University who has studied literacy screening, said the assessments often correlate with state test results, especially in upper elementary grades, offering an early signal of whether students are on the right track. They also include younger students while state exams only assess students in grades 3-8.

“Reading screeners are imperfect but they are the best thing we have,” Truckenmiller said.

The data show students in those early grades saw an increase of 3.2 percentage points year over year, while those in grades 3-5 had a 1.7 percentage point gain.

Similar to state test results, the screener data shows deep disparities between student groups. About 56% of white and Asian American students scored above the national median in reading compared with about 29% of Latino and 35% of Black children. Only 19% of students with disabilities and 13% of English language learners scored above the national median.

Even as city officials hope that the screeners are an early indication of success, that has yet to show up on state assessments. During the 2023-24 school year, student reading scores declined slightly, with larger drops in districts that were first to change curriculums. City officials described the results as an “implementation dip” as teachers were still adapting to the new curriculums. Last school year’s state test scores are expected to be released later this summer.

Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College who has studied school performance, said the state tests offer a deeper picture of student achievement, though he noted that a variety of factors can influence those scores.

“As usual, it’s the complex challenge of trying to paint a picture when there are many different parts of a puzzle,” Pallas said. “The screening assessments are one bit of evidence.”

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

NYC schools are getting financial coaches. See which 15 districts are first to get them this fall.

2025-06-18T18:32:09+00:00

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Starting in the fall, 15 of New York City’s local school districts serving 350,000 students will get financial educators who will provide free financial counseling and workshops to students and their families, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Wednesday.

The “financial literacy for youth,” or “fly,” initiative — which Adams previewed in his January State of the City address — is expected to expand to all 32 local school districts by 2030. The program will also pilot in-school banking to give students hands-on experience with saving and managing money with access to affordable banking options, city officials said.

The program will cost $25 million over five years, city officials said, with financial educators covering such topics as credit and money management basics, different types of banking products, and spotting consumer financial scams.

“We teach our children and our scholars … chemical bonds but not stocks and bonds,” Adams said at a press conference at Brooklyn Collegiate Preparatory High School. “We have to learn both. We have to learn treasury bonds and chemical bonds. We have to learn how to save, how to use our money.”

The districts in this first group were selected because they include neighborhoods with high rates of families without bank accounts, and they also participate in the Education Department’s FutureReadyNYC program,a signature Adams administration initiative that provides schools with resources to launch new career tracks, along with paid work experience, in the education, technology, business, and health care sectors. Six out of the 15 districts are in the Bronx, followed by four in Brooklyn, three in Manhattan, and one in Queens and Staten Island.

There’s been a growing push for financial literacy in schools from city and state leaders and beyond. At least 35 states require students to take a personal finance course to graduate, according to a 2024 report from the Council for Economic Education. In New York, the state said it’s adding new mandates for financial literacy to its updated graduation requirements — something that some students from across the city have been pushing for.

“Financial literacy is not a topic only some students should get to understand,” Anisha Singhal, previously wrote for Chalkbeat about Stuyvesant High School’s financial literacy elective. “It’s like a health class: a field of critical knowledge every high schooler needs (yes, even if that means yet another graduation requirement).”

But some critics argue that the push for financial literacy puts the onus on the consumer rather than on strengthening regulation of the players in the financial world, such as banks, investment firms, and insurance companies — many of whom are big advocates for school-based financial literacy. Some research has cast doubt on the effectiveness of financial literacy programs, and some observers are concerned that programs, many of which are offered free of charge to schools and sponsored by banks, could be used as marketing tools in an attempt to get potential customers.

In-school banking has been explored in other parts of the country and the state. City officials declined to provide more information about the in-school banking branches, saying to expect more information on that “soon.”

Here are the districts in the first wave of the new youth financial literacy program:

Manhattan

District 2 (Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Upper East Side)

District 3 (Upper West Side, Central Harlem)

District 5 (Central Harlem)

Bronx

District 7 (Hunts Point, Melrose, Longwood)

District 8 (Belmont, Crotona Park East, East Tremont)

District 9 (Concourse, Highbridge, Mount Eden)

District 10 (Bedford Park, Fordham North, Norwood)

District 11 (Castle Hill, Clason Point, Parkchester)

District 12 (Baychester, Eastchester, Williamsbridge, Wakefield)

Brooklyn

District 14 (Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bedford-Stuyvesant)

District 19 (Brownsville, Canarsie)

District 21 (Brighton Beach, Coney Island)

District 23 (Brownsville)

Queens

District 30 (Astoria, Long Island City, Jackson Hights, North Corona)

Staten Island

District 31

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

NYC preschool offers yield waitlists in some neighborhoods, empty seats in others

2025-05-20T22:06:52+00:00

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Over the past week, families of preschoolers got offers to New York City’s sprawling free early childhood education system — and acceptance rate data shared Tuesday by city officials contains a familiar paradox.

Even as the city faces a historic child care affordability crisis, tens of thousands of free seats will likely go vacant once again next school year. Roughly 56,000 students turning 4 by the end of 2025 got offers last week to the city’s pre-K program, which has capacity for roughly 70,000, according to data shared Tuesday by Education Department officials with the City Council. Another 44,000 students turning 3 this year got offers Tuesday for 3-K, which has room for 47,000.

Across the roughly 130,000 total early childhood education seats overseen by the city’s Education Department, only about 70% are currently filled, according to Simone Hawkins, the deputy chancellor for Early Childhood Education.

Officials, advocates and lawmakers point to a number of potential reasons, including a lack of outreach, a drop in the population of young kids, and a mismatch between the location of seats and demand.

“We have to really face the reality that this sector is very much stressed and strained for a variety of reasons,” said Hawkins, who took over as deputy chancellor last July after her predecessor’s rocky two-and-a-half-year tenure. “I do think that outreach is part of the solution. It’s not the whole solution. It’s a matter of really moving seats closer to where the demand lives.”

Despite all those empty seats, thousands of families didn’t get into any of their preferred programs, officials said. Roughly 15% of 3-K applicants, more than 6,000 students, didn’t get into any of the programs they listed on their application and were instead assigned other options by the city — leaving some facing long commutes.

Rebecca Bailin, the executive director of New Yorkers United for Childcare, said her organization has already heard from multiple families concerned that their 3-K offer is too far away or has hours that don’t work.

One family living near the border of Bushwick and Ridgewood was placed in a program roughly 40 minutes away and not easily accessible by train, according to survey results shared with Chalkbeat.

“I can’t get there every morning with a 3 year old, it’s just not feasible,” wrote the parent, who said they would likely have to continue paying for a private program.

City officials noted that this year, unlike last, every family at least got an offer. Some families might get into programs off waitlists over the summer, officials added. And while families can apply for up to 12 programs, about half of the families applying to preschool rank only one or two programs, according to a report commissioned several years ago by the Education Department.

Zachary Nosanchuk, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, said the mayor’s recent commitment to long-term funding for 3-K is allowing the city for the first time to offer “a seat in 3-K for every child and family who wants one.” City officials will “continue to work with families to ensure every child can attend a program that meets their needs,” he added.

Officials have for years pointed to a misalignment between where seats are located and where there’s demand but have yet to make a major dent in fixing the problem. The rate of filled 3-K seats varies widely across the city — from a low of 61% in District 23 in central Brooklyn to a high of 98% in District 30 in western Queens, according to a recent report from the Independent Budget Office.

Hawkins said the department is constrained by the contracts that govern the city’s relationship with scores of community-based organizations who operate the lion’s share of the 3-K and pre-K programs. She said the city is doing its best to work within those contracts to shift seats to better align with demand, including converting pre-K seats into 3-K seats and shifting seats currently earmarked as full-year seats only for low-income families to school year seats for any family.

In addition, city officials are seeking to shift more of their federally-funded Head Start seats to 0- to 2-year-olds because of growing demand for that age range, they said.

Factors including the cost of housing and the COVID-19 pandemic have also contributed to a shrinking number of young kids in the five boroughs. The population of kids under 5 in New York City shrank by 18% between 2020 and 2023.

But many advocates and lawmakers say the city still has a long way to go in making families who are here aware of the program and how to apply.

“We’ve talked to parents … who didn’t even know about 3-K,” said Bailin. And even though Adams committed to long-term funding to sustain 3-K in this year’s budget, Bailin argued that years of budget uncertainty has hampered the city’s ability to effectively administer the program.

Adams agreed to add $5 million to the fiscal year 2025 budget specifically for outreach, and included the funding again for this year, but not beyond that. It’s one of several education items council members are fighting to get long-term funding for.

Hawkins agreed with suggestions from several council members that the Education Department should embark on a more wholesale reimagining of the early childhood education system.

“It’s not just about opening new seats … it’s not just about the age of seats, but the type of seats and the people who are supporting these children through their learning trajectory,” she said.

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

NYC faces child care voucher crisis as state funding stalls

2025-05-05T18:46:55+00:00

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New York City has stopped enrolling low-income families in a popular child care voucher program because of a funding shortfall in the state budget, city officials said on Monday.

Costs for the state-funded Child Care Assistance Program are soaring in the five boroughs, driven by booming enrollment and an increase in the value of the voucher to meet the rising costs of child care. The vouchers provide an average of $300 a week to defray child care costs.

This confluence of factors is creating a yawning budget shortfall that experts place at nearly a billion dollars for next year.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s initial budget proposal included no funding increase for the program, prompting city officials to warn they would have to kick thousands of families a month off the program.

In last week’s final budget deal between Hochul and the state legislature — which still has not been officially released — state officials offered $350 million in funding for the city’s voucher program contingent on the city putting up the same amount, according to city officials.

But on Monday, top officials in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration called that proposal a nonstarter and said they would have to take immediate steps to cut program costs.

“Sadly, the state’s proposed budget provides insufficient funding for its own program, so we are unable to enroll any new eligible applicants seeking such vouchers beginning today,” First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro told reporters on Monday. A dozen counties across the state have paused new enrollment because of the funding shortfall, he noted.

“This is a step we did not want to have to take,” he said.

Given that the budget documents haven’t yet been published, city officials hope there might be room for some changes.

“There is still time,” Mastro said.

For now, the city will continue recertifying families who are already in the program, Mastro said. But officials did not foreclose the possibility of taking vouchers away from families in the future if additional funding doesn’t come through.

The city will continue to enroll new families who qualify for cash assistance and are legally required to receive the vouchers, officials said.

Nearly 80,000 city children received vouchers last year. The majority of those recipients, roughly 56,000, qualified through a newly expanded program for low-income vouchers available to families making under 85% of the state median income, or about $108,000 for a family of four, according to an analysis from The New School.

The remaining 22,000 vouchers went to children whose families receive cash assistance — a number expected to rise sharply starting this year with the expiration of COVID-era waivers allowing families to qualify for cash assistance without work requirements. Analysts and city officials predict the waivers’ end will create a surge in employment among families receiving cash assistance. The state is also required to provide child care vouchers for those families. The New School report estimated the number of such families needing vouchers would triple to 66,000 by March 2026.

That growth — combined with the increased value of the vouchers — is expected to create a major financial crunch for the program. City officials have said they may need to remove between 4,000 and 7,000 families a month from the program without increased funding.

There are typically thousands of new applicants each month for the child care vouchers, officials said. They are being placed on a waitlist.

Hochul spokesperson Avery Cohen argued it’s the city’s responsibility to increase spending, noting the city’s contribution has remained “relatively flat” for 25 years and makes up only 6% of the billion-dollar budget for the program.

“This status quo is unsustainable, and if we are serious about providing comprehensive, affordable child care for working families, then these costs must be a shared responsibility between the City and the State,” she wrote in an email.

City officials firmly rejected that argument Monday, contending that the program has always been the state’s responsibility, and that the state has explicitly encouraged the kind of rapid growth driving the increasing costs of the city’s program.

“Historically, the state encouraged counties to get rid of their backlog,” said newly appointed Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Suzanne Miles-Gustave, who previously led the state office that administers the child care voucher program. “New York City followed instructions — they got rid of their backlog.”

Some counties were reluctant to do that, fearing the state might not deliver additional funding, leaving them “holding the bag,” Miles-Gustave said. “That is the fear we are realizing right now.”

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

Eric Adams touts after-school, child care investments in executive budget proposal

2025-05-01T23:15:58+00:00

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Education and youth were front and center in Mayor Eric Adams’ executive budget proposal Thursday as he touted plans to boost spending on child care and after-school programs.

Overall, Adams’ $115.1 billion executive budget proposes roughly $18.3 billion in city funding for the Education Department’s operating budget. That’s a roughly $670 million increase over the city’s education spending this fiscal year and $4.7 billion more than the city allocated in 2019, according to budget documents — increases that have kept the city’s education budget growing as federal aid diminished.

Several of the big ticket items, including reversing plans to let early childhood education funding expire and expanding investment in after-school programs, were already publicized in the days and weeks leading up to Thursday’s executive budget. Officials also committed to supporting several other education programs initially funded by one-time federal aid, which was set to expire this year, and promised funding to boost teacher hiring to shrink class sizes.

“No one will feel the impact more than our students because this is the best budget ever for families and young people,” Adams said during his budget address at Bayside High School in Queens, his alma mater.

Leaders of the City Council, who will negotiate with Adams in the coming months to adopt a final budget, had called for roughly $800 million in new education spending, and said Thursday’s announcement was a good start but only came after sustained pushback from the council and advocates. The final budget is due by the end of June.

“This is how the budget process should work, but it’s disappointing that it took three years for this administration to become tired of being entirely on the wrong side of doing right by New Yorkers,” said Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Queens Democrat who is running against Adams for mayor, and Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan, a Brooklyn Democrat, in a joint statement.

Other city officials questioned whether Adams’ executive budget adequately took into account threats to the city’s budget and economy at the state and federal level.

“Eric Adams’ Executive Budget is from a fantasyland where Trump’s tariffs aren’t increasing the likelihood of an economic downturn and federal budget cuts aren’t looming,” said Comptroller Brad Lander, who is also running for mayor.

Office of Management and Budget director Jacques Jiha countered that the city’s reserves are at record levels and the city’s revenue projections are appropriately conservative.

After-school and child care get big investments

Several of the biggest spending proposals in the executive budget are efforts to shore up child care programs at a time when the city’s increasing unaffordability for families continues to be a major issue in the mayoral race.

Adams previously announced that he would reverse plans to let $112 million for the city’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds — and another $55 million for special education preschool seats — expire at the end of this fiscal year. Adams also announced Thursday that he will continue funding a program providing child care vouchers to undocumented families at $25 million a year, though the City Council has asked for more.

Earlier this week, Adams unveiled a plan he said will set the city on a path to universal after-school care. The plan proposes adding 5,000 K-5 after-school seats by this fall and another 15,000 by fall 2027. Officials said they will conduct a needs assessment in 2027 to see how many additional seats are needed to reach universality and re-bid contracts to improve payment rates for after-school providers. All told, the expansion will cost roughly $331 million a year by 2027, according to budget documents.

Federal and state threats loom

Despite the increase in education spending, budget officials acknowledged some looming threats and uncertainties at both the state and federal level.

A final state budget still hasn’t been officially released a month after the due date, though Gov. Kathy Hochul sketched the outlines of the deal earlier this week. That deal will include a statewide “bell-to-bell” school cellphone ban — a mandate budget officials said would cost the city about $25 million and “have a negative impact on the City’s financial plan.” Officials said the figure was based on Education Department estimates for purchasing cellphone pouches and other implementation costs. But officials did not yet know how much financial support to expect from the state.

Other state threats include a likely change to the school funding formula that would deliver the city roughly $350 million less than the current formula and a gaping budget shortfall for a popular child care voucher program. The state budget deal is unlikely to provide the funding necessary to keep families from losing access to the vouchers, but Adams is continuing to lobby the state to fill the gap, the New York Daily News reported.

Adams told reporters Thursday that the program is still facing a $300 million budget gap.

“No one is talking about the shortchanging of New York City on the state level,” he said.

Budget officials also acknowledged that threats from the Trump administration to cut off federal funding for school districts offering certain diversity, equity, and inclusion programs — currently on hold because of legal challenges — jeopardizes $2 billion for city schools that could result in “staffing reductions, increased class sizes, and cuts to after-school and support programs.”

Some relief for programs propped up by federal COVID dollars

Some education programs previously funded by one-time federal COVID relief money and on the chopping block for next year were given a reprieve in Thursday’s budget.

Those include Project Pivot, a priority of former Chancellor David Banks that gives schools money to work with community-based organizations to prevent violence, which will get $15 million in this and future budgets, according to budget documents.

Other programs getting long-term funding commitments include arts education, computer science courses, and a tutoring program.

A program to provide additional support for students experiencing mental health crises will get $5 million for next year but no commitment beyond that, according to advocates.

Increased teacher hiring budget comes into focus

Thursday’s budget announcement also provided the first clues about how much the city will spend on its upcoming teacher hiring blitz to comply with the state’s class size law.

Adams previously announced that schools will get additional money to hire some 3,700 extra teachers on top of normal hiring for next school year, but officials have been tight-lipped about how much that will cost and where the money is coming from.

According to budget documents released Thursday, the city will commit $150 million for extra teacher hiring this year and $200 million annually in future years. Budget officials said state funding will be “reflected later” but didn’t clarify how much they expect and whether that will be in addition to or instead of the city’s contribution. Union officials said the state money will be in addition to the city funds, but that the precise amount is still unclear.

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

Eric Adams expands reading and math curriculum mandates to all NYC middle schools

2025-04-21T22:28:50+00:00

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All New York City middle schools will be required to use city-approved curriculums for reading and math by fall 2027, Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos announced Monday.

As the mandates are phased in, 102 middle schools across eight districts will be required this September to use a city-approved reading program selected by their superintendent, building on a literacy overhaul that was launched two years ago in elementary schools.

And in math, officials are continuing a planned expansion of a middle school mandate, adding 84 schools in six local districts this fall. Just over 100 middle schools are already part of the math curriculum requirement. (There are 529 middle schools across the city’s 32 local districts.)

Adams’ education agenda has been defined by curriculum mandates to improve reading and math proficiency. Monday’s announcement indicates Adams is following through on plans to deepen those efforts. Proponents of the curriculum overhaul contend that it can take years for the changes to bear fruit, likely leaving it up to Adams’ successor to see the effort through as the mayor faces an uncertain path to re-election.

Adams and his first chancellor, David Banks, argued that schools have had too much leeway to pick their own curriculums, leading to uneven academic results. Under half of students in grades 3-8 are proficient in reading while about 53% are proficient in math, according to state tests.

“We can’t continue to do the same things that we have been always doing and expecting to get better results,” Adams said during a press conference at Brooklyn’s Dock Street School for STEAM Studies.

The reading and math curriculum mandates, known respectively as NYC Reads and NYC Solves, are meant to guarantee that schools are using high-quality programs. Principals have traditionally been allowed to cobble together their own approaches. Many used programs that do not line up with research about how children learn to read. Additionally, using one curriculum in each district makes it easier to scale up teacher training and may be less disruptive for students who switch schools.

The mandates have won mixed reactions from parents and educators. Some have raised concerns about the specific curriculums city officials chose and others said the city’s training efforts have been uneven. All of the city’s elementary schools are now required to use one of three reading programs, and nearly all high schools have adopted a common Algebra 1 curriculum.

Teachers union chief Michael Mulgrew, a key supporter of the literacy mandate and vocal critic of the high school math mandate, did not appear at Monday’s press conference. Alison Gendar, a union spokesperson, criticized the decision to expand the math mandate to middle schools.

“The DOE rollout of the new math curriculum in the high schools was dreadful,” she wrote. “It makes no sense for the DOE to expand the math curriculum to middle schools when its work in high schools is unfinished.”

The principals union has been more concerned about curriculum mandates, and a spokesperson did not say whether the union supports the addition of middle schools. Both unions have secured some changes to the existing mandates.

The city has not yet seen clear-cut gains from the new curriculums. State reading scores dropped last school year, with larger declines in districts using the mandated reading programs, though officials pointed to other assessment data that they said is more encouraging.

Aviles-Ramos said some test score drops are expected as teachers learn how to use the new programs. “We are truly listening to what’s happening on the ground so we can address any issues,” she said. She also predicted gains in student proficiency.

“I’m super confident as we embark on state exam season that we are going to see improvements,” Aviles-Ramos said. City officials have instructed schools to ramp up test prep for students at the cusp of passing the reading tests.

Educators at schools covered by the expanded reading and math curriculum mandates will begin to receive training this spring in addition to 12 days of “job-embedded coaching” this fall.

All but one of the districts in the first wave of the middle school reading curriculum mandate will use a program called EL Education, including Manhattan Districts 1 and 3; Districts 7, 9, 11, and 12 in the Bronx; and District 13 in Brooklyn. District 19 in Brooklyn will use a curriculum called Wit & Wisdom.

In three of those districts — 3, 9, and 12 — the superintendents chose to mandate different reading programs in their middle and elementary schools. Education Department officials said superintendents made choices about which program to mandate based in part on how many schools were already using them. They did not immediately say how many middle schools are already using the curriculums mandated by their superintendent.

Notably, none of the superintendents in the initial wave chose the middle school version of Into Reading, the most commonly mandated curriculum at the elementary school level. That program has faced criticism from some educators and advocates who contend that it is not culturally responsive, is too reliant on text excerpts rather than full books, and is not focused enough on building students’ content knowledge. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the company behind the program, has previously disputed those claims.

A different set of districts are mandating middle school math programs for the first time. Four districts — District 8 in the Bronx, District 17 in Brooklyn, District 25 in Queens, and Staten Island’s District 31 — will all use a curriculum called Amplify Desmos Math. District 5 in Manhattan will use i-Ready Mathematics, and District 6 selected Illustrative Mathematics.

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

NYC commits $167 million to shore up early childhood education system amid federal threats

2025-04-16T20:30:31+00:00

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After threatening to allow nearly $200 million in early childhood spending to expire, Mayor Eric Adams announced plans Wednesday to keep most of it in the budget for next year and beyond.

The move will restore $112 million for 3-K, the city’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds, and $55 million to help address a chronic shortage of seats for preschool children with disabilities.

Education Department officials also committed to temporarily using city money to sustain some federally funded Head Start programs amid the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the program.

In a press conference Wednesday alongside his predecessor Bill de Blasio, who launched the city’s free universal preschool program, Adams touted the restoration as a historic investment in the early childhood education system.

“This is a Herculean task that we are able to accomplish,” Adams said.

Adams, who faces an uphill battle for reelection this year, promised to make the funding a permanent part of the budget.

The announcement was welcome news for many early childhood education providers who have been deeply concerned about budget threats at both the state and federal level next year.

“Against the backdrop of simultaneous challenges facing early childhood education programs and providers in NYC, including significant funding shortfalls in the State’s child care assistance program and looming threats to Head Start funding at the Federal level, today’s announcement provides much-needed relief,” said Tara Gardner, the executive director of the Daycare Council, which represents dozens of childcare providers.

The move to restore the early childhood funding now instead of at the last minute after negotiations with City Council, as Adams did last year, could also ease political pressure on the mayor.

But leaders of the City Council, none of whom were present at Wednesday’s announcement, were not so quick to praise Adams, noting that he did not restore all of the expiring funding and that he could have avoided the cuts in the first place.

“Taking funding away from children’s programs that our families rely on and only putting some of it back doesn’t make you a champion; it only harms the early childhood education system,” said Council speaker Adrienne Adams, education chair Rita Joseph, and finance chair Justin Brannan in a joint statement.

Mayor Adams said he left the funding out of his preliminary budget in January because of “economic uncertainties.”

Speaker Adams, who is running for mayor, has also called on Mayor Adams to renew funding in his executive budget for a $25 million program that offers families seats with extended hours and $84 million to expand access to child care vouchers. That budget is expected by the end of the month.

A new chapter in yearslong battle to sustain 3-K funding

Wednesday’s announcement is the latest chapter in a battle over early childhood education that has been simmering since Adams took office in 2022, when the system was still reeling from pandemic-driven enrollment declines but flush with federal COVID aid.

De Blasio had used hundreds of millions of dollars of that aid to aggressively expand 3-K in an effort to make it universal, like he’d previously done for prekindergarten. But the Adams administration backed off that promise — swamped by more immediate problems including thousands of vacant seats in some neighborhoods and a severe payment delay crisis that forced some programs to shutter.

Adams officials at the time were not shy about laying the blame for those problems at the feet of the de Blasio administration, with former schools Chancellor David Banks saying “there have been a lot of messes to try to clean up.” Critics countered that many of the problems were self-inflicted and the result of poor leadership that led to a mass exodus in the Education Department’s early childhood division.

De Blasio and Adams put any animosity aside on Wednesday.

“One can have differences on applications, implementations, but we don’t differ on the foundation,” said Adams. “We are joined at the hip, and now we are building on what he started.”

As the federal COVID aid that funded the 3-K expansion expired, funding for early childhood education became a major point of contention with the City Council.

The commitment to make the 3-K and special education funding permanent could ease that battle and create more stability for providers, but challenges with the system remain.

Last year, 3-K enrollment was roughly 44,000, with more than 8,000 unfilled seats, according to city data. Pre-K enrollment was around 59,000 last year — down from a peak of over 70,000 before the pandemic — with 14,000 unfilled seats. Even with all those vacant seats, thousands of students didn’t initially get an offer to one of their preferred 3-K programs last year.

Adams said the city has more work to do in better aligning seats with demand, but said the process of closing seats in areas without high enough demand can be “painful … we have to be sensitive on how do we address that without traumatizing families and children.”

Council members fought last year to get an additional $5 million to improve the city’s outreach efforts to help fill vacant seats, but that money so far has not been restored for next year’s budget.

Students with disabilities face chronic shortage

The city’s promise of universal preschool has for years failed to reach students with disabilities, who have faced a chronic shortage of seats.

Adams vowed to address the problem by boosting funding to help community organizations make their wages more competitive and adding $55 million to open new seats.

Advocates praised the restoration of that $55 million, but it will likely still not be enough to guarantee a spot for every student who has a legal right to one.

About 651 preschool students with disabilities were waiting for placements this spring, Christina Foti, the city’s top special education official, said during a March City Council hearing.

Plus, advocates contend even more aggressive investments are needed to provide those students with a full range of services. More than 7,900 preschool students had not yet received at least one mandated service, such as speech or physical therapy. Nearly 4,600 of them — or 58% — had yet to receive any special education services listed on their learning plan, Foti said at the March hearing.

To address those gaps, advocates have called for $70 million more to beef up evaluations and services — funding that Adams has not yet committed.

Some Head Start providers get some relief, but fears loom large

Officials also promised Wednesday to use city money to help stabilize some Head Start providers facing deep uncertainty because of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the program.

Head Start, which began in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, funds early childhood programs for roughly 20,000 kids from low-income families across the city, according to federal data.

Providers who offer the program can either contract directly with the federal government, or subcontract from the city Education Department, which holds a Head Start grant for about 6,000 seats.

The program is facing several looming threats in the five boroughs. The grant held by the city Education Department ends in June, and the city was forced to re-compete for its contract because past concerns about its performance led to an audit. The city has not yet heard back on the results of that application, but officials have said they’re expecting big changes — ranging from receiving less money than before, to a change in the age distribution of seats, to losing the grant altogether — creating uncertainty for providers and families.

On top of that, U.S. Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly closed five of the 10 regional Head Start offices across the country, including New York’s, in late March, leaving providers in the dark about who is reviewing the city’s grant applications and when — or if — they’ll hear back.

“There’s a question of … are they reviewing these applications at all?” said Bridget O’Rourke, the associate executive director of early childhood education at University Settlement.

In the longer term, Project 2025, the conservative blueprint that has guided Trump’s early policy efforts, calls for the elimination of Head Start, claiming it’s “fraught with scandal and abuse” and has little positive impact, despite extensive research showing the opposite. And Trump is proposing to end Head Start’s funding in his initial budget proposal, USA Today reported last week, though a final budget must be approved by Congress.

To help allay some of those concerns, Education Department officials met with providers who subcontract from the city on Tuesday and assured them that if the federal government slashes the city’s grant, the city will use its own money to keep those programs going next year, according to a provider on the call.

City officials didn’t immediately say how much money they’d set aside for that scenario. And while the city’s commitment gives some assurance to providers who subcontract from the Education Department, it doesn’t extend to programs that contract directly from the federal government, according to people familiar with the plans.

Those programs, which serve thousands of city students, are still reeling from the closure of the New York regional office, and many are waiting to hear back on their own grant applications.

“Right now … direct service has not been impacted,” said Rita Santelia, the chief executive officer of Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, which enrolls 400 students across Head Start and Early Head Start programs. “But we as providers are on tenterhooks… we’re not sure when the shoe is going to drop. You can’t operate with this level of fear.”

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

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

NYC comptroller slams Ed. Dept.’s ‘stunning’ failure to complete mandated school asbestos checks

2025-04-09T20:47:06+00:00

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New York City’s Education Department is severely out of compliance with a federal law mandating regular inspections of school buildings containing asbestos, an audit released Wednesday by comptroller Brad Lander found.

Out of the city’s roughly 1,600 schools, a whopping 80% have been identified to have asbestos and are required by federal law to be inspected by an accredited professional once every three years. Yet, only 18% of the more-than 1,400 schools containing asbestos had such inspections between 2021 and 2024, the audit found.

School buildings with asbestos are also required to have routine inspections by a trained employee, such as a custodian, every six months. But the city only began systematically tracking those inspections in 2023 and completed them at just 22% of schools between 2023 and 2024, the audit revealed.

“[The Education Department] has stunningly failed to follow the minimum national standard for asbestos management for years,” Lander said in a statement. “I am urging the Adams Administration to take swift action to come into compliance because no parent, teacher, or school staffer should feel unsafe walking into a school.”

The audit advises the Education Department to create new policies, tracking systems, and accountability plans to quickly improve its compliance.

Asbestos can cause serious health complications including cancer when inhaled. The compound was widely used in school construction during the 20th century, and it can be found in insulation, flooring, and air conditioning equipment. Asbestos can be safely left in buildings as long as it’s intact, but when materials containing asbestos start to degrade, it becomes a safety risk.

Education Department officials claimed there was no risk of exposure because of the city’s abatement practices, according to Lander’s report — an assertion with which the auditors disagreed.

The 1986 Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, or AHERA, mandates regular inspections. Failure to comply with the law can result in financial penalties, according to the audit.

The city school system has a history of falling short on its asbestos inspection obligations: The start of school in 1993 had to be delayed by more than a week after officials had to scramble to conduct hundreds of last-minute emergency inspections.

From 1997 onward, the city completed an average of just 11% of the required triennial inspections in each three year stretch, the audit found.

The comptroller’s audit found the recent rates of inspections were the lowest in Brooklyn, where just 13% of school buildings containing asbestos got their required triennial review between 2021 and 2024. The highest rate was in the Bronx, where 25% of schools received the required inspection.

City officials have also maintained spotty records of their efforts to train custodians to conduct the twice yearly surveillance inspections and of whether those inspections were completed, the audit found. The system improved starting in 2023, but still shows the city completing only a fraction of the required inspections, auditors said.

The auditors also pointed out that some 60 school buildings may be improperly listed as containing asbestos — and receiving unnecessary inspections — because the city’s recordkeeping is out of date.

In a letter to Lander’s office responding to the audit, Education Department Chief Operating Officer Emma Vadehra agreed to all of the comptroller’s recommendations.

The department is hiring an executive director of health and safety to oversee all building safety work citywide, along with five borough-based deputies, and is working to digitize its asbestos inspection records, she added.

Custodian engineers are trained on asbestos and complete “daily walkthroughs” of their buildings that include checking the condition of materials that contain asbestos, Vadehra said.

An Education Department spokesperson noted that the agency requires testing before doing any work on a building.

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

Let the hiring spree begin: NYC OKs school plans for 3,700 new teachers, 100 assistant principals

2025-04-09T19:19:16+00:00

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New York City is giving schools extra funding to hire 3,700 teachers and 100 assistant principals to comply with a major class size reduction mandate, officials announced Wednesday.

The new educators will be distributed across 750 schools that submitted proposals earlier this year to reduce class sizes. About 800 schools submitted applications that were reviewed by the Education Department and unions representing teachers and school administrators.

The move is the most significant effort yet to meet aggressive new class size rules required by a 2022 state law. Most classrooms must be capped at 20 to 25 students depending on the grade level, down from 30 to 34 under current rules.

About 46% of public school classrooms fall within the new state caps, a number that is required to rise to 60% by September.

City officials said they are confident that the new wave of teacher hiring will allow schools to hit that threshold by the deadline. But they did not immediately say how much the additional educators would cost, where the funding is coming from, or which schools would benefit.

Mayor Eric Adams, flanked by the leaders of the principal and teacher unions at Wednesday’s announcement, said smaller classes will give students more opportunity for individual attention, boost learning, and help students regulate their emotions.

“There’s no intellectual conversation we need to have,” the mayor said. “It works, and it has to be done.”

That represents an about-face for Adams, whose administration previously expressed deep reservations about the state class size law, arguing that it amounts to an unfunded mandate that would require billions in additional spending on teacher hiring and school construction. Additionally, experts and the state’s top education official have raised concerns that the city’s highest-poverty schools stand to benefit the least from the additional hiring, as they already tend to have smaller class sizes.

Multiple school principals said they were grateful for the extra money. Staff salaries typically come out of individual school budgets, which are allocated based on how many students enroll and whether they have additional needs, such as a disability, are behind grade level, or come from a low-income family. Money for the new staff comes directly from the Education Department, circumventing the usual funding formula.

Principals fear a cutthroat teacher hiring season

Evan Schwartz, principal of Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School in the Bronx, recently learned his school will receive extra funding to hire two additional teachers. The news came a day before the school planned to participate in a hiring fair, allowing administrators to recruit four teachers instead of two.

“It’s good they’re getting this out as quickly as possible,” Schwartz said. “It’s very difficult to hire a teacher at the end of the summer.”

Schwartz estimated that at least 90% of his school’s classes will fall under the new caps thanks to the additional two teachers. He also proposed paying staff to teach an extra class on top of their regular schedules, though the Education Department has yet to approve funding requests for such measures.

Other principals said they were glad to have the extra staff but worried about finding qualified educators. City officials estimate that they will have to hire between 7,000 and 9,000 teachers by this fall, up from roughly 5,000 in a typical year.

“It’s going to be a battle,” said one high school principal whose request for additional teachers was approved and spoke on condition of anonymity. “I still don’t think there’s this core of great candidates out there who haven’t been hired yet.”

Studies have found that students generally learn more in smaller class sizes and that children from low-income families may benefit the most. But some of those benefits are tempered by a decline in teacher quality when schools are forced to hire new staff.

Experts have warned of other tradeoffs associated with the hiring frenzy.

Since affluent schools are more likely to have crowded classrooms, they will likely need more teachers, and a significant chunk of those educators may come from higher-poverty campuses. That could exacerbate existing challenges with turnover, one report found.

Questions remain on meeting full mandate by 2028

City officials have also yet to reveal plans to comply with the class size law beyond this September, when 60% of classrooms are required to meet the new caps. All classrooms must meet the new limits by September 2028.

In some cases, officials said schools won funding to convert other space into classrooms. But hundreds of school buildings don’t have the space to comply with the new caps, and officials may be forced to issue exemptions from the law.

The city could also cap enrollment on some popular campuses, a move favored by some class size advocates but which also faces resistance from parents vying for coveted school seats. (Some principals requested enrollment caps as part of their class size proposals but were denied.)

Another idea is to ramp up school construction to create new buildings for overcrowded schools, but those efforts are costly and typically take years. Plus, the School Construction Authority predicts that school enrollment is going to decline substantially over the next decade.

Some advocates praised the new funding but criticized the city for not yet revealing a broader plan to reach full compliance.

“The [Education Department] has refused to take positive steps to ensure that they will have more space in the future,” said Leonie Haimson, the executive director of Class Size Matters. “This means it is extremely unlikely that the city will meet the requirement of 80% -100% of classes achieving the caps in the last two years of the phase-in, as required by law.”

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

NYC students call on Mayor Adams to invest more in schools, child care, and immigrant aid

2025-04-08T21:54:19+00:00

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High school sophomore Samira Barotova is long past preschool age, but she acutely felt the impact of the city’s child care crisis.

When her little brother couldn’t get a spot in the city’s free 3-K program, Samira started getting pressure from her mom to skip afternoon volleyball practice to help look after him.

“Volleyball was my life,” said Samira, a student at Leaders High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. “But it was nothing compared to my brother.” Still, when she watched him, she felt ”emptiness in my heart.”

It wasn’t until Samira did some research and helped her mom obtain a voucher that subsidizes the cost of child care for low-income families that she could fully resume her extracurricular activities.

That experience is part of what drove Samira to speak out, alongside dozens of her classmates and members of the People’s Plan, a progressive coalition pushing for additional investments in social services, at the Education Department’s downtown headquarters on Thursday. They demanded additional investments in early childhood education, support for immigrant students, arts education, mental health, and CUNY.

The rally was the culmination of a project in the 10th-grade English classes at Leaders, a member of the city’s consortium of schools that are mostly exempt from Regents exams and prioritize student-driven projects. Students researched the city’s budget and zeroed in on the shortfalls that most directly affected their lives. Several of the students’ specific budget proposals align with recommendations from the People’s Plan.

The city’s budget is due at the end of June, and the City Council recently called on Mayor Eric Adams to add roughly $800 million for education programs he left out of his preliminary budget. The state budget, which is now more than a week late, will also have huge ripple effects on the city’s schools — with hundreds of millions in education dollars and the fate of the child care voucher program hanging in the balance.

Lack of child care forces older siblings to pick up the slack

Samira wasn’t the only student to notice that a lack of child care can increase the burden on older siblings. Malk Elgamal, another Leaders student, remembered that when she was a toddler, she stayed home all day with her mom until her older siblings came home, allowing her mom to leave for work.

“I didn’t understand it then, but behind the scenes, my siblings were rushing to get home from school,” she said. “If I had a place to go, my sister would have been able to go out with her friends after school. My brother could have played sports.”

Malk and Samira joined the chorus of lawmakers and advocates who have called on Adams to restore hundreds of millions of dollars for early childhood education left out of his preliminary budget.

Students want more aid and protections for immigrants

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants is top of mind for students at Leaders, who hail from countries including Uzbekistan, China, and Russia.

Rida Noor, an 11th grader who arrived with her family eight months ago from Pakistan, understands how critical it is to have access to legal services, and she urged the city to invest an additional $59 million to subsidize legal support for immigrant families, one of the proposals in the People’s Plan.

She recounted how little her own family knew the process for obtaining necessary documentation.

“Everything felt overwhelming. We didn’t understand the laws, what papers we needed, what rules we had to follow,” she said. “I remember my parents whispering late at night… what if a small mistake meant we could no longer stay?”

Merely Salamanca, another Leaders student and the daughter of Mexican immigrants, recalled the moment in 2022 she found out her dad wouldn’t be able to return to the U.S. after a trip back to Mexico.

“I dropped the [phone] on the [floor]. My heart sank. I couldn’t even breathe. The whole world just stopped in that instant,” she said.

“Thousands of families have been going through the same thing I have gone through, which is not something that should be happening in this world,” she said.

Merely called out Adams for “cooperating with Trump’s administration” and demanded that the city invest more to “protect immigrant New Yorkers” in next year’s budget.

Calls to bolster arts education from students and elected officials

As a kid who struggled to fit in and make friends at school, Mia Ottaviani always found solace in art class.

“I learned to channel my emotions through art, connect with others, stay committed to a project and persevere through problems,” she said. “The smell of wet paint, the sight of colorful artwork covering every inch of the walls and the low hum of creation going on all around me will never not bring me comfort.”

But Mia was dismayed to find as she got older that many of the schools she visited had little to no art offerings.

“Lots of the schools didn’t have a dedicated art room, just a small cart with squeaky wheels holding old, dried up paints collecting dust in a storage room,” she recalled.

Just a stone’s throw away from the Leaders rally, at the New York City Council, lawmakers were grilling city officials on that very topic. More than two-thirds of eighth graders in public schools didn’t receive the state-required two semesters of arts education in two different disciplines last school year, according to the council report.

Both Mia and Council Education Committee Chair Rita Joseph called on the Adams administration to maintain $41 million in arts funding that is set to disappear next year.

Pleas for more mental health services to cut long waits

During the darkest days of COVID, stuck in their house while “insecurities ran through [their] body and swam through [their] mind,” Dee Wood finally worked up the courage to seek out a therapist.

But because of a dire shortage of youth mental health providers, Dee was stuck on a waitlist for a year before they actually spoke to a therapist, they said.

“I was lucky enough to be one of those kids who could wait that long,” Dee said. “Some kids are slowly losing themselves to the pain in their brains.”

Dee called on the city to invest $61 million in “Crisis to Care,” an effort to expand mental health services and reduce waitlists. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who made an appearance at the rally, echoed that call — and slammed Adams for recently touting a school mental health program that he declined to fund in his preliminary budget.

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

NYC Council wants $800 million more for education than Eric Adams proposed

2025-04-02T20:27:18+00:00

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Leaders of New York’s City Council said Wednesday they will push Mayor Eric Adams to add roughly $800 million in education funding to the city’s final budget.

Of that $800 million, roughly $280 million would go towards early childhood education, around $180 million would support CUNY, and the remainder would go to K-12 schools, according to budget documents.

The council’s total request for additional education-related expenses is about $1.6 billion, once capital projects are included.

Increasing investment in the city’s strained child care system is front and center in the council’s annual budget response. Legislators called on Adams to restore nearly $200 million for the city’s free 3-K and Pre-K programs excluded from the mayor’s January preliminary budget proposal. Council members said they will also push for an additional $84 million to expand access to child care vouchers.

“This year, we’re once again fighting for the resources that are critical to neighborhoods across the city,” said Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Queens Democrat who is challenging Adams for the party’s nomination for mayor. “Early childhood education remains a top priority for this council because we know it is critical for children’s development and working families.”

The budget response offers the first full look at the council’s priorities as budget negotiations with City Hall kick off. Mayor Adams is expected to release his executive budget by May 1, and the council and mayor are supposed to agree on an adopted budget by the end of June.

This year, the city is not facing the same acute financial pressures as in recent years when billions in federal COVID relief ended up and the city incurred billions in new costs from the influx of migrants, the council noted. The council also projects billions more in revenues than the Adams administration.

But there are still big financial risks — including the possibility that the state budget could reduce funding for the city in several key areas. The Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to slash federal spending also complicate the city’s fiscal outlook, council members said.

Child care has emerged as a major sticking point in budget negotiations. Mayor Adams has consistently pushed to slash spending, arguing that the city needs a more sustainable plan that cuts down on unfilled seats. But council members and advocates counter that child care access should expand as the city confronts an ongoing affordability crisis.

At issue in this year’s budget is nearly $197 million for 3-K and Pre-K that the city funded this year, but which Adams did not include in his preliminary budget. That includes $112 million for 3-K, $55 million for special education preschool seats, $25 million for extended day programs, and $5 million for outreach.

Many of the education initiatives the council is now fighting to save were previously supported by federal COVID aid that ran dry last year. The council successfully pushed the city to replace the funding for many of those programs — but in some cases only for a year.

Beyond restoring that $197 million, the council is also pushing for an additional $84 million to expand access to child care vouchers, which families can use to subsidize the cost of programs for infants and toddlers or afterschool care.

The city’s main voucher program, the Childcare Assistance Program, reaches nearly 80,000 families and is funded almost entirely by the state. The program now faces a yawning budget gap that could force the city to kick thousands of families out of the program each month unless the state increases funding by nearly a billion dollars in this budget, city officials have warned.

The council’s budget response asks the city to chip in an additional $24 million a year to raise the income eligibility for the voucher program from around $108,000 for a family of four to $128,000.

The council also wants to expand a new city program called Promise NYC, which provides vouchers to undocumented families not eligible for the state-funded program to 3,500 children. That’s a $60 million annual investment.

Rebecca Bailin, the executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, called the council’s proposal “a step in the right direction on the path to universal child care for all that will keep families in New York.”

Outside of early childhood, the council is pushing to restore funding to a number of K-12 programs previously funded by federal relief, and renewed in last year’s budget for only a year.

That includes $5 million for a new school mental health program Mayor Adams recently touted at a press conference, $14 million for community schools that bring in outside nonprofits to provide additional services to kids and families, and $41 million for arts education.

The council also calls for $10 million for “affinity” high schools that work with outside networks, and $4 million for tutoring. The council proposes another $65 million for school nurses, $154 million to replace expiring federal funding for custodial services, and $10 million to help recruit more school cafeteria workers.

In addition to the roughly $800 million more the council wants for education programs, legislators are also seeking more than $800 million in education-related capital expenses. That includes an additional $150 million for cafeteria enhancements and $450 million more to make school buildings accessible to students with physical handicaps.

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

NYC education panel holds up $517 million in IT spending after losing bidder pleads for delay

2025-03-27T22:37:58+00:00

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Minutes before an education panel was slated to vote on IT contracts worth more than half a billion dollars, one of the losing bidders made an unusual plea to delay the decision.

Despite warnings from city officials about setting a dangerous precedent, the Panel for Educational Policy listened.

“In the three years being on the panel, I’ve never left feeling like, ‘Man what did we just do?’” Greg Faulkner, the chairperson of the panel, told Chalkbeat after the vote. “We’ve just opened the door for others to do the same thing.”

At stake is a five-year, $517 million contract for updates to “core network infrastructure” to improve internet bandwidth in classrooms and administrative offices, city records show. The proposal would allow the city to buy networking equipment, servers, and extended warranties. City officials said the vote could delay a tech “refresh” that was scheduled to roll out this fall.

The panel, which votes on major Education Department spending requests, typically approves contracts easily. Mayor Eric Adams controls the Education Department and also selects 13 of the 24 voting members. But on Wednesday night, city officials could only muster 10 of the 13 votes needed to approve the technology contracts.

The vote came after a striking maneuver by ConvergeOne, one of the nine companies that did not win bids for the technology contract. A company rep, Ron Gill, showed up during a public comment period just before Wednesday’s vote and argued there were “easily identifiable mistakes” in the city’s reasoning for passing over the company. Their bid was also the least expensive — about $119 million less than the winning proposal.

Gill stressed that the company has a meeting scheduled with city officials next week to discuss the matter. “I’m asking you simply to do one thing: Don’t make a decision tonight,” he said.

That argument seemed to persuade some panel members.

“If we set up a follow up with a company to discuss a contract … and then we vote on it before we resolve that, I just think that’s kind of a bit unfair,” said Tom Sheppard, a parent-elected panel member from the Bronx who abstained from the technology vote.

Panel member Camille Casaretti also expressed concern, noting “the DOE stands to lose $120 million” that could be spent on other pressing initiatives. Casaretti, who was appointed by the Brooklyn borough president and abstained, noted that the company had raised concerns in writing before Wednesday’s vote.

Naveed Hasan, another parent-elected panel member who abstained, said it can be difficult to weigh arguments that are brought to the panel immediately before a vote without having time to ask for responses from city officials. “People come to the [panel] and make statements that are new to us while we’re sitting there and it becomes a little bit confusing,” he said.

City records indicate that ConvergeOne wasn’t selected for the contract because information was missing for their proposal, and it was deemed “non-responsive.” The company disputed that determination, but city officials wrote that their “protest was recommended for disposition due to insufficient evidence provided by the vendor.”

The two companies approved by the Education Department for the contracts — Presidio Networked Solutions Group LLC and World Wide Technology LLC — did not respond to messages seeking comment about the panel’s vote.

Companies have the right to challenge the process, but those should flow through official channels, First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg told the panel Wednesday evening.

If the panel acts “outside of the procedures in one case because of what we hear from a losing bidder, then it’s going to be very difficult for us to not do that in every single case when there are losing bidders,” he said. Weisberg added that the city considers price in awarding contracts but it is “never the only factor.”

But even as the mayor appoints the majority of the panel, the administration failed to garner the 13 necessary votes. Nine mayoral appointees voted in favor of the contracts. But Darling Miramey, one of the mayor’s appointees who has previously bucked city proposals, abstained from the vote.

One mayoral appointee was absent and another showed up after the vote had already concluded. An additional mayoral slot is vacant. Faulkner, whom the mayor selected from a list of candidates approved by state officials, voted in favor.

The remaining members, who are appointed by borough president and parent leaders, either voted no or abstained.

Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle confirmed that the city plans to meet with ConvergeOne next week, but she stressed that it was a courtesy and that their bid is not being reconsidered.

“We closely follow our established policies and procedures in order to maintain integrity and fairness in the contract process, including for the contract in question,” Lyle wrote.

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

Eric Adams touts school mental health clinics but omits them from his preliminary budget

2025-03-20T21:01:40+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams visited P.S. 35 in the Bronx this week to tout the school’s new on-site mental health clinic — one of 16 schools that added them over the past year through a multi-agency program.

The mental health clinics are “a place to learn coping skills and resilience without financial burden,” Adams said, flanked by top health and education officials. The clinics received funding through a broader program called the Mental Health Continuum, which provides mental health support at 50 schools in the South Bronx and Brooklyn, including the 16 school-based clinics. Overall, the program serves 20,000 students, the mayor said.

But a key detail went unmentioned during the press conference and the media reports about it: Adams’ preliminary budget does not include funding for the Mental Health Continuum next school year.

Local lawmakers have pushed since the program launched four years ago to make it a permanent part of the city’s $112 billion budget, known as “baselining.” Those efforts have come up short, even as the $5 million program is included in the mayor’s own mental health blueprint.

“Clearly this administration wants to prioritize the mental health of students,” said Rohini Singh, director of the school justice project at Advocates for Children, an organization that played a role in pushing for the Mental Health Continuum. “I don’t know what the calculation is and why it hasn’t been baselined at this point given that it is currently up and running and serving students.”

The Mental Health Continuum is designed to make it easier for students and families to access mental health services through the 16 on-site mental health clinics, enabling “rapid referrals” for outpatient services at 34 more, training school staff on de-escalation techniques, and deploying mobile crisis teams.

One goal is to reduce the likelihood schools will call 911 when a student is facing an emotional crisis, a persistent problem that disproportionately affects Black students.

Rita Joseph, a Brooklyn City Council member who chairs the education committee, said the mental health program is essential.

“The Continuum is just $5 million — and we know post-COVID a lot of our students are recovering emotionally from the pandemic,” Joseph said. “It’s such a small amount.” She added: “I’m hoping that this is an easy win.”

The Mental Health Continuum — a partnership between the city’s education and health departments and the public hospital system — grew out of a task force convened under Mayor Bill de Blasio and got off the ground under Adams. Some school leaders say it is having an impact, according to a document explaining the program’s benefits circulated by city officials and advocates.

“One of my students had discontinued therapy in the community due to the parent’s work schedule and she is now able to attend sessions in school without disruption to the family income,” wrote Ellen Flanagan, principal of South Bronx Preparatory: A College Board School.

“Another student who frequently missed school and struggled with panic attacks in school has been attending therapy through the Mental Health Continuum and her attendance and grades have improved due to her being able to receive regular weekly therapy,” the principal added.

But every year since its launch, the mayor has left the program out of his preliminary budget only to add it later after pushback from advocates and elected officials. The uncertainty can complicate efforts to plan and keep it properly staffed, said Nelson Mar, a senior staff attorney at Bronx Legal Services who attends regular meetings about the program with the city agencies that operate it.

“When there’s uncertainty, that inhibits a lot of forward thinking in terms of planning and in terms of retention,” Mar said. “That’s very disruptive to social service initiatives, especially when you’re talking about mental health.”

As of December 2024, about 18% of the program’s social worker positions were vacant, city data show.

The mayor has recently touted other programs that were also left out of his preliminary budget, including a $5 million outreach effort to help families enroll in early childhood programs.

City Hall spokesperson Zachary Nosanchuk did not explain why the Mental Health Continuum and early childhood outreach programs were left out of Adams’ initial funding proposal even as he publicly promotes them. He noted that the city has previously added the mental health and early childhood outreach programs when the budget is finalized.

“We are in the early stages of our budget cycle, but as Mayor Adams says, ‘we always land the plane,’” Nosanchuk wrote.

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

After vowing to recruit ‘assistant’ school safety agents, NYPD has yet to hire any

2025-03-11T19:17:42+00:00

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Grappling with a shortage of school safety agents, the New York Police Department unveiled a new strategy in 2023 for replenishing their ranks: hiring “assistant” agents as young as 18.

More than a year later, the NYPD has yet to hire a single assistant school safety agent, officials acknowledged during a Tuesday City Council hearing.

“We don’t yet have the use of that title,” said Kristine Ryan, the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Management and Budget.

Police Department officials previously indicated they planned to hire at least 650 assistant agents at an annual salary of about $33,000 — $4,000 less than the starting pay for full agents. The assistants would help greet visitors, monitor doorbells, and answer phones. The recent high school graduates would initially be placed in elementary schools and could represent a pipeline into the regular corps of safety agents after turning 21 and passing an exam, officials suggested.

But on Tuesday, the NYPD indicated it had not yet ironed out how many they plan to hire or even what they would be paid.

“Discussions are still ongoing,” Ryan said, “around the salary and other labor matters.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said the delay was caused in part by the need for state officials to approve the new title, adding that it has been cleared in January and hiring should begin soon. The union representing school safety agents declined to comment.

Just over 3,600 agents currently patrol the city’s public schools, down from 5,000 five years ago — a 28% decline. High attrition during the pandemic fueled by the COVID vaccine mandate, low pay, and moves by Adams not to restaff the force have all contributed.

On Monday, Chalkbeat reported that school leaders have grown increasingly alarmed by the shortage in recent months. More than 120 school staffers signed an open letter in November spotlighting operational and safety concerns.

At large high school campuses, there are often not enough agents to operate the metal detectors, which can force students to miss class as they wait in long lines to get into the building. School leaders also contend that there aren’t enough agents on hand at some schools to conduct perimeter patrols during arrival and dismissal when skirmishes may escalate into violence.

Last month, a 16-year-old student at the John F. Kennedy campus in the Bronx was stabbed just outside the school near an area that had been previously patrolled by safety agents.

A principal at the JFK campus, which enrolls about 2,400 students across seven schools, said there had often been fewer than 10 agents on hand, down from more than 20. The school leader told Chalkbeat the stabbing may have been prevented by the presence of an agent. Police officials sent about five additional agents to the campus after the incident.

The role of school safety agents, who are unarmed but wear police uniforms and are employed by the police department, has been hotly debated in recent years. Some critics argue stationing police staff in schools leads to the criminalization of low-level misbehavior, particularly among students of color. Yet large majorities of parents, students, and educators believe the agents help keep schools safe, according to survey data.

Still, even some safety staff were skeptical that hiring recent high school graduates as assistant agents would be useful.

One safety agent who patrols in the Bronx and spoke on condition of anonymity said the program was unlikely to address some of the biggest barriers in hiring. Many people don’t want to join the school safety division because of the pay, the agent said. A recent move by the NYPD commissioner to loosen the eligibility requirements for uniformed officers amid a shortage of cops might draw even more people away from the school safety division, the agent added.

In the meantime, some schools are deploying alternatives to school police to maintain safety, including partnering with community organizations to help supervise students during arrival or dismissal. Some critics of school policing think the city should rethink how to approach school safety, especially given the challenges of hiring new agents.

The assistant agent role “is an example of a really bad policy,” said Andrea Ortiz, of the Dignity in Schools coalition, which opposes NYPD and metal detectors in schools. While other Education Department programs aim to ease students into middle class careers, “we are funneling students into a poorly paid, bad job pipeline.”

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

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

NYC’s school safety force has shrunk by nearly a third. Principals are raising alarms.

2025-03-10T22:50:05+00:00

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As Principal Mark House greeted students at the John F. Kennedy campus in the Bronx last month, a student staggered toward him, face covered in blood.

Initially, House thought the 16-year-old had been in an accident and started escorting him to the on-site health clinic. But on the way there, the student collapsed. It turned out he had been stabbed.

In past years, school safety agents patrolled near the site of the attack, a stone’s throw from the school entrance. But no one was stationed outside that morning due to a significant decline in agents assigned to the complex.

The campus once had upwards of 20 school safety agents. Now it typically has 10 or fewer, House said. He believes the presence of an agent could have helped.

“It’s a question of prevention. If an adult is standing there in an NYPD uniform, there is a much lower probability that the violent incident happens,” said House, a veteran principal who leads Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy, one of seven schools serving a combined 2,400 students in Kingsbridge’s JFK campus.

A profound change has quietly taken root in the city’s school safety system in recent years, and the situation at the JFK campus vividly illustrates the fallout many school leaders fear it’s causing.

The number of school safety agents — unarmed but uniformed New York Police Department employees stationed at schools — has plunged from about 5,000 to 3,600 over the past five years, a roughly 28% drop, according to data from the Independent Budget Office and NYPD. K-12 enrollment shrunk by 11% during the same period.

The declines have been driven by various factors: high attrition during the pandemic fueled by the COVID vaccine mandate, slow hiring in recent years, and a $37,000 annual starting salary.

Large high school campuses like JFK that depend on safety agents to operate metal detectors have been hardest hit, as they often do not have enough staff to run the machines, making students late for class as they snake through long lines during arrival.

School leaders have raised alarms about the issue. Some campuses have seen their rosters of school safety agents cut by half or more in recent years, according to more than 120 school administrators and staffers who signed an open letter to NYPD and Education Department officials in November calling on the city to hire additional agents and replace broken scanners.

The shortage of agents makes it harder to keep campuses open on nights and weekends for extracurricular activities, since agents are often required to be on site, school leaders said. And there are rarely enough agents available to do perimeter patrols that used to be commonplace during arrival and dismissal.

Some principals said they don’t have enough excess school staff to help monitor those transitions, and even if they did, the staffers don’t have the training to respond to a violent incident.

At the JFK campus, city officials reacted to the stabbing by adding about five additional agents, House said. And while the student who was attacked is recovering, the incident left the community shaken.

“It’s devastating,” House said. “To have [a student] bleeding in your arms is pretty awful.”

Fears of a looming school safety crisis

While the ranks of safety agents shrunk during the pandemic, the number of weapons showing up at schoolhouse doors surged — with students often reporting that they’re trying to protect themselves on their commutes. That’s created a daunting safety challenge for many schools.

Some principals fear the decline in safety agents may snowball into a broader crisis.

Other educators and advocates, however, see the reduced police presence as a step in the right direction after warning for years about school police criminalizing minor misbehavior, particularly among Black and Latino children. On certain campuses, school leaders partner with community organizations whose staff help supervise dismissal and defuse conflicts rather than relying solely on safety agents.

“Politicians and school leaders have chosen to harden schools for over 40 years, and it just doesn’t work,” said Andrea Ortiz, from the Dignity in Schools coalition, which opposes NYPD and metal detectors in schools. Ortiz supports hiring more staff to help with safety during arrival and dismissal — though not NYPD employees.

Large high school campuses like JFK, pictured here, have been hardest hit by the school safety agent shortage.

But even as some school administrators are open to alternatives to safety agents, many are frustrated that there has not been a systemic response to the shortage.

Neither the Education Department nor the NYPD responded to the November letter about the lack of safety agents, said Michael Barakat, the principal of the Bronx High School for Law and Community Service, one of the letter’s authors.

“The fact that there’s been absolutely no response,” Barakat said, “is alarming.”

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein did not dispute that the agency had not responded to the letter, noting school safety agents are under the NYPD’s purview.

“We recognize that our city is facing a shortage of school safety agents, and we are continuing to work with our partners at NYPD School Safety to mitigate these issues,” she wrote in an email.

An NYPD spokesperson said the agency is “always ready and willing to recruit for the School Safety Division.” They did not cite any specific efforts to significantly increase the number of agents.

A decline years in the making

The city’s school safety division rivals the size of many other cities’ police forces and has long sparked fierce debate.

Critics note that safety agents often respond to crises better left to counselors. Others counter that large majorities of students, parents, and teachers believe the agents help keep schools safe, though students at predominantly Black campuses are less likely to agree.

Pressure to overhaul school policing reached a boiling point amid the racial justice protests of 2020. Facing calls from progressive lawmakers to reduce the NYPD’s budget, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio planned to move the roughly $400 million school safety division to the Education Department. But de Blasio slow-walked the transfer, and Mayor Eric Adams abandoned it.

In the meantime, the school safety force continued to shrink. Despite his supportive rhetoric, Adams has not taken significant action to restore the number of school safety agents to pre-pandemic levels — and even helped solidify its smaller size.

Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesperson for the school safety agents union, placed the blame for the shrinking numbers on elected officials who have pushed to limit the NYPD’s footprint in schools, including comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

Williams told Chalkbeat he wants a “just transition” to a new system that doesn’t include “letting go of the workforce.” Lander said in a statement that school safety agents’ wages are “far too low and there has not been enough investment into training or maintaining their workforce.”

One veteran school safety agent in the Bronx, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said “many people don’t want to join” the school safety division because of the pay. The NYPD’s recent move to loosen the eligibility requirements for police officers amid a shortage of cops might draw even more people away from the school safety division, the agent said.

NYPD officials announced a plan in 2023 to hire 650 “assistant school safety agents,” a new position with a $33,000 starting salary open to high school graduates 18 and older. The city has yet to hire any, police officials said during a City Council hearing.

School entry wait times balloon

The shortage of school safety agents created a “perfect storm” this fall, said Evan Schwartz, principal of Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School in the Bronx. Without enough agents to operate the metal detectors, the building sometimes opened late.

“It just backs it up [with] students waiting outside,” Schwartz said, noting the delays eased several weeks into the school year. “If it’s raining, there’s not anywhere for them to be.”

Staffing issues can create additional safety risks by keeping kids clustered outside for longer in big groups.

At the Theodore Roosevelt Campus in the Bronx, which serves 2,500 students, there’s often a line around the block because at least one of the campus’ three scanners isn’t running, said Barakat.

Bashar Assaedi, a 14-year-old freshman at the Bronx Academy for Software Engineering, said it’s frustrating to get marked tardy when “you got to school on time, but metal detectors [that make you] take off your jackets, any keys, any watches, rings” cause delays.

Some educators and students, including Assaedi, would rather get rid of metal detectors altogether, arguing that caring relationships with staff are more effective deterrents against students using weapons in school.

But others, like Barakat, say the machines help keep students out of danger, and school staffers are not allowed to operate them.

Schools experiment with alternative approaches

The steep drop in school safety agents has left administrators confronting difficult questions about how to keep kids safe during arrival and dismissal, when conflicts are most likely to break out.

Some schools have seen promising results by tapping organizations that specialize in violence interruption, where community members are trained to de-escalate conflicts as an alternative to police intervention.

The Spring Creek Community School in Brooklyn’s East New York hired the group Elite Learners through the Education Department’s Project Pivot initiative, which brought community organizations into more than 300 schools for extra support at a cost of $14 million this year.

Employees with Elite Learners help diffuse incidents outside Spring Creek Community School through a city program called Project Pivot.

Elite’s employees typically fan out around the school’s exit and the surrounding blocks, clad in gray jackets with bright orange letters. In one recent instance, a group of men across the street wanted to fight several students, said officials at the Academy of Young Writers, one of the schools in the building. Elite staffers intervened and contacted the police.

“There’s definitely been a decrease in incidents outside of the school,” said Principal Tanisha Brown.

But partnerships like the one at the Spring Creek school are not yet widespread. Just 50 or so of the roughly 320 schools receiving Project Pivot funding are using it for “safe passages” programs, an Education Department spokesperson said.

House, the principal who recently responded to the stabbing, is open to other approaches to school safety. But he said that should be a long-term project that solicits community input, examines what other districts have done, and proposes a clear alternative.

Until that happens, House believes more safety agents are necessary.

Right now, “We’re still playing the ‘if’ game: ‘If we had had somebody here, would that have made a difference?’” House said. “In another year or two, we’re not going to be speculating. We’re going to be drawing straight lines.”

This story has been updated with additional information from a Tuesday City Council hearing.

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

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

NYC students’ fear of ICE prompts ‘the talk’ from schools and parents

2025-02-14T19:19:19+00:00

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In the days after last month’s inauguration of President Donald Trump, Bronx high school principal Norma Vega felt she had to do something to address growing chatter from students about rumored sightings of federal immigration officers in their neighborhoods.

So she visited every classroom to give students a primer on what to do if they encountered law enforcement on the street.

“My job was to scare them into, ‘Don’t do anything stupid, please,’” said Vega, principal of ELLIS Preparatory Academy, which caters exclusively to newly-arrived immigrants in grades 9-12.

Much of the public attention on how Trump’s deportation plans may affect students has so far focused on the possibility of federal agents showing up at schools — fueled by an executive order allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to make arrests at schools, churches and other sensitive locations. Trump has promised “mass deportations” and has threatened to punish local officials who stand in the way.

Fears of ICE showing up at schools remain acute for many students and families, prompting some parents to keep kids out of school. But for many of New York City’s immigrant students, who often crisscross the five boroughs on public transit getting to and from school and jobs, the fear of encountering officers outside of school is an even more immediate concern.

That has led families and educators across the city to hold conversations with their kids in recent weeks about what to do if they encounter immigration agents — an immigration-focused variation on “the talk” that many Black and Latino families have long had with their kids about what to do if they’re stopped by police.

“It’s the same talk, unfortunately, that our brown fathers and mothers have to have with their brown sons,” Vega said.

Vega advised her students not to turn over any documents to someone they don’t know, but to politely say, “I don’t know you,” and keep walking. She told them not to resist if a law enforcement officer did produce identification and attempt to detain them.

“Your goal is to walk out as quickly as possible, because they have no right to stop you, no right to put their hands on you, no right to harass you,” she told students.

In addition to the conversations, some schools are handing out “red cards” that students can hand to law enforcement if they’re stopped. The cards assert the rights of people stopped by law enforcement not to speak with them or consent to a search.

New York City has sanctuary laws in place that limit the cooperation of local law enforcement with ICE to carry out deportations. The city school system’s policies also prohibit federal agents from entering schools unless they have a warrant signed by a judge or there are “exigent circumstances.”

But Mayor Eric Adams has said he would like to roll back those sanctuary policies, and has boosted the city’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities — issuing an executive order on Thursday allowing ICE to operate on Rikers Island. The U.S. Justice Department’s recent move to drop federal corruption charges against Adams has set off alarm bells for advocates and lawmakers who say that Adams is beholden to Trump and will aid his immigration agenda.

The city teachers union last week said it had not received any reports of ICE visiting city schools. But federal immigration agents have carried out several high-profile immigration raids, and arrested about 100 people in the first week of the Trump administration.

During a Fox News appearance Friday morning with Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan to tout their collaboration, Adams encouraged undocumented immigrants to keep using city services, saying “everyday people who are here, they’re moving to be documented, if they are going to school, working, paying taxes, then they should be able to [use] police services, hospital services, children should go to school.”

Rampant rumors of ICE sightings in some immigrant communities

Fahima Akter, a 17-year-old senior at Bronx River High School who immigrated to the U.S. in 2019 from Bangladesh, said her dad recently witnessed someone taken away by law enforcement after they couldn’t produce the documents the officers asked for. Since then, he has told his daughter she needs to keep her green card – proof of legal permanent residency – on her.

“Just in case if the police stop us on the street and ask for this, we can get them information and let them know that we are legally here,” she said.

The school’s student newspaper, the Bronx River News, recently ran a story on a student who said he had several encounters with immigration agents outside of school.

Akter said she previously felt positive about the police, but since the talk with her dad, has been scared to approach any law enforcement. Her parents have instructed her to go straight to school and back to minimize the time she’s out in public, she said.

“Now, every time I see a police officer, I get anxious and nervous around them,” Akter said, even though she is in the country legally.

The conversations are also happening in some non-immigrant families.

After reports of a Puerto Rican man detained by ICE agents in New Jersey, Lilah Mejia — a parent leader from the Lower East Side of Puerto Rican heritage — sat her down her six kids, ages 12 to 26, to have a “serious conversation” about the possibility of getting stopped by federal law enforcement.

Lilah Mejia's six children.

“It shouldn’t be the norm,” she said of the talk she had with her kids. “But it is the norm … I said, ‘We’re not living in safe times … Why do I have to tell my children these things?”

She told them to be cautious of their surroundings and explained that different agents have different badges. She warned them that federal agents might be targeting Spanish-speakers. One son asked her if they should stop speaking Spanish or even Spanglish.

“I said, ‘No, don’t ever stop being who you are,’” she recounted. “‘I’m just so afraid one day when you’re going to work someone is going to pull up on you.’”

Mejia has not heard any reports of ICE agents in her neighborhood yet, though she’s on group texts where people have reported seeing them in Queens and the Bronx. She asked her children to start carrying their U.S. passports. They are not doing that yet, she said, but they are at least now carrying IDs.

“I just want to make sure my kids come home every night safely,” Mejia said.

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

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

Amid confusion over shifting ICE guidance, NYC schools offers first direct communication to families

2025-02-12T23:35:03+00:00

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The head of the nation’s largest school system offered her first direct communication to families on Wednesday about how schools should handle visits from federal immigration authorities following days of confusion and mixed messages from Mayor Eric Adams.

In a letter to families posted on the city’s website, New York City schools Chancellor Melisssa Aviles-Ramos emphasized that the Education Department’s policies have not changed, that schools do not collect information about students’ immigration status, and that federal immigration officials are not allowed to access schools without a valid legal order.

“New York City Public Schools is dedicated to protecting the right of every student to attend public school, regardless of immigration status, national origin, or religion,” Aviles-Ramos wrote. “Our policies remain the same, and I encourage you to continue to send your children to school.”

The chancellor’s direct communication with families comes amid confusion over shifting guidance to city agencies about how they should respond to visits from federal immigration officials and other non-local law enforcement. Some families have been so fearful about possible law enforcement visits that they’ve been keeping their kids home from school.

Generally, the city’s policy forbids employees from cooperating with federal immigration officials unless they have a valid warrant. But a January memo first reported by the news site Hell Gate last week cleared the way for officials to grant access if they “reasonably feel threatened or fear for your safety or the safety of others around you.” That raised concerns among many observers that immigration officials could have easier access to a wide range of facilities, including schools and shelters that house migrants.

Education Department officials were slow to say whether the new guidance applied to the school system, but city officials clarified on Tuesday that it does not.

The city’s teachers union blasted Adams and the shifting guidance in an open letter released Wednesday. Citing Adams’ overtures to President Donald Trump, whose administration moved to drop corruption charges against the mayor this week, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew called the changing policy “a selfish political ploy with New York City students, educators, and school communities left paying the price.

“Educators have worked hard to calm their students' fears and to share accurate information about their rights,” wrote Mulgrew. “All that work was upended last week when your administration sent out a new memo outlining how ICE agents could be admitted to many public buildings.”

City Hall spokesperson Allison Maser pushed back against Mulgrew’s letter, emphasizing the January memo did not apply to the Education Department and was sent by the corporation counsel, which represents the city in legal cases, rather than City Hall.

“As Mayor Adams has stated over and over again, everyone should feel comfortable sending their children to school, seeking medical care, or reporting crimes, regardless of their immigration status,” Maser wrote. “It’s unfortunate that this one union boss is choosing to play politics as he spreads fear among the city’s immigrant families with this letter.”

Meanwhile, some parent leaders remain frustrated that city education leaders have still not sent out a systemwide message on another aspect of Trump’s education agenda: his effort to curtail how schools support gender nonconforming students and teach about racism.

Asked at several recent parent town halls about Trump’s Jan. 29 executive order targeting “radical indoctrination,” Aviles-Ramos reaffirmed the Education Department’s support for LGBTQ students. Spokesperson Nicole Brownstein previously told Chalkbeat the Education Department remains “steadfast in our commitment to fostering a safe, inclusive, and affirming environment.”

But for some panicked parents of transgender and nonbinary students, the city’s efforts have fallen far short – and several parent leaders are now making their own efforts to fill the communication void.

After receiving multiple letters from parents of gender nonconforming kids begging for additional support, Antonia Ferraro Martinelli, the president of the Community Education Council in Brooklyn’s District 15 decided to send out her own letter pledging to push back against the executive order.

“In the absence of statements from [New York City Public Schools] I am compelled to respond to concerns about the executive orders,” she wrote in a letter to district parents Wednesday morning, which was co-signed by seven other members of the council. “I will continue to be clear with the [Education Department] leadership that District 15 families expect them to resist attacks on students and teachers’ civil rights, human rights, and First Amendment rights.”

The Community Education Council in Brooklyn’s District 13 is also set to consider a resolution opposing the executive order at a meeting later this month, according to a council member.

Ferraro Martinelli said that as a parent volunteer on a body with limited power, she “should not be the spokesperson … speaking to these federal issues.”

But “there’s been radio silence from [New York City Public Schools], and our parents want to be assured at this point, I guess by anybody,” she said.

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

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

Justice Dept.’s move to drop Adams’ charges amplifies worries over Trump’s influence on NYC schools

2025-02-11T21:59:42+00:00

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After the U.S. Department of Justice ordered prosecutors in Manhattan to drop corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams on Monday, education observers raised fresh concerns about the influence of the Trump administration on city schools.

Under mayoral control the city’s chief executive is responsible for overseeing its 1,600 schools, along with appointing the schools chancellor.

With federal officials dangling the possibility of revisiting the prosecution after the mayoral election, Adams could face pressure to bend to the Trump administration’s will. That dynamic may affect the city’s willingness to aid federal immigration officials, observers said, reverberating among schools and families.

On Tuesday, Adams insisted that he had not broken any laws and vowed to “put this cruel episode behind us and focus entirely on the future of our city.”

He added: “I would never put any personal benefit above my solemn responsibility as your mayor.”

The Department of Justice indicated officials want to drop the charges because they were issued too close to this year’s mayoral election and interfered with the mayor’s ability to support Trump’s immigration crackdown. It is up to acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon to file a motion to dismiss the case, though her office had not said as of Tuesday afternoon whether she will follow through on the order.

The corruption charges against Adams, which included wire fraud, bribery, and receiving contributions from foreign nationals that he knew to be illegal, were brought at the end of September — nine months before the mayoral primary. Adams has fiercely maintained his innocence.

In recent weeks, Adams appeared to be angling for leniency from President Donald Trump, meeting with him near his Mar-a-Lago estate, and driving through the night to accept a last-minute invitation to his inauguration.

To Jonathan Collins, a professor of politics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Trump’s intervention in Adams’ case may signal that the mayor is willing to “open the curtain for immigration enforcement” in the nation’s largest school system.

“President Trump has displayed a clear pattern of expecting very clear loyalty from people who receive any sort of political favor from him,” he said. “There is absolutely no reason to expect for that to not occur with Eric Adams.”

After Trump rescinded a longstanding federal policy that limited immigration enforcement at “sensitive” locations, including schools, Adams refrained from taking a clear stance. On Monday, just hours before news broke of the Justice Department’s order to drop the prosecution, Adams ordered senior officials — including the schools chancellor — to avoid criticizing Trump, THE CITY reported.

With the spectre of a criminal trial gone for now, some observers expect the mayor will be even more willing to cooperate.

“We might have the mayor now in a position of permanent blackmail,” said Naveed Hasan, an elected parent representative on the Panel for Educational Policy, which signs off on Education Department contracts and other policy decisions. (Of the panel’s 24 members, 13 are appointed by the mayor.)

“How does that give confidence to parents that the school system is able to operate in a way that benefits the kids’ education, their welfare, their safety?” he asked.

Hasan is particularly concerned that Adams’ cooperation with the Trump administration could amplify fear in immigrant communities at a time when some families are already worried about sending their children to school.

“This is a direct impact on our school attendance, school enrollment — all of the things that we’ve been working so hard to stabilize,” Hasan said. Over the past two years, the city’s public schools have welcomed more than 48,0000 migrant children, helping stop some of the deep declines in student enrollment.

Mixed messages on immigration enforcement sow confusion

Some observers noted that the city still has strong policies in place that limit local officials from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Schools have been forbidden to cooperate with non-local law enforcement without a valid judicial warrant that has been reviewed by city lawyers.

But confusion has mounted in recent days about a city directive that appeared to weaken that guidance, allowing city employees to step aside if they feel threatened by federal agents.

The city’s teachers union indicated on Friday the directive was not sent to the Education Department. On Sunday, schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos posted a statement on social media reiterating that “non-local law enforcement is NOT permitted in any of our school buildings without a judicial warrant or unless there are exigent circumstances.”

The next day, Adams issued a directive to senior officials to refrain from antagonizing Trump, an order that will likely continue to put Aviles-Ramos in a difficult position. Adams tapped her to take over from David Banks, who resigned after he was swept up in a broader federal investigation of Adams’ inner circle, and Aviles-Ramos has hewed closely to the mayor’s education priorities. (Banks has admitted no wrongdoing.)

Johanna Miller, director of the education policy center at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said she appreciated the chancellor’s message but worries about mixed signals from the mayor.

“We’re in a really confusing situation because New York City’s written policy is quite good, but the mayor’s actions are speaking louder than his policies right now,” she said.

Some families have been frustrated that Aviles-Ramos has not more forcefully denounced Trump administration orders that seek to limit how schools support transgender and nonbinary children. But some advocates saw her statement over the weekend supporting immigrant students as a positive sign.

“I think it was incredibly brave of her,” said Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition. “We wish that other commissioners and other folks within government do the same to reassure our communities that the city of New York is not going to turn its back on our residents.”

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

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

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org

NYC Education Dept. didn’t get memo easing federal agents’ access to city buildings, union says

2025-02-08T00:29:02+00:00

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New York City schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos told elected and union officials Friday that she never received a recent memo from Mayor Eric Adams’ office that appears to give city workers more leeway to let federal immigration agents into public buildings, according to people familiar with the conversations.

The Jan. 13 memo allows city workers to let federal agents into public buildings without a warrant signed from a judge if they feel “reasonably threatened” for their own safety or that of others, according to a copy of the memo obtained by the New York Times. It sparked immediate outrage from elected officials and advocates, who said the language makes it easier for federal agents to gain access to city facilities and undermines sanctuary protections at schools, shelters, and hospitals.

But in a statement posted to social media Friday night, the city’s teachers union said “Chancellor Aviles-Ramos informed us the DOE did not receive the mayor’s new guidance for city agencies on federal agents attempting to enter city property. The DOE’s existing policies remain in effect.”

Aviles-Ramos offered a similar message to elected officials, though some wanted to see a clearer commitment in writing, according to a source familiar with the conversations.

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said in an email that the guidance for public schools “is clear and unchanged — we do not permit non-local law enforcement into schools unless required by law." The official guidance for city schools is posted on the Education Department website, she added.

But when asked to confirm if that means the City Hall memo does not apply to public schools, Education Department officials referred the question to a spokesperson for Adams, who did not immediately respond. The spokesperson also didn’t immediately respond to a question about whether the memo applies to school safety agents, who are employed by the NYPD.

Union officials said the Education Department plans to send out a statement to families, but as of Friday evening, the department had not done so.

The Education Department’s longstanding guidance instructs principals to ask federal agents for any documentation, then call department lawyers to await instructions. The guidance does not give school employees permission to let the agents inside if they feel threatened, though it does instruct them not to try to physically interfere with an officer who ignores their instructions.

City officials reiterated that protocol to school principals in recent months and have held training sessions with principals and other school employees.

News of the Jan. 13 memo, first reported by Hell Gate, provoked a wave of condemnations from elected officials.

“The recent City Hall memo provides unclear and troubling guidance on interactions with federal immigration officials, creating unnecessary fear and confusion for our educators, students, and families,” said Brooklyn City Council Member and Education Committee Chair Rita Joseph in a statement on the social media platform X. “This is simply unacceptable.”

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said there have been “no substantiated instances of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents attempting to enter our schools.” But fears have remained high amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations, sparking rumors of immigration agents at schools, and keeping some kids home.

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

High-scoring NYC schools win exemptions from Adams’ reading curriculum mandate

2025-02-04T22:51:41+00:00

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Two additional elementary schools have quietly won exemptions to Mayor Eric Adams’ sweeping reading curriculum mandate, bringing the total number to three.

Brooklyn’s P.S. 11 and Leaders of Excellence, Advocacy, and Discovery in the Bronx — which both use self-designed literacy programs and boast high reading scores — are not required to use one of the three city-approved curriculums, officials confirmed. The Brooklyn School of Inquiry, a gifted and talented program, was the first campus granted an exemption.

The decision to allow additional schools to sidestep the curriculum mandate, known as NYC Reads, is likely to raise eyebrows because Education Department officials have not explained what criteria they are using to grant waivers, nor have they laid out an official process for requesting an exemption. The move could prompt campuses with strong track records or that have spent years honing their own curriculums to push harder to be released from the mandate, which expanded to all elementary schools this past fall.

Top Education Department officials previously indicated that schools with reading proficiency of 85% or above would be considered for an exemption, a threshold that 36 schools meet, though a spokesperson declined to say if the city is using that standard.

P.S. 11 and Leaders of Excellence, Advocacy, and Discovery, also known as LEAD 359, have posted some of the highest reading scores on state tests in the city. Both have also won Blue Ribbon honors from the federal government.

“We created our curriculum in-house looking at research-based practices,” said LEAD 359 Principal Alexa Sorden, who founded the school in 2013. “We basically have a well-oiled machine and didn’t want to disrupt it.”

LEAD 359, known previously as Concourse Village Academy, has won high-profile recognition for its focus on rigorous reading instruction and has served as a model for other campuses. All of the school’s students who took the state reading test last year were considered proficient, a notable achievement given that 83% of the school’s students come from low-income families. About 94% of the school’s students are Black or Latino.

At P.S. 11 in Clinton Hill — a diverse campus where just over half of students are Black and one-third come from low-income families — 91% of students were considered proficient on the state reading test.

Citywide, about 43% of students from low-income families in grades 3-8 are considered proficient readers. Across the system, 49% of children are considered proficient.

Adams has repeatedly pointed to the citywide reading scores as evidence that the city’s approach to literacy instruction is flawed. Schools previously had wide discretion to choose their own curriculums, and hundreds of principals had chosen a program created by Teachers College Professor Lucy Calkins that became increasingly discredited for not focusing enough on basic reading skills.

Now, elementary schools must use one of three programs that city officials say line up with the “science of reading,” a longstanding body of evidence about how children learn to read, alongside a separate phonics program that teaches the relationships between letters and sounds. The curriculum overhaul has won support from the city teachers union, though educators have expressed mixed reactions to the rollout, with some raising concerns about the quality of materials and training.

How did schools win waivers?

City officials have said little about how campuses can qualify for exemptions, leading school communities to take different approaches to securing them.

Families at the Brooklyn School of Inquiry mounted a monthslong campaign for an exemption last year, even after the local superintendent indicated that there was no process for granting one. Students from the school repeatedly showed up to public meetings attended by top education officials to critique the mandated curriculum, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Into Reading, arguing that it sapped their classes of rich discussions about full books because it focuses more heavily on shorter excerpts.

At P.S. 11, families pressed elected officials through a letter writing campaign, according to meeting minutes from the school’s parent association. They, too, were told no exemptions would be granted, according to meeting records. (Leaders of the parent association and the principal did not respond to interview requests.)

Parents at P.S. 11 participated in a letter writing campaign to win an exemption from the city's curriculum mandate.

On a recent afternoon after dismissal, several P.S. 11 parents said they were grateful the school won a waiver in part because they trusted the principal’s leadership and were impressed with their children’s reading skills.

At the public library around the corner, second grader Zoe Watkins was busy working on an assignment about Shirley Chisholm’s run for president, part of a Black History Month lesson.

“I think our school has been pretty amazing,” she said of the reading instruction before launching into a reaction to the Chisholm article. “What really stood out to me is her resilience and her braveness. … She could have gotten shut down by the government, but she still persisted.”

Meanwhile, at LEAD 359, there was no public pressure campaign for a waiver. Instead, the school leadership team, including educators, the principal, and parents, was able to persuade the superintendent’s office that the school’s curriculum was already following the science of reading.

The principal said district officials were “very open” to considering an exemption for the school. “They visited every literacy classroom,” said Sorden, who is also a trained reading specialist.

An Education Department spokesperson said the decision to issue exemptions to P.S. 11 and LEAD 359 came after conversations with their local superintendents and a review of their test scores. Both schools would have been required to use EL Education from Imagine Learning.

Although city officials would not say if the 85% proficiency threshold is being used to grant waivers, schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos echoed that figure recently while noting officials would also consider disparities in proficiency rates.

“If we see that the overall pass rate … is 85% but we disaggregate and we see that 39% of [multilingual learners] were not performing at grade level … we are going to be a lot more rigid about the curriculum,” Aviles-Ramos said during a recent town hall in Manhattan’s District 1.

Susan Neuman, a literacy expert at New York University who supports the curriculum changes, said ensuring that 85% of students are proficient across a range of demographic categories could be a reasonable method for awarding exemptions. Still, she argued that offering waivers to just three schools seemed arbitrary and called on the Education Department to publicly explain the process.

“There are plenty of schools that are doing just fine,” Neuman said. “Why exempt these?”

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

Hundreds of children with disabilities (still) wait for promised preschool seats in NYC

2025-01-29T16:36:05+00:00

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Mirdella arrived in New York City from Peru two years ago, hopeful she’d find a public school that could support her son, who has autism. The Peruvian schools offering the services he needed were private and too expensive.

The mom secured a special education learning plan from the city’s Education Department in September, guaranteeing her 4-year-old son, Matheo, a seat in a small specialized classroom and a range of therapies.

That learning plan, however, has been gathering dust.

Matheo, who is non-verbal, has spent months at the cramped Manhattan shelter where the family lives awaiting a spot in a program. He is among hundreds of children who waited this fall for a preschool seat nearly two years after Mayor Eric Adams promised one for every child with a disability — as required by law. The ongoing lack of seats is likely to raise questions at a Thursday City Council oversight hearing on special education.

“He’s not really doing anything in particular,” Mirdella said in Spanish. She requested her family be identified using their middle names for privacy reasons. “It’s basically February, and he still isn’t in school.”

Adams has taken some action on the issue, setting aside funding for salary bumps to bring special education preschool teachers who work at community organizations to be more in line with starting salaries of their public school counterparts. The city also invested $55 million this school year to open new preschool seats for children with disabilities, opening 456 new slots in September, Education Department officials said, with roughly 280 more in the works.

But 450 children are currently stranded at home without seats, department officials confirmed. Meanwhile, Adams’ preliminary budget for next school year did not renew the $55 million for new classrooms, raising fresh concerns that the number of students sitting at home could creep back up.

“Providing these classes is not optional,” Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, an organization that helps low-income families navigate the special education system, wrote in an email. “Given the City’s legal obligation, the new preschool special education classes should have been among the first programs to get long-term funding.”

Red tape stymies families — and providers

Mirdella said she has been struggling for months to get answers from the Education Department about when Matheo could begin school.

She said she ran into bureaucratic hurdles, including requests from the city to submit the same paperwork multiple times.

Mirdella enlisted the help of Advocates for Children, which began reaching out to the Education Department in October on behalf of Matheo, said Betty Baez Melo, the organization’s early childhood education project director, who has been working with the family.

Education department officials said they identified a program in December that was ready to enroll Matheo and claimed that delays after that stemmed from the parent’s interest in weighing other programs.

But Mirdella disputes that, saying she was ready to enroll Matheo and didn’t receive a clear indication from the city that she could send him. Around that time, Baez Melo inquired with the Education Department about why the city appeared to not have a placement ready.

“The DOE hasn’t specifically said what the challenge has been,” said Baez Melo, referring to the delay in placing Matheo in a program.

In the meantime, Mirdella is doing her best to keep Matheo engaged, coaxing him to mimic words like papá and devising painting activities. It’s a struggle to keep him focused at home all day, especially as she cares for her other 11-month-old child, and Matheo sometimes has outbursts.

“He doesn’t know how to make circles or say ‘water,’” Mirdella said. “I know he can do it if he has therapies.” His learning plan calls for regular sessions with speech, occupational, and physical therapists, which he isn’t yet receiving.

As many families are still going without the programs they’re entitled to, some nonprofit organizations that form the backbone of the city’s preschool special education system say they often struggle to bring new classrooms online.

Jeanne Alter, the chief executive officer at Kennedy Children’s Center, which operates preschool special education programs for about 350 children in Manhattan and the Bronx, said she’s been waiting months to open more seats.

Students at the Kennedy Children's Center, which offers preschool programs for students with disabilities, participate in a classroom activity at the organization's Bronx site.

The organization won the green-light from the state to open three new classrooms back in September, but has been mired in red tape getting approvals from multiple city agencies, including the Fire Department and Department of Buildings. She doesn’t anticipate being able to open the classrooms until March.

“Here we are: ready, willing, and able since August, and nobody cares,” Alter said. At the Thursday City Council hearing, she plans to call on the city to create a task force to address bureaucratic hurdles providers are facing. “I have 20 kids who I know are just sitting at home waiting for these classrooms to open.”

Transportation problems create another setback

Mirdella felt a sense of renewed hope in recent weeks after receiving word from the Education Department that they were setting up transportation for her son to get to school.

But the family soon hit another snag. Mirdella is depending on a yellow bus to take Matheo to school, and city officials did not immediately assign him to a route.

In the meantime, the Education Department offered to pay for a rideshare. When Mirdella tried registering for the rideshare account this week, the code she got from the city appeared to be invalid, though an official later told her it would take 24 hours to begin working.

Rideshare, however, isn’t a sustainable solution. Matheo has mobility challenges, requiring his mom to hoist him into the car and accompany him to school with her 11-month-old in tow while her husband works, Mirdella said.

The process of getting Matheo a seat, along with transportation, has left Mirdella feeling discouraged.

“We thought this country was really inclusive — that if a child has needs or a condition or has medical needs that they would get attention,” she said. “It’s been really disheartening.”

After Chalkbeat asked the Education Department about Matheo’s case, an official reached out to Baez Melo, as Mirdella’s advocate, informing her Matheo would be eligible for yellow bus service starting Thursday.

Still, Mirdella indicated that she had not heard from the Education Department about transportation arrangements, including what time the bus would arrive.

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

As Trump clears path for immigration arrests at schools, Eric Adams takes no stance

2025-01-21T23:45:31+00:00

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As the Trump administration rolled back protections from immigration enforcement at schools, Mayor Eric Adams didn’t voice support for a longstanding federal policy that limited arrests at “sensitive” locations.

Asked during a Tuesday press conference about concerns that immigration enforcement could target areas that have previously been off limits — including schools, hospitals, and churches — Adams refrained from taking a clear stance.

“That is all part of our conversations that we’re having with ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] about these sensitive locations and other aspects of it,” the mayor said. “Listen, we’ve been having good conversations with ICE. We’re going to continue to do so. Our team know[s] how important it is to coordinate, and if you’re not at the table, you’re not able to give real good input. And that is our goal.”

For decades, Democratic and Republican presidents have treated schools and child care centers as “sensitive” or “protected” locations that should be safe from immigration enforcement absent an immediate danger to the public. President Donald Trump, who campaigned on ramping up deportations, rescinded that policy on Monday.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a federal Homeland Security official wrote in a statement. Agents should use “common sense” in enforcing the law, the official noted.

Adams has adopted a warm posture toward Trump over the past several weeks, taking meetings with his “border czar,” dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and accepting a last-minute invitation to his inauguration on Monday. During Tuesday’s press conference, the mayor declined to offer an opinion on Trump’s decision to pardon Jan. 6 rioters, or efforts to end birthright citizenship.

Observers noted that courting Trump could benefit the mayor, who faces federal corruption charges, as the new president could pardon Adams if he is convicted. The mayor has denied any wrongdoing and said he is simply advocating on behalf of the city.

Adams urges immigrants to attend school, use city services

During the Tuesday press conference, Adams sought to reassure migrants that they are safe and should continue using municipal services.

“We want our immigrants to know that this is a city of immigrants,” Adams said. “It’s imperative that you go to school, use the hospital services, use the police services.”

But immigration rights advocates blasted Adams for failing to stake out a position on the sensitive locations policy — and worry that the federal government’s action clearing the way for arrests at or near schools will stoke fear among immigrant families.

“This is the same mayor who, for the past several months, has been speaking out of both sides of his mouth: saying that he does not support mass deportation, but wants to work with the Trump administration on immigration,” said Murad Awawdeh, who runs the New York Immigration Coalition, an advocacy group.

Awawdeh fears that families might be scared of sending their kids to school, as the policy was initially created to encourage immigrants to continue using essential services. “That’s the last thing we want and the last thing the city should want,” he said.

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein emphasized that “nothing has changed in terms of how we operate.”

She added: “We do not permit non-NYC law enforcement agents, including ICE, to enter schools except when absolutely required by law — and we do not ask families to disclose, nor do we track, immigration status.”

Brownstein did not respond to a question about whether Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, who was appointed by Adams, has an opinion about Trump’s decision to rescind the sensitive location policy.

Still, the Education Department has repeatedly reiterated to principals that they should not cooperate with ICE agents without a warrant and should contact city lawyers for guidance if federal agents arrive at their doorstep. School safety agents and other staff are forbidden from cooperating with federal immigration authorities in most cases.

The city’s Panel for Educational Policy, which votes on Education Department contracts and other policy measures, is expected to approve a resolution on Wednesday that lays out existing protections for undocumented students. Although the resolution is largely symbolic, some panel members sought to send a message to undocumented families that the school system is safe for them.

In response to follow-up questions about the mayor’s stance on the sensitive location policy, Adams spokesperson Liz Garcia sent a statement that did not directly address the issue. “The mayor has been clear that any enforcement should be focused on the small number of people who are coming to our city or country and committing violent crimes,” Garcia wrote in an email.

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

Eric Adams funds Summer Rising, but not $112 million for 3-K in preliminary budget

2025-01-16T23:50:05+00:00

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Last year, New York City officials ponied up hundreds of millions in city dollars to preserve education programs supported by billions in expiring federal COVID relief aid.

But in many cases, city officials committed to only a year of funding — leaving the programs’ fates up in the air once again during this year’s budget cycle.

On Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams gave his first indication of which of those programs he has prioritized keeping next year and which will be subject to budget negotiations with the City Council in the coming months.

In the preliminary budget he introduced Thursday, Adams preserved several big-ticket items, including $100 million in Education Department funding for Summer Rising, a free recreational and academic program that started during the pandemic and has attracted huge demand in recent years, though it has struggled with attendance.

Adams also pledged to continue Learning To Work, a $31 million initiative that funds counselors, social workers, and internship opportunities for students at risk of dropping out of high school.

But he did not renew funding for other major initiatives, including $112 million for 3-K, the city’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds. The preliminary budget also didn’t extend $55 million to ensure preschoolers with disabilities are able to find spots in specialized programs and $25 million to pay for extended-day preschool seats.

“While we are pleased to see Mayor Adams extend funding for summer programming and Learning to Work for next year, we are concerned that there is still a slew of important education programs at risk of being rolled back or eliminated as soon as July,” wrote the Coalition for Equitable Education Funding, a group of more than 120 youth-focused organizations, in a response to the preliminary budget.

The city’s 3-K program has turned into a political football under the Adams administration. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio expanded the program significantly using one-time federal aid, and Adams has repeatedly sought to scale it back, citing unfilled seats in some parts of the city and a need to better match seats to demand.

But supporters of 3-K, including parent and child care advocacy groups and many members of the City Council, have contended that the city needs better outreach and enrollment practices to ensure seats are filled. In many parts of the city, moreover, there are more applicants than open seats.

As part of last year’s final budget deal, the city allocated $5 million to improve outreach and get more families to sign up for prekindergarten and 3-K. That money was also not restored in Adams’ preliminary budget. Enrollment in 3-K was around 41,300 students as of earlier this school year, up about 2,000 students from last year, according to preliminary Education Department data.

In addition to the preschool funding, a number of other education initiatives that the city funded last year were not included in the preliminary budget.

Those include $41 million for arts education, $14 million for community schools, which work with community-based organizations to bring additional services into schools, $12 million for restorative justice, an approach to student discipline that seeks to avoid punishments like suspensions, and $10 million for teacher recruitment.

The Education Department has said it will need to hire thousands of additional educators to comply with the state’s class size law — a large challenge.

City officials have previously pointed out that they were able to preserve more of the programs funded by expired federal COVID aid than other districts, despite significant challenges keeping those initiatives going when more than $7 billion in stimulus education money, spanning several years, dried up.

“We inherited an administration where we had real fiscal cliffs from COVID … so many of our youth programs,” Adams said during a Thursday press conference. He credited a conservative budgeting approach and cuts in previous years with enabling the city to restore some of those programs.

Adams’ preliminary budget also includes more than $200 million for this current fiscal year, which ends this summer, to maintain the city’s efforts to staff a school nurse in every school building. Funding for school nurses also expanded dramatically during the pandemic, thanks to federal aid.

There are some new education initiatives in the preliminary budget, too, including more money for Pathways, the Education Department’s initiative to expand career-focused education. The budget commits $15 million to help students develop “academic, work, and independent living skills,” and $4 million to expand financial education — efforts Adams previewed in his State of the City address last week .

Overall, the preliminary budget is more than $114 billion, and it doesn’t include the kinds of cuts Adams has proposed in previous years — a financial situation he attributed to lower-than-expected spending on migrants and improved revenue projections.

Adams will negotiate with the City Council in the coming months before the city reaches a final budget agreement by the end of June.

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

Banking in schools, free swim lessons: education proposals in Adams’ ‘State of the City’ speech

2025-01-09T22:37:04+00:00

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Some New York City students could soon have access to banking services at school, under an initiative announced by Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday.

City officials plan to open 15 bank branches directly in public schools, offering students “real world experience opening accounts, saving, and investing,” Adams said during his State of the City address at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. It’s an idea that’s been explored in other parts of the country and the state.

“Interest, credit, and debt will determine our students’ success in the 21st century,” he said. “But too many young people still don’t know what they mean.”

Adams did not provide further details about the specifics or timeline for the program during his speech. Officials from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which oversees the initiative, said the agency was currently working with the city’s Education Department to identify schools that would participate in “the In-School Banking pilot program,” with more details to be announced in the coming months.

The promise was one part of a larger focus on affordability during his annual address, which adopted the theme of making New York City “the best place to raise a family.” The speech, which also saw the mayor lean heavily on issues of public safety and housing, comes at a pivotal moment for Adams as he faces federal corruption charges and a re-election campaign later this year. Adams has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.

Still, Adams struck a triumphant tone at the outset of his speech, touting investments in public safety, housing, and other city programs. He warned New Yorkers not to “let anyone fool you.”

“Don’t listen to the noise, don’t listen to the rhetoric,” he said. “The state of our city is strong.”

Education was not a centerpiece of his speech, but he tied its importance to the broader themes of his address: He pointed to investments in early childhood education as a means of removing financial burdens from families and to programs that support at-risk youth as a benefit to public safety.

“If we do not educate, we will incarcerate,” Adams said. “The choice is ours to make.”

Adams briefly touted some of the major education initiatives from his administration — like curriculum overhauls for math and literacy — and emphasized the importance of financial education in schools.

He vowed that the city would launch a new program to teach students financial skills at school and place a “financial educator” in each of the city’s 32 school districts. That educator would offer financial workshops, counseling, and curriculum, Adams said.

“We will make sure that every single New York City student can learn how to save and spend money by 2030,” he said. “Today, I’m calling on everyone — our banks, our credit unions, our private sector partners and more — to join us in this course and help set our children up for a lifetime of financial freedom.”

In the fall, the city’s Education Department called on public school families and educators to provide feedback on its K-12 financial literacy curriculum.

Other youth and education-related promises outlined by the mayor during his speech included more free swim lessons for the city’s children, as well as an expansion to the “Fatherhood Initiative,” a program that seeks to help fathers reconnect with their children and develop essential parenting skills.

The speech marked the start of Adams’ fourth year in office and came on the heels of multiple high-profile departures from his administration, including that of former schools Chancellor David Banks, as well as the mayor’s own federal indictment.

“Challenging year, difficult year, and many thought we couldn’t get through it,” Adams said at the close of his State of the City address. “There were some who said, ‘Step down.’ I said, ‘No, I must step up.’”

Despite Adams’ triumphant tone, some critics — and mayoral challengers — were quick to note what was left out of his speech, pointing to a lack of new policy proposals to improve child care access in the city. The issue was a point of tension between advocates and the mayor during budget negotiations last year.

“At the height of an affordability crisis, the Mayor failed to present any concrete plans for child care affordability,” said Rebecca Bailin, executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, in a statement. “To make New York City the best place to raise a family, we need bold action — not just words.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Tracey Collins, Eric Adams’ partner, retires from NYC schools amid ‘no-show’ job investigation

2024-11-08T20:28:01+00:00

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Tracey Collins, Mayor Eric Adams’ romantic partner, has quietly retired from a senior position at the Education Department amid allegations that she didn’t show up to work and failed to disclose luxury travel benefits.

Collins — who received a significant promotion and a roughly $50,000 raise after Adams took office in 2022 — wrapped up her last day of work on Nov. 1, a department spokesperson confirmed.

Her retirement comes after a former department employee tipped off city investigators that Collins “has had a no show job,” according to a complaint obtained by Chalkbeat and first reported by the New York Post. The former employee, who requested anonymity, said Collins had not appeared at work since last Thanksgiving.

A spokesperson for the Special Commissioner of Investigation confirmed they received the complaint and are “looking into the matter.” The city’s Department of Investigation is also reviewing the allegations, according to the Daily News, which first reported Collins’ retirement. A DOI spokesperson declined to comment.

Some evidence seems to back concerns about Collins’ absence. In the eight months after being promoted as a senior advisor in the Division of School Leadership, about three-quarters of the days on her work calendar were empty, according to records first revealed by Chalkbeat.

Her calendar showed about 40 scheduled meetings and events, including “hot heat” sessions to review superintendent performance, a one-on-one sitdown with a school food leader, and meetings with officials managing the influx of migrant students.

Officials at the Education Department’s public records office said this week they could not provide more recent versions of Collins’ daily schedule until February, despite initially indicating the records would be provided Nov. 5. (The department regularly ignores its own deadlines for responding to public records requests.)

Collins could not be reached for comment. Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer did not say why she retired.

“Ms. Collins served public school students for over 30 years as a teacher, principal, and administrator, and we wish her the best in her retirement,” Styer wrote in an email. He noted that her responsibilities included “strategic planning, making recommendations on agency priorities, and providing advice and support to senior leadership.”

Collins was thrust into the spotlight through the mayor’s federal indictment in September. She allegedly benefitted from tens of thousands of dollars in travel perks from Turkish officials who sought to influence Adams, according to the indictment. Those benefits were not listed on Collins’ financial disclosure forms as required, Politico first reported. Adams also omitted them.

Collins has not been charged with any crimes connected to that investigation. A spokesperson for the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board said they could not confirm whether the agency is looking into the matter.

Questions about Collins’ role at the Education Department began swirling soon after she landed a promotion in 2022, where she earned about $221,000 as a senior advisor.

Along with other non-union Education Department officials, Collins recently got a pay bump, bringing her salary to nearly $253,000, records show.

Collins moved this summer from the Division of School Leadership to be a senior advisor for the deputy chancellor of family and community engagement — a role occupied at the time by Melissa Aviles-Ramos. Aviles-Ramos was appointed schools chancellor last month after David Banks abruptly stepped down under pressure from the mayor. (Banks’ electronic devices were seized in September by federal investigators, though he has not been accused of wrongdoing.)

Collins isn’t the only Education Department official related to Adams. The mayor’s sister-in-law also got a job in the school system, earning a significant pay bump. Still, Adams has rejected any suggestion that his relationship with Collins helped her win a promotion and has defended her work ethic.

“There was a job vacancy. She filed for it. Being the significant other of the mayor should not stop your track,” he previously told reporters. “Tracey does her job and she does it well.”

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

David Banks has been the public face of NYC schools. Some call Dan Weisberg the ‘shadow chancellor.’

2024-10-09T21:55:02+00:00

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Within 24 hours of announcing his plans to step down as New York City’s schools chancellor, David Banks flanked Mayor Eric Adams at a jubilant press conference naming a successor to run the nation’s largest school system.

Neither Banks nor Adams took credit for selecting Melissa Aviles-Ramos, a deputy chancellor, as the next schools chief. Instead, they pointed to a top aide seated in the front row who had worked behind the scenes to elevate her: First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg.

The moment revealed a dynamic inside the Education Department that could prove critical to how well it withstands the crisis enveloping the Adams administration. While Banks has served as the public face of the department, Weisberg has taken the lead backstage shaping and implementing policy as his second in command.

Weisberg, 61, first joined the department as a labor negotiator during Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, which favored charter school expansion and clashed with the teachers union. After leaving the department, he spent a dozen years at a national nonprofit focused on teacher quality that advanced contentious policy ideas.

He now oversees a sprawling portfolio that includes an overhaul of reading and math instruction, opening new schools, and supervising the department’s senior leadership. He also led policy discussions on hot-button issues, from reintroducing selective admissions in the wake of the pandemic to navigating complex tradeoffs stemming from a state mandate to slash class sizes.

“A lot of advocates kind of describe him as the shadow chancellor,” said Matt Gonzales, director of the Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative at the NYU Metro Center. “Everywhere we turn, Dan Weisberg is showing up.”

A graduate of the city’s school system, Weisberg has won admirers. Some parents and education leaders described Weisberg as thoughtful and unusually responsive for a senior official. Others bristled that he is a lawyer by training with no teaching experience who nonetheless shapes policies directly affecting classrooms. And integration advocates have been frustrated by his support for selective admissions and gifted programs, which they blame for exacerbating school segregation.

But as a raft of top officials resign from the Adams administration in the wake of an unprecedented federal indictment of the mayor, Weisberg is now responsible for maintaining stability at the Education Department — an urgent task in the weeks ahead.

Banks’ sudden departure comes just over a month after his phones were seized by federal agents as part of a sprawling probe into Adams’ inner circle. Banks, who contends the mayor pushed him out of office ahead of schedule, has not been accused of wrongdoing.

In the meantime, Weisberg must help quickly smooth the transition for Aviles-Ramos, who is taking over as chancellor months earlier than planned. And he must also help cement the administration’s signature policy initiatives so they outlast Adams, who has pledged to run for re-election but faces corruption charges, multiple federal investigations, and an uncertain future as mayor.

Even before the recent upheaval, Weisberg said the department focused on building political support for their top initiatives among parents, educators, and union officials to ensure they outlive the Adams administration.

“Sustainability is something you should always have in mind,” he told Chalkbeat. “That was true under Mayor Bloomberg. It’s true under Mayor Adams. You never know exactly how much time you have.”

A one-time union foe, Weisberg charts a new path

Three years ago, as Banks prepared to take the reins of the Education Department, he called Weisberg for advice. The pair didn’t have a close relationship, though Weisberg had long admired the Eagle Academy network of public schools that Banks helped launch to serve boys of color.

Weisberg, then CEO of TNTP, an organization focused on teacher quality, said he and Banks shared a similar sense of humor and “clicked.”

But Banks’ decision to tap Weisberg immediately raised alarms from a powerful constituency.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, expressed “severe doubts” about Weisberg, he said in a recent interview. One educator wrote at the time that Weisberg is “one of the most dangerous people in the country who could rise to be the second highest ranking administrator” of the city’s public schools.

Weisberg helped lead labor negotiations under Bloomberg, who saw the teachers union as a powerful roadblock to overhauling the public school system. The administration pursued ideas that often drew fierce resistance: embracing charter schools, pushing for merit pay, vowing to overhaul teacher tenure protections, and closing a raft of schools, replacing them with new smaller ones.

Chancellor David Banks looks on as Dan Weisberg, first deputy chancellor, speaks during a press conference.

His role at TNTP, formerly known as The New Teacher Project, also drew scrutiny, as the organization often recommended policies that earned pushback from some educators. Shortly after joining TNTP, Weisberg co-authored a report that argued school districts were failing to distinguish between excellent and weak educators, effectively treating them as identical “widgets.” The influential paper helped spark a controversial push in many states to overhaul teacher evaluation systems, including tying them to standardized test scores.

When Weisberg was tapped to be Banks’ top deputy, taking a roughly $90,000 pay cut from his $354,000 TNTP salary, some of his critics feared the administration would follow through on the policy ideas Weisberg had been sharpening for years.

But Banks has focused on a narrower set of policies that have won broad support, including reading and math curriculum overhauls and a push to expose high school students to career options. Instead of trying to transform the way teachers are assessed and ferreting out weaker ones — proposals that have fallen out of favor politically — Weisberg has helped create more consistency over the materials teachers use.

The teachers union is a key backer of those efforts, even as some educators and parents raise concerns about the quality of the curriculum choices and complain that the mandate is too rigid.

Weisberg still believes the school system is falling short for too many children and that policymakers should take bigger risks. But he also thinks the curriculum overhauls are potentially transformative and dovetail with his prior focus on teacher quality.

“What I’m confident in is that the quality and the effectiveness of teachers as a whole is going to increase as a result of all this work,” he said.

He’s even won some grudging support from Mulgrew, who pointed to Weisberg’s role spinning up training to help teachers acclimate to the new curriculums.

“Weisberg has been very good with working with us on those things,” Mulgrew said. But the union chief stopped short of a full endorsement of his leadership. “I think he follows the lead of the people he works for.”

The clock may be running out on the Adams administration

With a little over a year left in his first term, Adams has pleaded not guilty to corruption charges and vowed to stay in office despite calls for him to step down. But uncertainty over how long he might remain in control looms over the school system.

Under a distracted City Hall with little political capital to spend on new initiatives, Weisberg and other top education officials must either focus on keeping the lights on and ensuring Adams’ existing education priorities take root or head for the exit themselves.

Aaron Pallas, an education policy expert at Columbia University’s Teachers College and longtime observer of the city’s public schools, said Weisberg may play a valuable role amid the uncertainty and transition to a new chancellor. Weisberg has a tight relationship with Aviles-Ramos, elevating her as a top aide in his office before recommending her to replace Banks. And he has deep knowledge of the literacy overhaul and career education expansion, the department’s signature priorities.

“He can probably troubleshoot and speed those along better than someone coming into his role anew,” Pallas said. “At the same time, there is so much built in regularity in a large bureaucracy that particular people may not matter quite as much as you think.”

Not everyone is rooting for stability. Some critics of Adams’ education agenda hope the political crisis at City Hall leads to new leadership at the Education Department sooner rather than later, pointing to heated fights over the department’s budget and prekindergarten program cuts.

Melissa Aviles-Ramos (center) has vowed to carry the torch on Banks' and Adams' education priorities.

School integration advocates also have been frustrated that the administration has resisted calls to address the system’s status as among the most segregated in the country.

Instead, the department has expanded academic screening in the wake of the pandemic, and more recently reinstated special access for Manhattan students at a handful of coveted high schools, decisions Weisberg helped facilitate. Banks and other top officials argue accelerated learning opportunities are crucial to keeping families in the system, though advocates contend those policies will exacerbate segregation.

“I ultimately want to see change — this administration has felt chaotic and stressful for the last few years,” said Gonzales, of the NYU Metro Center, a critic of Adams’ education policies and an integration advocate. “Dan Weisberg is part of that.”

East Harlem parent leader Kaliris Salas-Ramirez agreed. She said the administration has not moved swiftly enough to plan for a state law that mandates smaller class sizes, an issue Weisberg has helped oversee.

And she is skeptical of the department’s curriculum mandates and Weisberg’s supervision of them given his lack of teaching experience. She pointed to the decision to dissolve the department’s division of teaching and learning, a move Weisberg supported, which led to the resignation of Carolyne Quintana, a well-liked deputy chancellor. (Weisberg declined to comment on the specifics of her exit, and Quintana could not be reached for comment.)

“This man has no background on how children learn,” said Salas-Ramirez, who worked with Weisberg as a former member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy. “For me, that’s been the difficult part of engaging with him.”

Weisberg has also faced some scrutiny over management of his staff, including raises and promotions to an enrollment official in the wake of an investigation that found she sold clothing online during the work day, the New York Post reported. The employee has since been fired and the Education Department’s enrollment chief, the staffer’s supervisor, was reassigned. (Weisberg declined to comment on the incident through a spokesperson, citing pending litigation.)

Yet other parent leaders are rooting for Weisberg to stay. “I’ve had a lot of feelings about the DOE over the years, and Dan was one of the first people who made me feel I could trust him – that he wasn’t treating parents like mosquitoes,” said Deborah Alexander, vice president of the Citywide Council on High Schools who generally supports efforts to expand selective admissions. “He always, always would respond to emails.”

For his part, Weisberg is adamant that he’s not eyeing the exit.

“I intend to stay on as long as the mayor and Melissa want me to serve in that role,” he said. He left the door only slightly ajar.

“You can never be sure what’s coming down the pike that might change things,” he said. “But I’m very committed to the work we’ve undertaken.”

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

NYC schools Chancellor David Banks will retire months earlier than expected. He blames Mayor Adams.

2024-10-03T01:45:21+00:00

Chancellor David Banks will leave his position running the nation’s largest school system in two weeks – several months earlier than originally planned, city officials announced Wednesday night.

The change in plans means Melissa Aviles-Ramos will take over as New York City’s schools chief on Oct. 16 instead of Dec. 31.

In a stunning move Thursday morning, Banks blamed Mayor Eric Adams, his longtime friend, for moving up the date.

“Last week, I announced my planned retirement, and I was ready, willing and able to stay in my post until December 31st to conduct a responsible transition for our staff,” Banks said in a statement issued by a public relations firm, rather than the city Education Department. “The Mayor has decided to accelerate that timeline.”

In remarks to reporters Thursday morning, Adams said that having Banks and Aviles-Ramos overlap wasn’t bringing the “stability we wanted.”

Having her start closer to the beginning of the school year rather than the middle is a “good look” that will allow her to more quickly start implementing her plans, he added.

“One message, one leader there, and allowing her to get the job done correctly,” he said.

Those sentiments directly contradict the message that officials delivered just a week ago in a celebratory press conference announcing Aviles-Ramos’ appointment.

“This is the most responsible way that you can do this,” Banks said then of the plan to overlap with Aviles-Ramos for three months.

Despite Adams’ statement that Aviles-Ramos should get to work as soon as possible executing her vision, the incoming chancellor has made clear that her primary goal is continuing the work that Banks already started.

“My North Star is their North Star,” she told Chalkbeat, referring to Banks’ and Adams’ education priorities. “I share their vision … That’s why I agreed to be chancellor.”

The remarkable back-and-forth between Banks and Adams and the changing succession plans are the latest unprecedented developments involving city and education department leadership. They come as Adams faces federal charges of wire fraud, bribery, and receiving contributions from foreign nationals that he knew to be illegal. Adams has pleaded not guilty.

Banks and with his wife First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright have become tied up in the federal inquiries looming over City Hall. Both Banks and Wright had their phones seized by federal agents in September, just one day before the school year started, as part of a probe into Adams’ inner circle. Banks and Wright haven’t been accused of wrongdoing.

Just three weeks later, Banks announced his retirement effective Dec. 31, saying he was tired and “out of gas.” Adams tapped Aviles-Ramos as the schools chancellor the following day, just hours before news broke that he was indicted on federal corruption charges.

News of the expedited timetable for Banks’ departure comes amid reports that Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the authority to remove the mayor from office, called on Adams to remove city officials who have been under investigation. Earlier this week, senior advisor Tim Pearson announced he is stepping down.

Asked if he had spoken to Hochul about removing Banks earlier, Adams told reporters he doesn’t reveal private conversations.

Though Hochul has not publicly called on Adams to resign, a growing number of local and state officials have done so — arguing Adams is incapable of leading the city while battling the federal charges. Adams, who is the first mayor to face federal charges while in office, has fiercely resisted those calls.

Adams also recently issued an executive order that would make it easier for Wright to step down from her role as first deputy mayor, fueling speculation she is also headed for the door, The New York Daily News reported.

Banks and Wright got married in a Martha’s Vineyard celebration last weekend.

The change in leadership comes at a critical time for many of the Adams administration’s signature education policies, with the rollout of multiple curriculum overhauls still underway.

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

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org

What does Eric Adams’ partner do for NYC’s schools? Tracey Collins’ calendar gives few answers.

2024-10-02T01:09:01+00:00

Mayor Eric Adams’ partner Tracey Collins had roughly 40 scheduled meetings and events during her first eight months following a promotion to a high-level role in the city Education Department, according to daily calendars obtained by Chalkbeat.

The schedule left about 75% of her days empty and gave little sense of her role or a coherent set of responsibilities.

It’s not clear how many of Collins’ daily responsibilities were listed in her calendar. But the scant information raises questions about her role at a time when Collins, a veteran educator and former principal, faces increased scrutiny after she appeared in a federal indictment of Adams on corruption charges.

Referred to as Adams’ “Partner” in the indictment, Collins allegedly benefited from tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of travel upgrades from Turkish officials attempting to buy favor with Adams, according to the documents. Prosecutors didn’t accuse Collins of any wrongdoing.

Collins was elevated in 2022 to a $221,000-a-year position as senior adviser in the Division of School Leadership — a nearly $50,000 raise from her previous year’s salary, according to payroll records. Her promotion drew fire in a New York Post story that Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy dismissed at the time as a “vile and sexist” smear.

Collins recently switched to senior adviser to deputy chancellor of family and community engagement Melissa Aviles-Ramos, who Adams named last week as his next Chancellor when David Banks retires Dec. 31.

Last weekend, the Post surfaced additional allegations from a staffer who reportedly filed a complaint with the Conflict of Interest Board and other investigators that Collins hasn’t appeared in person to her job since last Thanksgiving and didn’t sufficiently disclose her travel benefits.

A spokesperson for the office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools confirmed they’d received a complaint about Collins not showing up, but declined to provide further detail or say whether they are looking into it.

Asked about Collins at a Tuesday press conference, Adams defended her promotion and work ethic.

“Tracey was a phenomenal educator for over 30-something years,” he said. “There was a job vacancy. She filed for it. Being the significant other of the mayor should not stop your track.”

He added: “Tracey does her job and she does it well.”

Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer added that her job includes “strategic planning, making recommendations on agency priorities, and providing advice and support to senior leadership.”

Some meetings may be redacted from schedules obtained via public records request, officials said.

Outgoing Chancellor Banks is a longtime friend of Adams whose own romantic partner and brother serve as deputy mayors. Banks also hired Adams’ sister-in-law, Sharon, last May, THE CITY reported.

Collins didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

As a senior adviser in the Division of School Leadership, Collins held a high-level role in a section of the Education Department that consolidated significant power under Banks. The division oversees all 45 district superintendents and assumed oversight of Banks’ signature literacy and math curriculum initiatives after Banks disbanded the division previously leading those efforts.

The division also saw a leadership shakeup in 2023, when deputy chancellor Desmond Blackburn left after just a year in the job and was replaced by Danika Rux.

A job description for a role matching Collins’ from 2022 notes that the position was only open to candidates from within the Education Department. It describes the role as a “key member” of the deputy chancellor’s leadership team responsible for managing partnerships with outside groups.

A job description obtained by Chalkbeat for Collins’ current role working for Aviles-Ramos matches the description for her previous role word for word, except for reporting to a different deputy chancellor.

Her schedule listed five events related to superintendent “hot seats” — a Banks innovation meant to subject district leaders to more scrutiny over their data and school performance. Several of the hot seat events also include “mindfulness” exercises, a priority for both Banks and Adams.

Collins had several one-on-one meetings with officials closely involved in the department’s response to the influx of migrant students.

She met one-on-one with Flavia Puello-Pardomo, who oversees the department’s Students in Temporary Housing division. She also sat down with Aviles-Ramos, who led Project Open Arms, the city’s interagency effort to coordinate services for migrant children.

Other items on Collins’ schedule seemed a little further outside the purview of the division of school leadership, including several meetings related to school food — a top priority of Adams, a zealous advocate for healthy eating who introduced plant-powered Fridays to city school cafeterias.

Collins had a one-on-one meeting with Chris Tricarico, the head of the Office of School Food and Nutrition Services in August, 2022, according to her schedule. In February 2023, she joined Tricarico at the city’s school food test kitchen in Queens for a session on a chef council developing new recipes, according to the calendar.

This story has been updated with information from the Education Department about Collins’ current role and job description.

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

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

NYC piloting school bus cameras from company run by ex-Eric Adams aide

2024-09-30T23:05:14+00:00

When New York City wanted to test cameras on city school buses, they tapped two vendors to pilot the technology.

One was Verra Mobility, an Arizona-based smart transportation company with a history of working with the city’s Transportation Department. The other was BusPatrol, a Florida company run by a former high-ranking official in the office of Mayor Eric Adams.

BusPatrol’s president and chief innovation officer is Justin Meyers, who until last September worked as chief of staff to Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Phil Banks. Federal agents seized the phones of both Banks, his brother, outgoing schools Chancellor David Banks, and a third brother, consultant Terence Banks, earlier this month as part of a federal investigation into Adams’ inner circle. Adams was indicted last week on bribery and fraud charges stemming from another investigation. He has pleaded not guilty.

City officials revealed the pilot program with BusPatrol Monday during a City Council hearing on school bus service. The cameras are mounted on school bus stop arms and snap photographs of the license plates of cars that illegally pass stopped school buses.

Officials didn’t share when the pilot program began. A City Hall spokesperson said the city didn’t pay anything for the pilot, which was led by NYCSBUS, a nonprofit bus operator that contracts with the city.

But the pilot, which started with 30 buses, was successful enough that City Hall and the Education and Transportation departments recently agreed to expand it to 250 buses, said James Sarkis, the executive director of contract operations in the city’s Office of Pupil Transportation.

In his time in City Hall, Meyers was closely involved with the city’s efforts to bring in new technology to aid law enforcement, including the failed pilot to have a robot patrol the Times Square subway station.

Officials will solicit new bids from companies for the expanded program, Sarkis added.

A spokesperson for BusPatrol said “Justin Meyers did not lobby the City of New York for or participate in discussions with the City” about the pilot or the request for proposals for the expansion. The spokesperson added that BusPatrol has no current contract or agreement with the city and said the company followed all city lobbying rules.

Chancellor Banks’ public schedule, obtained by Chalkbeat via public records request, listed a meeting with a “Justin Meyers” on Nov. 28, 2023, just months after Meyers, the chief of staff, left City Hall for BusPatrol. Banks’ schedule also lists a Zoom meeting with “Bus Patrol” in May 2022.

An Education Department spokesperson said the agency played no role in arranging or organizing the pilot.

City ethics rules bar top government officials who recently left their posts from appearing before their former agencies on behalf of a private business for a year. But officials who work for the mayor’s office are often allowed to appear before other city agencies on behalf of private businesses, said John Kaehny, the executive director of Reinvent Albany, a good government group.

But the revelation still raised eyebrows among some lawmakers and ethics watchdogs – especially as Adams and members of his inner circle face scrutiny following federal prosecutors’ unprecedented indictment of Adams.

“This is a disturbing example of the revolving door that desperately needs to be shuttered,” said Council member Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn Democrat. Restler said he’s introduced legislation that would bar former officials in the mayor’s office from having contact with other city agencies following their departures. “It’s wrong to trade in your relationships from public service to immediately go and make money on the outside on behalf of corporate interest.”

Federal investigators are reportedly scrutinizing contracts and pilot programs for companies with ties to the Banks brothers. That includes Saferwatch, a company that produces a panic button app for schools and hired Terence Banks, a former MTA staffer, as a lobbyist in an effort to bring its product into city schools.

Saferwatch targeted Meyers and Chancellor Banks in their lobbying efforts, THE CITY reported, eventually winning a $67,000 pilot program, though city officials ultimately declined to move forward with a full contract.

Another company formerly owned by Banks, the deputy mayor, won a $145 million contract to provide fire watch services for the New York City Housing Authority, the New York Times reported.

Pilot programs are often subject to less scrutiny than official contracts, which must be publicly reported and solicit multiple bids, Politico recently reported.

BusPatrol lists a number of large districts across the country as its clients. Its website advertises AI-powered cameras that can be mounted on school buses to photograph the license plates of cars that illegally pass stopped buses, and share the information with law enforcement.

In a recent interview with a Buffalo, New York, radio station, Meyers said the company partners with roughly 450 school districts, and that the cameras can reduce instances of cars passing stopped school buses by around 40%.

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

Next NYC schools chancellor: Melissa Aviles-Ramos says it’s business as usual despite Adams’ charges

2024-09-27T00:22:53+00:00

Mayor Eric Adams faces bribery and fraud charges and a growing number of calls for his resignation, but he has not lost the support of his incoming schools chancellor.

Melissa Aviles-Ramos was announced Wednesday as David Banks’ successor and is expected to officially assume the role after he retires on Dec. 31.

She reiterated her support for Adams during a Thursday interview with Chalkbeat, and she emphasized her commitment to continuing his education agenda, including an overhaul of literacy teaching in elementary schools.

“I share their vision … That’s why I agreed to be chancellor,” she said of Adams and Banks. “My North Star is their North Star, but I have to make sure that I keep the train moving.”

The past few days have been a whirlwind for the nation’s largest school system. Banks, whose phones were seized by federal agents nearly three weeks ago along with those of other top officials, abruptly announced his retirement Tuesday. The next day, at a celebratory press conference, Adams and Banks announced that Aviles-Ramos would become the city’s next schools chancellor.

Hours later, news broke of Adams’ indictment. Adams strenuously denied the charges Thursday at a press conference in front of Gracie Mansion where he was flanked by supporters and heckled by protesters chanting, “resign.”

In a letter to city employees on Thursday, Adams wrote, “Let me be very clear, I know I’ve done nothing wrong. … Our focus must remain the same: continuing to deliver for our fellow New Yorkers.”

It’s unclear how long Aviles-Ramos could stay in her role, especially if Adams is forced to step down and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams takes over. But Aviles-Ramos said the uncertainty isn’t changing her approach.

Beyond reiterating her support for Adams on Thursday, Aviles-Ramos – who has worked as a principal, superintendent, and Banks’ chief of staff, and led the city’s efforts to incorporate migrant students – laid out her alignment with Banks on a number of policy issues ranging from lowering class sizes to a citywide policy to integrate schools.

She also clarified that during the next three months, she and Banks will jointly make policy decisions.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

I wanted to start with something that came up at the press conference. When you got to the school that you were the principal of, the graduation rate was 23% and it went up to 68% the first year, which is pretty staggering. Can you talk about how you accomplished that, and if there are any lessons you would draw as chancellor in terms of helping low-performing schools?

The projected graduation rate was only 23% and a lot of that was due to poor programming. So we had to sprint and figure out how to get those students those classes [they needed]. And so we got it up to 68%.

What I learned from that is no one person has all the answers. In a small school, when you are the principal, you are part programmer and school aide, and you do all the things. And so I spent a lot of time with my programmer. I spent a lot of time with my families, I spent a lot of time with my students and with my teachers, and together, we had to really think about how do we design a program that doesn’t punish kids who thought that they were on track, and also embraces the things that they like to do. So it was a real lesson in leadership and how you have to listen to your community.

You left the DOE in February after a long time for an administrative role at Monroe College. Why was that?

I actually was supposed to work with Monroe College back in 2022. I wanted to try something new.

And then [First Deputy Chancellor] Dan Weisberg said, “I’d just like to have a talk with you, because I hear that you’d be really good to have on my team.” Dan and I just hit it off. And he offered me the job [as senior executive director of his office] … which was how I inherited Project Open Arms [the city Education Department’s effort to incorporate migrant students].

When you came back to the DOE in July after Monroe, was that already with the explicit understanding that you were going to be named chancellor?

There was definitely a transparent conversation about a succession plan that occurred amongst the chancellor and the mayor and myself.

We heard a lot from advocates and families about how disruptive the 60-day shelter limit for many migrant families was. I’m curious what you saw? And is that type of policy something you would feel comfortable potentially pushing back on the mayor on?

We definitely saw challenges. But students in temporary housing, unfortunately, is not new to New York City. We have a lot of experience with this, though definitely not the way that we do now. Working closely with enrollment was how we were able to accommodate a lot of the families, and with busing. Was it perfect? No, nothing is.

In terms of pushing back on City Hall, what I will say is that this was the last resort. This is not something that anyone wants to do. The numbers are huge. We had 45,000 students … My job is to operationalize it in a way that is going to make sense for families as best as possible, and to make sure that there’s as little disruption to learning.

There’s a lot of factors driving declining enrollment: lower birth rates, the affordability crisis. To what extent do you think the Education Department can have an impact on enrollment? And what can you actually do?

I think there’s a lot that can be done. I think we’ve started that work. First of all, schools are very important to communities, and what we have been working on is really empowering our superintendents and principals to build that ecosystem within their community. Making sure that you’re not just a principal who is in your building and taking care of the programming and the curriculum, but how are you interacting with the community? Do you know the business owners? Do you know the churches? And when you get to know your community, people start entrusting you with their kids.

People move to neighborhoods because they want really good schools. But in order for them to know what a school is like, especially if there are four or five of them in one neighborhood, they need to know the principal, and they need to know the school community.

As you look ahead, is there a top priority for you? What’s your North Star, your one thing you hope to accomplish as chancellor?

The priorities that we have already set forth in this administration. Who doesn’t want to teach kids to read, do math, and have access to amazing careers after they graduate?

I see my role as making sure we get all of those things over the finish line.

So specifically, would that be continuing literacy work and some of the Future Ready work?

New York City Reads, our Pathways work, Future Ready. My background is in high school education, so it’s incredibly important to me the work that’s happening in Future Ready. But I also have a background in adolescent literacy. I also know what it feels like when a 14-year-old young person doesn’t want to engage with their peers because they don’t want people to know that they are reading on a first- or second-grade reading level.

So again, I don’t have to worry about competing priorities, because I share the same ones with them.

You were pretty clear yesterday in your praise for the mayor. Given the news [of Adams’ federal indictment], do you continue to feel that way? Do you continue to feel he can be an effective mayor?

I’m committed to New York City. I’m a career educator. I believe in the role that I have currently, and the one that I’m about to step into. I’m an English teacher, not an attorney, and I’m going to stick to the task in front of me, which is making sure that our kids and our families have everything they need.

Given that you need sign-off from City Hall to advance significant policy initiatives, do you feel confident that that’s going to continue to happen?

I do feel confident.

This year is the first real big test for class size reduction. You have to hit 60% of classes underneath the designated caps by next fall or risk hundreds of millions of dollars potentially in state aid. The city even went backwards by a percentage point or two last year. What’s your plan to get there?

Our plan is to continue working with the unions and with our internal folks to look at this on a case by case basis. It’s a complex situation, as you well know, so I can’t sit here and say anything other than we have an amazing group of people and a strong partnership with the union. We can look at things as they come up, and see where there are issues and how we can solve for them.

Do you anticipate a big teacher hiring increase this year?

Well, we would need to, that’s part of class size. We are going to need a lot more teachers.

Banks was clear about not wanting to kind of impose a citywide policy in terms of integrating schools, or changing the entrance requirements to the specialized high schools. Do you agree with that?

I think that entering into this seat, and also the current seat that I have, which is family and community engagement, I do what is needed in communities and what the families are asking for.

Are there any changes that you anticipate, anything you want to bring to this that would be new?

Something that I want to drive is bilingual education. I want to make sure that we prioritize support for those young people, and that we do provide the support for the teachers. We know that New York City Reads has been successful in bilingual classes. I’ve spoken to a couple of teachers in schools who have said that this has been very helpful.

In terms of New York City Reads, you’re still at the beginning of this, and as the chancellor has said many times, it’s a long horizon to see impact. How do you think about the long term fate of that initiative if it’s unclear whether this administration is going to stay?

I am confident that any person who is involved in education would want to see children learning to read. We’ve also been very transparent that this is a long road. But we have done so much important foundational work with professional development. This wasn’t just unboxing a curriculum and giving it to teachers. There was a very strategic partnership with the [United Federation of Teachers] and with other organizations to provide that shoulder to shoulder, job-embedded support for the teachers. So I think because of that, it’s going to continue.

Who is the final decision maker in the DOE for the next three months?

That will be [Banks] and me together. We’ve worked really closely together in the last couple of years. And one thing about the chancellor is that he makes decisions with his cabinet. So this isn’t new to them. It’s certainly not new to me, and I’m actually looking forward to the next three months.

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

Mayor Eric Adams faces federal indictment hours after naming new schools chancellor

2024-09-26T02:50:36+00:00

A federal grand jury has indicted Mayor Eric Adams, according to the New York Times, a destabilizing blow to the city just hours after he named its next schools chief.

The charges against Adams were unclear since the indictment was sealed, the Times reported. He is expected to surrender to authorities early next week, sources told the New York Post.

Adams’ indictment is both symbolically and practically significant for the nation’s largest school system. Under mayoral control — a governance model that Albany lawmakers extended twice under Adams’ watch — the city’s chief executive is responsible for overseeing its 1,600 schools, along with picking the schools chancellor.

Adams, the first New York City mayor to be charged while in office, can continue to serve as mayor even while facing charges. But he’s faced mounting pressure from local and state officials to step down, and news of the indictment was likely to fuel further critics.

“I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams said in a statement Wednesday night to multiple news outlets. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”

Wednesday night’s news raises questions about the leadership of the city as well as its schools. Schools Chancellor David Banks – whose phones were seized three weeks ago along with those of other top officials – announced Tuesday he plans to retire at the end of the calendar year.

It’s also unclear if the fallout from an indictment could impact Adams’ plan to have Melissa Aviles-Ramos replace Banks after his Dec. 31 retirement.

“It has the potential to really paralyze the DOE and really prevent it from doing anything novel and anything other than limping along,” Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and longtime observer of the city’s school system, said of the indictment. “Many people feel like limping along is certainly not good enough.”

Even before news of the indictment began to spread on Wednesday evening, a growing chorus of elected officials had begun calling for the mayor’s resignation — most notably Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

If Adams were to resign or be forced out of office, decisions about the school system — including whether to move forward with Aviles-Ramos’ appointment — would fall to Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate. Williams’ office did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday about how he would approach managing the Education Department.

Just hours before word of the indictment broke, Adams joined Banks for a celebratory press conference where they formally announced Aviles-Ramos’ new role. She voiced her full-throated support for the mayor. “I want you to see me as a symbol of stability,” she said.

Multiple federal investigations have touched Adams’ inner circle, and several top officials have stepped down or announced plans to leave in recent weeks, including the city’s police commissioner and health commissioner. The Times reported that the investigation leading to the indictment probed whether the mayor, who received foreign donations to his campaign, expedited approval of a new high-rise Turkey consulate, despite safety concerns.

As news of the indictment spread Wednesday night, new calls emerged for Adams to resign — including from City Comptroller Brad Lander, state Senator Zellnor Myrie, and former Comptroller Scott Stringer, all of whom are running against Adams.

State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, acknowledged Adams was “entitled to his due process” but also called for his exit.

“The people of New York City, however, need a mayor who is able to devote full time and full energy to putting the city on the right track, including recruitment and retention of top leadership for the City,” Liu said in a statement. “Mayor Adams is simply unable to do that for the foreseeable future and therefore, for the good of all New Yorkers, must resign immediately.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org

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

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

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

Melissa Aviles-Ramos, NYC’s next schools chancellor, says she’ll have Mayor Adams’ back

2024-09-25T21:31:48+00:00

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One day after schools Chancellor David Banks abruptly announced that he will retire at the end of the year, he and Mayor Eric Adams tried to project an air of calm as they formally introduced the woman who will lead the Education Department.

Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the highest-ranking Latina in the public school system, has been instrumental in her work with migrant students, Adams said, even as he celebrated Banks’ nearly 40-year career in the city’s schools. Both men emphasized that Banks’ impending departure — the latest in a series of high-profile resignations at City Hall — had nothing to do with multiple federal investigations into Adams’ inner circle.

“I want you to see me as a symbol of stability,” said Aviles-Ramos, who was quick to cement herself as an ally to Adams as he faces growing pressure from some local and state officials to step down.

“Mayor Adams is New York City,” she said at a press conference. “Before, you would look at mayors and you would see someone cold and inaccessible and on the news. You see Mayor Adams everywhere.”

Adams and Banks publicly announced the succession plan at the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice, where Banks was founding principal in 1997. They emphasized that the chancellor’s Dec. 31 retirement plans — and their choice to tap Aviles-Ramos — predated the current swirl of federal investigations.

Aviles-Ramos, who was born and raised in the Bronx, started in the system as a high school English teacher in 2007 and then rose to being a principal, acting superintendent, and Banks’ chief of staff. She was responsible for overseeing the Education Department’s effort two years ago to help the thousands of migrant students coming into the school system.

She left the department in February to work at a college only to return this summer to assume a role as deputy chancellor for family and community engagement and external affairs.

Aviles-Ramos’ return was part of a handoff plan that had long been in the works, Banks and Adams said. The mayor tied conversations about Banks’ retirement to January, while Banks said those conversations “intensified” in the early months of the summer.

Though running the nation’s largest school system is considered one of the most prestigious — and difficult — education jobs in the country, multiple observers said it would be next to impossible to attract a talented leader outside the city. The next schools chief may only be in the role for a year if Adams does not win re-election — or less if he is forced to resign.

“It’s hard to imagine who would want to work under Eric Adams right now given the cloud and chaos surrounding his mayoral administration,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and longtime observer of the city’s school system.

Asked about his decision to step down in the middle of the school year, Banks said remaining in his role until June was “a romantic notion.”

“But the reality is that, after 40 years, when you recognize that it’s time, you feel that,” he said.

Banks departs at a pivotal time for some of his key initiatives — including a literacy curriculum overhaul — but he said Wednesday that he will leave in December with “no regrets.”

“I gave it everything that I had,” he said. “I poured it all out.”

Deputy Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos and Chancellor David Banks at Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice on Wednesday, September 25, 2024.

Aviles-Ramos has fans among Bronx educators

During the press conference, city officials portrayed Aviles-Ramos as a talented manager who impressed City Hall by coordinating across multiple agencies to support migrant students as part of Project Open Arms. Banks described her as hard-working and single-minded but also called her “side-cracking funny.”

Aviles-Ramos has also won fierce loyalty from some principals she worked with, both as a colleague and a superintendent overseeing Bronx high schools.

“She’s the kind of person you would follow into the gates of hell and back,” said Ron Link, principal of the Theatre Arts Production Company School in the Bronx, who got to know Aviles-Ramos when she oversaw his school as a deputy and acting superintendent.

Other education leaders who have worked with Aviles-Ramos pointed to her experience up and down the Education Department’s organizational chart.

“She is one of these people that is able to take the experiences she’s had as a teacher, as a principal, as a superintendent, and speak with authority on what those roles entail and the challenges that folks in those roles face — but can think at a big systems level,” said Mark Dunetz, president of New Visions for Public Schools, an organization that supports a network of city schools.

As she addressed the crowd on Wednesday, Aviles-Ramos leaned heavily on her Bronx roots. She noted her family had struggled with the city’s schools in the 1980′s.

“The Bronx was a forgotten place,” she said. “Public schools did not work out so well for my two siblings. … They had to fend for themselves and find their way after school.”

As a result of that experience, Aviles-Ramos said her mom, a single parent, worked hard cooking and cleaning in order to pay tuition at a Catholic school. But Aviles-Ramos said that if families leave the system, it shouldn’t be because they don’t have good public options.

“We shouldn’t have to move to different districts,” she said.

John Powers, who retired as principal of Herbert Lehman High School in 2023, got to know Aviles-Ramos well when she took over in 2016 as principal of Schuylerville Preparatory High School, a small school in the same building.

The school was in rough shape when she came in, and just 26% of students graduated within four years the year she started, city officials said Wednesday. Aviles-Ramos helped push that number to 67% the next year, according to city data.

“She’s the real deal,” Powers said. “She actually knows instruction.”

Hard road ahead for transition to chancellor job

Powers said he expects Aviles-Ramos, whom he described as a “very thoughtful planner,” to make good use of the coming months to map out a smoother transition.

He said he thinks she will focus on supporting teachers, a key task as educators adapt to sweeping curriculum mandates.

Some caregivers said they were glad the next chancellor already has relationships with parent leaders, as Aviles-Ramos served for the past three months as the deputy chancellor overseeing family and community engagement.

Though some education leaders treat soliciting input from parents as a box-checking exercise, “it’s definitely going to go beyond [that] with her,” said Shirley Aubin, the co-chair of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council. “She respects and appreciates the parents and families and community voice.”

Still, steering the city’s school system, a vast bureaucracy with roughly 130,000 staffers and 900,000 students, is a tall order under normal circumstances. The situation Aviles-Ramos is stepping into is hardly normal. Her predecessor is leaving amid several federal investigations of the mayor’s administration, which could cut short the mayoralty of Adams, leaving the length of Aviles-Ramos’ tenure uncertain.

Aviles-Ramos will face a range of thorny policy questions on class sizes, cell phone bans, and other issues that will likely require buy-in from the Adams administration, which will be harder if officials are preoccupied with the investigations, said one Education Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“I think the bigger question is … how do you make sure the distractions don’t stop work from happening,” the official said.

Other leaders had more experience than Aviles-Ramos at the highest levels of the Education Department, the official said. That includes Deputy Chancellor Danika Rux, who oversees the city’s 45 district superintendents and recently took responsibility for Banks’ key literacy and math initiatives.

Aviles-Ramos is also in the unusual position of having been named chancellor months before she is expected to assume the role.

“This is the most responsible way that you can do this,” Banks said. “It doesn’t usually happen this way.”

Banks said Aviles-Ramos would be joining him at “all of the chancellor’s meetings” over the remainder of his tenure.

And Aviles-Ramos told Adams she was committed to continuing the mayor’s education initiatives.

“I have your back,” she told the audience. “We are going to get stuff done.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org

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

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

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

Melissa Aviles-Ramos expected to take over as NYC schools chancellor, sources say

2024-09-25T03:00:51+00:00

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Melissa Aviles-Ramos, who helmed New York City’s efforts to incorporate thousands of migrant students into city schools, will take over as schools chancellor following the departure of David Banks, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Mayor Eric Adams was expected to announce Aviles-Ramos’ appointment Wednesday afternoon in the Bronx.

The succession plan follows Tuesday’s stunning news that Banks – a longtime friend of Adams who has served as schools chief since Adams took office in 2022 – was stepping down amid widening federal investigations into the Adams administration.

Banks will leave his post on Dec. 31, he said in a letter Tuesday. The announcement came three weeks after federal agents seized Banks’ phones, along with those of his partner, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, and his brothers, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Phil Banks, and Terence Banks, a consultant and former MTA staffer.

Banks was the latest in a string of high-ranking city officials to announce their resignations in recent weeks, throwing the Adams administration into chaos. The quick naming of a successor to lead the Education Department is likely an effort to inject some stability into the operations of the largest city agency, which oversees 1,600 schools and more than 900,000 students.

Aviles-Ramos, who currently serves as a deputy chancellor overseeing family engagement, took on the high-profile task of steering the Education Department’s efforts to incorporate the wave of migrant students who began arriving in Summer 2022 – an initiative the city dubbed Project Open Arms.

Adams has cited that effort as a major success of his administration.

“When you do an analysis of the last two years, we incorporated over 40,000 students,” Adams said at a recent press conference. “It’s clear the Project Open Arms … has really met the mark.”

Aviles-Ramos began working in the city Education Department in 2007 as a teacher, according to her LinkedIn profile, later serving as a principal, acting superintendent, and Banks’ chief of staff.

She left the city Education Department in February to take a job as a college administrator, only to come back several months later in the new role as deputy chancellor for family and community engagement and external affairs. She replaced longtime Banks ally Kenita Lloyd, who took Aviles-Ramos’ old job as chief of staff.

Adams is expected to announce Aviles-Ramos’ appointment on Wednesday at the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice — a school Banks helped launch as its founding principal in 1997.

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

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org

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

NYC new education board chair pick is same as old chair, despite effort to distance role from mayor

2024-09-14T01:48:24+00:00

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When approving mayoral control for another two years, Albany lawmakers tweaked New York City’s governance model in an attempt to make its school board more independent from the mayor.

They called for the mayor to select a new chair of the Panel for Educational Policy to be selected from a pool narrowed by Albany officials. But as that process came to a close on Friday, little had been changed by its outcome.

Gregory Faulkner will once again be chair of the 24-member panel for the 2024-25 school year, according to an email from city officials about the pick obtained by Chalkbeat.

Faulkner was chosen by Mayor Eric Adams from among three potential chairs put forward by Albany officials. Senate and Assembly leaders, as well as the chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents, each nominated a candidate to oversee the city board, which votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

“I’ve been given an opportunity to shape things,” Faulkner told Chalkbeat. “Everyone has the same goal: to see the schools be effective.”

Faulkner said he resigned from his position as a mayoral appointee on Thursday to take on this new role, saying he takes its independence “very seriously.” His resignation leaves an opening for another mayoral appointee on the panel.

Faulkner has been calling the members of the panel individually, starting with the non-mayoral appointees, he said.

“I want them to tell me … how would they see this role enhancing what they are trying to do,” Faulkner said. “It’s going to take time. It’s going to take us building up a level of trust with each other.”

One of his top priorities, he said, is improving parent engagement. He created a committee a few months ago that will include parent leaders from across the city to focus on that.

“How do we have parents to feel more connected to the system,” he said, noting the testimony shared during the mayoral control hearings. “One of the things parents felt: They didn’t feel listened to.”

The new rules surrounding the panel’s chair came earlier this year as part of the state’s latest deal on mayoral control — extending Adams’ power over the school system by two years, while tweaking the panel to ostensibly weaken his degree of control. For more than 20 years, the city’s mayoral control system has relied on the mayor’s ability to appoint a majority of members to the panel, as well as to select a schools chancellor. Many feel that the panel is essentially a rubber stamp for the mayor’s policies.

News of the appointment might do little to instill confidence among those who have called for more oversight. Faulkner served as chair of the panel during the prior school year and was among the mayor’s first appointees to the panel in 2022. His initial selection raised some eyebrows because he had worked for a City Council member who in 2014 infamously supported Ugandan anti-gay laws while on a trip there.

“Judge me on me,” Faulkner told Chalkbeat. He cited his support for a resolution opposing a move by a Manhattan Community Education Council calling for a review of the city’s guidelines around transgender students and sports.

Faulkner, who lives in the Bronx and is retired — he worked for the City Council, he was a director of student leadership at LaGuardia Community College, and did a stint out of college as a drug prevention worker with Phoenix House — has never been a public school parent, but said that “requires me to give that extra moment of listening and sharing that experience.”

Spokespeople for the city’s Education Department and City Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Faulkner was nominated by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. POLITICO first reported that Faulkner had been selected as chair on Friday.

Heastie’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a former member of the panel who previously served as an appointee of Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, was nominated by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, confirmed State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee.

Salas-Ramirez, who served on the panel for more than two years, said that being nominated for the chair position was a “distinct honor.”

“I was excited by the possibility of truly being independent so that we could engage in this governance work with a collective vision of serving our students,” she said, echoing concerns that students, teachers, and parents don’t feel heard. “Because I am an educator, neuroscientist and parent of two children, one in early childhood and the other a teen with an IEP [individualized education program] I am deeply invested in having a system that serves our learners equitably.”

Liu said he was disappointed that the Senate’s nominee was not selected.

“However, the new process will make for better long-term governance of public schools, even if it did not result in an immediate change,” he said in a statement.

Prior to the Friday news, the state’s Education Department had confirmed to Chalkbeat that Board of Regents Chancellor Lester Young nominated a candidate, but did not specify whom Young put forward for the position.

As news of Faulkner’s appointment spread on Friday, some observers remained skeptical the change to the panel would have a notable impact.

“This makes a mockery of the opportunity to bring new perspectives to the PEP,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, in an email. “And reinforces that the legislation installing a state nominated chair was silly in the first place.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org

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

Federal agents seize phones of NYC schools Chancellor David Banks and his brothers, reports say

2024-09-06T13:13:04+00:00

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Federal agents seized phones from New York City schools Chancellor David Banks and his partner, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, early Wednesday at their Harlem home, the New York Times reported.

Federal agents also seized devices at the Queens home of Banks’ brother, Phil Banks, also a top aide to Mayor Eric Adams. Agents searched the home of a third Banks brother, Terence Banks, who retired from the MTA and now works as a consultant, according to the New York Times. THE CITY first reported some of the moves made by federal agents.

In a statement on Friday, Chancellor Banks confirmed he was cooperating with “a federal inquiry.”

“Yesterday was the first day of school for the 1.1 million students and staff of New York City Public Schools, and I remain focused on ensuring they have safe, academically rigorous, and joyful school year,” he said. “I am confirming that I am cooperating with a federal inquiry. At this time, I cannot comment any further on that matter.”

None of the officials have been accused of a crime, according to the New York Times.

The news of federal agents’ arrival at the doorstep of the schools chancellor came Thursday, on the first day of classes, casting a cloud over the typically ebullient first-day-of-school mood.

As he left a visit from a Queens high school Thursday afternoon, Chancellor Banks told a reporter from Fox 5, “Today is the first day of school, it is all about the kids. If there’s any other comments that are made, it will be happening tomorrow.”

Several Education Department staffers said news of the federal agents’ moves spread quickly in education circles Thursday. Multiple sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Education Department employees were shocked by both the news and timing, as the nation’s largest school system reopened its doors to nearly 900,000 students on Thursday.

Aaron Pallas, a Teachers College professor and longtime observer of the city’s Education Department, said the incident could impact Banks’ work leading the nation’s largest school system.

“Anything that can distract them from staying focused on the task at hand could impede their effectiveness,” he said.

Wednesday’s activity was the latest move in a swirl of law enforcement inquiries surrounding Adams, his administration, and his campaign. Federal officials are also looking into possible illegal campaign activity involving the Turkish government. The New York Times reported that the federal campaign inquiry was separate from the matter that federal agents were looking into Wednesday.

Meanwhile, search warrants were also executed on NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and Tim Pearson, a top mayoral aide embroiled in multiple scandals, New York 1 reported.

“Investigators have not indicated to us [that] the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation,” Adams’ chief counsel, Lisa Zornberg, told THE CITY in a statement. “As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has repeatedly made clear that all members of the team need to follow the law.”

As he left City Hall on Thursday, Adams also told reporters that he had “confidence in the team,” according to THE CITY. “The goal is to follow the law and that is what this administration always stood for and what we’re going to continue to stand for,” he said.

Chancellor Banks is a core member of the unusually tight-knit inner circle of the Adams administration. Banks and Adams have known each other for years, and their family and professional lives are intertwined. Adams’ girlfriend, Tracey Collins, and his sister-in-law, Sharon Adams, both work in the city Education Department.

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

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

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

‘We’re not there yet,’ Eric Adams says of NYC-wide school cellphone ban

2024-08-27T17:44:50+00:00

Mayor Eric Adams poured cold water Tuesday on an imminent citywide school cellphone ban, citing a number of remaining obstacles and saying the city is “not there yet.“

“There will be some action in the upcoming school year, but the extent of a full ban, we’re not there yet. We want to make sure we have parents on board,” Adams said at a press briefing Tuesday in response to a question from Chalkbeat.

“The previous administration attempted to do this, and they had to roll back,” Adams added, referencing a previous cellphone ban instituted by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, then overturned by his successor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio. “I don’t want to go backwards after we make a determination.”

Adams’ comments significantly dial back the message that schools Chancellor David Banks offered just months ago about the likelihood of a citywide school cellphone ban.

“You’re going to hear, within the next two weeks, the big announcement, but I will tell you we are very much leaning towards banning cellphones,” Banks said on June 26.

But with just over a week before the start of the new school year, city officials haven’t shared any updates, leaving many parents and school staffers craving details. Adams said the city is still ironing out a number of the wrinkles that would make instituting a citywide school phone ban complicated.

“Once you use … the terminology that it is a full ban coming from the chancellor, there’s a lot of things that will kick into play, including [United Federation of Teachers],” Adams said Tuesday. “Who pays for the pouches? What mechanism is being used? So we’ve been doing a lot of reviews.”

Some educators and advocates have also raised questions about if and how the Education Department will offer schools guidance on discipline for students who don’t comply.

Several principals familiar with Education Department plans told Chalkbeat last month that education officials were floating a plan to have a ban take effect in February, though it’s unclear whether that timeline is still under consideration.

States and districts across the country have moved towards mandating cellphone bans amid rising concerns about their role in distracting students during class and harming kids’ mental health. New York governor Kathy Hochul is also considering taking statewide action and is currently soliciting input.

Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest school system, recently decided to move forward with a district-wide school cellphone ban.

Hundreds of New York City schools already have their own cellphone bans. Many use Yondr, a company that produces magnetized cloth pouches that can be locked and unlocked by schools for students to store cellphones during the school day. But such systems can be expensive, and one of the big open questions about a citywide cellphone ban is whether the city would provide extra funding to schools to help collect phones.

Many other city schools that historically have not fully banned phones are moving towards adopting their own cell phone-free policies, but enforcing those policies comes with significant logistical challenges and staffing needs.

Passing a systemwide school cell phone ban would also require changing the chancellor’s regulations, which would need approval from the Panel for Educational Policy, according to a source familiar with the deliberations.

Adams said the city is trying to learn from the approaches of city schools that have their own cellphone bans and are enforcing them effectively.

“We’re learning from those who are already doing it,” Adams said. “We do have schools in the city that are doing it on their own, and so we want to make sure we get it right.”

Julian Shen-Berro contributed.

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

Some NYC summer youth programs will stay open later in coming weeks

2024-08-02T20:06:12+00:00

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Some New York City summer youth programs will stay open extra hours in the coming weeks to give kids more time in supervised settings and to help reduce the risk of crime, Mayor Eric Adams announced Friday.

The extended hours will apply at 18 programs across the five boroughs in areas city officials identified as “historically underserved,” and in police precincts with high levels of violence, officials said.

The city is pledging $2 million to keep some of the programs open later into the night on weekdays, and to extend other programs’ weekend hours.

“When we invest in summer programming, we give our young people not just a space to enjoy themselves but prevent crime from happening in our communities,” Adams said in a statement.

Seven Beacon programs, which are located in public schools and operate as community centers for kids of all ages, will push back their weekday closing time from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.. And for the first time, they’ll operate on weekends, staying open from 10am to 11pm, according to a spokesperson from the Youth and Community Development Department.

An additional 11 Cornerstone programs, which are based in New York City Housing Authority developments and are also open to kids of all ages, will extend their weekend hours by opening at 8 a.m. instead of 3 p.m., the spokesperson added.

Those 18 programs will also partner with “Cure Violence” programs that seek to prevent gun violence by deploying trusted community members in areas with high levels of violence to identify and de-escalate possible conflicts, according to a presentation obtained by Chalkbeat.

Despite the expanded hours, there will still be several weeks between the end of the city’s summer youth programming and the start of school. Beacon programs will end on Saturday, Aug. 17, while Cornerstone programs wrap up on Saturday, Aug. 24. The first day of school is Thursday, Sept. 5.

Adams has prioritized investments in summer programs during his two-and-a-half years in office, pointing to their potential to help reduce youth crime. He expanded the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program, which offers young people ages 14-24 paid summer internships to 100,000 spots last summer.

Past research found that teens who participated in the program were less likely to be involved in a crime than others who applied but didn’t get in.

Adams also preserved and expanded Summer Rising, a sprawling free summer camp and school program created by former Mayor Bill de Blasio to help kids recover from the effects of the pandemic. The program has attracted significant interest from families, but continues to struggle with attendance.

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

Math instruction overhaul: NYC unveils new curriculum mandate for middle and high schools

2024-06-24T22:42:52+00:00

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Math instruction is the latest problem New York City officials are trying to solve.

Middle and high schools are adopting standardized math curriculums in hopes of addressing stark racial disparities in state test scores, Mayor Eric Adams said Monday.

Known as “NYC Solves,” the new initiative takes a page from the city’s literacy curriculum overhaul, the signature education policy of Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks, which requires elementary schools to choose from among three pre-approved reading curriculums.

“Schools all over the city, even on math, were just kind of doing their own thing,” Banks said at a press conference at Samara Community School in the Bronx. “That’s no way to run a system.”

The vast majority of high schools are in the process of adopting a single Algebra 1 curriculum. By this fall, 420 high schools will use Illustrative Mathematics for that subject, a program that emphasizes building students’ conceptual understanding of math rather than focusing on more step-by-step procedures. (Six high schools were granted waivers from using the curriculum; officials did not immediately say which ones.)

Meanwhile, over the next three years, all middle schools will be required to use an approved math program. Curriculums created by the companies i-Ready, Amplify, and Illustrative Math are currently approved by the department, though Deputy Chancellor Danika Rux said the city may tweak that list in future years. Local superintendents will be able to select which curriculums their schools use from the list, a process similar to the city’s literacy initiative. Officials said they have allocated $34 million to “NYC Solves” over five years.

The districts in the first round — Manhattan’s District 2; districts 7, 11, and 12 in the Bronx; Brooklyn’s districts 14, 15, and 32; and District 26 in Queens — are participating voluntarily, officials said. Those districts already widely use Illustrative Math, meaning many middle schools will likely not see significant changes next school year. About 63 of the initial 93 middle schools participating in the first phase are currently using the curriculum, though a spokesperson said other schools may have been using a free version that is not tracked centrally.

At the high school level, the math curriculum mandate is expected to extend to other high school grades, as well as elementary schools and District 75, which serves students with disabilities, in later phases of the initiative, though officials did not offer a specific timeline.

The curriculum overhaul comes as the city’s students have long struggled with the subject, and some educator advocacy groups have pushed for changes. Fewer than half of the city’s elementary and middle school students scored proficient on state math exams last year given to third through eighth graders. Urgency to address the issue has been heightened by pandemic learning losses, as well as stubborn disparities in math achievement between Black and Latino students and their white and Asian American counterparts.

Last year, just 34.3% of students who are Black and 35.7% who are Latino demonstrated proficiency on their math exams, compared to 70.2% of white students and 77.6% of Asian American students.

“That is wholly unacceptable,” Banks said. “As the data shows, not only do we have a literacy crisis in this country, we absolutely have a math crisis as well. And this struggle with math, for many of us, runs very deep, and it starts early.”

Banks suggested that the curriculum changes could be a challenge for teachers, many of whom he said are themselves uncomfortable with the subject.

The Illustrative Math curriculum has focused on posing unfamiliar math problems to students with minimal introduction, prioritizing student exploration with a goal of developing deeper conceptual understanding. It was developed by a University of Arizona professor in 2011, following sweeping changes to math teaching that occurred after the rollout of the Common Core standards, a set of benchmarks meant to give states shared academic goals.

Earlier this year, the curriculum left some New York City educators divided — with some arguing it represented an overdue shift away from rote memorization, while others worried it lacked the kind of structure and built-in repetition that many students need, particularly those who are struggling.

Marielys Divanne, the executive director of Educators for Excellence, an advocacy group that has pushed for math reforms, praised the shift.

“NYC Solves is another huge and much-needed step forward in helping our students achieve better outcomes in math,” she said in a statement.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

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

NYC schools restructuring: A new deputy chancellor for students with disabilities, English learners

2024-06-24T19:50:18+00:00

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New York City’s Education Department is creating a new division to support students with disabilities and children learning English as a second language, officials announced Monday.

The Division of Inclusive and Accessible Learning, or DIAL, will be led by Christina Foti, who is being promoted from her role as chief of Special Education — where she has earned accolades from advocates and families — to Deputy Chancellor for Inclusive and Accessible Learning.

Mayor Eric Adams first announced the move Monday in a Daily News op-ed.

The new division will have a $750 million budget and 1,300 staffers, pulling staff and funding that were already directed toward students with disabilities and English learners but were housed in a different part of the Education Department bureaucracy. The city’s special education advisory council, composed of parents, students, educators, and advocates, will help support the new division.

“We’re going to give it our all,” Adams said Monday at Samara Community School in the Bronx. “We’ve heard it over and over and over again about this population of achievers who are not given the opportunity that they deserve.”

The move represents the latest reshuffling for administrative staff who oversee special education and multilingual learners. The Education Department previously had a deputy chancellor position responsible for special education and multilingual learners, though that role was eliminated in 2018.

More recently, special education and multilingual learners fell under the division of teaching and learning overseen by Deputy Chancellor Carolyne Quintana. In March, schools Chancellor David Banks disbanded that unit, and Quintana left the department. The staff then reported to Danika Rux, the deputy chancellor of school leadership.

Advocates largely praised the move to give students with disabilities and multilingual learners their own division and deputy chancellor, as city officials have historically struggled to serve those students, who represent a significant chunk of the school system.

Roughly 21% of students in New York City are classified as having disabilities and requiring special education services through Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, according to data from the 2022-23 school year. About 14% of students across the five boroughs are learning English as a new language.

Both groups have seen major challenges in recent years.

City officials have long failed to provide all students with disabilities with the therapies and instruction they’re entitled to, driving thousands of families to seek out private schools or services that now cost the city more than $1 billion each year.

Under Adams, the Education Department has made some reforms to the special education system, including modestly expanding programs that serve students with autism.

But some of Adams’ highest-profile efforts have fallen short. A major promise to provide every student with a disability access to a preschool seat has gone unfulfilled. Hundreds of children are still languishing without one, despite a legal requirement to offer them seats.

And even after his schools chief promised to comply with a federal court order to address lengthy delays in providing services to families, the city has not fully implemented most of the order’s requirements.

And with about 38,000 migrant students entering the city’s public schools over the past two years, many schools have struggled to keep up with the demand in language services, mental health support, and helping them with basic needs such as food and clothing. Many of their families are living in shelters they are only able to stay in for 60 days, which adds a layer of stress as parents navigate long commutes for their children when they move or try to figure out the notoriously difficult yellow school bus system.

On Monday, special education advocates praised Foti’s promotion and the establishment of the new division, though they remained wary over the city’s track record on supporting students with disabilities. Foti received multiple standing ovations during Monday’s press conference from Education Department staff and advocates.

Paullette Healy, an advocate and parent of a child in District 75, which exclusively serves students with disabilities, said Foti’s promotion was “a long time coming.”

“Having a thoughtful and effective leader helming this historic division is a major win for struggling families raising children with learning differences in NYC,” she said.

Maggie Moroff, a special education policy expert at Advocates for Children, noted Foti’s new position “makes a lot of sense.”

“This feels like a smart move and a statement of commitment to the students her division will be supporting,” she said. “We will, of course, be watching closely and hoping it ensures all students with IEPs and learning differences can be successful in the NYC schools.”

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

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC gets $27 million from Juul lawsuit settlement to combat youth vaping

2024-06-12T21:24:01+00:00

New York City is set to receive $27 million to combat youth vaping as part of a settlement stemming from a lawsuit against e-cigarette giant Juul, state Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday.

James led a multistate lawsuit against Juul in 2019 for deceptive marketing targeting youth and won a $462 million settlement. New York State is receiving $112 million of that sum, with $27 million flowing directly to the city to confront what James called a “youth vaping epidemic” that Juul helped spark. Of that allotment, $15 million will go directly to the public school system, and the remaining $12 million will go to other parts of city government.

The money will be distributed in a series of payments over the coming eight years, and districts will get wide discretion on how to spend their money in five general areas: education, prevention, enforcement, and research on the effectiveness of anti-vaping efforts.

“The smell of vapes has been commonplace in hallways, cafeterias, and stairwells,” James said of Manhattan’s Martin Luther King Jr. high school campus where she announced the new funding.

At other schools, James acknowledged, “vaping … became so frequent and widespread that schools had to install vaping detection devices inside of school bathrooms and in other rooms.”

Some school districts across the country have used their Juul settlement money to purchase vape sensors, which detect the chemicals emitted during vaping. A New York City program to buy vape detectors could be a permissible expense as long as it meets the other criteria for the funding, James’s office said.

One Manhattan principal who installed sensors this year to curb student vaping in the school’s bathrooms hopes the city will subsidize the devices. The detectors have been a game changer: The school initially saw roughly 60 vape alerts a week, and now they come only several times a month, according to the school leader.

This principal would also like the city to fund more substance abuse counselors to work in schools and argued that educators and school leaders should have a role in deciding how the funding is allocated.

“I will volunteer my time,” added the administrator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they’re unsure if the vape sensors are approved by the Education Department.

Officials from the Education Department and the Adams administration didn’t immediately respond to questions about how the city plans to spend its settlement money.

A national teen vape crisis takes hold

Vapes, or e-cigarettes, function by heating small liquid cartridges containing nicotine, often alongside flavoring and other chemicals, into an aerosol that can be inhaled. Concentrates of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, can also be vaporized.

There are signs that nicotine vaping can lead to lung disease, though the long-term effects on the lungs are still being studied. Nicotine can change the chemistry of the adolescent brain, affecting memory, concentration and learning ability, city health officials said last November. A 17-year-old in the Bronx died from vaping in 2019 – the youngest vaping casualty in the country.

Rates of teen vaping across the nation have exploded over the past decade or so.

The share of high school seniors who said they’d vaped nicotine in the past month jumped from 11% in 2017 to 21% in 2022, according to the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future study. The percentage who’d vaped marijuana in the past 30 days shot up from 5% in 2017 to 15% in 2022, the study found.

In New York City, roughly one in nine city teens reported vaping at least once in the past 30 days in 2021, the last year for which survey results were published in the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Girls were more than twice as likely than boys to report vaping, with 15% saying they’d smoked an e-cigarette in the last month, compared to 7% of boys.

Public health officials and state attorneys general have pointed to Juul’s singular role in fomenting the rise in youth vaping.

According to the lawsuit filed by James’s office in 2019, Juul systematically marketed its products to young people by emphasizing the fruity flavors and downplaying or hiding the health risks, violating state laws against selling tobacco products to minors in the process.

The suit claims that a Juul representative reached out directly to at least one New York City high school and “falsely told high school freshmen that its products were safer than cigarettes.”

Some educators and city students say the proliferation of smoke shops across the city in the wake of the state’s rocky rollout of legalized weed in 2021 has made the products even more accessible. And the ongoing youth mental health crisis accelerated by the pandemic has pushed more teens to turn to substances like cannabis and nicotine as a form of stress relief and self-medication, according to educators and mental health professionals.

The problem often spills directly into schools, with students vaping in bathrooms and hallways, according to educators and kids.

At Beacon High School in Hell’s Kitchen, 18-year-old senior Ava Stryker-Robbins recalled opening a bathroom door to be greeted by a cloud of smoke. She now avoids that restroom.

“I’ve heard people who have asthma say that there are some bathrooms in the school that they cannot use throughout the day because of the amount of smoke,” she said.

Beacon’s principal didn’t respond to an email asking about the school’s approach to student vaping.

Incidents of controlled substances confiscated in schools rose last year compared to before the pandemic, but are down roughly 24% this year compared to last year, according to an Education Department spokesperson.

Schools struggle with lack of anti-vaping resources

Educators and school leaders said they often feel mostly on their own when it comes to confronting widespread student vaping.

There are currently only 256 dedicated Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialists distributed across the city’s more than 1,600 public schools, according to recent testimony from District Council 37 Local 372, the union representing the workers.

That’s a loss of more than 200 SAPIS workers since 2006, due to the expiration of a federal grant, according to the union.

An Education Department spokesperson said SAPIS workers are placed based on reviews of schools’ needs and requests from principals. They can offer class lessons, small group counseling, parent workshops, and referrals to outside support.

Yvonne Perez, a school social worker at West Brooklyn Community High School, a transfer school for students at risk of not graduating, said she’s tried to bring in outside resources like a group that teaches harm reduction techniques that seek to reduce rather than outright eliminate the behavior, instead of relying on discipline.

“I’m always big on understanding,” she said. “Let’s not judge them or place an opinion on them for doing what they’re doing. They’re coping.”

But the scale of the challenge can be daunting. “We’ve been seeing a lot of our students smoking weed and vaping like it’s nothing,” she said.

City Council Member Gale Brewer, a democrat who represents the Upper West Side of Manhattan, said the explosion of smoke shops has created a significant challenge for schools.

“Schools need help,” she said at the Wednesday press conference. “I’ve even had a principal crying … because when you have a young woman vaping in your classroom, it’s really challenging. What in the world do I do? Where do I begin? How do I get her support?”

The city’s Education and Health Departments announced a partnership last November with the CATCH Global Foundation to offer an evidence-based anti-vaping curriculum to roughly 30,000 students across 180 schools over the next three years. City health educators will also be eligible to receive the training, according to officials.

Schools experiment with vape detectors

Some New York City school leaders have leaned on vape sensors in bathrooms and hallways to address the issue.

It’s not clear how many schools in New York City use the devices, and there have not been any district-wide initiatives to purchase them. But some individual schools have bought the sensors.

Zeptive, a Massachusetts-based company that produces vape detectors, works with about 30 New York City public and charter schools — a number that’s grown in recent years, according to chief growth officer Steve Milt.

State Sen. Nathalia Fernandez (D-Bronx) introduced a bill last year that would require all New York City schools to install vape detectors. The bill hasn’t advanced past committee.

The Manhattan principal who installed vape sensors at the start of this school year did so after hearing complaints from students about pervasive vaping in the bathrooms.

“‘I don’t like the smell, I don’t like the vibe of going into a bathroom and seeing someone smoking, it doesn’t feel safe,’” the principal recalled students saying. “That was enough for me.”

At first, responding to the frequent alerts required a significant time commitment from administrators. The school arranged meetings with families of students who were caught vaping and referred students to substance abuse treatment if the problem persisted.

Over time, the number of alerts dropped precipitously. The devices made “visible” a problem that was largely out of sight,the principal said, and opened up valuable conversations with students and parents.

But not everyone is sold on vape sensors. One Brooklyn principal looked into buying them but scrapped the idea over privacy concerns, he said.

Critics have raised concerns over the accuracy of the sensors and the potential that they could open students up to harsh discipline. In Texas, teens caught vaping in school by sensors have faced month-long suspensions and misdemeanor charges, according to the Associated Press.

“There just are so many issues here as to why do you think you need it, does it really work, what are the policies you’re putting into place, are you going to end up applying the consequences in a way that has a disproportionate impact on kids of color?” said Beth Haroules, a senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The Manhattan principal who installed vape sensors acknowledged the devices are a limited tool and can’t solve the “societal” problem of youth vaping. But the school leader stressed that curbing the practice in school is a critical first step.

“This is my home, and these are my kids,” the principal said. “I really want the best community and the best environment for my kids.”

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

Eric Adams directs $127 million to prop up NYC school budgets, avert summer school cuts

2024-06-04T18:48:28+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams will direct $127 million more into the Education Department’s budget, part of an effort to reverse cuts to programs funded with soon-to-expire federal dollars.

The infusion of money, which officials announced on Tuesday, will prop up the budgets of hundreds of schools that have struggled with declining enrollment since the pandemic. The new dollars will also help boost a slew of other programs, including the city’s free summer school program, which faced reduced hours this year, and restorative justice programs that offer less punitive methods of resolving conflict.

“We inherited a fiscal cliff,” Adams said during a press conference, pointing to more than $7 billion in federal aid to the Education Department that expires this summer. “We will continue to invest in children.”

Though Adams initially painted a dire picture of the city’s finances, in part due to billions in projected spending on services for an influx of migrants, he has incrementally reversed course on several proposed cuts.

In April, the mayor said the city found more than $500 million to continue financing initiatives that were funded by one-time federal dollars, including over 500 social workers and psychologists. Adams contends the city’s revenue is greater than expected, though critics have repeatedly said the mayor’s projections were unnecessarily pessimistic.

Before Tuesday’s announcement, the Education Department was facing an overall reduction to its operating budget of about 2.4%, or roughly $808 million, as increases in city funding have not completely plugged the hole created by expiring federal dollars.

Here’s what to know about the programs benefiting from the $127 million investment announced Tuesday:

$75 million to reverse cuts to school budgets

The Education Department used hundreds of millions of federal relief funding to avoid budget cuts at schools that enrolled fewer students since the pandemic hit, but had not committed to keeping it next school year.

Officials said they will now use about $75 million to blunt the impact of enrollment declines at about 15% of the city’s schools that otherwise would have seen cuts.

Funding is typically directly based on a school’s number of students. But even as most schools suffered enrollment declines during the pandemic, city officials were reluctant to slash budgets as educators scrambled to catch students up academically and mental health needs remained high.

Adams has tried to phase out the “hold harmless” program to help schools avoid the shock of large budget cuts all at once when the federal money dried up — though he has faced pushback from City Council.

“We want to slowly address this issue by not hitting the schools right away,” Adams said.

Meanwhile, the city is projecting a slight enrollment increase next year, which could also help temper more dramatic school budget cuts. Still, city officials did not guarantee schools will avoid cuts in the middle of the school year if the number of students who enroll is lower than anticipated, a practice that was paused during the pandemic but returned this school year.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, whose relationship with the mayor has been increasingly strained, said she was “beaming” thanks to the new funding.

“When schools can count on consistent aid, receiving no less than what was provided in the previous year, they can adequately plan,” she said.

$20 million to restore enrichment hours for Summer Rising

Middle schoolers who enroll in the city’s popular summer program will no longer face reduced hours.

The city initially planned to cut two hours of programming each day for middle school children and cancel Friday sessions, which is often when field trips were scheduled. There are about 110,000 Summer Rising slots, with elementary and middle schoolers eligible for a mix of academic programs and enrichment activities.

“We are relieved that Mayor Adams came to his senses,” wrote Nora Moran, the director of policy and advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses, which represents community organizations that operate some of the city’s summer programming.

Still, she said it is difficult for providers to plan given the months of funding uncertainty. “Every day that has gone by since this cut was announced in November was wasted time to plan and staff up for summer programs,” Moran said.

The mayor previously announced plans to keep the Education Department’s portion of the program’s budget steady. But the afternoon enrichment activities are funded by the Department of Youth and Community Development — and Adams had cut about $20 million of its $149 million contribution.

$32 million for teacher recruitment, restorative justice, and more

A bevy of other programs that were financed with one-time federal money will see those dollars replaced with city funds, including teacher recruitment efforts ($10 million), computer science education ($4 million), and tutoring programs in reading and math ($4 million).

City Council members had also pressed the city to continue supporting restorative justice programs that focus on resolving conflicts by talking them through rather than resorting to punitive discipline including suspensions. The city previously used federal funding to more than double the program’s budget, which means a majority of its funding now comes from expiring federal sources.

Officials said the city is replacing about $6 million of the $8 million in federal funding spent on the program this year. A spokesperson did not say how much total funding they plan to devote to restorative justice next year. The additional $127 million announced Tuesday is not guaranteed to continue beyond next school year, officials confirmed.

Michael Mulgrew, head of the city’s teachers union, largely praised the city’s funding boost. “This is progress,” he said in a statement. “These are programs and initiatives that make a difference for our students and our school communities.”

Some programs still face cuts

A handful of other programs are still on the chopping block, most notably free preschool.

Mayor Adams has already restored nearly $150 million in federal funding for preschool programs for students with disabilities and programs serving 3-year-olds. But he has not reversed a $170 million cut in city funding for early childhood programs, including 3-K.

The mayor has repeatedly emphasized that there are thousands of empty preschool seats and the cuts are needed to bring supply and demand more in line. “It just does not make financial sense to pay for 19,000 seats that our babies are not in,” he said.

Still, advocates contend the city has not done enough to publicize the free programs as families struggle to find affordable child care and they also note that not every family who wants a 3-K seat was initially matched with one. An Education Department spokesperson noted that the city plans to spend $5 million on an outreach campaign and vowed to add funding for preschool if demand rises.

The city has also not restored about $65 million in funding for more than 400 contracted nurses who provided services in some school buildings that previously lacked a nurse.

It’s possible some of these cuts will be reversed as the City Council continues to negotiate with the mayor. A final budget is due by July 1.

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

Nearly 7,000 teens have signed up for NYC’s free online therapy platform in first 6 months

2024-05-23T22:20:14+00:00

Nearly 7,000 teenagers have signed up for New York City’s free online therapy program since it launched in November, with the largest numbers coming from some of the city’s lowest-income neighborhoods, city officials said Thursday.

A total of 6,800 teens have requested a therapist through Teenspace, a $26 million dollar partnership between the city’s Health Department and Talkspace, an online therapy platform that offers video and text-based mental health support.

The neighborhoods with the highest number of signups were Brownsville, Canarsie and East New York in Brooklyn, and Morrisania and Norwood in the Bronx. These areas, which have some of the highest poverty rates in the city, have historically lacked widespread access to mental health services, officials said.

Roughly 80% of teenagers using the program identify as Black, Latino, Asian-American or Native American, and almost 70% identified as female, according to the city data.

“We are meeting people where they are with a front door to the mental health system that for too long has been too hard to find,” said Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner, at a press conference Thursday alongside Mayor Eric Adams.

The preliminary data is the most extensive information the city has provided on how the major new initiative is working. When New York City announced the program last year, it joined a growing number of municipalities and school districts that have turned to telehealth and online platforms to try to broaden access to therapy amid an ongoing youth mental health crisis and shortages of providers.

Some experts have raised questions about the effectiveness of the practice, and other large-scale online therapy programs have sputtered. But Vasan cautioned that the “the cost of inaction is too high,” noting the elevated rates of youth suicidal ideation and attempts in New York City in the wake of the pandemic and arguing that therapy has traditionally been too difficult and burdensome for many teens to access.

The top reasons teens listed for signing up were feeling depressed, improving relationships, becoming the best versions of themselves, managing anxiety, and dealing with challenges at home and school, according to Vasan.

He emphasized that 65% of the teenagers who have signed up for the program “reported an improvement” after connecting with a therapist, who are required to be licensed in New York state.

Ruby Tarquinio, a 17-year-old student, said she’s learned through her Teenspace therapist that “bottling up thoughts leads to depression, numbness, and anger,” and has begun to “address the root” of her mental health challenges with the provider she met through the program.

“Everyone deserves to see beauty in themselves the way therapy allowed me to,” she said.

Dr. Jessica Chock-Goldman, a school social worker at Bard Early College High School in Manhattan, said she was encouraged to see the list of neighborhoods with the highest numbers of signups and the racial composition of the users.

“That is the group that needs access to care the most. So it’s absolutely reflecting the high-needs population,” she said.

But Chock-Goldman, also a professor at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work, said she still doubts that the services offered through Teenspace, which include texting with a therapist, holding once-a-month video sessions, or a combination of the two, can replace the benefits of more intensive therapy.

“It’s interim care, basically,” she said. “It’s a really good starting point. But this doesn’t mirror actual clinical work.”

More than 50% of the 6,800 teenagers who have signed up for TeenSpace have so far opted to only send texts with their therapist, while 42% are doing both video sessions and texts.

Vasan said he doesn’t consider that a problem. To the contrary, he said it’s evidence that “they’re engaging in the ways that they want to engage … The majority of them are using texting, which is native to young people. They just want to text sometimes.”

And when students present more serious needs, they are referred to outside providers, program administrators said.

TeenSpace therapists have helped navigate 36 “high risk” events, including suicide attempts, reports of child abuse, and a drug overdose, according to Dr. Jon Cohen, the CEO of Talkspace.

In those cases, Teenspace therapists referred students to child protective services, more intensive therapy, or hospitalization, Cohen said. Those interventions for students in high risk situations “may have significantly altered their life trajectory,” Cohen added.

He added that TeenSpace has deemed roughly 50 students at moderate to high risk of suicide.

Chock-Goldman pointed out that identifying 50 out of roughly 6,800 at moderate or high risk of suicide constitutes less than 1% — far lower than the 16% of high school students who reported suicidal ideation in 2021, according to city officials.

Cohen said the 50 figure only includes students flagged by an artificial intelligence algorithm that scans the contents of the text conversations to look for signs of risk, and that therapists may have separately identified other teens at risk.

Vasan acknowledged that the city has a long way to go in improving the program and expanding access to greater numbers of the more than 440,000 teens eligible for it.

Haajra Ali, a 16-year-old junior at the Brooklyn High School for Law and Technology in Bedford-Stuyvesant, who recently worked on an initiative to expand mental health access for teens, said she found the early results “incredible.”

“To see how people from these areas specifically are actually getting this help and parents are getting on board with it too, I think that says a lot,” she said. “I feel like this is definitely something good for the community.”

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

As NYC preschool offers release, some families are left without a 3-K seat

2024-05-16T20:01:39+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams has vowed that every family who wants a seat in New York City’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds will receive one, despite recent cuts to city funding for the early childhood system.

But as the city distributed 3-K offers on Thursday, some families say they didn’t receive a seat at any of the programs to which they applied.

Diana Sidakis, a public defender who lives in Manhattan, said she tried to be savvy with her application. She spent hours extensively researching programs, compiled spreadsheets, attended tours, and eliminated any programs that seemed unlikely to admit her son.

Despite applying to 12 programs, the maximum number, Sidakis did not receive a seat for her child. She was waitlisted at all of them.

“Every kid needs education at 3 years old,” she said. “They’re socially and developmentally ready, and it changes the rest of their life. So for Mayor Adams to say that he can cut this program and every family who wants a seat will get a seat, it’s just such a fraud.”

Building up the free prekindergarten system was a signature initiative of former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who leaned heavily on federal COVID relief dollars to expand preschool for 3-year-olds, aiming to make the program universal. That effort stalled under Adams, whose administration has justified funding cuts to the program by arguing that thousands of seats are sitting empty due to a mismatch of supply and demand in some neighborhoods. Advocates counter that the mayor has not invested in promoting preschool options to families.

This year, the city’s early childhood system has taken center stage in budget negotiations between City Council members and the Adams administration. Under a plan Adams proposed last month, the city would replace $92 million of expiring federal funding for 3-K with city and state funds — but it would not restore a separate $170 million in city funding that was cut from early childhood programs in November. Adams also promised to spend $5 million to help recruit more families to the city’s pre-K programs.

At a budget hearing on Wednesday, Education Department officials said enrollment in preschool programs, including the larger pre-K program for 4-year-olds, had grown to roughly 114,000 children. In total, there were about 53,000 seats in the city’s 3-K program, with about 44,000 filled.

Despite cuts to early childhood funding, Adams has remained adamant that “every child who wants a 3-K and pre-K seat will have access to one.”

In a statement Thursday evening, city officials emphasized that thousands of 3-K seats remained open and said the city would work with families who were not initially admitted to find nearby open seats.

“The mayor was clear: Every child who wants a seat will have access to a seat and he will keep his word,” said Amaris Cockfield, a spokesperson for City Hall. “The guidance sent to a limited number of families by New York City Public Schools, unfortunately, did not fully convey all the seats still available to New York City students.”

The city made offers to 94% of families who applied to 3-K on time, receiving approximately 43,000 applicants for about 52,000 seats across the city, according to city officials. The Education Department will send an “updated letter” to families about seats that remain open in 3-K.

Still, advocates were quick to condemn the mayor’s previous promises as some families received the news that they had not been offered a 3-K seat. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 20 families across the city had reached out to the advocacy group New Yorkers United for Childcare, informing them they had been rejected or waitlisted. Others told the group they were admitted to programs far from home, adding logistical challenges for parents seeking care for their young children.

“The impact cannot be understated: without free 3-K, childcare costs families an average of $20,000 a year per kid, with many spending more — a cost far too many families cannot afford,” said Rebecca Bailin, director of the group, in a statement. “Now, New Yorkers who are already facing a skyrocketing cost of living must decide whether to leave work and stay home with their child, drain their savings, or potentially leave the city altogether.”

Prior reports have shown a lack of access to affordable child care can have a significant impact on parents’ ability to work. More than half a million people did not seek employment in 2021 due to child care needs, and about 375,000 parents chose to leave or considered leaving their jobs due to the combined impact of the pandemic and a lack of affordable child care, according to a 2022 city report.

Sidakis said she’s unsure whether her family can afford to consider private child care options if she ultimately does not receive a 3-K seat that works for her family.

“It’s just an enormous, enormous source of financial and emotional stress,” she said.

“I really don’t want to leave the city,” Sidakis added. “I’m a public defender. I’ve devoted my life to public service. I want my kids to go to public school. I believe in public school. But this is really wrong.”

Alex Zimmerman contributed reporting.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC college campus protesters blast ‘brutal’ tactics. City Hall touts ‘precision policing.’

2024-05-01T19:20:07+00:00

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams and top police officials continued to blame “outside agitators” for the campus protests against the war in Gaza that have swept the nation.

At a press briefing Wednesday morning, officials confirmed they’d arrested nearly 300 people in back-to-back crackdowns on protests at Columbia University and the City College of New York overnight.

Police officials said they are also keeping tabs on the remaining protest encampments around the city. As of Wednesday, college pro-Palestinian demonstrators calling for divestment from Israel were still camped out at NYU and the Fashion Institute of Technology, while demonstrators at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center Campus began their own encampment Wednesday morning.

At the press briefing, Adams reiterated a claim he and his top officials have made on national television appearances over the past several days: that the demonstrations have been fomented by “outside agitators.”

“There is a movement to radicalize young people and I’m not going to wait until it’s done and all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it,” Adams said. “I’m not going to allow that to happen as mayor of the city of New York.”

Pressed multiple times during the press briefing to identify those “outside agitators,” officials declined to provide specifics.

“We’re in the process of sorting through all of the data that were covered last night,” said Rebecca Weiner, the department’s deputy commissioner of iIntelligence and counterterrorism who’s also listed as an adjunct professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Weiner said it was too early to say how many of the 300 people arrested across two campuses Tuesday evening were directly affiliated with either institution. “So sifting through the names of everybody and whether they are affiliated with school or not, that takes time and we want to make sure that we’re giving you accurate information.”

Later, Fabien Levy, a deputy mayor for Adams, told reporters that Lisa Fithian, a prominent longtime activist not affiliated with Columbia, had been there to back up City Hall’s claim of outside agitators.

NYPD officials also brought in a chain and lock to the press conference, as well as to television appearances throughout the morning, as an example of something students would not have brought to school.

A reporter for the New York Times pointed out on Twitter that Columbia’s own public safety department was advertising the same locks on its website.

‘An incredible scene’

More details emerged from the crackdown that occurred on the City College of New York campus where NYPD used pepper spray and body-slammed some people during arrests. All told police arrested 173 people, officials confirmed Wednesday morning.

In a statement released by the released on X from the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment, students described an array of injuries they’d suffered during the crackdown: an undergraduate student broke their ankle, two more suffered broken teeth, others were pepper sprayed at close range.

“We will not be intimidated by the brutal and spineless tactics,” the statement read. A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to comment on the students’ statement.

Columbia students and Palestinian-solidarity advocates march outside Columbia University the day after NYPD officers arrested people occupying Hamilton Hall, May 1, 2024.

Columbia student organizers wrote that several students were taken to the hospital, while others were kicked in the face during the arrests.

A FDNY spokesperson confirmed three people with minor injuries were taken to the hospital from a staging area for the demonstrations at Riverside Drive and West 139th Street at around 7 p.m.

One Columbia student organizer wrote on X that the NYPD had removed some students’ hijabs while they were in detention, something the NYPD has had to pay millions for in past settlements. The student organizer who tweeted the account couldn’t be reached for additional comment right away, and the NYPD didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

At Wednesday’s press briefing Adams praised the NYPD’s mass arrests.

“Through the NYPD’s precision policing. We showed that the operation was organized, calm, and there were no injuries or violent clashes,” he said. “National independent journalists acknowledged what the police department did yesterday and they were on the ground to see, and I want to be clear that we will continue to continue to use this level of professionalism.”

But at both raids, however, NYPD officials, as well as Columbia campus security, restricted access to reporters, erecting barriers around both campuses and, making it nearly impossible for those not already on site to observe arrests.

At Columbia, campus, student journalists and a CITY reporter were forced into adjoining buildings and blocked in for several hours, unable to observe officers entering Hamilton Hall, or the arrests of students who’d linked arms to try and block the entryway to the hall. Video of the start of the arrests recorded by FreedomNews.TV showed one protester rolling violently down the stairs.

At City College, where the reporters were also cordoned off, top NYPD officials posted their own video of themselves raising an American flag, proclaiming it “an incredible scene and proud moment.”

‘Left us no choice’

As campus protests against the war in Gaza that’s killed more than 34,000 Palestinians swept the nation, pressure has mounted on universities to clamp down on them. Some Jewish students have said the ongoing demonstrations have made them feel unsafe on campus and Columbia and City College both largely closed their campuses and moved to online classes.

Though Columbia President Minouche Shafik had expressed reluctance to deploy the NYPD on students for a second time, the administration said Tuesday, the occupation of Hamilton Hall, which occurred early that morning, forced the university’s hand.

“The events on campus last night have left us no choice,” a Columbia administrator wrote in a letter to NYPD officials requesting their help clearing the building, which was later shared on X by police officials. The letter also requested NYPD presence on campus through May 17 to assure no additional encampments sprout up.

In a similar letter also shared by the NYPD, officials from City College also requested backup from police saying “protesters have refused to comply with our directives to remove unauthorized structures and/or flags, banners, posters and the like.”

Noah Grady, a CUNY spokesperson, said they called the NYPD for backup after demonstrators attempted to break into one campus building, and successfully broke into an administrative building, vandalizing it and breaking glass.

“Students have a right to demonstrate peacefully and exercise their First Amendment rights. Tuesday night’s actions were taken in response to specific and repeated acts of violence and vandalism, not in response to peaceful protest,” he said. “CUNY will continue working to keep our community free from violence, intimidation and harassment.”

Columbia University has a long history of student-lead occupations. After a violent police crackdown on Vietnam War protests, “fallout dogged Columbia for years,” according to the University’s own account of the era decades later.

In a statement Wednesday from Shafik, she acknowledged “it is going to take a long time to heal.”

“I hope we can use the weeks ahead to restore calm, allow students to complete their academic work, and honor their achievements at Commencement.”

As NYC’s education budget hits a fiscal cliff, Adams saves several school programs

2024-04-24T21:51:44+00:00

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New York City public schools would see its budget shrink by 2.4%, or $808 million, next fiscal year under a more detailed budget presented by Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday.

The smaller budget is largely the result of expiring federal relief dollars, and Adams’ proposal saves a slew of programs that were on the chopping block because they were financed with one-time money that flooded into city coffers in the wake of the pandemic.

Officials announced last week that they will use more than $500 million in city and state funds to keep hundreds of social workers, new staffers working in homeless shelters, and an expansion of preschool for 3-year-olds, among other initiatives.

“We inherited fiscal cliffs,” Adams said during a rally outside City Hall on Wednesday. “We had to continue to fund these programs in a real way.”

Overall, the city’s contribution to the Education Department’s budget would rise by nearly $1.6 billion under Adams’ proposal, though not enough to completely offset the $2.4 billion drop in federal funding next year. The state’s contribution is set to increase by $202 million. The mayor’s proposed operating budget for the department is $32.2 billion.

Advocates and City Council leaders have praised Adams’ efforts to find funding for programs that were operated with one-time money. But he has also faced criticism over the past year for ordering sweeping cuts to city agencies to help finance services for an influx of migrants.

Those reductions have not been fully reversed, and the Education Department faces over $700 million in cuts next year under that directive, including $170 million less for early childhood programs and the elimination of vacant non-classroom positions.

Adams’ budget replaces expiring 3-K funding, but advocates say it’s not enough

Adams has faced significant blowback for scaling back the city’s ambitious plan to offer universal free preschool programs for 3-year-olds, also known as 3-K, a promise made by Mayor Bill de Blasio and financed with the one-time federal dollars.

Adam’s budget replaces $92 million of expiring federal funding for 3-K, but does not restore the broader $170 million cut in city funding for preschool programs. Schools Chancellor David Banks said during a City Council hearing last month that those cuts are “extremely hurtful to the entire enterprise of early childhood” and predicted that they would be restored.

But even without replacing those early childhood cuts, Adams insisted on Wednesday that every family who wants a 3-K seat will have access to one. Officials are now planning to spend $5 million on outreach efforts to get the word out about the program, though Adams previously argued that vacant slots suggested the program needed to be “right-sized.”

“How do you have 23,000 vacant pre-K, 3-K, seats and we see that as a great program?” Adams said. “No. A great program is when we place those babies in those seats.”

Early childhood advocates were skeptical that the mayor’s efforts would be enough to guarantee every child a seat. They pointed out that the $92 million commitment to replace federal funding for 3-K expansion is for one year only, though city officials said they’re looking for longer-term funding sources.

“Without further investments in the child care system, the City will not be able to fulfill the Mayor’s crucial promise,” Gregory Brender, the chief policy and innovation officer at the Day Care Council, wrote in a statement. “The Executive Budget remains a perilous proposal for New York City’s early childhood education system.”

Advocates also pointed out that the city has only partially replaced federal funding that Adams used to bolster special education preschool programs, even as officials acknowledged last month that hundreds of students with disabilities don’t have access to seats to which they’re legally entitled.

The Education Department’s budget could still change

The mayor’s budget is still subject to negotiations with the City Council, which must pass a final budget by July 1.

Advocates and local lawmakers are pushing for Adams to fund a handful of other initiatives whose funding is not guaranteed after this year.

Those include restorative justice initiatives that encourage peer mediation and other methods of resolving conflicts to reduce punitive methods like suspensions; a mental health program for students at 50 high-need high schools; and a program that offers subsidized child care for undocumented families. City Council officials also pointed to the need for more funding for school building upgrades, as fewer than 1 in 3 of the city’s schools are fully accessible to people with physical disabilities.

“We are relieved that many of the education programs supported with federal stimulus funding are no longer in jeopardy,” Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children, an organization that works on behalf of low-income families, wrote in a statement. “We urge City leaders to go further to prevent the loss of other critical supports that students and families need.”

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

Albany extends mayoral control for 2 years, tweaking NYC’s education panel

2024-04-20T19:38:18+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams is set to retain control of the city’s school system for another two years, as part of a finalized budget deal between state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Under the deal, Albany officials will have a hand in selecting the head of a city education panel, and New York City officials will enter into firmer commitments on adhering to a state law requiring smaller class sizes. But observers — including a member of the panel — remain skeptical that changes to that panel will have a significant impact on the city’s schools.

For months, an extension of mayoral control in the budget seemed an unlikely prospect in Albany, as lawmakers repeatedly argued that the future of New York City’s school governance structure should be determined outside of the budget process.

But earlier this week, as last-minute negotiations over the late budget ensued, Hochul continued to push for a mayoral control extension. On Saturday, lawmakers in both houses of the Legislature passed a budget bill including the two-year extension.

“I want stability in the city,” the governor said during a Friday press conference. “I want the parents and children and teachers to know that the governance mechanism that’s been in place for many, many years will not be politicized. It will not be a political football for the next few months.

“Sometimes, you just have to step back and say, ‘We want to get this done,’” she added. “And I have a knack for figuring out who to bring together and what has to happen.”

The $237 billion state budget finally neared completion on Saturday, nearly three weeks after its April 1 deadline. It allocates roughly $36 billion in funding to the state’s schools — as well as $2.4 billion to help New York City support the recent influx of asylum-seekers and other migrant families. Hochul will still need to sign the final budget into law.

For more than 20 years, the city’s mayoral control system has largely relied on the mayor’s power to select a schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

As part of the deal struck this week, the board will grow by one member — with the chair of the PEP appointed from a set of nominees selected by Albany officials. Senate and Assembly leaders, as well as the chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents, will nominate candidates to oversee the panel, from which the mayor will select a chair.

The city’s Education Department will also be required to make firmer commitments to meeting a state law mandating smaller class sizes — a major priority for many lawmakers that passed as part of the last mayoral control deal. That means the city will be required to construct more school buildings, as well as maintain levels of funding needed for schools to shrink class sizes.

Despite those changes, some lawmakers were displeased with the extension.

“The proper way to do this is a thoughtful deliberation and hearing more voices in the process — taking into account more opinions from education stakeholders — and that’s exactly what we had planned to do immediately after the enactment of the budget,” said state Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, on Friday. “As it turns out, the governor was very insistent on including this issue, and the governor has a great deal of influence during the budget making process.

“So this decision making was clearly rushed,” he said. “It’s not best practice, but this is where we are.”

Mayoral control extension follows detailed state report

The agreement comes on the heels of a nearly 300-page state Education Department report on mayoral control, which compiled testimony from five public hearings and detailed the history of New York City school governance.

That report, which City Hall referred to as a “sham,” did not advocate directly for extending or overturning mayoral control. But it noted a majority of speakers at public hearings wanted to see the system reformed, adding they felt unheard and excluded by the current structure.

It also highlighted a series of recommendations that arose during the public’s testimony, including potential tweaks to the makeup of the PEP and a commission to consider longer-term reforms to the city’s school governance structure.

On Friday, Liu hinted that longer-term changes to the system based on the findings of the report could come in 2026 instead, when mayoral control next expires.

“It’s a long-term study over the past 20 years, and the findings and the insight that this report provides are not going to change in the next year or so,” he said. “We are going ahead with a short term extension, so you can read between the lines there.”

Education panel tweak unlikely to have major impact, observers say

The extension comes as a win for Adams, who will now retain control over the city’s schools for the entirety of his first term. In recent weeks, Adams and his administration have made repeated pitches for an extension — with schools Chancellor David Banks lobbying lawmakers in Albany and threatening to resign if the system was overturned.

Still, the PEP will see one change under the deal. Currently, the chair of the panel is elected by its voting members, a majority of which are appointed by the mayor. Under the new system, the panel will grow from 23 to 24 members, though the mayor will still retain a majority. And though the mayor will hold the final decision over who leads that panel, Adams will now choose from a pool of three candidates determined by Albany officials. (If the mayor rejects all three candidates, Albany officials may submit up to two additional sets of three nominees.)

It’s a move lawmakers say could introduce more independence from the mayor to the role.

On Saturday, Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, praised Albany officials “for their work on behalf of the children of New York.”

“Today’s state budget requires New York City to provide every school with the funding it needs to lower class sizes - a critical investment in our public schools,” he said in a statement. “While more work needs to be done on mayoral control, the introduction of independent leadership to the Panel for Educational Policy provides more checks and balances in school governance.”

But some remain skeptical about the potential impact of the PEP change.

Vanessa Leung, who served as chair of the PEP for eight years under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, said having a more independent chair could lead to “a shift in the balance of power.”

But she added it will be especially difficult for that chair to effectively oversee a 24-member PEP, maintaining relationships across its members and with the city’s Education Department.

It’s “a huge lift for one person, who may not have the time and flexibility needed,” she said.

The change to the PEP “in practice is pretty benign,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Though the chair holds some power over the panel’s agenda, he believes it’s likely that state officials would be “accommodating to the Mayor.”

“On the other hand, the Regents & Legislature stepping into a direct NYC school governance role is extraordinary, unique in the state and, as far as I know, the country,” he said in an email.

It’s a move that Jonathan Collins, a professor of politics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, noted runs counter to the findings of the state Education Department report.

“The report shows us that NYC parents and stakeholders have major concerns about how accessible and responsive the current local governing board is to their concerns and needs,” he said in a Friday email. “They want more local control, and for the time being, they’re likely getting even less.”

Collins added the shift in chair selection could give Albany leaders some influence over the city’s policy agenda.

But skepticism about the impact of the change was shared even among current members of the panel.

“If we keep the same number of mayoral appointees, at the end of the day whoever picks the chair is not going to impact how votes play out,” said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a current PEP member appointed by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “It doesn’t really improve the dynamics of the panel, or respond to the hundreds of people that participated in mayoral control hearings talking about ending mayoral control.”

She expressed disappointment with the rapid nature of recent mayoral control negotiations — particularly in light of the recent state Education Department report.

“It’s just really, really frustrating that folks aren’t looking at the big picture,” Salas-Ramirez said. “Here we had an opportunity to really create some transformative change on how New York City public schools are governed — to create a more democratic structure, to move towards something that people are actually asking for.

“And we’re literally encapsulating it in a one week debate,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Eric Adams commits $500 million to partially avert fiscal cliff for NYC schools

2024-04-19T17:01:03+00:00

Mayor Eric Adams is cobbling together more than $500 million in city and state funding to plug a hole in the Education Department’s budget left by the federal COVID relief funding that’s expiring this year, he announced on Friday.

The money will prop up a range of education programs that were set to be cut because of the disappearing federal dollars, including hundreds of social workers, an expansion of free preschool for 3-year-olds, and new staffers working in homeless shelters.

By far, this marks the city’s largest commitment to date to replace the dwindling pandemic aid. Adams previously found $80 million to continue funding Summer Rising, the city’s summer school and recreation program, for one year.

Adams indicated that the city was able to restore programs through a variety of funding sources, and he credited the city’s “strong fiscal management” and “booming” economy.

“We are sticking our fingers in the cushions of our couches, finding every quarter we can find,” Adams said at a press conference Friday at P.S. 34 in the East Village, flanked by City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, D-Queens, and schools Chancellor David Banks.

“We won’t be relying on temporary funds,” he added. “You can’t have a ‘cross your finger’ government and hope for the best.”

The announcement came as city officials were pushing state legislators to finalize a deal extending mayoral control of city schools, a major priority for Adams.

The city received more than $7 billion in one-time federal education funds during the pandemic and is spending roughly $1 billion of those dollars this school year on ongoing initiatives that ran the risk of being cut when the federal aid expired this summer.

The $514 million dollar commitment will temporarily stave off some of those cuts for another year, while making longer-term investments in other programs. It won’t, however, cover the entire $1 billion fiscal cliff set to hit this summer, meaning significant cuts are still expected.

The final, adopted budget agreement between the City Council and Adams isn’t due until June 30, leaving time for changes.

Still, Council Speaker Adams, who has sparred with her former Bayside High School classmate Mayor Adams in recent months over budget cuts to schools, libraries, and more, struck a celebratory note Friday.

“If I could still do backflips like when we were in high school, this would be the moment,” she said.

15 programs get new sources of funding

City officials committed to new funding for a total of 15 programs currently funded by federal aid.

The initiatives that will get committed city funding for more than one year include: roughly 450 social workers and 60 school psychologists; dozens of school staffers who work with families in homeless shelters; 113 new community schools that partner with nonprofits to provide extra services to families; new internship and career preparation programs in high schools and new literacy initiatives, including Banks’s signature NYC Reads program and dyslexia screening, according to city officials.

The city will also give multiple years of dedicated funding to bilingual education programs, an expansion of the Public Schools Athletic League, and translation and interpretation services.

Several other big-ticket education programs funded by federal pandemic aid will get city funding for next year, but don’t have committed funding in future years.

Those programs include: A roughly $92 million expansion of 3-K, the city’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds; additional arts programs; the Learn To Work program that supports students at risk of dropping out; the Project Pivot program partnering schools with community organizations to reduce violence; and money to support the city’s “Affinity” high schools, which receive support from outside organizations like the Urban Assembly.

Adams has been dogged by criticism for scaling back proposed expansions to the city’s early childhood system, including former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to offer universal pre-K for 3-year-olds — a plan that relied on the one-time funds. Adams said the city will spend $5 million on outreach efforts for prekindergarten and 3-K as thousands of seats remain unfilled, and $8 million will go toward improving a portal for families applying for child care vouchers.

But officials have only committed to funding the 3-K expansion for one additional year.

“Our goal is to look for ways to fund it in the long term,” said Jacques Jiha, the city’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. For his part, Adams vowed that all families who want a 3-K seat will have access to one.

The city has also not reversed $170 million in cuts to early childhood education enacted in earlier versions of Adams’ budget.

Rebecca Bailin, the executive director of New Yorker United for Childcare, a group lobbying for expanded 3-K and pre-K, said the mayor’s decision “is a step in the right direction,” but “falls entirely short of the investment and infrastructure needed to fund a truly universal 3-K and pre-K.”

The city will also commit $56 million to increase the pay for providers of special education pre-K programs, which have long struggled to adequately pay staff and have seen major seat shortages as a result. Though that amount is less than the roughly $96 million in federal pandemic aid the city spent on special education pre-K this year, the city is separately committing $25 million for special education pre-K to create classes and help provide services in district schools such as speech and occupational therapy in an effort to rely less heavily on outside providers.

Adams had previously vowed to offer a pre-K special education seat for every child who needed one, which is required by law, but the city has still failed to provide seats for hundreds of students.

Cuts still ahead

New York City’s efforts to ease the impact of the fiscal cliff have been far more successful than other municipalities, according to Banks.

“Across the country, school districts are taking very painful measures to adjust to the loss of their stimulus funding,” Banks said, citing layoffs in Washington D.C., Houston, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. ”New York City has not laid off any staff, and there has been no reduction to school budgets.”

But there are still painful cuts likely ahead.

Among the items covered by stimulus money that city officials did not commit to propping up is $175 million in “hold harmless” funds to prop up the budgets of schools that lost enrollment during the pandemic. School budgets are usually tied to enrollment, but officials paused that practice during the pandemic and have been gradually phasing it back in.

That money went directly into the budgets of nearly 600 schools, with some receiving as much as $1.7 million more than they would have this school year.

Advocates for Children, a group that works with low-income families, has mounted an aggressive campaign to convince city officials to restore expiring federal dollars, and largely celebrated the mayor’s announcement.

Still, the organization pointed to some programs that remain in limbo, including restorative justice programs that offer alternatives to suspensions, some mental health supports, and an initiative that provides subsidized child care to undocumented families.

“Students and their families rely on these programs, and we cannot afford to lose them,” wrote Kim Sweet, the group’s executive director.

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

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

Delays in free MetroCards for homeless NYC families threaten school attendance

2024-04-16T21:41:29+00:00

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Widespread shortages and delays in the distribution of free MetroCards to parents of homeless New York City public school students are frustrating families trying to get their kids to school, according to several sources.

Schools are supposed to provide parents of students in temporary housing free 30-day MetroCards each month so they can accompany their children to school on public transit, according to city policy.

But schools are struggling to get an adequate supply of MetroCards from the Education Department’s Office of Pupil Transportation, according to a survey of schools in Manhattan’s District 3 conducted last month by City Council Member Gale Brewer, D-Manhattan.

The problems mount as the city also confronts a record number of homeless young people, driven by the arrival of an estimated 36,000 migrant children over the past two school years. Without the free MetroCards, some families have stopped sending their kids to class altogether, while others have resorted to hopping turnstiles and risking tickets, according to an April 5 letter from Brewer to Mayor Eric Adams sharing the results of the survey.

Fifteen schools in the district, which includes parts of Harlem and the Upper West Side, reported not receiving all of the MetroCards they’d requested. Some orders fell dozens of MetroCards short, and refills arrived months late, according to the survey.

“We have families who are struggling to get their kids to school because their only source of transportation is the MetroCards we provide for them,” said April Diaz, the parent coordinator at P.S. 242 in Harlem.

The school, which recently enrolled around 50 newly arrived families living in shelters in addition to its other families in temporary housing, received a shipment of parent MetroCards in December, but didn’t get a refill until last week, despite weekly follow-up messages to the Office of Pupil Transportation requesting them, according to Diaz.

In the meantime, attendance suffered, Diaz said, and families can’t afford to pay police tickets for hopping turnstiles.

The 100 new MetroCards that arrived last week were quickly snapped up, and attendance has already improved markedly, Diaz said.

It’s not clear exactly how widespread the problem is, and some schools said they’ve received an adequate supply. But the issue isn’t confined to District 3, according to Jennifer Pringle, the director of the Learners in Temporary Housing Project for the nonprofit Advocates for Children.

Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle said that as of March 27, all Metrocard orders had been processed and shipped.

“We appreciate the Council Member’s partnership in this work and are reviewing the letter,” she added.

The Education Department has already given out roughly 62,000 MetroCards this school year, a more-than-threefold increase from the 20,000 MetroCards given out during the 2021-22 school year, officials noted. Spending on the MetroCards just through February this year is 55% higher than the total for all of last school year, officials added.

Nearly three-quarters of students living in homeless shelters missed at least 18 days of school last year, according to Advocates for Children.

Students’ need for transportation help surges

The transportation needs have grown even more acute since January, when Adams implemented a 60-day limit on shelter stays for newly arrived families. As a result, many families have had to move to shelters or find alternate housing further away from their children’s schools.

Roughly 1,000 families evicted from their shelters under the 60-day rule have left the city’s school system entirely or switched schools. But the vast majority — roughly 82% — have kept their kids enrolled in the same school, according to data from the City Council.

Many of those families likely now face longer commutes. Students in shelters are entitled to yellow school bus service under city policy, but it can often take weeks to get a route assigned, educators said.

As of last December, even before the 60-day rule took effect, nearly 1,400 homeless students had applied for a school bus but were still waiting for a route — more than double the reported figure from December 2022.

The Education Department received an additional 413 busing requests from students affected by the 60-day notices between January and March, according to the Council.

Orders for new MetroCards from schools during the months of January and February “far exceeded our projected inventory,” an Education Department spokesperson said.

The parent MetroCards are especially critical for families with children too young to take public transit on their own and for parents who don’t yet have the income to afford their own MetroCard, educators and advocates said.

Administration officials promised that families displaced by the 60-day rule would get the transportation help they needed to keep their kids in the same school. But Brewer said the long waits for buses and the delays in free MetroCards undercut that promise.

“I don’t want to be told by the administration” that families evicted from their shelters under the 60-day rule “can live anywhere,” said Brewer. “They can’t.”

One Venezuelan mom forced to move from a Brooklyn shelter within walking distance of her child’s elementary school, P.S. 46, to a Manhattan shelter due to the 60-day limit told Chalkbeat in February that she didn’t want her son to miss any school. But she couldn’t get a free MetroCard right away from the school. So the family decided to sneak through an open emergency gate, and her son’s father received a ticket.

Tickets and arrests for fare evasions have skyrocketed across the city over the past year as officials send more police officers into the subway system.

Schools, advocates want an improved MetroCard process

Schools are supposed to fill out a form through the Education Department’s Office of Pupil Transportation each month to request MetroCards.

But Pringle said the form is buried in the Education Department’s website, and multiple schools told Brewer’s office they didn’t receive any response after filling out the form.

Other schools said they were told there is a shortage of funds for the MetroCards, while Diaz, the P.S. 242 parent coordinator, said her school heard about backlogs, vendor issues, and delivery issues.

Pringle called the situation “ridiculous” and argued the system should be streamlined.

Lyle, the Education Department spokesperson, said “we are committed to providing every available resource to meet our families’ needs and ensure all students can get to school each day, as well as our families for students in temporary housing.”

This story has been updated to include comments from the city Education Department.

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

New metal detectors in NYC schools will still be paired with backpack checks

2024-03-28T22:23:00+00:00

As Mayor Eric Adams launches a high-profile effort to pilot new weapons detection technology in the subways, New York City has also begun quietly rolling out new weapons scanners in schools, according to education and police officials.

The NYPD, which oversees school weapons detectors, is in the process of replacing the existing metal detectors at nearly 80 city campuses with new scanners from the company CEIA at a cost of roughly $3.9 million, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed. An additional nine schools will get the new devices for “random scanning” on select days, the spokesperson said.

The new CEIA Opengate scanners for schools, which consist of two wireless, standalone pillars that can be customized with the school’s name and colors, are supposed to feel more welcoming and “less intrusive” to students than the traditional, box-shaped metal detectors, according to Mark Rampersant, the Education Department’s Chief of Safety and Prevention Partnerships.

The new CEIA Opengate scanner in the foreground is replacing the traditional metal detectors seen in the background.

But Education Department officials aren’t planning to take advantage of the device’s major selling point: allowing students to walk through without removing their backpacks, which would save a significant amount of time.

Instead, New York City schools will continue asking students to put their bags through a separate X-ray machine – the part of the process that usually takes longest – Rampersant said.

“In terms of the students not removing their backpacks, this technology does not allow for that,” Rampersant said Thursday at a press conference. “We’ll continue to use the X-ray machine that tells you what’s in the bag.”

That runs counter to the company’s marketing of the product, which promises that “individuals can go ahead and keep their bags on them,” because the machines can, in theory, distinguish between weapons and other metal devices like cell phones, bottles, and tablets, the company’s website reads.

Nikita Ermolaev, a research engineer who studies CEIA products for IPVM, a security industry research publication, said it’s “extremely rare” for a school district to purchase the CEIA Opengate scanners while continuing to use X-ray bag machines at the same time.

“That raises a lot of questions,” he said. “If one can have a similar experience with traditional metal detectors, why would you need to buy a more expensive unit?”

An Education Department spokesperson referred questions about the new scanners to an NYPD spokesperson, who said “the CEIA Opengate is a low profile detector, however, it does not replace an X-Ray machine.”

More welcoming and portable devices

City officials pointed to two main advantages of the new CEIA scanners. First, since they’re wireless and relatively lightweight, they’re easy to move. That would allow schools to scan students before entering sports games outside, Rampersant said recently to parent leaders.

Officials also say the CEIA devices will feel more welcoming because they can be customized with a school’s logo and colors.

“It has the school’s branding on it so when kids see it … it doesn’t look like a metal detector scanner,” Rampersant said earlier this month at a meeting of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee.

But Ava Harris, a 16-year-old senior at the Walton Campus in the Bronx, said walking through metal detectors each day makes her feel “like a criminal,” and the design of the scanners won’t change that.

“I find that quite ridiculous,” said Harris, a member of the student groups Urban Youth Collaborative and Sistas & Brothas United, which advocate for the removal of scanners from schools. “I don’t really think the logo of the school or anything would make a difference. It’s still a scanner, kids will still know it’s a scanner.”

Officials didn’t immediately say what will happen with the old scanners or whether they will be repurposed.

CEIA is a competitor of Evolv, the company whose technology Adams touted at his Thursday press conference on subway safety. Evolv has attracted significant scrutiny from experts and government officials over accusations that it overpromises with its aggressive marketing and triggers false alerts on objects like Chromebooks. Ermolaev said CEIA is a more established company and is more conservative in its marketing.

But he said the devices can still miss items, or falsely alert on non-weapons when sensitivity settings are too high.

Ermolaev questioned whether the ability to move and decorate the new devices was worth the additional cost. He pointed out that most traditional metal detectors can be put on wheels and moved, and many can also be customized with school designs.

The major advantage of a system like Opengate is that it can significantly speed up the scanning process by eliminating the need for the X-ray bag machine, he said.

Harris, the Bronx student, suggested the city divert the roughly $4 million it plans to spend on the new scanners to “things that would actually help students like counselors, restorative justice, and conflict mediators.”

Officials offer conflicting messages

Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks have talked for years about introducing new scanners in schools, but officials have recently offered conflicting messages about what those devices will do and the timeline for rolling them out.

At the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee meeting earlier this month Banks said, “we’re trying to get in place … these non-invasive scanners where you don’t have to take everything out.”

He added that he was hopeful that technology is coming “sooner rather than later.”

It’s unclear if Banks was referring to the CEIA Opengate, or a different device.

But Rampersant, later in that same meeting, sounded a more cautious note.

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as less invasive tech, they’re all invasive,” he said. “The scanning machine the Chancellor speaks of, there is no real timeline for that being introduced into … our school system.”

Education Department officials didn’t immediately say how many schools have gotten CEIA scanners, but multiple principals at schools with metal detectors told Chalkbeat they haven’t yet received the new devices.

The city school system has seen a significant uptick in students arriving with weapons and other dangerous items in the wake of the pandemic — a reality students say is driven by safety concerns on the commute to and from school.

So far this school year, the NYPD has collected a total eight guns, 1,774 knives, 455 box cutters and razors, and 1,382 “other” items including pepper spray from students across the city’s roughly 1,600 public schools. That’s down slightly from last year’s totals during the same period, but still up significantly over pre-pandemic numbers.

Rampersant said “more and more of our schools, including our affluent schools, are asking for scanners in the school building.”

But critics have long alleged that the NYPD offers little explanation or rationale for where the scanners are placed.

At one school campus serving middle and elementary school students that got “pop-up” scanning this week, a parent said there was little explanation about why the metal detectors were necessary that morning, and that the scanners caused fear and confusion rather than reassurance.

“It was quite chaotic,” said the East Village elementary school parent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “I think really it more alarmed a lot of parents … than assuaged their fears.”

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

NYC schools chancellor hints at reversal of hundreds of millions in preschool cuts

2024-03-18T21:11:10+00:00

New York City Mayor Eric Adams could soon reverse a major budget cut to early childhood education, schools Chancellor David Banks hinted Monday.

Adams previously announced $170 million in cuts from city funding to free early childhood education programs effective next fiscal year as part of sweeping citywide cuts in November and January.

On top of that cut from the city’s coffers, prekindergarten programs are due to lose one-time federal pandemic aid that expires this summer. Roughly $92 million in federal aid is going toward supporting this year’s 3-K program for the city’s 3-year-olds, and another $90 million is helping pay for special education programs for preschoolers.

The city is facing a total “fiscal cliff” of nearly $1 billion next year, and advocates have been sounding the alarm for months on the need to come up with new funding to replace those disappearing federal dollars.

At a City Council budget hearing Monday, Banks called the city cuts “extremely hurtful to the entire enterprise of early childhood,” and said he was “fighting like heck to get these cuts restored.”

Though he didn’t commit to anything specific, Banks said, “I have great confidence in the coming weeks we will have really good news around early childhood.” He added, “The mayor’s office, City Hall, feels the same way.”

Asked later in the hearing by Council member Jennifer Gutiérrez (D-Brooklyn) which specific funding streams he’s fighting to get restored, Banks named the $170 million city cut. He also cited the expiring $92 million in federal funding for 3-K this year. Deputy Chancellor Emma Vadehra mentioned the $90 million in federal money for preschool special education seats that will dry up after this year.

The early childhood cuts, if reversed, would be the latest item slashed by Adams in recent months to get restored thanks to what city officials describe as an improving budget picture.

Adams has also announced restorations of cuts to the police, fire, and sanitation departments, as well as a $10 million cut to community schools that partner with community organizations to provide extra support to families. More recently, the city promised to allocate additional funding to bring back popular food items that were cut from school cafeteria menus in February.

Adams had initially planned another round of city budget cuts in April, but canceled those cuts last month.

Critics of the cuts have long contended that they were never necessary in the first place, and that city officials were being overly pessimistic with their financial predictions to create more pressure on the federal government to boost funding for the city’s influx of migrants.

The cuts and subsequent reversals have created a whiplash that’s been disorienting even for seasoned budget watchers.

Early childhood education advocates have warned that the early education cuts could have devastating consequences and force the city to permanently close seats.

If the city comes up with money to replace the expiring federal money for 3-K and special education preschool programs, it would mark the city’s largest commitment yet to replace an education program at risk from the fiscal cliff.

So far, the city has only committed $80 million to keep Summer Rising, a free academic and recreational summer program, going this year. Promising to prop up 3-K and special education preschool funding after the federal aid expires would prevent significant cuts to seats and drastic pay cuts for preschool special education teachers.

Even if cuts are reversed, preschool program face challenges

City officials conceded Monday that some 600 preschoolers with disabilities are still languishing without adequate preschool seats, despite federal legal mandates and the city’s own promise to get every child a seat.

And even before this year, Adams had already curtailed former Mayor de Blasio’s plans to aggressively expand the city’s free 3-K program to make it universal. De Blasio’s vision was largely funded with one-time federal pandemic aid, raising questions about its sustainability, and when Adams took office, he seemed to be hobbling the program. Program providers complained of rising payment delays and lackluster outreach from city officials.

Adams administration officials have contended that they’ve simply been right-sizing the program, and that they still plan to be able to offer a 3-K seat to any family that wants one. They have also argued that the existing seats aren’t properly distributed, with some neighborhoods seeing lots of open seats, while others have much more demand than supply.

Deputy Chancellor Kara Ahmed, who oversees early childhood education, said the city has cut roughly 8,000 seats that weren’t being used and redistributed 7,000 to other programs to parts of the city where they’re more likely to be filled.

Making matters more complicated, officials said Monday they’re still waiting on the results of a $760,000 study commissioned more than a year ago from the consulting company Accenture mapping out the city’s preschool seat needs. Banks said he expects the Accenture report in early April.

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

NYC schools bring back chicken dumplings, French toast sticks, burritos after outcry

2024-03-07T18:45:35+00:00

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Facing mounting criticism over cuts to popular school lunch items, New York City officials are reversing course.

School cafeterias will once again feature French toast sticks, bean and cheese burritos, and chicken dumplings, an Education Department spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. Those items should reappear later this month or in early April. Officials eliminated the popular foods from school menus last month as part of a $60 million cut to the school food program, Chalkbeat first reported in January.

At a Thursday event honoring food workers, schools Chancellor David Banks said the decision to reinstate some items was due to backlash from students.

“We heard from the kids loud and clear,” he said. “I encourage every young person to continue to speak up about the changes that they hope to see in their schools.”

Still, some menu items won’t be returning yet, including bagel sticks, chicken drumsticks, guacamole, and cookies. Chris Tricarico, senior executive director of the Office of Food and Nutrition Services, said the city is “planning to look at the future menus” in the coming months to bring back additional food options.

A chorus of students, parents, and food advocates complained the cuts affected popular dishes — potentially leading students to avoid eating school lunches, or throw them in the trash.

Anayolene Denis, a school cook in Brooklyn, said there was a noticeable decrease in the number of students who ate lunch after popular items disappeared from the menu.

“I was mad,” she said. “The kids come in and don’t see what they used to like.”

The cuts also left some of the city’s food suppliers in limbo, with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of food languishing in storage. Some vendors warned of possible worker layoffs.

Food advocates were baffled by the cuts given Mayor Eric Adams’ focus on improving the city’s school food program, including overhauling some cafeterias to make them resemble food courts and expanding plant-based meals.

The reversal comes as city leaders have struggled to provide a clear rationale for the menu changes. Officials first suggested they were related to a series of budget cuts Adams has ordered across city agencies, including the Education Department. But the city’s top budget official on Monday offered a different explanation: The menu cuts were necessary because school lunches were growing more popular.

“They basically cut some of the items from the menu … because more kids are eating,” Jacques Jiha, director of the city’s Office of Management and Budget, said during a City Council hearing.

Those comments earned a fresh round of criticism and confusion, as some of the mayor’s food initiatives were specifically designed to encourage more students to eat. Just two days later, the Education Department backtracked.

Melany Martinez, a school cook at P.S. 84 in Manhattan, said students grumbled about the changes, but she didn’t see much of a dropoff in student meal participation at her school. Nonetheless, she anticipates her students will celebrate the return of one item in particular.

“They love bean burritos,” she said.

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed to this story.

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

NYC budget director blames cafeteria menu cuts on too many kids eating

2024-03-04T23:26:19+00:00

New York City slashed popular items like chicken tenders, dumplings, and cookies from cafeteria menus in February because too many kids were eating, a city official said Monday.

Jacques Jiha, director of the Office of Management and Budget, offered the surprising explanation at a City Council budget hearing in response to questions from Education Committee chair Rita Joseph pressing officials about why “high demand items are being swapped for heat-and-serve options.”

“Bear in mind, the city made some significant investments in school cafeterias,” Jiha said, referring to a $50 million initiative to upgrade middle and high school cafeterias to make them resemble food courts – a project explicitly designed to increase student meal participation.

“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,” Jiha continued. “So therefore what they did was, they basically cut some of the items from the menu … because more kids are eating.”

A school food staffer told Chalkbeat in January that the items removed from the February menu were among the pricier offerings.

The menu cuts have already had significant effects – both on kids who were crushed to lose their favorite lunch foods and on manufacturers struggling with the loss of business.

Jiha claimed that the menu trimming was not the result of a budget cut. The $60 million in city funding slashed from the Office of School Food and Nutrition Services in November as part of a sweeping, citywide budget cut ordered by Mayor Eric Adams, was “swapped” for $60 million in new federal funding, Jiha said.

But critics say the city still hasn’t provided a satisfactory explanation for why the midyear menu reductions were necessary if the budget wasn’t cut.

“The City’s November 2023 budget documents included a clear $60 million cut to school food operations,” said Rachel Sabella, the Director of No Kid Hungry New York, in a statement. A budget update in January included the same figure, and the cuts to the February menu “followed soon after, removing higher-priced items that kids loved and that contributed to higher participation--like burritos, dumplings, and French toast sticks.

“If the cut has now been filled with federal revenue … we look forward to seeing the budget updated accordingly,” she added.

An Education Department spokesperson previously told Chalkbeat that costs went up because of a 9% increase in student meal participation compared to last year and rising expenses in unspecified other areas.

But food manufacturers who spoke to Chalkbeat in January said that’s not a convincing rationale for making major menu cuts in the middle of the school year, since the Education Department has significant power to set its own prices, and costs are largely set before the start of the school year.

And when Education Department officials were asked directly about the possibility of menu reductions in January, they appeared to blame the mayor’s budget cuts.

“We are going to have to cut back a little bit due to the [cut],” said Chris Tricarico, senior executive director of the Office of Food and Nutrition Services in a January meeting with the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council. “As all agencies had to reduce a little bit, we’re going to have slight reductions to the menu as far as choices.”

Jiha said the city is currently “modifying the budget and adding federal resources” to support school foods. But when pressed on why that wasn’t translating into the restoration of slashed cafeteria menus on the ground, Jiha said only that Joseph could “trust what I’m saying to you.”

An Education Department spokesperson didn’t respond to questions about if and when any of the axed items would return. There are some minor changes in the March school cafeteria menu compared to February, including the addition of mozzarella sticks as a daily backup options for food court cafeterias. But many of the big-ticket items axed in February like french fries, chicken tenders, cookies, and chicken dumplings, still don’t appear on the March citywide menu.

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

Summer Rising will face reduced hours this year. Here’s what NYC families should know.

2024-03-04T22:22:20+00:00

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Applications for New York City’s free summer programming opened Monday to all children in kindergarten through eighth grade.

But in the wake of budget cuts ordered by Mayor Eric Adams, middle schoolers will face significantly fewer hours of enrichment programming this summer.

Launched in 2021 with federal pandemic relief funding, the Summer Rising program was designed to help students readjust to in-person learning and expand summer school opportunities beyond children who were traditionally mandated to attend. The initiative includes a mix of academic instruction provided by Education Department teachers and enrichment activities supported by a network of community-based organizations.

Summer Rising will once again include up to 110,000 slots — and is open to all New York City children currently enrolled in grades K-8, including those who attend charter or private schools.

But there will be a few changes this year. The application process is starting about a month earlier, with placements announced in mid-April, to give caregivers more time to plan for the summer and arrange child care if necessary. And families will now apply using MySchools, the sometimes glitchy website that manages the public school application process from prekindergarten through high school.

The most significant change, however, concerns reduced hours for middle school students.

Here’s what you should know about this year’s Summer Rising program:

How does the Summer Rising 2024 application work?

Using the MySchools portal, families can rank as many different Summer Rising sites as they want — choosing from roughly 360 options across the five boroughs. The seats are not issued on a first-come, first-served basis, so families can apply any time until March 25.

In line with the admissions policy last year, some students will receive priority for summer slots. That includes certain children with disabilities, those who live in temporary housing or foster care, children who are behind academically, and students applying for Summer Rising sites that are housed in their regular school.

What is the schedule for Summer Rising, and when does it start?

For students in grades K-5, Summer Rising operates 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from July 2 to Aug. 16.

For middle schoolers, Summer Rising will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. — two fewer hours — and will no longer operate at all on Fridays. The program for those children runs from July 2 to Aug. 8.

Some students with disabilities are entitled to year-round schooling and those programs operate during slightly different times. Children who attend schools in districts 1-32 generally attend summer classes from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. from July 2 to Aug. 12. Those who attend District 75 schools, which are for children with more significant needs, will attend 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. from July 3 to Aug. 13.

And those who attend programs for students with autism — including Nest and Horizon — attend 8 a.m. to noon from July 2 to Aug. 8.

Students with disabilities who attend school year-round have the option to attend the extended day enrichment programs operated by community organizations that run until 6 p.m. (or 4 p.m. for middle school). Interested families must apply through MySchools and students with disabilities in the categories listed above will receive priority for seats.

Why are there fewer hours for middle schoolers?

Summer Rising is one of a slew of programs initially funded with federal pandemic relief money that is now running out, forcing city officials to either find new funding to replace those expiring dollars or make cuts.

So far, Adams has done a bit of both. The mayor chose to keep the Education Department’s contribution to the program, which helps fund the academic portion of the day, using about $80 million in city money to replace federal dollars.

But the afternoon enrichment portion of the program is funded by a different city agency — the Department of Youth and Community Development. Adams cut $20 million of DYCD’s roughly $149 million contribution to Summer Rising, forcing reductions in programming for middle school children.

Some advocates worry that fewer hours, and the elimination of Fridays, will make the program less popular and hurt its quality.

“Friday was usually when they did field trips and things outside of the school building,” said Nora Moran, the director of policy and advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses, which represents community organizations that operate some of the city’s summer programming. She emphasized that community organizations are able to quickly restore hours if the city makes additional funding available.

“We’re certainly hopeful the mayor reverses his decision to shorten the program day,” she said.

How popular is Summer Rising in NYC?

In a city with few affordable child care options, Summer Rising has been quite popular. Last year, there were about 45,000 more applicants than available slots, officials said (though some of those children eventually won a seat).

Students generally spend their mornings on academic work and in the afternoon participate in enrichment activities, including art, science projects, and trips to cultural institutions. For elementary school children, the final week of the program is dedicated to enrichment activities and trips operated by community organizations.

Many parents have praised the program, noting it gives their children something to do other than expensive camps, watching TV, or spending countless hours scrolling the internet. But others have been disappointed and even pulled their children, citing boring assignments during the academic portion of the day, limited time outside, and few opportunities for field trips.

Here’s what parents told us about their Summer Rising experience last year.

What about students with higher needs?

Students with disabilities are supposed to continue receiving the services they need to access summer programming, such as health and behavioral paraprofessionals, and their schools must devise a “Summer Rising Accommodation Plan” before the program begins.

Still, not all services are available for the afternoon enrichment programming — such as paraprofessionals who help manage student behavior — and community organizations are instructed to provide support “as needed.” In practice, some advocates said community organizations aren’t always well-equipped to serve students with special needs, leaving some families to avoid the program entirely.

“The community based-organizations don’t necessarily have the knowledge, and skill, and staff to help support students with behavioral needs,” said Maggie Moroff, a senior policy coordinator at Advocates for Children, which helps students with disabilities navigate the special education system. “A plan from the school that is supposed to be put in place by the [community organization] leaves a whole lot of room for mistakes.”

Officials also noted that English learners will receive “instruction targeting language and literacy development to support them with grade-level content” during the morning sessions, including in small groups or one on one.

What’s the transportation situation?

Students who already receive yellow school bus service during the school year should generally receive bus transportation for Summer Rising. And students with MetroCards during the school year will continue to receive them for the summer.

But for students who ride the bus, there’s a catch: The city’s yellow bus service stops rolling at 3 p.m., so students who participate in the extended enrichment portion of the day until 6 p.m. (or 4 p.m. in middle school) will instead have access to a prepaid rideshare service.

A caregiver must accompany their child in the rideshare to and from the summer school site, which some advocates have criticized as inaccessible for working families who don’t have time to ride to and from a Summer Rising site at the end of the day.

“I think a lot of families opted to forgo the opportunity because they didn’t have a way of getting their child back home,” Moroff said.

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

Almost half of migrant families who got 60-day eviction notices moved out of NYC shelters

2024-03-01T19:34:40+00:00

This article is part of an ongoing collaboration between Chalkbeat and THE CITY.

Beatriz, a Venezuelan mother of two young girls, got a 60-day notice to leave their Midtown migrant shelter last November.

The next day, she said, she was out hunting for apartments.

Working under the table in an Irish pub in Hell’s Kitchen, she’d been able to save some money, pooling it with her boyfriend and a cousin and his family. It was enough for the upfront costs to rent a three-bedroom apartment in Crown Heights they would all share. By the time her 60 days ran out, Beatriz and her girls had already moved out of the shelter.

“We’re totally thankful,” Beatriz, who asked that her last name be withheld fearing immigration consequences, said in Spanish. “We’ve been given so much.”

Beatriz is among the first swath of migrant families with children to see their time in city shelters run out under a newly implemented city policy for migrant families in certain shelters. Notices started coming due in early January, and of the around 7,500 parents and children who reached their 60-day limit, half have moved out, according data through late February from the mayor’s office.

A further breakdown of the data released by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s last month on the 60-day policy found that of about 4,750 families who’d had their time expire through early February, 29% of them, or about 1,300 families, reapplied for shelter and were transferred to new shelters. The remaining 16% stayed in the same shelter where they were originally placed.

Among those who’ve gotten the notices are families like Beatriz’ who came in the fall of 2022 and had more than a year to find work and make connections in New York City.

But many who received the notices have entered the migrant shelter system since the rule has been in place, like families living at the sprawling tent facility at Floyd Bennett Field, or those at a recently opened family shelter in an old warehouse in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill, who’ve had much less time to get their bearings in a new country.

Migrants leaving the Row Hotel stored their belongings on the sidewalk before heading to a new shelter, Jan. 4, 2024.

The mayor’s office didn’t return a request for additional comment on the new data, but members of the Eric Adams administration have repeatedly defended the shelter stay limits, crediting them for driving down costs. They also say the policy is keeping the number of migrants in city shelters — which hovers at around 64,000 people — from continuing to grow. The numbers have even slightly dipped in recent weeks, despite more than a thousand newcomers arriving each week.

For adult migrants who are subject to strict 30-day shelter limits, with days or weekslong waits to get another cot, many have resorted to sleeping on the streets or trains, in overcrowded mosques, or unsanctioned commercial spaces. This week, Gothamist reported on one couple living in a school bus.

The Adams administration has repeatedly said its main goal is not to have families with children sleeping on the streets. In all, city officials said they’ve given 9,100 families shelter eviction notices so far. While some like Beatriz have landed on their feet, critics of the 60-day policy say many more parents and children who can’t afford to move out have been put through unnecessary turmoil.

“The 60-day shelter limit for families with children is one of the cruelest policies to come from City Hall in generations, evicting families from shelter in the middle of winter, and displacing kids from their schools in the middle of the school year,” said Lander, who has promised to investigate the policy. He pointed out City Hall has relatively little information on what happens to migrants when they leave shelters.

“Where did those nearly 2,500 parents go? Were they in a dangerously overcrowded basement? Were they sleeping on the street? We have no idea.”

‘Families going dark’

Schools with migrant students forced to move because of the 60-day rule have been grappling with the logistical and emotional fallout of the disruptions.

“Just said goodbye to another four newcomers who are moving away after being with us for a year,” said one Manhattan principal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Lots of tears from the kids and adults.”

Upper West Side parent Naveed Hasan, who sits on the city’s school board, the Panel for Educational Policy, has been part of an informal group of parents, school staff, and local elected officials working to find students who disappear suddenly from classes.

“It’s really like families going dark and then leaving people really confused. Where are they, and how can we help them?” Hasan said. “And I think this is sort of the intended effect of a policy.”

Testifying at a City Council hearing Friday, Molly Schaeffer, the head of the city’s office of Asylum Seeker Operations, said that 90% of children who were evicted in the month of January remained in their same school, though she didn’t give specifics. “We really did prioritize education and the education of the youngest children when making these types of choices and moves,” she said, adding the office tried to keep families in the same borough as their youngest child’s school.

Migrants leaving the Row Hotel stored their belongings on the sidewalk before heading to a new shelter, Jan. 4, 2024.

Schools that recently got influxes of new students are already seeing them transferred to shelters in other parts of the city, leaving staffers with whiplash.

“In a month we had more than 50 students…and now I don’t know what’s going to happen with them,” said Carolina Zafra, a teacher at P.S. 46 in Clinton Hill, among several schools in the area that received a sudden surge in students, following the opening of a new shelter for families in a converted warehouse.

School staffers knew the new students were subject to the 60-day shelter stay limit, but were holding out hope that city officials wouldn’t enforce it, Zafra said.

The school wrote letters for families to bring back to the shelter showing they were enrolled in a nearby school in the hopes it might get them a reprieve. But when teachers came back from mid-winter break this week, they found that many of their students had already been moved. Zafra has one student who’s now commuting to the school from Manhattan and she heard about another living by JFK airport.

“I’m more concerned about all the emotional distress those children already experienced and now again moving them from something I thought was settled for them,” she said.

One mom who arrived from Venezuela in December and enrolled her two kids at P.S. 46 said her family was transferred from the Hall Street shelter to a shelter in Midtown Manhattan last week.

The mom, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she never considered transferring her kids to a new school, even though her commute is now close to an hour.

“They have a lot of patience with the children,” she said of the school, in Spanish. “I didn’t want to change their school because they feel good there.”

Homeless students in New York City are entitled to transportation under federal law so that they can remain in the same school if they move. Kids and parents in temporary housing are eligible for free MetroCards, and younger students can also get assigned to school bus routes, though that process can take some time.

But the mom said their MetroCards are still pending, and since the family has no income to pay the fares, they often have to sneak through open emergency gates. Her husband has already received a fine for doing so.

Still, the Venezuelan mom considers herself lucky compared to other families from the school who were placed in shelters even further away, she said.

‘I felt such relief’

Among those 16% of families who’ve been able to remain in their shelters, according to the data from the comptroller, many are living at the remote tent shelter located at Floyd Bennett Field. Some describe their extended stay there as both a blessing and a curse.

Geraldine, a 38-year-old mother of three from Venezuela, who moved into Floyd Bennett Field last December, said getting used to the tents was a challenge: the long walks in the cold across a vast marshland to the nearest bus stop, the bathrooms and showers in trailers outside of the living quarters, the lack of privacy and constant cries of collicky children. The disruptions during severe weather have also been hard, like the January evening when the city evacuated thousands of residents to a nearby school due to high winds.

Venezuelan migrants Geraldine, Jhon and their daughter Yorliannys, leave the Floyd Bennett Field family shelter for the day, Jan. 25, 2024.

Still, as her eviction date approached she prayed the family would get to stay put, dreading the disruption of packing up and starting again somewhere new. The family collected their belongings the night before their mid-February move-out day, still unsure what would happen. But when her husband checked in with staff the next morning, he was told they could get another 60 days in the same cubicle.

“I felt such relief,” Geraldine said, who asked that her full name not be used to protect her family’s identity. “We didn’t have to go all the way to [Midtown] with the kids,” she said, referring to the process of reapplying for shelter at the Roosevelt Hotel. Instead their kids continued at their schools without interruption.

“The idea is to finish our time here, save up money and move out,” she said.

‘I feel good, and I’m afraid, at the same time’

Beatriz’ hunt for their new home was difficult, as it is for many New Yorkers. She fronted $500 to someone promising an apartment and spent a day standing in the rain outside what she thought was her new apartment in Astoria before realizing it was a scam.

When a rental finally came through, she and her daughters moved out little by little, shuttling their belongings on the subway over the course of several days. After the winter break, Beatriz pulled her kids out of school and transferred them to ones closer to their new Crown Heights home, unable to make the bi-borough commute. Her 7-year-old daughter seems to be adjusting, while her 11-year-old is having a more difficult time.

“She misses all her friends from class,” Beatriz said.

Beatriz relishes being able to cook for herself and the family again, something she couldn’t do for more than a year living in a hotel room. She’s enjoying the privacy and peace of having their own place. But she also feels the anxiety of so many New Yorkers living paycheck to paycheck, that a little disruption could lead to an inability to make rent and send her back to shelter.

“I feel good, and I’m afraid, at the same time,” Beatriz said. “And the fear, because if one of us loses our job, god willing, how would we pay rent?”

Gwynne Hogan covers Brooklyn for THE CITY.

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

Programs for high school students at risk of dropping out face ‘catastrophic’ funding cliff

2024-02-28T21:58:52+00:00

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After one of Clara Delgado’s students gave birth late last year, she quickly arranged a home visit.

A staffer at Downtown Brooklyn’s Young Adult Borough Center — one of the Education Department’s evening programs for students who are behind in credits or can’t attend school during the day — Delgado arrived with a counselor in tow, donated baby clothes, and made sure the student could log in to Google Classroom to complete assignments remotely.

Delgado hoped the message was clear: The school would do whatever it could to help the teen finish the two classes she needed to graduate.

But staff like Delgado — along with funding for about 3,000 paid work slots — could soon disappear from a network of Young Adult Borough Centers and transfer schools that collectively serve nearly 15,000 students who have struggled at traditional high schools, are behind in credits, and are at risk of dropping out. That’s because a bevy of counselors, social workers, and internship coordinators, are paid through a city initiative called Learning to Work, which is predominantly funded by federal dollars that will expire at the end of this school year.

Educators and advocates say the services provided through Learning to Work are a lifeline for high-need students who enroll in transfer schools and evening classes. Those students include those who have struggled to pass classes at traditional schools, are caught up in the criminal justice system, are parents themselves, or are living in temporary housing.

To help get those students back on track, Learning to Work pairs alternative schools with community organizations that provide extra staff who help ensure students show up to school, get connected to social services, and even help craft college and career plans. It also funds thousands of paid internships, which can give students valuable work experience and create an incentive to attend school rather than dropping out to support themselves.

“A lot of [our work] is social-emotional,” said Delgado, a program manager at Good Shepherd Services, a nonprofit organization that partners with the Brooklyn night program. “They need somebody to take that off their plate so they can be successful with the academics.” The student who gave birth earned a diploma last month and plans to enroll at the Borough of Manhattan Community College this fall.

If the program’s funding is cut, Delgado said it will be a blow for students who have already struggled with the city’s education system. “It’s just someone writing them off again – they’re getting another back turned on them,” she said.

Jobs for students and staff could be lost

Learning to Work has existed since 2005, unlike other programs funded with federal dollars that were intended to address the pandemic’s fallout, such as Saturday programming for students with disabilities or expanded summer school.

But the city began using federal money to finance most of the program two years ago. Nearly 70% of Learning to Work’s budget, or about $32 million, now comes from one-time federal pandemic relief funds, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office. (The program faced a 25% cut in 2020, but its budget has since returned to pre-pandemic levels.)

Without an infusion from the city, “on July 1 these young people lose their support system and lose money they’re paying their bills with,” said Michael De Vito Jr., executive director of the New York Center for Interpersonal Development, which operates three Learning to Work programs across Staten Island and Brooklyn. “This is also going to cause layoffs of hundreds of nonprofit workers.”

Ariana Rivadeneira, 22, said the paid work experiences helped her re-engage with school and ultimately earn a diploma. Before the pandemic hit, she took on a job working at a veterinary clinic to help her mother pay rent after her parents split up. She began missing school and fell behind academically.

But after switching to West Brooklyn Community High School, a transfer school, the staff helped line up paid work experiences and training, including solar panel installation. There was suddenly less of a tradeoff between school and work.

Ariana Rivadeneira, 22, graduated from West Brooklyn Community High School in 2023.

“I was able to focus and redirect my whole education path to school,” Rivadeneira said. She graduated a year ago and now works as an EMT.

The work experiences helped Rivadeneira and her peers “experience what life could be for them – not just school, not just this responsibility of, ‘you have to graduate,’” she said.

Transfer schools could be hit hardest

The previous mayor, Bill de Blasio, made the decision to use one-time federal funding to support the Learning to Work program, but it’s unclear how Mayor Eric Adams will proceed. Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks have made career education a centerpiece of their agenda, and many advocates hope city officials will see the program’s connection to that work.

Still, community organizations worry that the program is not on the city’s radar, as Adams said in January that he “had no clue of the extent of how many programs were being funded by stimulus dollars” until he was briefed by Banks. And while Adams has restored some initiatives that were funded with one-time federal money, there are many remaining programs that are competing for city dollars, including preschool for 3-year-olds.

“We constantly have to remind people that we even exist,” De Vito said. “It seems like the network [of alternative programs] at large is just an afterthought.”

The city has not made a final decision about the program’s future, Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull wrote in an email. “We are engaging with Learning to Work providers as we plan for the future and recognize the importance of this impactful programming for our city’s young people,” she said. “We continue to advocate to our state and local partners to identify new funding to sustain these programs after this year.”

But even if the funding is restored in the city budget, which is finalized in June, some staff are already heading for the exits, as workers realize that funding for their jobs is uncertain, De Vito said.

If the cuts go through, they could add to an existing funding threat to the city’s network of transfer schools, which serve older students who are off track to graduate and may face smaller budgets next year. Enrollment at transfer schools was roughly 12% lower last school year compared with pre-pandemic levels, while traditional high school rosters fell just 2%. Federal relief funding that kept school budgets afloat despite enrollment losses is also set to expire.

With the possible cut to Learning to Work, one Brooklyn transfer school principal said the consequences could be “catastrophic.”

The principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that the community organization that partners with the school and is funded by Learning to Work, helps students with everything from getting clean clothes to lining up a paid internship “so they don’t have to choose between school and earning a living.”

Without those efforts, the school would have to entirely rethink its approach. “From the beginning our school has been designed with a [community organization] partner – not just as an appendage,” the principal said. “You can’t tear off a chunk of your school and assume that there’s some way to replace it.”

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

Eric Adams cancels new round of budget cuts, but fiscal cliff for NYC schools looms

2024-02-21T23:06:13+00:00

New York City’s Education Department won’t see another round of city budget cuts this spring, Mayor Eric Adams announced Wednesday.

But the school system still stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars of expiring federal aid by this summer unless city and state officials act quickly to replace it, advocates warned.

Adams said he will not move forward with a third round of planned budget cuts to city agencies, citing better-than-anticipated revenue and shrinking spending on migrants. The previous two rounds of cuts slashed a total of more than $700 million from the Education Department’s budget for next fiscal year.

Advocates celebrated Wednesday’s news, but warned it does nothing to reverse the massive cuts already coming through previous reductions in city spending and the approaching fiscal cliff of expiring federal aid.

“We are relieved that there is not going to be another round of cuts to the New York City Department of Education,” said Randi Levine, the policy director of Advocates for Children of New York. “But we are deeply concerned about the cuts that are currently being proposed. We need the city to make a substantial investment … to ensure that we don’t have devastating cuts to education programs come July.”

Among the programs that could be partially or fully eliminated when the federal money runs out: 450 new social workers, whose salaries are covered by the one-time federal aid; the city’s recently expanded free preschool program for 3-year-olds; and more than 100 “community schools” that partner with community organizations to provide extra support to families. Funding that propped up the budgets of schools whose enrollment fell during the pandemic is also drying up.

Advocates for Children is one member of the recently formed Emergency Coalition to Save Education Programs, which is calling on the city and state to come up with more than $1 billion dollars in this year’s budget to replace the expiring federal aid.

One hundred and sixty community groups signed onto a letter last September sounding the alarm about the fiscal cliff. There was some movement in January, when Adams announced $80 million in city funding this summer to help continue Summer Rising, the academic and recreational summer program that began during the pandemic.

But advocates say that’s only the tip of the iceberg – and worry that the urgency of the situation hasn’t yet sunk in for city and state officials.

In fact, at the January briefing announcing the Summer Rising funding, Adams said he “had no clue of the extent of how many programs were being funded by stimulus dollars” until schools Chancellor David Banks had briefed him earlier that month.

Here are some of the biggest programs currently funded by federal aid, and a glimpse at what could happen if the money runs out without a replacement:

Social workers and school psychologists on the chopping block

The salaries of 450 social workers and 60 psychologists were covered by nearly $80 million in relief money this year as part of a pandemic effort to bring mental health support to schools without full-time help.

The influx brought social workers to roughly 194,000 students who previously didn’t have a full-time social worker in their school, advocates estimate. If schools lose the federal money funding these positions, they’ll either have to scrounge up money from elsewhere in their budgets – an unlikely prospect with school budgets poised to shrink next year – or “excess” them, sending them to a central pool where they’d have to wait to get picked up by a new school.

One Brooklyn principal who hired a full-time social worker for the first time with the pandemic aid said it’s made an “enormous” difference to have a staff member who can focus on behavioral issues, freeing up other administrators to focus on academic needs.

“I’m very worried about what will happen if we lose her,” said the principal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There is no way I can keep her unless the funds are replaced.”

Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle said the agency is “extremely grateful” for the relief money and is “working with the administration to identify new funding sources.” The department will “provide guidance to schools so they can appropriately plan for the upcoming school year,” she added.

$160 million to prop up school budgets amid enrollment losses

During the pandemic, former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration paused the normal process of slashing school budgets when enrollment fell, and instead spent $375 million in federal aid to keep school budgets steady, even as enrollment cratered.

Adams began tapering off that support in 2022, cutting $215 million from the “hold harmless” pot, which left it at $160 million. That $160 million will disappear next year unless city and state officials replace it – and it will come directly out of the budgets schools use to pay for staff and supplies. If a school’s enrollment increases next year, the accompanying budget bump might offset some of that loss. But if their enrollment shrinks or stays steady, they’ll feel the full effects.

An expanded preschool program

De Blasio used federal relief money to advance a long-standing goal of expanding the city’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds in the same way he built out the city’s heralded universal prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds.

The 3-K expansion has been rockier, with more empty seats – but it’s still brought free preschool to more than 20,000 new 3-year-olds since the start of the pandemic.

If the city’s current proposed budget passes unchanged, spending on the 3-K and pre-K programs will fall by $263 million next year, according to advocates’ budget analysis. About $170 million of those cuts come from the city’s own budget trims, which officials have said will only affect seats that aren’t currently filled.

But there’s also $93 million in federal aid for 3-K that could disappear next year. The city’s cuts alone could reduce the number of 3-K seats by between 9,000 and 15,000, according to projections from the Citizens’ Committee for Children. Even if the seats that get cut were empty, losing so much funding could make it impossible for some providers to keep their lights on at all, said Jennifer March, the Executive Director of the Citizens’ Committee for Children.

“It could have a detrimental impact on the fiscal viability of that provider long term,” she said.

The clock is ticking for other programs

There are many other critical programs paid for with federal aid, including 100 staff members working directly in homeless shelters to help students with transportation and other needs, and more than 100 new community schools that partner with nonprofits to provide social services and extra support to families. A recent effort to reduce the long-standing shortage of preschool special education seats is also in jeopardy.

There’s also precious little time for city and state officials to salvage those programs. The state’s budget deadline is April 1. Advocates say things are moving the wrong direction so far: A revision to the state’s funding formula is leaving the city Education Department with $130 million less than expected.

The city’s budget deadline is further out in June. But there’s a perhaps even steeper climb to reverse some of the $700 million in cuts Adams has proposed in recent months – while also coming up with new money to replace the sunsetting federal aid.

But advocates said the stakes are too high for lawmakers not to act.

“We are talking to everyone at both the city and state levels,” said Levine. “A parent who doesn’t have access to 3-K doesn’t care if they lost the seat because of federal, state, city funding … they care that they’re losing that seat.”

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

NYC sues TikTok, Instagram, and other social media companies over youth mental health crisis

2024-02-14T22:50:31+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams ratcheted up New York City’s battle against social media companies on Wednesday, joining hundreds of municipalities and school systems across the country that have filed a wave of lawsuits seeking financial compensation and broader changes to the platforms.

The city contends that social media platforms are designed to be addictive, harming young people’s mental health, and serving as venues for bullying. The lawsuit is calling on the companies to change their practices and pay for youth mental health education prevention and treatment services. Officials said the city spends about $100 million a year on youth mental health programs.

The city’s Education Department and the public hospital system are also part of the suit filed in California state court against the companies operating TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube.

“The feature that keeps young people clicking in these dark corners of social media have fueled an alarming rise in online bullying, depression, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation,” Adams said during a briefing on Wednesday. “There is, of course, a great deal of education and positive content out there too. But there is also a 24/7 digital dystopia that even very young children can easily access without parents or caregivers ever being aware of.”

City officials pointed to a series of worrying statistics about youth mental health, including rising rates of suicide attempts. Additionally, the statistics show that in 2021, nearly 38% of high school students felt so hopeless or sad over the previous year that they stopped participating in their usual activities. Still, there is little conclusive evidence linking social media use to mental health problems, though experts have called for more research on the topic.

The burden, however, has been high on the nation’s largest school system, the lawsuit alleges, including hiring additional counselors and social workers, investigating threats made against schools and students over social media, and increasing community-based services such as outpatient therapy and after-school programs. Social media addiction has adversely affected students’ attention spans, their ability to learn, and their behavior, the lawsuit claims, noting that some students have become violent when a teacher tried to take their phones.

Some school leaders have struggled to manage the impact of social media on their campuses. In response to Instagram accounts that allowed students to post anonymous content, a Queens principal threatened to cancel activities and suspend students who followed those accounts, an episode that raised free speech concerns. (The accounts were ultimately taken down.)

The lawsuit claims that the companies borrow “heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used in slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry” to keep the attention of young people, who are at a “vulnerable” developmental stage, and to drive advertising revenue.

Last year’s lawsuit against social media companies filed by Seattle’s school district unleashed the current wave of litigation. New York City’s lawsuit appeared to be broadly similar to others filed by local school districts, which some observers say could face tough legal odds.

“Most of these [lawsuits] are as much about legal success as they are about shaping issues and winning in the court of public opinion,” Chris Thomas, a professor at the University of Florida, told EdWeek. “That is part of the strategy around the lawsuits, even if they have tough hills to climb legally.”

Adams has signaled for months that his administration planned to take stronger action against social media companies. Last month, he announced the city would begin to treat social media use as a public health threat, deploying an ad campaign equating major social media platforms with tobacco companies. The city also released an advisory encouraging caregivers to delay giving children a smartphone until age 14 to limit continuous access to social media.

The city vowed to take a series of steps outside of the lawsuit as part of a new “framework for action” including guidance to schools for creating “tech-free zones” and launching a youth advisory council.

City officials have also begun offering free online therapy for teenagers, one of Adams’ biggest mental health initiatives, though some students have struggled to persuade their parents to let them participate. More than 2,000 teens have used the online therapy platform so far, according to a health department spokesperson.

In a response to the city’s lawsuit, Snapchat spokesperson Ashley Adams sought to distance the platform from other social media companies. “Snapchat was intentionally designed to be different from traditional social media,” she wrote, noting the platform does not include a traditional feed “and has no traditional public likes or comments.”

“While we will always have more work to do,” she added, “we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping close friends feel connected, happy and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence.”

Liza Crenshaw, a spokesperson for Meta, the parent of Instagram and Facebook, said the company has more than 30 tools and features to support teens and their parents. “We want teens to have safe, age-appropriate experiences online,” she said.

Representatives of TikTok and YouTube did not immediately respond for comment.

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

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

NYC schools go remote on Tuesday for snow forecast

2024-02-12T19:07:39+00:00

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New York City public schools will conduct classes remotely on Tuesday as a winter storm threatens to dump up to eight inches of snow on the five boroughs, Mayor Eric Adams said Monday morning.

Adult education and Young Adult Borough Centers will not operate on Tuesday. Many after-school programs operated by the Department of Youth and Community Development will run remotely, though an Education Department spokesperson said parents should reach out to their schools for more information.

In the wake of the pandemic, the city’s public schools announced that it will not typically cancel classes in the event of inclement weather and instead pivot to remote instruction. As officials added additional holidays to the school calendar, the Education Department has vowed to offer remote instruction during snow storms in part to meet a state requirement to provide 180 days of school each year.

“Long gone are the days of just a snow day and everybody just has off,” said schools Chancellor David Banks at a snow-related media briefing. “We’re going to have a big snow storm most likely, but our students — we expect for them to be fully engaged.”

Parents, students and teachers: How are you preparing for remote school on Tuesday? Let us know by dropping an email to ny.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Tuesday will be the first major test of the city’s plan to quickly pivot to remote learning due to bad weather, as the city has not experienced a major snowfall over the past two winters. When wildfire smoke engulfed the city last summer, the Education Department shifted to remote instruction for a day, but the vast majority of students already had a scheduled day off.

The decision to pivot to remote instruction comes with tradeoffs, as families may struggle to line up childcare and many students rely on school meals. But keeping school buildings open comes with challenges, too, and Banks said he did not want to risk students getting stuck on yellow buses or strand staff at schools if weather conditions worsened throughout Tuesday morning.

The amount of snowfall is still relatively uncertain. Officials said they wanted to make the decision about whether to hold classes virtually before the storm approached to give schools — and families — more time to plan for remote instruction.

Parents should expect teachers to provide “synchronous” instruction, delivering lessons in real time and mimicking the traditional school day, Banks said. Although he acknowledged there will likely be some technical glitches, Banks noted that schools had previously asked families to practice logging in for remote learning to prepare for possible snowstorms. Additionally, the Education Department has “help centers” for families who need assistance.

Students who want to go outside and play in the snow could do so after class, Banks said.

https://t.co/BcVJPTHEkf pic.twitter.com/SQVseyhSj9
— Chi Ossé (@OsseChi) February 12, 2024

Adams bristled at the notion that switching to remote instruction could present tech roadblocks to families, or that children may simply skip remote classes to have fun in the snow.

He claimed his own mother helped him get to school in poor weather, holding it up as an example for others to overcome their own obstacles. ”You can’t tell me that mommy took me to school with her arthritic knees in a snow day, and you are frustrated by logging on to a computer — that’s not acceptable to me,” he said. “Our children must learn. They fell behind. We need to catch up.”

Still, some schools said it could be a challenge to get students logged in for remote learning. Anna Nelson, an assistant principal at the Bronx Latin, estimated that about a quarter of her school’s students don’t have reliable internet access at home.

“At our school, everyone will have a device,” she said. “It’s whether they will be able to use a device.”

Some observers said the announcement felt premature, coming well before a single flake of snow hit the ground, and reports indicate a more modest accumulation of just a couple inches is still possible.

News of the decision to hold classes virtually trickled out on X, previously known as Twitter, before the mayor’s official announcement. Banks told a gathering of union chapter leaders of the decision in advance of a professional development session related to the city’s sweeping new literacy curriculum mandate, according to a union spokesperson.

The mayor tweeted the news just after 10 a.m. — though schools had yet to receive an official communication, frustrating some administrators who learned of the news from their teachers or on social media. An email to school administrators went out shortly after 11 a.m.

“It shouldn’t be principals hearing from their teachers and Twitter,” Nelson said. “I don’t have a Twitter account.”

Correction: Based on incorrect information in an Education Department press release, a previous version of this story said all after-school programs are canceled. In fact, many will be open remotely.

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

Empty display cases, hungry kids, disrupted production: NYC’s cafeteria cuts send shockwaves

2024-02-06T18:57:31+00:00

The effects of New York City’s recent school food budget cuts are already rippling through city cafeterias and beyond, even threatening jobs at the manufacturer of the chicken dumplings pulled from February’s menu.

A $60 million November cut to the Education Department’s school foods division forced the agency to chop a number of popular items, including cookies, bean and cheese burritos, and roasted chicken, Chalkbeat first reported last month. Middle and high schools with cafeterias that resemble food courts lost chicken tenders, French fries, burritos, and grab-and-go salads – items that were previously available on most days.

New York City’s school system runs the largest daily food program in the country outside the military. It serves approximately 880,000 daily “free, nutritious, and delicious meals,” according to Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle, who downplayed the impact of the menu changes. She said the agency “will continue to work to prioritize student choice wherever possible.”

But the cuts were felt immediately by many students.

Alec Lopez, a 17-year-old senior at Urban Assembly Bronx Academy of Letters in the South Bronx, went to the cafeteria last week to grab the chicken tenders and French fries she usually takes only to discover that they weren’t available.

“I didn’t eat anything. I was like, ‘Ooh maybe I should get a salad,’ but they cut that out too,” she said. “For the rest of the day, we’re tired, we’re hungry, energy levels are so down and it makes everyone feel like crap.”

A container with veggie nuggets at Bronx Academy of Letters on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024 in Bronx, New York.

Previously full display cases sat empty, and the slim offerings on shelves contained meager portions, said David Garcia-Rosen, the dean at Bronx Letters.

“I’ve never seen that all school year,” he said, adding that some of the containers held what appeared to be just a handful of veggie nuggets.

At Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology in Hell’s Kitchen, the recent menu cuts exacerbated long-standing issues with broken cafeteria equipment and food shortages. Parents and school officials have tried in vain for years to get busted display cases fixed, said Diane Tinsley, a parent of a senior and Parent Association president at Urban Assembly Gateway.

On a recent Friday afternoon, multiple broken display cases sat empty and unstocked, while only one was filled with hot food for a building with five schools and more than 2,000 students.

“I come in and it just looks like a desert,” Tinsley said. “This is child abuse.”

Food manufacturers feeling pain, too

The effects of the cuts are also spreading beyond school cafeterias. The city’s decision to yank major menu items midyear sent shockwaves through food manufacturers.

“We’re all just kind of frustrated and befuddled,” said Kirk Jaudes, chief operating officer of International Food Solutions, the company that produces the chicken dumplings for city schools. The company first found out about the change when a staffer noticed that the dumplings were missing from the Education Department’s February menu, he added. An Education Department spokesperson said vendors were notified on Dec. 19 and Dec. 22 of the changes.

International Food Solutions produces the dumplings exclusively for the city Education Department from a factory in Long Island that can churn out somewhere in the ballpark of 2 million servings a month, at a cost of around $1 a serving, Jaudes estimated.

But the Education Department’s abrupt decision to pull the plug is upending the company’s operations, Jaudes said, taking a bite out of revenue, slowing production, and forcing the company to consider layoffs.

“You could potentially have students in the New York City Department of Education whose parents are going to lose their jobs,” he said. The company, moreover, is still stuck with about $350,000 in leftover inventory that it can’t sell anywhere else because the product is reserved exclusively for New York City schools. Company officials are trying to work out a deal to distribute it in city schools, but said they haven’t gotten anywhere.

“Unless there’s major policy changes, we won’t be doing business with New York City” any more, Jaudes said. “We can’t take that risk.”

An Education Department spokesperson noted that the agency asked all vendors whose items were removed from the February menu for a “voluntary price reduction,” and that International Food Solutions declined. But Jaudes said his company had already agreed to the price suggested by the Education Department before this school year, and had even offered an additional discount, also before the start of the school year, on top of that.

“We didn’t have any margin to provide further cost reductions,” he said. The Education Department spokesperson said nine vendors offered price reductions, which are currently being reviewed by city officials to see if any items can be added back to the menu.

The dumplings are, by many accounts, one of the most popular items served in schools.

At one Manhattan elementary school, 31 out of 46 fourth- and fifth- grade students surveyed last week by the school’s principal said dumplings were the best lunch meal, the administrator said.

And in a recent Reddit thread about the school menu cuts, the top comment reads, in part: “I work in the schools. The dumplings are popular and most kids eat them.”

Reasons for budget cut raise questions

The circumstances surrounding the school food budget cut are still somewhat murky. The $60 million cut to school foods was part of a larger $550 million budgetary blow to the Education Department that Mayor Eric Adams said was prompted by increased spending on the wave of migrants who have arrived in the city over the past year-and-a-half.

But budget documents appear to suggest that the cut to school foods from the city’s budget was going to be offset by federal food revenues that “exceed budgeted amount.” Administration officials told the City Council that the cut to city school food funds wouldn’t affect the division’s overall operating budget because it would be offset by federal money, according to a council source.

“It’s mystifying why schools are seeing these removals of menu items,” the council source added.

An Education Department spokesperson confirmed that the city is indeed replacing the missing city money with federal funds, and said the overall $580 million budget for school foods is still higher than what the city spent last year. Costs are up this year because of increased participation compared to last year and increases in unspecified “other areas,” according to the spokesperson. Labor contracts prevent the Education Department from laying off workers, “which meant a reduction in food options,” the spokesperson added.

Some observers worry that the cuts could have long-term implications for the city’s school food program.

The number of city students eating lunch on an average day, while higher than last year, is still down significantly from the 2019-20 school year, according to city data.

If even fewer students eat lunch because of the menu changes, that could lead to lower reimbursement from the federal government, which in turn can lead to cuts that further diminish the quality of the food, in what Jaudes called “a never-ending cycle to the bottom.”

The Education Department spokesperson said, “The current menu still provided high demand items, a decrease in meal participation is not expected.”

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

Eric Adams says social media is a public health threat to students

2024-01-24T22:24:50+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams declared social media a public health threat to students during his annual State of the City speech on Wednesday. He promised to take on the issue though he offered few details about how the city plans to respond.

“We’re treating social media like other public health hazards,” Adams said, mentioning TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook. “We must ensure that tech companies take responsibility for their products.”

National public health authorities have also expressed worry about potential risks associated with social platforms. The U.S. surgeon general said last year that social media may have some benefits, but warned it “can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”

Despite the growing concerns and hand wringing, however, there is little conclusive evidence directly linking social media use to mental health problems. Experts have called for more research on the topic.

City health officials pointed to worrying signs of deteriorating mental health among adolescents, noting that survey data show rising feelings of hopelessness or suicidal ideation among city high school students. To help address those trends, the city launched a teletherapy program in November available to city residents ages 13-17. About 1,500 teens have signed up to use it so far, Adams said. State officials have also signaled interest in addressing student mental health and social media use.

Unlike last year, the mayor’s speech did not focus heavily on education. He briefly mentioned a small number of existing efforts, including expanded summer programming and an overhaul of literacy instruction. And while he said he plans to release more details about how the city plans to treat social media companies as a health threat, the policy implications of that were not immediately clear. Instead, the city’s Health Department issued an advisory on Wednesday with a series of recommendations.

The advisory encourages caregivers to delay giving children a smartphone until age 14 to limit constant access to social platforms. It also suggests that educators or others who work with children discuss “social media use in an open-minded way” and provide “support when they identify concerns.” It points to the Education Department’s digital citizenship materials and tools to develop a “family media plan.”

Social media companies are fueling a mental health crisis, especially for our young people. But we won't let Big Tech endanger our kids.@NYCHealthCommr Vasan is today issuing an advisory officially designating social media as an environmental toxin in New York City. #SOTC2024 pic.twitter.com/8Rddkzr1hM
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) January 24, 2024

Some observers were glad to see the mayor highlighting the issue, as some city schools have struggled to manage the impact of social media on campus. In response to anonymous Instagram accounts that featured anonymous posts about other students and school officials, a Queens principal resorted to canceling activities and threatening to suspend students who followed the accounts. (The accounts were eventually removed, and the principal reinstated school events.)

“There just isn’t enough responsiveness to kid and adult complaints,” said Devorah Heitner, an author who has written extensively about children’s relationship with technology. She said the city could help pressure tech companies to more swiftly respond to problems like bullying and revenge porn.

Still, Heitner said it’s likely counterproductive to eschew the platforms entirely, as students may find community there and will likely need to participate in similar digital platforms in adulthood.

“What we don’t want to do is start a moral panic and try to control kids,” she said.

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

Cookies, chicken tenders, dumplings: NYC cost-cutting axes faves from February school menu

2024-01-24T20:00:23+00:00

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Mayor Eric Adams’ school budget cuts will soon hit New York City students square in the stomach.

A $60 million November cut to the city’s school foods budget is forcing the Education Department to thin out next month’s school cafeteria menu by removing a host of pricier items, including student favorites like cookies, chicken dumplings, and bean and cheese burritos, according to an email from a school food official obtained by Chalkbeat.

Additionally, at the growing number of middle and high schools with cafeterias that resemble food courts (part of an initiative expanded by Adams to improve the lunchroom experience), students will no longer get chicken tenders, grab-and-go salads, and French fries – items that are currently offered multiple days a week as options for kids who don’t want that day’s main course.

Other items that will be taken out of rotation in February include roasted chicken thighs and legs as well as guacamole and salsa, the message said. Breakfast meal kits, French toast sticks, bagel sticks, ciabatta bread, and sweet potato oatmeal muffins will also be scratched.

In a recent meeting with parent leaders, Chris Tricarico, the Education Department’s head of school foods, acknowledged that the menus would be impacted by the budget cuts, but promised “minimal changes.”

But to many parents and kids, the cuts feel anything but bite-sized.

“To me, that’s like 75% of the menu,” said Jose Santana, a 17-year-old senior at Dr. Richard Izquierdo Charter School in the Bronx, which offers the same menu as district schools. French fries were “definitely one of my favorites,” he said. “For that to be gone is huge.”

Without the chicken tenders, fries, and grab-and-go salads, the remaining daily backup options at high schools with food courts are pizza, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, and hummus and crackers, according to the February menu. There will also still be a daily salad bar, but Santana said he doesn’t see many students use it.

“At least the pizza is still there,” he said.

Clarissa Kunizaki, a 15-year-old sophomore at Brooklyn Technical High School, was similarly shocked to hear the list of menu items getting chopped.

“The chicken thighs and legs were the best option for lunch in my opinion, since the other hot meals usually do not taste great,” she said. The bean and cheese burritos were also “pretty good and very popular among other students,” she added.

Menu cuts come after school food investment

Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks pledged $50 million a little over a year ago to turn 80 more school cafeterias into food courts – a change advocates have contended can increase the number of students who eat. More than 100 school buildings serving 140,000 students now have an enhanced cafeteria, according to the Education Department’s school kitchens dashboard.

Adams has made school food a major priority, launching an initiative to serve vegan offerings on Fridays and a recent program to bring professional chefs into schools to help develop new recipes.

But with the variety in the food court lunchrooms getting significantly diminished next month, some students wondered whether more teens would turn to other options.

“I see every day a good group of students that just don’t eat school lunch,” Santana said. “I wonder if this budget cut will cause students to spend more money” outside schools at nearby bodegas or delis.

“I personally don’t want to waste five to 10 dollars every day,” he added.

Liz Accles, the executive director of Community Food Advocates, a nonprofit that led the charge to expand the city’s cafeteria enhancement program, said in an email she’s “hopeful that the funds will be restored … given the unprecedented commitments that the Mayor and Chancellor have made in creating an innovative and leading edge school meals program.”

An Education Department spokesperson said items that don’t appear on the February menu may still be added back in subsequent months.

“Our school food team has worked diligently to respond to budget reductions without sacrificing nutritional standards and with a continued focus on student choice,” said spokesperson Jenna Lyle. “Daily options, including a salad bar, continue to be available, and our young people continue to benefit from enhanced cafeterias, halal certified kitchens, plant-powered Fridays and other school food programs.”

Students and parents concerned about more school food waste

At many high schools and even some middle schools, students are allowed to leave campus for lunch and buy food at local eateries.

But for younger students, there’s no option to leave school – it’s either eat what’s on the school menu, or bring food from home.

Ana, a 6-year-old student at P.S. 289 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said she’s “going to be sad” if the cookies disappear from her school menu.

“They took things off the menu that I really enjoy,” said Mia Ueoka, a 9-year-old fourth grader at P.S. 295 in Brooklyn. “My favorite thing on the menu was the cheese and bean burrito and the chicken thighs. I actually felt like I could get protein from it.”

Ueoka’s dad, Elton Dodson, worried the changes could exacerbate equity issues, “with more affluent parents able to pack lunches to compensate for this policy atrocity.”

News that the chicken dumplings are falling victim to the budget cuts also hit hard for some students and adults.

Jake Jacobs, a middle school art teacher in the Bronx, allows students to eat lunch in his classroom, and gets a first-hand look at what they like and what they don’t based on what ends up in his trash can.

“They throw the vast majority of it away,” he said. But the dumplings were one bright spot. “They get double portions and they’re fighting over them,” he said.

The $60 million cut to school foods was part of a total of roughly $550 million chopped from the Education Department budget in Adams’ November budget. Adams ordered all city agencies to trim their budgets by 5% as part of what he described as a bleak fiscal situation driven by increased spending on services for migrants and asylum seekers.

But Adams significantly revised that financial forecast in January. He reversed $10 million of the November cuts to the Education Department, but still announced $100 million in new cuts set to take effect next fiscal year. Additional cuts to the police, fire, and sanitation departments were put on hold.

Officials have emphasized that they have done everything possible to keep the cuts from directly affecting services. But several parents said the cuts to the school menus would have an immediate impact on their kids.

“Our schools have already seen after-school programs decimated, arts programs eliminated,” said Dodson, the parent at P.S. 295. “Now they won’t have adequate fuel for the day.”

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

Eric Adams boosted pay for special ed pre-K teachers. Now they face deep cuts.

2024-01-22T11:00:00+00:00

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In his first year on the job, Mayor Eric Adams vowed to fix a glaring inequity in the city’s prekindergarten system. His predecessor’s universal free pre-K program, widely celebrated as a national model, did not provide a seat to every child with a disability, despite a legal requirement to do so.

“The previous ideas of universal 3-K and pre-K did not account for children with disabilities — it was just wrong,” Adams told reporters in December 2022. The mayor promised every child with a disability would have a placement the following spring.

To meet that goal, officials began pouring roughly $134 million into private community organizations that operate the vast majority of the city’s preschool special education seats. It was a shot in the arm for providers that have struggled to keep their doors open due to years of anemic funding and staff churn, allowing them to raise teacher salaries by thousands of dollars to bring them closer to their public school counterparts.

But despite the funding influx, more than 1,100 preschool students with disabilities languished without a placement at the end of last school year. And this coming spring — a year after every child was supposed to have a seat — the Education Department anticipates needing between 866 to more than 1,400 additional seats, according to a new analysis of city data by Advocates for Children, a nonprofit that helps families navigate the special education system.

The problem may soon get worse. The funding Adams used to boost preschool special education programs flowed from one-time federal pandemic relief money that will expire in June — and city officials have not committed to replacing it. Providers say that could lead to a spate of classroom closures, leaving even more children with disabilities without placements at a key developmental stage.

“At some point, I’m going to tell my staff the money that we said was here is not here anymore,” said Jolene Gunther-Doherty, program director for The Guild for Exceptional Children, which operates a special education preschool program in Brooklyn. The additional city funding helped her program boost some teacher salaries from $48,000 a year to just over $68,000 a year, raises that would be reversed if the funding is not renewed.

“I may not get all the resignation letters the next day, but I might get them [in] mid-July or the beginning of August,” she added. “That’s when you begin to say you can’t keep the doors open.”

Teacher recruitment remains a challenge even with higher salaries

Preschool special education programs have long been the most neglected part of the city’s early childhood system.

The state provides a significant chunk of the providers’ budgets and officials approved flat or anemic funding for many years, below increases for traditional public schools (officials approved more generous increases during the last two years). As a result, teachers in the sector are often paid tens of thousands of dollars less than their peers in other schools, leading to high turnover and vacant classrooms, providers said.

Community organizations that operate general education preschool seats, the cornerstone of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s universal pre-K program, faced a similar funding disparity. After years of advocacy, those providers won big raises for their educators that brought them closer to their public school peers. But the special education teachers were left out, cementing their status as the lowest paid teachers in the city despite serving a high-need population.

Adams’ plan was designed to help fix that problem, providing extra funding to 86 providers to boost salaries closer to the minimum wages enjoyed by public school teachers, lengthen their school days from five hours to 6 hours and 20 minutes to match the district’s preschool schedule, and provide a slew of training and support.

The money is helping operators like HeartShare, which runs four preschool special education programs across Queens and Brooklyn. The organization lengthened the school day and increased many teacher salaries from about $50,000 a year to $68,652 a year, bringing them closer to the starting salary of certified teachers with a master’s degree in the city’s public schools. Teacher assistant wages increased to about $35,000 annually.

Carol Verdi, executive vice president of education services at HeartShare, said raises helped keep staff from leaving and enabled her to hire teachers for two classrooms that had been sitting empty because she couldn’t find anyone to run them.

“For retention, it was great,” Verdi said of the funding boost. “For recruitment, it helped a little bit.”

But strong incentives for teachers to work elsewhere remain. Under the new contract negotiated by the city’s teachers union, public school educators recently notched raises, leaving those in community-based pre-K classrooms below the new minimums. And for teachers with years of experience, they can earn thousands more by jumping to a public school.

Even with the recent salary boost for community organizations, Verdi still has seven classrooms she can’t find teachers for despite plenty of demand from families. “Our phone rings off the hook for seats,” Verdi said. “There are children out there in need.”

Sema Atilgan, who has worked at HeartShare for roughly two decades, said she has often considered leaving and briefly took a job at a public school in 2006. But she loves working with preschool students with disabilities, especially the feeling when students arrive with limited speech skills and leave the program speaking whole words.

“That gives me a lot of not only excitement to go forward ... but just gratitude,” said Atilgan, who has worked as a teacher and special education coordinator at the organization’s preschool program in Howard Beach, Queens.

Sema Atilgan, a long-time preschool special education teacher, is facing a pay cut this summer that may prompt her to quit.

But her salary would rise by more than $30,000 a year if she left for a public school teaching position, an enticing boost. Plus, she’d have a more generous benefits package and a summer break; preschool special education teachers in programs like HeartShare work year round. Instead, she’s facing a pay cut of about $3,700 this summer, which would bring her salary below $70,000 annually. That could be the final straw that pushes her into another job.

“If they give us a decrease in our salary there will not only be an uproar but also a mass exodus,” she said, adding that she works a side job on Sundays conducting evaluations for Early Intervention services to help make ends meet. “Who gives money and tries to take it back?”

The temporary nature of the funding took several providers by surprise, especially given Adams’ framing of the new money as a “historical leap forward” that would ensure every child with a disability has a preschool seat.

“We would have advised our providers to really seriously think about this unless the [Education Department] had a plan how to fund it” in the future, said Chris Treiber, who represents preschool special education providers through the InterAgency Council of Developmental Disabilities Agencies, an advocacy group. “If this funding ends, our teachers become the lowest-paid teachers in New York City again.”

Largest gaps are in NYC’s neediest neighborhoods

When the city fails to find a seat for a preschool student with a disability, they often sit at home, or wind up in a program that can’t provide intensive support and services, such as speech therapy, listed on a student’s learning plan.

The impact on the city’s youngest students is significant. A lack of special education services early on can lead to more significant learning deficits later — and increased costs for the city. The gap in seats this coming spring is projected to be highest in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, covering a swath of the South Bronx and central Brooklyn, including Brownsville and East New York, according to the Advocates for Children analysis.

“We need to hear a plan for how the city will provide a seat to every child who needs one this year,” said Randi Levine, the policy director at Advocates for Children. “The possibility of 1,400 seats being needed at the end of this year is extremely alarming.”

Nathaniel Styer, an education department spokesperson, said the city exceeded its goal of adding 800 seats by the end of last school year, mostly by helping providers raise salaries to recruit educators for classrooms that were sitting vacant. Still, those additional seats were not enough to meet demand, and officials have not detailed any new efforts to meet the projected gap this spring.

“We expanded access and increased pay for this critical sector at a time when it was suffering due to underinvestment and difficulty hiring staff,” Styer wrote in an email, pointing to “the extremely low base pay rate” offered by the state. “As the need continues to grow, we continue to pivot and shift.”

Bronx mom Diana Benavides struggled to find a special education preschool seat this year for her son Liam, who has autism. The 4-year-old attended a general education preschool program, which couldn’t provide all the support he needed this year, including speech therapy. Plus, his class of 17 students proved overstimulating, and he became much more withdrawn, she said.

“He’s more hesitant to go to school [and] has more separation anxiety,” Benavides said. After securing a new learning plan in November that called for a special education program with a class size of 12, she struggled to find a seat.

Benavides spent hours tracking down and calling roughly 20 programs. “It’s almost like a part-time job just trying to find that information and following up with the schools,” she said. She ultimately found just one program in Manhattan that could meet Liam’s needs, including speech and occupational therapy services on site.

Liam started at the new school this month, though Benavides worries about other children who are languishing at home or whose parents don’t have time to conduct their own exhaustive search.

“The need is just growing, especially coming out of the pandemic,” she said. The lack of seats, she said, “is going to have generational impact.”

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

NYC rolls out long-awaited school bus tracking app

2024-01-19T23:38:34+00:00

New York City is finally rolling out a long-awaited school bus GPS app citywide – four and a half years after officials first announced the plan.

The NYC School Bus App, developed in partnership with the rideshare company Via, allows caregivers of the roughly 150,000 students who ride a school bus every day to track their kids’ vehicles in real time. The sprawling school bus system, which serves tens of thousands of students with disabilities, often subjects students to hours-long rides, delays, and no-show buses. In the past, parents often had to repeatedly call bus companies to track down missing buses.

Education Department officials first announced the five-year, $36 million contract with Via in summer 2019. They said at the time the app would roll out citywide in the 2020-21 school year. Those plans were scuttled by the COVID pandemic, but even after the full return of in-person learning in fall 2021, it took two-and-a-half more years to get the app up and running citywide.

Mayor Eric Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks struck a celebratory note in a press release announcing the citywide rollout.

“I’m thrilled to be launching this system for families across the city and to provide peace of mind to parents as they send their babies off to school each day,” Banks said.

Lori Podvesker, a parent and director of disability and education policy at IncludeNYC, said launching the bus-tracking app was long overdue.

She often relies on text messages with a bus attendant to get a heads-up on when her son, Jack, will be picked up and dropped off each day from his District 75 program, which serves students with more significant disabilities.

“Knowing that I can access this information helps build trust,” Podvesker said.

She recalled an incident several years ago when Jack’s bus didn’t turn up and she frantically called the bus company, which didn’t answer the phone. When Podvesker called the Education Department’s transportation office, she was placed on hold.

“It is so nerve-wracking — especially as a parent of a kid with intellectual disabilities who’s nonverbal. You just freak out,” she said.

One Staten Island parent in 2021 resorted to slapping an Airtag on her elementary school daughter in lieu of working GPS on the school bus.

Podvesker welcomes the new app, but she wasn’t sure if it’s working yet for her son’s bus route, which ferries him from Downtown Brooklyn to the Lower East Side. When she logged into the app on Friday, a page came up that said, “No activity so far. We hope to see you soon!”

Still, she noted her son was already off the bus when she checked.

Indeed, officials’ claims of a full citywide rollout come with several big caveats.

First, the app only works if drivers sign up for the program – and currently about 25% of the city’s bus drivers aren’t signed up, according to officials. In the press release, officials advised caregivers whose kids’ drivers aren’t subscribed to contact the bus company and ask them to help.

An Education Department spokesperson said drivers are required to sign up and can be fined if they don’t. Use of the app was a part of the protracted contract negotiations with the city’s largest school bus drivers union that threatened to throw the school bus system into chaos last fall, the spokesperson added. While negotiations were underway, union drivers were instructed not to use the app, delaying the rollout, the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, the city’s largest school bus drivers union, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another obstacle for many families is that the app requires a New York City Schools Account, or NYCSA. Roughly a third of the city’s public school families weren’t linked to an account as of summer 2023. And for the tens of thousands of charter and private school students who also ride city school buses, signing up for a NYCSA is difficult or impossible, parents and advocates said.

A 2022 Education Department manual said private school students are “ineligible” for the accounts, and that charter school students can get one but have to go through a more onerous process.

Manhattan parent Naomi Peña said she lost access to her NYCSA when her son transferred to a private school because the Education Department couldn’t accommodate his learning disability. Her son still relies on city school buses, but she can’t access the new app.

“It’s incredibly frustrating,” she said. “When busing routes get switched … we are left scrambling waiting for the new bus driver or matron to call us.”

An Education Department spokesperson said the agency is working with individual charter and private schools to give families access to NYCSA logins.

The bus tracking app is also supposed to have a feature that allows school administrators to track the buses of their students.

The school bus tracking app is the Education Department’s second recent high-profile foray into developing software to support families. The agency recently released its own grades, attendance and messaging app, following a catastrophic hack of Skedula, a widely used online gradebook run by an outside vendor.

To allay concerns about privacy, officials said they will “share the minimum required data, will require highly secure logins for all users, and will perform data encryption and continuous security testing on the system.”

The Via app also isn’t the city’s first attempt to equip school buses with GPS. A City Council bill from 2019 required the Education Department to install location tracking technology in all city school buses by that September – a deadline council members said they didn’t meet.

And, of course, even if the new app works seamlessly and makes it into the hands of every parent, it won’t address the many other problems plaguing the sprawling school bus system, including frequent delays and no-shows, buses without air conditioning, and an ongoing shortage of drivers and bus attendants.

“It wouldn’t necessarily make the routes shorter,” said Sara Catalinotto a long-time transportation advocate and head of the group Parents to Improve School Transportation. “But at least people wouldn’t come out into the cold to wait.”

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

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

Eric Adams cuts $100 million from Education Department, despite partial reprieve

2024-01-17T00:12:06+00:00

A new round of budget cuts announced Tuesday won’t hit New York City schools as hard as Mayor Eric Adams initially outlined, but will still add up to more than $100 million for next fiscal year, including further cuts to early childhood education.

Adams said last fall that the Education Department, like other city agencies, would have to trim its budget by 5% of the city’s contribution in January, following a previous 5% cut in November.

But during Tuesday’s announcement of the preliminary budget, Adams said the city’s fiscal situation has significantly improved since last fall, thanks to higher-than projected revenues and lower-than-projected spending on supporting the influx of migrants and asylum seekers.

As a result, several city agencies including the Education Department got full or partial reprieves from this month’s 5% cut. New cuts to the Education Department totaled about 0.6%, according to budget officials.

Still, the Education Department will face more than $100 million in new cuts starting next fiscal year, on top of the $600 million in cuts announced in November.

The new cuts include $50 million from the city’s prekindergarten and 3-K programs. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio dramatically expanded the free program for the city’s 3-year-olds using an infusion of one-time federal pandemic aid, but 3-K struggled to fill the new seats. Adams already announced in November a $120 million cut to the early childhood education budget next year, and the new $50 million cut outlined Tuesday could involve eliminating unfilled seats, according to budget documents. Budget officials said Tuesday that about 30% of 3-K seats are unfilled.

Those reductions represent “the biggest cuts to early childhood in more than a generation,” said Gregory Brender, chief of policy and innovation at the Day Care Council of New York, an organization that represents roughly 200 child care centers and other programs. “When you look at the magnitude, it’s hard to not see it having a drastic effect on services for children and families.”

Brender acknowledged that some seats are unfilled, but argues the city should be doing much more to fill them, especially given the high cost of child care and the city’s broader affordability crisis that is driving some families away.

The new cuts also include $51 million in reduced spending on non-staff costs in some central offices, according to budget officials. They didn’t elaborate on what those cuts will entail.

Advocates have raised alarms that a smaller Education Department budget could affect a range of day-to-day services. Hundreds of fewer staff on hand could mean it will “take longer for immigrant students to get a school placement, for students who are homeless to get a bus route, and for students with disabilities to get services,” Kim Sweet, executive director at Advocates for Children, said in a statement.

Additionally, though the city’s Education Department is expecting to chip in $80 million to run Summer Rising — which had largely been funded through federal COVID relief dollars — the popular program will still see a big cut. The Education Department runs the morning instruction while the Department of Youth and Community Development oversees the afternoon enrichment, which is run by community based organizations. The city is calling for a $20 million cut from DYCD’s budget for the program.

Aside from Summer Rising, the preliminary budget offers no other commitments to use city money to replace expiring federal pandemic aid – leaving the fate of hundreds of social workers, staffers supporting homeless students, and other programs up in the air.

“At a time when we have a youth mental health crisis, record-high student homelessness, systemic violations of the rights of students with disabilities, and an increase in newly arrived immigrant students enrolling in our schools, we cannot afford to roll back these important programs,” Sweet said.

Overall cuts to Education Department less than expected

Adams attributed the rosier fiscal picture to “responsible and effective management,” including previous cuts that helped balance the budget as well as the city’s new policy limiting shelter stays for migrant adults and families. That directive, which forces people staying in shelters to either reapply for space in a different shelter or find an alternate housing arrangement, has slowed the pace of migrants entering the shelter system, Adams said.

In the days leading up to Tuesday’s preliminary budget release, Adams had reversed several of the cuts announced in November, including a $10 million cut to community schools, citing the improving fiscal conditions.

But critics have contended that the budget situation was never as bleak as Adams claimed, and have accused the mayor of implementing unnecessarily draconian cuts to ramp up the pressure on the state and federal governments to increase aid to the city.

“Setting your house on fire and then putting it out doesn’t make you a hero,” Ana Maria Archila and Jasmine Gripper, co-directors of the New York Working Families Party, said in a statement.

Adams’ preliminary budget announcement came the same day that Gov. Kathy Hochul released her own budget plan, which includes $2.4 billion in aid to the city to provide housing and other basic services to migrants.

Adams said the city is still reviewing Hochul’s budget. He floated the possibility of canceling another round of budget cuts that’s supposed to come in April if aid from the state is sufficient.

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

Recipe to help school budgets? NYC considers chopping bake sale restrictions

2024-01-12T22:53:40+00:00

Bring back the bake sales!

That’s one idea New York City education officials are weighing to help schools make up for the impact of steep budget cuts, according to a recent letter from Deputy Chancellor Kenita Lloyd to principals.

Education Department officials are considering relaxing a more-than-decade-old rule that restricts what food can be sold on school grounds and limits PTA bake sales with unapproved foods to once a month — a rule originally intended to cut access to unhealthy foods.

Waiving the rule would give schools “greater flexibility to conduct fundraising activities more frequently, thereby offering a vital resource in these financially stringent times,” Lloyd’s message said.

Parent leaders came to Education Department officials with the idea of relaxing the bake sale rules during an October meeting of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee.

Randi Garay, a Brooklyn parent and member of the advisory committee, noted that schools were previously issued a waiver from the fundraising rules to raise money for humanitarian relief in Haiti.

“Due to the budget cuts…our schools are now in crisis,” she said. “Parent associations and parent teacher associations would like to step up.”

But the Thursday letter from Lloyd left a sour taste in the mouths of some principals.

“I did a little math,” said one Manhattan principal who spoke on the condition of anonymity. With budget cuts projected to exceed $2 billion by spring, the principal estimated, each of the city’s roughly 1,600 public schools would have to raise more than $1.3 million to offset them.

“This is a real ‘let them eat cupcakes’ kind of moment,” the principal said.

“It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, frankly,” added a Brooklyn principal.

Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said, “We value the health and nutrition of our students, while welcoming the diverse perspectives of our families.” The agency is gathering feedback from principals, but no final decision has been made on if or how the rules will change, she said.

Like anything that involves PTAs, the proposal raises equity questions. Parent groups across the city’s segregated school system have wildly varying fundraising capacities, with some raising over $1,000 per student and others reporting no revenue.

“If each school is left to their own devices, the financially privileged districts continue to leverage their PTAs to bring them more,” said a third principal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Elton Dodson, PTA president at P.S. 295 in Brooklyn, said his school would likely take advantage of the additional freedom to offer more bake sales.

“A penny here, a penny there is better than nothing,” he said.

But his school community has parents with the time and resources to coordinate, stock, and staff the bake sales, and customers with enough disposable income to spend freely on the tasty treats – an advantage he acknowledged other schools may not have.

An Education Department spokesperson countered, however, that some parents suggested “that more flexibility would help schools that have historically struggled to fundraise.”

Reconsidering a longstanding rule

The bake sale regulation that Education Department officials are considering waiving dates back to 2009 — part of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s public health push to limit the availability of unhealthy foods and beverages.

The rule, which generated a healthy dose of controversy when it was introduced, limited what foods could be sold on school grounds to a pre-approved list, cutting out homemade goods like cupcakes and brownies.

Some parents and City Council members argued at the time that bake sales were a useful fundraising tool amid a previous round of budget cuts.

An amendment to the regulation issued in 2010 extended the hours that students could sell pre-approved snacks, and allowed PTAs to have one fundraiser a month with non-approved foods. Money raised by PTAs can fund school supplies, extracurricular activities, and the salaries of “supplemental” staff but can’t pay the salaries of teachers in core academic subjects.

Now, officials say they want to further relax the bake sale rules and are soliciting feedback from school leaders.

“As we navigate the challenges the possible upcoming budget constraints, it’s heartening to witness the proactive and innovative approaches our parent leaders are adopting,” Lloyd wrote. “In line with these efforts, we are currently considering an important initiative that could provide additional support to our school communities.”

Repealing rules that were meant to cut down on unhealthy foods in schools would be a curious turn for the administration of the famously health-conscious Mayor Eric Adams, who has touted his efforts to introduce vegan foods into school cafeterias.

Elena Tate, a Brooklyn parent and elementary school PTA president, said offering a few more bake sales would likely help the school’s bottom line. But she said that the concerns about limiting sugary foods that propelled the initial restrictions are still present for many parents.

“Some people do want to keep them to once a month or get rid of them” for health reasons, Tate said.

Adams announced roughly $550 million in budget cuts to the Education Department in November, and additional cuts are expected in January and later in the spring, reaching a potential total of more than $2 billion, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute. The city also reinstated a policy of clawing back money midyear from schools with enrollment shortfalls.

For schools like Dodson’s, those cuts have had real impacts. The school almost lost its music program – until the PTA ponied up $70,000 to save it, he said.

“We shouldn’t have to have three extra bake sales a month to fund our music program,” he said. “That being said … if this is what we have to do, this is what we have to do.”

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

Eric Adams reverses cuts to community schools program, finds city funds for Summer Rising

2024-01-12T18:42:40+00:00

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New York City is backing down from millions in proposed funding cuts for its community schools program, while committing more permanent funding to Summer Rising, Mayor Eric Adams said Friday.

The announcement reverses a fraction of the steep cuts Adams ordered in the fall, as he blamed the city’s bleak financial picture largely on the ongoing influx of asylum seekers and other migrants — an assessment other elected officials have pushed back on.

At the time, Adams directed the city’s Education Department to slash nearly $550 million from its budget, with more cuts anticipated this month and in the spring.

The November cuts included about $10 million from community schools that support families with out-of-school needs. Separately, nearly $20 million for Summer Rising — a pandemic-era, free summer school program that served roughly 110,000 students last year — was cut from the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development budget, which jointly runs the program.

Both programs had been largely propped up by federal COVID relief funds.

Though officials referred to the investments in both programs as “restorations” on Friday, only community schools will see a reversal of the November budget cuts. The $20 million cut from the DYCD budget still remains in place, officials clarified after the announcement.

For Summer Rising, though, the Education Department will now use city funds to cover its roughly $80 million portion of the program’s tab, which had previously been supported by federal stimulus dollars. In past years, the program cost about $350 million to operate, according to estimates at the time.

Officials previously said the November cuts would mean reduced hours and no Friday programs for some middle-schoolers. Asked during the press conference whether the announcement meant a reversal of those potential reductions, schools Chancellor David Banks said, “That is certainly our expectation,” though added they were “still engaged in the planning process.”

Education Department officials later clarified they were “working towards trying to restore that.”

Adams said the $80 million in Summer Rising funding, as well as restorations to roughly 170 community schools, came thanks to “strong fiscal management.”

“We want to be extremely, extremely clear: We know it takes an entire city to raise a child,” Adams said. “Through community schools and the Summer Rising program, we’re giving our young people a chance to learn and grow.”

But despite the restoration to community schools, the bulk of the cuts to the city’s Education Department will remain.

Adams’ cuts to education funding have garnered fierce pushback, including a lawsuit by the city’s teachers union, which referred to them as “draconian.”

In a statement Friday, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew called the mayor’s decision to reverse some of the cuts “a step in the right direction.”

“Now, the city needs to walk back the other proposed education cuts,” he said.

Budget analysts have previously said the cuts are greater than the expected costs to serve asylum seekers, and an analysis by Comptroller Brad Lander found the city collected nearly $8 billion more in revenue last fiscal year than anticipated.

Scores of educators also flocked to public hearings on mayoral control in recent weeks to decry the cuts to education, citing them as evidence against the city’s school governance structure and urging state officials to revise or overturn it.

On Friday, Banks credited the funding changes to what he called “mayoral accountability,” a term frequently used by supporters of the current school governance structure — arguing again that the city should retain its system.

The Friday announcement — first reported by the New York Daily News — follows a reversal of other budget cuts in recent days, including to the NYPD, FDNY, and the Sanitation Department.

The city’s schools still face steep budget cuts and looming fiscal challenges. Since the start of the pandemic, the federal government has provided the Education Department with about $7.7 billion in one-time pandemic aid — but those funds will dry up in September.

Adams, who is expected to unveil his preliminary budget on Tuesday, was careful to temper expectations.

“We do not want it to be taken as a signal that the city is out of the woods,” he said. “We are not.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Correction: This story initially said the potential reduction in Summer Rising hours for some middle-schoolers would no longer be necessary, and that the November budget cuts to the program had been restored. City officials clarified after the press conference that the cuts remained in place and hours could still be reduced.

Thousands of NYC school staffers aren’t enrolled in a pension. A new law could change that.

2023-12-13T21:35:58+00:00

A quirk in New York City’s pension system has for years kept tens of thousands of the city’s lowest-paid employees from reaping the benefits of a city-subsidized retirement, according to pension fund and union officials.

New York City’s Board of Education Retirement System, or BERS, which covers school crossing guards, cafeteria workers, aides, parent coordinators, and other non-teaching school staff, stands alone among the city’s five pension funds in not automatically enrolling eligible members in a pension plan.

Many workers don’t know they have the option of signing up for a pension, or simply assume they were automatically enrolled, said Sanford Rich, the executive director of BERS. As a result, roughly 35,000 employees eligible for a pension are not enrolled, according to BERS data.

But new legislation signed over the weekend by Gov. Kathy Hochul is poised to change that system.

The law, sponsored by Queens Assemblywoman Stacy Pfeffer Amato, D-Queens, and Sen. Robert Jackson, D-Manhattan, will make enrollment in the BERS pension system “opt-out,” rather than “opt-in,” for the first time.

“I personally believe this corrects an injustice in the city,” Rich said.

Rich said he’s had to break the news to city workers who retired after decades of service and thought they were on track to receive pension benefits that “‘you never joined, you don’t have a retirement package, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’”

One woman was so distraught that he had to sit with her for hours so she could work up the courage to go home and tell her husband, he said.

But starting July 1 of next year, under the new law, all of the eligible but unenrolled members will be signed up automatically for a pension plan. They’ll have 90 days to opt out. If they hadn’t previously been paying into the pension, they have the option of purchasing previous years of service by paying greater installments.

Officials at DC37 Local 372, the union representing the affected workers, have pushed for years for state legislation to make enrollment in the Board of Education Retirement System automatic and bring it in line with the city’s other pension funds. But previous legislative efforts were met with vetoes from the governor, including one from Hochul in 2022.

A tragedy this year that sparked a new wave of advocacy may have helped turn the tide.

In October, Krystyna Naprawa, a beloved elementary school crossing guard, was struck and killed by a truck while on the job in Queens. The tragedy drew the attention of officials across the city, including Mayor Eric Adams, who called Naprawa “the best of us,” and delivered a eulogy at her funeral.

After Naprawa’s death, her son Tomasz Naprawa, a Port Authority police officer, went to collect the pension he assumed she’d been paying into, only to discover she wasn’t enrolled.

Tomasz Naprawa said it’s extremely unlikely his mom would have knowingly opted out of a pension, especially since she was planning to retire in her native Poland.

“I was like, ‘Wow, that’s crazy,’” he recalled of the discovery that she wasn’t enrolled. “I honestly thought it was automatic.”

Tomasz Naprawa worked with officials at DC37 to bring renewed attention to the pension loophole and legislation to close it.

At Krystyna Naprawa’s funeral, Adams publicly committed to “sit down with the leaders of the Senate and Assembly to see how we can resolve” the pension issue.

But the battle didn’t end there. According to union officials, Adams administration officials initially objected to the bill on financial grounds. City officials say they’re facing a grim fiscal situation and have enacted cuts across all agencies – cuts DC37 recently filed a lawsuit to try to halt. An Adams spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The city will likely have to chip in between $17 million and $22 million extra a year in employer contributions for the new enrollees, according to an analysis by the chief actuary of the city’s pension funds.

When the legislation stalled in the governor’s office, Tomasz Naprawa and union officials renewed their push. Naprawa penned a Nov. 15 letter to Adams urging him to follow through on his commitment and support the bill.

The years of advocacy finally paid off last weekend. Adams administration officials rescinded their objection, and Hochul signed the bill on Dec. 8, union officials said.

“This was long overdue,” said DC37 Local 372 President Shaun Francois in a statement. “Persistence” overcame the “resistance,” he added.

The change is too late to benefit Tomasz Naprawa, but he thinks his mom would’ve been happy to know the advocacy she helped inspire will improve the lives of her colleagues.

“Me and my sister are getting none of these benefits … but going forward it’s nice to know if there’s another tragedy five,10,15 years from now that family will reap all the benefits they’re entitled to,” he said. “I think she’s looking down on us and she’s happy.”

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

Eric Adams’ budget cuts hamper NYC’s compliance with special education court order

2023-12-13T18:23:59+00:00

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Facing budget cuts and a hiring freeze, New York City’s Education Department has failed to fully comply with a federal court order meant to address longstanding delays in providing services to children with disabilities, according to court documents released this month.

And a court-appointed monitor is urging City Council, Mayor Eric Adams, and other education officials to find “near-term/interim emergency funding” to meet the order’s requirements.

At a hearing in July, a federal judge ordered the Education Department to begin implementing 40 different reforms to more quickly provide special education services — such as speech therapy or payments to families for private school — to families who won them through an administrative legal process.

In an unusual show of support for a court order targeting his own agency, schools Chancellor David Banks personally attended the summer hearing, shaking U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska’s hand and posing for photographs. He issued a statement declaring that “change is long overdue,” earning praise from advocates who note the Education Department has not complied with orders for services on time in more than 90% of cases.

But out of 16 reforms the Education Department was required to make by mid-November to speed up that process, only nine were fully implemented, according to the first progress report from David Irwin of Thru Consulting LLC, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the city’s compliance with the order, known in legal jargon as a “special master.” (The 40 reforms mandated by the court order have deadlines that range from three months to over a year. The special master is expected to file a progress report every four months.)

The Education Department has “shown a significant commitment and effort” to implement the requirements, Irwin wrote, noting that “most” of the outstanding items due in November should be completed by the end of 2023.

Compliance with the order’s upcoming requirements in doubt

But a hiring freeze and budget reductions ordered by City Hall are impeding progress on key elements of the court order, specifically hiring staff and overhauling severely outdated technology systems, Irwin’s report notes. At least five of the 10 changes due in January are not likely to be completed on time, he wrote.

“Each day that passes, thousands of our most vulnerable children are not getting services they need when more steps could be taken,” Irwin wrote.

The office responsible for implementing special education orders relies on handwritten forms, paper-based invoices, and other laborious data-entry practices, a previous report found. Its staff are also overwhelmed, as the number of cases moving through the special education complaint process has exploded in recent years.

The court order was meant to give the Education Department a roadmap for improving its systems, hiring staff, and even launching a helpline for families to get status updates on their cases — goals that may be thrown off course if the department is unable to bring in new employees or win approval for budget requests.

Rebecca Shore, the litigation director of Advocates for Children, which brought a class action lawsuit that led to the court order this summer, said the Education Department has been making efforts to comply. But failing to implement elements of the order is unacceptable, she said.

“The budget constraints the city is announcing should not impact their compliance,” Shore said. Asked if her organization is planning to go back to court to enforce the order, Shore said her team is “discussing our options.”

Spokespeople for Adams and Banks did not answer questions about whether they will allocate needed funding or staff to comply with the court order.

“We continue to work collaboratively and intensively with the Special Master as we move forward,” City Hall spokesperson Amaris Cockfield wrote in an email. Preska, the federal judge presiding over the case, declined to comment.

Order stems from lawsuit filed in 2003

The federal court order stems from two decades of litigation over the Education Department’s failure to swiftly provide special education services or reimbursements. When a family believes their child is not getting the right special education services, they have a right to file a complaint that is heard by an administrative judge known as an impartial hearing officer.

That officer can order a range of solutions, from additional speech or occupational therapy to private school tuition payments if a family can show their child cannot be adequately served in a public school.

Under a 2007 legal settlement, the city is supposed to implement hearing officers’ orders by providing the required payments or special education services within 35 days, unless the officer lays out a different timeline. But the Education Department blows the deadline in the vast majority of cases, often taking months longer.

For orders with due dates between August and November 2022, the Education Department implemented 8.6% of orders for special education services on time and 3% of orders for payments, according to a recent audit released as a result of the 2007 settlement. (Those figures cover a period before the federal court order this summer; more recent figures were not yet publicly available.) The city has paid more than $25 million for the audits and another $912,000 for Irwin’s services as special master as of June.

John Farago, an impartial hearing officer since 1980 and an emeritus professor at CUNY Law School, said he has seen little difference in the speed with which the Education Department implements his orders since the summer.

Irwin’s report “just documents that not only is the district not implementing my cases on time, it’s not implementing the federal court’s order either” he wrote in an email. “It’s a deeply disheartening spiral.”

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

Eric Adams axes $547 million from NYC Education Department budget, more cuts on the way

2023-11-16T22:35:09+00:00

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New York City’s Education Department will cut nearly $550 million from its budget this year as part of a sweeping round of citywide reductions ordered by Mayor Eric Adams.

Many of the cuts are expected to take effect immediately. They will touch a wide range of programs and positions that directly affect students, from the city’s massive free preschool program, to community schools that support families with out-of-school needs, to the popular pandemic-era Summer Rising program.

A big chunk of this year’s savings will come through a hiring slowdown and the elimination of 432 vacant non-classroom positions, which officials said on Thursday will lead to a combined $157 million in savings.

Budget officials didn’t specify which roles would be eliminated but emphasized cuts to central offices and other roles that support schools. A hiring freeze has been in place since earlier this fall, but has not applied to teaching positions. Education Department officials didn’t immediately say whether the agency would continue to spare teaching positions from the freeze.

A mandate to rein in spending on “supplemental pay for administrative staff” is expected to save another $86 million this year, but officials didn’t immediately provide details on what that means.

In September, Adams directed all city agencies to find cuts equal to at least 5% of the city’s contribution to their annual budgets by November, in response to what he described as unsustainable levels of spending on the ongoing influx of asylum seekers. Additional cuts of 5% are expected in January and again in spring 2024.

In all, that means the Education Department could face up to $2.1 billion in cuts. The department’s overall budget is roughly $37.5 billion this school year.

Starting next fiscal year, the department will cut $120 million from the Universal Pre-K program, which enrolled about 100,000 3- and 4-year-old this year and is the signature legacy of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. The program has been beset by payment delays to child care operators and enrollment declines during the pandemic.

Officials said they’re reducing the size of the program because there are about 37,000 vacant seats, but did not specify how many of those slots they plan to eliminate.

“While we don’t know many details yet, there is no way a cut this large would not hurt the services available to children and families,” said Gregory Brender, the chief of policy and innovation at the Day Care Council of New York, a membership organization of child care providers.

A range of longstanding programs with a direct presence in schools are also facing small cuts.

An initiative to expand the teaching of computer science is losing $3.5 million this year, while the budget for community schools will be cut by $10 million this year. Community schools were another major educational priority of de Blasio’s administration, and have continued to grow under Adams.

Separately, nearly $20 million in funding for Summer Rising, the pandemic-era free summer school program that served roughly 110,000 students last year, is being slashed from the budget of the city’s Youth and Community Development Department, which jointly operates the program with the Education Department. The cuts will mean reduced hours and no Friday programs for some middle-schoolers, officials said.

The program has proved immensely popular with families and had about 45,000 more applicants than slots last year.

“For months, we have warned New Yorkers about the challenging fiscal situation our city faces,” Adams said in a Thursday statement. “To balance the budget as the law requires, every city agency dug into their own budget to find savings, with minimal disruption to services. And while we pulled it off this time, make no mistake: Migrant costs are going up, tax revenue growth is slowing, and COVID stimulus funding is drying up.”

Budget analysts have pointed out that the cuts ordered by Adams are far greater than the expected costs of serving the asylum seekers. The city also collected nearly $8 billion more in revenue last fiscal year than anticipated, according to a recent analysis from Comptroller Brad Lander.

Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, called the cuts “unnecessary” and “driven by City Hall’s false political narrative that New York City is about to fall off a fiscal cliff.”

“Revenues are higher than expected, investment from Albany is up, and reserves are at a near-record high,” he added.

Other groups warned that the city’s hiring and budget freeze is already affecting services for vulnerable children, and that further cuts could threaten their legal rights.

Advocates for Children, a nonprofit group, said the city has been unable to hire 15 additional staffers to help families living in shelters navigate the education system, an urgent concern given the influx of migrant families.

The organization also said short staffing appeared to be causing delays in providing preschool special education evaluations and services in the Bronx.

“We are particularly concerned that these budget plans will result in even more egregious violations of the rights of students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and students in temporary housing or foster care,” Advocates for Children executive director Kim Sweet said in a statement.

More cuts ahead for NYC schools

The city-directed budget cuts are part of a perfect storm of fiscal trouble facing city schools.

About $7.7 billion in one-time pandemic aid from the federal government has padded the Education Department’s budget in recent years and funded critical initiatives, including expanded preschool and summer enrichment programs. That money will dry up next September, and the looming expiration of that aid has already prompted some painful cuts.

For the first time in four years, the Education Department clawed back money this week from schools where enrollment numbers fell short of projections.

Because enrollment went up overall across the city, the majority of schools didn’t have to return money, and instead got extra funding because of higher-than projected enrollment. But there were still more than 650 schools that saw a total of $109 million in midyear cuts, according to a United Federation of Teachers analysis.

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

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

NYC launches free online therapy for teens

2023-11-15T23:58:01+00:00

New York City teens now have access to free online therapy through a city program that launched Wednesday, officials said.

City teens, ages 13-17, can text, call, or video chat with licensed therapists through the online platform Talkspace without providing payment, insurance information, or referrals, officials said.

The teen telehealth initiative, which Mayor Eric Adams has billed as the largest of its kind in the country, was months in the making. The idea was first announced in March as part of the city’s blueprint for addressing a surge in mental health challenges since the pandemic started.

Among the sobering statistics officials pointed to: The share of city students who reported suicidal ideation jumped to nearly 16% from about 12% over the past decade. About 9% of city high school students reported they attempted suicide during 2021, according to a Health Department survey.

“There’s something that has happened to the COVID babies and the COVID children that we are not going to ignore,” Adams said at a press conference Wednesday announcing the launch of the program.

“Our young people are on their telephone, they use the internet, they use social media,” he continued. “We have to really find ways of turning that device into a positive instead of trying to push back on the natural flow of how young people utilize their social media platforms.”

The contract with Talkspace will cost the city an estimated $26 million, Politico first reported.

Teens can register for the program, called NYC Teenspace, as of Wednesday. The sign-up page asks students for a birthday and address before going through a series of questions about their current mental health. Parental consent is required, according to the platform’s creators.

Besides talking with licensed therapists by text, phone, or video chat, students can also take self-guided courses. Texting is unlimited, but live sessions are limited to once a month, according to the company. A Health Department spokesperson said kids will see the same therapist for each session.

For kids in acute crisis, Teenspace providers will refer them to psychiatric care or an in–person counselor, officials said.

Talkspace CEO Jon Cohen said texting has been particularly helpful.

“We have learned that when people face something stressful, messaging is a powerful tool at their fingertips,” he said.

Virtual therapy has become a popular tool at many educational institutions, but city officials have acknowledged that the evidence base for the practice is still thin.

City Health Department Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, who came up with the idea for the initiative, said he hopes it will evolve based on feedback from teens.

“I just want to talk to the young people for a moment,” he said during Wednesday’s press conference. “Your voice will help guide and shape this resource. If you use it, and you like it, tell your friends. If you use it, and you don’t like it, tell us. We’ll fix it.”

Dr. Jessica Chock-Goldman, a school social worker at Bard High School Early College in Manhattan, said there’s a severe shortage of therapists for city teens, especially those from low-income families without private health insurance. Any effort to expand access is a good idea, she said. But she noted that this service “can’t replace regular therapy,” given the infrequency of the video sessions.

Before she starts referring students, she wants more information, including how many of the therapists are Black and Latino.

Cohen said approximately 35% of Talkspace providers who will work with New York City students identify as BIPOC. Roughly 84% of New York City’s students are Black, Latino, Asian-American, Native American, or multiracial.

The Health Department didn’t provide a specific goal for how many students the agency hopes will participate. “We aim to provide services to as many teens as possible across the city,” a spokesperson said.

Officials from the health and education departments said schools will receive materials to help publicize the initiative.

Chock-Goldman said she heard about the program for the first time Wednesday through the Education Department’s Instagram page.

“It’s great to have resources, but we just need new details about the new resources,” she said.

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

City will send migrant families to flood-prone, far-off tents

2023-10-17T00:44:36+00:00

This article is part of an ongoing collaboration between Chalkbeat and THE CITY.

Mayor Eric Adams announced two striking policy shifts for migrant families with children on Monday afternoon, in his latest attempt to get people to leave city shelters and discourage new arrivals from coming into them.

City Hall said it would begin distributing notices to families with children telling them they had to leave and reapply for shelter after 60 days, while families with children entering the system would be sent to a cavernous tent shelter at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn when it opens in the coming weeks. Until now, migrant families with children have been placed in individual hotel rooms spread out across the city.

Removed from the nearby neighborhoods of Marine Park and Flatlands, the flood-prone and marshy Floyd Bennett Field, a former airfield, is about a five-mile trip from the nearest schools.

In a press release, the administration called the forthcoming facility there a “semi-congregate setting,” saying that “privacy dividers with locks will be installed to provide approximately 500 families with children a place to stay.”

Other than as a brief emergency measure after Hurricane Sandy, the city hasn’t placed families with children in congregate settings since the 1980s, according to Josh Goldfein with the Legal Aid Society, a practice they fought to ban because of the dangers children face in such settings, like their vulnerability to sexual abuse.

While the city said that the notices would go out to migrant families, it would need state permission to send those to people who are currently staying in shelters overseen by the Department of Homeless Services.

The city would need a state waiver in order to dole those notices shelters overseen by the Department of Homeless Services, which is where the majority of migrant families reside. City Hall Spokesperson Charles Lutvak said they were working closely with state agencies but declined to say if the city had been granted such a waiver.

The new plan comes as the Adams administration has gone to court to try and suspend the city’s decades-old right to shelter for adults.

The Coalition for the Homeless and the Legal Aid Society slammed the city’s new plans.

“To be denied safe shelter after 60 days is devoid of any humanity and is a stain on our city’s long-standing reputation as a welcoming home for all,” said Redmond Haskins, a spokesperson for the two groups. “Private rooms, not open cubicles, are needed to ensure the safety of families with children and to reduce the transmission of infectious disease, among other obvious reasons.”

Haskins said they would consider seeking an injunction if the announcement violated a 2008 consent decree which dictates the rights families have in shelters, or other local regulations.

Sending families to the Floyd Bennett tent when it opens is “the best of bad options,” said an administration source not authorized to speak to reporters.

“The alternative may be people genuinely sleeping on the sidewalk,” the source said.

Unhappy New Year?

Adams’ announcement comes a month and a half into the new school year, with around 26,000 migrant students enrolled in public schools, who may have to move into shelters far from where they are enrolled. Depending on when the city begins distributing 60-day notices to families, they’re likely to begin expiring in the final week of the year.

While the city said the eviction notes would be accompanied by “multiple touchpoints with case workers over their 60 days to discuss their options and plan their next steps,” the news weighed heavily on some who learned about it through THE CITY.

Venezuelan migrant Jose Meneses, 35, said his 11-year-old daughter was finally adjusting to her new school a short walk from their shelter in Sheepshead Bay.

“It would be so traumatic for the kids, they just started to study,” he said in Spanish. “We left our country, the whole journey, and she’s just newly starting to integrate. It would be a huge trauma.”

It’s a terrible decision for parents to make mid-year, said Franklin Headley, the principal of VOICE Charter School in Long Island City where nearly 300 migrants are enrolled.

“Children build relationships with teachers and peers,” he said. “That’s going to be a hard decision for the families: do they interrupt the year and those relationships, or do they have to figure out a…form of transportation for their child?”

Jennifer Pringle, project director at Advocates for Children, a group that advocates for the city’s most vulnerable students, said trying to coordinate school buses for homeless families after they’re moved to a different shelter has historically proven a lengthy and complicated process.

“Now on top of that you’re going to have the additional chaos of having families reapply for shelter placement every 60 days,” she said. “It’s going to be very destabilizing.”

‘The only way to help’

While the city had taken various steps to force adult migrants to leave city shelters — moving them from hotel rooms with beds to vacant gyms, office spaces, tents, and warehouses with cots, and later reducing the amount of time they could stay in any one placement to 30 days before they have to return to the arrival center and apply for a new placement — it had until now refrained from deploying those tactics on families with kids.

Despite that, such families account for about 75% of the 63,015 migrants in shelters, according to data provided by the administration to the City Council last month, with 13,553 families living in 161 hotels across the five boroughs.

The state’s Office of Temporary Disability Administration, or OTDA, which oversees traditional Department of Homeless Services shelters, had thus far denied the city’s request to allow the city to issue 60-day notices at facilities it oversees. The majority of migrant families — 8,143 of 13,553 — were in facilities overseen by DHS, and thus would be spared from 60-day notices without further movement from OTDA. The office didn’t return multiple requests for comment over several days.

The 60-day notices will certainly target the roughly 4,200 families staying in so-called Humanitarian Resource and Relief Centers, or HERRCS, overseen by the city’s Health and Hospitals system, which are not overseen by OTDA. The city started opening up this new type of family shelter last October, starting in large midtown hotels including the Row, the Stewart, the Watson and the Roosevelt.

THE CITY reported last month that administration officials were mulling imposing 60-day deadlines on families with children, and the Daily News reported on Friday that the new rule was going to be announced imminently.

“For over a year, New York City has led the response to this national crisis, but significant additional resources, coordination, and support are needed from all levels of government,” Adams said in a statement. “With over 64,100 asylum seekers still in the city’s care, and thousands more migrants arriving every week, expanding this policy to all asylum seekers in our care is the only way to help migrants take the next steps on their journeys.”

Gwynne Hogan covers Brooklyn for THE CITY.

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

After flubbing flood response, NYC education officials send guidance for a drizzle

2023-10-06T17:52:53+00:00

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After New York City’s Education Department flubbed its response to last week’s historic flooding, the agency appears to be on a course correction — and possibly overcompensating for its recent errors.

In advance of about a quarter-inch to an inch of rain expected Friday, officials sent two emails to principals with detailed guidance on how to respond.

“Our expectation is that this rain will not substantially disrupt the regular school day,” a Thursday night email stated, “but we want to be prepared for any potential impact in our most flood prone schools and on afterschool or weekend programming across the city.”

They sent no such information to principals last week before six inches of rain inundated some parts of the city.

Officials sent a second email Friday afternoon with a “brief weather update” for the weekend, and letting principals know they had discretion on how to handle school-based activities since there would be no system-wide decision.

Schools Chancellor David Banks this week admitted there was communication breakdown in how the city handled its response as floodwaters rose. He promised an investigation into what went wrong.

Banks and Mayor Eric Adams mentioned during a storm-related press conference that schools should shelter in place. But that message was never directly communicated to schools, several principals told Chalkbeat.

Banks promised earlier this week: “We can do better, and I think we will certainly be working to do better next time.”

Mayor Eric Adams also posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the city was preparing for heavy rains Friday night and into Saturday.

New Yorkers: periods of heavy rain and potential flooding are forecast late tonight into tomorrow.

We've activated the City's Flash Flood Emergency Plan, proactively staging resources and teams.

You can do your part: https://t.co/bRysa5CObE pic.twitter.com/73nBOjFeiN
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) October 6, 2023

Some principals thought the email sent to school leaders on Thursday night was overkill, much like when a new mayor, after bungling his first blizzard, reacts to a forecast of snow flurries by salting the roads in advance.

Below is the Thursday night letter that went out to principals.

From: Chief Operating Officer <ChiefOperatingOfficer@schools.nyc.gov>

Sent: Thursday, October 5, 2023 11:05 PM

Subject: < Please Read> Weather Update for October 6 and 7

Dear Principals,

We are writing to share some important information regarding the weather over the next two days.

The National Weather Service has reported that New York City will experience two weather systems that will affect the area with periods of heavy rain and potential flash flooding Friday morning through Saturday evening; at this point, roughly 0.25-1 inches of rain is expected.

Our expectation is that this rain will not substantially disrupt the regular school day, but we want to be prepared for any potential impact in our most flood prone schools and on afterschool or weekend programming across the city. Some guidance is below:

Facilities: School buildings that are prone to flooding/power outages have been identified and will be contacted by the Division of School Facilities; Custodial Engineers (CEs) will receive guidance about the management and sustainability of the building should issues arise. Please connect with your Director of School Facilities (DDF) and your CE about the status of your building. If your building experiences flooding, power outages, or other disruptions to the operations, your DDF, CE, or designated member of your school community can reach out to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at eoc@schools.nyc.govto report the issue. The EOC will contact NYCPS operations and other partner agencies to rectify the issue.
Transportation: While heavy rain may lead to delays, yellow buses are expected to run as usual. Please work with your transportation coordinators on any yellow bus stop changes or changes to drop off and pick up areas. For the latest updates on public transportation, usehttps://new.MTA.info.
Pickup: In anticipation of parents being delayed due to the weather, encourage your teachers to maintain open lines of communication with parents. Teachers should have emergency contact lists for all of their students. Please designate and assign adult staff to an indoor area where students can wait safely if their parents are late for pick-up.
Afterschool and weekend programming: At this point, we are not making any systemwide decisions about afterschool or weekend programming; decisions about whether programming should continue should be made at the site level. We expect outdoor activities will need to be moved indoors.
Building Response Team/General Response Protocols: As noted above, work with your CE to assess building conditions; if necessary, activate your Building Response Team, and invoke the appropriate General Response Protocol.

Feel free to use this information to communicate with your school communities, and please continue to monitor your email for any updates – if circumstances change, we will follow up with another email update tomorrow. As always, please keep your superintendent informed of challenges or needs your school may face during adverse weather conditions.

The safety and well-being of students and staff is essential during inclement weather. We thank you in advance for being proactive, prepared, and flexible in responding to challenging weather conditions, and for everything you do to support your school communities.

Thank you,

Emma Vadehra

Chief Operating Officer/Deputy Chancellor for Operations and Finance

Danika Rux, Ed.D.

Deputy Chancellor for School Leadership

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

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

‘We can do better’: NYC schools chief acknowledges flawed communication in response to flooding

2023-10-03T19:42:51+00:00

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New York City botched its communication to schools in response to last week’s record rainfall, Chancellor David Banks acknowledged on Tuesday. He vowed to conduct a review of what went wrong.

Hours after the school day began last Friday, Mayor Eric Adams and Banks said during a press conference about the storm that schools should shelter in place, which typically means that no one is allowed to enter or exit campuses. The Education Department issued the same directive soon after on social media.

But that order was never directly communicated to school principals, Chalkbeat reported on Monday. The communication breakdown created confusion about which procedures campus leaders should have been following in the middle of an emergency.

Banks issued a mea culpa during a Tuesday press conference when asked about the lack of communication.

“This incident does suggest to us that we needed to have a clearer level of communication all the way through,” he said, adding that schools ultimately kept children safe during the storm. “We can do better, and I think we will certainly be working to do better next time.”

The chancellor also suggested that the Education Department never intended to issue a typical shelter-in-place order in the first place. “What we’re trying to say to everybody was: ‘Stay where you are. Don’t send kids out to the streets.’”

A shelter-in-place order was the “closest thing our policies have for taking refuge in buildings,” but that approach is “ill-fitting to last week’s circumstances,” Banks said in a written statement after the press conference.

Ten school administrators told Chalkbeat that they did not enforce the shelter-in-place order largely because they weren’t aware it existed. The first official communication about it came in a 1:56 p.m. email that day to school leaders notifying them that the order had been lifted.

With many parents rushing to schools to pick up their children before the school day was over, enforcing a systemwide shelter-in-place order would have created “a level of chaos” because parents would not have been allowed to do so, Banks told reporters.

The Education Department is conducting a review of what happened “to identify policies and protocols that must be updated to account for increasingly frequent events like Friday’s rain or the air quality emergency this summer,” according to Banks’ statement.

A department spokesperson did not respond to questions about the timeline for completing that review or whether it will be made public.

The chancellor’s comments represented a departure from the Education Department’s position just a day earlier.

On Monday evening, a department spokesperson did not acknowledge any errors in communication and pointed to the mayor’s Friday press conference and subsequent social media posts as sufficient notice to schools about the shelter-in-place order.

Adams has faced intense criticism for not directly addressing the public about the storm until after some neighborhoods had already flooded, though he has largely avoided any acknowledgement that the city’s response was inadequate. Adams also deflected blame for the unclear communication to schools, implying that he hadn’t used the words “shelter in place” on Friday — even though he was the first official to publicly use the phrase. He also said that “the chancellor made a determination of what should be done.”

One Queens assistant principal said they were glad the chancellor acknowledged the miscommunication.

“I appreciate [Banks] taking the responsibility,” said the assistant principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The school leader said the city should resist the urge to make blanket directives during similar emergencies in the future, as some campuses experienced significant flooding and others were largely untouched.

“There’s no citywide guidance and directive that they should have made other than: ‘Be safe and please be in touch with your borough offices,’” the administrator said.

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

Eric Adams ordered NYC schools to shelter in place due to flooding. No one told principals.

2023-10-02T23:40:00+00:00

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As flood waters rose Friday in many parts of New York City, the message seemed clear cut.

“If you are at work or school, shelter in place for now,” said Mayor Eric Adams during a press conference about the storm just before noon that day. Schools Chancellor David Banks repeated that language later in the briefing, explaining “our protocol is in fact to shelter in place.” A social media post at 12:16 p.m. from the Education Department said the same.

Sheltering in place refers to a specific Education Department safety protocol that requires schools to shut their front doors, barring anyone from coming in or out. The procedure is meant to keep schools safe when there’s a danger outside the building.

At 1:56 p.m., a top Education Department official alerted principals that the “shelter in place has been lifted,” according to a copy of the email obtained by Chalkbeat.

There was just one problem: No one directly told schools about the order in the first place.

The email was the first Education Department communication that appeared in principals inboxes all day.

That was when Anna Nelson, an assistant principal at Bronx Latin, learned of the shelter-in-place directive.

But enforcing it would have been complicated. Many parents at her 6-12 school showed up early asking to pick up their children, fearing their commutes would be even harder later in the day due to the record rainfall. That would not have been allowed under a typical shelter-in-place order.

“Parents would have been really upset,” Nelson said. “It would have been wild.”

During previous shelter-in-place situations involving many schools, such as one for several Brooklyn schools after the subway shooting in Sunset Park last year, orders came from the NYPD and borough safety offices contacting schools.

But no such directives arrived Friday, 10 school administrators told Chalkbeat.

Flooding causes chaos in many schools

Many school leaders were dealing with immediate crises. They were helping kids dry off and scrounging up extra clothes for kids who were soaked through, while moving some children out of water-logged classrooms. They were ensuring floors weren’t dangerously slippery and figuring out if they had enough teachers to cover classes. They were communicating with concerned families about pickup and figuring out alternative exit plans for dismissal.

Many were unable to tune into the mayor’s press conference or monitor Education Department messages on X (formerly known as Twitter) during the middle of the school day — and may not even have known to watch for information through these channels.

As a result, none of the administrators who spoke with Chalkbeat actually implemented a shelter-in-place. Many were left on their own to figure out if and how to dismiss students early or let parents come and retrieve kids, with mixed messages swirling from higher-ups.

“It was very confusing honestly,” said one Brooklyn school administrator who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. “I was watching the press conference live and then I heard him say it, but I was like ‘I don’t think he really means we’re going to shelter in, because that’s crazy.’”

Education Department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer reiterated Monday that “guidance during inclement weather events is to take refuge in the school building.” When asked how the Education Department communicated that guidance, he pointed to the mayoral press conference and social media.

The idea of a blanket citywide shelter-in-place order seemed especially confusing to administrators because those directives are usually targeted at specific schools or neighborhoods, administrators said. While some schools with significant flooding outside may have benefited from such an order, it would have been a problem for other schools that needed to let students out early for safety reasons, they said.

Pointing to the need for a shelter in place, Styer said that some schools called parents and guardians to pick up children from school during Friday’s travel warnings, “which put even more members of our community in harm’s way.”

The end-of-day email to principals also suggested that schools should make sure students and staff are familiar with alternate evacuation routes, ensure children have a way to get home given disruptions to public transit, and keep a stock of supplies on hand including flashlights and blankets.

There was scarcely any time to do those things as the official guidance came less than an hour before dismissal, said Nelson, the Bronx administrator.

Though she said her school was largely spared from flooding and most of her students don’t commute long distances to the campus, she remained concerned about the lack of planning from the city.

“It is clear to me that we will have more flood issues like this in the future and the DOE doesn’t have any flood plans in place,” Nelson added.

Flooding near the Lafayette Educational Complex in Gravesend Brooklyn on Fri., Sept. 29, 2023 in New York.

At the Lafayette Educational Complex in Gravesend, Brooklyn, which is in a flood zone, students and staff had to wade through thigh-high waters to get to the schools housed there, said teacher Elizabeth Fortune. The building’s basement and cafeteria flooded, just as they did during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and she worried the building would face flooding in the future.

“We gave away all our school logo pjs to students and some were stuck in wet clothes or barefoot at school,” Fortune wrote in an email. “Once the waters began to recede, many older students wished to leave, but we were required to hold them until a parent could pick them up. Parents themselves were stranded without any ability to get to the school.”

Communication breakdown sows confusion

A total of 336 city public schools required cleanup over the weekend due to flooding, Styer said. On Friday, city officials said 150 schools were affected.

One school, P.S. 312 in Bergen Beach (originally reported by the Education Department as P.S. 132), had to be evacuated because of a smoking boiler. That school reopened Monday, and the “vast majority” of water issues across city schools were “minor, requiring only mopping,” he said.

To some educators, the botched communication over the shelter-in-place order felt emblematic of larger failures to give schools clear and timely guidance during a crisis. If top city officials misspoke about the shelter-in order, they should have clarified that immediately, said one Manhattan school administrator.

“The lack of communication is what creates people making up their own stories,” said the administrator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “If this isn’t the policy, and someone made a mistake, just own that and keep it pushing.”

Instead, school leaders were left largely on their own to figure out the protocol — and the confusion trickled down to teachers and parents.

Some schools let students out early. Anxious parents showed up to retrieve kids, and some students feared longer-than-normal commutes on public transit.

“A lot of our kids travel an hour each way on a good day,” said the Brooklyn administrator. “We don’t want kids traveling on buses they don’t normally take in the dark.”

Brooklyn dad Geoff Sanoff, who has two children in two different high schools, recounted the widely varied response from his children’s schools.

At Brooklyn Tech, where one son attends, the school emailed families about what they were doing, where families should go to meet their teens, and options for kids to stay in the building as they waited to get picked up. At the smaller Brooklyn high school his other son attends, there was “radio silence,” Sanoff said.

Brooklyn Tech is walkable to their Park Slope home, so the commute home for that son was doable. The other school, however, is accessible by the G train, which was not running. Sanoff’s son at that school, a freshman, wasn’t sure what to do, or where to wait to be picked up since he was not allowed to stay inside the building.

“With no subway, getting home from school turned into a three-hour round trip in a grandparent’s car to pick him up,” Sanoff said, adding that his son waited outside for more than an hour.

Sanoff understands that Brooklyn Tech — which is the nation’s largest high school with nearly 6,000 students — has kids from across the city and needs to be on top of coordinating its communications. His other son’s school, which may serve more kids who live locally, may not have realized that new students who travel further may have needed more help and may not have known who to ask for help, he said.

“It kind of baffles me that nobody said anything to him,” Sanoff said. “I am not angry with them, just frustrated at this situation. At the end of the day, the real question to me is, ‘How is it that each school has been left to fend for itself in a situation like this? Has there been no guidance from on high?’ No thought for school buses to be set aside, nothing from the DOE to help parents and schools know where to go, what to do, or who to reach out to for help.”

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

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

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

Torrential downpour floods 150 NYC schools, throws commutes into disarray

2023-09-29T17:36:02+00:00

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Torrential rainfall sowed chaos for many New York City schools Friday morning, flooding 150 school buildings and throwing commutes into disarray for thousands of students and staff.

Mayor Eric Adams announced a shelter-in-place order for schools around noon. An Education Department spokesperson said it would lift with dismissal.

“If you are at work or school, shelter in place for now. Some of our subways are flooded and it is extremely difficult to move around the city,” Adams said at a media briefing on the storm.

The downpour, which dumped 5 inches in some parts of New York City by early Friday morning, affected service on every subway line, delayed dozens of school buses, and prompted both Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul to issue a state of emergency. Friday’s attendance rate of 77% was significantly down from about 90% the day before.

Schools Chancellor David Banks said a total of 150 school buildings took on water Friday morning, and that one school, Brooklyn’s P.S. 312, was forced to evacuate because of a smoking boiler. Another Brooklyn school, I.S. 228 sent out a message asking parents to pick up students early, but Banks said the communication was premature.

The extreme weather led some parents and educators to question whether the city should have canceled in-person classes. Banks reassured families that schools were prepared to handle the storm.

“We have folks in our schools trained annually to prepare for days just like this,” Banks said, noting that schools were activating Building Response Teams in response to flooding. “While this was a tough day in terms of the rain, our kids are not in danger,” he added.

Many parents and educators reported that the rainwater had seeped into school buildings, flooding cafeterias and basements and leaking in through roofs, forcing students to move classrooms. On some campuses, children were soaked on their commutes to school, school staff reported.

“Some schools are being flooded from the basement up, and some are being flooded from the rooftop down,” said Paullette Healy, a parent leader in Brooklyn who said she’d heard from nine schools that experienced flooding. Several classrooms had to evacuate students, she added.

At P.S. 84 in Williamsburg, the school kitchen flooded, “which is a problem for our cafeteria workers and our kids,” said parent Jessamyn Lee. Fortunately, the custodial staff, she said, seemed to be able to “get the water intrusion under control.”

Meanwhile, at one Manhattan high school, rainwater leaking through a faulty roof forced students to move classrooms, complicating efforts to make up testing that had already been postponed because of tech glitches last week, according to a teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“My school is doing the best they can,” the teacher wrote. “This is just weather and issues out of our control and I feel for the kids.”

Principals received dismissal guidance shortly before 2 p.m., suggesting they make sure that staff and students were aware of alternate exit routes in case of flooding and that they communicate alternative exits to families. Most schools dismiss between 2:20 p.m. and 2:50 p.m.

Public School Athletic League activities were canceled, and principals could decide whether to hold Saturday programs, according to the email.

Concerns about commutes home from school

Meanwhile, for the hundreds of thousands of students and staff trying to get to school Friday morning, the commute was messy and in some cases harrowing.

“The street leading up to my school is completely flooded,” said Leah Ali, a student at Bard Early College High School in Manhattan. “As cars drive past, water reaches their headlights, and waves of water crash over students trying to make it inside.”

Alan Sun, a senior at The Bronx High School of Science, said the school has been affected by the storm. “The ceilings have been leaking water and the cafeteria is flooded,” he wrote in a text message. “Lunch is now being served in the auditorium.” Sun opted to eat in the hallway instead, as the auditorium was too crowded.

This is the corner of my school’s block.

Cafeteria and basement classrooms are flooded with this water. Families literally have to wade through toxic water to drop off their kids and pick them up.

Why does @NYCMayor never plan for emergencies that affect schools??? https://t.co/trhjCjFrsu
— Sarah Allen (@Mssarahmssarah) September 29, 2023

Morning disruptions on nearly every subway line left many students wondering how they’d safely get home.

“With train service suspensions, track fires, and stations flooded, commuting back home to Queens is a serious concern for me,” Ali had said in the morning.

At dismissal, she was still trying to figure out how to get home since her trains were delayed.

“I might be waiting at the station for a while,” she said. “Unfortunately, my school is a 15-minute walk away from the station, and buses aren’t working at the moment, so I’ll be taking an Uber there.”

Sun, who commutes to Bronx Science by subway, also said he was worried about the trek back to Flushing, Queens, at the end of the day. “I’m hoping the flooding in the subway stations won’t be too bad,” he wrote.

In her guidance to principals sent at the end of the day, Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership Danika Rux wrote, “Please ensure that your students who use public transportation have secured routes home.”

State and transportation officials said that getting the subways back up and running was a top priority, but that MTA buses were in operation and that the agency would deploy extra buses as a backup in case train service wasn’t restored by dismissal time.

The disruptions also affected students traveling by road.

The city’s Office of Pupil Transportation reported roughly 140 weather-related school bus delays as of 1 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Major roadways including FDR Drive were closed Friday morning, adding to concerns about disrupted afternoon commutes.

Banks said that the Education Department dispatched school buses early for the afternoon pickup, so they would be ready by dismissal time. School buses sit high enough off the ground that they are less likely to get stalled by roadway flooding, he said.

Mayor Adams defends NYC’s response

The city’s Education Department first addressed the weather conditions late Thursday night in a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, advising that schools would remain open Friday and suggesting that families and educators leave extra time for their commutes, take major roads, and not enter flooded subway stations.

No systemwide emails had gone out to teachers or parents as of 1 p.m. on Friday.

Several parents and educators said Friday that the city should have closed school buildings on Friday and pivoted to remote learning, similar to snow days, or at the very least improved communication about the risks.

“It’s quite a lapse in safety and concern when our phones send us messages about life threatening flooding and not to travel,” said the Manhattan teacher. “New York City is unprepared for major flooding as a result of climate change and this is more of the same examples we’re seeing.”

Adams defended the decision to keep schools open.

“This was the right call. Our children are safe in schools,” he said. “There is a big inconvenience when you close the schools.”

Climate change fears prompt worries for school infrastructure

The intensity of the flooding caught some parents by surprise. Avery Cole, whose 5-year-old daughter attends P.S. 11, said she wasn’t aware that the weather was going to be so severe until her phone started blaring with emergency alerts after she dropped her child off.

She also received a message from the school pleading for volunteers to help dry and disinfect its ground-floor classrooms “to prevent mold and save as much furniture as possible.”

Cole said she worries that school buildings aren’t prepared for more intense storms and wildfire smoke stoked by climate change.

“These storms are going to be more dramatic and frequent and schools are bearing the brunt of it,” she said.

Rohit Aggarwala, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, was blunt about the increasing threat of climate change to New York City.

“This changing weather pattern is the result of climate change,” he said, “and the sad reality is our climate is changing faster than our infrastructure can respond.”

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

Eric Adams vowed all NYC students would get dyslexia screening. So far, 1,500 have.

2023-09-14T09:00:00+00:00

This is part of an ongoing collaborative series between Chalkbeat and THE CITY investigating learning differences, special education, and other education challenges in city schools. Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s daily newsletter and THE CITY’S Daily Scoop newsletter to keep up with our reporting.

Mayor Eric Adams has made dyslexia screening a centerpiece of his education agenda, often citing his own reading challenges as a motivation for more intensive testing.

He’s even suggested every student is being assessed.

“We’re the first city of this size to have dyslexia screening for all of our children,” Adams said last November.

New York City began screening most children for reading challenges just before Adams took office in response to pandemic-related academic concerns. Adams subsequently launched a program that uses a second round of screeners for students who are struggling, to identify whether they are at risk of dyslexia.

But the effort has reached a fraction of kids across the five boroughs thus far.

About 1,500 students across 133 schools were assessed for risk of dyslexia last school year, according to city Department of Education figures obtained by THE CITY and Chalkbeat.

Officials say they are planning to use those screeners more widely this school year, promising to expand to all elementary schools serving grades K-5 and 50 middle and high schools.

Dyslexia screening is popular with many advocates, parents, and elected officials who have long argued that too many struggling readers have fallen through the cracks. Conducting more rigorous testing could help identify students before they fall far behind, they argue, and keep parents from having to arrange their own pricey assessments and tutors to help their children catch up, a major equity concern.

Identifying students who are struggling can also spur known remedies, particularly structured, sequenced literacy instruction that is phonics-based.

But multiple literacy experts said the secondary tests — which flag students who are at risk of dyslexia rather than offering a specific diagnosis — don’t reveal much beyond what the first set of tests already show.

Of the 1,000 children in elementary school who were given the secondary assessment, 95% of them were identified as being at risk of dyslexia — suggesting schools already had a clear sense of which students were struggling. (In middle and high school, about 80% of students were flagged for extra help by the additional screeners.)

More important, experts said, is ensuring teachers have the tools they need to figure out why a student is struggling and to intervene.

“Teachers already know who needs more help,” Adrea Truckenmiller, an associate professor at Michigan State University who has studied literacy screening, said of the second layer of testing. “What they need to do is figure out what to teach the kids the next day, and this information is not really giving them that.”

Jonah Allon, a City Hall spokesperson, defended the secondary screening, saying it is part of “the most comprehensive approach to supporting dyslexic students in our city’s history.”

While the initiative’s expansion “will not happen overnight,” Allon wrote in an email, “Mayor Adams laid out an aggressive plan to bring this screening to all New York City students, and we are executing that plan right now.”

Education department officials said they were paying close attention to schools that are part of the city’s sweeping new literacy curriculum mandate — starting with nearly half of all elementary campuses this year. They will have access to educators who are trained to deliver the screening and provide more individual help to address students’ reading challenges, said Carolyne Quintana, the Education Department’s deputy chancellor of teaching and learning.

“We need that kind of more targeted information — more specific information that a secondary screener gives you that those others don’t,” Quintana said

Carolyne Quintana, the Education Department’s deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, observes a reading lesson at P.S. 125 in Manhattan during the first week of school.

Who has been screened, and what happens next?

In the wake of the pandemic, New York City began to standardize regular screening in reading and math to track disruptions to student learning and help teachers intervene.

That effort began during Mayor Bill de Blasio’s final year in office. Last school year, roughly 500,000 students in kindergarten through 10th grade were given general literacy assessments spread throughout the year.

Teachers are supposed to use the results of those assessments to adjust their instruction and provide individualized help. The Adams administration added a secondary layer of screening for students who performed poorly on the first set of assessments at about 133 pilot schools. (Last year, schools used Acadience Rapid Automatized Naming and Normed Spelling Measure for kindergarten and first grade students, and Acadience Oral Reading Fluency for students in grades two and up.)

Overall, 1,500 students received secondary screening across those schools, with 1,350 identified as being at risk of dyslexia. That’s about 2% of the 63,000 students enrolled across those campuses. Teachers were trained on administering the screenings and on interpreting the results, as well as on providing extra support, department officials said.

Students who were flagged by the secondary screeners should receive four days per week of 30- to 45-minute sessions of “explicit, systematic, evidence-based reading instruction” for the students deemed at risk, according to an Education Department spokesperson. Students not flagged by the secondary screeners but who are still struggling with reading are eligible for 30-minute sessions three days a week.

At P.S. 125 in Harlem, which has given teachers intensive training to address reading challenges, Principal Yael Leopold said the school uses a range of assessments and observations to determine why a student is struggling — a process that isn’t always straightforward.

“Maybe a child’s not hearing sounds correctly,” she said. “For another, it could be vision. For another, it’s their processing or their expressive language. I mean, there’s a million reasons why a child may struggle — and so that’s where we put all of our heads together.”

P.S. 125 Principal Yael Leopold said a range of literacy assessments help the school determine which students need extra help in small groups.

The school typically provides students who need extra help with small group instruction in their regular classrooms for about four weeks at a time instead of pulling them out for special sessions. Leopold said that keeps children from feeling like they’re being singled out.

“Children felt still part of the classroom community,” Leopold said. “They’re like, ‘I’m a great reader — I’m making improvement.’ And that’s really important to us.”

Experts say the tests aren’t worth it, but politicians push for more

Experts who are familiar with the secondary screeners stressed that they flag students for risk of dyslexia — rather than offering a more formal diagnosis — and generally aren’t much more sensitive than the first round of screening.

“This notion of ‘Let’s test them again and see if they need more’ — I’m not sure that actually buys you a whole lot,” said Timothy Shanahan, a professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who has written about the research on literacy screening. “If you say a kid is dyslexic, that doesn’t tell me at all what he needs,” he added. “It’s really a whole set of different disabilities all kind of lumped together.”

The screeners the city is using to identify students at risk of dyslexia identify broad issues like challenges with spelling or decoding words that can predict other reading problems, including dyslexia, Shanahan said. But they aren’t detailed enough to give educators a roadmap of what specific instructional tweaks might help.

Shanahan and others said the main downside to the additional screening is potentially taking time away from instruction. But they generally said it isn’t harmful and may signal to advocates and parents that the city is serious about addressing literacy deficits.

For Naomi Peña, a longtime public school parent leader who has four kids with dyslexia, the shift in how the mayor has placed struggling readers squarely at the forefront of the city’s efforts represents a sea change.

“As long as I’ve been in the public school system, the last two years is honestly the first time this ever has been discussed,” said Peña. “It’s unfortunate that it took someone who is dyslexic finally to become mayor and be in a position of power to want to center it, but this is where we are.”

The administration has won praise from many experts for focusing on literacy and requiring elementary schools to begin using curriculums that officials say are more aligned with research on how children learn to read. The administration has also launched some smaller-scale efforts, including more intensive training programs at a handful of schools and a first-of-its-kind district school focused on students with dyslexia and other print-based learning disabilities.

Additional screening for dyslexia is also popular with many elected officials who see the measure as addressing a significant equity issue.

State Assembly members Jo Anne Simon and Robert Carroll of Brooklyn have been vocal proponents of providing greater support for students with dyslexia and embraced the mayor’s efforts. They said that while the number of students who have been screened is low, the ball is moving in the right direction.

“Systematizing anything in a school system takes time, and in a large school system it’s going to take significant time,” said Simon, a former disability rights attorney.

Carroll said the city’s efforts are well-meaning but that fully implementing the program in every school could take years. He said with that trajectory, a more specific plan for getting there needs to be shared publicly.

Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks created a Dyslexia Task Force that was charged with producing a policy paper on the city’s “vision and approach to supporting students at risk of and/or living with dyslexia.” Though the report was set to be released in August 2022, Education Department officials did not provide a copy or explain the delay.

“At least we’re moving in the right direction,” said Carroll, who was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. “We’re talking about it. I think they are sincere in trying to solve problems. I think it’s how do we perfect it, how do you scale it?”

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

First day of school for NYC: Smiles, sweat, and fears of a possible bus strike

2023-09-07T21:54:13+00:00

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Bronx student Avery Collazo began the school year on Thursday with an annual tradition: donning a bright blue T-shirt proudly exclaiming, “First Day of Second Grade.”

“He likes to stand out, to be a little different,” said Avery’s dad, Albert Collazo, who also brought a uniform shirt just in case.

The family joined dozens of others dropping off their children in the P.S. 121 schoolyard as the first day of school for New York City’s nearly 900,000 students brought out an array of emotions.

Some caregivers shed tears as they watched their kids walk inside the school building. Some kids smiled confidently; some shyly. There was also some sweat. High temperatures prompted a National Weather Service heat advisory, and the Education Department directed schools to limit outdoor activities after 10 a.m. Some educators and parents reported broken or non-existent air conditioners while some families were also concerned about overheated students on school buses.

Avery is enrolled in P.S. 121’s “gifted and talented” program, which pulls students from different neighborhoods. His mom, Elida, praised the city’s move to expand such programs, calling it “a great opportunity for a lot of other children.”

From left, Elida Collazo, Avery Collazo and Albert Collazo pose for a portrait on the first day of school at P.S. 121 in the Bronx.

Because the family has to travel outside of their zoned school to bring Avery to the program, they rely on a yellow school bus for transportation. Even though school bus drivers vowed to stay behind the wheel this week, families were still on edge about a possible strike, which could affect an estimated 86,000 students, or more than half of the children who ride yellow school buses.

“We’re definitely hoping no strike happens,” Collazo said.

For P.S. 121 mom Phyllis Moore, the new school year represented a fresh chance to get involved in her daughter’s education following her recovery from a stroke last year.

“I’m ready to be here, to get involved, to be on the school board, to do what I need to do,” said Moore. “We’re excited.”

Her daughter Lanyah, a fourth grader, has been in the school since kindergarten. She was excited to return to school with more age and experience, she said, but the 8-year-old was still nervous to find out who her teacher and classmates would be.

Schools Chancellor David Banks joined Mayor Eric Adams at P.S. 121, in the Bronx’s District 11, which is one of the districts in the first wave of the NYC Reads initiative. In a major shift in how the nation’s largest school system teaches its youngest children how to read, elementary schools in 15 of the city’s 32 local districts must switch to one of three literacy programs this year, with the rest following next year. District 11 selected EL Education, a curriculum that some schools in the area had already implemented.

“What I am going to be laser-focused on is ensuring every single child in the school system is on grade level no later than third grade,” Banks said. “The broader issue is, for even kids who don’t have dyslexia, they can’t read. And that’s because we haven’t taught them properly how to read.”

The push to change literacy instruction comes after years of attempts to improve the city’s middling reading scores — and after a widely used curriculum, which focused heavily on independent reading without enough explicit phonics instruction, was largely discredited.

Outside of P.S. 165 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, most parents said they hadn’t heard about the city’s curriculum mandate. The school, along with every elementary campus in District 23, is required to use a curriculum called Into Reading — by far the most common program that superintendents have mandated.

Sherifa Adams said her 6-year-old daughter Kaydence was already picking up reading skills, and Adams has mixed feelings about the change. “It’s first grade, so she’s already used to something,” said Adams, who learned about the curriculum mandate from a reporter. “I hope that this new reading curriculum only makes it better and not worse for her.”

The school plans to hold a curriculum night next week and will share more information about the new reading program with families then, an Education Department spokesperson said.

The literacy mandate may signal a wider effort to come, Education Department officials noted. The city is already pushing such changes for early education and ninth grade algebra. Some high school superintendents have opted to implement literacy instruction mandates on their own accord.

Students and families on the first day of school on Thursday at P.S. 165 Ida Posner in Brooklyn, NY.

Meanwhile, the city also continues to grapple with how it will accommodate the influx of children from asylum-seeking families. Banks announced Thursday that the city is hoping to address the chronic shortage of bilingual teachers by reducing a bureaucratic hurdle. For educators who are already certified in bilingual education but teach other areas, they will no longer lose tenure by switching subjects, Banks said. The move would affect about 500 teachers.

Despite the ongoing challenges, the first day of school also marked the tremendous progress that many of the newcomers have made since arriving last year.

At I.S. 93 in Ridgewood, Queens, one student who arrived in the country six months ago speaking no English made enough progress to enroll in an honors dual-language class this year. He was part of a team that won a classwide engineering competition Thursday, said his teacher Sara Hobler.

“This sort of thing is why I teach,” Hobler said. “It makes you take a step back for a moment and remember why you go through all the difficult parts of the job — for those looks on those kids’ faces when they realize they’re going to thrive.”

Busing woes, even without a strike

It has become all too common for students to have problems with yellow school buses, particularly on the first day of school. This year was no exception, as union officials continue negotiating with the city over a new contract. There were nearly 1,300 bus delays reported on the Office of Pupil Transportation’s website as of 4 p.m.

Brownsville mom Anika Smith said she received limited information about bus service and had yet to receive pick up and drop off times, even though her second grade son is entitled to transportation because of a disability.

Smith accompanied her son on Thursday to greet his teachers. Though the family lives a few blocks away from school, the mom said ongoing disruptions would be a “catastrophe,” forcing her to scramble to find relatives to help with transportation or rearrange her nursing shifts at a local hospital.

“I’m gonna have to take off a couple of days, switch around my hours,” Smith said. “I lose wages. I could get a write up … the hospital’s already short staffed.”

Outside her son’s school, P.S. 165, a staff member told a small group of families gathered in the schoolyard about the city’s contingency plans, including MetroCards or rideshare services for children with disabilities, those in temporary housing, or children in foster care.

Students and families arrive for the first day of school at P.S. 165 in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

Naomi Peña, a mother of four children with dyslexia and co-founder of a Bronx-based literacy program, said her son’s bus arrived at their home just 10 minutes before his school was scheduled to start. By the time he arrived on campus, he was more than two hours late, meaning he missed his entire morning literacy block, she said.

The late bus – along with her daughter’s class having no working air conditioning – led to a disappointing first day of school, Peña said.

“It’s frustrating because I am just one parent that experiences these things, but it’s part of a larger ecosystem of hundreds of thousands of parents,” she said. “It shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t. Our kids deserve better, especially on their first day.”

Enrollment, mergers, and navigating the system

Over the past five years, K-12 enrollment has fallen by more than 120,000, which can have big consequences for schools since funding is tied to student headcount.

At Brooklyn’s P.S. 165, for instance, enrollment dipped below 200 students last year — one of a growing share of elementary schools in central Brooklyn and across the city below that threshold. Though small schools can be more expensive for the city to run on a per-student basis, several parents said there are benefits, too.

“With a small school environment, she will get the help that she needs,” said Crystal Salgado, referring to her 6-year-old daughter, Cianna. “The teachers actually know the kids.”

For her part, Cianna was so excited to be back at school that she zoomed past her mother into the schoolyard. She said she was most excited for lunch, preferably pizza.

Crystal Salgado and her 6-year-old daughter, Cianna, arrive for the first day of school at P.S. 165 in Brooklyn. Cianna hoped for a pizza lunch.

Some school communities began to see controversial mergers last school year, like one at Lafayette Academy, which joined with West Side Collaborative.

Despite opposition from both of these small Upper West middle schools, the proposal passed. Morana Mesic, a former PTA president at West Side Collaborative who opposed the merger, said her seventh grade son cried last night as the realization hit that he wouldn’t be returning to the small school that had felt like home. Instead, he’ll be attending West End Secondary School, a much larger 6-12 school on the Upper West Side that he transferred to over the summer.

“He’s going into a whole new environment all over again, so he did have a really emotional reaction,” she said. “He was anxious, frustrated, and scared, saying, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna be accepted.’”

Just over 30 blocks north, on the Upper West Side campus Lafayette shares with two other schools, families fanned into a crowded street, greeted by welcome signs and an energetic traffic conductor shouting, “Good morning! Good morning! Happy first day!”

Some students matched the excitement as they approached the building.

One Manhattan School for Children student said she couldn’t wait for “math, seeing my friends, writing, and anything I learn.”

Nearby, Jeanelle and Zaki Jarrah, stood next to their eighth-grader Finn. The family is new to the city, having just moved from Flagler Beach, Florida, a few weeks ago.

They said they were looking forward to their son developing closer connections in a smaller school environment. But they didn’t have a clear idea why they picked the Manhattan School for Children.

“We have absolutely no idea what we’re doing,” Jeanelle Jarrah said, laughing. “The school system here is so overwhelming.”

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

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

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

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

NYC is expanding a violence prevention program called Project Pivot. Tell us how it’s going.

2023-07-31T21:09:35+00:00

A violence prevention program that forges partnerships between schools and community groups will expand this coming school year, part of a broader plan to improve neighborhood safety that city officials released on Monday.

Known as Project Pivot, the program connects schools with community organizations that provide everything from mentorship and counseling to violence interruption — which aims to prevent conflict by bringing in neighborhood leaders.

Beginning this school year Project Pivot will expand to 200 schools, from 144, reaching between 6,000 and 10,000 students, according to the city’s “Blueprint for Community Safety.” Before the latest expansion, officials had said they expected to reach 10,000 students; a City Hall spokesperson did not explain why that goal has remained the same even as the number of participating schools is growing.

Mayor Eric Adams touted the program, which launched last year, as one of the most significant strategies in the new blueprint for keeping young people safe.

“It was about, ‘how do we get into the schools and engage young people at an early age,’” Adams said. “There has to be some real results.”

Project Pivot’s expansion comes as young people are increasingly affected by violence, even as violent crime is trending down and New York City remains relatively safe. Since 2019, the number of shooting victims under age 18 has doubled, city officials said, incidents that have sometimes devastated school communities.

The number of weapons confiscated at public schools has also spiked since the pandemic hit. Nearly 7,000 weapons were recovered last school year, up nearly 9% over the previous year, according to police department data. In the school year before the pandemic, about 2,600 weapons were confiscated. Some students said they carried pepper spray or tasers to protect themselves on their commutes.

The blueprint announced Monday includes a broad range of policies across city agencies and targets six police precincts across Brooklyn and the Bronx that experience a disproportionate share of shootings. The plan calls for expanding after-school programming in those precincts, for instance, though it does not specify how many schools or children may benefit. First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright told reporters that more detailed community-level plans would be available in the coming weeks.

Officials did not immediately say which schools will be included in the Project Pivot expansion, but noted they will be spread across the city. The program is expected to cost $15 million under the expansion, up from $9 million, officials said. It is funded with federal relief money, raising questions about its long-term sustainability as those dollars begin to run dry.

Chalkbeat is interested in learning more about how students, parents, and community organizations feel about Project Pivot and its expansion. To let us know, take our very brief survey here.

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

NYC’s budget deal restores some education programs

2023-06-30T19:16:58+00:00

This story has been updated to reflect new information.

A tentative New York City budget agreement announced Thursday restores funding to a handful of initiatives that Mayor Eric Adams initially nixed, including one focused on student mental health and another that provides child care subsidies to undocumented families.

The final agreement, which is being voted on Friday, holds the education department’s budget roughly steady at $31.5 billion. That’s a significant shift from the mayor’s April budget proposal, which called for a $30.6 billion budget for the city’s schools, nearly a $1 billion cut.

Officials said the final budget reflects several sources of funding that were not accounted for in the mayor’s April proposal, including $416 million in additional money from the state and $246 million in federal stimulus money that was initially set to be spent in a subsequent year. The budget deal also added $275 million for holding initial school budgets steady even if their enrollment drops and to pay for a slew of other “new needs.”

City officials did not immediately provide a full explanation of what the funding shifts will cover and official budget documents were not yet available.

Still, officials touted a number of programs that were spared from the chopping block. After an unusually chilly “handshake” agreement Thursday, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams expressed frustration that negotiations centered on saving various initiatives.

“The council’s focus this year was to restore cuts to essential services,” she said, calling the mayor’s approach counterproductive and the result bittersweet.

The mayor downplayed the tension, saying negotiations are often contentious and the resulting budget is a “win for working-class New Yorkers.” The city’s overall spending has grown in recent years, with the latest agreement reaching about $107 billion.

Negotiators agreed to maintain funding to a few education-related programs, including one that connects students to mental health support and another that subsidizes child care for undocumented families. City officials credited higher-than-expected revenue, but cautioned that they believe tax growth may slow in the coming years.

The City Council must pass the budget by Saturday, the first day of the new fiscal year.

Here’s what to know:

Still unclear how individual school budgets will be affected

Although the education department’s overall budget is dipping, city officials pledged to keep individual school budgets steady — at least at first. Typically, funding depends on campus enrollment, which has been declining systemwide. But in recent years city officials have plugged school budget holes with federal funding.

Still, some schools’ budgets may shrink or grow, as the city takes back or adds money to campuses in the middle of the school year if their actual enrollment differs from projections. City officials have not made midyear cuts since the onset of the pandemic but have declined to say what they will do in the upcoming school year.

In response to a question Thursday, Mayor Adams said there is “no desire” to surprise school communities with midyear cuts but added, “there’s no guarantees in life.”

That uncertainty may lead some school leaders to tighten their belts if they anticipate anemic enrollment. Overall, the city is projecting a relatively small enrollment drop of 0.6%, suggesting deep cuts are unlikely on most campuses.

Funding restored to child care for undocumented families

The budget will include $16 million for Promise NYC, which covers up to $700 a week in child care for hundreds of low-income undocumented immigrant families. Adams had proposed cutting Promise NYC despite touting it in December when it launched.

The program used $10 million in six months to fully cover child care for about 600 children. Hundreds of more families are on waitlists, according to organizations running the program. Some newly arrived mothers told Chalkbeat that Promise NYC has allowed them to work and pursue education.

The $16 million included in the budget deal falls $4 million short of what immigration advocates and elected officials had sought. But it’s expected to continue covering the 600 children currently enrolled, city officials said.

Mental health support program saved at last moment

The budget includes $5 million for partnerships between schools and mental health clinics, creating a streamlined process for referring students to counseling. The money was initially left out of the mayor’s budget proposal.

The program, known as the Mental Health Continuum, includes just 50 schools. But amid growing concern about a slide in student mental health, advocates had pressed to save it and pointed out that the mayor’s own mental health plan highlighted the initiative.

The Mental Health Continuum is also meant to reduce 911 calls from school staff by training them to address students experiencing emotional crises. Those calls disproportionately affect Black students, and can result in handcuffing or unwarranted trips to the emergency room for psychiatric evaluation.

City to pilot extended hours for pre-kindergarten

The budget will include $15 million to change 1,800 to 1,900 seats for 3-year-olds so that they offer extended hours.

Many working parents need child care beyond 3 p.m. A survey by the Citizens’ Committee for Children, found one-third of more than 1,000 respondents said they were looking for child care from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. However, there were 11,000 unfilled pre-K seats that had longer hours year-round, education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer told Chalkbeat in May.

The pilot program will also extend beyond the school year, according to Speaker Adams’ office.

Caregivers “need preschool programs that align with their work days,” Mayor Adams said.

No plans to expand pre-K for 3-year-olds

The final budget reflects the mayor’s decision to halt a two-year $568 million expansion of preschool seats for 3-year-olds, instead opting to move seats to places with more demand, city officials confirmed.

Education officials have pointed to vacant seats: nearly 23,500 3-K seats are so far unfilled for next school year, according to department figures. The mayor’s decision has drawn backlash from City Council members and advocates, who say the city is not effectively recruiting families or funding early childhood education programs.

Questions remain about the mayor’s savings plan

As broad reductions to city agencies, the mayor required the education department to find hundreds of millions in cuts. It found $305 million, one of the largest savings, by recalculating spending on fringe benefits, such as health insurance for teachers. City officials have said those cuts would not reduce benefits to educators but reflected lower-than-expected growth in those costs.

But advocates worry that the city had already been using those savings to pay for other things, such as transportation, special education services, and charter school costs.

“We are concerned about where the DOE will find funding to pay for these expenses in the coming year and the impact on other programs and services that students need,” Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, wrote in an email.

City officials did not say whether other programs will face cuts.

Looking ahead: Concerns loom as federal dollars dry up

Future budget cycles are likely to be even more contentious, as federal relief funding dries up and city officials have to make difficult decisions about whether and how to continue programs that depend on those dollars.

Perhaps the most contentious decision will be whether to slash school budgets on campuses that have seen enrollment plunge but have been kept steady by temporary relief money. Mayor Adams had previously argued that school budgets need to be incrementally reduced to be brought in line with their current enrollment, but after instituting one round of cuts he faced intense criticism and has since backed away from making further reductions — for now.

The federal money supports a slew of other efforts including hiring more social workers and psychologists; expanding summer school programs; adding preschool seats for students with disabilities, a chronic shortage area; and increasing the number of schools that host wraparound services such as food pantries and health clinics. It’s not certain how these programs will be funded after this year.

Correction (Friday, June 30): A previous version of this story said the education department’s budget would likely decline by roughly $1 billion, a cut that was included in the mayor’s budget proposal in April. A City Hall spokesperson initially indicated that there were no major changes in the final budget deal. But after this story was published, officials said the final budget includes several funding streams that were not initially accounted for in the mayor’s earlier proposal, meaning the overall education budget will hold steady rather than face a cut. The headline has also been changed to reflect that.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering NYC public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Salary disparity: Teachers, directors in NYC’s free pre-K program push for more money

2023-06-28T21:23:17+00:00

In her own words, Joanne Derwin was “not a runner.”

Then last year, as Derwin embarked on her annual quest to raise money for the preschool she oversees in Brooklyn’s Windsor Terrace neighborhood, a parent persuaded her to train for the Brooklyn Half Marathon with a large group. Since then, they’ve used the race to raise tens of thousands of dollars that are crucial, in part, for covering teacher salaries.

Derwin’s center is one of hundreds that contract with New York City for its free prekindergarten programs, expected to serve roughly 63,000 3- and 4-year-olds this fall. But these centers — which have offered seats to about 60% of the children in the city’s program — have faced a long-standing issue that is gaining renewed attention: Their city funding covers the salaries for their veteran teachers at the same rate as new teachers in city-run public schools. That makes it tough to retain staff, providers say, unless directors like Derwin find a way to close the salary gap.

“We literally have to run the Brooklyn Half Marathon to be able to have our program,” Derwin said.

Boosting wages for teachers, directors and other support staff will be a central sticking point in upcoming contract negotiations between the city and unions who represent community-based preschool staffers, with the hope that the city extends benefits to non-unionized staffers, too.

On the campaign trail, Mayor Eric Adams said he wanted to pay these teachers for their years of experience, and he promised a path to salary parity within two years of his first term.

“It’s almost humiliating what we are paying these professionals,” he said at the time.

Whether he follows through on those promises remains uncertain. Spokespeople for City Hall referred Chalkbeat to the city’s labor relations office, which did not immediately respond for comment.

The brewing battle comes four years after the city boosted teacher pay in community-based programs to match their public-school counterparts, eventually including non-unionized employees, in what was heralded as a huge achievement. Pay grew to $61,070 by 2021 for teachers with bachelor’s degrees and $68,652 for those with master’s degrees, with a one-time 2.75% raise for other staff.

That agreement, however, didn’t pay teachers according to their years of experience, nor did it address salary parity for directors or other support staff, such as assistant teachers or custodians — all issues that unions and providers plan to advocate for.

The negotiations will happen against the backdrop of a chaotic year for the city’s early childhood education system, including late payments to providers and a controversial decision by Adams to not expand preschool seats for 3-year-olds. The City Council has called for $46 million to address pay parity issues. It’s unclear if that will meet the unions’ demands, as the Day Care Council said it does not yet have cost estimates.

Preschool workers eye contract set by teachers union

Wage increases could make the difference between keeping workers or losing them in an industry that’s already burned out from the pandemic, said Nora Moran, director of policy and advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses, which represents many providers.

Community-based preschool programs, like many industries, have faced hiring shortages since COVID, leaving them scrambling to find staff, Moran said. Programs are not just struggling to hold onto teachers; directors are also leaving. Many of these employees work longer hours and throughout the summer.

Acknowledging a need for better pay, Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced up to $3,000 in retention bonuses for 150,000 childcare workers, with unused federal stimulus dollars.

Without better pay, Moran said providers will be in a “dire situation,” ultimately impacting families who need preschool but can’t afford private programs.

“That sounds dramatic, but it’s true,” Moran said. “The compensation has become such a sticking point for folks.”

DC 37, which represents 7,900 early childhood workers, and the Day Care Council, which represents providers, are expected to begin negotiations with the city once their contract expires this fall. DC 37 also represents workers at federally funded Head Start programs, whose contract expired last January.

Separately, the city’s Council for Supervisors and Administrators, or CSA, is expected to restart their push to raise salaries for the 180 community-based preschool directors they represent. Pressure will likely mount in July, when the union begins court proceedings in a lawsuit that alleges the city is discriminating against community-based preschool directors, who are largely women of color, by not paying them at the same rate as directors of city-run sites.

Unions will be looking to the tentative contract deal reached between the city and the United Federation of Teachers, or UFT, which represents educators and other workers inside of public schools. Under that tentative agreement, starting salaries for new teachers with bachelor’s degrees will jump from $61,070 to $72,349 by November 2027.

Pay gap angers teachers and other support staff

Veteran teachers in New York City’s community-run preschool programs can make 53% of their counterparts with similar years of service in public schools, according to the Day Care Council.

To close such gaps, Derwin’s school, called One World Project, relies on multiple fundraising events, as well as income from their other programs that charge tuition, such as after school.

Derwin said she’s proud to pay her teaching staff as well as teachers who are covered by the teachers union. But that also means her teachers must receive raises annually as they gain more experience and with new contracts, leaving Derwin to close a larger gap every year without any additional help from the city.

“Every year, it’s a more precarious situation for us,” Derwin said.

About 10 miles east at the Howard Beach Judea Center Preschool in Queens, site director Lisa Pearlman-Mason said they struggle annually with enrollment, leading to tight budgets. Their two teachers each make just under $69,000 annually, or the same as a first-year teacher in public schools, as required by the 2019 agreement, even though one has about 15 years of experience and the other about 10.

They host an annual fundraiser, but the proceeds aren’t enough to cover salary bumps. (Last year, they used the money to buy an outdoor toy for their playground.)

Their teaching assistants make roughly $25,000 a year. The starting salary for the comparable title of a paraprofessional will be $34,257 by 2027, according to the tentative teachers union agreement.

“I don’t get to keep them for more than a couple of years because they realize what’s going on and they leave,” Pearlman-Mason said.

Salary disparity for directors pushes them out

Separate from teachers, the CSA is hoping to see pay boosted for about 180 directors of community-run preschools over a three-year period, for a total cost of $16.7 million, according to union officials.

Pre-K directors with master’s degrees at city-run programs make at least $133,375 with one year of experience, according to CSA. Under the expired contract for directors at private programs that are publicly funded, however, the city is only required to pay $63,287 to directors with master’s degrees.

Henry Rubio, the CSA’s president, said directors will sometimes take other jobs to make ends meet, or their centers might raise money to pay staff more. Still, the union sees directors leave their jobs “on a weekly basis” for better paying positions, including within the education department.

The union’s plea for raises traces back to at least 2019. At the time, when New York City agreed to boost teacher pay under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, officials promised to negotiate a similar “path to parity” for preschool directors, Rubio said. But since then, he said, the city has declined to do so.

Negotiations over a new contract stalled in 2021. That December, CSA filed its discrimination lawsuit, which states that community-run programs are overseen by directors who are 92% women of color, compared with the 31% at city-run sites who are Black or Latino.

“I think this is an opportunity for the mayor to really right a stark wrong here,” Rubio said. “For Black and brown women who have been dedicating their lives to the city, I think it’s an opportune time for both the City Council and the mayor to make a statement about his values.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC teachers union and Adams administration reach tentative deal on 5-year contract

2023-06-13T20:12:43+00:00

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New York City reached a deal with the teachers union for a five-year contract that includes annual raises, expands opportunities for virtual learning, and allows some remote work for certain employees, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.

The tentative deal for the United Federation of Teachers’ 115,000 full-time and 5,000 part-time education department employees includes 3% wage increases for the first three years, followed by a 3.25% increase in the fourth year, and 3.5% in the fifth year. The full contract would cost the city $6.4 billion, city officials said.

Starting salary for new teachers will jump from $61,070 to $72,349 by the end of the contract. In five years, the most experienced teachers will earn $151,271. The deal also proposes to cut in half the amount of time it takes teachers to reach a $100,000 salary — from 15 to eight years.

It also includes annual retention bonuses that will grow to $1,000 in 2026, for as long as an employee is an education department employee, and will be built into the system going forward. It’s the first time the union has negotiated such a payment, said Michael Mulgrew, president of the teachers union, during a press conference announcing the deal.

“We’re saying to all of our titles and every member, whether you’re in the first year or your 25th year, New York City is saying that we appreciate you, we recognize the challenges that you take on every day and you will receive $1,000 every [year] for that,” Mulgrew said. [Mulgrew initially misspoke, and his statement has been clarified.]

The retention bonus is “a good strategy” for keeping teachers, said Melissa Arnold Lyon, assistant professor of politics and policy at the University of Albany, who has been following the UFT’s contract negotiations. Teacher turnover rates in New York City and elsewhere hit an unusual high after last school year, potentially exacerbated by the stresses of the pandemic.

“There are a lot of costs of trying to find and hire new teachers,” Lyon said. “If $1,000 helps you to keep a teacher, at least on the micro level, that’s worth it.”

The agreement is retroactive to Sept. 14, 2022, and runs through Nov. 28, 2027, city officials said. The wage increases follow the pattern of raises set by the February agreement with District Council 37, which includes cafeteria workers, parent coordinators, and crossing guards.

Many teachers expected that their union would follow suit and had expressed concerns given that the previous deals were not keeping pace with inflation, which has moderated somewhat in recent months but reached 6.5% last year. Teachers had complained that their responsibilities have only increased since the pandemic, as they continue to catch up students academically and socially from years of interrupted learning.

A virtual learning program to expand

The contract would expand a pilot remote learning project that allowed small schools to offer virtual courses — such as AP Chemistry — that they otherwise couldn’t because of staffing issues. This year, the program used federal funding to grow, reaching about 1,500 students across 58 schools, with 23 separate online courses outside traditional school hours.

Under the tentative deal, high schools, as well as schools that serve grades 6-12, could offer virtual courses after school and on the weekends starting in the next academic year, union officials said, though nothing would bar schools from creating tutoring programs, too. Those programs would be available to students who volunteer to participate, and would be staffed by volunteer teachers. A quarter of high schools would be allowed to participate next year, growing to all high schools by the 2027-28 school year. High schools must apply to participate, education officials said.

Courses might be offered at individual schools or through the central education department, and high schools must apply to participate, education officials said. Part-time remote teachers can apply to be part of their school-based remote program and work before or after the school day; there will also be full-time, centrally hired teachers for the other program.

Programs could vary, Gendar said. For example, a school could offer evening courses, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., for students who are missing classes because they’re working day jobs, she said.

Schools could offer non-traditional schedules for students and teachers who want them. If a teacher volunteers to work a virtual program in addition to their regular work day, they will be paid overtime, Gendar said.

During a press conference, schools Chancellor David Banks said the virtual learning agreement gives students more flexibility, noting that some benefited from remote learning during the pandemic.

“Students who were at risk of dropping out were able to continue their coursework on a schedule that works best for them,” Banks said of remote learning during the start of the pandemic. “This expands those types of opportunities across the entire system.”

The contract would also allow some employees, who don’t work directly in schools, to work remotely for up to two days a week. It was not immediately clear which employees that would include.

Another sticking point was over how teachers would get to spend an extra 155 minutes each week after school. The deal would allow them, as they did this year, to do professional development and parent outreach, and it added a new option for teachers to do other classroom work of their choice in that time.

Teachers have mixed feelings

The contract is not yet final. First, the union’s negotiating committee, composed of 500 members, along with its executive board and delegate assembly will decide whether to send the tentative deal to all union members for a vote. Union officials did not immediately provide dates for those votes.

Some teachers took to social media to criticize the deal, but pushing back against it could be an uphill battle. The union cannot easily pull off a work stoppage because a teachers strike would violate New York’s Taylor Law, which imposes significant financial penalties for public sector unions that strike.

Robert Effinger, a union chapter leader at the Bronx High School of Business, said the pay increases surpassed his expectations.

Although some educators hoped that the salary increases would exceed inflation, the union was hemmed in by the pattern set by unions that negotiated contracts earlier this year. But Effinger said he was glad to see the union negotiate a quicker path to higher pay, an issue he hopes will help retain more educators.

“One of the reasons people burn out in education is they feel like they’re doing a lot of labor that is not appropriately compensated,” he said. “Having an accelerated early track is better for keeping people in.”

Still, he said he’s eager to hear more details about other elements of the contract including increased teacher autonomy, a major part of the union’s campaign, which focused on burdensome paperwork requirements educators face.

The union plans to hold a virtual town hall for members on Thursday at 4 p.m.

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

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

NYC failed to provide full services to 9,800 preschool children with disabilities last year: report

2023-06-06T09:30:00+00:00

More than one-third of New York City’s preschool children with disabilities did not receive all of the extra support they’re entitled to in the last school year, according to a report released Tuesday morning.

The report, by advocacy organization Advocates for Children New York, analyzes the most recently available city data for the 2021-22 school year. The figure represents an increase from the 2020-21 school year, when 30% of children, or about 7,800, didn’t receive all of their required services.

The data means that a child may have received some of their required speech therapy, for example, but no required physical therapy — services that are spelled out in an individualized education program, or IEP.

Among the 9,800 children — or close to 37% — who didn’t receive all of their required services:

About 6,500 children who required speech therapy — or about a quarter of children who needed monolingual speech therapy and a third of children who required bilingual services.
Nearly 28%, or 5,300 children, who required occupational therapy.
About 2,000 children, or nearly 26%, who needed physical therapy.

The report showcases a yearslong problem with the city’s public preschool system, which serves 3- and 4-year-olds: Programs struggle to provide all children with the services they need, as they are legally required to do. Young children’s access to these services might be more crucial now, since some of these students may have missed out on necessary services as infants and toddlers early in the pandemic, like tens of thousands of kids nationally.

The greatest disparity in who received services was based on language: Sixty-nine percent of children who required only English instruction received their services, versus 53.5% of those who needed to be taught in another language.

The racial and socioeconomic disparities were smaller. While 69% of white students fully received services, the same was true for 67% of Hispanic children, 65.5% of Black children, and 62% of Asian children. Sixty-seven percent of permanently housed students received services, versus 61% of homeless children.

The city’s data might actually “significantly” underreport the problem, the report said. The education department considers a child “fully served” if they received at least one session of all of their required services, the report said.

“A child whose occupational therapist quits in November and is never replaced, or a preschooler who waits six months for mandated speech therapy to begin because the DOE is unable to find a provider, is not fully served from the perspective of their parents and teachers, but they are left out of the counts above,” the report said.

In December, Mayor Eric Adams vowed to open hundreds of additional seats for preschool children with disabilities to ensure that all children get the seats that they’re entitled to. Advocates have praised that commitment, but it already is being tested. While the city has opened 700 new seats this school year for students with more challenging disabilities, about 300 preschoolers are still waiting for a spot, the report noted.

Having access to seats is a perennial issue. Last year, just over 1,000 preschool children who required a small special education class did not have access to those seats by the end of last school year, according to the report.

“We agree with the concerns of our parents and advocates that for far too long students with disabilities were excluded from programming and services,” Nicole Brownstein, a spokesperson for the city’s education department, said in a statement. “This administration is committed to righting this wrong.”

But the city’s commitment to open more seats doesn’t address the ongoing shortage of staff who can provide extra required services for these children, one significant reason why children are missing out on services, said Betty Baez Melo, director of the Early Childhood Education Project at Advocates For Children. The city contracts with outside organizations to provide many of these services, so Advocates For Children is calling on Adams to spend another $50 million to increase pay for those service providers and hire their own staffers.

Brownstein noted that the education department has expanded its own teams who provide services to preschool children, including hiring an additional 24 speech therapists, 23 occupational itinerant therapists, and 12 physical therapists.

The $50 million request from Advocates For Children would also go toward speeding up evaluations for children, another weak area the report cited. Nearly 16% of children, or 1,974, who were eligible for preschool special education services waited more than 60 days — the legal deadline — for a meeting to determine what extra services they should receive, according to the organization. That’s a similar rate to last school year.

Over the last three years, the education department has opened 21 Preschool Regional Assessment (PRAC) teams, which provide evaluations in addition to state-approved agencies that the city contracts with. This school year, staffers on PRAC teams had the option of working overtime, allowing more students to get evaluated — something they plan to do again next school year, officials said.

Still, education department officials said there are not enough agencies to meet the evaluation needs of preschool students, as more children have been referred for services since the pandemic. They plan to work with city, state, and federal government officials to ensure there’s enough funding to link students with necessary services.

While data for this school year is not yet available, the organization reported that it’s received many calls from families who have struggled to access services for their young children. One of those calls was from Terese, a mother in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn who asked to use her first name only for privacy reasons.

Her 4-year-old son required the help of a special education itinerant teacher, or an SEIT, who helps children like hers with disabilities inside of a general education preschool class. But in February, that teacher left her son’s preschool with no replacement.

Terese spent a month emailing the main special education contact in her district about a replacement teacher with no response, even taking days off work to deal with the issue, she said. Meanwhile, her son was talking less at home.

“The teacher started reporting to me that he was not communicating in the classroom,” Terese said.

Terese’s problem was not unique. According to the report, roughly 1,300 preschoolers, or nearly one in five children did not have an SEIT all last school year, even though their IEP required one.

Eventually Terese contacted Advocates For Children, which advised her to lodge a complaint through 311. After that, a special education official with her district responded, blaming the lack of a teacher on a staffing shortage. By mid-May, her son once again had an SEIT, she said.

“I felt all alone,” Terese said. “The DOE just left me to fend for myself with my child with special needs.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.