Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.
New York City’s Education Department plans to train hundreds of new parent volunteers to help families overcome challenges affecting school attendance, Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said Thursday.
The department will also launch new student-led anti-vaping and anti-bullying campaigns.
These programs are the first steps in a plan called NYCPS Cares, created in response to the problems Aviles-Ramos heard during a five-borough listening tour she held in recent months. Among the issues that came up at these sessions: youth struggles with mental health, students feeling unsafe commuting to school, calls for more support for new immigrants, and the need for expanded access to sports and other extracurriculars.
“We cannot punish parents when kids cannot get to school. We need to ask the question; ‘Parents, what is keeping your children from getting to school and how can we help you?‘” Aviles-Ramos said Thursday in East Harlem kicking off the initiative. “Our parent leaders are our best partners to make sure we give our parents everything they need so our babies can get to school every single day.”
The “family connectors” program will train participants on how to help families in their schools access such city resources as housing support, food benefits, and mental and physical health providers.
Officials will begin rolling the program out in 12 of the city’s 32 community school districts that have higher levels of poverty, chronic absenteeism, and teacher turnover, but said people from other districts can also apply. The city ultimately plans to have a family connector in each of the city’s 1,600 public schools, a spokesperson said.
The program is unpaid for parent volunteers, unlike a previous COVID-era initiative that paid parents $500 stipends to become “wellness ambassadors.”
Brooklyn parent leader NeQuan McLean, who spoke at Thursday’s event, joked that he was looking forward to “another unpaid job.” Many of the primary roles for parent leaders — including serving on Community Education Councils and the Panel for Educational Policy — are uncompensated.
But McLean said the effort could still be a “gamechanger” by “codifying” and offering additional support for the kinds of work that many involved parent leaders already perform.
The advantage of keeping the position unpaid is that parent volunteers may feel less beholden to the Education Department, he added.
“Once they begin to pay you, then you are limited to what you can say or do,” McLean said.
Aviles-Ramos echoed that the initiative is largely about “formalizing the work [parent leaders] are already doing organically.”
The anti-bullying and anti-vaping initiative is expected to tap students to deliver the message to their peers rather than adults, officials said.
Annual student surveys show that bullying, particularly online, is a rising concern for city students. Roughly 43% of students in the most recent survey reported seeing regular bullying and harassment online, up from 35% in 2024.
“These campaigns will tell you more than ‘don’t vape’ and ‘don’t bully’ because we know how effective that is,” Aviles-Ramos said.
Jesus Peguero, a middle school student wearing an “Escape the Vape” shirt at Thursday’s event said he’s been part of a group brainstorming effective messages to steer peers away from vaping. That includes, for example, telling athletes “they won’t be able to continue what they’re doing” if they vape, he saId.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the campaigns would require additional funding. State Attorney General Letitia James announced last year she was sending $27 million to New York City for anti-vaping campaigns. The money came from a settlement in a successful lawsuit against the e-cigarette giant Juul, which was accused of illegally marketing its products to youth.
The chancellor expects to announce other aspects of the NYCPS Cares plan closer to the start of next school year. It’s the first major initiative Aviles-Ramos has announced since taking over in October after her predecessor David Banks unexpectedly retired. She has largely committed to continuing Banks’ major initiatives, including literacy and math curriculum overhauls.
Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org
