Chalkbeat

As shelter limit for migrant families nears, NYC schools try to prepare

2023-11-29T23:37:59+00:00

New York City schools have started preparing for a massive reshuffling of students as early as next month, as thousands of migrant families face a new limit on shelter stays, education officials said during a Wednesday city council hearing.

Approximately 2,700 families have received notices since Oct. 27 that they’ll either have to reapply for shelter or find alternative housing within 60 days, according to a City Hall spokesperson. That means families will have to leave their shelters as early as Dec. 27. For families who do reapply for shelter, there’s no guarantee they’ll end up in the same site, or even the same borough.

Mayor Eric Adams has argued that the limits are necessary to relieve severe overcrowding in the city’s shelter amid an unprecedented and ongoing influx of migrants, many of whom are seeking asylum. Case workers will help families figure out next steps, according to city officials.

But educators and advocates have sounded the alarm for months that the policy could have devastating educational consequences.

Preparations are underway to try to minimize the disruptions and inform families of their rights, especially in Manhattan where the shelters are concentrated, Education Department officials said on Wednesday.

“What we’ve started to do is look very closely at where those students are located, engage principals, engage superintendents,” said Flavia Puello-Perdomo, an Education Department official who oversees students in temporary housing. “While we can’t fully control all the implications of the 60-day rules … as much as possible we’ll ensure every family is aware they have the right to stay in their schools.”

Federal law requires school districts to provide transportation for homeless students so they can remain in their schools. The city Education Department offers school buses for homeless students in kindergarten to sixth grade, and MetroCards for older kids. But arranging that transportation can take a long time, and the city’s sprawling school bus system is notoriously unreliable, according to advocates and educators.

Many families may opt to transfer rather than enduring that uncertainty and a potentially grueling commute.

One Manhattan school is getting ready to call all of its migrant families to ask if they’ve received the notices and walk them through their options, according to the principal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

But the principal said no amount of preparation will prevent the massive disruptions ahead.

“It’s going to be like musical shelters,” the principal said. “All these kids who we’ve spent the last 10 months building relationships with … we’re going to break that bond.”

Schools brace for logistical challenges

During Wednesday’s council hearing on immigrant students, Education Department officials offered a glimpse at the huge logistical challenges schools and families are facing as the 60-day deadlines hit.

The first task will be figuring out which families have even received the notices and where they are headed.

Staffers who work with the newly-arrived families said it’s possible some will leave the city or find their own apartments, but others will have no option other than reapplying for shelter.

“I’ve visited the shelter near me,” said the Manhattan principal. “My assumption is that if they had a better option, they would’ve already used it.”

The Education Department doesn’t have a data-sharing agreement with Health + Hospitals, the agency that administers many of the newly-created Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, or HERRCs, where migrants are residing. That means schools won’t get automatic updates when children transfer from one shelter to another, officials said.

It could fall largely to schools to track down families to figure out if they’ve received a 60-day notice, where they’re moving, and whether they’ll need transportation – an especially daunting challenge given many of the newly-arrived families still may not have reliable phones.

The Education Department employs roughly 100 community coordinators who work directly with families in shelters – but that’s far short of the more than 360 shelters now operating across the city, according to an Education Department official.

Delays in figuring out where families have transferred will lead to delays in arranging transportation or finding new school placements.

Families face long commutes, school transfers

Even if the communication between schools and families is seamless, families who have to leave their shelters will face the tough decision of enduring a longer commute or transferring schools.

The Manhattan principal said several families have already switched shelters, and opted to remain at the school – but their attendance has suffered.

Schools across the city are already struggling with elevated rates of chronic absenteeism and the problem is even more severe for students in shelters, over 70% of whom were chronically absent last school year. The reshuffling from the 60-day notices will likely make that worse, the principal argued.

Transportation is especially challenging from the newly-opened shelter at Floyd Bennett, a former airfield in southern Brooklyn. The emergency shelter, which officials say can accommodate 500 families, has drawn fierce criticism from advocates who say it’s inappropriate for children, and some families have refused to stay there.

Education Department officials said on Monday that roughly 195 children staying at the shelter have registered for school. But Glenn Risbrook, the Education Department’s senior executive director for student transportation, acknowledged it’s in a “transportation desert” and said the agency has arranged for a coach bus to connect families to public transportation so they can get to school.

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

What’s in a name? Students at NYC’s largest school for newcomer immigrants push for change

2023-12-05T18:48:01+00:00

The name of New York City’s largest public school for immigrant students succinctly describes who it serves: Newcomers High School.

The school, located near a cluster of newly opened homeless shelters in Long Island City, Queens, has lived up to its name, enrolling perhaps more migrant students over the past two school years than any other in the city. Its roster jumped from roughly 800 two years ago to more than 1,400 now, according to Education Department records.

Often, over the school’s 30-year history, the name has served as a badge of honor, especially when Newcomers won national recognition for its academic achievement. The school is one of about 20 across the city designed to provide more targeted support and help new arrivals acclimate to life in the U.S.

But as New York City grapples with political and economic tensions surrounding the ongoing influx of migrants, the school’s student government wants a name change.

“The brand ‘Newcomers’ does not identify us any more,” Brianna Segarra, a senior and the student government president, said at a recent meeting of the city’s Panel on Educational Policy. “We are hurt by it, by all the people in the U.S. who are against migration.”

The name, she worries, “puts a target on us.”

Changing the name of a New York City school isn’t easy. It involves securing the approval of the Parent Association and principal, soliciting public comment at a community education council meeting, and getting a final sign-off from the chancellor.

Students pushing the name change at Newcomers are still in the early stages. They haven’t come up with a replacement name and haven’t yet begun the process of gathering input from all kinds of people with a stake in the school, said teacher and student government adviser Aixa Rodriguez.

Principal Elizabeth Messmann, who couldn’t be reached for comment, said in an email to staffers on Monday that the School Leadership Team, a body composed of staff, parent and student leaders, has begun discussing “rebranding the school.”

There’s also likely to be pushback.

“The fear [is] that if we change the name, will it change the character of the school?” said Rodriguez. “Are we killing the legacy of the last 30 years?”

A sweatshirt design raises questions of belonging

Student government leaders say they began considering the idea of a name change while designing the annual school-branded sweatshirt.

Demand for the Newcomers hoodie was through the roof this year.

Many new arrivals lack winter gear, and were excited to add a warm item to their wardrobes, student leaders said.

But when the student government began gathering feedback on this year’s design, they heard the same thing again and again from peers.

New York City Public Schools Chancellor David C. Banks poses for a photograph with students from Newcomers High School.

“They said the name was really big. They said, ‘I don’t want the name ‘Newcomers’” featured so prominently,” said Lindsay Abad, a senior and student government secretary who hails from Ecuador. Students worried it would make them vulnerable to “suffering a hate crime or something like that.”

The influx of migrants that began in summer 2022 and has included roughly 30,000 students has spurred bursts of generosity as well as vitriol, with protests against new shelters springing up across the city.

Students are acutely aware of that charged political climate, said Rodriguez, the teacher who advises the student government. They’ve also confronted some of it head-on.

Students confided in staff that they’ve heard insulting comments on public transit, Rodriguez said. They’ve also heard them during sports games at other schools.

“They don’t want to be associated with something that feels negative. They want to belong,” Ridriguez said. “When they’re going on a train or a bus to a game, they don’t want that attention.”

Several students also said they were hurt by a New York Post article suggesting that swelling enrollment had forced students from a school that shares the building to relocate to another campus across the street.

An Education Department spokesperson denied that claim, but the story still stung, students said.

Many Newcomers students felt the implication was “we are here occupying a space that is not ours,” said Mary Barcarse, a senior and student government chairperson originally from the Philippines.

That’s not to say the enrollment boom hasn’t posed real challenges, said Rodriguez.

Class sizes have ballooned, while class rosters are constantly in flux as new students arrive and others leave due to transient housing situations, Rodriguez said. Many of the new students are carrying significant trauma while juggling competing responsibilities like a pressure to work or care for siblings, she added.

Students say they were steered to Newcomers

Some students said the discussion about the name “Newcomers” has pushed them to reconsider a more fundamental question about educating immigrant students: whether they should be enrolled in separate schools in the first place.

The student government leaders who spoke to Chalkbeat said they didn’t feel like they had much choice about where to enroll and were pushed towards Newcomers.

“They said, ‘You’re from Ecuador, you go to Newcomers,’” Abad recounted.

There can be advantages to attending a school populated exclusively by immigrant students: classmates who can relate to your experiences, teachers who are seasoned in supporting language development, and a climate that’s inclusive and welcoming, students and staff said.

But there are also drawbacks. With fewer native English speakers, students at Newcomers said they feel like they’re missing out on critical chances to improve their English. And because the school focuses so many of its resources on language support, some students felt it offered fewer options for acceleration, electives, and specialized tracks than other high schools.

Regardless of which model works best, students said they wished they’d gotten more choice in where they enrolled. They worry that many of the new arrivals are getting funneled into a similarly narrow range of schools.

The name “Newcomers,” they argue, reinforces the idea that immigrant students only belong in one type of school, and that only one type of student belongs at schools like Newcomers.

Students also said the name doesn’t feel entirely accurate. At least 50 members of the school’s senior class were born in the U.S. and are citizens, but recently returned to the country after time abroad, according to Rodriguez.

“They feel it labels them,” she said, “in a way that doesn’t reflect every single person who walks in this door.”

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

Migrant families and schools brace for wave of shelter evictions

2024-01-08T10:00:00+00:00

This article is part of an ongoing collaboration between Chalkbeat and THE CITY.

Thousands of migrant families with school-aged children will begin having their time in city shelters run out starting Tuesday as the first 60-day eviction notices, which the city began passing out in October, start to expire.

Among those whose time runs out Tuesday is Joana, 38, a Venezuelan mother who asked that her last name not be used. She said in recent days she’s been having hard conversations with her 8-year-old daughter about what’s in store.

“I try to explain to her as gently as I can the reality,” Joana said in Spanish. “So she can understand why we’re leaving this place, where her school bus comes to get her, where she’s lived for a year, and where she feels like it’s part of her home.”

The shelter evictions for families with children mark the beginning of yet another city policy shift on homelessness, as Mayor Eric Adams struggles to contend with a ballooning shelter population driven largely by the arrival of more than 160,000 migrants, which cost the city $1.4 billion last fiscal year.

Through the end of December, 122,700 people were living in shelters, including over 68,300 migrants, the vast majority of whom are families with children.

Thus far only adults without children have been subject to the Adams administration’s attempts to eject migrants from city shelters. The city has limited their stays to 30 days. In order to reapply for another stint afterwards, adults must now brave long lines in the cold for hours and sleep on the floor of various waiting rooms for more than a week, with limited access to food and showers, before they can secure another cot.

To date, most families with children have been spared this kind of disruption. Adams has repeatedly said his administration’s goal is for no families with children to sleep on the streets — but exactly how family evictions will be carried out is still unclear.

Since the city unveiled its family eviction policy in October, about a third of migrant families in the city’s care have been hit with 60-day eviction notices, or around 4,800 families, a city spokesperson said.

Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for the Adams administration, said families who have nowhere else to go when their time in shelters ends will be directed to return to the Roosevelt Hotel, the city’s main intake center, to request another 60-day placement. The city will try to place families in or near the school district where kids are currently enrolled in schools, she added. No child would be forced to change schools, as is required by federal law.

But up through last week, those instructions still hadn’t been communicated to families directly in writing. Several 60-day notices distributed to families reviewed by THE CITY only said that the city would help send you to another location, and if you had any further questions you could talk to staff at the hotel. Parents who spoke with THE CITY said social workers had told them about the option to go to the Roosevelt Hotel.

Joana said that’s where she planned to do Tuesday: pull her daughter out of school for at least for the day and head to the Roosevelt Hotel to try to get another shelter placement.

“I’m trusting in God that we’ll have another place to stay,” she said in Spanish.

Mamelak reiterated Mayor Adams’ frequent plea that with 33,000 migrant children enrolled in schools since June of 2022, the city still needs more help from the state and federal governments.

“While we are grateful for the assistance from our state and federal partners, for months, we have warned that, without more, this crisis could play out on city streets,” Mamelak said. “It is crucial — now, more than ever — that the federal government finish the job they started by allowing migrants to immediately work, and to come up with a strategy that ensures migrants are not convening on one, or even just a handful of cities across the country.”

‘I have no idea what to do’

The evictions are slated to begin at the Row Hotel in Midtown on Tuesday, which has rooms for 1,000 families. Forty families will run out of time on the first day, and another 250 families will see their shelter stays expire during the first week, according to Josh Goldfein, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society, who is in direct communication with city agencies on behalf of the Coalition for the Homeless.

After the Row, other families at other Midtown hotels like The Stewart, The Watson, and the Wolcott will see their time run out, expanding to around 100 families ejected per day in the coming weeks, Goldfein said.

Ahead of the evictions, residents of The Row who spoke with THE CITY described a mix of anxiety, dread, and resolve.

“The kids have already missed so much school,” said Yeisi Zerpa, a 26-year-old Venezuelan mother of four, who said she’d had to pull the kids out of school to apartment hunt ahead of her eviction date Tuesday.

“If every 60 days I’m going to leave the shelter and get back in line, that’s going to be stress all the time, the kids won’t be able to go to school,” she said in Spanish.

With the help of a kind woman she’d met while begging for change and subsequently become friends with, she’d managed to find a room her family of six would share in a Bronx apartment.

Zerpa is still waiting for her work permit to come through, and was looking for work cleaning houses, but wasn’t sure how she’d pay the rent going forward.

“I have no idea what to do,” she said, adding she was still trying to figure out if she should keep her daughters at the same school or transfer them to somewhere closer. In the weeks ahead of her eviction, she said social workers at the Row offered little guidance.

“No one has helped us to find a rental,” she added. “You ask the social worker a question and they don’t know anything. You don’t have the help of anyone there.”

City officials didn’t return a request for comment about how many people had moved out ahead of their evictions this week. But several other families who spoke with THE CITY said they had managed to secure alternative living arrangements ahead of their final days at the hotel.

Lorena Espinosa Castro, a 36-year-old mother of two from Peru, was moving out trash bags of her belongings on a recent afternoon, headed to a studio apartment in Corona that she’d rented for $800 a month through a friend. In nearly a year in New York City, Castro had managed to find work as a server in a Mexican restaurant not so far from her new apartment.

“The truth is I always wanted to get out of there,” Castro said in Spanish. “I couldn’t cook. My girls, we didn’t eat well. It’s our moment to be more independent. I fought for it.”

“The help of the government is over,” she said.

At some Manhattan elementary schools with large populations of migrant students, families have already started disappearing as the deadlines for the 60-day notices approach.

“Since about two weeks prior to the vacation, we’ve lost a lot of students,” including around 10 this week alone, said a teacher at a Manhattan elementary school that’s enrolled a large number of migrant families, including many living at The Row. The teacher spoke on the condition of anonymity and asked that the school not be named for fear of retaliation.

Watching students who have been at the school for months and built connections abruptly drop off of the school roster is wrenching, the teacher said.

“There’s something really special about watching students grow in a space and become acclimated and familiar. So it’s hard when they’re moved,” the teacher said.

Many other migrants who spoke with THE CITY ahead of their eviction dates said they hadn’t been able to find anywhere else to go and planned to return to the Roosevelt Hotel hoping for another place to stay.

Piedad, a 49-year-old mother who asked that her last name be withheld, expressed a fear that they’d be sent to the far off tents at Floyd Bennett field, where families live in a quasi-congregate setting miles from the nearest neighborhood — a concern shared by many families in recent days.

“We’re hoping, with God’s will, we’ll get another shelter, and not the tents,” she said in Spanish.

‘We’re adding to these kids’ trauma’

Since October, the city has been issuing 60-day notices to families that have been staying in shelters run by the city Health and Hospitals system for more than a year, as well as many more recently arrived families, including all those at Floyd Bennett Field.

So far, the approximately 8,800 migrant families living in shelters overseen by the city’s Department of Homeless Services, which is subject to more strict state oversight, have been spared the shelter evictions. In November, however, city officials requested permission from the state to expand the policy to those families as well, according to Anthony Farmer, a spokesperson for the state’s office of Temporary Disability Administration. As of last week, the state had still not granted that request.

Goldfein and other advocates have looked at the daily chaos unfurling outside the city’s reticketing site in the East Village and fear a similarly dire situation could await families with young kids later this week.

“We’re certainly very concerned,” Goldfein said. “We asked about that and they believe they have it under control. But we’ll see.”

Schools are also preparing for another destabilizing shuffle, the Manhattan teacher told THE CITY, as some students leave and new ones come in.

“All year is just constantly readjusting to try to catch students up, readjust the dynamics of the classroom, rebuild community,” the teacher said. “It’s a heavy load for teachers.”

One Education Department source familiar with planning for the 60-day notices called the educational impact on children would be immense. “We’re adding to these kids’ trauma,” the source said.

Unlike the Department of Homeless Services, which has a data sharing agreement with the Education Department so schools can directly look up where homeless students have been transferred too, Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs large-scale family migrant shelters, has no similar arrangement. Schools will thus be flying blind come Tuesday.

“The only thing these children have consistently in their lives is school,” the source said. “So now you’re taking them out of shelter, you’re putting them someplace else. They’re not gonna be in school for a few days easily. They have to adjust to a new environment and if they’re lucky, they figure out how to get back to that school.”

The Education Department has been recommending families bring information about their schools with them to the Roosevelt Hotel, so that they might be placed in the same borough as their child’s school.

Nicole Brownstein, a spokesperson for the Education Department, said schools had been working directly with emergency shelters, “to support all students and their families and ensure there is no gap in services, whether they transition to a new school community or choose to stay in their current school.”

The city has touted their 30-day policy for adults for reducing the number of people who return to seek another 30-day placement to just 20% of those who had their time run out.

But Goldfein with the Legal Aid Society said if the city really needed to move people around, it could reassign them directly from their current hotels, instead of sending them into a lurch of uncertainty at the Roosevelt Hotel, where it’s not clear where they’ll end up or how long it will take. He described the situation as a “logistical nightmare merry-go-round.”

“There’s a bigger question of why do you need to do this,” he said. “Do you need people to move just to harass them? To push them to move out?”

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.

NYC sends families from tent shelter to sleep on school floor during storm

2024-01-09T22:38:29+00:00

This article is part of an ongoing collaboration between Chalkbeat and THE CITY.

Officials hastily moved hundreds of families living at the Floyd Bennett Field migrant shelter in Brooklyn early Tuesday evening as a powerful storm with wind gusts exceeding 60 miles per hour hit the city.

The families were bused to relatively nearby James Madison High School, in Marine Park, to rest as best they could in chairs or on floors. By 4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning the winds had died down and families were bused back to Floyd Bennett, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management.

Despite that scheduled departure time, an alert sent by the school late Tuesday afternoon advised students and their parents that classes would “pivot to remote” on Wednesday.

The sudden move by the Adams administration drew ire from all sides, with homeless rights advocates and the migrants themselves decrying the disruption for families, and local parents slamming the city’s use of the public school.

People living at the field shelter made of tents described a chaotic and stressful day that included: learning of the impromptu evacuation just hours before it was slated to occur before 4 p.m. racing back to the Floyd Bennett after picking up their children from schools to try to catch the buses to Madison; and crowding in the school’s auditorium and cafeteria with hundreds of others spending the night in chairs or on the ground.

“They want us like animals sending us from here to there,” a 31-year-old mother of three from Venezuela told THE CITY in Spanish, asking that her name be withheld out of fear of retribution for speaking out. ‘’This is craziness.”

She noted that she was thankful for the help of the city for a place to stay — “but this isn’t how children and families should be treated.”

A group of migrants race into James Madison High School in Brooklyn after city officials evacuated Floyd Bennett Field during a rainstorm, Jan. 9, 2023.

In an impromptu press conference early Tuesday afternoon to announce and explain the evacuation, city Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Zachary Iscol, said the agency started notifying families at the shelter at 11 a.m that buses would take them to Madison High School that evening.

By that time many families had already left the shelter for the day for jobs and school, though word spread of the planned evacuation on WhatsApp groups.

“We are doing this out of an abundance of caution because of the high winds,” Iscol said.

Iscol said that tents shelters for migrant adults on Randall’s Island and Creedmoor Psychiatric Facility were not slated for evacuation because both had more protection from the wind and pilings dug into the ground that made them more sturdy than the Floyd Bennett location.

“It’s a really complex operation,” he added.

Spokespeople for OEM, the mayor’s office, and the city’s hospitals system, which runs many migrant shelters, didn’t respond to requests for comment immediately about the lack of cots for the migrants staying at the high school.

Critics of Mayor Eric Adams’ handling of the arrival of migrants denounced the rapid move out of hundreds of children and families.

“The need for the city to find temporary shelter for the people already in temporary shelter demonstrates that the site was not adequately set up for extreme weather on top of the hardship this isolated and inadequately serviced location, miles from the nearest neighborhood school, already imposes on its residents,” said city Comptroller Brad Lander, a regular critic of the mayor.

‘It’s overwhelming’

The evacuation Tuesday came the same day evictions began for migrant families staying in the Row Hotel in Manhattan, as part of the city’s new policy limiting shelter stays for some migrant families to just 60 days.

Around 40 families were forced to leave Tuesday, officials from the city’s Health and Hospital corporation said, with the number expected to quickly ramp up to around 100 families per day. About 4,800 families have received 60-day notices that will force them out of hotel rooms in the coming weeks, city officials said.

Maria Quero, 26, who is eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her first child, said she’d begged her social workers at the Row to let her stay until after she gave birth. She’d presented a doctor’s note to staff, she said, but was denied an extension.

Pregnant migrant, Maria, leaves the Row Hotel shelter after receiving an eviction notice, Jan. 9, 2024.

Instead she trudged across Midtown with her husband from the Row to the Roosevelt Hotel Tuesday morning to ask for another 60-day placement while hoping to still make her prenatal doctor’s appointment later that day.

“I can’t be sitting down a lot, my hips are hurting,” she said in Spanish. “It’s overwhelming, it’s really stressful.”

By that evening Quero said she’d be reassigned to a shelter in Brooklyn.

Asked about Quero’s situation at the Tuesday press briefing, Dr. Ted Long, who oversees migrant shelters run by NYC Health and Hospitals, said: “We look forward to helping Maria.

“They deserve that stability — that stability can never be in the hotel room,” Long added, speaking generally about why the city has set 60-day shelter stay limits for families. “It can only be with our help, how we get them to complete their journey.”

‘Everyone is feeling sad’

Staff at James Madison — the alma matter of both U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer — said they first learned of the plan around noon Tuesday. They were told that the migrant families would arrive after students left Tuesday afternoon and would be gone by the time school starts Wednesday morning.

“It’s an enormous logistical challenge, but if you throw enough bodies at it you can do it,” said a staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Sixteen-year-old junior Spencer Katz said students learned about the evacuation Tuesday afternoon, and most of the discussion focused on whether or not school would be canceled Wednesday.

“I was expecting some people to be racist,” Katz said, but “I was pretty pleasantly surprised by how cool everyone was about it … Every single person I know has an immigrant as a parent or grandparent, so everyone was pretty understanding.”

As supportive as some students were, local Republican Councilmember Inna Vernikov denounced the use of the school in a video on X directed at Adams. “This is unacceptable!” she posted. “Stop this now and take the migrants into Gracie Mansion!”

The shelter has already proven a lightning rod in the GOP-leaning district and word of migrants moving into the school drew ire of right wing commentators and some residents. Video posted to X by a reporter for The New York Post showed a woman who identified herself as “an agitated mother,” heckling the migrants, yelling they were “taking over” her kids’ school.

“How does it feel that you kicked all the kids out of school tomorrow?” she yelled. “I hope you sleep really well tonight.”

The Adams administration also faced pushback from homeless rights advocates at the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless, who issued a joint statement slamming the city’s hasty evacuation as “traumatic and disruptive.”

“This last-minute evacuation further proves that Floyd Bennett Field — a facility mired in a flood zone, miles from schools and other services — has never and will never serve as an appropriate and safe place to shelter families with children,” the group said.

An earlier wind storm in mid-December also caused chaos for migrant families, many of whom described a sleepless night with crying children, or were terrified the tents would collapse.

A 38-year-old mother of three, who asked that her name not be published to avoid repercussions from staff at the shelter said the latest commotion at the tents were stressful and exhausting for families.

“It’s not a life, it’s not good for the kids,” she said. “Everyone is feeling sad.”

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.

Brooklyn high school baffled by media frenzy over migrant families’ one-night stay

2024-01-12T02:59:30+00:00

This article is part of an ongoing collaboration between Chalkbeat and THE CITY.

Students at James Madison High School Madison returned to classes Thursday without fanfare, after the school received hate calls and even a bomb threat for serving as an emergency shelter Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning for migrants with children.

The families living in tents in an airfield arrived at the school after 5 p.m. on Tuesday to wait out a heavy rain and wind storm, and left the school before 5 a.m. Wednesday morning. Even before their departure, the migrants’ presence and the principal’s decision to shift to remote classes on Wednesday immediately became a talking point for right-wing pundits nationwide.

But parents, staffers and students who spoke with THE CITY expressed shock that the school had made it into the national spotlight, for what they saw, in the scheme of things, as a relatively minor disruption.

“I understand the frustration. No one wants their kids to be displaced out of their school, but it was just one day,” said Marsha Thompson-Miles, a mother of an 11th grader at the school and the head of its Parent-Teacher Association.

“In America we have so much and we have to deal with so little. Wars are raging around the world and we don’t really feel the effects of it,” she said, adding she felt pride that the school had provided a space for families in need.

“For one night people didn’t have to deal with rain and wind and the elements. They felt safe and warm,” she added.

While pundits raged about a supposed “takeover,” students had one day of remote lessons on Wednesday, with after-school activities canceled and a dance scheduled for that evening postponed.

School officials said the NYPD had thoroughly inspected the building and custodians gave it a deep clean before students and staff returned on Thursday.

A staffer who asked not to be named said Wednesdays tend to be a shorter day for students, and that the lingering impact of the storm would have made it difficult for some students to get to school in any event.

“It has been pretty quiet here,” the staffer said. “We went remote for one day, that’s it.”

Hate calls and a bomb threat

As 70-mile-an-hour gusts of wind bore down on New York City Tuesday, officials hastily evacuated 1,900 parents and children from a tent shelter located at the remote Floyd Bennett Field, busing them to the high school to shelter in the school gym, auditorium and cafeteria in chairs and on the ground for the night.

While their stay lasted for less than 12 hours, prominent conservatives treated the migrants’ presence at the school as nothing less than an invasion, with talk radio dedicating hours to the topic while Elon Musk tweeted that migrants “will come for your homes” next. Angry commenters followed suit, flooding the school’s Facebook page after officials announced the day of remote learning.

“They are putting these people over our students,” one commenter said. Another added: “That school needs to be disinfected.”

The vitriol wasn’t just online. A woman identifying herself as an “agitated mother” heckled the migrants as they entered the school in the rain Tuesday evening. And during a Zoom call hosted by Principal Jodie Cohen and Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol, the two were shouted down by several outraged parents, several attendees said.

By Wednesday, city officials said the school had received “a torrent of hate calls and even a bomb threat,” Iscol said at a press briefing that morning. He added, “we don’t foresee us using James Madison High School again.”

Later on Wednesday, Assemblymember Michael Novakhov (R-Brooklyn) held a rally outside the school where he invoked the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, saying that “they wanna bring more and more people who rely on the government and vote for them.”

Republican Councilmember Inna Vernikov, who represents parts of southern Brooklyn, made the rounds on national television to complain that “our kids are really being punished.”

On Thursday, Curtis Sliwa, who ran against Mayor Eric Adams in the 2021 mayoral election and has been rallying against migrant shelters over the last year, blocked traffic outside of the Kings Plaza Shopping Center while calling for the Floyd Bennett shelter to close.

“Now the parents and the children who go to Madison High School have to be penalized,” he said. “Nobody’s happy about the situation.”

James Madison High School junior Akib Chowdhury said he wasn’t disrupted by migrants staying in the school’s gym during a storm, Jan. 11, 2024.

“It was kind of sad to see,” he said, when the migrants “just want a better place, a better place to live.”

‘Kind of crazy’

The neighborhoods of Marine Park, Madison, and Midwood surrounding the high school have trended Republican, voting heavily for Trump in 2016.

But members of the school community pointed out James Madison’s diverse student body; out of 3,700 students, 500 are English language learners; 19% are Asian, 16% are Latino and 10% are Black, according to Department of Education statistics.

Others pointed out the school’s history as the alma mater of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders and a place that’s long been a haven for immigrants of all kinds, from Holocaust survivors to Russians fleeing communism.

“Madison High School has always been a melting pot,” said Steve Kastenbaum, a veteran radio reporter and alumni of the school.

“People within the alumni community were quite frankly appalled that some people in Brooklyn exhibited the vitriolic rhetoric that was aimed at these people who were seeking shelter in a storm.”

A few students leaving the high school Thursday afternoon expressed their own trepidation about what had happened there.

“They put them over us students which is kind of crazy,” said a 15-year-old.

Another student lamented the school no longer felt safe for her. “It doesn’t feel like my safe space. It usually feels like my safe space.”

But many others took the remote day in stride, and said they felt their voices had been missing from the national news about their school. Zola Zephirin, a senior, said many students were upset by how things appeared on television and online.

“The hostility towards the migrants was definitely uncalled for,” she said. “These are people, they have families, they come here and attempt to make a better life, just like many of the students at Madison.”

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.

NYC’s youth shelter system locks out hundreds as migrants seek entry

2024-03-12T19:10:05+00:00

This story was originally published on March 12 by THE CITY.

In the depths of January, without a coat on his back, an 18-year-old orphan from Guinea named Mamdou spent a week riding the subways, before a stranger handed him a $20 bill and led him to the Roosevelt Hotel, the city’s main intake for newly arriving migrants. He got a 30-day shelter stint in a converted office tower in Midtown and a few weeks of relative peace after a perilous journey across the world.

But his anxiety built as his eviction day neared. He’d heard about Covenant House, a special youth shelter for people under the age of 21 overseen by the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, and was determined to secure a bed there.

“I went there every day, sometimes two or three times a day. They know me there,” he said in French on a recent afternoon, two days after he’d been ejected from his Midtown shelter after his 30 days ran out, under Mayor Eric Adams’ strict limits on stays for adult migrants in shelters.

Both nights since his eviction he’d slept outside on the sidewalk. “But every day when I go there they tell me there’s no room.”

The migrant crisis is increasingly intertwined with another crisis: an explosion in the number of homeless youth. Data obtained by THE CITY shows a dramatic increase in young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 reported as having been turned away from specialized shelters that serve young people in that age bracket, with 473 youth rebuffed in the second half of 2023 — up from seven in the first six months of the year.

Last year, DYCD funded about 800 youth shelter beds, with most of those available only to those under age 21, the agency reported to the City Council.

Service providers and advocates had warned for months that the city’s migrant response does not address the needs of the many young people arriving in New York on their own. Those advocates now say the official rejection numbers don’t begin to document just how many young people are unable to find a spot in a homeless youth shelter.

“I’ve been doing this work for 20 years,” said Jamie Powlovich, the director of the Coalition for Homeless Youth, a statewide consortium of more than 60 groups. “I have never seen the level of unmet needs and young people being further traumatized and forced to endure homelessness, especially street homelessness, ever.”

The coalition tallied more than 200 young people turned away from youth shelters in a 12-day period last fall, including seven children under the age of 18, after which they stopped keeping count.

“The list was getting too long, and it wasn’t moving,” Powlovich said. “We didn’t want to add people to a list and give them false hope.”

Advocates have been pressuring the city to make some concessions for youth in the adult migrant shelter system, urging that at the very least adopting the more forgiving 60-day shelter stay limits used for families with children under the age of 18.

“We’ve been told for about four months now that that is something that they’re working on,” Powlovich said. “But it hast happened yet.”

A spokesperson for City Hall didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly defended the city’s handling of the arrival of migrants from the southern border.

“This is a national problem that has been dropped in the lap of places like New York and Chicago, Massachusetts and others who have similar programs, 30‑ and 60‑day programs,” he said at a press conference this week. “We’ve done our job. New Yorkers have done their job, and we’re going to continue to do our job, but this is a national issue.”

While the city’s “right to shelter” court consent decrees are supposed to guarantee a bed that day to anyone who requests one, no legal requirement exists for teens or young adults to be placed in an age-appropriate shelter.

As a surge of teen and young adult migrants arrived last fall, they were funneled into the same tent shelters, converted warehouses and office buildings as other adult migrants without children. The city’s migrant intake centers don’t distinguish migrants in their late teens or early 20s from other adults, and the city doesn’t keep separate data about that age group.

Through the organizing of mutual aid and community groups, some newly arriving migrants have found their way into the specialized youth shelter system, which allows youth to stay longer and offers more specialized support services. But last fall, that system became overwhelmed and securing a bed within it became next to impossible, as reflected in the new city data.

After their 30 days in shelters run out, migrant youth are directed to the East Village “reticketing site” inside an old Catholic school, where they can get in line for another shelter cot, a wait which takes days or weeks. Those seeking new shelter placements are directed to spend nights in outer-borough waiting rooms where they can rest on the ground, but a city survey found that, like Mamdou, hundreds spent the night on the streets or trains instead.

THE CITY reported last month that the city Office of Emergency Management was working on plans to close the “overflow” locations.

‘A human cost’

The city’s eight youth drop-in centers, run by nonprofits, are the formal gateway into the youth shelter system, providing young homeless New Yorkers with clothing, food and showers, and linking them up with case workers who can help connect them with youth shelter beds if they become available. Those centers, too, have seen a sustained spike in usage over the past several months.

In January, 1,600 youth spent time in city drop in centers, a 28% increase from July according to monthly data reported by the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development. Case workers at those drop-in sites served 1,700 people in the first four months of the fiscal year, 300 more than the city had planned to serve in the entire year.

Yet Adams’ preliminary budget released in January proposed slashing $2 million from the $52 million allocated for runaway and homeless youth, eliminating 16 positions that help young people access permanent housing options. The Adams administration is also refusing to implement a recently passed law that would allow people in youth shelters to access CityFHEPS housing vouchers, saying the mandate is too expensive.

Mark Zustovich, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development said funding to shelters themselves remained the same in Adams’ proposed budget.

The department and the nonprofits that run shelters for homeless youth “are providing vital services to all youth who seek support — even as the number of young people accessing drop-ins has increased,” he said.

The surge in homeless youth comes a year after a controversial order by the Adams administration banning people from sleeping in 24-hour drop-in centers.

Youth who can’t find shelter are in jeopardy, advocates warn.

“A young woman had recently been discharged from her shelter because her 30 days was up. She didn’t know anybody in the city, spent a night on the street, and was brutally assaulted. That’s preventable,” said Joe Westmacott, a project assistant at Streetwork, which runs a drop-in center for homeless youth in Harlem, referring to an incident that THE CITY has not independently verified.

“We know from decades of research that street homelessness is expensive…. And there’s also a human cost.”

‘They want to go to school’

Many employees at youth facilities are taking the surge in new arrivals in stride, scaling up programs, deftly finding ways to communicate with hand signals in a plethora of languages, and retooling day-to-day operations like how much food they serve on site.

On a busy day before the latest surge in new arrivals, Safe Horizon’s Streetwork daytime drop-in center on 125th Street served about 50 young people a day who would pop in to use computers, eat a meal, peruse the closet of free clothing, or drop off dirty laundry.

Now the center sees about 100 people a day, almost exclusively newly arriving migrant youth who’ve learned about their services through word of mouth. Last fiscal year, the program enrolled 306 new youths into their programs. Four months into this year, they’ve enrolled 542.

Sebastien Vante, associate vice president at Safe Horizon, said they had to halt all new intakes, unable to accommodate any more people. While they can’t connect their clients to specialized youth shelter beds, there are other ways they can support them, he said.

They’ve taken to sending advocates to the East Village reticketing center with their clients, in order to try to advocate for them to get beds in shelters closer to schools if they’re enrolled. They offer referrals to immigration attorneys, and on a recent afternoon, dozens of migrant youth crammed into a back room of the facility intently listening into a demonstration about the asylum application process held in French and Arabic.

“Right now, this is who this is who’s walking through our doors,” Vante said. “Their needs are no different. They’re looking for shelter. They want long-term housing. They want to go to school. They wanna do all these different things.”

But, Vante went on, with its staff already working at capacity, “we spend a significant amount of time managing the expectations of the young people who come into our space,” Vante said.

Newly arrived young adults face challenges to NYC school enrollment

2024-03-19T20:24:30+00:00

This article was republished from City Limits, an independent, investigative news source.

The 20-year-old from Mauritania arrived in the city four months ago with the dream of graduating from high school in the United States.

”I want to make my life better. I am still a baby, and I should go to school to have more experience, to have more knowledge,” the youth—who preferred not to be identified by name, citing past experiences with other media—said in fluent English, something he quickly picked up from daily interactions, adding to the multitude of languages he already speaks. “I don’t want to lose my time.”

In only four months, he has moved from one shelter to the other: living first in Manhattan, then Brooklyn, and now the Bronx, after the city instituted a 30-day shelter limit for adult migrants in the city last year, which was extended last week to 60 days for adults under 23 as part of the city’s “right to shelter” settlement.

Over 852 single immigrant youth between the ages of 17 and 20 were in the city’s shelter system as of March 3, according to City Hall. Dozens of them have told shelter staff they want to graduate from high school, but haven’t been enrolled—even though they are entitled to do so under federal law, according to several community-based organizations (CBOs) that are trying to assist them.

Eight local organizations that provide services to immigrants and/or youth described delays and difficulties in enrolling young migrants recently. The organization with the highest number of cases was Safe Horizon’s Streetwork Project, a drop-in center for homeless youth that has been serving an increasing number of asylum seekers since last year, which says it has referred around 60 cases of migrants directly to the New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) since January.

But only six have been enrolled so far, lamented Sebastien Vante, associate vice president of Safe Horizon’s Streetwork Project in Harlem.Other organizations—Afrikana, an East Harlem community center that serves young immigrants; Artists Athletes Activists, which greets asylum seekers upon arrival and connects them with support services; the Coalition for Homeless Youth; The Door, which offers legal aid, counseling, and various support services to youth; and the New York Legal Assistance Group—told City Limits that the youth they serve have faced difficulties in school enrollment.

Some have been told there is no space, some have been put on waitlists and others said they were only given the option of taking the General Educational Development (GED) high school equivalency test, according to these groups.

When asked about these complaints, a New York City Public Schools spokesperson said the education department “does not track enrollment referrals and students are not asked to disclose how they received information about the enrollment process.”

“Enrollment does not work on a referral basis,” added the spokesperson in an email.

The department said it is working to ensure that older students who want to attend classes are afforded academic options including traditional high schools, transfer schools—which serve students who are behind in credits or need alternative forms of education—as well as adult GED programs.

“Since the inception of Project Open Arms, we have made it clear—we cannot do this work alone,” the spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the city’s initiative to offer educational support to new immigrants and asylum seekers.

But stating now that enrollment does not operate on a referral basis, advocates said, has created confusion, departing from how the city has historically enrolled unhoused young people referred by social services organizations.

“Providers have always utilized certain processes through relationships with students in temporary housing liaisons,” countered Jamie Powlovich, executive director for the Coalition for Homeless Youth. “If that process is no longer something NYC Public School supports, they didn’t tell anyone.”

Under the McKinney-Vento Act, a federal law that protects the educational rights of homeless children and youth, these young adults should be enrolled in school immediately, even in the absence of documentation such as proof of residency, immunizations, school records, or other documents normally required.

The New York State Education Law stipulates that those between the ages of 5 and 21 who have not received a high school diploma are “entitled to attend the public schools maintained in the district in which such person resides without the payment of tuition.”

Further, State Education Department guidance notes that, “Districts may not force such individuals to forego a full-time high school program to pursue this alternative option [GED test], or otherwise steer such individuals toward this alternative option.”

“I feel like almost all my clients in that specific situation—17 to 20, trying to get into high school—are almost always pushed towards the GED program,” said Salina Guzman, immigrant youth advocate at The Door. “I think very often, there are many barriers that our clients face when trying to get into high school.”

Since July 2022, about 36,000 students in temporary housing have enrolled in city schools, according to NYCPS, though the agency could not detail how many of them were aged 17-21.

To enroll, the department stated, prospective students must go through a Family Welcome Center, with locations in each of the five boroughs to handle year-round registration and admissions to traditional high schools.

But advocates say many immigrant youth have learned the hard way that they needed an appointment at these sites before showing up.

“[It] doesn’t sound like a huge issue,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students Rights Project at Advocates for Children of New York. “But if you’re brand new to the country, and you’re already very confused and trying to make a lot of pieces fit together, and make the trip to the Family Welcome Center, and they tell you that you can’t be there, that you have to go back—that might be a reason alone why a family decides to just stop trying.”

A NYCPS spokesperson disputed that appointments are required at Family Welcome Centers, saying they are recommended but that walk-ins are accepted too. Welcome Centers can provide referrals to students interested in transfer schools, but for other pathways to graduation, such as adult education programs, prospective students should visit a referral center instead, the spokesperson said.

However, migrants who do make appointments at these welcome centers are sometimes told there is no space or they have to go on a waiting list, advocates say.

In an email, a NYCPS spokesperson acknowledged the presence of waitlists at some of its Welcome Centers—one in Downtown Brooklyn, for example, had less than 20 students waiting at the time of publication—but said names are taken off those lists daily thanks to rolling admissions, and that prospective students have the option of applying through other enrollment centers if their local spot is full.

But advocates say what should be a relatively smooth process now takes several weeks to a little over a month, and depends on a variety of circumstances: available seats, the type of school (transfer school, international high school, etc.), the needs of the student, and the time of year.

“The biggest problem: there’s no room in GED or high school alternatives,” explained Chia Chia Wang, NY Director of Church World Service (CWS), an organization that works with unaccompanied children who have come to reunite with their family members, which has been assisting many young people who are 17 or older with enrollment.

A CWS case manager explained that it took a month for one migrant, who will turn 18 in April and is living in a youth shelter without a guardian, to be enrolled after visiting the Family Welcome Center and being placed on a waiting list. “Despite reaching out to several transfer schools, he remained on waiting lists,” the caseworker said in an email.

“His absence from an educational environment,” the case manager added, “was starting to impact his mental well-being, as he expressed feeling down while observing his friends attending school while he remained at the shelter.”

To enroll migrants, advocates have made appointments, visited the Family Welcome Center, and called a bunch of high schools directly. “And that’s how, you know, we get students in school,” described Rodriguez-Engberg.

But according to the law, and reiterated by both the U.S. Department of Education and the NYS Department of Education, enrollment should be immediate. A U.S. Department of Education spokesperson said that anyone who meets the eligibility requirements and who is identified as homeless by a local liaison that serves students in temporary housing and their families in schools, should be able to attend classes right away.

A spokesperson for the New York State Education Department (NYSED) said that NYCPS has not reported any difficulties, delays, or problems in enrolling immigrant students in this age group, nor in failing to enroll them promptly, as required by the McKinney-Vento Act. NYSED would provide direct technical assistance to ensure compliance, added the spokesperson.

As a recipient of McKinney-Vento funds, the NYCPS has submitted proposals and annual reports ensuring compliance with the act, NYSED explained.

The New York State Attorney General’s Office encourages people who have been denied enrollment to contact its office or to file a Civil Rights Bureau complaint form.

Aging out of classrooms

An applicant approaching 18 complicates enrollment, several advocates explained. Turning 18 often makes it even harder.

“I had difficulty enrolling a client that was 17 and a half,” a Church World Service caseworker said via email. “The family was told that he was going to be 18 years old soon and that he should go to take a GED program instead of enrolling him in high school.”

The two young men City Limits spoke to during a visit to the Safe Horizons drop-in center in Harlem, one 20 and the other 18, said they had both asked staff at their shelters to be enrolled in school, to no avail. Nor were they referred to a family welcome center.

The young man from Mauritania said he did not persist or revisit the request because, under the city’s previous 30-day stay limit rules for adult migrants, it would be too difficult to fully focus on his studies without a stable place to live.

“So if I finished that one month, I should wait two weeks—three weeks, or one week, whatever—to get a shelter. I cannot sleep in a church, or sleep in a mosque, and then wake in the morning and go to school and come back tired,” he said.

CBOs told City Limits this age group easily falls through the cracks of the city’s shelter system and tends to be perceived as adults, not as young adults or unaccompanied youth.

“For newly arrived migrant youth of that age group—17 to 20—it’s rare that somebody will identify them as a [school-age] student, as a youth who needs to be in school,” Rodriguez-Engberg said. “They’re looked at as like adults, or they’re overlooked, period.”

Many young adults are entering adult shelters, where it’s harder to access the programs designed to help them.

Young people under the age of 24 are eligible for specialized runaway and homeless youth shelters under the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), but with only 813 beds, it has long been near or at capacity. In addition to school enrollment assistance, these shelters provide mental health services, access to legal aid, job training, and other services.

After two years of new immigrants arriving from all over the world, organizations say it’s hard to know the magnitude of the problem: how many young people who could be enrolled who are not in school right now, and how their lives could have been changed with such access.

“A bigger problem is the fact that we don’t really even know what the actual need is,” Rodriguez-Engberg said. “How many are there actually, who just gave up and are working or trying to do something else, because they had no idea they could be in school.”

In 2020, the Migration Policy Institute estimated that 3,800 newly arrived immigrants in New York City, ages 16 to 21, were neither enrolled in city schools nor had a diploma.

While NYCPS expanded programs for new immigrants enrolled in the city’s transfer high schools in 2022, the same year that more immigrants began arriving in the city, advocates say it’s still not enough to keep up with demand.

Enrollment challenges have affected both young adults living alone in the city as well as those living with their families. “The problem that exists with the lack of options and the Family Welcome Centers referring students to GED programs, happens regardless of whether the student is here alone or they’re here with their family,” Rodriguez-Engberg explained.

The youngest, those between 17 to 19, advocates explain, have a better chance and more time to navigate the laborious enrollment process, but for older youth, time is limited, since federal law only guarantees their right to attend through age 21.

“Every beginning is hard, but in the end, it’s going to be okay, but we don’t want to lose time,” the young man from Mauritania told a City Limits reporter. “We’re not allowed to work, so we should go to school to get information. If we were allowed to work, that information can help us in the future.”

He cited his own multilingual skills as something he and many other immigrant youth can offer the local job market—if they can access it.

“Maybe, the U.S. is going to need us one day,” he said.

Editor’s note from City Limits: This story has been updated since original publication to include additional information provided by NYCPS.

LISTEN: Migrant students navigate a new reality

2024-03-27T10:00:00+00:00

The first episode of P.S. Weekly focuses on one of the biggest education stories in New York City this year: the arrival of thousands of migrant students.

Officials estimate that more than 36,000 migrant students have enrolled in city schools over the past two years.

What challenges are these new students facing? And what are schools doing to support them? This student-reported episode explores these questions through conversations with students, educators, and a journalist who’s been covering the issue.

The first segment features an interview with Chalkbeat reporter Michael Elsen-Rooney, as he explains how schools have been supporting recently arrived students — and what the media has gotten wrong. With the city’s recent policy limiting migrant families to 60 days in shelters, it’s been hard on schools to figure out how to help. Elsen-Rooney said school officials are grappling with questions like: “Can we figure out transportation for them, or do they leave? And then they have to start over at a new school?”

Next, Marisol Martin, a senior at Claremont International High School in the Bronx, talks about her hurdles and triumphs since coming here from Mexico a few years ago. As she’s gotten more involved with her school’s Dream Squad — a program the Education Department started in 2020 to help immigrant students and undocumented youth and is now in more than 60 schools — Martin has felt more a part of the community.

A poster for the Dream Squad at Claremont International High School.

She’s paying it forward, now as a Dream Squad leader herself, and she shares her view on how schools should better help students feel connected to one another.

“What I would tell them is to socialize with other people,” Martin said in Spanish. “When you’re alone, you’re shy, and you don’t want to talk to anyone, you close yourself in your own world, and you don’t know more about what’s happening outside.”

Finally, Sunisa Nuonsy, a former high school teacher of 10 years at International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, talks about why she became a teacher specifically focused on immigrant students, the challenges she faced, and her advice to other teachers, especially those who are working with migrant students who may have experienced trauma. (Nuonsy is currently a doctoral student in urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center and a project researcher for the CUNY Initiative on Immigration and Education.)

Sunisa Nuonsy

“They can easily shut down and they can easily drop out,” Nuonsy said of migrant students. “So you have a very unique opportunity to be an adult in their life that is welcoming them and affirming them and showing them that they have value and that they should be here.”

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Be sure to drop a review in your app or shoot an email to PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org. Tell us what you learned today or what you’re still wondering. We just might read your comment on a future episode.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell. Listen for new episodes Wednesdays this spring.

Read the full episode transcript below

Dorothy: Welcome to P.S. Weekly… the sound of the New York City school system. I’m Dorothy Ha, a senior at Stuyvesant High School– and I’m super excited to be hosting the very first episode of P.S. Weekly. This show is a collaboration between Chalkbeat New York, a leading education news site– and The Bell, a leading provider of audio journalism training to high school students. It’s a pairing as natural as a bacon, egg, and cheese!

Dorothy: Each week this Spring, our team will dig into one issue affecting New York City schools, bringing you a mix of voices and perspectives that you won’t find anywhere else. Along the way, we want to hear from YOU, our lovely listeners– more on that later in the show. Right now… let’s get to it.

Dorothy: For our first episode, we chose what’s been arguably the biggest story in New York City this year.

News Clip: Parents and educators say several Manhattan public schools are overwhelmed with an influx of migrant students. CBS News’ Natalie Duddridge spoke with the Chancellor on his efforts to find solutions.

Dorothy: What challenges are these new migrant students facing? And what are schools doing to support them? We’ll hear experiences directly from students and teachers. But first! We have Mike Elsen-Rooney with us. Mike is a Chalkbeat reporter who’s been covering how schools are responding to thousands of newly arrived migrant students.

Dorothy: Hi Mike! Thanks for joining us.

Mike: Hey, Dorothy. It’s great to be here.

Dorothy: All right. So, Mike, when did the issue that some have called the “migrant crisis” hit your radar?

Mike: So I remember back in Summer 2022, when this was first hitting the headlines. I was watching a meeting, and a superintendent said, “We’re expecting a couple hundred new students to come in.” And I was like, “Whoa, that seems like a lot of kids.” And then here we are about two years later, and it’s a whole lot more than that.

Dorothy: Right, so now it’s 2024. And how many people are we talking about in total now?

Mike: So our best estimate is that about 36,000 new kids have enrolled over the past couple of years.

Dorothy: Wow. That’s a lot of students. So what can you tell us about where these new migrants are living and where they’re going to school?

Mike: Yeah. So where they’re living really depends on where the city has been able to set up shelters. We’ve seen shelters pop up in Long Island City in Queens, and Clinton Hill in Brooklyn, and lots of different parts of the city. And so where kids go to school really depends on two things. Number one is how close it is to their shelters. The second thing is what schools are really good and well-equipped to serve English language learners.

Dorothy: I can imagine that there are a lot of challenges in handling this big increase in migrant students.

Mike: Yeah, it can be really hard just getting tons and tons of new kids with a lot of challenges. And then the thing that’s been really hard recently is that there’s this new policy: families can only stay in shelters for 60 days. After that, they have to reapply, and they may end up in a shelter in a different part of the city. And so schools have to figure out, “Can we keep this kid? Can we figure out transportation for them, or do they leave? And then they have to start over at a new school?”

Dorothy: Recently, you wrote a really interesting story about how this immigration issue is impacting students and how they’re feeling at this moment. And you spoke to folks at Newcomers High School. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Mike: Yeah. So Newcomers High School is this really interesting place in Long Island City, Queens. It’s been around for 30 years, and they’re really good at accepting newcomer kids from around the world and teaching them English and helping them get acclimated to life in the U.S. And so that school is also near a bunch of shelters in Long Island City. And so when I saw a couple of kids from Newcomers High School speaking at a meeting for the Panel for Educational Policy recently, I was really surprised by what they said.

Meeting Clip: Our name stigmatizes us and condemns us to always be patronized and not having a choice because we are “new.” We are marked with the idea that we are here occupying a space that is not ours.

Mike: They said that the name Newcomers High School was, quote, putting a target on their backs.

Dorothy: And so what happened after the testimony?

Mike: After that testimony, they went through the whole process of getting their name changed, and we just actually found out that they got approved to have a new name. And the school is going to be called Atlas.

Dorothy: The situation with their name change kind of makes me think about the portrayal of migrants in the media. You know, not every journalist is as thorough as you are, Mike. So what’s been the broader media narrative?

Mike: So we’ve seen some examples where the media actually has really not captured what’s happening on the ground. And one really good example is, there was an incident recently where the city had set up basically an emergency tent shelter on Floyd Bennett Field at the Southern tip of Brooklyn. And there was a storm coming, and the city decided to evacuate them.

News Anchor 1: Mounting frustrations this afternoon in Brooklyn after the city temporarily placed asylum seekers into the gym of James Madison High School in Midwood.

News Anchor 2: While the move was to provide shelter for them from last night’s storm, but it was meant– it meant that no classes happened at the school today. And parents are really frustrated by all of it.

Mike: The city had them stay there overnight and then got them out early in the morning. But the school’s principal decided, they weren’t going to be able to get it cleaned up in time; let’s switch to remote learning for the day. When this hit the news. It turned into this huge story, especially in a lot of right-wing media. And the narrative was that New York City kids are getting pushed out by migrant families. But when a colleague of mine actually talked to students and parents there, you know, kids were saying, “Look, we sympathize with these families. We didn’t want them to be exposed to any danger of being out in the storm. And it was just a very different set of reactions than what came through if you only read the kind of media firestorm over this. And so, you know, it kind of drove home this point that what the media says doesn’t always reflect the reality on the ground.

Dorothy: Wow, fascinating. And on top of that, immigration has been a big issue in the presidential election so far. I can think of one presidential candidate who has been speaking about it a lot in particular. So how has that impacted New York City?

Mike: So Donald Trump just weighed in on this. He made some claims in a recent interview that New York City kids were getting pushed out by migrant students. And it just is incorrect. And the biggest reason for that is that there are actually a lot of empty seats in New York City schools. We lost enrollment during the pandemic, and so there’s plenty of space and no one’s getting pushed out.

Dorothy: So my last question for you is, for educators, and policymakers, and community members who want to better support these migrant students, what are some of the success stories that you’ve seen?

Mike: So many schools have been finding really creative and empathetic ways to support their new kids. You know, one big example we’ve seen is that a lot of schools have done coat drives because a lot of these newcomer kids have lived in the Southern Hemisphere their whole lives and have never really been through a New York winter. So it’s just those kinds of things at the community level, listening to what these families need and making it happen.

Dorothy: Mike, thank you so much for sitting down and having this conversation with us.

Mike: Thanks so much, Dorothy.

Dorothy: And now, we’re going to take a closer look at what the experience is really like after students arrive here. And how one program is helping them adjust. Our P.S. Weekly reporter Jose Santana has the story.

Marisol: Hola, mi nombre es Marisol Martin. Soy del grado 12, soy senior, mi país es México.

Jose: This is Marisol Martin, an 18-year-old high school senior.

Marisol: The biggest challenge I have is the language. I only knew how to say “thank you.” The teacher back in my country told us “thank you” in English, but beyond that I didn’t know anything.

Jose: She arrived in New York City from Mexico when NYC schools were still remote because of the pandemic.

Marisol: It was very difficult for me to learn; ninth grade was very difficult. The classes were online, and that made it more difficult for me to learn, and I didn’t understand anything. I just used a translator or something like that to see what to do.

Jose: And she’s not the only one who faces these kinds of hurdles. New York City is a city of immigrants, and its schools reflect that. Young people from all over the world come here for a multitude of reasons. Last school year, nearly one in five city students was learning English as a new language. Here’s Governor Kathy Hochul during a press conference last September.

Kathy (News Clip): We have real challenges. They’re coming in from West Africa, South and Central America. So it’s not just assuming that Spanish is going to cover everybody. It doesn’t come close. City officials…

Jose: When high school students like Marisol first arrive in New York City, the school system typically enrolls them in one of about 20 international high schools. These are schools like Newcomers– now called Atlas –that specialize in supporting recent immigrants. Marisol attends Claremont International High School in the Bronx. Nearly all of its students are low-income and English language learners. When Marisol first got there, language wasn’t the only barrier.

Marisol: Another challenge for me was to use technology that was very complicated for me because they gave me an iPad to work with my things. But it was in English, and I didn’t know where to enter, what to do, or where to paste.

Jose: Being in a new country also takes some cultural adjustment.

Marisol: When I arrived here in the United States, I entered Claremont and I kind of didn’t have much connection with the people. Different countries, different cultures.

Jose: But lucky for Marisol– and so many other immigrant students –there was help.

Marisol: Something that has helped me are some groups, like the Dream Squad. When I entered tenth grade, I was on the Dream Team. That also helped me a lot to communicate.

Jose: What is a Dream Squad? To answer that question, come with me to one of their meetings. It’s 12 p.m. on a Tuesday and I’m here at the Dream Squad’s weekly lunchtime meeting in the school’s library. The Dream Squad’s staff director Evelyn Reyes is leading the meeting with about 10 students, who are all seniors. They were discussing plans and ideas to recruit more Dream Squad members by sending emails out, flyers and directly inviting students to their meetings. Evelyn said the program started in 2019 to help immigrant students and undocumented youth.

Evelyn: Our then social worker was working around creating a space where students, regardless of immigration status, could find, you know, that empowerment where their stories were shared.

Jose: Claremont is one of more than two dozen schools around the city with a Dream Squad program. Dream Squads receive support from the non-profit ImmSchools and the DOE’s Division of Multilingual Learners. They provide notebooks, laptops, lanyards, and events for students and staff. But the most important aspect of the program is the community itself– and the knowledge that gets shared. Meeting topics vary from week to week.

Evelyn: So, mental health, we want to talk about also “know your rights.” So that our students are aware of what their rights are as immigrants. We want our students to also know that they have different options when it comes to post-secondary planning, whether that is college, whether that is trade school, whether that is a certificate program. We do try to do our best to share the information that we share with the students inside those meetings, across the school.

Jose: Dream Squad is tackling some big challenges, and it’s not without its difficulties. Language continues to be an issue.

Evelyn: Claremont is a very multilingual school, so we are a very diverse school community. And sometimes, just being able to produce or communicate a lot of the resources on students’ native language, that could be something that can be a little bit challenging.

Jose: But, despite these challenges, Evelyn makes sure to let the students know that–

Evelyn: Your background, your values, your culture, all of that is an asset. Like you have that, value that. So I do want them to feel like their story matters. Like I want them to, to feel like they’re at a community. That they’re welcome not only inside our school community, but also, you know, in this country.

Jose: And how does Dream Squad measure success?

Evelyn: Knowledge is success for me. Like, as long as we’re about to reach our students and we’re able to provide the resources, that they know how to use the resources, that they know how to access those resources. That’s how we measure success.

Jose: After benefiting from the program, Marisol became a Dream Squad leader– for 2 years now –to help other students like her. I ask Marisol how she’s adjusted since arriving in New York 3 years ago.

Jose (in Spanish): After 3 years of being here, how have you adjusted?

Marisol: I think that through time and things around me, I was able to connect more with the things in the United States. And also how the people that I met helped me too, like… like my classmates who are also migrants. So, we talk to each other and tell each other about this and this. I think that was something that helped me a lot to adapt here.

Jose: I ask her what advice she’d give to other students who have just arrived and gone through a similar experience.

Marisol: What I would tell them is to socialize with other people. That’s very good, because having a connection to more people, you can know more things versus when you’re alone, you’re shy and you don’t talk to anyone. You close yourself in your own world, and you don’t know more about what’s happening outside.

Jose: And what can the schools do to make the experience better?

Marisol: I think that giving them guidance, telling them, like, “here you can learn, here you can communicate.” The schools need to have more– like a connection with students, because many of the children don’t know what to do when they arrive the first day. They are very shy, and I think that they should have more priority with them when they immediately arrive.

Jose: There’s no doubt that the increase in new students to the city creates a difficult situation for both the city and the students. But as Marisol suggests, there are things that can be done to make the immigrant student experience better. And it all starts with a supportive community– grassroots efforts like the Dream Squad program that are making schools a safe and welcoming space for all.

Dorothy: Once again, that was Jose Santana, reporting from Claremont International High School. We’re going to take a short break, but when we return… a teacher’s perspective.

Sunisa: Sometimes, students are hopeless. Which I think to a teacher, to see a hopeless student is sad; it’s heartbreaking.

Dorothy: So stay tuned…

Salma: Hey, listeners! We hope you’re enjoying the first episode of P.S. Weekly. We’ve got an assignment for you—follow us on Instagram @bell.voices. And we want to hear from you! Reach out to P.S. Weekly at psweekly@chalkbeat.org with comments, questions, and suggestions. And… if you want more student-created content, listen up!

Student 1: On Our Minds is a podcast about the teenage experience. Made by teens, for teens.

Student 2: There’s a lot on our minds, and talking about it helps.

Student 1: On Our Minds: Season 4 is produced by PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, in collaboration with KUOW’s RadioActive Youth Media.

Student 2: Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Dorothy: In the last segment, we heard about the immigrant student experience. When it comes to helping these students overcome language barriers and navigate a new environment, that job often falls to… you guessed it… teachers. Our producer Bernie Carmona spoke to one of them.

Bernie: As a child of immigrants, I’ve thought about the experiences of migrant students navigating through school life. But who takes on the responsibility for making sure students are fully prepared for their future? What do teachers go through while navigating classrooms with migrant students? I remember speaking to my older sister, Mariana, who moved from Mexico to South Carolina in 2002 when she was about 5 years old. She didn’t know English when she arrived and struggled to adjust to the new environment. She didn’t feel supported until she came to New York City, where she experienced the diverse culture and language in schools, things she couldn’t access in South Carolina.

Bernie: Her experience made me wonder: how does all of this look from a teacher’s perspective? I spoke to Sunisa Nuonsy, a former high school teacher of 10 years at International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn.

Bernie: Thank you so much for being here, Sunisa.

Sunisa: Thank you so much for having me.

Bernie: Sunisa, why did you choose to become a teacher?

Sunisa: I became a teacher, particularly for immigrant students, because of my own experience. My family came to the U.S. as refugees from Laos. And sadly to say, some of my aunts and uncles, who were adolescents at the time of resettlement here, they were not equitably served in schools, and they dropped out of school. And so I always carried that with me. And when I became an adult, and I was thinking about my career path, I was very much drawn to language and to working with immigrants just because I felt like I could connect with them.

Bernie: Can you tell me a little more about how that experience was like for you?

Sunisa: The first time that I entered the school, I was interviewing as a student teacher, and I saw the students, and the different kinds of clothes they were wearing. Some kids were like, you know, dressed very Western, some kids were wearing more cultured clothes, hearing different languages. I thought it was the coolest place ever because I was like, “Look at these beautiful kids.” They come from everywhere. But we’re in Brooklyn. They’re so fly, they’re so fresh. It’s like where roots are– are like bursting through the ground, you know, because everything is just alive. Like the ways that language comes together, right?

Sunisa: I worked at a school, I would say was mostly Dominican. So every student learned Dominican Spanish, right? Whether you were from Yemen or Guinea, everybody was like, “Que lo que.” And just the way that our students were so open with their cultures and playing with one another’s cultures and really learning with it was just this beautiful hybrid space. And I don’t want to romanticize it, but I just imagine that that’s what our world could really be like is, you know, a place where people feel affirmed in who they are, but also aren’t scared to get to know other people. But we’re trying to make the world better, right? We’re trying to make people freer, more liberated. So I love that space. I love that liminal space.

Bernie: What would you say has been the biggest challenge you face with working with migrant students?

Sunisa: Well, I can say that although I identify as an immigrant myself, it’s such a tough situation to be in, and the larger administration is not aware of that. And they’re expecting you to be this robot that just has to do their job and perform their functions. But a lot of times I’ve seen it impossible to get a student to respond to classwork because they have so many other pressing and urgent issues that are just surrounding their brain and their souls. And that can be challenging to do when you have students who don’t see a pathway to college, they don’t even see a pathway to graduation. So to work with students, try to instill in them some sense of agency and empowerment, you know, even in the smallest ways, I think is really important because sometimes students are hopeless, which I think to a teacher, to see a student hopeless is sad. It’s heartbreaking, right, because you think that you’re there to really guide them to all of these opportunities when those opportunities are inequitably distributed. Like I think about college tuition, right, and financial aid and who can access financial aid and who can’t.

Bernie: What was a difficult moment you encountered?

Sunisa: I had two amazing students who were sisters, and they wanted to go to college. And their dad, culturally, didn’t think that college was for them. And so I had just so many conversations not only with them but with their guardians, with administrators at the schools, with other teachers. And oftentimes, I would just go back to my classroom and cry out of frustration because you could feel like you’re doing all of the hard things that you need to do to support these immigrant students. And there are still things that are just out of your control. So to see these students who had come all this way, had come from this village in Yemen to Brooklyn. And really learn how to believe in themselves and have some empowerment and still not be able to make that one crucial decision about whether they can continue their educations. It’s just, you know, I don’t know, even know how to troubleshoot that.

Bernie: Do you have any advice for teachers that are currently working with migrant students?

Sunisa: My recommendation for all teachers really is to know who your students are. Get to understand their context and their experiences before you label them as anything. Because, especially immigrant students, the ones who have experienced trauma along the way, they can easily shut down and they can easily drop out. So you have a very unique opportunity to be an adult in their life that is welcoming them and affirming them and showing them that they have value and that they should be here.

Bernie: Thank you so much for being a part of this interview, Sunisa.

Sunisa: Thank you so much for having me.

Bernie: I’m Bernie Carmona, reporting for P.S. Weekly.

Dorothy: That’s it for our first episode, but before you go, we have an extra credit assignment for you! Go to chalkbeat.org/newsletters, or click the link in our show notes, to sign up for the Chalkbeat New York morning newsletter. It’s the best way to stay informed on local schools coverage Monday through Friday. And if you really want to impress the teacher, drop a review in your podcast app or shoot an email to psweekly@chalkbeat.org. Tell us what you learned today or what you’re still wondering. We just might read your comment on a future episode.

Dorothy: P.S.: We’re back next Wednesday with an episode on how the national wave of Book Bans is impacting local schools.

Preview Clip: These groups are trying to erode the trust of educators in general by placing doubt in people’s minds about what a teacher is exposing kids to, is really just trying to attack the public school system.

Dorothy: Until then… [with entire cast] class dismissed!

CREDITS

Dorothy: P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between The Bell and Chalkbeat, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation, The Summerfield Foundation, FJC, and Hindenburg Systems. This episode was hosted by me, Dorothy Ha. Producers for this episode were Sanaa Stokes, Jose Santana, and Bernie Carmona. With reporting help from Chalkbeat reporters Alex Zimmerman and Mike Elsen-Rooney. Engineering support was provided by Ava Stryker-Robbins. Our marketing lead this week was Santana Roach. Our executive producer for the show is Joann DeLuna. Executive editors are Amy Zimmer and Taylor McGraw.

Additional production and reporting support was provided by Sabrina DuQuesnay, Mira Gordon, and our friends at Chalkbeat. Special thanks to our interns Miriam Galicia and Makenna Turner. Music from Blue Dot Sessions and the jingle you heard at the beginning of this episode was created by the one and only: Erica Huang.

Thanks for tuning in! See you next time!

Correction: The Dream Squad, which started in 2020 is now in 60 schools, up from 25.

They thought graduation was near. Instead, several immigrant students were pressured to transfer.

2024-05-20T14:33:24+00:00

Genesis Callero thought she was nearing the finish line.

The 18-year-old senior had made quick academic progress since arriving at the Cyberarts Studio Academy in Park Slope, Brooklyn — CASA, for short — from Ecuador last year knowing no English. She had passed four of her five required Regents exams and earned more than enough credits to graduate, according to Genesis and a school staffer familiar with her transcript.

All that remained was the English Language Arts Regents exam, the only Regents test newly arrived immigrants aren’t eligible to take in their home language. Students learning English as a new language often need extra time and support to pass, according to educators. Still, Genesis was optimistic that she would get her diploma this school year and had even taken a professional graduation portrait.

High school graduation photos of Genesis and Karen Callero.

So the teen was blindsided when school officials, including principal Valrie Wauchope, summoned her to a meeting just over two months ago and delivered devastating news.

Neither Genesis nor her sister Karen, 17 and also a senior, would be able to graduate from CASA, Genesis recalled the school officials saying. They told the girls they would need to transfer and recommended New Dawn Charter High School, a transfer school geared toward older students at risk of not graduating.

“They told me no, they can’t help me in this high school,” Genesis said in Spanish, recalling her meeting with CASA officials. “It seemed to me like something unfair.”

The family felt they had no choice but to transfer. Within days, Genesis and Karen left CASA.

The teens were not alone. According to interviews with the families of six immigrant students from CASA — all seniors who had recently failed the ELA Regents exam, according to families and staffers — Wauchope recently told their children they would not graduate if they remained at CASA and counseled them to transfer immediately.

“If he stays, he won’t graduate,” the mom of another 17-year-old senior at CASA told Chalkbeat in Spanish, recalling what the principal told her. The mom asked to remain anonymous because she fears jeopardizing an active immigration case.

Genesis Callero, 18, on Friday, May 17, 2024, in Brooklyn, New York.

All of the families have since taken their children out of CASA, according to interviews and school records obtained by Chalkbeat.

Wauchope, who is in her first year as principal at CASA, didn’t respond to phone calls or an email seeking comment. Education Department spokesperson Chyann Tull said, “We take allegations of students being pushed out of their school very seriously and investigate all formal complaints when they arise. Every student has the right to remain in their school through graduation and be immersed in a supportive learning environment.” Tull didn’t immediately say whether the department has received complaints about CASA.

Three staffers at the school, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, contend the students would have been able to graduate from CASA with more time. Immigrant students often fail the ELA Regents exam on their first attempt but can pass with extra time and support. Just 27% of city English language learners passed the ELA Regents in 2023, according to state data. Under New York law, students can remain in school through the academic year they start at age 21.

The staffers suspect students were pressured to transfer because if they did not graduate this school year, it would harm the school’s four-year graduation rate — a key performance measure for city principals. CASA’s four-year June graduation rate in 2023 was 75% last year, lower than the 81% citywide average.

Karen Callero, 17, on Friday, May 17, 2024, in Brooklyn, New York.

“They’re our best students. They come to school every single day, pass their other Regents exams,” said one staffer, adding that some students are homeless and haven’t been in the country long. “This is all because they can’t pass their English Regents on time. To push them out … it’s disgraceful.”

The staffers said they worry the situation will continue with future students learning English as a new language.

Annette Renaud, a longtime parent activist and former CASA Parent Association president who remains involved at the school supporting several relatives enrolled there, said she reached out to some of the families of immigrant students after learning about the situation from staff. She’s hoping the students can be reenrolled at CASA.

“I don’t know how many doctors, lawyers, sanitation supervisors, home attendants … we pushed out the door.”

Graduation pressures weigh on administrators

Several school administrators from across New York City told Chalkbeat that high school principals often face intense pressure to improve their four-year graduation rates. That pressure can be particularly acute for schools like CASA that have absorbed large numbers of newly arrived immigrant students amid the influx of roughly 36,000 migrant students over the past two school years.

CASA’s population of English Language Learners surged from below 40 in 2018 to nearly 100 out of its 300 students last year, according to city data. English Language Learners often take longer to graduate and finish high school at lower rates than their peers.

For English Language Learners who began high school in 2017, roughly 56% graduated in four years, jumping to 67% in six years.

That’s compared to 80% of all students in the 2017 cohort who graduated within four years and 87% within six years.

In recent years, “schools that have never really seen a high population of immigrant students were suddenly seeing these populations, and there were some growing pains there,” said Liza Schwartzwald, Director of Economic Justice and Family Empowerment at the New York Immigration Coalition, an advocacy organization.

But she stressed that “it is still incumbent on the school” to seek out some of the many resources available to better support newcomer students.

The allegations at CASA represent an “egregious example of the wrong way to go about doing this work,” she said.

The facade of John Jay High School campus in Park Slope, the building that houses Cyberarts Studio Academy.

Schools have alternatives to help immigrant students

To be sure, some older teenagers still learning English may benefit from a school more specifically tailored toward serving older newcomer students, particularly if they are in danger of aging out of the system and severely behind on credits, educators and advocates said.

But that wasn’t the situation for students counseled to transfer out of CASA, all of whom were 19 or younger, had passed at least some of their other Regents exams, and had accumulated all or close to all the credits they needed to graduate, according to staff and families.

Educators said that the school, which has hired several English as a new language teachers in recent years, was more than capable of shepherding the students to passing the ELA exam. They just needed a little more time.

“We would be able to get them to that passing rate within that time 100%,” said one CASA staffer. “No doubt in my mind.”

Schools have other avenues for supporting immigrant students struggling with the ELA Regents that don’t involve forcing them to transfer, said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, the Immigrant Students Rights Project Director at Advocates for Children, a nonprofit that works on behalf of vulnerable kids.

They can refer students to extra night classes at Young Adult Borough Centers without un-enrolling them, and there is an appeals process specifically for the ELA Regents test for English Language Learners who fail the exam but score close enough to the cutoff.

“There are several options,” Rodriguez-Engberg said. “You don’t just ask a student to leave.”

Families struggle with fallout of being pushed out

The immigrant students who left CASA had different backgrounds and academic profiles, but all of them were making progress at the school and none wanted to abruptly leave in the spring of their senior year, according to interviews with the students and their families and records reviewed by Chalkbeat.

Sisters Genesis Callero, 18, and Karen Callero, 17, talk to each other while at a park near where they stay on Friday, May 17, 2024, in Brooklyn, New York.

One student, a 17-year-old recent arrival from Venezuela, quickly won admiration from staff and students since enrolling last fall for his gregarious demeanor and inspiring story, according to his family and staffers. The boy’s mom asked not to use his name because the family has an open immigration case.

On his most recent report card, issued around the time he left the school in March, he earned an 85% average and comments from teachers praising his “excellent progress,” “consistent participat[ion]” and “initiative,” according to a copy reviewed by Chalkbeat.

The teen recounted his grueling immigration journey in a student-produced film that played on TVs in the school’s main office and hallways, according to a video reviewed by Chalkbeat.

The family was devastated by the news he couldn’t remain at the school.

The boy’s mom said she asked Wauchope about alternatives that would allow her son to remain at CASA, like enrolling him in night classes for English or taking longer to graduate. Wauchope didn’t budge, and the mom agreed to withdraw her son.

“I felt it was something bad they did to him,” she said. But in the moment, she felt powerless. “Sometimes out of fear, we’re migrants, we don’t say no, we do what they say.”

That didn’t stop the woman from continuing to advocate for her son. She went back for a second meeting with Wauchope, telling the principal she thought the decision was unfair, she said.

She also visited an enrollment center and asked them to reenroll her son at CASA. She was told the school was now full and could not accept any more students, the mom said.

The boy was crushed but told his mom, “If it’s to graduate, it’s okay.”

He has since enrolled at New Dawn, but frequently drops by CASA to say hi to classmates and teachers.

“It hurt me very much because I see him now, he doesn’t want to go to class,” his mom said. “It destabilized him totally. It flipped his world upside down.”

The news landed just as hard for Carolina, a 19-year-old senior from Guatemala. Since arriving at CASA three years ago, she had made significant academic, social, and linguistic strides.

The teen, who asked to use only her middle name for fear of immigration consequences, struggled at first to acclimate to her new school and country.

“But after some time passed, I adapted. I understand and speak English,” she said.

Carolina’s attendance had faltered this year, and she still needed to pass two Regents exams, according to transcript information shared with Chalkbeat. But she was hopeful she would soon graduate and planned to apply to college or join the Army.

When Wauchope told Carolina she wouldn’t be able to graduate from CASA and counseled her to transfer in late February, the teen was crestfallen over the idea of leaving her home of three years.

“I couldn’t adapt to a new school or new people,” she recalled pleading in the meeting.

She and her mother begged for the chance to stay at the school, promising to redouble the teen’s efforts to pass the exam. But Wauchope held firm, according to the family. (One CASA staffer noted the teen is technically still on CASA’s roster, likely because she was never officially unenrolled. But Carolina’s mother said she wasn’t aware of that.)

Despite her misgivings, Carolina eventually decided to give New Dawn a try.

She set out for the school, which is a farther commute than she’s used to, on a Friday morning last month, and arrived after classes had begun, according to the teen and her mom. While Sara Asmussen, New Dawn’s founder and executive director, said the school “accepts students year-round with no intake requirements at all,” Carolina said staff at the school asked her, in English, to come back on Monday.

Carolina never went back. She hasn’t returned to that school, or any other, since.

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

Young adults at Rikers say they’re systematically blocked from school

2024-04-04T20:32:26+00:00

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Young adults incarcerated at Rikers Island are systematically denied the opportunity to attend school, in violation of their legal rights, according to a motion filed Monday in federal court by The Legal Aid Society.

Those at Rikers who are ages 18-21 are entitled to attend the East River Academy, the public school in the facility, to work towards a high school diploma or GED. But in practice, they are frequently told they’re ineligible to attend school based on which housing unit they’re assigned to, or that they can’t attend class because no guards are available to escort them, according to declarations from 29 incarcerated young people.

That’s a violation of a 2016 court order mandating that young adults get access to education at Rikers, Legal Aid lawyers allege in the motion, which asks a federal judge in Manhattan to re-appoint a monitor.

“The City’s failure to educate these New Yorkers is not only a blatant violation of the 2016 court order, but heartbreaking and immoral,” said Lauren Stephens-Davidowitz, a staff attorney with The Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project, in a statement.

Rikers Island no longer houses 16- and 17-year-olds, who are now held exclusively in juvenile facilities. Education isn’t compulsory for the young adults on Rikers Island, but the city’s public school system is still required to enroll students through age 21 if they request it.

A 2016 order from U.S. District Judge George Daniels — part of a long-running lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society two decades earlier — mandated that the city provide at least three hours of education to students who want it, and that access to school in jail shouldn’t depend on the housing unit a young person is assigned to.

But according to the testimony of more than two-dozen detainees, school on Rikers Island is often out of reach.

One man, now 22, said that he “asked captains many times if I could go to school” but wasn’t enrolled because of the housing unit he was living in. After more than a year of trying, he was transferred to a new unit that allowed him to attend school, but was late most days because the guard who escorted him didn’t arrive on time, according to his declaration.

In addition, classes were frequently canceled because of lockdowns and fights, he said.

Enrollment at the East River Academy has shrunk over the course of the pandemic, as the detention center struggled with severe staffing shortages.

During the 2019-20 school year, 27% of young adults ages 18-21 incarcerated at Rikers were enrolled in East River Academy, on average, according to an Education Department report. By the 2021-22 school year, the most recent for which data is available, only 18% of eligible young adults were enrolled, on average.

Violations of the 2016 judge’s ruling mandating school access are “wider in scope and greater in magnitude” than before the pandemic, lawyers allege in the motion.

According to Education Department data, 121 of the 217 students enrolled in 2021-22, or 56%, had a learning disability. But only 73 of those students got a completed Special Education Plan, a document outlining how the school intends to accommodate their disability, according to the report.

One 19-year-old with a disability who attended a specialized school with counseling services before he was arrested in December 2022 tried in vain for more than a year to start school at Rikers. He eventually gave up, according to his declaration.

The court previously appointed a monitor following the 2016 order, but his last report was in 2018. Conditions have since grown worse, Legal Aid lawyers argue.

Now, lawyers are asking the judge to re-appoint a monitor for another two years.

Several members of the City Council held an oversight hearing last October to address reports that some incarcerated youth weren’t getting access to education. “Today’s lawsuit reinforces those concerns and highlights multiple instances where the Department of Correction failed to meet their mandate,” said Council Education Committee Chair Rita Joseph (D-Brooklyn) and Criminal Justice Committee Chair Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn) in a joint statement. “Reversing course and addressing these challenges must be a priority for the Department.”

A spokesperson for the Education Department referred a request for comment to the Law and Correction Departments. A Law Department spokesperson said the agency is reviewing the motion. A spokesperson from the Correction Department said staff operate classes in multiple jails on Rikers Island and said new funding announced last month will bolster education programs.

4/5/2024: This story was updated to include comment from the Correction Department and City Council.

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

School staffers in shelters are a lifeline to NYC’s homeless families. Now their jobs are at risk.

2024-04-04T10:00:00+00:00

Dollie and her daughter were living in a Queens homeless shelter in January when the first grader came down with a severe bout of mononucleosis.

Dollie, who asked to use only her first name, was overwhelmed by the task of managing her daughter’s medical care and mounting school absences on top of her own work and housing search.

Fortunately, there was a staffer from the city Education Department working in her shelter to help with exactly this kind of situation.

The staffer, called a community coordinator, helped connect Dollie with medical care for her daughter, showed her what records she needed to provide the school to excuse the absences, and calmed her down when it all became too much.

“I would’ve been lost,” without her, Dollie said. She credits the community coordinator with getting her daughter better treatment, ensuring she returned to school quicker, and helping Dollie avert an investigation from the Administration of Children’s Services.

But the roughly $12 million in funding that pays the salaries of 100 community coordinators working across the city’s network of homeless shelters is set to run dry this summer, leaving the fate of the staffers up in the air even as the city confronts record numbers of homeless kids.

Seventy-five of the community coordinators are funded with one-time federal pandemic aid that expires in June, and the remaining 25 are supported with city funds that have not yet been renewed.

The position of shelter-based community coordinator was created in 2022 at the urging of advocates. Prior to the pandemic, community coordinators were only based in schools. The Education Department also employs other staffers called “family assistants” who work in shelters and are not funded with federal aid. But advocates say those staffers, who make less than community coordinators and work only 10 months a year, often can’t meet all the complex needs of families in shelters.

The community coordinators are among a long list of critical staff members and programs whose funding is tied to expiring federal aid – a list that includes 450 school social workers, free preschool for 3-year-olds, and community schools that partner with community organizations to provide extra services to families.

As budget deadlines approach, families and advocates are urging the city to preserve the community coordinators, arguing they play a critical role on the frontlines of two colliding crises: the exploding number of students – many of them newly arrived migrants – living in homeless shelters, and elevated rates of chronic absenteeism in the wake of the pandemic.

“It is unthinkable that funding for shelter-based community coordinators is in jeopardy at a time of such tremendous need,” said Jennifer Pringle, the director of the Learners in Temporary Housing project at the nonprofit Advocates for Children, which works to support the education of homeless youth.

Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle said the coordinators “provide critical resources and supports to our young people in temporary housing.

“We are extremely grateful for the stimulus funding that we used to support a range of programs and roles that support student wellbeing, especially as we continue to respond to the ongoing migrant crisis,” she added. “We will review these priorities as we go through the budget process.”

NYC sees a record number of homeless students

The number of city children living in a shelter or doubled up last year hit a record high of roughly 120,000 – a 14% increase over the previous years – thanks in large part to an influx of tens of thousands of migrant families.

Many of those families need immediate support enrolling their kids in school, getting evaluations for special education services, and coordinating transportation – particularly if they have to move to a shelter in another part of the city under Mayor Eric Adams’s 60-day shelter limit rule.

That’s where the community coordinators come in. They work directly from the shelters, though they often have to bounce between multiple locations.

Having staffers knowledgeable about the school system physically in the shelters, rather than having to rely on phone calls or visits to the school, makes a huge difference for parents like Dollie.

“You have eye communication. You have more understanding, you don’t have to go to two to three people to get a direct answer,” she said. Knowing that her community coordinator had seen firsthand the conditions she was living in at the shelter also made Dollie more willing to open up to her, she said.

The community coordinator ended up helping not just with school issues for Dollie’s daughter, but also with Dollie’s own work, education, and housing needs.

“I had lost hope, I had lost a lot,” Dollie recalled. “She went above and beyond with helping me. She brought my self confidence back in me where it was able to help me with my child.”

Coordinators combat chronic absenteeism

Job one for community coordinators is helping families regularly get their kids to school.

Citywide, rates of chronic absenteeism remain far higher than before the pandemic, with students in shelters logging among the highest rates of absenteeism in the city. In the 2021-22 school year, 72% of students living in shelters were classified as chronically absent.

But figuring out how to support individual families means earning the trust of families and unraveling multiple, overlapping challenges keeping kids from school.

In one case, according to advocates, a community coordinator learned that a child was embarrassed to attend school because he’d outgrown his wheelchair, and helped fit him for a new one. In another, a coordinator helped connect a student who’d just had a baby to a public school with a day care on site.

When Dollie’s daughter fell ill with mononucleosis, she dealt with high fevers and lethargy that made it impossible to concentrate on schoolwork. The school called to warn Dollie about the mounting absences, which stretched to almost a month. But Dollie was most concerned about getting her daughter the care she needed and ensuring she wouldn’t infect other kids.

The community coordinator, meanwhile, checked in regularly, asking about the girl’s fever and helping connect Dollie with doctors. She didn’t pressure Dollie about the absences, but made sure she had everything she needed to feel ready to send her daughter back to school, Dollie said. Without that support, the absences would have likely extended even longer, and could have triggered additional consequences like a child welfare investigation, Dollie added.

The family left the shelter recently and moved out of the city, but Dollie worries what will happen to other families in similar positions if the community coordinators aren’t funded next year.

“I really hope they do keep her there,” she said. “Without them, these shelters are nothing.”

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

Jóvenes inmigrantes recién llegados enfrentan dificultades para matricularse en escuelas de Nueva York

2024-03-19T20:24:18+00:00

Este artículo se publicó originalmente en inglés el 18 de marzo en City Limits, una publicación independiente de investigación. Traducido por Daniel Parra. Read the English version here.

El joven de Mauritania de 20 años llegó a la ciudad hace cuatro meses con el sueño de graduarse de secundaria en los Estados Unidos.

“Quiero mejorar mi vida. Todavía soy un bebé, y debería ir a la escuela para tener más experiencia, para tener más conocimientos”, dijo en un inglés fluido —-aprendido rápidamente en interacciones diarias y que se suma a la multitud de idiomas que ya habla— el joven, quien prefirió no ser identificado por su nombre por experiencias pasadas con otros medios de comunicación. “No quiero perder el tiempo”.

En sólo cuatro meses, ha pasado de un albergue a otro: viviendo primero en Manhattan, luego en Brooklyn y ahora en el Bronx, después de que la ciudad instituyera el año pasado un límite de 30 días de estadía en refugios para los inmigrantes en la ciudad, y que fue ampliado la semana pasada a 60 días para los adultos menores de 23 años como parte del acuerdo sobre el “derecho a refugio” de la ciudad.

Más de 852 jóvenes inmigrantes solteros entre 17 y 20 años estaban en el sistema de albergues de la ciudad al 3 de marzo, según la alcaldía. Decenas de ellos han pedido al personal de los refugios que quieren terminar el bachillerato, pero no se les ha matriculado, a pesar de que tienen derecho a ello en virtud de la legislación federal, según varias organizaciones comunitarias que intentan ayudarles.

Ocho organizaciones locales que prestan servicios a inmigrantes y/o jóvenes describieron retrasos y dificultades para matricular a jóvenes inmigrantes recientemente. La organización con mayor número de casos es Safe Horizon y su Streetwork Project, un centro de acogida para jóvenes sin hogar que atiende a un número creciente de solicitantes de asilo desde el año pasado, afirma haber remitido unos 60 casos de inmigrantes directamente a las Escuelas Públicas de la ciudad de Nueva York (NYCPS por sus siglas en inglés) desde enero.

Pero hasta ahora sólo se han inscrito seis, lamentó Sebastien Vante, vicepresidente asociado del Proyecto Streetwork de Safe Horizon en Harlem.

Otras organizaciones —como Afrikana, un centro comunitario de East Harlem que atiende a jóvenes inmigrantes; Artists Athletes Activists, que recibe a los solicitantes de asilo a su llegada y los pone en contacto con servicios de apoyo; la Coalition for Homeless Youth; The Door, que ofrece asistencia jurídica, asesoramiento y diversos servicios de apoyo a los jóvenes; y el New York Legal Assistance Group— dijeron a City Limits que los jóvenes a los que atienden han tenido dificultades para matricularse en la escuela.

Según estos grupos, a algunos de los jóvenes se les ha dicho que no hay cupos en los colegios, a otros se les ha puesto en listas de espera y otros afirman que sólo se les ha dado la opción de presentar el examen General de Desarrollo Educativo (GED por sus siglas en inglés) de equivalencia de bachillerato.

Cuando se le preguntó acerca de estas quejas a NYCPS, un portavoz dijo que el departamento de educación “no rastrea los casos referidos de inscripción y no se pide a los estudiantes que revelen cómo recibieron la información sobre el proceso de inscripción”.

“La matriculación no funciona en base a referidos”, añadió el portavoz en un correo electrónico.

El departamento dijo que está trabajando para asegurar que los estudiantes mayores que quieran asistir a clases tengan opciones académicas que incluyan escuelas secundarias tradicionales, escuelas de transferencia —que sirven a los estudiantes que están atrasados en créditos o necesitan formas alternativas de educación—, así como programas de GED para adultos.

“Desde el inicio del Proyecto Open Arms, hemos dejado claro que no podemos hacer este trabajo solos”, dijo el portavoz, refiriéndose a la iniciativa de la ciudad para ofrecer apoyo educativo a los nuevos inmigrantes y solicitantes de asilo.

Pero afirmar ahora que la inscripción no funciona con referidos, dijeron los defensores, ha creado confusión, apartándose de la forma en que la ciudad ha inscrito históricamente a los jóvenes sin hogar remitidos por las organizaciones de servicios sociales.

“Los proveedores siempre han utilizado ciertos procesos a través de las relaciones con los estudiantes en los enlaces de vivienda temporal”, refutó Jamie Powlovich, directora ejecutiva de la Coalition for Homeless Youth. “Si ese proceso ya no es algo que apoye NYCPS, no se lo han dicho a nadie”.

Según la Ley McKinney-Vento, una ley federal que protege los derechos educativos de los niños y jóvenes sin hogar, estos jóvenes adultos deben ser matriculados en la escuela inmediatamente, incluso en ausencia de documentación como prueba de residencia, vacunas, expedientes escolares u otros documentos normalmente exigidos.

La Ley de Educación del Estado de Nueva York estipula que las personas entre 5 y 21 años que no hayan recibido un diploma de secundaria tienen “derecho a asistir a las escuelas públicas en el distrito en el que resida dicha persona sin el pago de matrícula”.

Además, la directriz del Departamento de Educación del estado señala que “los distritos no pueden obligar a estas personas a renunciar a un programa de escuela secundaria a tiempo completo para seguir esta opción alternativa [examen del GED], o de otra manera dirigir a estas personas hacia esta opción alternativa”.

“Siento que casi todos mis clientes en esa situación específica —de 17 a 20, tratando de entrar en la escuela secundaria— casi siempre son empujados hacia el programa de GED”, dijo Salina Guzmán, defensora de los jóvenes inmigrantes en The Door. “Creo que muy a menudo, hay muchas barreras que nuestros clientes enfrentan cuando intentan ingresar a la escuela secundaria”.

Desde julio de 2022, alrededor de 36,000 estudiantes en viviendas temporales se han inscrito en escuelas de la ciudad, según NYCPS, aunque el departamento no detalló cuántos tenían entre 17 y 21 años.

Para matricularse, dijo el departamento, los futuros estudiantes deben pasar por Centros de Acogida para Familias (Family Welcome Centers), con sedes en cada uno de los cinco condados para gestionar las inscripciones y admisiones durante todo el año.

Pero los defensores dicen que muchos jóvenes inmigrantes han aprendido por las malas que necesitaban una cita en estos lugares antes de presentarse.

“No parece un gran problema”, dice Rita Rodríguez-Engberg, directora del Proyecto de Derechos de los Estudiantes Inmigrantes de Advocates for Children of New York. “Pero si eres nuevo en el país, y ya estás confundido y tratando que un montón de piezas encajen, y haces el viaje al Centro de Bienvenida Familiar, y te dicen que no puedes estar allí, que tienes que volver, eso podría ser una razón por sí sola por la que una familia decida simplemente dejar de intentarlo”.

Un portavoz de NYCPS negó que los Centros de Acogida para Familias requieran cita previa, afirmando que es recomendable, pero que también se aceptan visitas sin cita previa. Los Centros pueden referir a los estudiantes interesados a escuelas de transferencia, pero para otros programas de graduación, como los programas de educación para adultos, los interesados deben visitar un referral center (centro de referencia) en su lugar, dijo el portavoz.

Sin embargo, los inmigrantes que tienen cita en estos Centros de Acogida para Familias a veces les dicen que no hay cupo o que tienen que inscribirse en una lista de espera, dicen los defensores.

En un correo electrónico, un portavoz de NYCPS reconoció la presencia de listas de espera en algunos de Centros de Acogida para Familias: uno en el centro de Brooklyn, por ejemplo, tenía menos de 20 estudiantes esperando en el momento de la publicación, pero dijo que los nombres se eliminaban de la lista diariamente gracias a las admisiones continuas, y que los futuros estudiantes tenían la opción de ir a otros centros.

Sin embargo, los defensores de los estudiantes afirman que lo que debería ser un proceso relativamente sencillo tarda ahora varias semanas o un poco más de un mes, dependiendo de diversas circunstancias: cupos disponibles, tipo de secundaria (escuelas de transferencia, escuela internacional, etc.), necesidades del estudiante y la época del año.

“El mayor problema: no hay cupos en las escuelas alternativas de GED o bachillerato”, explicó Chia Chia Wang, directora en Nueva York de Church World Service (CWS por sus siglas en inglés), una organización que trabaja con menores no acompañados que han venido a reunirse con sus familiares, que ha estado ayudando a muchos jóvenes de 17 años o más a matricularse.

Un gestor de casos del CWS explicó que un migrante que cumplirá 18 años en abril y vive en un refugio de menores sin tutor, tardó un mes en ser matriculado tras visitar el Centro de Acogida para Familias y ser incluido en una lista de espera. “A pesar de contactar a escuelas, seguía en lista de espera”, dijo en un correo electrónico.

“Su ausencia de un entorno educativo”, añadió el gestor de casos, “estaba empezando a repercutir en el bienestar mental, ya que el joven expresó sentirse decaído al observar a sus amigos asistir a la escuela mientras él permanecía en el refugio”.

Para matricular a los inmigrantes, los defensores han concertado citas, han visitado el Centro de Acogida para Familias y han llamado directamente a un montón de escuelas. “Y así es como, ya sabes, conseguimos que los estudiantes vayan a la escuela”, describió Rodríguez-Engberg.

Pero de acuerdo con la ley, y reiterado tanto por el Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. y el Departamento de Educación del estado de Nueva York, la inscripción debe ser inmediata. Un portavoz del Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. dijo que cualquier persona que cumpla los requisitos de elegibilidad y que sea identificada como persona sin hogar por un enlace local que atiende a los estudiantes en viviendas temporales y a sus familias en las escuelas, debe poder asistir a clases de inmediato.

Un portavoz del Departamento de Educación del estado de Nueva York (NYSED por sus siglas en inglés) dijo que NYCPS no ha informado de ninguna dificultad, retraso o problema para matricular estudiantes inmigrantes en este grupo de edad, ni sobre matricularlos con prontitud, como exige la Ley McKinney-Vento. El NYSED proporcionaría asistencia técnica directa para garantizar el cumplimiento, añadió el portavoz.

Como beneficiario de los fondos McKinney-Vento, el NYCPS ha presentado propuestas e informes anuales que garantizan el cumplimiento de la ley, explicó el NYSED.

La Oficina de la Fiscal General del estado de Nueva York anima a las personas a las que se haya negado la inscripción a ponerse en contacto con su oficina o a presentar una queja a la oficina de derechos civiles.

Envejecer fuera de las aulas

Estar cerca a cumplir 18 años complica la inscripción, explican varios defensores. Cumplir 18 años a menudo lo hace aún más difícil.

“Tuve dificultades para matricular a un cliente que tenía 17 años y medio”, dijo por correo electrónico un gestor de casos de CWS. “A la familia le dijeron que pronto iba a cumplir 18 años y que debía ir a un programa de GED en lugar de matricularlo en el instituto”.

Los dos jóvenes, uno de 20 años y el otro de 18, con los que City Limits habló durante una visita al centro de acogida de Safe Horizons en Harlem dijeron que ambos habían pedido al personal de los refugios que los matricularan en la escuela, sin éxito. Tampoco los remitieron a un Centro de Acogida para Familias.

El joven de Mauritania dijo que no insistió en la solicitud porque, según las normas anteriores de la ciudad sobre el límite de estadía de 30 días para inmigrantes adultos, sería demasiado difícil centrarse plenamente en sus estudios sin un lugar estable donde vivir.

“Cuando termine el mes, debo esperar dos semanas —tres, o una semana, lo que sea— para conseguir un refugio. No puedo dormir en una iglesia, o dormir en una mezquita, y luego levantarme por la mañana e ir a la escuela y volver cansado”, dijo.

Las organizaciones de base comunitaria dijeron a City Limits que este grupo de edad fácilmente queda fuera del sistema de albergues de la ciudad y tiende a ser percibido como adultos, no como adultos jóvenes o jóvenes no acompañados.

“Para los jóvenes migrantes recién llegados de ese grupo de edad —de 17 a 20 años— es raro que alguien los identifique como estudiantes [en edad escolar], como jóvenes que necesitan estar en la escuela”, dijo Rodríguez-Engberg. “Se les mira como adultos, o se les pasa por alto, sin más”.

Muchos jóvenes ingresan en centros de acogida para adultos, donde es más difícil acceder a los programas diseñados para ayudarles.

Los jóvenes menores de 24 años pueden ir a los albergues especializados para jóvenes fugados y sin hogar del Departamento de Juventud y Desarrollo Comunitario de la ciudad, pero con sólo 813 camas, hace tiempo que están casi o al límite de su capacidad. Además de ayuda para matricularse en la escuela, estos albergues ofrecen servicios de salud mental, acceso a asistencia jurídica, formación laboral y otros servicios.

Tras dos años de llegada de nuevos inmigrantes de todo el mundo, las organizaciones afirman que es difícil conocer la magnitud del problema: cuántos jóvenes que podrían estar matriculados no están escolarizados ahora mismo y cómo podrían haber cambiado sus vidas con acceso.

“Un problema mayor es el hecho de que ni siquiera sabemos realmente cuál es la necesidad real”, dijo Rodríguez-Engberg. “Cuántos hay en realidad, que simplemente se dieron por vencidos y están trabajando o tratando de hacer otra cosa, porque no tenían idea de que podían estar en la escuela”.

En 2020, el Migration Policy Institute estimó que 3.800 inmigrantes entre 16 y 21 años recién llegados a la ciudad de Nueva York no estaban matriculados en las escuelas de la ciudad ni tenían un diploma.

Si bien el NYCPS amplió los programas para los nuevos inmigrantes matriculados en las escuelas secundarias de transferencia de la ciudad en 2022, el mismo año en que más inmigrantes comenzaron a llegar a la ciudad, los defensores dicen que no es suficiente por la demanda que hay.

Los problemas de matriculación han afectado tanto a los adultos jóvenes que viven solos en la ciudad como a los que viven con sus familias. “El problema que existe con la falta de opciones y los Centros de Acogida para Familias que remiten a los estudiantes a los programas de GED, sucede independientemente de si el estudiante está aquí solo o está aquí con su familia”, explicó Rodríguez-Engberg.

Los más jóvenes, los que tienen entre 17 y 19 años, explican los defensores, tienen más posibilidades y más tiempo para navegar por el laborioso proceso de matrícula, pero para los jóvenes de más edad, el tiempo es limitado, ya que la ley federal sólo garantiza su derecho hasta los 21 años.

“Todos los comienzos son duros, pero al final todo va a salir bien, pero no queremos perder tiempo”, dijo el joven de Mauritania a un reportero de City Limits. “No se nos permite trabajar, así que debemos ir a la escuela para informarnos. Si nos dejaran trabajar, esa información podría ayudarnos en el futuro”.

Él citó sus propios conocimientos multilingües como algo que él y muchos otros jóvenes inmigrantes pueden ofrecer al mercado laboral local, si pueden acceder a él.

“Tal vez, Estados Unidos nos necesite algún día”, dijo.

Este artículo ha sido actualizado desde su publicación original para incluir información adicional facilitada por NYCPS.

NYC chancellor says controversial school building swap had a happy ending. Teachers disagree.

2024-03-20T19:49:31+00:00

To hear New York City schools Chancellor David Banks tell it, a bitter fight last year over the decision to swap the buildings of two Manhattan high schools had a happy ending.

Students at Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School, an under-enrolled transfer school for kids at risk of dropping out, were forced to switch buildings with The Young Women’s Leadership School, or TYWLS, a crowded school occupying a smaller space across town. The move sparked an uproar last year from West Side’s community, who argued it would deprive already marginalized kids of critical resources housed in its long-time building.

In recent months Banks has shared an upbeat update, telling reporters and members of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, a board that approves decisions to relocate schools, that he heard from West Side staff that “after the dust settled … everything worked out.”

“They couldn’t be happier,” he added last week, paraphrasing a letter from the principal and the school’s chapter leader, the official representative to the teachers union.

Banks’ update seemed to tie a neat bow on a messy public dispute. It also bolsters his argument for advancing other contentious school merger and relocation proposals and validates his decision-making at a moment when he’s urging the state legislature to extend mayoral control over schools.

There’s just one problem: According to teachers and students at West Side, the move has had anything but a happy ending.

Seven West Side teachers and a student who spoke to Chalkbeat said the move to the new space has worsened their school experience in almost every way. It has reduced access to organized sports and deprived students of the health clinic and on-site day care available in the old building. Forcing kids and staff into more cramped quarters has exacerbated tensions between students and diminished teachers’ ability to provide individualized support, teachers and students said.

“The chancellor was characterizing the move as being good and fine in the end … which is just utterly false,” said Joel Solow, a West Side teacher. “This has been an incredibly challenging year on almost every count.”

For students like Joel Gomez, 17, who started at West Side in October 2022, moving to the new space has felt like having the best part of his school experience “ripped away.”

Spending last year in the old building was “one of the best years of my life,” he said.

But “this year just feels like everything is dampened down,” he said. The move, for him, “did not work out in a great way.”

Even the city’s original justification for the move – that West Side needed much less space, while TYWLS needed much more – hasn’t panned out.

Last year, West Side had only 230 students last year in a building that can fit nearly 800, while TYWLS has hovered between 450-480 students in a building that could hold 560. Officials had predicted West Side’s enrollment would stay flat, while TYWLS would immediately grow when it moved to the larger space.

But the opposite has happened: Enrollment at West Side has surged, to 344 as of this month, thanks to an influx of migrant students and the addition of a bilingual program. Enrollment at Young Women’s Leadership, meanwhile, has shrunk to 363 – leaving the two schools now at almost the same size, according to Education Department records.

Education Department officials noted that despite its enrollment increases, West Side’s daily attendance still hovers around 51%.

An Education Department spokesperson attributed the drop in enrollment at TYWLS to smaller classes of entering 6th and 9th graders, and said the school couldn’t offer more new seats because the move was approved too late in the year. But state data shows that the drops in 6th and 9th grade classes account for only a fraction of the overall enrollment reduction at TYWLS, and other grades shrunk as well.

The West Side building swap reverberates beyond the two schools

The city Education Department is facing increasing pressure to move, merge or even close schools as a result of pandemic enrollment losses – and Banks will need the approval of the Panel for Educational Policy to advance those proposals.

A happy ending to the West Side saga, one of the most high-profile fights in Banks’ tenure, strengthens Banks’ case to move forward on other controversial proposals, offering evidence that dire predictions from angry communities don’t always come true. Already, several proposals on the docket in the coming months have spurred fierce community pushback, some of which echoes the concerns raised by the West Side community.

West Side also is relevant to the ongoing negotiations in the state legislature over if and how to extend mayoral control over city schools. The current governance structure gives Mayor Eric Adams power to appoint the majority of the Panel for Educational Policy, an arrangement Banks says allows him to “make the best decisions on behalf of the entire school system,” even when it means fighting through some opposition, he said last week.

But critics of mayoral control say the West Side move is a case study in the limitations of a system that allows officials to ignore community input to the detriment of kids.

“In mayoral control,” Solow said at a January town hall in Manhattan, “the people who have to deal with the consequences have no voice that needs to be listened to. And the people who get to determine the consequences need to listen to no one.”

Dueling interpretations of a letter

Part of the ongoing dispute comes down to dueling interpretations of a letter sent in the fall by West Side Principal Mara Rivera and chapter leader Mark Weller.

The letter, a copy of which was reviewed by Chalkbeat, thanked facilities officials for the “excellent job” in upgrading the new building, praising the “remarkable” difference in the condition of the facility now compared to last year, and calling the atmosphere in the building “much more uplifting … than we had expected.”

The principal and chapter leader didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Multiple staffers who spoke with the chapter leader said he had explained that the letter, which was written without the knowledge of staff and was not addressed to Banks, was meant to build goodwill with facilities staff to help secure future upgrades. It wasn’t meant as an endorsement of the move or affirmation that it had worked out for the best. The letter writers weren’t notified that Banks was going to share the letter publicly, staffers added.

It was a “fairly simple message about ‘thanks for making the move a little less bad,’” Solow said.

An Education Department spokesperson didn’t directly address criticism that Banks misrepresented the letter, but said he only stated that the “principal wrote a letter of appreciation for the work done to get the space ready for the students of West Side High School.”

Banks heard about the letter through a regular update from facilities staff, the spokesperson said.

“We promised we would ensure the building meets both our standards and those of the school community, and the upgrades have made a true impact in the way students and staff view their new learning environment,” spokesperson Chyann Tull said in a statement.

Enrollment numbers don’t tell the full story

West Side staffers and students argued that there were features of the old building – which the school has occupied since the late 1980s – that were critical to its success and would be lost in the new facility, a prediction they said has come to fruition.

The old space had a child care program and health clinic on site, as well as a full-size gymnasium and access to an adjacent sports field. Those amenities filled specific needs for the school’s students, who are older, often juggle competing responsibilities, and struggle with attendance.

The new space, located on the seventh to 11th floors of an office building, has none of those things. The difficulty of restarting organized sports, such as volleyball, has been a particular blow, since that’s what helps keep many kids engaged in school, staffers said.

An Education Department spokesperson said officials are working to sustain services for students in the new space, including connecting the school to a nearby Mount Sinai location.

Staffers said they appreciated the facilities repairs, but those can’t alter some structural differences in the new building, including classrooms that are often about half the size of their old home.

One teacher described moving into a smaller classroom with multiple students with emotional disabilities. In the old building, there was enough space to separate students during conflicts. The new room doesn’t allow for that, said the teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Gomez, the student, said the new building is “claustrophobic” and “dreary.” He misses the joy of seeing the little kids at the old on-site day care, the access to fields and a gym, and the spacious hallways and classrooms where kids could take a lap if they got overwhelmed.

He’s struggled to keep up his attendance this year. For one stretch, he missed a month of school.

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.

Influx of asylum seekers pushes NYC’s homeless student population to record high

2023-11-01T10:00:00+00:00

The number of homeless students attending New York City schools reached a record high last year after thousands of asylum-seeking families entered the city’s shelter system, a new analysis shows.

Roughly 1 in 9 students were living in shelters, “doubled up” with relatives or friends, or otherwise without permanent housing at some point in the school year, according to state data compiled by Advocates for Children, a group that supports the city’s most vulnerable students.

The city’s population of homeless students was astronomical even before the recent influx, with the number of kids lacking permanent housing exceeding 100,000 for each of the past eight years – a stark indication of the city’s ongoing housing crisis.

But the sudden arrival of thousands of families fleeing dire conditions in Latin America and other parts of the world pushed the figure to nearly 120,000 last school year — a 14% increase over the previous school year. It’s an all-time high, even as the city’s overall student enrollment has plummeted, according to Advocates for Children, which has been crunching this number annually for more than a decade.

The number is likely to be even higher by the end of this school year. Roughly 12,500 new students in temporary housing have enrolled in city schools since July, according to an Education Department spokesperson.

“Our young people experiencing homelessness are some of our most vulnerable students, and it is our on-going priority to provide them with every support and resource at our disposal,” spokesperson Jenna Lyle said in a statement.

The increase has profound implications for city schools.

Homeless students face significant educational roadblocks, from the added logistical challenges of getting to school from distant shelters to the trauma that comes with losing permanent housing.

An astounding 72% of students living in homeless shelters were marked chronically absent last year — meaning they missed at least 18 days of school, according to data compiled by Advocates for Children. For all students in temporary housing, including those living doubled up, the rate was 54%, and for kids in permanent housing, it was 39%.

Students living in shelters were also more than four times as likely as kids with permanent housing to transfer schools last year, and less than half as likely to score proficient on state reading exams, according to the data.

Advocates fear the number of school transfers will spike even higher this year due to a new city rule that requires families in some shelters to exit the system every 60 days and either find alternative housing or re-apply for shelter. Families that re-apply would have no guarantee of ending up in the same shelter or even the same borough.

Mayor Eric Adams said the new policy is necessary to relieve severe overcrowding in shelters and free up space for new arrivals. He promised the city would work to ensure that students don’t have to transfer schools whenever possible.

Students who end up in homeless shelters far from their schools are entitled under federal law to transportation so they don’t have to transfer, but given the difficulty of coordinating the rides and the stress of the long commutes on families, that often amounts to “a right in name only,” said Jennifer Pringle, the director of Advocates for Children’s Learners in Temporary Housing project.

An Education Department spokesperson said district superintendents will ensure that transportation requests from homeless students are prioritized.

Schools go all out to help homeless students

Schools often devote considerable resources to supporting families in temporary housing with everything from transportation to basic needs like laundry.

At VOICE charter school in Long Island City, Queens, a sudden explosion of enrollment of students in shelters transformed educators’ approach to working with families.

Historically, the K-8 school enrolled no more than 20 homeless students in a year, said Principal Franklin Headley. But last year, given the school’s proximity to a cluster of recently converted shelters housing asylum-seeking families and an effective outreach strategy, the school enrolled hundreds of newly arrived families. It now serves roughly 270 students in temporary housing, Headley said.

The school’s 15-person operations team pivoted to focus almost exclusively on supporting the newly arrived families, fanning out to shelters to survey families’ needs and establish relationships with shelter staff, said Director of Operations Karina Chalas.

That work yielded several new school initiatives, including an after-school program to help parents who needed child care (because of shelter rules prohibiting them from leaving kids alone) and a laundry room for families without washers and dryers in their shelters.

Staff worked hard to keep attendance tabs on the new arrivals, even as families moved to new cities and states or transferred to shelters in other parts of the city. The school helped arrange bus or train transportation when possible for families who moved to different neighborhoods so kids didn’t have to transfer schools.

“They built a community here already,” Chalas said. “We try as hard as we can to give them any option of ‘here’s what we can do.’ After a while, if it becomes too much, we know as a school we tried everything we can do.”

Budget woes could unleash more instability for homeless students

All that support requires additional resources and expertise – and advocates say the city is still not providing enough help.

A city Education Department initiative last year that hired 100 new staffers, called community coordinators, to work directly in shelters to support families with educational needs is funded by one-time federal pandemic aid that expires at the end of this year.

Meanwhile, a plan to hire an additional 12 staffers this year to support homeless students is on hold because of a hiring freeze related to city budget cuts, advocates said.

“Losing the shelter-based Community Coordinators would almost certainly increase the already sky-high rates of chronic absenteeism and make it even more difficult for students in shelter to succeed in school,” said Kim Sweet, the executive director of Advocates for Children, said in a statement.

City officials have rolled out some new investments, including revamping the Education Department’s school funding formula to give extra dollars to schools for every student in temporary housing. The Education Department also employs 100 school-based social workers devoted to supporting homeless students.

Lyle, the Department spokesperson, said the agency plans to “work with our partners at the city and state levels to identify and establish supports for our students in temporary housing, while contending with the city’s financial reality.”

Staffers at schools serving large numbers of asylum-seekers remain worried about how the new 60-day shelter rules will affect their families. Chalas, the staffer at the Queens charter school, said she’s heard many families at her school talking about cramming into shared apartments together rather than re-enter the shelter system.

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

36% of NYC public school students were chronically absent last school year

2023-09-06T22:32:05+00:00

Thirty-six percent of New York City public school students were chronically absent last school year, missing at least 10% of the school year, according to figures released by Education Department officials on Wednesday.

That represents a modest improvement compared with the 2021-2022 school year, which saw chronic absenteeism exceed 40%, the highest rate in decades.

Despite a year-over-year reduction, the figures are a stark reminder that absenteeism remains a stubborn challenge that will continue to complicate efforts to catch students up from years of pandemic-fueled disruptions.

Before the coronavirus forced school buildings to shutter, chronic absenteeism rates typically hovered closer to 25%. But absenteeism has surged in recent years, reaching 30% during the 2020-2021 school year, when students were allowed to learn virtually or in person.

Absenteeism exploded to roughly 4 in 10 students — or nearly 353,000 children — during the 2021-22 school year, the first time all children were required to attend school in person since March 2020. Coronavirus-related illnesses likely played a role, as hundreds of thousands of students and staff tested positive that year.

But even as there were fewer spikes in coronavirus cases last school year, the effects of the pandemic still reverberated. With student mental health concerns on the rise, some families struggled to coax their children to attend school. School staffers said caregivers were more likely to keep their children home at any sign of illness. And schools may also have struggled to re-engage students who grew accustomed to long stretches of remote learning and relaxed attendance expectations.

Whatever the cause, chronic absenteeism is often seen as a key metric of school performance, as missed school typically means missed learning. Absences can also hurt student achievement in the long run.

One Manhattan middle school principal said he was surprised to see persistent chronic absenteeism at his school last year, even as staff made an effort to reach out to families and offer prizes for high attendance.

“I was thinking [attendance] would come back, and it didn’t,” said the principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There’s a much more pervasive sense that if my kid doesn’t go to school they can still do the work at home.”

The principal wished he had more resources available to hire additional social workers, conduct more home visits, or even fund for outside-of-the-box ideas like financial incentives for student attendance.

During a press briefing on Wednesday, city officials said they’ve made a few district-level tweaks to address chronic absenteeism, including giving superintendents authority over a cadre of attendance teachers deployed to schools with more acute absenteeism problems. They credited those efforts with helping to ease absenteeism last year.

Education Department officials also pointed to new high school programs that allow a small number of students to attend school virtually or on a hybrid schedule that includes some in-person learning.

First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said those schools were created specifically for students who might struggle in more traditional settings or who work jobs during the day and can benefit from additional flexibility. He said those programs are part of the city’s strategy to address chronic absenteeism, but also acknowledged the challenge is much broader.

“Chronic absenteeism is not just a problem in New York City,” he said. “This is a national problem in every large urban district — and many of the small ones.”

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

Betty Rosa, New York’s top education official, raises equity concerns over class size law

2023-08-17T21:07:14+00:00

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State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa raised fresh concerns Thursday about a new law that will require New York City to slash class sizes, responding to a Chalkbeat analysis that found that the highest-poverty schools are least likely to benefit.

Rosa said the equity implications of the law are “a problem,” as lower-need schools are more likely to have larger class sizes that violate the new caps and will therefore disproportionately benefit from the policy.

The law does not come with new funding earmarked to reduce class sizes, raising the possibility of difficult tradeoffs, such as cuts to other schools or programs.

“You’re gonna have to take it from Peter to give it to Paul,” Rosa said during an education conference hosted by the news organization City & State.

As the state’s highest-ranking education official and staunch advocate of equity in education, Rosa’s critique of the policy is noteworthy, though she has no direct power to alter it. The law, passed overwhelmingly by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, represented one of the biggest changes in state education policy last year. It was widely celebrated by educators and advocates who point to research that shows smaller class sizes often boost student learning and argue that small classes are a basic necessity that all students should enjoy.

But because higher-poverty schools already have smaller class sizes, those schools are least likely to benefit from the influx of resources that will be required to comply with the mandate.

Experts have warned that city officials could be forced to funnel more resources to some of the city’s better-off schools — funding that could have otherwise been spent on social workers, tutoring, or other support at higher-need campuses.

Rosa suggested that tradeoff is at the heart of her worry about the new policy.

She said education policy ought to be driven “by needs — not driven by trying to give everybody the same thing.”

A spokesperson for Hochul did not respond to a request for comment about Rosa’s critique of the class size policy or answer questions about the law’s equity implications. (The governor does not appoint the state’s education commissioner.)

Implementing the law will require the city to hire thousands of new teachers at a cost of between $1.3 billion and 1.9 billion a year, according to projections from the New York City Department of Education and the city’s Independent Budget Office.

Experts have warned the hiring spree could prompt more affluent schools to poach educators from higher-need schools, which have long struggled to attract qualified staff and are more likely to have high turnover rates.

Still, the class size law’s backers said those concerns are outweighed by the need to reduce class sizes across all schools, as the current caps allow classes as large as 34 students. Under the new law, most classes won’t be allowed to exceed 25 children. Supporters also note that the majority of the students who will see their class sizes shrink come from low-income families, as most of the city’s students fall into that category.

State Sen. John Liu, who sponsored the state legislation and also attended the City & State event, was unwavering in his support for the law. He argued that the city should direct recent increases in state funding to the effort, noting that he believes small classes are a necessary ingredient for a quality education.

“You cannot provide a sound basic education when class sizes are still excessively large,” he said during a panel discussion at the conference. “It’s as simple as that.”

Matt Barnum contributed.

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

NYC must slash class sizes under a new law. The neediest schools stand to benefit least.

2023-08-17T10:00:00+00:00

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When Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a new law last year that would slash class sizes in New York City, praise came in from many quarters.

Teachers, along with their union, hailed the move as a victory that would improve classroom conditions and boost learning. Education activists said smaller class sizes would benefit the most vulnerable students. Lawmakers in Albany, who overwhelmingly passed the bill, rejoiced.

There are good reasons for this enthusiasm. Studies have found that students often learn more in smaller classes. Some research suggests that children from low-income families, who constitute a majority of New York City students, benefit the most. Plus, smaller classes are popular with parents and teachers alike.

But in recent months, some of the new law’s costs and tradeoffs have come into sharper focus. A Chalkbeat analysis shows that because the city’s highest-poverty schools already have smaller classes, they stand to benefit the least from the state’s class size cap. This aligns with recent reports from the New York City Department of Education, the city’s Independent Budget Office, and The Urban Institute.

Researchers who have studied class size say that these findings raise troubling equity concerns. The class size cap could mean that new resources will be funneled not to the schools that have the greatest needs or lowest test scores but to some of the city’s better-off schools.

The cap could exacerbate teacher shortages in high-poverty communities by creating a hiring spree that encourages more advantaged schools to poach teachers. And city officials, including Mayor Eric Adams, said they’ll be hard pressed to afford the class size mandate absent additional state money.

“Some of the less advantaged schools already have smaller class sizes — in that way, it’s not putting the additional money you have into the schools that probably need it the most,” said Susanna Loeb, a Stanford University researcher who has studied New York City schools.

Highest-needs schools already have smallest class sizes

The new cap dramatically reduces the number of students allowed in a single classroom.

Under the previous rules, classes were generally capped at 30 to 34 students, depending on the grade, with 25 students in kindergarten. Under the new law, classes may not exceed 20 students in kindergarten through third grade, 23 students for grades 4-8, and 25 students in high school. Physical education and classes involving “performing groups” are limited to 40 children.

But the reductions in class size will not be shared evenly once the law is fully implemented over five years.

At the city’s highest poverty schools, only 38% of classrooms are larger than the new caps allow, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of city data from last school year. By contrast, at low- to mid-poverty schools, 69% of classrooms are above the caps.

To bring schools into compliance with the law, which will take full effect in 2028, the city will need thousands of new teachers at an annual cost of $1.3 billion to $1.9 billion, according to projections from the Education Department and the city’s Independent Budget Office. That’s at least 4% of the department’s operating budget.

At overcrowded schools that need more classroom space to reduce class sizes, the School Construction Authority estimated the costs could run tens of billions of dollars.

But since the state has not earmarked new funding attached to the class size law, it remains unclear how the city will pay for it. Experts warn of difficult tradeoffs. Additional dollars spent reducing class sizes on lower-need campuses could instead be directed to the city’s highest-need schools — to, say, hire more tutors to combat pandemic learning loss or additional social workers to address student mental health challenges.

In Brooklyn’s District 16, which includes much of Bedford-Stuyvesant and where the vast majority of students come from low-income families, 36% of classrooms were above the new class size caps. That’s the second-lowest rate of the city’s 32 districts.

NeQuan McLean, the president of District 16’s local parent council, said he wasn’t aware that higher-need districts are less likely to benefit from the new law, noting there wasn’t much public debate of that issue when the law passed.

“I would definitely have a problem with resources being pulled from low-income districts to go to high-income districts when investments need to be made in underserved districts,” McLean said. “We can’t use the method of robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

He said additional investments in his district are sorely needed, from upgraded gyms and bathrooms, to additional wraparound services in schools to combat food insecurity. He also wants more on-campus health services and dental clinics, as students often miss school to go to those appointments.

There will be tradeoffs at lower-need schools, too, as school leaders may be required to direct more resources to staff smaller classes, potentially forcing cuts to other programs. City officials may also have to cap enrollment at some schools.

“Maybe principals have decided they want slightly larger class sizes [in exchange] for a math coach,” said Matthew Chingos, an Urban Institute researcher who recently published a report about the impact of the class size caps and serves on a city advisory group on the issue. “It may force some tradeoffs that people didn’t fully appreciate.”

Supporters point to advantages of small classes

The law’s backers contend that small classes are a basic necessity with broad benefits to students.

Jake Jacobs, a Bronx art teacher, said it is difficult to offer individual support when his classes exceed 30 students. “Those classes were nightmares because of it,” he said. Despite some of the tradeoffs of the law, “as a teacher I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.”

As for concerns about equity, supporters point out that most students in New York City are from low-income families, so much of the class size cuts will still redound to their benefit.

“The law actually lowers class sizes for a higher number of high-need kids compared to lower-need kids,” said Christina Collins, the director of education policy at the United Federation of Teachers, which pushed for the new caps.

Collins and other supporters emphasize that the law also requires the Education Department to prioritize higher-need campuses first as the new caps phase in. (However, experts note this doesn’t address the key equity issue, since all schools regardless of poverty level will be required to meet the new class size limits within five years.)

Asked about concerns that the law would still require the city to funnel resources to schools with fewer high-need students, Collins pointed to education programs that give students access to the same resources regardless of family income, such prekindergarten or free meals.

Proponents also contend that there is funding available to cut class sizes, pointing to recent boosts in state education dollars that stem from a decades-old lawsuit that argued New York’s schools were not properly funded.

“The courts mandated that every kid get a sound, basic education. And their mandate cannot be achieved when kids are still in excessively large class sizes,” said state Sen. John Liu, who sponsored the class size legislation.

The city’s Education Department may use increases in state funding to reduce class sizes. But officials note the department has already committed the money to other priorities, including for the first time fully funding the city’s own school budget formula, which channels more resources to schools that enroll higher-need children.

Mayor Adams has warned that complying with the class size mandate will restrict city officials from spending education dollars as they see fit.

“Clearly we should use taxpayers’ dollars to focus on equity — not equality, equity,” Adams said at a press conference last September. “There are certain school districts that need more,” he added. “We’re taking away the chancellor’s ability to focus on where the problem is, and the governor made the decision to sign it.”

A spokesperson for Gov. Hochul did not respond to questions about the equity implications of the law.

Unintended consequences loom large

Hiring thousands of new teachers in New York City could prove a particular challenge, especially at a moment of rising teacher turnover. A hiring spree might force schools to bring on less skilled or less qualified educators, which could limit the gains from smaller classes.

In one study of New York City, Michael Gilraine, an economist at New York University, found that when schools reduced class size without having to hire a new teacher, there were large improvements in student test scores. But when they had to add a teacher to get class sizes down, the benefits from smaller classes were swamped by a decline in teacher quality.

“The results indicate that smaller class sizes do improve student achievement,” wrote Gilraine. “Policy makers and school administrators need to be mindful, however, that these gains can be offset by changes in teacher quality.”

Research in California has highlighted a similar tradeoff, though it suggests that the problem dissipates over the longer term.

Higher-need schools typically bear the brunt of teacher shortages. For instance, an older study in New York City found that better teachers were more likely to migrate from lower-performing schools to high-performing ones, a concern echoed in the city’s working group on class size reduction.

One leader of a Manhattan middle school, where most classes already met the new class size caps last school year, said he’s concerned that higher-performing schools in the district may poach quality educators.

“How many teachers from the lower-performing schools are going to go [to higher-performing schools] because they can get paid the same amount and have an easier life?” said the principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about the class size cap’s impact on their campus. “That’s my bigger worry honestly.”

New York City does not offer additional pay to teachers working in higher-needs schools to potentially counteract this effect.

“It’s hard to recruit teachers right now” and high-poverty schools typically have a harder time doing so, said Loeb, the Stanford professor. “Adding class size reduction may in fact escalate that.”

Collins, of the UFT, says there should be efforts to expand the pipeline of new teachers to meet rising demand.

For now, officials don’t have clear answers to these challenges and much remains uncertain about how the city will implement the new law. The Education Department has convened a task force that includes advocates and policy experts to gather input.

The law also includes a handful of exemptions to the class size mandate, including for schools that are overenrolled, would face significant economic hardship to comply, or or have insufficient teachers in subjects that are difficult to staff. The Education Department and the unions representing teachers and school administrators must all agree to those waivers. If they don’t, the decision falls to an arbitrator.

“It’s not clear how those decisions are going to be made — and school communities that wind up losing valuable dollars are going to be up in arms,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College who has studied New York City schools.“I would like that process to be as open and transparent as possible.”

Regardless of the challenges, Liu, the state senator who championed the law, remains sanguine. “I don’t think anybody will say 10 years from now that, ‘Oh, this was the wrong thing to do,’” he said.

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

Matt Barnum is interim national editor, overseeing and contributing to Chalkbeat’s coverage of national education issues. Contact him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

Nonbinary students are now included in NYC school enrollment data

2023-07-25T18:15:01+00:00

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After New York City cleared the way for families to list their child’s gender as “X” instead of “M” or “F,” officials released statistics for the first time on how many families selected that designation for their child’s school records.

The numbers are small for now: Just 108 nonbinary, gender fluid, or gender expansive students used the “X” designation last school year out of more than a million children in the city’s public schools, including charters.

But advocates say the new statistics represent an important milestone, given the increase in reported gender nonconformity among young people, and as Republicans are ramping up attacks on schools’ support of LGBTQ students and gender diversity.

“The first step to making sure a school is meeting the needs of its student body is knowing who is in the student body,” said Allie Bohm, an attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union who focuses on LGBTQ issues. “It’s really important that they’re collecting these data.”

City and state officials have recently ramped up their efforts to make schools more welcoming for transgender, nonbinary, intersex, and gender expansive children — populations that often experience an outsized share of bullying, harassment, and mental health challenges.

Beginning last fall, city officials began allowing families to select the “X” designation on official school records in lieu of “female” or “male” — an option already available on city birth certificates. The state education department requires districts across New York to report the number of nonbinary students who are enrolled and now lists those statistics publicly. The federal education department is also beginning to collect similar data.

The number of city public school children who don’t identify as male or female may be an undercount, as changing a student’s gender on official paperwork generally requires parental consent and students may not be comfortable broaching the topic with their family. Some caregivers also may not know they can request a change to their child’s gender on official paperwork to the “X” marker.

In New York City, student- and school-facing records — such as transcripts, report cards, and attendance rosters — generally do not include a student’s gender. And education department policy requires teachers to call students by the names and pronouns they assert at school, even without explicit parental consent or changes to legal documents.

“New York City Public Schools is committed to providing a safe, equitable and affirming school environment for every student in our school building,” education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle wrote in a statement. “Affirming students’ gender identities is of paramount importance.”

School to school, experiences may vary

The degree to which a school is welcoming to LGBTQ students may also affect how comfortable families feel changing their students’ records. At Brooklyn Collaborative Studies in Cobble Hill, educators were not surprised that their school reported enrolling four nonbinary or gender expansive students — the most of any public school in the city.

“We do work really hard to have an open, welcoming, communicatory school space,” said Diana Roffman, a sixth grade English teacher and co-advisor of the school’s joint gender and sexuality alliance and Black Lives Matter club (known as the GSA BLM Collective).

Students and staff at the grades 6-12 school have access to all-gender bathrooms, the GSA BLM Collective has invited LGBTQ authors to speak with students, and teachers often help review each other’s lessons to make sure they are culturally responsive — including diversity in religious experiences, racial identities, and family structures. The school previously set up its own processes to track students’ preferred pronouns and names.

“Within our electronic gradebook there were notes so that students didn’t have to come out to like seven different teachers,” said Devon Shanley, a seventh grade English teacher and co-advisor of the GSA BLM Collective.

But even as city and state officials are making efforts to be more inclusive, students’ actual experiences may vary significantly from campus to campus — and gaps in policy can emerge.

When schools pivoted to remote instruction during the pandemic, for instance, some nonbinary students said their online learning platforms automatically displayed their names assigned at birth, often referred to as deadnames, and which may not match their gender identity. That led to anguish for those who already used chosen names in their daily interactions with their teachers and peers.

“For all the Zoom meetings, I see my dead name,” one city high school sophomore told the news organization THE CITY in 2020. “It’s distressing.”

Facing pressure from the city comptroller, the education department made it easier for families to alter their children’s school records with a chosen name — which can be displayed on report cards, attendance rosters, and other records — even if it differs from what appears on legal documents.

But schools do not always swiftly adhere to the policy.

Brooklyn mom Eliza Hittman said it took months for her child’s elementary school to process a name change request last year, with school officials using the student’s deadname in the meantime. The experience was emotionally fraught for her child, a rising fourth grader who identifies as gender diverse, and contributed to the family’s decision to transfer them to a different public school.

“Schools aren’t necessarily aware of the importance of things like a name change form and the level of distress it can cause a student who is transitioning to have a legal name called out,” Hittman said. “There are DOE guidelines that are clear but they’re not implemented unless you have families who are fighting for them.”

Bohm, the New York Civil Liberties Union attorney, said swiftly processing requests to change students’ names and genders is essential, noting that feelings of discrimination can affect school performance. Adapting to new policies and norms may require culture shifts at some schools, which can take time, Bohm added.

“I wish I could say guidance comes out or regulations come out and everything is great now,” she said. “There’s no silver bullet.”

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

New York wants to revamp how schools are evaluated. Here’s what could change for now.

2023-06-22T16:45:25+00:00

How does the state determine whether schools are doing well or if they are struggling and need extra support?

Before the pandemic, state officials relied on standardized tests and high school Regents exams to figure out how well students were doing, along with other factors, such as graduation rates. But the public health crisis paused state testing and affected school performance metrics in other ways.

Now, education department officials are seeking a new, temporary evaluation system for the next two school years, with the hopes of creating something more permanent for the 2025-26 school year.

If a school is found to be struggling, it is required to develop an improvement plan that must be approved by local and state officials. Schools that don’t make progress for five years could face state takeover or closure — but it’s a route that state officials rarely took even before developing the current accountability system, which is meant to be less punitive for schools.

In the short term, over the next two years, state officials want to exclude certain science and social studies exams, as well as measures for student growth and college and career readiness, when deciding which schools need improvement. These changes are necessary, officials say, because schools are still missing a trove of data, such as enough student participation in state tests, because of the pandemic.

Already, the conversation is sparking some controversy. Some groups focused on education reform believe the move represents a step backward just as schools need more help as they recover from the pandemic. Other observers believe the state’s proposed plan is reasonable.

Ultimately, the federal government must sign off on these proposed changes, since the state’s accountability system is required by federal law and is written into New York’s federally required Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, plan.

“They’re doing a decent job of balancing what’s of interest in the state and the federal ESSA requirements, and incorporating all the instability and uncertainty that came with the slowdown of testing during the pandemic,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Teachers College and an expert in testing.

But Education-Trust New York, an advocacy organization focused on equity issues, worried that several of the proposed changes could mean masking “bright spots and disparities,” according to their written public feedback to the state.

“I think these next two school years are incredibly important for kids coming out of the pandemic,” said Jeff Smink, the group’s deputy director, in an interview with Chalkbeat. “We have to both give them all the support they need but also hold them to high standards, and I just don’t feel like we’re doing that right now.”

What metrics would still be used?

Under the state’s proposal, schools will still be measured on English language proficiency (based on a state language exam for English learners), graduation rates, how well students are doing in core subjects based on Regents and state test scores, and chronic absenteeism. In New York City, chronic absenteeism has been a pressing issue, with 41% of students last school year absent for at least 10 school days.

What do state officials want to ditch (for now)?

The state wants to put a pause on measuring academic progress based on certain goals for student scores on state English and math tests.

State officials say they want to update these goals — first set in the 2017-18 school year — before they use them to determine whether schools are struggling.

The state’s proposed plan would also pause the use of “Measures of Interim Progress,” which more broadly measures whether schools are meeting goals for academics and other things, like their graduation rates.

For elementary and middle schools, officials want to pause how they’ve been measuring student growth, largely because of the lack of testing data. Typically, they calculated student growth using three years of testing data, but the pandemic caused big disruptions: For example, just one in five New York City children took state exams in the 2020-21 school year, when most children chose to learn from home.

For high schools, officials won’t consider college, career, and civic readiness metrics, which include advanced coursework or extra credentials in specialized jobs-based courses. That’s because the pandemic may have hampered students’ access to some of these programs or courses, officials said. They also worried that the pandemic’s impact on learning may have caused students to perform worse academically than they otherwise would have, such as on AP exams.

What will the state do with data, even if it’s not being used to evaluate schools?

State officials still plan to provide all of this data to schools for “informational purposes only” for the next two school years, they said.

Why do state officials want to exclude elementary school science exams and high school social studies assessments?

Science tests would be excluded because the state has changed who must take those exams. Traditionally, students in fourth and eighth grades take the state science test. However, only eighth graders took the test this school year, as the state prepares to offer the exam next year to fifth graders instead of fourth graders. That means they won’t be able to compare results equitably across elementary and middle schools that have different grade configurations.

Fifth graders will take the exam next spring. Asked why those scores won’t be taken into account for the 2024-25 school year, a spokesperson said that it allows districts to have “consistency and predictability” for now, as they attempt to rebuild the accountability system.

While calling it a “logical” move, Ed-Trust argued that excluding science tests “undermines the importance of science education” and worried schools will have less reason to focus on it. The organization suggested that the state should instead work with local districts to “ensure a smooth transition” to the new science assessments without entirely removing it as one way to measure student performance.

On the high school level, officials want to pause using social studies tests because of multiple exam cancellations in recent years. The state looks at cohorts of students, such as the graduating class of 2023, when considering how they performed on these tests, namely the Regents exams for Global History and Geography and U.S. History and Government.

But students who will graduate this year couldn’t take Regents exams in 2021, when they were in 10th grade, because of the pandemic. U.S. History and Government exams were also canceled last year, when these students were juniors, in the wake of a mass shooting in Buffalo, with the state education department claiming there was material on the exam that could “compound student trauma.”

State officials have emphasized that this plan “in no way diminishes” the importance of science or social studies instruction.

How will schools be labeled if they need support?

The lowest performing schools are known as schools in need of Comprehensive Support and Improvement, or CSI. But the state won’t list new CSI schools until the 2025-26 school year because they identified a group of such schools this year under a tweaked system, and that process only happens every three years, officials said.

A total of 139 New York City schools were identified this year as in need of some level of improvement, with 83% of them listed as CSI schools, according to state data.

However, New York will identify schools for Targeted Support and Intervention, or TSI, next year, which must happen annually per federal law. Those are schools that aren’t meeting goals set for specific student groups, such as by race, economic status, and those with disabilities.

In one recent — and perhaps confusing — change, schools that are meeting or exceeding their goals are no longer called “Schools in Good Standing” and instead are now labeled by the state as schools identified for Local Support and Improvement, or LSI.

What will happen for the 2025-26 school year?

State officials plan to revamp the accountability system for the 2025-26 school year after collecting feedback from the public. The new plan will also incorporate any changes to the state’s graduation requirements, which could come as soon as the end of this year. The education department is rethinking the role of Regents exams in graduation, among other considerations.

Pallas said that the plan for the 2025-26 school year and beyond would still have to meet federal ESSA requirements and earn the buy-in of school district leaders — meaning that it likely won’t be “a dramatic break from the past.”

“It’s gotta be something that feels progressive but also comfortable,” Pallas said.

Thomas Wilburn contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

College felt impossible to this student in foster care. Then NYC offered to pay.

2023-06-15T16:14:05+00:00

At the age of 16, Marowa, a Bangladeshi immigrant, entered New York City’s foster care system, after her parents had physically abused her for much of her life.

Two years and five foster homes later, Marowa fled to California to build a new life but returned to New York City by the age of 19, in search of stable housing and a familiar community. (Marowa said she does not have a legal last name.)

After she reluctantly re-entered foster care, a social worker asked Marowa if she knew that Administration for Children’s Services, or ACS, could help her pay for college and other expenses.

“I was just thinking about surviving,” Marowa said. “I wasn’t really thinking about college.”

Last week — five years after that conversation — Marowa graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Brooklyn College, with the help of the financial assistance that her social worker had described.

Marowa is one of 300 students who used the College Choice program this year to fund up to $15,000 of tuition, room and board, and $60 in daily stipends, according to ACS officials, who said that no eligible student who applied on time was turned away.

The program, announced in October, combined with other state and federal grants, covers all tuition and living expenses for these students. It was similar to other programs that preceded it when Marowa first entered college with some updates that aim to ease the burden on participants: College Choice doubles the daily student stipend and allows them to live on the same campus as where they go to school.

For the 2023-24 school year, the Adams administration has proposed keeping this $10 million initiative.

A more stable future for students in foster care

The program attempts to set up a stable future for students like Marowa, who might otherwise be unable to pay for college or incur student loan debt, even with federal and state grants. In New York City, the cost of higher education is not the only barrier: Last school year, 45% of students in foster care graduated from high school on time, compared with 84% of students not in foster care, according to state data. In 2019, before the pandemic and the loosening of certain graduation requirements, just one-quarter of youth in foster care graduated on time.

The city’s Fair Futures program, which advocates pushed the city to create in recent years, attempts to improve those graduation rates by linking students in foster care ages 11 to 26 with academic, career, and life coaching.

Even children who make it to college can find it financially impossible to stay enrolled, said Jess Dannhauser, commissioner for ACS. Dannhauser, who previously oversaw foster care agency Graham Windam, said he’d hear about students who dropped out of college because they couldn’t afford pricey textbooks or even doing laundry regularly.

“The things that came up both were expensive, and it was hard to be nimble to meet all those needs,” Dannhauser said of students’ experiences. “And it sends a message that they don’t belong there.”

In order to be eligible for College Choice, young people must currently be in foster care, earn a minimum GPA of 2.0, and apply for financial aid grants, such as the federal Pell Grant and New York State’s Tuition Assistance Program, or TAP.

Larger stipends and more places to live

Before Marowa used College Choice this year, there was “The Dorm Project,” which used a total of about $7 million to provide housing and tuition help to about 200 students in foster care last year who attended CUNY schools. ACS also provided $31 daily stipends to college students in foster care.

Marowa pictured on her graduation day at Brooklyn College.

College Choice ironed out a few wrinkles with the previous program, officials said. Unlike previous years, the program helps cover costs for students who attend any college, not just CUNY. Students also receive a $60 daily stipend — and will now receive that money for six months after graduation.

The old program provided year-round housing at certain CUNY dorms where the city had purchased space but not necessarily where students were attending school. In what felt like a particularly important change for children, College Choice allows them to live on the same campus where they’re enrolled.

“We heard from young people that they really wanted to live and go to school in the same place, that they wanted that choice, that they wanted to have the opportunity to go out of state,” said ACS Commissioner Jess Dannhauser in an interview. “And the College Choice program allows for that.”

The program is a positive start at helping students access college, but broadening the eligibility requirements would help many more students in need, said Chantal Hinds, a researcher focused on students in foster care at the Next100, a policy think tank based in New York City. Hinds noted that the program doesn’t benefit students who aren’t in foster care anymore but might still be struggling financially and mentally from their experience in the system.

She noted that Marowa could have been one of those teens had she not re-entered the foster care system after her time in California.

“If you’re in the foster system for a month or 12 years, you’re still impacted,” said Hinds, who was once an attorney for ACS. “There was still a significant portion of your life that was changed because of this experience.”

Marowa began receiving financial support through the old college aid programs and then switched over to College Choice this past school year, which meant her daily stipend doubled in size.

In college, Marowa changed majors twice before landing on English literature, which she fell in love with after being forced as a newcomer immigrant years ago to learn the language.

Marowa was one of the students who pushed ACS for better college assistance, and she continues to advocate on behalf of foster youth, both she and an ACS spokesperson said. She’s considering a teaching job offer, and has qualified for subsidized housing.

Once she becomes more financially stable, she’s hoping to fulfill a longtime dream: to become a foster mom.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

How to support LGBTQ students: New York education officials update guidance

2023-06-12T13:00:00+00:00

As some states pass anti-LGBTQ legislation, New York state education officials have moved in the opposite direction, issuing new guidance on Monday on how schools should support transgender and gender-expansive students.

The 42-page document includes a slew of information for schools, including the correct terminology to use for gender identity, or how to support students who are coming out at school or want to transition. It has information on students’ privacy rights — including in relation to their parents — and research about LGBTQ students’ experiences at school. It also outlines the laws that prohibit discrimination against students on the basis of their gender.

Many of these laws were created after the state’s initial guidance from 2015, said Kathleen DeCataldo, assistant commissioner of the state education department’s Student Support Service office. One of those laws is the GENDA Act, which in 2019 added gender identity and expression as a protected category to New York’s Human Rights Law.

The document also includes more information and resources for schools than the 2015 guidance. For example, the guidance released Monday includes 26 words schools should know in relation to LGBTQ students, such as misgendering. The older document had just eight words.

The document opens with results from a 2021 national survey conducted by Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, which found that nearly 82% of the LGTBQ student respondents reported feeling unsafe at school. More than two-thirds of those students said they felt unsafe was because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Two-thirds of the respondents said they heard homophobic remarks at school, and roughly 40% said they “often or frequently” heard transphobic words, such as “tranny” or “he-she.”

As other states pass laws that seek to curb the rights of LGBTQ people, officials in New York “understand the climate right now,” DeCataldo told Chalkbeat.

“That makes it even more important to be clear about what the law requires of schools, so this is the perfect time to really have this update,” she said.

As one of the first states to release guidance nearly a decade ago, New York was ahead of the curve on pushing schools to create safer spaces for LGTBQ students. But members of New York’s Democratic committee recently signaled that the state is not doing enough. In May, the committee passed a resolution that called for elected officials and the governor to create a statewide LGTBQ curriculum for public schools. Efforts to do so in the past have failed.

New York City’s education department has a social studies curriculum supplement that centers the voices of LGTBQ people. On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order that, among other things, prohibits the city from cooperating with out-of-state investigations into gender-affirming care.

State officials developed the new guidance with the help of a roughly 30-person advisory committee that included representatives from advocacy groups such as the New York Civil Liberties Union, or NYCLU, and the Trevor Project, which focuses on preventing suicide among LGBTQ youth.

Allie Bohm, policy counsel for NYCLU and advisory committee member, praised the committee’s array of voices, including parents of transgender youth, lawyers who work in this subject area, school psychologists, and adults who had the experience of transitioning as children. She was especially glad that state officials asked transgender students themselves about their experiences to help shape the updated guidance.

The document quotes some of those students anonymously. For example, one student shared that it took about eight months to get a legal name change at school. “They will let you put in a nickname in the system,” the student said, “but teachers never really use it, especially in the beginning of the year.”

The state’s guidance cites a 2016 study that says LGBTQ students who felt discriminated against for their sexual orientation and gender expression got worse grades than students who reported fewer instances of harassment. Those students were also roughly three times as likely to miss school.

Bohm said her organization hears about different ways schools across the state have discriminated against transgender youth, such as people who were told they couldn’t use a bathroom that matches their gender identity. It’s less common to hear examples in New York City but not unheard of, she said.

“This is a document that really, clearly says from the state’s highest education agency, ‘We see you,’ to trans youth, and, ‘We support you,’” Bohm said. “To feel like your state has your back is incredibly powerful.”

Creating this guidance may also mean that students might not have to constantly explain themselves, said Kraig Pannell, director of the Office of LGBTQ Services for New York’s state health department and another advisory member.

“Regardless of how you identify or regardless of what your gender expression is, if you have to go in and explain and teach somebody something, that gets burdensome,” Pannell said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@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.

NYC’s Summer Rising program rejected 45,000 applicants, launching scramble for child care

2023-05-24T21:50:38+00:00

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Roughly 45,000 children have been shut out of New York City’s free, popular summer program, education department officials said this week.

The program, which runs between six to seven weeks for most students, provides academics during the morning and enrichment activities in the afternoon for children in grades K-8 across the five boroughs from July to August.

Like last year, a total of 110,000 seats were available this year, with a portion held open for students mandated to attend summer school. During a City Council hearing this week, the education department’s Chief Operating Officer Emma Vadehra said there are 94,000 seats available for 139,000 applicants. Officials initially reported that 30,000 families did not receive spots.

It’s possible that some of the rejected applicants will have to attend the program anyway for academic reasons and will get a seat that has been set aside. Still, many of those families, who were notified earlier this month that they didn’t get seats, are likely scrambling to find summer programs for their children before the school year ends on June 27.

“The basic challenge is that demand outstripped supply pretty dramatically,” Vadehra told City Council members. “And so there’s different ways that could have looked, but we just didn’t have enough seats in the program for the number of kids and families that really wanted this program despite the fact that it is the largest summer program we’ve had – and the largest in the country.”

Two of those unsuccessful applicants were Alejandra Perez’s 5- and 10-year-old sons, who should have been prioritized for seats because they attend an after-school program run by the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, through a community-based organization that helps oversee Summer Rising.

Perez, a lifelong East Harlemite, paid $2,250 last summer for six weeks of child care, which she can barely afford again this year.

But in mid-May, about three weeks after applying, she was informed via email that her sons, who attend a charter school in East Harlem, didn’t get in. While she can probably rely on a relative to care for her older son, she is scrambling to find free or affordable care for her 5-year-old.

“I am still trying to find a program,” she said. “By the act of God, maybe I’ll get an email like, ‘Hey, we found you a spot!’”

Some children with priority did not get spots

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio established the program two years ago with federal relief dollars as the city clawed its way out of the pandemic, attempting to provide children with a bridge back to school after remote learning. It differs from summer programs in the past: It’s open to any child, including those in charters and private school, not just those who are mandated to attend summer school.

The program, though bumpy with its initial roll out, has grown in popularity. This year, city officials made a couple of key changes to the application process. While still open to the same number of children, applicants were allowed to rank choices for Summer Rising sites instead of the first come, first served process last year. Additionally, students who attend after-school programs subsidized through the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, or DYCD, were supposed to be prioritized for seats, like Perez’s children. That’s in addition to students living in temporary housing, children in foster care, and children with disabilities who must have services year round.

Perez had ranked three Summer Rising sites close to her home. Perez said the application did not ask if her kids were in an after-school program. According to an education department spokesperson, Perez’s children didn’t receive a spot because there was likely a lot of demand at the sites she chose.

When she asked someone from the after-school program why her sons didn’t get into Summer Rising, they didn’t have an answer — except that none of the kids in the program who applied got in, Perez said. (A representative for their SCAN-Harbor Beacon after-school program did not return a request for comment.)

During the City Council hearing this week, officials said that just over half of the seats that have been filled went to students in the priority groups. Of those, 29,000 spots went to students who were in DYCD-run after-school programs, 16,000 went to students in temporary housing, 3,000 seats to children with 12-month individualized education programs, or IEPs, and another 1,000 to students in foster care. (Last year, Summer Rising had 12,000 students in temporary housing, 2,700 students with 12-month IEPs and 1,000 students in foster care.)

New seats won’t be added, but filled seats might open up

Vadehra said they’re not planning to add seats — emphasizing that this program is being supported by federal dollars that are set to run out next year — and there is no wait list for seats. But they are expecting an unspecified number of spots to open up, either because fewer students will be mandated to attend summer school or because families may decline a seat they’ve been offered. The education department is working with DYCD to figure out how to make families aware of empty seats in June and how they can apply for those, she said.

In the meantime, parents are scrambling to find options that seem few and far between — and too pricey.

Perez’s rejection email from the education department included a link to other DYCD programs that might be available. She said she has called every local community-based organization near her home for some type of programming with no luck.

“At this point I am just emailing everyone,” she said.

Tia Jackson, who lives in Central Harlem, knew she would potentially need to scramble for summer options if her son didn’t get into Summer Rising, so she signed him up for a YMCA program near her home. Her planning came in handy: Her son did not get a Summer Rising seat.

While he doesn’t fall into any of the priority groups, her son, who is autistic, also has an individualized education program. The YMCA program has staff who can assist him if he needs extra support, Jackson said. She will be reimbursed up to $2,250 for summer care expenses through the state’s Office of People With Developmental Disabilities, but that only ensures four weeks of summer programming for her son. He’s planning to visit his aunt in Florida for one week, and she will pay out of pocket for child care for an additional week.

She feels thankful for having a “Plan A and Plan B.”

“I feel like the way they rolled out the program to start was very late, and it wasn’t the best for working parents, typically because when you think about summer camps most applications for summer camp start in February and March,” she said. “We didn’t get the Summer Rising notification until April.”

The department spokesperson did not explain the timing of the Summer Rising application, except to say there are several factors that impact the timeline.

Both of Loretta Bencivengo’s children got into Summer Rising last year, likely because she submitted her application as soon as it opened during the previous first come, first served model. This year they didn’t get spots, said Bencivengo, who lives in Windsor Terrace.

The most affordable alternate option she’s found so far is with the local YMCA for a $5,000, eight-week program for both of her children, which she equated to two months of rent. Many places don’t have space this late in the spring, she said.

“All those slots are filled up in January and February,” she said of private programs. “If that’s the case, why not put this application out in November and December so that you can open an appropriate amount of slots?”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC drafts plan to shrink class sizes, but changes won’t start next school year

2023-05-19T22:43:25+00:00

Many education advocates cheered when Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law last September a five-year plan to reduce class sizes in New York City’s public schools.

For the first year, however, the city’s education department plans to make no changes, according to a draft plan shared with reporters on Friday.

Under that plan — which is supposed to spell out how the city will meet the law’s new requirements — class sizes will remain the same in September. That’s because the education department says that enough of its core classes — an average 39% — for K-12 exceed the requirements in the law for the first year of the plan. (The plan only affects city-run schools, not charters.)

But, for future school years, education department officials are bracing for some big expenses to comply with the law. They estimate it will cost $1.3 billion a year for new teachers when the plan is fully implemented as well as about $30-$35 billion in capital expenditures to construct new spaces or reconfigure old ones.

The education department said it would gather feedback from the public and educators to determine the best way to shrink class sizes by 2028, when state law requires that the entire school system meet the new requirements.

The city teachers union — one of the entities that must approve the plan — blasted the education department’s effort, emphasizing that they will work with the state to ensure the city “fulfills its obligations” of the law.

“Meeting the new class size standards is going to require a real plan — and so far, the DOE hasn’t managed to create one,” said teachers union president Michael Mulgrew in a statement. “This document is missing a strategy for implementation and a targeted proposal for where and when new seats should be built.”

Education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer responded in a statement that the draft was created after consulting “extensively” with the unions, and they will continue to be able to share feedback.

“The tradeoffs involved in implementation are too important to be made behind closed doors and our entire community must be involved in informing these decisions,” Styer said.

The education department will begin collecting public comment on the plan, which is posted online, in June. Within two weeks of the end of that process, officials must submit the plan to the state education department for approval.

Here are seven things to know:

What are the new class-size caps?

Kindergarten through third grade should have no more than 20 children.

From grades four through eighth, classes should have no more than 23 students, while students in ninth through 12th grades can have up to 25 students.

That’s down from a previous cap of 25 students for kindergarten, and 32 students in the rest of elementary school grades, according to the teachers union contract agreement. Middle and high schools were supposed to be capped previously at 33 and 34 students, respectively, with a 30-student limit in Title 1 middle schools (where at least 60% of students are from low-income families).

What will change next year in terms of class-size reductions?

Nothing. State law requires 20% of the city’s classrooms be in compliance with the new state law each year, reaching 100% by 2028. According to the education department, an average 39% of classes meet the new requirements, meaning they expect to meet the state’s requirements for next school year. This includes elementary school homerooms, where children receive their core instruction, and core subject classes for grades 6-12 — meaning math, science, social studies, and English courses, including gifted and talented, integrated co-teaching, which includes a mix of students with and without disabilities, and accelerated courses.

Ninety-one percent of performing arts and gym courses are in compliance.

In year two, 40% of classes must comply, then 60% and 80% until the final year when all classes are expected to meet the targets (unless they get exemptions).

How will the education department shrink class sizes by 2028?

We don’t know the details yet, but the education department offered some clues in its plan.

From May to October, the education department plans to meet regularly with a working group that it convened this spring to gather feedback on how to meet the law’s new requirements.

Officials wrote that they will identify additional classrooms for space; work with the city’s School Construction Authority on the next capital plan, which lays out building plans for the school system; and would focus on high-poverty schools not meeting requirements, as required by the law.

Starting in November, officials will begin changing policies “and reprioritization of programming” in order to meet the class-size mandates. Officials did not immediately explain what sort of policies or programs would change. But before the law passed, Chancellor David Banks warned that the law could mean a cut in school services or programming because of the cost of creating more classes.

Who will be exempt from the class-size law?

Any exemptions must be approved by the chancellor, as well as the heads of the teachers union and the union representing principals and other administrators. Disagreements will head to arbitration, the law mandates.

Schools might be exempt because of space limitations, but the education department will have to show that they are working to resolve the issue through their capital budget plan. Schools that are overenrolled or ones in which they would face severe economic hardship to comply might get exemptions. (The plan offered no other information on this.) There might be exemptions for schools where they have insufficient numbers of teachers in subjects that are hard to fill, like bilingual math; the teachers union can negotiate higher class sizes for electives and specialty classes if the majority of a school’s staff approves the increase.

Does the law prioritize any particular schools in regards to meeting the new class-size mandates?

The law requires the education department to start with schools with high shares of students living in poverty. In its plan, the education department said that schools with the highest numbers of low-income students are more likely to have smaller class sizes.

Fifty-nine percent of classes meet the new requirements at schools with the most students from low-income families, according to education department data shared in the plan. In contrast, schools with the fewest students living in poverty have just 23% of classes meeting the new requirements.

Where else are schools more — or less — likely to meet the class-size mandates?

Schools with larger classes also hew closely to racial demographics. Roughly 54% of classes already meet the class-size targets at schools with the highest percentage of Black students compared to schools with the highest percentage of Asian and white students, where only about a quarter of classes meet the targets.

Three Brooklyn districts — Ocean Hill/Brownsville’s District 23, Crown Heights’ District 16, and District 18 in Canarsie/East Flatbush had the greatest share of classes at or below the caps, according to the education department data. These three districts have among the highest shares of Black students in the city.

Two Queens districts — Bayside’s District 26 and Flushing’s District 25 — along with Staten Island’s District 31 have the lowest share of classes that meet the targets. District 25 and 26 have the city’s highest share of Asian students, while District 31 has the highest share of white students.

Of the five boroughs, the Bronx might have the easiest time meeting the class-size caps, with 50% of its schools already hitting the targets. Staten Island could have the most challenges, with only 22% of its schools meeting the class size requirements.

Schools that have grades 6-12 or 9-12 are more likely to have smaller class sizes, the figures show, with about 44% of these schools already meeting the new class-size mandates. Only 30% of standalone middle schools meet the targets, followed by K-8 and K-5 schools.

What happens next?

The education department must collect public comments on the plan and then submit it to the state education department for final approval. The teachers and principals unions must also sign off on the plan, which must go into effect in September.

Next month, city officials are holding online public hearings for each borough via Zoom on the following dates, starting at 6 p.m.:

Staten Island: Friday, June 2

Queens: Tuesday, June 6

Brooklyn: Thursday, June 8

Manhattan: Tuesday, June 13

The Bronx: Thursday, June 15

The city will have two weeks to analyze the public comments before submitting its final proposal to the state.

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.

600 children would lose child care with end of free NYC program for undocumented families

2023-05-18T21:27:57+00:00

Angela and her family left their home in Colombia after her husband, a police officer, received multiple death threats amid rising violence in the South American country.

Along with thousands of asylum seekers, her family arrived in New York City in September. They made ends meet through her husband’s sporadic construction gigs, but Angela, unable to find affordable private child care, stayed home to watch her toddler son.

Then, through tips from other newly arrived Colombian mothers, Angela discovered a new city pilot program called Promise NYC, which in January began covering up to $700 a week in child care for low-income, undocumented immigrant families. In late March, Angela’s son, just shy of 2 years old, became one of about 600 children who received vouchers to enroll in subsidized day care or after-school programs that are otherwise unavailable to those without legal immigration status.

Angela has since started a part-time job cleaning, is taking courses that would allow her to work in construction, and is figuring out how to obtain legal immigration status. But that could all end on July 1, if the City Council approves Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed budget, which slashes the pilot program for next fiscal year.

“My child wouldn’t be able to share or he wouldn’t be able to learn and grow with other children in the day care that he is part of, and I would have to resort to finding alternatives that I’m not yet prepared for,” Angela said through a translator.

The move has confused program providers, advocates, and some City Council members, who described Promise NYC as successful and netting more demand than they expected. The mayor himself touted the $10 million initiative in his vision for early childhood education last year, but in recent months, advocates became worried that Adams would cut the program. Spokespeople for City Hall and the Administration for Children’s Services, or ACS, declined to explain the mayor’s decision.

”To take that away would mean, you know, possibly the family loses employment or a kid has nowhere to go during the day,” said Kimberly Warner, deputy director of legal, organizing, and advocacy services for the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, or NMIC, a nonprofit organization tapped by the city to help enroll children in Manhattan and the Bronx. “It would be very destabilizing.”

The mayor has proposed cuts across many city agencies, including about 3% of the education department’s budget, citing in part rising costs as more asylum seekers come to the city.

A group of about a dozen elected officials, including some City Council members and state lawmakers have called for the city to provide $20 million for the program next year, which would cover the same number of slots for a full year. Some are hoping for even more funding, as thousands of newcomer immigrants are expected in New York City.

In a statement, Queens Council member Tiffany Cabán, one of the lawmakers who pushed to create Promise NYC, said the program has been a “game changer.”

Without legal immigration status, undocumented immigrants have limited options for work, often turning to low-paying, under-the-table jobs. Nearly 29% of undocumented New Yorkers were living in poverty as of 2017, compared to 18% of naturalized citizens at the time, according to city estimates.

That means many likely struggle to pay for child care, but undocumented children typically don’t qualify for state or federally backed programs because they must be legal residents of the United States. HeadStart programs are an exception, but there are a limited number of seats, providers said.

Private care is pricey: In 2022, the median annual cost of toddler care in Manhattan was just over $17,800, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Three and 4-year-old children can attend many of the city’s free preschool programs, regardless of immigration status. But there are some programs within the city’s sprawling system, run through centers and by organizations outside of brick-and-mortar school buildings, that require children to be legal residents, including those that offer care past 3 p.m., advocates pointed out.

“That is the exact problem that Promise NYC was trying to resolve,” said Betty Baez Melo, director of the Early Childhood Education Project at Advocates for Children New York.

After advocacy from elected officials last year, City Hall agreed to launch the program. Adams even touted Promise NYC in his “Blueprint for Child Care & Early Childhood Education in New York City,” saying it would allow families to seek care “without compromising the confidentiality of their immigration status.”

The program was publicly announced in December 2022 and launched one month later, in mid-January. The four organizations charged with doing outreach and connecting families to child care are responsible for making sure families are eligible.

Warner, from NMIC, said she and her team were overwhelmed and “surprised” by the calls that immediately flooded in, mostly seeking care for kids ages 2 to 7 years old. They’ve enrolled 245 children across Manhattan and the Bronx and have roughly 150 people on a wait list. According to an ACS spokesperson, 600 children — the agency’s target — enrolled across all five boroughs by the end of April. Costs were fully covered for all but three children, the spokesperson said.

The Chinese-American Planning Council, which was tapped to oversee enrollment in Queens, has about 170 people on a waiting list, said Sumon Chin, the organization’s director of early childhood learning and wellness services.

Besides handling high demand, Chin’s organization also struggled to find child care options for infants and toddlers in certain pockets of Queens that are known as “child care deserts,” such as the Corona neighborhood. Along with keeping the program, Chin hopes the city will provide more funding so that each organization can hire more help, due to the demand and difficulty of the work.

Soneyllys, a mother from the Dominican Republic, enrolled her toddler son in day care through Promise NYC in February. Since then, she has noticed he’s talking and is generally more active at home. It also allowed her to work for the first time since coming to the United States two years ago, she said through a translator.

She worries that losing child care will make it difficult to get legal immigration status.

“I cannot afford day care, and I will not be able to give my child a better life because I don’t have the opportunity to find a full-time job that I can provide for my child,” she said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Better pay and more hours: NYC Council leaders push for changes to 3-K, pre-K programs

2023-05-10T00:30:12+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Leaders of New York City Council charged Mayor Eric Adams with failing to address problems that have plagued the city’s public preschool programs, and they made several demands to improve the system.

Speaking in the playground of a Lower East Side 3-K and prekindergarten center Tuesday, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, several of her colleagues, and advocates listed several items they want. That includes higher pay for workers in programs run by community-based organizations, paying preschool providers on time, improving outreach to encourage more families to enroll, and allowing community organizations to directly enroll families.

The push comes as budget negotiations are underway between the council and the mayor, whose $106.7 billion proposed budget would cut funding for the education department by 3%, or $960 million. That slashes a plan under former Mayor Bill de Blasio to further expand preschool for 3-year-old children, with the Adams administration pointing to at least 16,000 unfilled seats.

Speaker Adams blasted the mayor’s approach, describing the city’s early childhood education system as “broken” and “in full crisis mode.”

“As my colleagues in the council and the advocates here today have pointed out repeatedly, the city needs to correct its course to address the gaps in our system so we provide stability for this very critical sector,” she told reporters outside the program run by Grand Street Settlement.

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, flanked by council members and advocates, discusses changes they’ll demand of Mayor Eric Adams in order to improve the city’s public preschool system.

Mayor Adams’ first year in office has been marked by changes and sometimes chaos in the city’s early childhood education system. In addition to the cancellation of plans to expand 3-K, many providers have reported that the city has not paid them on time, which has left some programs in financial crisis and caused others to close. Despite the city’s promise to fix the problem, multiple council members said Tuesday that they’re still hearing of issues at centers across the city.

When the education department announced a bureaucratic overhaul, including moving hundreds of early childhood workers to other offices, those workers were left in limbo without clarity about what their new jobs would entail; the department later pulled back on that plan.

At the same time, the mayor has vowed to ensure the city offers enough seats to preschool students with disabilities, an issue that his predecessor failed to solve.

In a statement, education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer credited the city’s outreach efforts, noting that applications for 3-K have increased by more than 20% compared to last year. The city, he said, has shifted 3,500 3-K and pre-K seats from “unfilled areas to areas of demand, which also includes shifting the types of seats offered to meet actual need.”

Styer added, “there is a misalignment of seats that we are tackling head on.”

Boosting worker pay at community-based organizations

For several advocacy organizations, boosting pay for teachers and other support staff is the most important issue to tackle. Better pay would mean retaining quality staff instead of losing them to programs or jobs that pay better, they argue.

Pay disparities are in part the result of the patchwork of programs that make up the city’s preschool system. Some programs are run by the education department, such as inside schools, while community-based organizations run others. Department staffers are unionized and are generally paid more than their counterparts working in community-based organizations, who tend to be women of color.

Four years ago, the city agreed to boost salaries for teachers at community organizations with a certified masters degree, to $69,000 a year by October 2021, matching the salary of a first-year teacher at the education department. The agreement didn’t include raises after that date, and it also meant a veteran teacher at a community-based organization made the same as a new education department teacher, said Gregory Brender, chief policy and innovation officer with Day Care Council.

Tara Gardner, executive director of the Day Care Council, shared an example of one disparity that still exists: An assistant teacher at a community-based organization earns 53% of their counterpart in public schools. Advocates like Gardner want pay for teachers at community-based organizations to match their years of service, as well as comparable pay for other support staff, such as paraprofessionals and custodians.

“They do the same work as staff at the DOE; the only difference is the building,” said Ayana Reefe, Head Start director for Grand Street Settlement, the community organization where Speaker Adams visited on Tuesday.

Council members will also push for $15 million to provide a longer school day and year for 1,000 3-year-olds. That funding — which would convert existing seats instead of adding more — would also include signing bonuses “to help attract and retain the necessary staff,” officials said.

Currently, many 3-K seats are only available between 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., which advocates argue don’t work for parents who work outside of those hours. In a recent survey conducted by the Citizens’ Committee for Children, one-third of more than 1,000 respondents said they were looking for child care from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Styer noted that there are 11,000 unfilled seats with longer hours that go beyond the school year.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said a survey from the Citizens Committee for Children included 160 respondents due to incorrect information. In fact, there were more than 1,000 respondents.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools grasp for support as some migrant students miss out on mandated English instruction

2023-05-09T10:00:00+00:00

Miriam Sicherman looks at her Google Translate app or her pocket translator an average of 25 times a day while teaching fourth graders at the Children’s Workshop School in Manhattan’s East Village.

For a recent lesson on internet safety, she translated her presentation into Spanish and Russian ahead of time for her five newcomer immigrant students who speak those languages, but then used her phone to look up words like “password” or “email address” to respond to their questions. In an eight-hour school day, she repeats this process over and over again.

On top of the translation apps, Sicherman takes Duolingo Spanish lessons in her own time and accepts occasional help from a bilingual student and a Russian-speaking teacher at another school in her building.

Still, it sometimes feels impossible to explain in-depth concepts in a language other than her own.

An estimated 14,000 asylum-seeking immigrant students have enrolled in New York City public schools, city officials said last month. Teachers are finding that many of these children are learning English at the most basic level, and some hadn’t attended school regularly before arriving in the United States. The students are legally entitled to extra support, but some schools are struggling to provide it.

Failing to meet the needs of English language learners is not a new problem. Since 2016, the state has placed New York City on a corrective action plan because the district has failed to adequately support English learners, including not providing required services for those with disabilities. The plan, which has been extended multiple times over the past seven years, requires the city to gradually provide more of these services.

For Sicherman, it’s crucial that her English language learners get the support to which they are entitled. But there is just one part-time English-as-a-new-language, or ENL, teacher who provides this support to dozens of students at her school. That means Sicherman’s newcomers are getting a fraction of the extra help they should receive, she said.

“I can make them feel comfortable and safe — that I’m doing my best with, and I think I am achieving that — but they really are entitled to much more than that,” Sicherman said.

Sicherman’s concern is one that potentially many educators share, as thousands of new immigrant families have sought refuge in New York City this year, from Central and South American countries, as well as from Ukraine and Russia.

In anticipation of students’ arrival, the city launched “Project Open Arms” in the fall to send a total $12 million to schools that enrolled six or more newcomer students living in temporary housing. Officials also said schools that have enrolled more students than expected have received another $98 million this year.

Still, some teachers say their schools don’t have enough funding to hire more staff who are equipped to work with newcomer English learners. Some schools have the money, but have struggled to find teachers due to a long-standing shortage of bilingual teachers. That leaves teachers like Sicherman feeling overwhelmed and at times unequipped to properly help these students.

As the city expects another wave of newcomer immigrant families, teachers and advocates are worried it will become even more challenging to support English learners without more help from the city.

The New York Immigration Coalition has heard complaints throughout this school year that students aren’t receiving their required services, said Andrea Ortiz, senior manager of education policy.

“We shouldn’t be allowing students to be just housed in places where they’re not gonna be given the types of supports that they’re legally entitled to,” Ortiz said.

In a statement, education department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said officials are working closely with schools to “assess any gaps in resources and to provide solutions as expeditiously as possible.”

‘It’s kind of demoralizing’

Sicherman’s school has been waiting months for more help.

Over each of the past five years, her school enrolled between six and 13 English learners, according to demographic records. This year, roughly 60 English learners enrolled, Sicherman said.

School leaders volunteered in January to accept more asylum seekers, the spokesperson said. A crush of newcomer immigrant students began coming in February, but even after the principal requested more staffing help from the education department, the school still had just one part-time ENL teacher, Sicherman said.

Budget records show that the school received about $64,600 in funding from Project Open Arms, which can be used to pay teachers overtime, cover teacher prep periods, and pay substitutes, among other uses related to communication with parents. It’s not clear when the school received those funds. The principal did not respond to a request for comment to discuss the school’s challenges this year or explain how that money was used.

As beginner-level English learners, Sicherman’s five newcomer students should each be receiving 360 minutes a week of extra help building English skills, per state regulations for grades K-8. But they are only getting 135 minutes, since the part-time ENL teacher can only work with them for 45 minutes during each of her three days at the school.

Officials did not answer why the school hasn’t received more staffing help. Superintendent Carry Chan, who oversees Manhattan’s District 1, where the Children’s Workshop School is located, has appealed for the school to receive another full-time ENL teacher, a spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that the school also has a classroom teacher licensed to work with English language learners, and suggested they could tweak programming and use that person so that students are getting more services.

Sicherman said she’s constantly trying to balance those students’ needs with those of the 16 native English speakers in her class. She translates many lessons and uses other tools, including donated Spanish flash cards. But it’s difficult to explain topics in-depth, such as the Irish potato famine, or have a conversation about it. She relies “completely” on Google Translate for her Russian student, with whom the language barrier is so thick that Sicherman worries the child won’t be able to tell her if she’s feeling unwell.

Even lighthearted moments are hard. Sicherman recently pulled up Google Translate to tell a few of her Spanish-speaking students that they were “being silly.” Her bilingual student stopped her: Using the app’s suggested word “tonto” would be like calling the children idiots, he said.

“It’s kind of demoralizing,” Sicherman said. “I wish I could be teaching these kids, and I’m really not teaching them.”

There don’t appear to be immediate consequences for schools or districts who are not providing legally required services to English learners. J.P. O’Hare, a spokesperson for the state education department, said the corrective action plan requires the district to submit multiple reports a year about how they’re improving support for these students. In response, state officials share “direction and guidance” on where city schools need to improve and meet regularly with district staff.

Some experienced ENL teachers are struggling this year

Even experienced ENL teachers say they’re overwhelmed by the arrival of thousands of new immigrant students.

Brooklyn ENL teacher Melanie is usually paired with middle schoolers. But this year, as more English learners enrolled at her Bay Ridge school and one of her ENL colleagues went on leave, she was also asked to work with children in grades 2-5.

Melanie, who asked only to use her first name because she was not authorized to speak with the press, found she was “really struggling” to help younger students, since she’s used to helping older children who know how to read and write at more advanced levels.

The school couldn’t find a replacement for the ENL teacher on leave, who returned a few weeks ago.

For most of this year, Melanie served roughly twice as many children in the “beginner” level as she usually does, many of whom haven’t attended school in a while and are learning various skills, such as how to use an iPad. She was providing the legally required amount of support to these children, but she doesn’t think they received enough individual help, she said.

“I know going into it, I am not meeting their needs,” she said.

One Brooklyn high school enrolled about 30 new immigrant students between February and April, causing classes for beginner-level English learners to fill up to the legal limit of 34, said Nathan, an ENL teacher at the school who asked only to use his first name.

The school, which is used to serving many English learners, is staying afloat for now. They’ve created new classes with existing staff, and they’re using some funding to pay one person overtime in order to be a “migrant students coordinator,” who is charged with creating resources for newcomer families.

But if they get another similar wave of students, he’s unsure if the school has enough funding to add another class for beginner-level English learners or even meet legal mandates.

“That would require a lot of creative budgeting,” Nathan said.

Asylum seekers are a ‘blessing’ for one Brooklyn school

Some schools, such as those with dual language programs, seem better set up to welcome newcomer immigrants.

Asylum-seeking families have “been a blessing” for one Spanish dual language program in Brooklyn, where the number of English language learners has doubled this year, said F.C., a teacher at the school who requested only her initials be used because she was not authorized to speak to the press. Typically, the school doesn’t attract many native Spanish speakers. This year, the surge in enrollment has given both English and Spanish speakers a chance to learn from one another.

As a former newcomer immigrant herself, F.C. has used her experience to connect with students. She comforted a student who would occasionally cry because he was struggling in class and missed home. She told him once, “I used to cry, too, because I didn’t understand what everyone was saying, and that motivated me to learn.’” He gave her a hug.

Most schools don’t have dual language programs. There are 245 such programs across all grades for general education students, covering 13 different languages.

While those programs are “set up well” for English learners, they don’t exist everywhere, said Councilmember Rita Joseph, chair of the council’s education committee, who used to be an ENL teacher. Looking ahead, she thinks the education department will have to “pivot” as more asylum-seeking families make New York City their new home.

“We’re gonna have so much that we can no longer have part-time [ENL] teachers,” she said. “That’s the only way you can stay in compliance.”

Sicherman’s school recently launched an after-school program for English learners, which doesn’t count toward their legally required support but is helpful, she said. Her principal also bought each teacher a pocket translator, which Sicherman has found more useful than Google Translate. Sometimes students use it to talk with each other while she uses her phone app.

Five days after Chalkbeat reached out to the education department about the issues at Sicherman’s school, she discovered that their part-time ENL teacher would soon be working with them full time.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Summer Rising applications are now open. Here’s everything you need to know.

2023-04-14T20:30:55+00:00

Applications open Monday for New York City’s free, sprawling summer program for children in kindergarten through eighth grade.

The program was first launched in 2021 under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, using federal COVID relief money, as a way to help children ease into school following remote learning. The rollout of the program was bumpy, but for the first time, it provided a mix of academics and enrichment activities to many children beyond those who are mandated to attend summer school.

In its third year, the program will again have 110,000 spots and will be open to any child in New York City, including children who are home-schooled or attend charter or private schools.

But a couple things will be different from last year, including the application process. Spots won’t be assigned on a first come, first served basis this year; instead, parents will rank multiple choices. In another change, students who already attend a school associated with a Summer Rising site will be added to the list of groups receiving priority in selection for that site.

Parents who want to apply should visit this website when the application opens on Monday.

Here’s what you should know about this year’s Summer Rising program:

Where are the programs, and when will Summer Rising start?

Programs won’t be in every school. Rather, each school will be associated with one of 374 sites across the five boroughs.

The program length will depend on a few things. Programs will run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from July 5 to Aug. 18 for children in kindergarten through fifth grade and until Aug. 11 for middle schoolers.

Students with disabilities who have yearlong individualized education programs, or IEPs, will attend programs from July 5 to Aug. 14, from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Students at District 75 schools, which serve children with the most challenging disabilities, will attend programs that run from July 6 to Aug. 15, also from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Students in Nest and Horizon programs, which serve students with autism, who have 12-month IEPs, will attend a monthlong program from July 5 to Aug. 1, from 8 a.m. to noon.

What will my children do?

Generally, students will spend the morning on academics and then in the afternoons participate in enrichment activities, such as sports, arts and crafts or going on field trips. Elementary-age children will spend the last week of their program on enrichment activities and trips, according to the education department website. (Enrichment activities are run by community-based organizations.)

Students with disabilities will receive extra services that are mandated in their IEPs, including services from health and behavioral paraprofessionals, according to the department’s website. For these students, their school will create an accommodation plan for the summer that will be provided to their parents and the Summer Rising site before their program begins.

Students with disabilities are supposed to receive services “as needed” during the enrichment portion of the day, according to the department’s website. If a family doesn’t want the enrichment portion, they should contact their child’s school instead of using the online application. These children can choose on the application to participate in extended-day enrichment programming until 6 p.m.

Last year, several families reported that their children did not have special education support by the start of Summer Rising, said Randi Levine, policy director for Advocates for Children. She said it’s “important that planning begin early” so that students aren’t left without the services they need.

Will my child get transportation to the program?

Generally, students who are already eligible for busing during the school year — typically in grades K-6 — will receive busing to their summer program but not past 3 p.m. This includes students with disabilities whose IEPs recommend busing, as well as students in temporary housing and students in foster care who are more than a half-mile away from their Summer Rising site.

For children who want to participate in programming until 6 p.m. and need transportation, families will have the option of a prepaid rideshare service. However, a caregiver must take the rideshare service to and from the summer site to pick up their child, which some advocates have said is not manageable for working parents.

Eligible students who receive MetroCards during the school year can also get MetroCards from their Summer Rising site, or if their site is more than a half-mile from their home.

Students who are not eligible for busing during the school year could receive transportation if their regular school is not open for Summer Rising and their site is more than a half-mile away.

How will the application work?

Seats rapidly filled up last year, quickly elbowing out many families who wanted to apply, according to some advocacy and community-based organizations.

This year, instead of the first come, first served model, families will be asked to rank up to 12 choices for program sites, “ensuring that more families receive placements that work for them,” according to a news release.

Like last year, priority will be offered to students in temporary housing, in foster care, who are mandated for summer school, and with disabilities who have year-round individualized education programs. But also, students who have a “local connection” to their school will also be prioritized, such as if they attend the school during the year. Last month, city officials said students who attend city subsidized after-school programs will also be prioritized.

Asked how these groups will be ranked, an education department spokesperson said they’re aiming to give every child in a priority group access to their first choice.

The application will close May 1, and families should be notified the following week of where their child will attend the program, according to the department website.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

As NYC is expected to spend $38K per student, budget watchdog calls for prioritizing ‘critical services’

2023-04-11T04:01:00+00:00

Buoyed in recent years by billions in federal stimulus dollars, New York City is slated to spend about $38,000 per student next school year — the most in recent history — as enrollment is again expected to drop, according to a new report published Tuesday.

The report, from Citizens Budget Commission, or CBC, a budget watchdog group, comes as the education department faces 3% in cuts for next year. Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council are in the middle of budget planning for the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1.

Many of the CBC’s findings focus on the period from fiscal year 2016 through 2022, since the current fiscal year, 2023, isn’t over yet. Some of the report’s highlights include:

In that time period, the education department’s spending per pupil has increased by 47%, in large part due to the $7 billion in federal COVID aid the district received as enrollment has dipped. Three school years from now, in fiscal year 2026, CBC projects the city could be spending as much as $44,000 per student.
Spending grew the most in three areas: early childhood education, at 65%, covering private school tuition, such as for students with disabilities, by 79%, and for charter schools, by 84%. This was fueled by enrollment growth in these specific areas.
Spending related to schools, such as for instruction, grew by about 34%. Spending on school services, such as transportation, food, and safety, grew at a similar rate.
Spending on school support, such as special education instructional costs, grew by about 15%. And spending on central costs, including central administration, fringe benefits, pension contributions, and debt service, saw the slowest growth – by 8%.

CBC called for officials to prioritize programs and services for next year that are most effective and shed others. It also notes that the city faces financial pressures over the next several years, which the Adams administration has also emphasized as they’ve imposed stricter savings targets on city agencies. Those challenges include labor costs that will stem from new union contracts, including with the United Federation of Teachers, and a potential recession.

“We can’t do everything for everyone, so we need to start focusing on the most impactful interventions,” said Ana Champeny, the vice president for research at the Citizens Budget Commission.

New York City spends the most per pupil among the nation’s largest school districts. That cost grew as federal dollars were poured into the school system and enrollment dropped significantly after the onset of the pandemic. Dips in enrollment are likely due to several factors, including demographic changes and the cost of living in New York, which are leading many families to find homes elsewhere.

Roughly one-third of the department’s spending growth between 2016 and 2022 was due to federal pandemic aid, which is set to run out by 2024, CBC’s report found.

Advocates and educators have decried the potential cuts to the education department — amounting up to $421 million — as students continue to struggle with a host of challenges, including mental health, chronic absenteeism, and recovering academically after remote learning. Cuts to school budgets this school year resulted in some schools losing teachers, having larger class sizes, and cutting some programming, such as art and music classes.

Research has found that more money usually leads to better schools. New York, however, is in a puzzling situation: Despite being the leading state in spending per pupil, students score in the middle of the pack on national math and reading tests.

It’s possible to make cuts through central or support costs, such as through transportation contracts, and “avoid cuts to school budgets,” the CBC report notes.

While CBC doesn’t make specific recommendations, Champeny said such cuts could mean negotiating cheaper transportation-related contracts. The department could also look for ways to reduce private school placements for children with disabilities, commonly known as “Carter Cases,” a cost that ballooned under former Mayor Bill de Blasio and continues to grow.

More immediately, however, the group called on the department to be “transparent” about the future of a slate of programs that are currently relying on federal pandemic relief, which other organizations and advocates have also pressed for. These programs include expanded summer school, new prekindergarten seats for students with disabilities, and screening for dyslexia and other literacy programs – an area that Adams is increasingly making one of his signature projects.

Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said, “This Administration has been open and honest about the long-term combined challenges of declining enrollment, programs funded by one-time federal stimulus dollars, and rising costs tied to unfunded mandates from the State.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC extends deadline for youth jobs program. Here’s what to know.

2023-03-31T17:58:09+00:00

This story was updated to reflect the new deadline.

New York City extended the deadline for its Summer Youth Employment Program, or SYEP, which provides paid jobs and career exploration programs for young people ages 14-24.

Young people have until April 14 to apply, officials announced Friday.

This year marks the $236 million program’s 60th year and will again be open to 100,000 young people – making it the largest public youth jobs program in the nation. The program will run between July 5 to Aug. 12 and from July 12 to Aug. 19.

One new feature this year is an effort to pair LGBTQ youth with affirming jobs, though specifics are scarce. Officials said they’re still working on the details based on how much interest they get, which can be marked on the application.

City officials also plan to nearly triple the number of slots for a small program that offers paid opportunities for youth who are undocumented.

How do I apply?

Youth can apply online here.

The types of programming and pay depends on the participant’s age. Dozens of community-based organizations oversee programming and find work sites that are willing to host youth workers.

What kinds of opportunities are available?

Younger youth, who are 14 to 15 years old, spend 12.5 hours a week gaining work readiness skills and learning about different careers. They also participate in project-based learning, which often involves finding a problem in the surrounding community and creating solutions. These teens are paid up to $700.

Youth ages 16 to 24 are paired with jobs through one of dozens of community-based organizations. Those organizations line up work sites, such as retailers or local businesses, that are willing to host youth workers for the summer. These young people are paid the city’s minimum wage rate of $15 an hour and work 25 hours a week – meaning they can make up to $2,250 by the end of the program.

Work sites range between public, private, and nonprofit organizations. Last year, a majority of jobs – 45% – were in the nonprofit sector. Private jobs were most commonly in retail, followed by day cares and camps, hospitality, tourism and health care, according to a report on last year’s jobs program published by the Department of Youth and Community Development, or DYCD, which oversees SYEP. Other opportunities included jobs in media and entertainment, business and finance, arts and recreation, real estate and technology.

In the public sector, about 4,600 youth worked last year for the education department, such as working with staff, in school kitchens, and in maintenance. In the public sector, nearly 4,000 youth last year worked for city agencies or mayoral offices. Nearly 120 youth worked for City Council members.

Applicants are asked to list their top three career choices and the provider they want to work with.

Am I guaranteed a spot?

No. The program has 100,000 open slots, but applications typically exceed that number. DYCD has received more than 126,000 applications so far, according to an agency spokesperson. Last year, the agency received roughly 167,000 applications.

Once applications are submitted, youth are chosen through a lottery system.

However, some young people who might be facing certain barriers to employment don’t have to go through the lottery system and can be directly referred to the jobs program through a city agency they’re working with. This includes youth who are homeless, in or aging out of foster care, are involved with the court system, and in families that are receiving preventative services through the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, such as support for mental health needs, substance abuse, and domestic violence.

Just like other young people, these youth also participate in either career readiness programs or are paired with jobs through a program called SYEP Emerging Leaders.

I am undocumented. Am I eligible for this program?

Generally, no. The program is only open to New York City youth who are legally eligible to work in the United States — an issue that has caused some advocates and lawmakers to push for more opportunities for undocumented immigrant youth. As of 2019, 77,000 undocumented youth ages 16-24 lived in New York City, according to estimates from the Migration Policy Institute.

However, a fraction of undocumented youth will have access to a small DYCD program this summer. Last year, the city agency quietly offered stipends to 282 high schoolers who “face obstacles” in applying to SYEP. The program, called SYEP Pathways, provided up to 60 hours of a paid work readiness and project-based learning program for students attending a handful of schools that already offered CareerReady, which is a year-round program that helps students gain career readiness skills.

This year, officials are hoping to expand that program to 750 children. Community organizations directly recruit youth for this program.

Because of federal regulations that limit how much you can pay someone without work authorization, students who participated in this small pilot were paid $552. Officials did not immediately explain how students can sign up for this summer.

Children’s Aid was one organization that oversaw programming for 25 teens in last year’s pilot program. They developed projects, “listened to presentations from a variety of professions, went on educational trips, and presented what they learned at the end of the summer,” said Sandino Sanchez, director of workforce development programs at Children’s Aid, in a statement.

While advocates have praised DYCD for offering some sort of opportunity for undocumented young people, they’ve also raised concerns that the pay is inequitable compared with other youth participating in SYEP. But there might be other, private options for undocumented youth where they can receive more money.

For example, an organization called Oyate plans to pair 60 undocumented youth this summer with jobs at local college campuses, said Lymarie Francisco, a project manager at the organization who works with young people. Those youth will get $500 Visa gift cards each week.

Oyate received 312 applications for the program, prompting them to recently close the application, according to organization officials.

Eilen, a 15-year-old girl who participated in Oyate’s inaugural jobs program last year, said her job at Fordham University helped her become more disciplined about forming a daily routine. Additionally, the $500 gift cards allowed Eilen — who moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic two years ago — to help buy things around the house as her mother prepared to move them to a new home. She was also able to buy a new cell phone and pay for a gym membership.

“I didn’t have to ask my mom for anything,” she said in Spanish.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s Summer Rising program gets admissions overhaul

2023-03-22T21:41:27+00:00

As summer approaches, New York City families should expect changes in the sign-up process and who will be given priority for the city’s sprawling public summer enrichment program, which will again be open to 110,000 children.

Summer Rising — launched under former Mayor Bill de Blasio in the summer of 2021 with the help of federal COVID relief dollars — offers academic and enrichment programs to elementary and middle school students, even if they’re not mandated for summer school.

Last year’s program was offered on a first come, first served basis — leading to a mad rush of applications that filled up most school sites within a week of enrollment opening. In response to concerns about enrollment, this year the city will ditch the first come, first served model, said Keith Howard, commissioner of the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, or DYCD, during a City Council hearing on Wednesday.

Families, who will also be able to rank their preferences for school sites, can sign up during the whole enrollment period, which will open in early April, said Howard, whose agency partners with the education department on running Summer Rising. This suggests that there will be a lottery process though city officials declined to confirm that or share more details with Chalkbeat.

“We’ll have more to share in the coming days, and we are prioritizing getting the needed information to our families and school communities,” said Mark Zustovich, a DYCD spokesperson, in a statement.

In another significant change, students who are already attending one of the city’s hundreds of DYCD-run after-school programs will also receive priority at the schools where their after-school provider runs Summer Rising. This move is meant “to accommodate families who are accustomed to year round programming,” Howard told the City Council.

Like last year, seats will be prioritized for students in temporary housing, students mandated for summer school, and those with disabilities, though officials did not immediately share how many of these seats would be set aside or if the seats for students with disabilities would be separate from those who are mandated to attend school for 12 months on their individualized education programs, or IEPs.

Neither DYCD nor education department officials immediately shared how all of these priorities would be ranked.

Randi Levine, policy director for Advocates for Children, said her group was happy about the end of the first come, first served enrollment process. She said many families who “needed more support to apply” didn’t get spots, including the very people who were supposed to be prioritized, such as children in shelters.

“We heard from families living in shelter and immigrant families that they did not know about Summer Rising in time to get seats for their children and heard from staff at shelters that when they went to help families enroll, the seats were already gone.”

At the same time, under the enrollment system last year, there weren’t many seats left for students who attended the school if they weren’t in one of the priority groups, said Erica N. Oquendo, division director of youth and family services for Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, which expects to oversee Summer Rising programs in at least eight schools this summer and also runs eight DYCD after-school programs.

Another issue for Oquendo: Sometimes last summer, she saw children sign up for seats but never show up. To her frustration, her organization didn’t have control over unenrolling that child and offering their seat to someone else in need — an issue that must still be addressed, she said.

While the changes announced Wednesday could mean more seats for students already attending a given school, Oquendo craved more details about how the various priorities would be ranked.

“That’s the hard part — I wouldn’t necessarily say I would want to prioritize an after-school student over a child in a homeless shelter,” Oquendo said. “How do we measure the level of care that’s needed?”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

64% of NYC’s bilingual special education students didn’t get all of their services last year

2023-03-20T22:12:41+00:00

Nearly two-thirds of New York City students who are entitled to bilingual special education services are not receiving all of their mandated support, according to new figures released by the city’s education department.

At the end of last school year, just 36% of children who were assigned bilingual special education services received the correct amount of instruction from a certified bilingual teacher and in a classroom with the proper ratio of students and staff.

That means about 3,100 students did not receive their correct classroom placements, including those that are co-taught and include a mix of special and general education students, classes with higher staff ratios exclusively for students with disabilities, or situations where students are pulled out of their classrooms for small group instruction. By comparison, 88% of all students with disabilities were placed in the correct environment listed on their individualized education program, or IEP, which officials said is the highest rate on record.

The statistics are part of the city’s annual special education report and refer to services delivered last school year, when students were required to attend school in person for the first time since the pandemic led to shuttered buildings in March 2020. The report now includes more detailed breakdowns for students who are entitled to bilingual special education services, revealing troubling gaps between those students and their English-speaking peers.

For years, state officials have criticized the city for failing to provide bilingual special education services, placing the education department on a corrective action plan in part due to ongoing shortages of certified bilingual educators and service providers. Advocates emphasized that those problems are even more urgent now, as roughly 14,000 students have enrolled in the city’s public schools since July, many of whom are seeking asylum and may not speak fluent English.

“It is unconscionable that the city has yet to fully close the gaps for immigrants with disabilities,” Andrea Ortiz, senior manager of education policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, wrote in an email, noting that lost services and instruction during the pandemic hit English learners particularly hard. She added that caregivers who don’t speak English have also struggled to access translated IEPs and other special education documents.

City statistics also show significant gaps in access to other wraparound support, though there have been significant improvements since the previous school year. About 21% of bilingual students who were entitled to counseling services received none or only part of their required sessions, far higher than the 6% rate for all other students with disabilities. Meanwhile, 13% of students who were entitled to receive bilingual speech therapy received none or only part of their required sessions, about the same as last year. Only 3% of their English-speaking peers fell into that category.

Lori Podvesker, director of disability and education policy at IncludeNYC, also pointed to an increase in the share of English learners who are eligible for special education services but are waiting more than the required 60 days for an IEP meeting. About 32% of English learners fell into that category, up from 23% the year before.

“That’s significant — that shows the need for more bilingual evaluators and providers,” she said.

Education department officials noted in the report that one reason students may not receive all of their bilingual special education services is families may not want to relocate their children to schools that can offer the full range of support.

“Many families do not move their child to a school where a bilingual program is available, and the DOE does not force families to accept placement in a particular school for the reason of special education programming,” the report notes.

The department is working with superintendents across nine of the city’s 32 districts to add bilingual special education classes, according to the report. They are also using federal relief funding to offer small group instruction, often outside of their regular classrooms, for bilingual students who are not receiving all of their classroom services. Officials also wrote that they are trying to speed up special education evaluations, including by adding psychologists to school support teams and expanding after-school evaluation sites.

Still, advocates argue that families aren’t to blame if nearby schools can’t provide bilingual special education support, noting that traveling long distances to secure services may not be tenable for younger children, and the city’s yellow bus system is notoriously unreliable. Plus, some families simply aren’t offered services at all if there are no available seats, according to Janyll Canals-Kernizan, director of the Robin Hood Project at Advocates for Children, who works with families seeking bilingual special education services.

“It’s not just that families are being offered something and they’re rejecting it because it’s far away. It’s also that [they] are mandated to receive these supports on their IEPs,” she said, “and they just never get it.”

Under city law, the annual special education report is due by Nov. 1, though city officials did not release it until this month despite repeated requests. An education department spokesperson did not respond to a question about what caused the delay.

Reema Amin contributed.

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

Mental health safety net for youth: Adams outlines vision to catch kids in crisis

2023-03-02T22:07:21+00:00

If you or someone you know is considering self-harm, please dial 988 for the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

As New York City continues to grapple with youth mental health challenges, Mayor Eric Adams laid out a sweeping vision on Thursday to help schools better recognize student mental health needs and create a safety net for kids in crisis.

The needs are high: About a fifth of children ages 3 to 13 had one or more mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral problems in 2021, according to health department data provided in the mayor’s new plan, called Care, Community, Action: A Mental Health Plan for New York City.

Rates of suicidal ideation jumped to nearly 16% from about 12% over the past decade, with more than 9% of the city’s high school students reporting they attempted suicide over the course of 2021.

“We’ve all seen the isolation and trauma that children have experienced over the past several years, along with the results: disappearing into screens, behavioral issues, and even suicide,” Adams said while revealing the plan.

Addressing the mental health needs of young people and their families was one of the three major focal points of Adams’ blueprint. The plan calls for several things, including opening more school-based mental health clinics, creating suicide prevention trainings for educators, and assessing the impacts of social media as possible “toxic exposure.”

Though most of the ideas lacked details in terms of timeline and cost, the mayor did add a price tag of $12 million for a previously announced telehealth hotline for high school students, which the city says will be the largest of its kind in the nation.

City officials said they will track certain data points to determine whether the plan is working, including the number of contacts made by or on behalf of youth through NYC Well (the city’s free, confidential support, crisis intervention, and information and referral service), and the percent of young people reporting feelings of sadness and hopelessness.

Here are four highlights from the plan that relates to youth and schools:

City taps telehealth to fill treatment gaps

The mayor initially announced in January that the city would launch a telehealth program for high schoolers, though has not said when the program will launch and how students can access it.

Officials said Thursday they are still working out details.

“Telehealth can improve access to care for young people and their families who cannot easily get around or meet the strict time or expenses of traveling to in-person appointments, especially when mental health provider locations might be far away from the child’s home,” the mayor’s plan stated. “In addition, many youth feel more comfortable using technology to connect, and technology offers new ways to stay connected outside of traditional therapy sessions.”

Other cities are leaning on telehealth for young people, as well, including Los Angeles.

Experts previously shared cautious optimism with Chalkbeat about the plan when Adams first announced it, while also raising questions about how it would work, including whether school staff will be monitoring sessions and get involved if a student’s needs are more serious.

School-based mental health clinics to expand

As of the 2020-21 school year, 162 schools had on-site mental health clinics, while another 238 had health clinics that offered some mental health services, according to a 2022 report from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The mayor’s plan calls on expanding mental health clinics that exist inside of school buildings through a partnership with the city’s education department, health department, the state’s Office of Mental Health and community providers.

Asked how many more clinics the city wants to open and an estimated cost, a health department spokesperson said these “are active and ongoing discussions.”

Creating school-based mental health clinics, however, can be complicated, said Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, executive director of Counseling in Schools, which partners with schools to offer counseling services. It involves getting approvals from the state, finding space inside of schools that would be eligible for such clinics, and setting up a financial structure to get reimbursed by Medicaid for the services, he said.

An easier lift, he suggested, might be to get more community organizations like his to offer services in schools. Those groups often operate with grants, thus cutting out complicated funding issues.

A push to train school staffers on suicide prevention

Adams wants schools staff to be trained on suicide prevention so that they can “respond appropriately to the needs of students,” the plan said.

Dahill-Fuchel praised such training, noting they could potentially help more students realize they need help.

“I think one of the things that is really gonna be useful is this idea of a public health approach to suicide prevention, which at its core really means demystifying it,” Dahill-Fuchel said. “It tends to be a word that, around children, people don’t like to use and that becomes part of the problem.”

City officials also plan to launch a program, called “Caring Transitions,” that would focus on preventing youth ages 5-17 in the Queens and Bronx who have been to the hospital for a suicide attempt from re-entering. Teams would be responsible for connecting these young people to follow-up services in their neighborhoods as well as “additional supports” for up to three months after they leave the hospital.

The plan also says it will launch a suicide prevention pilot program for young people of color ages 5 to 24. The goal is to bolster interventions that more effectively meet the needs of Black, Asian American, and Latino youth who face suicide-related risk “that includes or is intensified by racial inequities,” the plan said. The plan did not specify what those interventions might look like.

An attempt to address cyberbullying

Concerned with social media’s impact on youth mental health, the Adams administration plans to create a task force to study the issue and develop a public health approach to reduce exposure to harmful online content.

The plan noted that “there are few rules or regulations” on how social media companies interact with young people.

“We’re also going to examine the potential risks of social media to our children’s mental health and work to make sure tech companies are required to keep online spaces safe for our kids,” Adams said during his speech.

The group would include youth and families, according to the plan. It didn’t specify when the group would launch.

Federal officials have called for more rigorous research on how social media impacts youth mental health. In a 2021 advisory released by the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, officials note that while several studies have linked worsening mental health to online platforms, other researchers have argued that there is no clear relation between the two.

Seattle Public Schools recently filed a lawsuit against leading social media companies, alleging that students and schools were harmed by worsened mental health that stemmed from social media.

The surgeon general’s advisory also called for technology companies to make sure they were fostering “safe digital environments” for their youngest users.

Some of the pressure seems to be working: Tik Tok announced earlier this week it will set the default screen time limit to 60 minutes for users under 18, though kids can continue using the app with a passcode.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

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

NYC to match LGBTQ+ youth with ‘supportive’ summer jobs, officials say

2023-03-01T23:06:43+00:00

As some states pass anti-LGBTQ+ laws, New York City is moving in the other direction with plans to offer “safe and affirming” jobs to LGTBQ youth through its sprawling summer employment program.

The effort will be part of the city’s now 60-year-old Summer Youth Employment Program, or SYEP, which last year provided about 100,000 paid jobs and career exploration opportunities to young people, ages 14-24.

Mayor Eric Adams has shown special interest in the summer jobs program — with hopes that it would help reduce gun violence among young people — and expanded it last year by adding 25,000 more slots. As part of his annual State of the City address in January, the mayor’s office noted plans to create “supportive work opportunities” for LGBTQ+ youth.

Details are so far scarce on what the initiative — dubbed “SYEP Pride” — will look like, or what will define a safe and affirming workplace. Officials are hoping to reach “a few hundred young people,” but the ultimate program will depend on how many LGBTQ+ youth apply through March 31, when the SYEP application period closes, said Mark Zustovich, a spokesperson for the Department of Youth and Community Development, or DYCD, which oversees SYEP.

“SYEP Pride will connect young people who identify as LGBTQ+ with supportive, safe and affirming work and career exploration experiences,” Valerie Mulligan, deputy commissioner for Workforce Connect at DYCD, said during a recent City Council hearing focused on youth services. “The program will also allow employer partners to offer unique employment and learning opportunities that will support and empower LGBTQ+ youth through the SYEP program.”

City officials did not immediately say why they’ve decided to launch this program now. But it comes at a time when LGBTQ+ rights have taken center stage nationally, as conservative states have proposed anti-LGBTQ+ laws, including banning discussion of sexuality and gender identity in classrooms.

Discrimination in the workplace has long been an issue for this community, including youth. Just over one-third of young people reported experiencing discrimination in the workplace, with higher rates among transgender and nonbinary youth, according to a 2020 survey of 40,000 LGBTQ+ youth, ages 13-24, conducted by The Trevor Project, an organization that advocates on behalf of LGBTQ+ young people.

More than 80% of youth who reported discrimination said it came from co-workers, while half said it came from supervisors. Youth who said their employer was LGBTQ+-affirming also reported slightly lower rates of attempting suicide compared with those who didn’t feel their workplaces were welcoming.

“Further, our data indicate an urgent need for companies to develop diverse and inclusive hiring strategies as well as to create workplaces that are affirming and supportive of LGBTQ+ youth, particularly those who are transgender and nonbinary and/or youth of color,” the Trevor Project survey brief noted. “Doing so will not only require companies to train all staff on diversity and inclusion but also to create a culture in which diverse identities are appreciated and celebrated.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NY’s budget has $100M for academic and mental health programs. Schools still don’t have the money.

2023-02-24T23:07:54+00:00

With growing concerns over youth mental health and academic recovery, New York’s state lawmakers included $100 million in the state budget last year for schools to spend on mental health resources or after-school programs.

But, with the majority of the school year now over, school districts haven’t been able to apply for the money.

“It is very disappointing that the money that was allocated for desperately needed services by children and adolescents is not getting to them,” said Dawn Yuster, director of the School Justice Project at Advocates for Children. “There is a lot of trauma, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideations that we continue to hear about from family after family.”

The idea was to let school districts apply for a chunk of the money, which would match whatever other dollars they planned to spend on such programs. Half of the money was to be used during this school year and the other half for the 2023-24 school year. Lawmakers envisioned the funds going toward hiring mental health professionals, expanding school-based mental health services, and creating summer, after-school and extended day and year programs.

State education officials, who are charged with planning the grant program, have blamed the delay on a lengthy process that involves getting approvals from the state’s budget division — which has not yet given its final sign off.

Justin Mason, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office, said the process has been complex because it involves both mental health and education components. They now expect the money to be available for next school year, but declined to answer whether schools will get to use the money for any additional school years.

Asked whether Hochul finds the delay acceptable, Mason said it’s the result of a longstanding process that exists to “ensure state funding is allocated in a fair and transparent manner.”

Hochul proposes grant funds to bolster pandemic recovery

As calls grew nationally to address a youth mental health crisis fueled by widespread loss and grief from the pandemic, Hochul proposed last January to add $100 million to the state budget for this fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2022 to this upcoming March 31, and touted the money in a press release when it made it into the final budget.

At the time of Hochul’s proposal, students had returned to campuses full time for the first time since the pandemic. Many educators had reported students struggling with behavioral, social, and mental health issues. Social workers and counselors reported being inundated with student referrals.

In New York City, one in every 200 children has lost a caregiver to COVID. More than 40% of students nationally reported feeling persistent sadness in 2021, compared to about 25% ten years before that, according to a recently released survey.

Bob Lowry, deputy director for advocacy and communication at the state’s Council of School Superintendents, said his organization has seen a need for more dedicated mental health resources in New York’s schools since at least 2017, based on an annual survey of superintendents across New York.

They were thrilled when Hochul highlighted it as a priority. He said that they are “surprised” and “disappointed” that this $100 million has still failed to reach schools.

It’s possible many districts are still busy spending billions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief aid, potentially making this grant less of a need at the moment, advocates said.

Still, districts likely would have jumped at the money had it been available, Lowry said. Those matching funds could have helped districts launch or expand initiatives that they’d already been working on, such as New York City’s pilot effort to pour more mental health resources into 50 high-need schools in order to minimize the use of police intervention, Yuster said.

Getting grant money to school districts can take almost a year

Education officials said it usually takes nine to 10 months to issue a request for proposals, or RFP, which lays out the parameters of the funds and is what districts must respond to when applying for grant money.

For grant programs, education officials are typically tasked with creating the RFP, which other agencies, such as the state’s budget division, must then approve. That can lead to monthslong delays from when the money is available to when schools can use it, advocates said.

“I think mental health was something that was underinvested in prior to the pandemic [and] the pandemic exposed this is actually a high-need area,” said Jasmine Gripper, executive director of Alliance for Quality Education, an advocacy group that has pushed for more school funding. “We needed to double down, and the delay in that process just kinda signals how we don’t take our children’s mental health needs as a priority.”

A timeline provided by the education department shows how the process played out with this $100 million pot of funds: Education officials first sent a summary of a possible RFP last June to the budget office. They spent July reworking their proposal in response to feedback from the budget and governor’s offices, but by August budget officials asked the education department to create an RFP based on what they had originally proposed.

In November, two months after the school year had started in New York City, education officials sent over a completed draft of the RFP. They received more feedback right before winter break, which required “substantial” changes, according to education officials, who sent another revised version back to budget officials earlier this month.

As of Friday, the education department was awaiting final approval to release the RFP to school districts.

“The field is looking at us and saying, ‘We desperately need this,’” State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said during a legislative budget hearing earlier this month, where she was asked about the delay in distributing the funding.

“We have to streamline it,” Rosa said of the RFP approval process. “We have to get to a point that… we do it and make sure that if they have 27-30 questions, let’s sit at the table, let’s get the questions done, let’s get this money into the hands of our school districts and our schools and our agencies, where it’s needed,” Rosa said.

Hochul is still interested in these issues: Her budget proposal this year calls for making mental health services more accessible for students and directing a chunk of Foundation Aid, the state’s main formula for school funding, toward high-dosage tutoring.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC proposes $90 million in new funding for homeless students and high-need schools

2023-01-24T01:04:56+00:00

New York City plans to boost funding for homeless students and funnel more resources to schools that serve a disproportionate share of students with disabilities, English learners, and those living in poverty, according to a proposal unveiled Monday.

Advocates have long criticized the city for not accounting for homeless students in its school funding formula given the depth of their needs and staggering numbers: Nearly one in 10 New York City public school students live in shelters, are doubled up with relatives, or otherwise lack stable housing.

Starting next school year, the city plans to add homeless students to a list of groups that come with more dollars, including students with disabilities and those who have low test scores. The move would send about $45 million that schools may use to hire additional staff, add attendance outreach programs, and help serve an influx of migrant students, most of whom do not live in permanent housing.

The city will send another $45 million to schools that educate high concentrations of needy students, defined as campuses serving an outsize share of students with disabilities, English language learners, as well as those living in poverty. That change would boost the budgets of roughly 300 schools, city officials said.

The proposals are a response to a school funding task force that recommended revising the city’s Fair Student Funding formula, which accounts for about two-thirds of school budgets. Under the formula, schools typically receive a baseline amount per student — this year, it’s about $4,197. Students with additional needs come with extra dollars on top of the baseline.

Mayor Eric Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks also have faced enormous pressure to increase school funding, especially after reducing school budgets last year because of declining enrollment and dwindling federal relief money. (Earlier this month, city officials reversed plans to further reduce school budgets next school year.)

“These changes, made as a direct result of the thoughtful work of the Fair Student Funding Working Group, are representative of New York City public schools’ commitment to working directly with our communities and putting into place genuine change to support our schools and our kids,” Banks said in a statement.

Changes to the funding formula are not final and must be approved by the city’s Panel for Educational Policy.

Both city proposals line up with recommendations the task force issued in November; however, the administration is planning to spend significantly less money on them than the task force suggested. Their report recommended spending from $42 million to $85 million more on homeless students and from $60 million to $120 million more on schools with high concentrations of vulnerable students. The city plans to spend $45 million in each category.

The city also ignored three of the task force’s five main recommendations, including adding a weight in the funding formula for students living in poverty; increasing the $225,000 baseline schools receive on top of their per-student funding; and nixing a controversial funding boost for some of the city’s most selective high schools.

Asked why the city sidestepped some proposals, Jenna Lyle, an education department spokesperson, wrote in an email that the city prioritized recommendations that would funnel more money to high-need schools without needing to reduce resources on other campuses to pay for it.

Still, multiple members of the task force, outside education advocates, the city’s teachers union, and elected officials cheered the city’s plan.

The education department’s “adoption of key recommendations from the Working Group is a welcome step that will result in $90 million in new funding for our most vulnerable students,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams tweeted.

Jasmine Gripper, executive director of the advocacy group Alliance for Quality Education and a co-chair of the task force, said the city’s proposal was a step in the right direction even though she was initially skeptical about the process.

“It doesn’t feel like parents and students and advocates wasted their time,” Gripper said. “Do I think it’s going to solve everything? No. But it will drive resources to our neediest students.”

The city’s efforts to rethink its school funding formula have sputtered in the past; a previous task force never publicly released any recommendations.

The latest task force was created only after the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, which is largely appointed by the mayor, took the unusual step of voting against the Fair Student Funding funding formula for this school year. Though the formula was later approved, officials promised to launch a task force to solicit feedback.

There was some tension with city officials over how to pay for the proposals included in the report. Education department officials had insisted that spending increases, such as a boost for students who are in temporary housing, would have to be offset by school budget cuts elsewhere.

Education department officials confirmed that they would not reduce other elements of the school funding formula to pay for the changes, but did not elaborate on how the plan would be funded.

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

NYC’s education panel grows with new mayoral appointees and elected members

2023-01-20T14:50:39+00:00

Mayor Eric Adams unveiled on Thursday his newly appointed members to New York City’s Panel for Educational Policy, which has grown significantly in response to an updated state law.

Adams appointed six new people to the newly expanded panel that signs off on major education department contracts and school closures or co-locations. State lawmakers last year required the panel’s expansion from 15 to 23 members when they granted Adams another two years of controlling the nation’s largest school system, in hopes of bringing more parent voice to the body.

Those state-level changes called for the panel to grow from nine to 13 mayoral appointees. Four of these members must be public school parents, with at least one parent of a child with a disability, one with a child who is in a bilingual or English as a new language program, and one parent with a child in a District 75 school, which serves students with disabilities that require intensive support.

The new law also required the presidents of the city’s 32 parent councils to elect five members representing each borough — four more than currently serve. The city’s borough presidents continued to have their previously allotted number of five appointees.

One of the mayor’s new picks already raised eyebrows: Khari Edwards was ousted from his role as a governor’s aide in 2009 after the state found him “immature and irresponsible,” and accused him of lying in testimony for an inspector general investigation, according to the Daily News.

A City Hall spokesperson defended Edwards, calling him “not only a dedicated public servant, but, more importantly, a caring parent of three, who has continued to demonstrate his commitment to New Yorkers since these allegations surfaced over a decade ago.”

Edwards, who has since launched One Brooklyn Health and It Starts Here as the vice president of external affairs at Brookdale University Hospital, “has a strong track record of serving his community,” the spokesperson said in a statement after this story initially published.

Adams made a previous misstep with a panel appointment: last year he tapped Staten Island pastor Kathlyn Barrett-Layne but quickly withdrew the choice after the Daily News reported she had a history of anti-gay comments.

Two of Adams’ previous appointees, Kyle Kimball and Karina Taveras, were not reappointed, according to a spokesperson for City Hall, who declined to say why.

Additionally, the council presidents only elected four members instead of the required five. The Staten Island seat “remained vacant” during the election process, according to a City Hall spokesperson. Typically, such vacancies must be filled within 60 days by another vote from parent council presidents in that specific borough, according to the chancellor’s regulations.

In this case, there is only one parent council in Staten Island, so its president will appoint someone to the position. (Parents can nominate themselves by sending their information to the education department’s Office of Family and Community Engagement, which will forward eligible applications to the council president.)

With the expansion, the mayor’s appointees still make up a majority of the panel, which is often seen as a “rubber stamp” of the administration’s policies since mayoral appointees typically vote in favor of the administration’s proposals. Last year, dissenting voices were typically from the borough president appointees, as well as the panel’s elected member, Tom Sheppard, who has been reelected to the panel. One such vote — which was in part the result of the mayor failing to appoint enough of his members in time — was the panel’s rejection of the city’s funding formula.

Under this new configuration, it’s possible the public will see more disagreement among members. For instance, members elected by the parent councils and borough president appointees could potentially band together against certain policy proposals, such as school closures or co-locations. But their votes would still fall short of the mayor’s majority.

Also as part of the state’s changes last year, the panel must consider changes to school utilization, including co-locations and closures, in the borough of that school. That may lead to more frequent panel meetings. The panel, which typically meets once a month, has scheduled two meetings each in January and February.

Below is a list of the new panel. Those in bold are new:

The mayor’s appointees

Phoebe-Sade Arnold, director of community affairs at Columbia University
Lily Chan, parent of two English language learners and a brand manager for Revlon
Khari Edwards, head of corporate relations at Ayr Wellness and parent of three students
Anita Garcia, retired principal of Coney Island’s P.S. 329
Anthony Giordano, founder and managing partner at marketing firm Legacy Partners USA
Michelle Joseph, parent of a public school student who previously worked in District 79
Alan Ong, previous president of the District 26 parent council
Angela Green, chair of the panel and retired principal of Richard S. Grossley Middle School in Jamaica
Gladys Ward, executive assistant to the CEO of The Ministers and Missionaries Benefits Board
Gregory Faulkner, former chief of staff for New York City council member
Maisha Sapp, led program development for an organization called Blossom For Girls
Marjorie Dienstag, mother of two children who have graduated and a third child who attends a District 75 school
Maria Kenley, mother of a child with a disability

Newly elected members from the city’s parent councils

Naveed Hasan, parent of a public school student, who served several years on District 3’s parent council
Jessamyn Lee, parent of two public school students and a former teacher who worked with students learning English as a new language
Thomas Sheppard, the panel’s first elected member, parent of three public school students and former member of several parent groups, including District 11’s parent council
Ephraim Zakry, parent of two public school students and has served on the Citywide Council for High Schools

Borough president appointees

Queens representative Sheree Gibson, owner of a consulting firm and member of several parent boards, including former co-chair of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee
Bronx representative Geneal Chacon, parent of three public school students and PTA president at P.S. 277
Brooklyn representative Tazin Azad, mother of three public school students and member of several parent groups, including former vice-chair of District 22’s parent council
Manhattan representative Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, medical lecturer at CUNY School of Medicine and former president of District 4’s parent council
Staten Island representative Aaron Bogad, parent of a public school student and member of several parent-led groups, including president of District 31’s parent council

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

After COVID paused Regents exams, graduation rates for NYC’s English language learners surged

2023-01-19T19:31:54+00:00

Arnulfo Toribio was ready to drop out of high school.

It was 2020, and Toribio felt exhausted from learning years’ worth of material while balancing school with a full-time restaurant job. Before immigrating to New York City a few years earlier, he had spent much of his childhood working on a Mexican farm to support his family after his father died, missing at least six years of formal schooling.

A guidance counselor persuaded him to stay on track for a diploma, and Toribio got an additional boost just months before graduation: In response to the pandemic, the state canceled New York’s Regents exams, five of which students are required to pass in order to graduate. Students would still need to pass their courses. Toribio, who hadn’t passed his English or Algebra Regents after a couple attempts, graduated later that year.

“I benefited from that policy,” Toribio explained in Spanish through a translator. “It honestly helped me graduate.”

Bucking national trends, graduation rates rose across the state in the 2020-21 school year. Even more surprising, the rate catapulted for the city’s English language learners — rising by 14 percentage points to 60%, the largest increase on record for those students and a greater rise than other student groups.

The graduation rate spike seemed counterintuitive given that low-income immigrant communities had been severely affected by the pandemic, and many English learners found it more difficult to learn remotely. (Educators also found it difficult to teach remotely.)

Data obtained by Chalkbeat suggests that the temporary policy change — first canceling the English Regents and then not requiring a passing score on it to graduate in 2020-21 — removed a hurdle for English language learners trying to earn their diplomas. More English learners graduated during that time period, far fewer of whom passed the English Regents exam.

State officials acknowledged the spike could have been connected to the temporary cancellation of the Regents exams, and specifically the English exam, but they couldn’t say to what extent.

The effects of that policy could become clearer soon, as the state prepares to release graduation rates from the 2021-22 school year, when Regents exams resumed. The data could help inform a commission tasked with recommending changes to the state’s graduation requirements in 2024, including whether the Regents exams should still be required for students to graduate.

More English language learners take advantage of the Regents cancellation

Students typically take the English Regents exam at some point between freshman and senior year — with some taking it multiple times in hopes of eventually passing so they can get their diplomas. (Some students can appeal their scores and still graduate.)

In the 2018-19 school year, nearly 3,000 English language learners graduated from city public schools within four years, and roughly 67% of them had passed their English Regents at some point. In comparison, nearly all students who graduated and were not learning English as a new language had passed their English exams.

By 2020-21, when the English Regents was optional, the number of English language learners who earned diplomas rose to nearly 4,900, while just 8% passed their exams. (Pass rates also fell for other students who graduated, as more of them earned diplomas. Still, more than three-quarters of non-English learners had passed the test.)

The data doesn’t prove that English Regents exams are the source of low graduation rates among English learners because other factors could have influenced the recent rise, multiple policy experts who reviewed the data said.

Still, there’s “pretty good evidence” that canceling the exams was “one of the things that caused kids to be able to graduate,” said Julie Sugarman, senior policy analyst for K-12 education who focuses on English learners at the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigration Integration Policy.

Sugarman also noted that counselors could have encouraged more students to graduate, or looser grading policies could have helped students. (In Toribio’s case, he said his teachers were also flexible with his assignment deadlines as he searched for a new job during the start of the pandemic.)

Still, the data shows strong signs that “students who disproportionately struggle with high stakes standardized tests are disproportionately impacted” when those exams are no longer required to graduate, Sarah Part, a senior policy analyst with Advocates For Children, which has been advocating to remove Regents as a graduation requirement, said in an email.

English language learners typically don’t graduate on time

Graduation rates for English learners have been historically low — 46% graduated on time in 2020 in New York City, compared with 79% of all students citywide. Advocates and policy experts have cited many reasons, including that newer immigrant students might juggle work with school and lack of enough support in classrooms as they’re still learning the language.

Those rates have steadily grown since 2016 by an average of roughly 4 percentage points annually. But the 14-point jump in the 2020-21 school year was an anomaly. It was so high, that for the first time in eight years, English learners no longer had the lowest four-year graduation rate among the city’s major student groups, surpassing children with disabilities.

Research has found little evidence that requiring high-stakes graduation exams improves student achievement, and doing so may actually increase dropout rates for struggling students. The English exams can be particularly hard on English learners, advocates and researchers said. Sugarman said she often hears from educators about students who have passed all of their classes, but can’t pass the English Regents exam.

Just 3% of the city’s English learners who graduated last year did so without using any exemptions from Regents exams, compared to 28% of non-English learners, according to an analysis from The Education Trust-New York.

That organization described their findings as a “signal that students may be underprepared for postsecondary opportunities.”

At the same time, the data is likely fodder for advocates who have called for the state to stop requiring the Regents exams to graduate.

“What are more meaningful measures that can still capture the student’s learning and still give them different possibilities in different ways, so that their ability to graduate doesn’t depend on one test they take on one day for a few hours out of the four years plus of their high school career?” said Juliet Eisenstein, senior staff attorney with Advocates For Children who sits on the state’s commission that is reviewing graduation requirements.

Juanmy Moscoso, an English learner who graduated in 2021, took the English Regents exam five times before passing it, finally succeeding his junior year of high school, three years after he first moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic. He was part of the minority of English learners who passed the exam prior to graduating in 2021.

He felt that his teachers had done all they could to prepare him, but it was tough to pass the exam while also juggling a challenging course load, including several Advanced Placement classes.

“The problem is me not knowing the language as I wanted,” Moscoso said.

Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, an associate professor of international education at NYU, who has studied English language learners, has raised the larger question of why officials expect newcomer English learners to graduate on time to begin with — an argument other policy researchers have also made.

Those students are acclimating to a new country, as well as a new language, and could benefit from extra support and more time instead of “getting them out as quickly as possible,” he said. He said that many newer immigrants don’t pursue college and wondered if that would be different if they received more support in school.

There are signs that English learners who get more time to learn the language perform well academically. The graduation rates for students who are former English learners typically outpace their peers.

Toribio, the student who graduated in 2020, went on to attend community college. But he stopped attending because he was struggling to pay for school, according to an advocate who has helped him in the past. He hopes to go back soon.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Hochul’s 2023 education agenda: high-dosage tutoring, college access, student mental health

2023-01-10T18:14:53+00:00

Improving access to student mental health services, boosting school funding, and creating high-dosage tutoring programs figure prominently in New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s education agenda, according to her annual State of the State address on Tuesday.

Hochul’s speech — which governors use to signal their priorities for the coming year — outlined issues she’s shown interest in before, such as improving college access.

Her proposals, which come two months after significant drops on national reading and math exams, also show a deeper commitment to addressing how the pandemic impacted students both academically and mentally.

Still, her proposals don’t include some items that advocates were hoping to address this year in Albany, including hiring shortages, which Hochul prioritized last year.

Here are highlights from Hochul’s education policy proposals:

Hochul keeps pledge to fully fund Foundation Aid

As part of her budget proposal, Hochul confirmed that she will include a $2.7 billion increase in school funding for districts across New York under the Foundation Aid formula, which sends more money to high-needs districts.

Last year, state lawmakers had promised to spend billions of more dollars over three years to fully fund the long-debated formula, which accounts for most of the dollars that schools receive from the state.

This upcoming budget will represent the final phase-in of that money, and Hochul’s commitment to spend an additional $2.7 billion matches the funding request from the state’s Board of Regents, as well as a coalition of education-focused organizations called the Educational Conference Board.

High inflation rates ballooned the cost for this year from a $1.9 billion increase to $2.7 billion — raising concerns among some advocates about whether Hochul would stick to her word as the country is at risk for a recession.

“This historic level of financial support for New York public schools will reverberate for generations to come, broadening access to opportunity and enabling New York to build the education system of the future,” said Hochul’s book of policy proposals.

Several education organizations applauded Hochul’s plan. In a statement, Alliance for Quality Education, a school funding advocacy group, called it a “historic milestone for New York State’s public schools.”

Plans to make student mental health needs more accessible

As part of a broader effort to address mental health needs, Hochul has proposed to make school-based services more accessible to students and less expensive to open and run such programs in the first place.

Student mental health needs have been a large focus for educators and advocates since the onset of the pandemic. While many New York City schools offer some level of help to those with behavioral or mental health needs, educators and families report that the needs outpace what’s available, and many students are unable to access those resources.

More than one-third of New York City public schools have none of the six mental health programs that the education department touts on its website, according to an audit conducted last year by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Hochul wants to increase the rate at which school-based clinics and other wraparound services are reimbursed by Medicaid, hoping that this will encourage providers to open more such clinics. She would also create annual grants that would help cover the costs of creating school-based services. Her proposal did not include more specific details, including how much money would be available for the grants.

Hochul also wants to introduce legislation that would require private insurance to pay the Medicaid rate for school-based services that students receive, since those insurance companies typically pay below the Medicaid rate, according to a spokesperson for the governor.

Charles Dedrick, executive director of the state Council of School Superintendents, applauded the proposal and described it as a “comprehensive plan” to expand and provide coverage for these services.

Hochul wants to invest in high-dosage tutoring

In order to address the academic effects of the pandemic, Hochul plans to invest $250 million of Foundation Aid money for districts to create high-impact tutoring programs, where students are tutored multiple times a week.

Mirroring national trends, New York saw steep drops in fourth grade math and reading scores, as well as eighth grade math, on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exams, given for the first time last year since 2019.

Districts would use the money to establish the programs on their own or in partnership with an outside provider. These programs would specifically tutor students in grades 3-8 on reading and math.

Officials did not immediately respond to say how the money would be distributed or how much New York City would receive.

Researchers have found that students can do better in school when they’re tutored frequently in small groups. The endeavor is expensive, but an investment from the state could inject a boost to create such programs in New York City and elsewhere. Hochul’s policy book says that such programs “deliver increased instructional time and customized student learning, and establish meaningful relationships between tutors and students.”

One possible model in New York City is a CUNY-run tutoring program, where 800 of the school’s students studying to become teachers are working with struggling readers in first and second grade.

Creating a pipeline to higher education and the workforce

Hochul pitched a slew of proposals aimed to get more students into college and the workforce.

Under her plan, New York’s graduating high school seniors would receive admission to their local SUNY community college. Additionally, students who aren’t admitted to their SUNY school of choice would automatically be considered for admission at another SUNY campus.

She’s proposing to spend $20 million in grants for districts to create college-level courses in high school, through which students can earn college credit. The money would also go toward technology-focused programs – both in school districts and colleges – with the goal of preparing more students for such careers after graduation.

Priority for the grant money will be given to programs in high-needs school districts, as well as districts that plan to create programs focused on computer science and computer and software engineering pathways “with an eye toward the technology jobs of the present and future,” according to the proposal book.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Goodbye, Regents? A New York commission mulls high school graduation requirements

2023-01-04T23:16:42+00:00

New York’s high school students have taken Regents exams since the 1870s. But they could become a relic of the past, as state officials start the final leg of a lengthy process to rethink the state’s graduation requirements.

In New York, students are generally required to earn 22 course credits in high school and take five Regents exams, including one each in English, math, science, and social studies. A 64-person commission charged with reviewing those requirements first met in October, and it is expected to present its recommendations to the New York State Board of Regents in the spring or summer of 2024.

The long-simmering discussion often centers on how New York is one of just 11 states that requires high school exit exams and that, despite a rising graduation rate, diploma requirements may be hurting the state’s most disadvantaged students.

“Regents exams have been the gold standard for over a century — and with good reason,” Commissioner Betty Rosa wrote in February 2019, when she was the chancellor of the Board of Regents, months before the state’s efforts began. “But our systems must be continually reviewed, renewed, and occasionally revised in order to best serve our students and the people of this great state.”

Policymakers and advocates are offering some clues for where they hope things will go. That includes alternatives to the Regents exams, removing the exams as part of graduation requirements, or even creating another type of exit exam.

Research shows that exit exams may increase dropout rates

Decades of research has shown that Regents exams don’t better prepare students for life after high school and can harm students of color from low-income families.

This was backed up in a review of academic literature presented to the Board of Regents in November and shared with the special commission tasked with recommending possible changes to the board. High school exit exams led to an increase in dropout rates and were more likely to impact graduation rates for low-income and Black students, the review found. However, one nationally representative study found that graduation rates only temporarily dipped after introducing high school exit exams.

Dropout rates can improve if students are offered “alternate pathways” that aren’t another high-stakes exam, such as the SAT or ACT, according to the review. The review also found that students enrolled in optional, high-level classes were more likely to do well on standardized tests and attend college. Additionally, graduation rates also increased in places that offered peer support programs and had mandatory attendance policies.

A pilot program offers hints at alternative graduation requirements

The Board of Regents was supposed to consider changes in 2021, but the pandemic delayed the process. As the board picked back up on that work last year — which included collecting feedback from communities across the state — officials showed an interest in alternatives to the Regents exams. On top of offering more options for completing exam requirements in recent years, the state education department launched a pilot program that offers students alternatives to Regents exams, such as projects and essays.

That program was, in part, inspired by New York City’s roughly three dozen consortium schools, which have been approved by the state to grant diplomas based on oral presentations, essays and research papers, science experiments, and higher-level math problem-solving instead of the five required Regents exams.

But policymakers may face some pushback to performance-based assessments.

Jeff Smink, deputy director at Education Trust-New York, which is represented on the blue ribbon commission, said his advocacy organization isn’t opposed to alternate pathways and understands that some students need other options to meet graduation requirements. But the group wants students to be assessed using an “objective measure.”

“The concern is that there just won’t be that accountability — districts can say students did this performance assessment, but there’s no objective measurement of whether students are prepared,” Smink said.

Policy tweaks in recent years have led school districts to rely disproportionately on less rigorous graduation requirements, according to Smink’s organization. For example, in 2019, Ed Trust found that 62% of the state’s increase in graduation rates was due to more students earning “local” diplomas, which is one of the state’s less rigorous graduation pathways. They also found that Black and low-income students were more likely to take less rigorous, career-focused pathways. (It had been easier for students to earn an older version of local diplomas through the 1990s, but that changed as the state phased in the Regents diploma requirements by 2015.)

Ed Trust is also concerned about how prepared students are for life after high school. Smink pointed to data that gives a glimpse of what happens after graduation. Of New York’s nearly 58,000 graduates in 2014 who received tuition assistance and attended college in the state, just 59% of those students graduated from college in six years. Only 29% of those students graduated from college on time.

Some advocates don’t want to wait for commission

Other advocates are pushing the board to scrap Regents exams from graduation requirements even before the commission comes up with its recommendations.

The Coalition for Multiple Pathways to a Diploma, a group that has pushed for changes to graduation requirements for more than a decade, compiled a 1,200-signature petition last month calling for the state to immediately remove Regents exams from diploma requirements. The coalition pointed to research about the negative effects of the exit exams.

“While the Commission’s work moves forward, the State should take action now to ensure that students who have passed all their courses are able to graduate from high school and pursue their postsecondary goals,” Julie Eisenstein, senior staff attorney for Advocates for Children, which is part of the coalition, said in a statement.

Bobson Wong, a math teacher at Bayside High School in Queens who is on the commission and has helped write and edit questions for the Algebra 2 Regents exam, wants to see more research before deciding whether the Regents exams should be eliminated or how they should factor into earning a diploma.

Regents exams have a mix of multiple choice and open-ended questions. Wong doesn’t think that multiple-choice questions best capture what students have actually learned about a subject, but he sees value in some sort of final exam, such as a Regents exam with just 10 free response questions.

“How would that change our thinking about student learning and student assessment?” Wong said. “Of course, there are logistical issues of how would you grade 3,000 exams like that, but just imagine if we kind of freed ourselves from the mentality of making this a standardized test.”

Wong said he’s not opposed to the idea of alternate or performance-based pathways such as essays or projects, but he’s skeptical of how well they prepare students for life after graduation.

He’s hoping that the commission can have an “honest conversation” about why current requirements are leading to rising graduation rates but are leaving many students without the skills he believes they need after high school.

“Every teacher I know, knows that there is enormous pressure within the entire system to graduate students, whether or not they know the material,” Wong said. “I know students who have difficulty doing middle school math, so why are they in high school? Because we don’t have the support in place to master the content in middle school, so we just move them along because we don’t want a 15-year-old sitting in seventh grade.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Rising inflation adds $800M to cost of fully funding New York’s main school aid formula

2022-12-21T20:36:02+00:00

New York school funding advocates have been looking forward to next year, when Gov. Kathy Hochul and the legislature are supposed to finish fully funding the state’s 15-year-old school funding formula, resulting in billions of more dollars for school districts statewide.

But a new problem might put the money in jeopardy: Because of inflation, the increase is expected to be nearly $1 billion more than expected, state officials said.

Advocates said they don’t yet expect that lawmakers will renege their promise of fully funding Foundation Aid, which sends more money to school districts with students who have higher needs.

Regardless, they are already on the offensive ahead of the next legislative session, which begins Jan. 4. They said they’ll still be pressing state leaders on the issue, in light of what happened when the formula was first implemented in 2007, right before the Great Recession.

“We got two years of full funding before there was a financial crisis, and then they froze the funding and started to regress and cut some schools,” said Jasmine Gripper, executive director of Alliance for Quality Education. “And we’ve fought for schools ever since.”

Last year, state lawmakers agreed to fully fund the Foundation Aid formula over three years, with the final phase-in scheduled in time for the 2023-24 school year. Since the Foundation Aid formula accounts for inflation, state officials expect that the final increase this year will cost $2.7 billion — about $800 million more than what the state’s Board of Regents had previously projected.

With that increase, schools across the state would receive a total of $24 billion in Foundation Aid next year.

The increased cost is because this final phase-in of money “happens to occur in a year with the highest inflation rate since the formula began,” according to a spokesperson for the state education department.

Advocates hope that the rising cost won’t deter lawmakers or Hochul from carrying out their promise to fully fund the formula, which she agreed to do as part of a legal settlement last year.

“As long as the state’s finances hold up, it seems as though it’s actually manageable,” said Bob Lowry, deputy director of policy and advocacy with the state’s Council of School Superintendents. “But if we got evidence that a recession is taking hold or revenues from the financial sector are coming in much lower, that could create an obstacle to achieving full funding in the next budget.”

The state’s financial picture is mixed. Through September of this year, the state had collected $3.1 billion more in personal income taxes and other revenue than was expected earlier this year, but there are still budget gaps expected for the next three fiscal years, according to the state budget division’s midyear report. Budget officials wrote that the national economy and the “elevated risk of a recession” could mean a gloomier budget in New York down the road.

State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who oversees the Senate’s New York City education committee, said cost increases and inflation are going to impact various parts of the budget, and it’s hard to say if better-than-expected tax revenues are enough to help.

Still, Liu said there is a “very high level of commitment” from the legislature to fully fund Foundation Aid.

“There is not enough money for everything everyone wants, but education is our biggest promise, from the state constitution and from the budget agreements over the last couple of years and from the settlement of the lawsuit from the governor’s promise,” Liu said. “I fully expect this final increase in Foundation Aid should be part of the coming budget.”

The governor’s office declined to say whether they’re still committed to fully funding the final projected increase for Foundation Aid. In a statement, spokesperson Katy Zielinski said details about the governor’s budget proposal will be released early next year.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC promises affordable child care to undocumented families through voucher program

2022-12-15T19:03:30+00:00

Next month, New York City will begin providing subsidized child care to low-income, undocumented families, who typically can’t access such services because of their immigration status.

The $10 million initiative, called Promise NYC, is expected to serve 600 children over the next six months, city officials announced Wednesday. It also aims to help the influx of asylum-seeking families from South America who have come to New York City over the past several months.

Because children from undocumented families typically don’t qualify for state or federally subsidized child care, advocates had pushed state lawmakers to expand care for undocumented children earlier this year. But that effort failed.

In the spring, city lawmakers pushed the mayor to include $10 million in this year’s budget expanding childcare for undocumented children. In June, Mayor Eric Adams committed to funding the initative, which would pay for vouchers and “develop a mechanism for families to seek care without compromising the confidentiality of their immigration status,” according to his “Blueprint for Child Care & Early Childhood Education in New York City.”

The city tapped four community-based organizations with “deep ties to immigrant communities in their respective boroughs” to help launch the program: the Chinese American Planning Council in Queens, Center For Family Life in Brooklyn, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation in Manhattan and the Bronx, and La Colmena will help Staten Island families.

The four organizations, which are contracting with the city’s Administration for Child Services, will be responsible for signing up eligible families.

Beginning in January, low-income undocumented families will be eligible to participate in the city’s child care voucher program, which provides free or low-cost child care to families with children ages 6 weeks to 13 years old. (To qualify, they must earn less than 300% of the federal poverty level.) Child care providers — licensed center-based or registered home-based care — will get reimbursed by the community organizations overseeing the program, city officials said.

Many asylum-seeking families residing in shelters are having trouble finding work without access to child care, according to Gothamist.

In a statement, Adams said his plan will alleviate the challenges that come with being a new immigrant.

“Navigating obstacles in a new city and a new country are tough, and coupling those issues with a lack of child care can prevent parents and families from achieving the dream they so desperately set out to achieve,” Adams said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

To rethink NY’s 15-year-old school funding formula, state officials ask for $1 million study

2022-12-13T00:11:20+00:00

For many educators, parents, and advocates who follow the money behind school budgets, last year was a milestone: For the first time, New York began to fully fund Foundation Aid, the formula created 15 years ago to send state money to its roughly 700 school districts.

With that battle settled, New York’s Board of Regents now has its eyes on the next challenge: updating the formula itself. As part of Monday’s annual state budget proposal, New York’s Board of Regents requested $1 million to hire researchers, who would get feedback from the schools, advocates, and funding experts on how officials should change Foundation Aid for the 2024-25 school year. Those researchers would then design potential models for an updated formula.

Foundation Aid is a progressive formula that’s structured to send more money to schools with high-need students. It went underfunded until the state agreed in 2021 to fully cover the costs that the formula called for over three years. Lawmakers are expected to finish phasing in the money for the 2023-24 school year, amounting to $4 billion in additional funding for schools, for a total of about $24 billion in Foundation Aid next fiscal year.

In recent years, education advocates and some lawmakers have highlighted how components of the formula are severely outdated, leaving districts shortchanged for their actual needs. For example, one measure used to calculate student poverty is based on the 2000 Census, meaning that if student poverty has gone up in districts since 2000, they’re likely not receiving all the funds they are entitled to.

Department officials want researchers to provide a “factual-based perspective” on how the formula needs to change, said Sean Giambattista, director of state aid at the state education department, at the monthly Regents meeting on Monday in Albany.

“We understand the Census poverty rate that’s used is currently out of date, but there’s more core considerations that we would need some researchers to come in and look at,” Giambattista told the board.

The Regents aren’t alone in their request. Last month, Columbia University’s Center for Educational Equity issued a report calling for the creation of a permanent commission to ensure the formula is updated and reflective of student needs today. That report noted that the state may need to explore entirely new ways to calculate student needs, such as poverty.

“The new system must take current realities and current student needs into account, and it must be designed to respond to changing needs and costs in the future,” the report said. “It must be insulated from undue political influence, and it must respond to the experience of education stakeholders, the people most affected by inequities and inadequacies.”

Representatives for Gov. Kathy Hochul said the governor is reviewing all requests ahead of her own budget proposal next year. They did not say whether she supported this initiative.

Regents want funding for CTE and virtual programs

The Regents discussed other budget wishlist items, including a similar request they made last year to change how school districts like New York City’s are funded for career and technical education, or CTE, programs.

Funding for CTE programs — which provide training for students in different career pathways — is based on rates created in the 1990s, state education advocates said.

As a result, many schools struggle to provide enough support for keeping such programs operating.

The Regents are proposing a new formula that would reimburse districts for CTE costs instead of giving them a budget where they receive a base amount per student, which also takes into account the number of participating students and a measure of the district’s wealth. Making that change would result in more funding, officials said. The state is pushing to expand CTE offerings, hoping to make such programs accessible to all students across the state by 2030. Mayor Eric Adams and schools Chancellor David Banks have shown considerable support for such career-focused programs as well.

Separately, the state has also proposed the creation of statewide virtual high schools that would operate their own school districts.

“Our experience with virtual technology during the pandemic has allowed us to think differently about how to serve students who are not able to attend traditional school programs,” state officials wrote in their proposal.

The programs would be funded similarly to current school funding mechanisms, based on the needs of students enrolled in the programs on top of start-up funding. Students with disabilities in need of in-person services would also be served by their local existing school district, which would receive funding to do so.

New York City has begun experimenting locally with such virtual programs. One new high school has experimented with mixing online learning with in-person classroom work and fieldwork in the outdoors.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

As family homelessness climbs, calls grow louder for solving school attendance woes

2022-12-12T11:00:00+00:00

Nine-year-old Ameerah remembers when her commute to school was a five-minute walk. That was before her family left their Queens home for a shelter in another part of the borough.

During the year they lived in the shelter, Ameerah was at the bus stop with her mom and sister at 6:30 a.m., commuting at least 45 minutes on two buses and two trains. They often returned nearly 12 hours later, her mom said, and the girls were sometimes too tired to complete their homework in the evenings.

“My legs, sometimes they hurt. My backpack, it’s heavy,” Ameerah said during one of her bus rides last spring when she was in third grade. She fell behind in math, requiring her to go to summer school. (Chalkbeat is using pseudonyms to protect the family’s privacy.)

Last school year, nearly 30,000 New York City public school students lived in shelters. For these students, getting to school is often a problem, as many are placed far from their current schools. Nearby shelters may lack space, or if the family is in a domestic violence situation, they may be deliberately placed far from home. Shelter transfers can be hard to come by. So families must often choose between punishing commutes like Ameerah’s or transferring schools, which research shows can lead to chronic absenteeism and the need to repeat a grade.

Chronic absenteeism — often a key indicator of academic performance — is a growing problem for students citywide following the pandemic. But for homeless students, it’s a crisis: 64% of students living in shelters were chronically absent in the 2020-21 school year, meaning they were absent for at least 10% of school days, according to the most recent data obtained by Advocates For Children. That’s compared with about 30% of students citywide.

Advocates fear attendance problems could worsen as homelessness continues rising to historic levels in New York City amid rising inflation, the end of the eviction moratorium, and the threat of a recession. Additionally, an influx of asylum-seeking students from South America have entered the shelter system. Last month, more than 12,100 families with children were in shelters run by the Department of Homeless Services, compared with roughly 8,500 in November 2021.

Ameerah’s family had little help navigating the shelter system and their school-related transportation needs, they said. This left her mom, Huma, an immigrant from Pakistan who sometimes struggled with English, to wade through bureaucracy while trying to work enough hours to qualify for subsidized housing. Many advocates believe that families can benefit from having a dedicated, shelter-based coordinator to support them and have been pushing the city to hire such staffers for the past year.

By June, the city had committed to hiring 100 such coordinators — 75 of them funded for the next two years with about $17 million of the $33 million in federal relief money earmarked for homeless students, according to Advocates For Children. (The education department declined to share how much the initiative would cost.)

But in the nearly five months since then, the city has hired just 45 of these coordinators, with another 33 in the hiring process, according to an education department spokesperson, who declined multiple times to explain why there has been a delay.

Dozens of advocacy organizations had originally called for 150 of these staffers, given that the city has more than 160 family shelters serving children. But now they’re concerned that the city hasn’t yet hired all of these staffers and are wondering what happens when the relief dollars run out in two years.

They also note that the problems go deeper than such a role can address and intersect with a variety of systemic issues, large and small, from intergenerational poverty to transportation issues.

Historically, there has been a failure to cooperate and minimize disruptions to students’ schooling between the multiple agencies connected to homeless children, including the education department and homeless services, said Jennifer Pringle, director of Project Learning In Temporary Housing at Advocates for Children.

This moment, in particular, is critical for figuring out solutions, said Pringle, whose organization is one of more than three dozen calling for an inter-agency task force focused on how to tackle a slew of issues, including reducing chronic absenteeism among homeless students.

“This is an opportunity to figure out, OK, as families are coming in, how can we make sure that kids are connected with school, connected with their peers, with their teachers,” Pringle said, “so that while the family is going through this process and ultimately finds permanent housing, the kids’ education doesn’t get derailed.”

One of Huma’s daughters holds on to a pole on a city bus during her commute to school.

Transportation from shelters to schools remains difficult

A longstanding federal law attempts to create some stability for students who become homeless. Under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, later expanded in 2001, school districts are required to provide transportation to and from a child’s “school of origin,” or the school they attended before becoming homeless.

But in vast New York City, students crossing between boroughs may have hours-long commutes between shelter and school. In response to news reports in 2017, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to ensure more families were placed in the same borough as their youngest child’s school.

His administration began to deliver on that promise. In 2018, about half of families were initially placed in shelters located in the same borough as their youngest child’s school. By last fiscal year, that grew by 11 percentage points, to three in every five families — including Huma’s.

But even a shelter placement in the same borough can mean a challenging commute to school.

When there are school attendance issues, many shelter providers’ default position is to encourage families to change schools, Pringle said, rather than to revisit shelter placements and try to move families closer to their schools.

“In a city where we have so many shelter locations, the needs of children are not being prioritized as a part of this process,” she said.

For its part, a spokesperson for the Department of Social Services said their teams, along with the Department of Homeless Services, reach out to families in shelters “with longer commutes to schools, offering them shelter placements close to their youngest school-aged child’s school.” Last fiscal year, 75% of families were in shelters in the same borough as their youngest child’s school; however, advocates noted that it’s unclear how much of that reflects children transferring schools instead of shelters.

When Ameerah’s family moved into one of New York City’s family shelters in April 2021, they had escaped what Huma described as an emotionally abusive home she had endured for many years. Adjusting to the shelter was tough. Even after the girls managed to fall asleep while sharing a bed in the small roach-infested room, the shelter’s 9 p.m. bed-check often woke them up.

Huma’s case worker had asked where she wanted the children to attend school when they first entered the shelter. She thought that transferring schools felt disruptive, as the girls were returning to school for the first time since the onset of the pandemic while adjusting to a new, strange place.

“My kids, the big one especially, she is so sensitive now because of all this stuff,” Huma said, noting that they’d moved several times in the past. “She said, ‘I’m so tired from moving, every single time I change my school, but this time I don’t want to change my school. I like my school.’”

And for her younger daughter, arriving at school each day felt like a silver lining. She enjoyed seeing her friends and said that “time goes a little bit faster there.”

After exiting their final bus, Huma and her younger daughter walk to her school.

Transferring schools can have significant drawbacks for students without stable housing. One study from 2015 found that New York City students who transferred schools were more likely to be chronically absent, missing at least 10% of school days. Chronically absent homeless children were three times more likely to repeat the same grade, compared to their homeless peers who missed fewer than five days of school, that report found.

Students in shelters in kindergarten through sixth grade are eligible for bus transportation to their schools, no matter where they are. Older students, like Huma’s eldest daughter, Ayaneh, who was about to start seventh grade, receive a MetroCard, though some seventh and eighth graders can get busing on a case-by-case basis, such as if they have a disability. But Huma, who felt that Ayaneh wasn’t yet ready to take public transportation on her own, said this information wasn’t shared with her until weeks into the school year. (The city’s yellow bus system is also notoriously problematic, and a recent City Council report found that service delays have been higher this fall than the past five years.)

After Huma called the girls’ schools for more information on busing, school staff directed her to a general education department telephone line for transportation issues, she said. She didn’t call it.

“I said, ‘I just need the answer if you’re not providing a bus,’” she said of shelter staff. “They just kept promising it, but it never came.”

Huma didn’t trust that calling the education department would solve her issues. That might be why officials there said they did not have records of transportation issues or complaints related to her children.

Navigating the shelter system feels like a second job

There are 117 “family assistants” working across shelters, who are supposed to inform families about their school transportation rights, provide route information, and help with enrollment. But those employees don’t work year-round and often are not equipped to untangle more complicated problems, such as why a child may be chronically absent, advocates said.

The newly added shelter-based community coordinators would have broader responsibilities and are expected to proactively reach out to families living in shelters. They’re supposed to ensure students are getting to class, helping families navigate problems with transportation and enrollment using data compiled by the city. The education department is also using stimulus funds to better track homeless student attendance in hopes of working with shelters to address chronic absenteeism.

“There should be support services for families both at the shelter and at school that can help them with issues they might be facing, especially if there are attendance issues,” said Jacquelyn Simone, policy director for Coalition for the Homeless, an organization that advocates on behalf of homeless New Yorkers. “If someone is struggling to get to school, and it’s the proximity of the shelter to the school, then there should be, in an ideal world, a team that would identify the issue.”

At 6:30 a.m. on a day this past spring, people line up to board a bus in Queens.

Bus service eventually was set up for Ameerah by October of last year, a few weeks into the school year, Huma said. Ultimately, she decided against it because it no longer made sense. She would still need to accompany Ayaneh to school — and she would need to be with both girls to get back to the shelter since minors can’t go inside without a parent or guardian. This would prove a complicated juggling act as Huma tried to increase her work hours.

Like all shelter residents, Huma was eligible to apply for rental assistance after 90 days of her placement, but she needed to work at least 30 hours a week. After months of struggling to find employment, she took a job as a home health aide. Her job locations frequently changed, which made it more challenging to coordinate her daughters’ transportation to school, she said.

Meanwhile, Huma had been told that she needed a more stable work schedule in order to meet the qualifications for rental assistance.

Catherine Trapani, executive director of Homeless Services United, said she’s often found parents who struggle to meet their required number of work hours while also taking care of other responsibilities and following all shelter rules, such as ensuring children are accompanied at the shelter.

“It’s very difficult to get your employment in with that schedule, plus your obligations to cart your children to and from school, particularly if you don’t have a robust network of support,” Trapani said.

In a sign that job requirements had become too burdensome to qualify for the city’s rental subsidy requirements, city officials recently cut in half the required weekly work hours from 30 hours to 14.

The family chooses a new school, after all

After a lot of back-and-forth providing pay stubs and other employment documents, Huma was approved for subsidized rent in March of this year — seven months after her caseworker informed her that she would start the process. That was much longer than the median 26 days it took for families to receive vouchers after completing applications last year, according to the annual Mayor’s Management Report.

Huma moved her family into their own apartment in May. Nearly 5,200 homeless families found permanent housing last fiscal year, a 30% drop from the previous year, according to city data.

Their new commute still required two buses for the girls to get to school, but their travel time was cut by 20 minutes.

Huma waits for a subway train.

But the instability has not gone away. Shortly before school started, Huma had attached a $622 utility bill to the fridge, marked with a bolded “final notice.” Huma was bringing in about $450 a week, and typically had nothing left after paying rent and other bills. Food stamps help provide some respite, she said. But she left her job in October after tensions with a patient’s caregiver, and she was still looking for work in December.

They’ve acknowledged that the apartment is not perfect. Their oven broke in the fall, and her landlord hadn’t arranged for it to be fixed. Carpet curled up at the edges of the walls. Still, the family seemed happy.

“At least they have their bed and they can sleep good,” the mom said.

Ayaneh still attends her middle school from last year. Her mother said she is seeing a therapist to deal with the family issues that caused them to seek shelter in the first place.

In the end, Huma decided to change Ameerah’s school to one around the corner from their new apartment.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Half of NYC students are behind in reading. Hundreds of CUNY tutors aim to change that.

2022-12-07T22:09:59+00:00

Just after the school day winds down, a group of three students at Brooklyn’s P.S. 40 sit in a semicircle and crack open “Looking for Lunch,” an illustrated book with large print. With help from a tutor, they begin reading aloud in unison, running their fingers along words like “hungry” and “animals” as they go.

Next door, a student is working with a one-on-one tutor and struggling with a more basic task: forming the word “tan” using small wooden blocks to represent individual sounds. He’s just beginning to grasp the relationships between sounds and letters.

In both classrooms, these first graders are behind their peers and at risk of joining the roughly 50% of city students who are not proficient readers by the time they reach third grade. To help catch them up, P.S. 40 is leaning on an intensive strategy: individualized tutoring at least three times a week.

The program pairs CUNY students studying education with New York City public school children who are struggling to master literacy skills. Known as the CUNY Reading Corps, the effort has grown into one of the largest tutoring initiatives involving pre-service teachers. This year, it’s projected to include more than 800 tutors and reach roughly 2,700 of the city’s public school children, primarily first and second graders.

Researchers have pointed to high-dosage tutoring as a tried-and-true method of reaching students who are struggling or were derailed by the pandemic. Catching up students who are behind — but still at widely varying skill levels — is a significant challenge in a typical classroom with dozens of students. Tutoring in small groups or one-on-one is one way of making that task more manageable, though it can be expensive and challenging to pull off on a large scale.

The Reading Corps program, launched in fall 2020, has helped ease some of those barriers. The idea came from Katie Pace Miles, a Brooklyn College professor and literacy expert who had two main concerns. For one, hands-on teaching opportunities for her education students were upended.

She also worried that more affluent families were able to marshal their own resources, launching learning pods or hiring tutors, creating even larger opportunity gaps compared with thousands of low-income children, many of whom struggled to access remote learning.

“Some children maintained, or gained, or accelerated,” Miles said. “And other children were left with shuttered school buildings and hybrid learning that wasn’t really working for them — and no additional support.”

A high-dosage tutoring program shows promise

The Reading Corps program helped address both of those problems, paying tutors in graduate or undergraduate education programs between $20 to $25 an hour to work with public school children for three to five sessions a week over about 13 weeks.

Before they begin working with children, the tutors receive between six and 12 hours of training in one of two reading programs, both of which include phonics lessons. Reading Ready, which Miles developed herself, is designed for students who are furthest behind, training them how to recognize foundational letter-sound relationships, form words by blending different sounds, and read basic sentences. The lessons typically last about 20 to 30 minutes.

The other program, Reading Rescue, is used across the city and is meant for students who can already recognize letters but are still below grade level. During the 30- to 45-minute sessions, children participate in step-by-step phonics lessons, read texts out loud, and respond to questions about what they’re reading. The lessons are typically delivered individually but sometimes include groups of up to three students.

Since the program launched in 2020, it has grown from 275 tutors to more than 800 at a cost of about $2.9 million for this school year and next summer, an effort that is largely foundation funded.

“Schools were very responsive” to the program, Miles said. “This really started out of urgency and need — and we were trying to go big.”

They initially provided lessons remotely, as the program launched when school buildings were still mostly empty. Even though campuses are now open, the majority of students still participate virtually, logging in from school buildings or from their homes outside of regular school hours.

A P.S. 40 student logs into a virtual tutoring session.

Still, there have been some challenges. Schools aren’t always excited about adding a virtual tutoring program, though Miles said it can be as effective as in-person tutoring. Online sessions also make it easier for tutors to arrive on time and reduce opportunities for viruses to spread. At P.S. 40, the school’s principal pays a teacher to help supervise the students who participate remotely.

Student attendance is not always high, a common stumbling block for tutoring programs. When the Reading Corps first launched, attendance was in the mid 60% range. Last year, attendance was closer to 70% and is now consistently above 70%.

“It takes some students longer to get through the program, just because they’re not always able to make their sessions,” said Erin Croke, CUNY’s director of literacy initiatives. “We really want to get them in and out,” she added, “so that we can then serve more students.”

City officials have said they want more students to receive the kind of systematic reading instruction offered through the Reading Corps program, and are requiring elementary schools to adopt phonics programs approved by the city. But those efforts to improve instruction will likely take time, necessitating remedial strategies in the interim.

“While we spend the time figuring that out, we need to provide students with this service,” Miles said.

CUNY officials say the program is showing signs of effectiveness. However, the tutoring program has not yet been studied rigorously, making it impossible to definitively say how effective it is. Miles said she is in the process of collecting data from student assessments to understand the program’s impact.

Outside experts who are familiar with the research on tutoring said the program is promising and should be studied carefully.

“The CUNY Reading Corps has all the design features that set a tutoring program up to succeed,” said Matthew Kraft, a professor of education and economics at Brown University who called for a national expansion of tutoring to help address learning disruptions caused by the pandemic.

Not all tutoring programs are created equal

At P.S. 40, an elementary school in Bedford-Stuyvesant where more than 90% of students are Black or Latino and 89% come from low-income families, the need for individualized help was clear, Principal Louise Antoine said.

Although challenges with teaching students to read are nothing new, kindergartners have been arriving further behind, unable to identify their letters. Fewer arriving kindergarten students had attended prekindergarten during the pandemic, one reason the principal surmised they were further behind.

“We noticed that a lot of our students are coming in, and they’re not ready to read,” Antoine said.

Antoine previously had mixed experiences with tutoring. The school experimented with a virtual program that students completed from home, but it was costly, the tutors didn’t have much training, and attendance among both students and tutors was spotty. But the Reading Corps program, she said, has been much more effective.

“The tutor has to be invested,” Antoine said. “The tutor has to be trained in how to support children in reading. I learned not every program has those qualities.”

Mary Escobar, an undergraduate student at Hunter College who is tutoring at P.S. 40, said she became interested in teaching literacy skills after helping a child with dyslexia she was babysitting. The CUNY Reading Corps jumped out to her as a chance to receive more formal training and practice in a public school setting.

Even though the Reading Ready lessons she’s delivering are highly regimented, not all of the sessions are a breeze. During a recent afternoon, a student named Kyrie was struggling to focus, squirming in his seat and playfully tossing tiny wooden cubes meant to represent sounds.

After some sessions, “I don’t get that feeling that we actually made progress” Escobar said, “and that’s a tough feeling.” But the goal isn’t just to deliver instruction — it’s also to help her figure out how to adjust and be a more effective teacher once she’s in the classroom full time.

CUNY student Mary Escobar embraces a student at the end of a recent tutoring session.

“I’ve wrestled with how important it is to get the kids focused and believing in themselves and getting positive reinforcement for their effort rather than just trying to get something done,” she said. “What I’m doing with these kids is going to help me down the line with so many other kids.”

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

‘All-hands-on-deck’: A Queens charter school welcomes 70 asylum-seeking students

2022-11-28T22:31:47+00:00

On a Friday night in early November, roughly two dozen families at VOICE charter school in Long Island City, Queens, were preparing for a New York winter — most for the first time in their lives.

In the school’s ground floor gymnasium, parents who had recently migrated from Venezuela and other Latin American countries to seek asylum in the U.S. perused tables stacked high with warm winter gear, pots and pans, and school supplies. Students in light blue uniforms munched on pizza and played with toys and balloons.

Ingles Moreno, the mother of a seventh grader at VOICE who arrived with her daughter in New York City in late August after fleeing Venezuela, surveyed her suitcases and garbage bags full of new supplies.

“I feel happy,” said Moreno, who is living at a nearby homeless shelter. “I didn’t have [winter clothes], and now thank God I do.”

The Friday night giveaway was part of what school staffers describe as an “all-hands-on-deck” effort to accommodate an influx of dozens of new migrant families at VOICE, a K-8 school of around 650 students, 84% of whom receive free or reduced-price lunch.

The enrollment rush began as a trickle in the summer and quickly picked up steam as families referred each other to the school or got recommendations from local shelters and social service organizations. A proliferation of hotels in recent years in Long Island City led to a cluster of newly converted homeless shelters in the school’s backyard.

Pandemic-related enrollment declines left VOICE with extra space, and the school wound up enrolling an estimated 70 asylum-seeking children, said principal Franklin Headley.

Across the city, an estimated 7,200 students living in homeless shelters have enrolled in public schools since July, many of them asylum-seekers sent on buses by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, education department officials said last month. In the neighborhood on the border of Astoria and Long Island City where VOICE is located, several schools saw dramatic influxes: The public elementary school that shares a building with VOICE’s younger students also enrolled about 70 asylum-seeking kids, according to education department budget records.

Officials didn’t have an estimate of how many migrant students have enrolled in publicly funded, privately run charter schools like VOICE.

At VOICE, their arrival profoundly reshaped the school almost overnight.

The school, which does not have dedicated dual language programs and got no advance notice of the new arrivals, has scrambled to meet the material, educational, and emotional needs of students and parents. Staffers acknowledge it’s still a work in progress.

“I’m really proud of my teachers,” said Headley. “It’s hard when they see so many children in the class and not quite knowing what to do.”

And while the past few months at VOICE have been taxing, they’ve also been inspiring, Headley said. They’ve given the school an injection of new students at a time of faltering enrollment, and given existing families and staff a shared purpose in helping the new arrivals.

“I think there’s been a narrative out in the news a little bit that maybe schools are panicked about this,” Headley said. “I think for us, it’s like these kids are a gift.”

Teachers adjust their expectations

The number of the school’s homeless students leapt from under 1% last year to 10% this year, school officials said. VOICE previously served English language learners — about 16% of its students were classified as such last year. That number jumped to about 27% this year, nearly half of whom are classified as beginners, Headley said.

But numbers alone didn’t communicate the scope or complexity of what the school was about to face. It was only when staff started conducting more detailed intake interviews that a fuller picture of the families’ needs started to emerge, said Peter Cataldo, a social worker who’s been at VOICE for 12 years.

“An influx of children who don’t speak English is very new for us,” he said.

Families often arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs, school social workers learned. Few were prepared for winter, and they had scant options for cooking food or washing their clothes in the shelters. Many kids didn’t have the immunizations required to attend school in New York City, and parents were anxiously searching for ways to earn money without work permits as they awaited immigration hearings, which were often scheduled in other states.

Administrators tried to distribute the newly arrived students as evenly as possible across multiple classrooms so that no single teacher had a critical mass.

VOICE had two dedicated English as a new language teachers prior to this school year, and hired another this year. But those educators don’t lead their own classes, instead helping out in existing classes or pulling out small groups of students to offer supplementary support.

An English as a new language teacher works with two recently arrived immigrant students at VOICE charter school in Queens.

The first few weeks were a blur of trial and error.

At first, some classroom educators translated every word of their lessons into Spanish, but quickly learned that was too impractical and time consuming, said Matt Kolman, VOICE’s middle school dean.

Then some teachers started leaning on students who were fluent in both English and Spanish to buddy up with the newcomers to help translate. But the bilingual classmates found themselves missing most of the lesson trying to help out their peers.

Ultimately, many educators settled on a more limited approach — translating key words and assignments, allowing students to use an automated computer program that translates English audio to Spanish in real time, and setting up “translation stations” with computers that students can check into at their discretion.

“I’m in my 10th year at VOICE, and in some ways, it’s like going back to like being a new teacher,” said Danny Powell, who teaches seventh and eighth grade social studies.

The city education department shelled out $12 million in additional funding last month to roughly 370 city public schools that enrolled asylum-seeking students, but charter schools weren’t included in that allocation.

Headley said the school has relied on a group of schools convened by the New York City Charter School Center that meets monthly to learn about serving English learners, and tried to pass some of that knowledge along to administrators and teachers.

Middle school students use headphones and laptops to help with translation during a class at VOICE charter school.

One of the hardest lessons for staff has been accepting that the pace of learning may look very different.

Teachers have had to learn to “pump the brakes a little” and accept that “get[ting] them settled in the country, building language, making community … is just as important as what they’re learning,” said Cataldo, the social worker.

The steep challenges, however, have made the small victories and moments of joy even sweeter.

One middle school student, an aspiring future actor who migrated from Colombia, was able to define the word “personification.” Another group of kids let loose on a class field trip to the Statue of Liberty. Seeing them “be kids, feeling accepted and safe and welcome,” was deeply gratifying, said Powell.

‘Peeling back the layers’: Students share their stories

Nearly three months into the school year, staffers are still carefully working to gain the trust of students and parents struggling with memories of traumatic border crossings.

“Some students … are carrying a lot with them, whether they left family members behind, a few who have … encountered death along the way,” said Cataldo, the social worker. “We’re really just peeling back the layers of the onion right now.”

Four middle school students who spoke with Chalkbeat on the condition of anonymity described grueling and perilous journeys that remain fresh in their minds.

One sixth grader described getting swept up in a strong current while crossing the Rio Grande, and being separated from her mother and siblings, who remained in Mexico for several days while the preteen was in detention in the U.S.

“I went three days without seeing her and knowing nothing about what happened to my siblings,” the student said.

“There were a lot of deaths out there in the forest, the desert,” said another middle school student, who journeyed to the U.S. with family members, including a 5-month-old cousin. “My little cousin almost drowned.”

Several of the students said they were still traumatized by elements of the journey and think about it often.

The school has several built-in advantages responding to emotional and mental health challenges, including six social workers on staff.

“The kids want to talk, want to tell you their story,” said Cataldo, the social worker.

One of his colleagues who doesn’t speak Spanish called a city-sponsored phone translation service, “sat the phone right there in the middle, and an hour-and-a-half later got like this whole story, just this wonderful opportunity for this kid to just share what they were carrying,” Cataldo said.

Educators and parents provide wraparound support

The school has focused on integrating the new students into social and extracurricular activities, encouraging soccer players to join the school’s team and trying to create opportunities for the new arrivals to build friendships with students who have been at the school for years.

Staffers and parents at the school have been trying to figure out what the school could help with directly, and what kinds of services it could help link the families to through community partners.

Students participate in a music class at VOICE charter school. The school has focused on integrating new students into social and extracurricular activities.

Karina Chalas, the head of middle school operations, and one of a limited number of bilingual staffers, forged relationships with staff in the shelters, giving the school a better understanding of the conditions families were facing.

Chalas soon learned that parents were struggling with what to do with their kids in the afternoon. Shelter rules prohibited kids from staying alone in their rooms – so the school made a push to enroll the new arrivals in after-school programs.

The school’s parent leaders — some of whom arrived in New York City as immigrants themselves — also leapt into action.

“To me it’s very personal. I came here in 2000 from another country, and Astoria is such a great community,” said Aniko Domokos, the corresponding secretary of the parent association. “I just want these people to feel the same way … of I was so welcomed, and found my place here.”

Looming over all of the school’s efforts to support the migrant students is the question of how long they will stay.

Many of the families are looking for permanent housing, but may wind up in far-flung corners of the city, or they have court dates that will take them to other states. The school loses funding if students drop from its roster, making any big additional investments something of a financial risk.

But Headley, the school’s principal, says he’s trying not to worry about what the future holds.

“We don’t know how long they’re going to be with us,” he said. “They’re here now, let’s make the most of it.”

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

NYC school bus delays reach highest level in five years, City Council analysis shows

2022-11-22T00:03:57+00:00

School bus delays spiked this fall to levels higher than any point in the last five years, according to figures revealed during a City Council hearing Monday, representing a growing hardship for families who depend on yellow buses to ferry their children to school.

Last month alone, there were nearly 14,500 school bus delays, lasting 41 minutes on average. That’s up from about 10,600 delays averaging 37 minutes in October 2021.

Both the number — and duration — of delays last month were higher than during any other month over the last five school years, according to the City Council’s analysis, which is based on self-reported data from bus companies.

City officials emphasized that the self-reported nature of the statistics may make it unreliable and noted that the data shows heavy traffic represents a significant share of the increase in delays. But numerous advocates and elected officials said Monday that the bus system appears to be under greater strain.

“In 2018, the education committee held a hearing on [the Office of Pupil Transportation’s] failure to provide students with reliable school busing services,” Rita Joseph, the committee’s chairperson, said during an oversight hearing on school bus transportation. “The only thing that seems to have changed since that is that the problem has gotten worse.”

New York City’s school bus network is responsible for transporting roughly 150,000 students to school at a budgeted cost of $1.6 billion this year, according to the Independent Budget Office. But families have struggled for years with delayed buses, no-shows, or even getting a bus route assigned at all. Some of the city’s most vulnerable students — including 65,000 students with disabilities — are dependent on buses to transport them to programs that are often outside their immediate neighborhoods.

Late buses have wreaked havoc on Jalissa and her 6-year-old son, Deandre. The family moved to a Bronx domestic violence shelter last year, at least an hour and 15 minutes from Deandre’s elementary school in Jamaica, Queens. Last year, the bus was late so often that Jalissa was fired from her job at a food preparation and delivery company.

“My manager was really thoughtful and tried to be as lenient as he can,” she said. But “I got terminated because I was constantly late every single day” on account of the school bus delays. (Jalissa requested to be identified only by her first name to protect her privacy.)

The situation hasn’t improved this year. Despite help from Advocates for Children, a nonprofit group, Jalissa struggled to secure a bus at the beginning of the school year, even though the required paperwork was filed on time, according to her advocate. She took Deandre to school on public transportation, leaving their shelter at 6:30 a.m. for the hour and a half trip by subway and bus, trips she paid for out of pocket.

Even after Jalissa finally secured a bus roughly a month into the school year, it is almost always at least an hour late. That has left her in an impossible position, as she does not want to transfer her son to a new school. “I’m very serious about my child’s education,” she said. “I don’t want to change his school.”

At the same time, she worries about the impact of missed class and lengthy waits. Plus, the unpredictability of the bus schedule has made her reluctant to search for a new job. Frequent calls and complaints to the bus company and the education department’s Office of Pupil Transportation have not resolved the issue.

“He is still developing; he should not be a whole hour late,” she said. “Something has to change.”

At Monday’s City Council hearing education department officials said that bus driver shortages were partly to blame for disrupted service, even as officials in the previous administration insisted it wasn’t an issue. At the beginning of the school year, the system was short about 500 drivers, said Glenn Risbrook, the education department’s senior executive director of student transportation. In some cases, that forced drivers to run two routes, one after the other.

“It is often our highest needs students who are on these routes that end up without permanent drivers and thus are put in these situations,” Risbrook said. He added that the shortage has dropped to 313 drivers and the city is working with bus companies “to get qualified drivers on the roads as quickly as possible.”

But officials also acknowledged that getting drivers back on the job may be a challenge after thousands of them were furloughed in the wake of school building closures.

“They were laid off, in a worldwide pandemic, with no wages, no pension contributions, and, above all else, no health care,” said Kevin Moran, the education department’s chief school operations officer. “And so when we talk about the driver shortage and trying to bring people back into the system, we have a fair bit of work to do to re-establish trust.”

In the meantime, city officials said they are paying for rideshare services to help fill in the gaps and also pointed to a long-delayed GPS tracking system that is supposed to eventually give parents real-time information about the location of buses, help the education department create better routes, and more comprehensively track delays. (The education department is piloting the GPS system in District 26 in Queens but a spokesperson did not provide a specific timeline for rolling it out citywide.)

Advocates said the rideshare solution is imperfect because it is not always explicitly offered to families and requires a caregiver to ride with their child, often disrupting work routines.

“It doesn’t really work for all families and it doesn’t resolve the actual bus issue,” said Janyll Canals, the director of the Robin Hood Project at Advocates for Children and who testified at Monday’s City Council hearing. “Multiple families that I’ve worked with don’t know it’s an option until they come to us.”

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

Cuts to specialized high schools, a boost to homeless students: NYC task force proposes budget changes

2022-11-04T22:32:20+00:00

A task force charged with rethinking the way New York City distributes school funding released recommendations on Friday that could help shift how hundreds of millions of dollars are distributed to more than 1,500 public schools.

Many of the proposals would have implications for a broad swath of schools if adopted, including boosting funding at campuses that enroll more homeless students and those living in poverty.

Other recommendations would impact a relatively small set of schools but are nonetheless likely to draw controversy, including a proposal to eliminate a special funding boost at 13 of the city’s most selective high schools.

None of the ideas are binding — it’s now up to schools Chancellor David Banks and Mayor Eric Adams to decide whether to tweak the city’s funding formula for next school year. The report’s public release may create political pressure to act, as a previous task force convened under the last administration fizzled out before formally releasing any recommendations.

But enacting the task force’s proposals would either require a big influx of new funding or significant cuts to some campuses, both of which would likely face political hurdles.

The task force’s report focuses on the city’s “Fair Student Funding” formula, which funnels about two-thirds of the money that flows to school budgets. Schools typically receive a baseline amount per student — this year, it’s about $4,197. Students with additional needs — including those with disabilities, English language learners, and students with low test scores — come with additional dollars on top of the baseline.

The city’s funding formula is among the most progressive in the country, but advocates have long pushed for tweaks. The latest task force was created after the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, which is largely appointed by the mayor, took the unusual step of voting against the funding formula for this school year. Though the formula was later approved, officials promised to launch a working group to solicit feedback.

The report’s proposals taken together would cost between $375 million and $983 million, depending on which specific combination of recommendations are included, according to education department figures.

Without additional funding, steering more money to certain campuses will require cuts to others. Large schools and those with fewer low-income students would face significant cuts under that framework, city projections show. That could be a political non-starter, since the vast majority of schools are already facing cuts thanks to shrinking enrollment.

Alternatively, the city could allocate new money to the city’s schools to pay for the changes to ensure they don’t reduce school budgets. But top officials have already signaled that they plan to make across-the-board cuts to city agencies, including the education department.

In a letter to working group members, Banks wrote that the education department would evaluate the proposals “within the current fiscal context” and use the recommendations to apply the formula “most equitably for next year.”

The city’s teachers union — which participated on the task force alongside parent leaders, policy experts, and advocates — raised concerns about how the proposals would be funded in the days leading up to the report’s release, according to a copy of a letter to other task force members obtained by Chalkbeat.

“Given the losses our schools and students have suffered in recent years, the last thing the system should be doing is setting up a ‘Hunger Games’ scenario that will pit school against school,” wrote Michael Mulgrew, the union’s president. “The plan must include a hold-harmless provision that will protect schools from seeing their budgets decline if these recommendations are enacted.”

Jasmine Gripper, executive director of the advocacy group Alliance for Quality Education and a co-chair of the task force, said questions about how to pay for proposals was a source of tension within the group.

“What we’re trying to do is drive more resources to schools with the greatest needs and we don’t want to rob Peter to pay Paul,” she said. At the same time, “There are people who think the system doesn’t need more money — it just needs to be distributed better.”

Gripper added that the task force only had three months to come up with proposals, limiting the group’s ability to do a complete review, though she said the current recommendations are a good start.

The report notes that there was not “whole group consensus” on the recommendations and two of the task force’s members released their own set of proposals separate from the larger group. The report also proposes that the task force continue meeting.

For now, though, here’s what the task force’s current recommendations would do:

Funnel more money to homeless students and those living in poverty

Nearly 10% of the city’s students live in temporary housing, including a recent influx of migrants from South American countries. While some federal funding is allocated for homeless students, the city’s formula does not attach extra money to those children. The working group wants the city to change that.

The education department should increase the base amount of per-student funding 12% to 24% per homeless student, the report recommends, which would cost between $43 million and $86 million. Without new funding for that change, the city projects the new weight for homeless students would shift funding from about 700 lower-poverty schools to higher-poverty ones.

The report argues additional funding is needed to address chronic absenteeism, higher dropout rates, and intense stressors related to housing instability. Principals can spend money allocated through the funding formula as they see fit, but the report suggests that school leaders use it to hire extra social workers or partner with community organizations — groups that often provide social services, attendance outreach, and more.

Children living in poverty — or roughly 70% of the student population — should also come with extra funding, the report says. The city already allocates some additional funding for low-income students, but it is limited to schools that serve students below the fourth grade. Expanding the poverty weight even modestly is expensive — between $138 million to $276 million, depending on how aggressively it is increased — because such a large percentage of students come from low-income families.

Nix the special bonus for elite high schools

The city’s funding formula is designed to send extra resources to schools that enroll high-need students. But a group of 13 elite high schools — serving relatively few Black and Latino students, English learners, or students with disabilities — receive a special bonus payment. This year, it’s about $1,049 per student.

The report recommends eliminating extra funding to those 13 schools, which include eight specialized high schools that admit students based on a single exam. Instead, the city should distribute that money, about $26 million, “to support advanced coursework for a broader reach of students,” according to the working group.

Funding for the city’s schools should primarily drive more resources to needy students and “a weight for specialized academic high schools does not necessarily align with this overarching vision for increased equity,” the recommendation states.

The report does not spell out precisely how to redistribute the money. The proposal is likely to prove controversial, as the move would reduce funding at some of the city’s best known and most politically connected schools, including Stuyvesant (which would lose $4.3 million), Brooklyn Tech ($8 million), and Bronx Science ($4 million).

New funding for high-need schools

With a few exceptions, the city’s funding formula allocates money based on student headcount rather than to specific schools. But the working group recommends that the city add a new funding stream specifically for schools that serve unusually high concentrations of homeless students, those with disabilities, English learners, students in foster care, and those from low-income households.

“Schools serving students with a greater myriad of needs require more resources to support these populations than weights at the individual student level provide,” according to the report.

The top third of schools with larger concentrations of high-need students would receive additional funding while the majority of schools would give up some. Depending on the exact model for implementing the proposal, even high-poverty schools could lose some money because they don’t serve high concentrations of other high-need student groups. The education department projects the change would cost $60 million to $120 million.

Boost base funding for all campuses — but concerns about small schools loom large

On top of per-student funding, each school receives $225,000, traditionally to pay for a principal and a secretary. The report recommends boosting that amount to cover additional positions, as some campuses may struggle to pay for a full range of mental health and academic staff — particularly those with fewer students.

The working group recommends two different possible funding boosts. One would add $105,000, or roughly the cost of a social worker. Another would raise the base allocation by $345,000, which would include the cost of a social worker, guidance counselor, and assistant principal.

These proposals are pricey: between $160 million and $526 million. Without additional funding, the proposal would represent a significant transfer of resources from larger schools to small ones and would only modestly increase funding for higher-poverty schools, according to the education department’s analysis. The city’s 10 largest schools would lose an average of $712 per student.

Increasing school funding regardless of student enrollment helps smaller schools, which have grown in number as enrollment has fallen dramatically. But it also raises questions about whether shrinking campuses should wind up with significantly more funding per student even as their ability to offer a full range of programs declines.

“Increased investment in schools with less than 200 students may only prolong an inevitable decline in funding to levels that cannot sustain increasingly small schools,” the report notes. “Given that these schools largely serve high need students, it is incumbent on NYC Public Schools to find longer term solutions to the growing numbers of small schools.”

This story has been updated with additional context about the task force’s deliberations.

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

Facing enrollment drop, one Bronx middle school tries its hand at marketing

2022-11-02T22:33:36+00:00

Will Frackelton held a microphone in front of dozens of his seventh and eighth graders, wriggling in their seats in the auditorium that they share with two other Bronx schools.

Students and staff from Soundview Academy for Culture and Scholarship, where Frackelton is the principal, had gathered for a town hall last month that covered school safety, high school applications, and other topics. Before dismissing them, Frackelton made an unusual request: Would they help market the school over the next two weeks?

“I know you know kids that are in middle schools that are not happy, that don’t treat them like kids,” the middle school’s leader told the students. “I got 25 spots in the sixth grade, 25 spots in the seventh grade, 25 spots in the eighth grade, and if I don’t fill them with kids in 18 days, they’re gonna ask me this summer to let a bunch of teachers go.”

Frackelton’s request reflects a precarious budget situation facing many schools in a system where school funding is largely tied to enrollment, and enrollment has been plunging.

At the end of September, higher-ups at the education department informed Frackelton that they overestimated their enrollment projections used to calculate his school’s budget this year. With 75 fewer students than projected, his school owed the department about $750,000. If his roster didn’t grow by Oct. 31, he would either have to let go of several new teachers, or put the debt off until next year.

But Frackelton saw a third choice: Enroll 75 children before the deadline.

By the middle of the month, Frackelton had created a flier and a video to share on social media to entice families to enroll their children at Soundview, with the help of a former colleague who specializes in video production. Now, he was asking parents, staff and students, if they liked the school, to share the material everywhere.

Frackelton made this plea: “Find a kid, save a teacher.”

Enrollment declines put schools in tight spot

Many schools across New York City are facing enrollment declines. With 9.5% fewer students since the pandemic, most schools have seen budget cuts. As a result, many have larger class sizes and cuts to enrichment activities or extra programs for students.

During the pandemic, schools were held harmless for losing more students than projected. Now, schools are once again facing what is known as the “mid-year adjustment” — owing money if your roster is less than projected, or getting more if your numbers are higher. Department officials did not answer questions about how many schools fell below projections and owed money.

At the start of this school year, Soundview Academy enrolled just under 300 students, hitting a decade low. Though enrollment has dropped across the city since 2015, Soundview’s student body had been growing — until the pandemic.

Education department enrollment projections are rarely an exact science. Over the past decade, Soundview typically enrolled more students than projected. This year, they signed up 350 students by summertime. By September, staff were surprised that 75 of those children failed to show up. Frackelton assumed most had fled to charters, but found out only 11% of them did so. Nearly 60% left New York City. About 20% enrolled in other schools within Soundview’s district. The rest went to other district schools.

“In a post-pandemic New York public school reality, there’s just less kids, right, and there was no strategic plan,” for how schools like his should respond, Frackelton said. “So I decided, I’m just going to go for broke and see if we can come up with our own marketing strategy.”

Soundview Academy gets creative

By the day of the student town hall on Oct. 14, Frackelton’s school had enrolled roughly 10 more kids since he got the warning letter from the education department. That left 65 to go.

Kevin Lopez, a former staffer under Frackelton who is now an assistant principal at Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design, filmed footage for a 15-second promotional video at no cost to the school. It features Frackelton’s voice and clips of a couple of students talking about the school, as well as clips of students in classrooms.

It ends with an overhead shot of the school building and the school’s official seal, with the words, “WE CHOOSE YOU, ENROLL NOW!”

All fifth graders must apply to get into middle school in New York City. Like most city middle schools now, Soundview doesn’t screen elementary school students who want to enroll. It is also a community school this year, meaning that, because they serve a large share of high-needs students, the school partners with a nonprofit organization to provide wraparound support for children.

On the day before the student town hall, Frackelton’s team shared the promotional video on Instagram. During a parent association meeting that same evening, he pleaded with parents to spread the word on social media.

“I need you to come in tomorrow and grab some fliers, go to the buses, go to the trains, go down to that school, Bronx Charter [School] For The Arts, and get our kids back,” Frackelton told the group. (Bronx Charter School For the Arts did not immediately respond for comment.)

One of those new teachers is ErrDaisha Floyd, who teaches seventh grade social studies and is in her first year of teaching. Students are struggling more than she anticipated with reading difficult texts and staying focused. It’s been easier to help children one-on-one during periods when she has a special education teacher assist her class.

If there are big cuts to staff next year, it’s going to make school even harder, she believes.

“It’s just not fair for the students or the teachers because there will be a lot of students whose needs are not being met,” Floyd said.

Choosing to let go of teachers now would destroy the school’s programming, Frackelton said, right as staff is trying to help get students on grade level in reading and math, including through special periods dedicated to improving phonics and reading skills. Just under 6% of Soundview students passed state math tests last school year, compared with about 27% before the pandemic, but reading proficiency levels stayed about the same, with about 30% of students passing, according to data from the city and state. However, far fewer children took the tests last school year compared with 2019, making it difficult to make comparisons.

While Frackelton doesn’t believe the cuts would directly affect core instruction in reading and math, it’s likely that class sizes would grow. And funding cuts would mean paring back their dual language program — the only such middle school program in their district — far less arts and dance programming and courses in the school’s new technology lab that has 3D printers. Those are activities that the school pushes children to get involved in so that they can “find motivation” beyond academics, he said.

Cuts could also hamper the school’s efforts to pair students with teacher mentors. Those mentors currently have 10-15 students each and check in with them three times a day, but cuts to funding would mean cuts to staff, making it harder for teachers to build those connections. Many of the school’s children, 83% of whom are living in poverty and several of whom are transferring in from another school for safety reasons, benefit from having someone to talk to, Frackelton said.

Soundview’s focus on things beyond academics is what first attracted Farah Despeignes, the president of the parent association, to the school a few years ago. Her son didn’t want to attend their zoned school, so he applied to Soundview. He began pursuing dance, gymnastics, and cooking— activities he used to think of as reserved for girls — and began questioning traditional gender roles and stereotypes.

“It actually helped him to grow quite a bit,” Despeignes said of her son, now in high school.

He started at Townsend Harris High School in Queens this year, and her younger son is now an eighth grader at Soundview after they were both home-schooled last year.

Despeignes worried her children would get sick and that there were not enough social-emotional resources for students and staff — not just at Soundview, but citywide.

She sensed many families felt the same last school year and wondered if that’s why people left.

“We didn’t see that support network and those wraparound services,” Despeignes said. “For those reasons, I think that’s what created the situation we are seeing now.”

She also spread the word about the school, but she knew it would be hard to attract families who had already settled into their choices for the year. She’s hoping to share her view that things have been going well for her eighth grader.

“So far, so good,” she said.

Efforts fall short

By Oct. 25 — six days until the deadline — the school had enrolled about 15 new students.

But five had left.

Still the debt to the education department dropped significantly. The school now owes $490,000, Frackelton said.

His new goal is to get more students enrolled by next fall.

One day past the deadline, on Nov. 1, the school held its middle school fair. Frackelton said many people attended, and they handed out fliers left and right.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC sends $12 million to schools serving newcomers. The city’s budget watchdog says they’re owed more.

2022-10-31T21:56:44+00:00

New York City is distributing nearly $12 million in extra funding to schools that have welcomed new students who are homeless, officials announced Monday — though the city’s budget watchdog claims that schools are owed substantially more.

Roughly 7,200 students who live in temporary housing have enrolled in the city’s schools since July 2. Many of them are migrants from South American countries who are seeking asylum.

City officials said Monday they will send an additional $2,000 for each homeless student who arrived since that date to schools that have enrolled at least six new students who live in temporary housing. (The education department does not collect student immigration status, so the city uses housing as a proxy to direct resources to campuses that are absorbing newcomers.)

Records show 369 schools will see bigger budgets thanks to the new money, which can be used for additional tutoring, curriculum materials, after-school programs, and clothing or other personal items students might need, department officials said.

“Schools are the centers of our communities, and through these funds, we will ensure that our schools are fully equipped to provide the academic, emotional, and social needs of our newest New Yorkers,” Chancellor David Banks said in a statement.

Advocates cheered the new funding, which comes as city officials have vowed to provide support for a wave of new immigrants who have an array of needs, from finding stable housing, accessing mental health services, and navigating schools that have long suffered from shortages of bilingual staff and programs.

Still, the one-time funding comes with some limitations, including that it “cannot be used to hire full-time staff” such as an additional bilingual teacher, according to budget documents, though finding additional staff may also prove challenging. Schools receiving additional funding will see an average of $31,713 this year.

City Comptroller Brad Lander argues the funding represents far less than what schools are owed. Schools serving new immigrants should receive at least $34 million total to account for higher enrollment according to the city’s funding formula, which determines the lion’s share of school budgets, Lander said.

That “Fair Student Funding” formula gives schools a baseline amount of money per student ($4,197 this year) and then adds additional dollars on top of that if a student has a disability, is still learning English, is behind grade level, or has other needs. Current English learners come with a maximum of $2,308 in additional funding per child.

The education department should expedite the process of giving schools the per-student funding they’re owed for students who enrolled outside the typical admissions process, Lander contends, money that he said typically doesn’t flow to school budgets until January. (Principals can use that funding as they see fit, including to hire new staff.)

“They know what schools they’re in,” Lander said in an interview. “What is the rationale to wait until January if it’s based on a number you know today?”

Most schools have seen their budgets shrink thanks to declining enrollment, forcing them to jettison staff and cut programs in some cases. Many advocates argue that the city should quickly add funding to account for new immigrants, especially since many of those families have deep needs.

Education department officials said they have started doing that, sending schools that have requested additional funding $25 million to account for new enrollment (that funding is essentially an advance payment for mid-year adjustments that occur if schools enroll a different number of students than projected).

The $12 million that is being sent to schools enrolling at least six students in temporary housing represents entirely new funding separate from the per-student funding formula, meaning those schools will still be eligible for the same budget increases if their enrollment grows more than projected during the year. That pot of money “will be updated as needs are identified throughout the school year,” budget documents show. City officials did not say where that money is coming from.

At P.S. 124 in Brooklyn, staff welcomed over 30 new migrant students as of earlier this month, according to Lander, and the school will receive a $60,000 bump through the education department’s $12 million infusion. Still, the comptroller contends the school is owed at least $223,000 in per-student funding.

The school receiving the most money from the new program is P.S. 143 Louis Armstrong in Queens, which has a dual-language program, and is set to receive $194,000 — suggesting the school has enrolled nearly 100 students in temporary housing since the summer. At the other end of the spectrum, about 50 schools have enrolled just six new arrivals, receiving $12,000 each.

Also on Monday, Lander sent the education department a request for more data on asylum-seeking students, including which schools are serving them and the city’s overall funding plan, especially if migrants continue to arrive throughout the year. Typically, school budgets are not systematically adjusted after Oct. 31, Lander said.

“The numbers of newly arriving students with significant levels of need have increased, making it even more imperative that DOE meets this unique challenge with a plan to provide schools with this funding now, and on an ongoing basis should the flow of asylum seekers continue,” Lander wrote.

An education department spokesperson said the department is working to provide the information Lander requested without compromising the privacy of individual students.

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

Nearly 10% of NYC students were homeless last year, according to report

2022-10-26T10:00:00+00:00

Nearly 1 in 10 students in New York City public schools were homeless last school year, a rate that has stayed largely unchanged for the past six years, even as enrollment has dropped, according to new data released Wednesday.

A total 104,383 children lacked permanent housing last school year across district and charter schools, according to an annual report released by Advocates For Children New York, an organization that advocates on behalf of the city’s highest needs students.

Of those children, about two-thirds were “doubled up,” which means they shared a home with relatives or others because of financial challenges that prevented them from having their own home. Another 28% of these students were living in city shelters, while 5% of students were completely unsheltered — living in places like cars, parks, and abandoned buildings, according to the report. Nearly 360 children lived in hotels or motels.

The share of students who are homeless has largely not budged even as public school enrollment has dipped by 9.5% since the pandemic. This school year, schools also are facing a new challenge: enrolling and supporting thousands of new students in shelters, who are largely believed to be asylum-seeking children from South American countries.

“If these 100,000 children made up their own school district, it would be a district larger than 99.5% of all other districts nationwide,” Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children, said in a statement. “While the city works to address the underlying issue of homelessness, we also must ensure that students who are homeless get to class every day and receive the targeted supports they need to succeed in school.”

The increase comes as New York City has seen a steep rise in the number of homeless families with children entering shelters every night, according to city data. Rising housing costs and inflation have likely strained families across the five boroughs.

The number of students without stable housing grew by more than 3% across district and charter schools last school year, when children returned to classrooms full time for the first time since the pandemic hit. The data released Wednesday represents last school year. It follows a 9.5% dip during the 2020-21 school year — but advocates warned that could have been an undercount since most students were learning remotely at the time, making it tougher for educators to identify homeless students.

The rates of homeless students vary widely across different boroughs and community school districts. More than 20% of students were homeless in Bronx’s District 9, the highest rate of any of the city’s 32 districts. In contrast, just under 4% of Staten Island students lacked permanent housing.

Boroughs that tend to enroll a lower share of homeless students saw some of the largest increases last year. Queens saw the highest, with a 12% increase in homeless students, followed by a 7.1% increase in Staten Island.

It’s not clear why those boroughs saw such a steep rise, said Jennifer Pringle, director of Project Learning in Temporary Housing for Advocates for Children. She noted that the pandemic severely impacted Queens, in terms of illness, deaths and job losses. For example, Queens saw job losses at a rate higher than any other borough when the pandemic first hit, according to a report by the state comptroller.

Homeless students face transportation hurdles

Students who are homeless can face many challenges getting to school. In New York City, homeless students in grades K-6 are entitled to transportation to their schools, but families have often struggled to secure reliable busing. When they do get transportation, students in shelters that are far from their schools may face an hours-long commute.

Sometimes families opt to transfer their children’s schools to ease the commute, but that can also have significant drawbacks. One study from 2015 found that New York City students who transferred schools, which occurred more frequently among homeless students, were more likely to be chronically absent. Homeless students who were chronically absent, or missed at least 10% of school days, were three times more likely to repeat the same grade, compared to their homeless peers who missed fewer than five days of school, that report found.

While graduation data for last school year is not yet available, in the 2020-21 school year, just 70% of students who were homeless graduated, compared with 81% of all students. Twelve percent of those students dropped out, compared with 5% of all children.

This summer, Tanika Lashley was placed in a Manhattan shelter despite sharing with Department of Homeless Services staff that her son attends school in Williamsburg. When school started, his father would pick him up daily, following an overnight work shift, and drive him to school during rush hour, Lashley said. During the two weeks that it took for the education department to set up a bus route, Lashley’s son would arrive at school at 11 a.m., missing morning English lessons and earning low marks in the subject on his progress reports, Lashley said.

In the meantime, Lashley was written up at work for lateness because she had to wait for her son to be picked up before she could leave. She didn’t want to transfer her son to another school because she didn’t want to cause more disruption.

“Why should I have to pull him out of a school that he loves?” Lashley said.

A social worker at her son’s school connected her to Advocates For Children, which helped her request a shelter transfer. She entered the new shelter last week, located 20 minutes away from his school, and is waiting for officials to set up a new route for her son. But since they’re closer, her son is getting there on time with the help of his father.

“It’s really hard for mothers, especially single mothers, who are doing it on their own,” Lashley said. “This should not be interfering with a kid’s situation — they’re already going through homelessness.”

The data comes as the city has seen an influx of students seeking asylum from South American countries who are living in shelters, posing a new challenge for schools.

Helping asylum-seeking students in shelters

Schools this year have already enrolled roughly 6,000 new students living in shelters, largely believed to be asylum-seeking students. On top of the extra support that students in shelters need, many of these children are also learning English as a new language and need access to teachers and social workers who speak Spanish — something some schools have struggled to provide this year as they faced budget cuts.

For months, advocates have called for the city to begin hiring 100 shelter-based community coordinators, who are supposed to help families navigate the school system. The education department has not yet hired any of these staffers but has “begun the hiring process” and expects to hire people “soon,” said spokesperson Suzan Sumer.

There are currently 117 shelter-based “family assistants” who are supposed to ensure that families are getting help with enrollment, transportation, and other school-related issues, according to the department. There are also 107 school-based staffers who are tasked with identifying homeless students and ensuring they’re attending school.

In some school communities, parent volunteers are banding together to collect basic supplies for the new asylum-seeking families. At 75 Morton middle school in Greenwich Village, where about 45 newcomers have enrolled, the parent-teacher association has arranged a clothing drive and collected toiletries, backpacks and school supplies for new students and families, said Rebecca Lupardo, co-president of the PTA.

The school librarian created an Amazon wishlist for Spanish texts and, within three days, received 75 books, Lupardo said.

“They may stay in New York City, or they may find a home elsewhere or a better situation, or someone they know in another state even,” Lupardo said. “We’re providing for them in the best possible way we can.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

New York City grapples with influx of new asylum-seeking students

2022-10-18T22:30:11+00:00

As New York City grapples with how to better support the influx of students from asylum-seeking families hailing from South American countries, schools are looking for more bilingual educators and social workers.

They’re also trying to get clothes and food to families in need.

But getting there isn’t simple. At least 5,500 new students living in shelters have enrolled, whom officials believe are largely newcomer immigrants, though their immigration status is not tracked by the education department. Given the additional students, schools should receive, at minimum, an additional $34 million in funding, Comptroller Brad Lander said Tuesday.

Before this school year began, officials had expected about 1,000 children would enroll, though they expected that figure to grow. Now, as nearly six times that number of newcomer students have arrived, officials are scrambling to tackle a raft of challenges at the school level, including a shortage of Spanish-speaking staff.

“There are no easy answers here. We are all very clear about that,” Chancellor David Banks told reporters Tuesday during a press conference at P.S. 16 in the Bronx, which recently welcomed several asylum seekers to its school. “We’re figuring it out as we go and doing the best that we can.”

The influx of students, many of whom have high needs, comes as schools had already been dealing with funding cuts due to declines in projected enrollment. Officials promised emergency funding for schools that are seeing a surge of new students, but some schools report not yet receiving extra support, Lander said. Brooklyn’s P.S. 124, which enrolled 35 new migrant students, added a temporary guidance counselor but received no new funding or staff, such as another bilingual educator, Lander’s statement said.

P.S. 16, where the chancellor visited Tuesday, now has a psychologist intern and a new English as a new language teacher, Lander said.

Banks said that the school recently saw 39 new students living in temporary housing, though the city does not track whether those students are part of the surge of asylum seekers.

Schools will likely face more challenges as they try to address the various needs of newcomer immigrant students, especially if the number of asylum-seeking students continues to grow.

Need for more bilingual instruction

Some schools with many new students are struggling to provide instruction in Spanish. At P.S. 33 in Chelsea, parents reported that their children are having difficulty understanding lessons, the New York Post reported.

Lander believes more resources are needed, and he is calling for the education department to immediately release an additional $34 million to schools that opened their doors to migrant students. But that might be a conservative estimate. The figure excludes preschool programs, as well as costs associated with any students who may be newly identified with disabilities, according to his office.

Education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said the city has distributed $25 million so far to schools seeing an increase of new students, on top of $50 million distributed to schools that appealed the budgets they received over the summer. Lander’s office noted that the education department has not responded to requests for their funding plan for migrant students, and it’s unclear how that $25 million will be spent.

Generally, schools that have enrolled more students than the department has projected receive more funding in the winter as part of the city’s “midyear adjustment” process, but the late timing of that extra money makes it tough for school leaders to hire staff when the needs are more immediate.

“These children – who have little English proficiency, varying degrees of grade level readiness, possible special education needs, and extreme trauma to overcome – need extensive academic and social emotional support,” Lander said in a statement.

Students who are learning English are entitled to traditional English as a new language instruction, meaning their classes are in English, but they receive extra support and translation help during and outside of class. Their families can also choose from bilingual programs or dual language instruction, but most city schools lack such programming, according to data from last school year.

Carolyne Quintana, the education department’s deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, said the city is creating transitional bilingual programs at schools as needed, in response to the influx of newcomer students. These programs gradually increase the amount of time that students receive instruction in English, she said.

“The goal of the programming is to support students in their home language while they transition into acquisition of English instruction,” Quintana said at Tuesday’s press conference.

Department officials did not provide more details on how the department is creating these new programs or where they’re being created. A spokesperson said they’re adding teachers at schools as needed, based on the language needs at the school. Facing a shortage of bilingual educators, the city recently announced hiring teachers from the Dominican Republic.

Advocates have pointed out that schools in New York City have long struggled to support students learning English as a new language. Over the past decade, the city has failed to comply with a state-issued corrective action plan focused on students learning English as a new language. For example, the city has failed to provide legally required services to all bilingual students with disabilities, largely because there aren’t enough trained bilingual educators.

In a letter issued to the city last year, the state said it was “dismayed” by the continued lack of bilingual programs for students learning English.

Hiring bilingual social workers

Education officials and advocates have emphasized that asylum-seeking students are likely grappling with many different stressors: leaving home and loved ones behind, learning to speak a new language, and acclimating to a new country. In his remarks Tuesday, Banks recounted recently meeting a student who had nearly drowned crossing into the United States.

“If you take time, and we really think about the level of trauma that a lot of these young people have had to go through, just to get here … it’s an opportunity to stand for everything that we’ve always said that we’re about,” Banks said.

Of the roughly 3,100 guidance counselors who work for New York City public schools, about 10% are bilingual, according to a city report from February. Of 1,900 social workers, nearly 13% are bilingual — meaning there would be one social worker for every 580 students learning English as a new language. The report didn’t specify which languages these staffers speak. About 14% of city students are learning English as a new language.

Advocates often report that students they work with don’t have access to a counselor or social worker who speaks their native language.

Banks said the education department is currently recruiting more social workers who speak Spanish. Officials did not elaborate on how many they’re looking to hire.

Coordinating donations and other supplies

Many of the new students are in need of basic supplies, such as food and clothing as their families get settled.

City officials are planning to create “borough response teams,” which will “organize food and clothing drives, resource fairs, and listening sessions/focus groups across the city,” according to a flier shared with parent councils across the city, asking people to sign up to join.

The teams will “help organize donation drives to support our newest New Yorkers, leveraging the incredible generosity of our communities,” Banks said Tuesday, but neither he nor the flier elaborated further on what these teams will do.

Some parent councils have already kicked into gear gathering donations for families in need.

The parent council overseeing Manhattan’s District 2 blasted out an email Tuesday asking people to donate or purchase items from Amazon wishlists that have been requested by various schools in the district. Schools are requesting warm clothing and shoes, undergarments, toiletries, and snacks that they’ll distribute to families in need.

Lupe Hernandez, a member of that parent council, is also a member of the newly minted Manhattan borough response team and has been helping coordinate donations. The parent council has always collected items for schools that enroll many students living in nearby shelters, but those same schools are now seeing a surge of newcomer immigrant students, she said.

Her new “borough response” team is still figuring out how they’ll support families, but volunteers are brainstorming ideas, including mirroring a plan in the Bronx to have a fair-like event with booths that provide various support, such as health services, and fun activities for new families, she said.

“I think the goal is to try to provide as many wraparound services in one location, as well as provide uplifting fun for families and kids,” Hernandez said.

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Cuts to specialized high schools, money for homeless students: NYC task force weighs budget changes

2022-10-12T23:46:11+00:00

A school funding task force has released preliminary proposals that could reshape spending at virtually every New York City public school, from those that serve large numbers of low-income students to the city’s most selective high schools.

Multiple proposals would disproportionately benefit the city’s growing number of small schools or campuses with an outsized share of students living in poverty. Others — such as charging schools the same amount of money per teacher regardless of their actual salary — could funnel resources away from schools in some of the city’s neediest neighborhoods, education department projections show.

Some ideas address long-standing controversies, such as eliminating an extra pool of money that flows to some of the city’s most competitive high schools, including Stuyvesant and Bronx Science. But other proposals are likely to spark new debates, including a proposal to eliminate a funding boost for career and technical programs and alternative schools that serve students who are behind in credits and at risk of dropping out.

Each of the proposals would alter the city’s “Fair Student Funding” formula, which represents roughly two-thirds of school budgets. The formula sends schools a baseline amount of money for each student — this year, it’s about $4,197. But certain student groups come with additional dollars, including those with disabilities, English language learners, and students with low test scores.

For years, experts and advocates have debated whether the formula — which is generally meant to send more money to schools with higher-need students — is as fair as its name suggests. In an unusual rebuke, the city’s Panel for Educational Policy voted not to approve the funding formula last April, but later reversed course after city officials promised to set up a task force to propose changes that could be incorporated in time to impact school budgets next year.

It remains to be seen how much force the recommendations will have, as a similar task force issued suggestions that were ultimately shelved. The latest task force’s final recommendations are due by the end of the month, and the decision about whether to enact them will rest with schools Chancellor David Banks and Mayor Eric Adams. Some members aren’t sure if their ideas will be paid for with new money or if they must come at the expense of other funding priorities.

“We’ve had six or seven sessions so far and they’ve been really good and productive,” said Dia Bryant, a co-chair of the funding task force and executive director of Education Trust New York, an advocacy group. “We hope that [Banks] takes those recommendations into serious consideration.”

Here are six things to know about the recommendations the task force is considering:

New funding for high-need students — and schools

Nearly one in 10 New York City students is homeless — representing over 100,000 students — and advocates have long called for the city to dedicate more funding to those students.

One of the working group’s proposals would do just that: adding between $43 million and $86 million in funding, which would boost per-student spending for students living in temporary housing, education department figures show. Principals have wide discretion in using the money that flows through the Fair Student Funding formula and a funding boost could support additional staff, expanded attendance outreach, and more.

A separate proposal would increase funding at roughly 500 high-need schools rather than solely giving a boost for individual students in a specific high-need category. Schools with large shares of homeless students, those living in poverty or foster care, or schools that enroll high proportions of students with disabilities or English learners would receive additional money.

“It’s good they’re taking a look at these things,” said Michael Rebell, executive director of the Center for Educational Equity at Columbia University. He added the lack of additional funding for homeless students is “something that should have been corrected a long time ago.”

Eliminating a special bonus for elite high schools

The city’s funding formula is generally designed to give schools that enroll high-need students more money. But the formula also offers additional resources for certain selective high schools — including the city’s eight specialized schools, which admit students based on a single exam. The working group is considering a proposal to end that funding bump.

This year, several selective schools are set to receive about $1,049 more per student than they would otherwise, which costs about $20.5 million, city documents show. (A handful of non-specialized schools also receive the bonus; city officials have not explained why or what criteria are used to give schools the extra money.)

The education department argues those schools need extra funding because their academic programs are more expensive to run, going above and beyond traditional schools. Critics have long contended additional funding for the small group of selective schools is inequitable, especially as many of them enroll relatively few Black and Latino students, students with disabilities or those learning English.

Reducing funding for career education and alternative high schools

That same proposal, however, would also eliminate extra money given to career and technical programs in addition to transfer schools, which serve students who are overage and at risk of dropping out — a possibility that raised some eyebrows during a public input session on Tuesday. (Those programs will receive about $32 million in additional funding this year.)

“I can imagine that transfer schools require a lot of funding based on the fact that these are students who are coming from other schools and coming from difficult situations,” said one principal who attended the meeting.

Sheree Gibson, a member of the funding task force who fielded questions, didn’t say why the group is considering a recommendation to cut funding from transfer schools or career and technical programs, but emphasized the recommendations are not final.

Charging schools the same amount per teacher

Teacher salaries come directly out of school budgets — and more experienced teachers command higher salaries under the teachers union contract.

One proposal would change that so schools pay the same amount of money per teacher regardless of the actual salaries of the educators in a given building, freeing up about $175 million in additional funding at schools with more experienced teachers.

But in the absence of a significant infusion of new money, charging all schools the same amount per teacher would essentially represent a transfer of resources from high-poverty schools to lower-poverty ones since high-poverty schools generally employ less experienced teachers, education department projections show.

The policy change would reduce funding most in the South Bronx, central Brooklyn, and the Lower East Side, while increasing it most on Staten Island and certain stretches of Queens.

City projections show which neighborhoods would lose — or gain — funding if schools were charged the same amount per teacher.

Still, the policy change has some supporters, including the city’s teachers union, which is represented on the task force.

“Schools have to be able to hire and keep the educators their students need, whether that’s to meet special education requirements, the needs of multi-language learners, CTE or other necessary programs,” Alison Gendar, a United Federation of Teachers spokesperson, said in a statement. “The current formula incentivizes poor hiring decisions.”

Increase base funding for schools

In addition to per-student funding, every school receives $225,000 — generally meant to pay for a principal and a secretary. But the task force is considering whether that number should be higher to include money for a social worker, assistant principal, and guidance counselor.

The cost of those additional positions would be $527 million, department projections show, and would require moving funding from about 500 larger schools to 1,000 smaller ones.

Questions remain about how to pay for changes

Several of the draft proposals would require millions of dollars in new funding or reductions elsewhere in the education department’s budget.

For instance, the city’s modeling shows that adding new funding for homeless students could be paid for by cutting money for students who are below grade level and reducing a per-student funding bump that typically accrues when students reach middle or high school.

Public meeting minutes show some of the working group members have repeatedly shared “concern[s] about looking at new models within a fixed pie, rather than with new funding.” And new funding may be hard to come by, especially as Mayor Adams has called on city agencies, including the education department, to reduce spending.

“I think the work group has been vocal about getting away from this zero-sum game and I think that is one of the major tensions,” said Bryant, the co-chair of the funding task force.

An education department spokesperson did not say if the city might allocate new funding without cuts to other parts of the formula. Officials said the proposals will be reviewed by the chancellor and there will be opportunities for feedback by parent councils this winter.

“We deeply appreciate the work of the Fair Student Funding Working group, and look forward to reviewing any and all changes suggested to enhance equity in the formula,” education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle wrote in a statement.

Additional materials and updates about the working group are available on the education department’s website.

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

Where do Hochul and Zeldin stand on education?

2022-11-07T17:29:07+00:00

On the surface, New Yorkers might assume that the state’s candidates for governor — Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Lee Zeldin — would have polar opposite approaches to education if they were elected.

And while that likely holds true in several ways, there are still many open questions about how both would craft policy for schools.

Hochul has not focused much at all on education on the campaign trail, and while her time in office so far provides some clues, her campaign website has no details about her goals for the state’s K-12 schools beyond wanting to invest more money in them.

“As a frontrunner she has little incentive to take sharp or even very precise and specific positions, particularly on policies that are at all controversial, particularly policies that are controversial in suburbs,” said Jeffrey Henig, professor of political science and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

In contrast, Zeldin is “throwing everything at the wall that Republicans are trying in lots of places,” Henig said.

The congressman has proposed several priorities, such as banning “divisive concepts” from being taught in schools related to race — a talking point that conservatives across the country have embraced — but he has not provided more specifics on many of his ideas. Some of his proposals are self explanatory, such as wanting to lift the cap on how many charter schools can open in New York.

Zeldin’s campaign did not respond to questions asking to elaborate on his positions or provide more details.

As the governor’s race nears this fall, here’s what we know about where both fall on education issues:

Curriculum

Zeldin has said he would ban “divisive curriculum that pits children against one another based on race and other factors” — language that’s similar to what conservative lawmakers in other states have pushed for.

His platform does not explicitly talk about critical race theory, or CRT, which is an academic framework for studying systemic racism but has been used by Republicans as an umbrella term for diversity and inclusion efforts. Both city and state officials have said critical race theory is not taught in the city’s and state’s public schools. Both locally and statewide, officials have encouraged schools to teach culturally responsive lessons.

But Zeldin wrote in an opinion article last year that CRT was politicizing education. In it, he blasted a lengthy framework released by the state education department that encourages — but does not mandate — districts to teach culturally responsive lessons, or lessons that relate to and affirm various students’ backgrounds. The department also wants districts to consider acknowledging the role of racism in American history and create lessons that empower students to be “agents of change.”

Zeldin’s platform also calls for restricting “age-inappropriate” sex education, though it does not detail what that means, requiring financial literacy courses in public schools, and civics lessons that “teach students about how and why they get to live in the greatest nation in the history of the world.”

Still, if Zeldin were elected, it’s unlikely that he would be able to successfully ban schools from teaching about race since the state legislature is overwhelmingly Democratic and unsupportive of such policies. For example, a bill seeking to ban critical race theory in schools didn’t make it out of committee last year.

“You may see outside money and national organizations try to come in and really sort of add amplitude to those messages around parental rights and critical race theory and gender identity issues,” Henig said. “I don’t want to discount the importance of how people talk about things, but the impact on actual policy would be delayed, at best.”

So far, Hochul has not taken a strong position on what sorts of curriculum or learning standards she supports in schools. When pressed about a New York Times investigation that revealed a lack of basic lessons in core subjects, such as English, in Hasidic yeshivas, Hochul said responsibility over those private religious schools fell to the state education department, not her office. (Zeldin has been supportive of the Hasidic yeshivas, and has been courting the vote of the Orthodox and Hasidic communities, the New York Times reported.)

Asked where Hochul stands on curriculum, her campaign pointed to an ABC 7 story from May, where she said she supported a bill that would have required New York schools to teach about Asian American history. (The bill did not move out of committee.) They also pointed to a bill she signed that requires the state education department to ensure school districts are meeting requirements to teach children about the Holocaust — an idea that Zeldin also supports.

Traditional public schools vs. charter schools

Zeldin has expressed substantial support for school choice and charter schools. In fact, he first announced his education agenda last spring outside of a Success Academy school in Queens.

Zeldin supports lifting the cap on how many charter schools can open in New York, which was reached in the city in 2019. He also wants to establish “tax credits for school choice” and create education savings accounts, but doesn’t provide more details. With an education savings account, parents can withdraw their children from public schools and receive tax dollars in a restricted-use account to pay for private school or other educational options like therapy.

The state legislature so far has not supported lifting the charter cap.

Zeldin’s platform online says he wants more options for “technical grade school level learning, experience and certification,” though it’s unclear if he’s referring to career preparation programs or something else.

On the city level, Zeldin saw eye to eye with Mayor Eric Adams and Hochul on extending mayoral control of schools. And, like Adams, Zeldin also supports keeping the controversial admissions exam in place for the city’s specialized high schools, as well as “advanced and specialized” academics. He’s earned the support of some parents who favor screened admissions to the city’s public middle and high schools and “gifted and talented” programs.

During a debate with Zeldin on Oct. 25, Hochul also said she supported lifting the charter school cap, which seemed to be the first time she said that publicly. [Note: This story originally published before the debate and was updated to reflect her comment.] She’s repeatedly touted overseeing a budget that sent more state money to school districts as the result of an agreement to fully fund Foundation Aid, the state funding formula that sends more money to higher needs districts.

Hochul has taken an interest in boosting mental health resources for students, ensuring more children go to college, specifically by expanding college tuition assistance to part-time students in New York, and has attempted to address the teacher shortage by expanding alternative teacher certification programs and temporarily waiving an income cap for teacher retirees who want to return to the profession.

She also signed a popular bill that requires lower class sizes in New York City, which was celebrated by many families, the teachers union, and advocates. City officials and some conservative parent groups pushed back, arguing the mandate would pull money away from other services for students.

School budgets and enrollment

Neither Hochul nor Zeldin have addressed one of the most critical issues facing public schools: dipping enrollment.

Enrollment in traditional public schools has dropped by more than 2% nationwide since the onset of the pandemic, and by about 9.5% in New York City public schools. Changes in enrollment have big implications for school budgets that are closely tied to the number of students in classrooms. That issue is already playing out in New York City, where three-quarters of schools saw cuts in the funding that pays for staff and programs for students.

Zeldin’s education platform doesn’t address the issue. While Hochul has touted her commitment to boosting funding for public schools, she has not addressed what to do about enrollment changes across the state.

“What you see on the Hochul side is, ‘Yes, we support education, we are willing to spend more on it,’ but kind of resisting what progressive forces might want to see on the campaign, in terms of challenging basic funding formulas in ways that might not play well in wealthy or more affluent communities that would see this as redirecting state monies away from them and towards lower-income communities,” Henig said.

COVID policies

Most COVID mitigations for schools have ended, so it’s not likely that the election of either candidate would drastically change that.

Both Zeldin and Hochul have supported peeling back COVID mitigations, such as masking, with Hochul recently calling remote learning a “mistake.” But Zeldin has pushed harder to remove all sorts of mandates.

While Hochul ended mask mandates, she also oversaw sending at-home COVID tests to schools and has touted keeping schools open during a major surge in infections last winter, though in-person instruction was still severely disrupted. (She’s come under fire in recent weeks for a deal she made when choosing a vendor for those tests.)

Zeldin has opposed COVID vaccine and mask mandates. If elected, he may press Adams to drop a vaccine mandate in place for New York City schools staff. At one point, Hochul expressed support for requiring children to get COVID vaccines. The state legislature would have to pass a bill that added COVID vaccines to the list of already required shots for school children, according to the New York Times.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC test scores drop in math, increase in reading

2022-09-28T17:53:55+00:00

Nearly half of New York City’s third through eighth graders passed their state reading tests last school year, while about 38% passed math, according to scores released by city officials Wednesday.

The scores are the first measure of how students across the five boroughs have fared in reading and math since the coronavirus pandemic upended in-person schooling and left many children grappling with isolation and grief. Though schools gave students other city-mandated assessments last year, officials have refused to publicly release the results.

“During the pandemic, kids went through all kinds of challenges that they’re still recovering from,” schools Chancellor David Banks told reporters Wednesday. “No matter what the latest test results tell you, I can tell you the system is broken in far too many ways. We are trying to create a new way forward.”

Overall reading scores increased slightly, up 1.6 percentage points from 2019, while math scores dropped significantly, down 7.6 percentage points. The city didn’t release results for charter schools.

Looking at grade-by-grade data, however, provides a different picture for reading scores: For the youngest students, third and fourth graders, scores fell by 4 percentage points and 6 percentage points respectively.

City officials compared the scores to 2019 results, noting the past two years of disruptions. The state canceled the exams in 2020. The following year, the state allowed families to opt into taking them the following year. Just one-fifth of city students took them.

State officials, however, cautioned against comparing the test results to 2019 because of the ongoing effects of the pandemic and the “different rates of participation among students.” Roughly 10% of city students opted out of either reading or math exams, compared with 4% in 2019, education department officials said.

The percentage of children who passed math tests dropped for every major student group, with the largest decline among Latino students, by 10 percentage points. In contrast, passing rates for reading grew for every student group, with the largest increase among students known as “ever ELLs,” or students who were once considered learning English as a new language but are not anymore.

Disparities remained between white and Asian American students compared with their Black and Latino peers. About 70.5% of Asian American and 67% of white students passed reading exams, compared with 35.8% of students who are Black and 36.8% who are Latino. For math, 68.3% of Asian American students and 58.5% of white students passed compared with 20.6% of Black children and 23.3% of Latino students.

Disparities also persisted among students with higher needs. Among students with disabilities, 18.3% passed reading and 14.4% passed math. Among students learning English as a new language, 12.7% passed reading, while 15% scored proficient in math.

The scores could be one tool for schools to understand which students need more support this year. In response to the dip in national test scores, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said schools should be prioritizing COVID relief funds to boost academic support and extra tutoring.

However, as federal funds dry up, schools are receiving less money this year to create extra tutoring programs or provide extra support to students with disabilities. And unlike last year, schools can use that pool of money to hire staff as schools grapple with budget cuts, tied to projected declining enrollment.

Aaron Pallas, a professor at Teachers College and an expert in testing, doesn’t believe the scores can be compared to 2019 because of declining enrollment and higher opt-out rates. Compared with 2019, 21% fewer children took math tests and 18% fewer children sat for reading tests, according to city data.

Pallas said he expects people to use the scores to bolster arguments that traditional public schools don’t work, as Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin has, but that there’s not enough information to make those conclusions.

“Quite honestly, I don’t really think [the scores are] that useful, certainly not for building level or district-level decisions about the allocation of resources,” Pallas said, adding that parents also won’t have the right context to understand their children’s results.

Some advocates said the scores signal that schools need more resources, particularly for younger children who were learning to read when the pandemic first hit, pointing to the dip in reading pass rates for third and fourth graders. Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children New York, said “it will be critical” to learn from new programs focused on improving literacy.

The scores could be a factor in middle and high school admissions this year. Schools that screen students were previously allowed to use test scores as one factor for admission, but that was paused during the pandemic and barred last year under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. City officials are expected to announce this year’s admissions criteria soon.

Banks has been critical of standardized testing, saying that schools that are laser-focused on exams can’t offer a “fully comprehensive learning experience.” On Wednesday, after touring classrooms at his alma mater, Hillcrest High School, Banks emphasized that the measure of student success is whether they’ll be prepared for quality jobs after they graduate.

“The return on investment is not the scores that they got on standardized exams,” Banks said. “Test scores are important, but they’re not everything.”

Unlike past years, Wednesday’s test scores could not immediately be compared to other New York districts or even statewide. In a departure, this year’s scores were released by New York City rather than the state, which has not yet released statewide results.

After initially barring districts from sharing the scores, state officials gave the OK last week for local districts.

Officials plan to release statewide scores sometime this fall, but have not said when, and blamed the delay on a cumbersome process for releasing both preliminary and final scores this year.

Amy Zimmer and Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

New York’s Teacher of the Year says he’s a ‘rebel with a cause’

2022-09-26T22:24:33+00:00

On a recent Friday morning, a group of freshman students flagged down their chemistry teacher, Billy Green. Students were in pods, tasked with completing math equations related to physical chemistry and then presenting them to Green for points.

After several failed attempts, the group of students at Harlem’s A. Philip Randolph Campus High School finally felt ready and threw up their hands.

But when Green walked over, the students hadn’t decided who would present, and then they began doubting their conclusions.

“So, I’m gonna stop you — why do you think? Y’all not ready to present,” Green said. “Even if it’s wrong, you gotta be confident in your work. I’m moving away because guess what, I have 30 other students, so y’all lost your turn, so now y’all better get it right.”

Green gave them a clue about how to fix what turned out to be incorrect work. “Are you serious right now?” one irritated student said as Green walked away.

Training students to work together, especially under pressure, is at the core of how Green, recently named New York State’s Teacher of the Year, teaches. He reminded his class that “science is about collaboration, discussion, discovery” — and revealed that it was a practice activity that wouldn’t be graded that day.

Green’s pathway to teaching was rocky, a point that was highlighted when he was recently honored for the state award. He grew up living in poverty and navigating homelessness, often squatting in abandoned buildings, while his mother battled a drug addiction. Still, he fell in love with school and education at an early age, and with the nudging of his mother and help from a trusted high school teacher, Green enrolled in college.

A few years into his first teaching job at High School For Environmental Studies in Manhattan, Green, who was untenured at the time, said he was fired for showing up late on multiple occasions. (Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson for the education department, confirmed that Green was “discontinued” as a teacher in 2007 and began teaching full time again in 2009, but said he couldn’t provide further details about what happened.)

Green said he made those mistakes because he was not raised to know that time management was important — one of several skills he hopes to pass on to his students, hence the time restrictions on the group activity on Friday.

He’s taught at six schools over his 20-year career, including a program on Rikers Island. Asked why he’s moved around so much, he said that he intentionally leaves after a few years because he feels that other schools that predominantly serve many low-income students could benefit from his teaching methods.

Multiple former students shared glowing reviews of Green, saying that he inspired them to come out of their shell. But Green acknowledges that his teaching style and his focus on culturally responsive education are not universally loved, pointing to a recent New York Post article critical of his approach. While his former and current principal both agreed to nominate him for Teacher of the Year, he also noted that, just like any job, he didn’t always see eye-to-eye with former bosses. That earned him the nickname, “Rebel With A Cause.”

Green wants his mostly Black and Latino students to feel connected to science, a field that is still dominated by white workers. That means finding links between what he’s teaching and their backgrounds, such as introducing them to prominent scientists who look like them, or batting down stereotypes.

“What stops Black and brown people from studying mathematics,” he told the class, “is that somebody told you that you can’t make a mistake.”

Chalkbeat sat down for a brief interview with Green. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You have been talking about this collaborative model. What informed that? Is this how you’ve always taught, or is this an evolution of your teaching methods?

So I went to one of the most difficult schools in the country, Williams College … And you set the bar so high, that even the smartest that think they’re the smartest and the weakest that think they’re the weakest have no choice but to work together.

So one of the greatest models I learned from Williams College was that in order to succeed in corporate, in order to succeed in the world, you needed to know how to collaborate with different people and different places, things, communities. Part of that was always: Set the bar high, don’t stress too much about intelligence or smartness, and more so, who’s collaborating with who and who’s building each other up?

How do you sort of take how you grew up and bring that into the classroom? One of your former students mentioned that he knew where you came from, he knows your back story, and so do you talk about that in the classroom? And how do you let that inform your teaching?

I can’t wake up and take off my identities, right? So I was always taught by my mother [to] never to hide who I am, right? Always present my authentic self. So I’m Puerto Rican, like I said, Black, Italian, gay, [Williams]-educated … I learned a lot on how to survive in these environments. So, what I teach my kids is that survival, right?

And there are many moments in my subject, right, that I’m able to tell them a story, or things that I have been through because my subject, chemistry, relates to the world. I do a project called Chemistry in the City that a lot of the kids love, because every unit, they have to go out into their communities or their cultures, and bring something back that’s related to the content of chemistry, I then become a learner. Right? It’s the reason why I teach the way I teach it, because my teachers affirmed me and I know what that affirmation is like when you are a marginalized person or a marginalized identity. So, I want all students to feel that in these spaces.

At the end of class, you were talking about why Regents exams aren’t everything and then you specifically called out Black and brown people. (He said, “What stops Black and brown people from studying mathematics is that somebody told you that you can’t make a mistake.”) Can you tell me more about that?

There is a stereotype that Black and brown people hate math. They’ll tell you, “Oh, I don’t like it.” Right? They have phobias of this. There are many stereotypes that Asians perform better, or whites perform better.

I build their self esteem back up. I get them to work together to let them know that it’s okay, there’s a big misunderstanding between Black and brown people just saying, ‘We’re crabs in a barrel.’ I know this. I live in Black and brown communities. So it is my job to let them know you are not crabs in a barrel, we will uplift each other. Don’t claw each other down.

What do you feel like are the challenges of this school year?

So, the challenge that I think that the students are facing — and is the only challenge I’ve always faced in these types of schools — is the lack of knowledge of what is next. So the goal of my teaching is to teach them what they can’t get in the books, right? And that is connecting their science to their community, connecting their science to their cultures, connecting science to a career, connecting science to literacy, right, I want them to do those things. And the challenge becomes, when not everybody’s on the same page, right? Educationally, you push for certain things, and then curriculums detour you the other way.

They’ll say, ‘No, we’re not doing this,’ or, like, ‘Don’t do too much,’ like what they’re saying in the [recent New York Post] article right there. Some people just don’t get that you have to incorporate student voice, student cultures, students’ living into curriculum. They should not come in here and be robots and controlled, overpoliced. You know, that’s not what education is about. So the big thing for me, like I said, is just creating spaces that emancipate, liberate, and educate.

What comes next for you?

That’s the saddest part of this award. That everyone asks me, ‘So now you’re going to be the superintendent, the chancellor? When are you going to leave the classroom?’ Are you kidding me? My love, my passion is in the classroom. My power with these youth is in this classroom. I am going to do this for the next 80 years. I hope to live to 120 so they can see what a 120-year-old teacher can come into the building and do.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s pre-K workers, programs say they’re in limbo after reorganization

2022-09-15T20:53:17+00:00

After a summer of scrambling to replace two teachers and getting her preschool classrooms ready for the fall, Joanne Derwin opened her email last week to find some news:

The extra support that programs like hers received from the education department was “being reimagined.”

That’s probably why, Derwin realized, she hadn’t heard from the instructional coordinator or social worker whose help over the years had been “transformational.” An instructional coordinator helps teachers plan lessons and teach, while social workers help families navigate various issues, such as food insecurity.

“We were given no warning, no heads up,” said Derwin, executive director of One World Project, an early childhood program in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood of Brooklyn. “Like, nothing.”

Two weeks ago, on the Friday before the first week of school, the education department announced that it was moving 1,000 central and borough office workers to district offices to be overseen by the city’s superintendents. Officials said the move would bring “staff closer to the communities, schools, students, and teachers.” Nearly 400 early childhood education staffers — most of whom already spent their days working inside preschool classrooms — were included in the move.

The lack of communication about the new plan from the education department, as well as the abrupt announcement, has sowed confusion and concern among staff and preschool providers, according to interviews with instructional coordinators, social workers, and people who run preschool programs. The workers have since held a virtual town hall airing their concerns, and a rally on the steps of the education department headquarters.

Department officials have said no one is losing work as part of the reorganization, and that instead, people will be reassigned or encouraged to apply for new jobs. The department plans to have about 200 employees continue working under the early childhood division – but with program leaders, such as Derwin, instead of with teachers, officials said. Social workers would work on creating resources for families and hosting workshops, though it’s unclear how closely they’ll work with families.

Another 200 would go to district offices and from there would be sent to schools to provide extra instructional and social-emotional help where it’s needed, from early childhood programs up to fifth grade.

One preschool provider, whose community-based organization is contracted by the city to provide universal preschool seats, is worried she’ll be stretched too thin without the extra support.

“It was just something that somebody else was helping us out with, instead of me going to five classrooms and jumping from one place to another,” said Marina Yeruslanov, educational director at Cheer-N-Grow Learning Academy in the Bronx, which contracts with the city to serve 3- and 4-year-olds. “It’s going to be hard for educational directors to maintain all of this, especially if it’s a large facility.”

Confusion and chaos

As part of the reorganization plans, 360 instructional coordinators and social workers learned two days before the start of the school year that they would be “excessed” — meaning they’d lost their position, but would continue being paid as they reapplied for other jobs in the system. Officials in the early childhood education office encouraged those employees to apply for the new roles once they were posted. The jobs were described as similar to the work they do now, according to excessed employees.

But now, a week into the school year, the new jobs have not yet been posted.

Despite being excessed, employees said they also haven’t been able to access the portal where they’re supposed to apply for new jobs within the education department. Officials plan to post the jobs in the next few days, department spokesperson Art Nevins said.

The union had initially praised the reorganization announcement, but on Thursday raised fresh concerns.

“While the UFT supports the concept of moving services as close as possible to the students who need them, the Department of Education has announced this change without any real planning for how to implement it,” Alison Gendar, a spokesperson for the union, said in a statement. “We will be working with our members — all of whom are still employed — to ensure their rights are protected as the DOE’s administrative issues are worked out.”

Instructional coordinators and social workers typically help preschool programs as needed in the week before school starts, including running professional development sessions, four excessed staffers told Chalkbeat. But in late August, they were told that they would not host those sessions, scheduled for Sept. 6 and 7, according to an email shared with Chalkbeat.

Once they were excessed on Sept. 6, supervisors informed instructional coordinators and social workers that they couldn’t go to preschool programs to help, even if program directors called, according to staffers. Meanwhile, program directors were calling and asking for help with training new teachers or setting up their classrooms.

“The thing that is the most bothersome for all of us right now, as we sit here, is telling sites that we are so sorry, we can’t come support you right now,” an instructional coordinator, who requested anonymity in fear of retaliation, told Chalkbeat last week.

Then, the message changed this week, staffers said. Some employees said they’re being pulled aside by supervisors and being asked to respond to programs, but many staffers are refusing because they don’t believe they should be doing their old jobs if those roles no longer exist.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said that instructional coaches and social workers “are to be doing their normal duties.” Asked why staffers were told not to go out to programs, Weisberg said he couldn’t say, but “certainly, if anybody’s confused about that, they can escalate that up the chain. I will guarantee you what they’ll hear is they should continue the normal job duties.”

What comes next?

Meanwhile, some program leaders are apprehensive about what the change means for their teachers and students.

In the bulletin that went out to programs, Deputy Chancellor Kara Ahmed wrote that education department staffers would reach out to help support them as the reorganization took effect. But Yeruslanov, with the Bronx program, said she still hasn’t been contacted by anyone in the department.

On her own, Yersulanov compiled education-related information and resources from previous years to get teachers prepared for the start of school, she said. She recently heard from her old social worker, who said she’s going to come in next week to help out as long as she can.

Before the reorganization, instructional coordinators and social workers worked directly with teachers and families.

For example, a typical day for one social worker involved meeting families at drop off at one of the several schools she supported. She might help teachers navigate behavioral problems with students – sometimes assisting teachers in conversations with families if the issue was persistent. She would also guide families through a constellation of social service resources, or even things like kindergarten applications.

Instructional coordinators observed teachers and helped them plan lessons or activities, ensuring they were following the best practices for educating 3- and 4-year-olds. Some days, if there was a particular issue with a child, they might shift their attention to focus on helping that teacher with that student.

Derwin, who also has not been contacted by the education department, said her program has a tight budget, so the extra support was a game-changer.

“I really can’t emphasize enough how hard things are right now on the ground,” Derwin said. “You have teachers who are struggling, we’ve had years of a global pandemic and trying to support our children in masks, trying to figure out how we do language acquisition, how we support social-emotional needs, how we support families through impossibly complicated and difficult situations — and now this one thing that was actually really helpful is being taken away.”

Weisberg, the first deputy chancellor, said he’s confident the change will help programs and disputed the idea that it would result in less support. Part of the shift is meant to give program leaders the tools to coach their own teachers, instead of having a coach or social worker “intermittently” working with a few teachers in the school whose priorities or style may be “totally inconsistent” with what the leader wants.

He noted that many community-based programs, which contract with the education department to provide universal preschool seats, have other personnel who can fill in where programs are feeling a gap.

“We’re optimistic that this is going to feel like more support, because this is going to be working directly with leaders and is going to be consistent with them,” Weisberg said, who added that they made this change in part based on feedback from preschool programs.

Yeruslanov said they’ve been managing without their instructional coordinator and social worker, but she noted that it’s only the second week of the school year. She relies heavily on the social worker because her center serves many single mothers as well as foster parents, who are navigating many responsibilities. Last year, she recalls at least ten one-on-one meetings that her social worker had with families she serves.

It’s “challenging” for Derwin to imagine taking on coaching on top of her other responsibilities, even with staffers who oversee education and operations.

“I’m not sure who they consulted with, but I know from our example, our school specifically, we feel the loss of not having our instructional coordinator and not having a social worker, especially now during these really trying times,” Derwin said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Tensions high as NYC soon starts middle and high school admissions season

2022-09-14T22:03:56+00:00

Tensions are rising ahead of an anticipated announcement about whether New York City middle and high schools will fully bring back selective admissions for the first time since the pandemic.

Removing test scores, attendance, and other “screens” from the selection process helped move the needle on desegregating the nation’s largest public school system, integration advocates said.

But families who support selective admissions thought the changes — sparked by pandemic-related learning disruptions — unfairly cost their children their top school choices.

Schools Chancellor David Banks is expected to unveil selection criteria next week, an education department spokesperson said, offering no other details. The Adams administration has not highlighted school integration as a priority. Instead, the mayor has embraced screened programs that have long been segregated by race, class, and academic performance: He expanded “gifted and talented” programs and signaled a desire to open more specialized high schools.

Families across the five boroughs are already mounting letter-writing campaigns and petitions for and against schools that use screens in sorting the city’s 10- and 13-year-olds into sixth and ninth grade. Some parent councils are calling for the removal of selective admissions, while others are calling for the opposite.

“We expect nothing less than the permanent elimination of middle school screens,” said Nyah Berg, executive director of New York Appleseed, which advocates for removing screened admissions at middle and high schools. “It was unjustifiable before the pandemic, and it’s just as unjustifiable now to measure a child as young as 9-years-old’s educational attainment, and to judge them by that for access to public middle school.”

PLACE NYC, a group that has pushed to preserve strict admissions screens to public middle and high schools, is circulating a petition that calls for removing lottery admissions, arguing that “academically advanced students need programs that meet their needs.”

Black and Latino students, as well as those from low-income families, with disabilities, or who are learning English as a new language are less likely to meet admissions requirements for selective schools, leaving such schools unrepresentative of the school system as a whole.

Research has found that diverse schools can lead to a slew of academic and social benefits for students, including better test scores, an increased likelihood of attending college, boosting leadership skills and confidence, and combating racial bias or stereotypes, according to The Century Foundation.

A temporary change?

For this year’s incoming sixth graders, city officials paused screens for the second year in a row, instead admitting students through a lottery system.

After the city removed middle school screens the year before, its 50 most selective school programs offered an average of 48% of its seats to students from low-income families, up from 41% the previous year, according to education department data. The department has not shared demographic information on offer data for this school year.

Three-quarters of middle school applicants this year received offers to their first choice, an increase of four percentage points from 2021, according to department data. Ninety-one percent landed a spot in one of their top three choices, up three percentage points from 2021.

About a quarter of the city’s 400 high schools use screens to admit students. Ahead of this year, the city centralized the admissions process and eliminated the use of attendance and state test scores, but still allowed some selective schools to keep their own screens, including their own admissions exams, interviews, and essays. (Admissions to the city’s specialized high schools remained separate and unchanged.) About half of roughly 74,000 high school applicants got their first choice, up four percentage points from the previous year. Three-quarters of all applicants were placed at one of their top three choices, up two percentage points from the previous year.

The department didn’t release data for all high schools, but highlighted notable demographic shifts at some of the city’s most coveted high schools. Nearly a quarter of admissions at Townsend Harris High School went to Black and Latino students, up from 16% the previous year. And at Millennium Brooklyn High School, Black and Latino students received 43% of offers, an increase of 23 percentage points. (Those schools participate in the city’s Diversity in Admissions program, which allows them to give preference to underrepresented students.)

Debates heat up at parent councils

Brooklyn’s District 15 — which encompasses wealthy neighborhoods like Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens along with working-class ones such as Sunset Park and Red Hook — is often viewed as a test case for dropping middle school screens. For the past four years its diversity plan admitted students to middle schools through a lottery system, prioritizing 52% of seats for low-income students, those living in temporary housing, and English learners.

In the plan’s first year, Black and Latino enrollment jumped at some schools that were largely white, while white enrollment increased, albeit at smaller rates, at overwhelmingly Black and Latino schools.

The local parent council, in partnership with New York Appleseed, drafted a resolution calling to permanently remove middle school screens. The resolution also calls for the city to keep recent changes to high school admissions instead of introducing more stringent requirements or changes. (Nathaniel Styer, an education department spokesperson, said officials are not considering dismantling District 15’s diversity plan.)

A discussion on Tuesday about District 15’s resolution laid bare some of the historic arguments for and against screened admissions that will likely surface when the city announces its plans.

Most people spoke in support of the district’s diversity plan and unscreened schools, recounting tales of stressed children who felt pressured as early as first grade to maintain perfect attendance to get into the middle school of their choice. One parent noted that her child, who was part of the inaugural sixth grade class chosen by lottery, attended a more racially diverse middle school than elementary school. Her daughter grew “academically, socially, emotionally,” and even became involved with a youth integration advocacy group.

“Families are much more relaxed and confident about the process once we explain how it works, how the lottery works, what their options are,” Amy Sumner, parent coordinator at the Brooklyn New School, said at the District 15 parent council meeting. “It’s removed so much of the tension and anxiety that the families go through every year.”

In arguing for screens, parent council member Vincent Lu argued that enrollment “dropped tremendously” in District 15 because of admissions changes.

“Families vote with their feet,” Lu said.

However, District 15’s enrollment changes are similar to citywide trends.

District 15’s enrollment last year in traditional public schools was about 88% of its pre-pandemic numbers. That’s in line with the citywide average of 89%, according to data from the Independent Budget Office. (The data excludes preschool for 3-year-olds or alternative programs, such as programs for overage and under-credited students).

As enrollment has dropped in public schools across the nation, there is little evidence showing that admissions changes pushed families to leave district schools. Since the onset of the pandemic, the largest enrollment declines across the city have not been in middle or high school grades, but rather in prekindergarten for 4-year-olds, followed by second grade, kindergarten and third grade.

But other districts, such as Brooklyn’s District 20 and Manhattan’s District 2, are also citing enrollment in their resolutions in support of reinstating screened admissions, based on what they’ve heard from families. Manhattan’s affluent District 2, in fact, has about 91% of its pre-pandemic enrollment, while that figure is 90% for District 20, according to IBO data, both slightly higher than the citywide average.

That district’s parent council has not yet met to discuss the resolution.

“D2 students face these unequitable and demoralizing admissions results despite demonstrating excellent academic proficiency via grades and state test scores that consistently outperform state-wide,” the resolution said.

Though middle and high school applications were delayed the past few years, previously they were due in December.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools lays out plan to enroll hundreds of asylum-seeking students

2022-08-19T21:51:56+00:00

As New York City sees a surge of new immigrants seeking asylum from Central and South American countries, officials announced Friday that they will provide extra enrollment help to hundreds of new students expected to attend city schools.

City officials estimate that about 6,000 such immigrants have entered the city’s shelter system over the past three months, which the administration has blamed, in part, on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sending migrants on buses to New York.

At least 1,000 new students are expected to enroll in district schools, including preschool-aged children. However, that figure is “fluid” and will continue to change, said education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer.

Many of these students may need extra support, such as legally mandated services for children learning English as a new language.

“Our public schools are prepared to welcome families seeking asylum with open arms,” said Chancellor David Banks in a statement. “We are working alongside our agency partners to set students up for success by addressing their academic, emotional and social needs, and ensuring there is no disruption to their education.”

As part of a city plan dubbed “Project Open Arms,” shelters will host “pop-up” enrollment offices, where education department staff will help new families sign their children up for school. Staff will also accompany families to Family Welcome Centers, which are city offices where people can enroll their kids and get more information about school.

Staff will give out backpacks and school supplies and connect new asylum-seekers with the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Clinics for medical care, officials said. The city also plans to work with community-based organizations that work with immigrant families so that they can provide families with “critical resources and services.”

Enrollment officials are placing students in schools with open seats that are near their shelters, and considering a family’s preferred choice of language instruction, according to the department. Children who are learning English are entitled to traditional English as a new language instruction, meaning their classes are in English but they’re supposed to get extra support and translation help during and outside of class. They can also choose bilingual programs or dual language instruction, but most city schools lack such programming, according to program data from last school year.

So far, students are concentrated in Districts 2 and 3 in Manhattan, District 10 in the Bronx, District 14 in Brooklyn, and Districts 24 and 30 in Queens, officials said. These new students range across ages and grades, said Yesenia Escalante, an education department enrollment counselor.

Students who enroll after the traditional admissions process has concluded tend to have higher needs, such as this influx of asylum seekers. In the past, late-arriving students have been sent to lower performing schools, raising questions about where these new immigrant students will be enrolled and whether they will be adequately served.

Enrollment has declined across the city, meaning there could be enough seats available across many different types of schools.

In Manhattan’s District 2, officials have been speaking with families at shelters, then connecting them to individual schools, said Kelly McGuire, superintendent for the district.

“Our schools have pulled together some of their office staff, they have folks who are enrolling students directly at the school site, and that’s kind of the critical piece in terms of evaluating who the students are, what their language needs are, their students with disabilities, making sure that they are getting connected with the services that they need,” McGuire said.

Kamar Samuels, superintendent of District 3, noted that they’re working with organizations and schools’ staff to ensure students “are feeling welcome.”

“We’re working with CBOs, we’re working with school staff to just make sure that we tap into all of the resources that we have regarding language and making sure that we have access to those languages,” Samuels said.

The new wave of students comes as schools across the city are seeing budget cuts due to projected declining enrollment, though a legal fight could eventually overturn those cuts. Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said that schools seeing an influx of new students, particularly those with extra needs, will be able to request more funding, such as to hire more staff — a process, he added, that’s not unique to this school year.

“You might need to immediately post and hire for an additional guidance counselor, or an additional (English as a new language) teacher, and if you need to do that, you’ll talk to your budget director, you talk to your superintendent, and you’ll get it posted very quickly,” Weisberg said of principals. “It won’t be, ‘Oh, gosh, you’re gonna have to wait a few months,’ and then do it then, because you need it right now.”

Advocates lauded the city’s effort to work across various agencies to address immigrant students’ needs.

However, they worried about historic barriers to adequate schooling for new immigrants, which have been the subject of a longstanding state-issued corrective action plan. For example, the city has for years failed to provide legally required services to all bilingual students with disabilities, in part due to a shortage of trained bilingual educators.

“We know there aren’t enough bilingual programs in the city for all of the English language learners that qualify for them,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students Rights Project at Advocates for Children New York. “We also know schools don’t always inform families of their right to elect bilingual programs.”

Additionally, city officials should ensure that school workers and those at Family Welcome Centers are trained on the legal rights of immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, said Vanessa Luna, co-founder of ImmSchools, which trains schools on supporting immigrant families.

Rodriguez-Engberg and other advocates worried that there won’t be enough bilingual social workers to help these students, who may be experiencing varying degrees of trauma after fleeing their home countries and relatives or friends. City officials said they plan to evaluate every student’s social-emotional needs using screeners that the district launched last school year.

“We want kids to be in schools that can support them – schools that create a sense of safety for the child and for the family,” said Alejandra Vázquez Baur, an education policy expert who focuses on immigrant students for think tank Next 100. “That is critical for the child’s educational opportunities and also the child’s well being in the school.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NY begins offering tuition assistance to part-time CUNY, SUNY students

2022-08-18T20:32:20+00:00

Part-time CUNY and SUNY students can now apply for state tuition assistance, a move that advocates believe could be “transformative” for low-income students eyeing college.

The aid is also available to students attending private, nonprofit colleges.

The $150 million initiative will expand the state’s Tuition Assistance Program, or TAP, to reach 75,000 more students who are earning between six to 11 credits per semester, state officials said.

The program’s expansion was proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this year and passed as part of the state budget in April. It now includes students who previously didn’t qualify for financial aid from the state because they weren’t taking enough credit hours.

Part-time students can now apply for aid for the fall semester. Full-time students can receive up to $5,665 a year. Aid will be offered to part-time students on a prorated basis.

The old policy worked against students who needed to balance college with work or care for children or relatives, and ultimately could have been shut out from higher education, Hochul argued.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Hochul said at an event Thursday in Manhattan to officially launch the new tuition assistance eligibility. “This is the group of people we should have invested in first.”

In the past, students were only eligible for TAP if they enrolled full time for two semesters in a row and met a slew of other requirements, including making at most $10,000 if they were single students without dependents. Those same requirements apply, except now, students don’t need to be enrolled full time.

Just over one-third of CUNY’s students were part time in the fall of 2021 across the system’s community colleges and its four-year schools, according to the most recent data available online. (That includes students in degree and non-degree programs.) Roughly 80% of first-time freshmen come from New York City public high schools, and half of CUNY’s students come from households with incomes less than $30,000, according to a 2021 report from the city comptroller.

In conducting research about the program, The Center For Urban Future found students who would enroll full time in order to qualify for tuition assistance, even if their schedules barely allowed for it. Sometimes, that led to low grades, causing them to lose financial aid. The center has long advocated to expand the eligibility for TAP.

Students often enroll part time because they need to work — sometimes, multiple jobs — to support their families, such as by contributing to rent, said Eli Dvorkin, editorial and policy director at the center, who called the new policy “transformative.”

“All of these costs make it so difficult to attend college at all, and for many students, the only option has been to attend college part time,” he said.

Jessica Kane, who spent six years as a college counselor in Queens and Harlem, said she knew students who didn’t pursue college after graduating because they couldn’t imagine juggling work with being a full-time college student. That was especially true of her undocumented and immigrant students from low-income families, who needed to contribute to their households. (Undocumented students can apply for state tuition assistance through the New York Dream Act.)

Part-time aid could also be helpful for students who want to enroll in a few trade certification courses at community colleges, such as to become an electrician or a plumber, that previously didn’t add up to enough credits, she said.

“Their other option was to go to trade school, which is quadruple the price,” Kane said.

Kane, who left the Queens high school for a Long Island school district last fall, said she hasn’t received communication about this new eligibility from the state. Had she known in the spring, when the state budget passed, she could have helped inform seniors’ decisions about college. State officials did not immediately comment.

“Access to education is always great,” Kane said. “It would just be nice to have more information about it.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s summer work program for youth called a success, with 100K jobs filled

2022-08-17T21:48:50+00:00

When Ariful Anup was looking for a job last summer, he applied for the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program.

Like more than half of last summer’s applicants, the 17-year-old didn’t get picked. But this summer, after city officials dramatically expanded the program, his luck changed.

New York City already had the nation’s largest youth jobs initiative. This summer, the Adams administration increased the number of youth who get paid to work or learn to 100,000, from nearly 75,000 last year, framing it as a way to curb violence. The program pairs youth ages 14-24 with paid jobs or youth-based learning opportunities.

Ariful’s job filing paperwork for Queens Community House — a nonprofit contracted to pair youth with summer jobs that also takes on some kids of its own — wasn’t very challenging, but he learned to use Excel and was able to start saving up for a car, he said. He didn’t want to leave his friendly co-workers.

“I’m very interested in this job, but unfortunately it’s just a summer program,” said Ariful, who graduated from Newtown High School in the spring.

In the three years before this summer, 156,500 youth on average applied for a spot, but less than half of applicants, on average, got a job, according to annual city reports. (That excludes 2020 when the program was slashed because of the pandemic.)

This year, 167,000 youth applied, and about 60% of applicants were paired with a job.

Ahead of this year’s expansion, providers wondered how difficult the rollout would be. But as the program closes out, officials and providers alike describe the expansion as largely successful.

Providers have pointed to a few issues that should be improved going forward — such as having enough talented staff on hand —especially if the city is planning to grow the program any larger down the road.

An all-time record

To pair youth with jobs, the city contracts with community-based organizations who find employers that will take on youth for the summer. Their paychecks are covered by the city.

In 2021, the first year after the pandemic started, providers said it was a huge challenge to find work sites. Employers were recovering from the pandemic and didn’t have the bandwidth to supervise youth workers.

This year’s expansion meant spinning up a larger program and finding more work sites. To help providers, the city took on a larger role in finding jobs for youth, using “our relationships, the mayor’s relationships,” said Valerie Mulligan, deputy commissioner of youth workforce programs at Department of Youth & Community Development, which oversees SYEP.

Providers noticed. Lowell Herschberger, the director of career and education programs at the nonprofit Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, said he’s been critical of DYCD’s previous management of SYEP. But for this summer, he “can’t overstate” how much the agency cooperated with organizations and advocates, including on finding employers.

“They made introductions with us for a number of work sites where they said, ‘Hey, we had this contact. Would you like to work with them?’” Herschberger said, who added that his organization set youth up across 70 different work sites. “That was one thing that advocates have called for, and I think there was marked improvement on that.”

Ultimately, the city placed youth across 17,000 work sites, an all-time record, compared with 14,525 sites last year, said Mark Zustovich, a spokesperson for DYCD.

DYCD officials also touted offering more spots to youth living in public housing, as well as those who are involved with the court system, are homeless or are in child welfare programs. About 20,000 such youth were offered spots this year, compared to 14,000 last summer, officials said. (That’s about 2 percentage points higher than the last summer.)

Scrambling to find remote jobs

Vaccination status presented a unique challenge this year for providers. DYCD required youth participants to be vaccinated for COVID-19 if they were planning to work in person – applying the same city policy that requires public and private sector workers to be vaccinated.

That meant finding remote work for unvaccinated youth, even if work sites didn’t care about vaccination status, providers said.

Herschberger estimates that about 100 of their nearly 900 participants were unvaccinated, causing Cypress Hills to “scramble” for more remote jobs.

Queens Community House, where Ariful worked, ran into the same issue. Their organization spun up their own virtual work site for their unvaccinated applicants. Some of those young people decided not to participate.

“For some of them, parents were like, ‘We want them to go out and do real-time work,’ and our hands were tied,” said Trudy Lennan, who helped run the organization’s youth workforce programs.

Youth typically report more negative feedback about remote work or project-based opportunities, Herschberger said. However, having remote work was a nice option for the kids who were vaccinated but couldn’t work in person because they were going to spend the summer out of town, or because they had other responsibilities to juggle, such as caring for younger siblings, he said.

“For some youth, it really works,” he said. “While I say that we can’t just rely on remote stuff, I do think there’s a place for that.”

At Queens Community House, one of the biggest issues this year was the tight five-day deadline for getting youth to hand in the documents required to enroll in the program.

Some participants had difficulty finding all their documents or information, such as a social security number, because they live with guardians who aren’t their parents. Or, since recent physicals are required, some struggled to schedule doctor’s appointments in time.

Staffing woes continue

Some providers continue to worry about hiring enough staff.

Queens Community House had several unexpected staff vacancies. That meant quickly finding, hiring, and training “quality” staff during a labor market shortage, said Alex Sumpter-Delves, division director of youth workforce for Queens Community House.

A longer window of time to plan would have been helpful, she said.

“I know many of my peers in these circles have echoed the same exact challenges: being able to quickly onboard people and prepare for a high-volume program,” Sumpter-Delves said.

Herschberger’s organization didn’t take on many more youth participants this summer, but they’re aiming to pair 300 more young people with jobs next summer if the program stays this size.

The seasonal nature of SYEP means it’s staffed with temporary employees who seek other jobs once they leave. That means his organization loses workers once they have become good at the job. Herschberger tries to get his seasonal employees to stay on for the year round programs they run at schools, which later expand into the summer. But as of Monday, Herschberger still hadn’t heard how many of those year round slots they’ll be funded for — meaning he can’t offer a full-time job to one of his best workers from the summer just yet.

If the program is going to expand, Herschberger hopes the city will consider investing in more year round programs for youth, or even just inform organizations sooner about how many of those slots they’ll be responsible for so that they can plan in advance.

“Eighty percent of our workforce was brand new just for this summer, and I really don’t want that to be the case next year,” Herschberger said.

Officials declined to confirm whether the program would still offer 100,000 slots next year or if the program would grow. However, Mulligan, from DYCD, said this year was a “huge step forward” and that “it proved to us that we could do more than we had ever done before.”

This was the second year of SYEP for Bruce Valdez, 17, who also did office work for Queens Community House. The biggest lesson he learned was the discipline of waking up early every morning before heading to work, he said. Asked what he’s doing with his paycheck, he said he’s putting it in a brokerage account – under his older brother’s name for now because of age restrictions.

“If you put money into a brokerage account, it makes money for you,” said Valdez, who will be a senior this fall at Newtown High School. “I don’t want to work a 9-5 for the rest of my life, so you gotta start young, right?”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NY to help cover back-to-school costs for low-income children

2022-08-11T22:15:51+00:00

New York families on public assistance can expect an additional boost to their wallets this month to help cover back-to-school costs, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced Thursday.

The one-time payments come as inflation has tightened household budgets across the country, making the annual shopping trip for notebooks, pencils and backpacks a greater financial burden, particularly for low-income families.

State officials will begin distributing the money Friday. Families on public assistance will receive $214 for each of their children ages 3-17. For each child under 3, families will receive $150.

Public assistance provides cash to low-income families for up to 60 months who may have trouble meeting basic needs, such as housing, according to the governor’s office.

The payments are expected to reach 136,377 children ages 3-17 across the state and another 34,300 children under the age of 3. While more recent data wasn’t immediately available, nearly 150,000 New York City children received public assistance in 2019, according to the Citizens Committee for Children.

The extra help could provide some relief for families who had also benefited from the expanded child tax credit, which provided extra money to more families with children — up to an additional $1,600 a year for children under 6 and up to $1,000 for ages 6-17. Advocates had expected the federal initiative to lift a quarter of a million New York children out of poverty, but Congress did not renew it for this year.

State officials will spend $44 million of federal COVID stimulus funds on this initiative, according to the governor’s office. That money comes from the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund, meant to provide one-time benefits to families “with a specific short-term situation or need,” a news release said.

“As New Yorkers prepare to send their children back to school this fall, these one-time payments will help struggling families across the state pay for education supplies and other household expenses that may otherwise pose a burden on their household budget,” Hochul said in a statement.

For more information on the state’s public assistance program, call 1-800-342-3009, and wait for the option for “temporary assistance.”

Correction: An estimated 136,377 New York children ages 3-17 will receive this benefit, not 184,000, as a previous version of this story mentioned based of incorrect data issued by the state.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

‘Still hungry’: Struggling to feed NYC students as pandemic aid wanes

2022-07-08T10:00:00+00:00

Hochul signs NYC mayoral control bill into law – with a tweak

2022-07-01T14:58:40+00:00

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill late Thursday that extends mayoral control of New York City schools for the next two years.

But her signature came with a tweak: The eight-member expansion of the city’s education panel, which was passed under the original bill, will be delayed by five months.

Mayoral control — which allows the mayor to choose the schools chancellor and appoint a majority of members to the city’s education panel — was set to expire at midnight Friday.

The bill, passed by New York lawmakers on June 3, needed the governor’s signature to become law. Legislators typically allow the governor’s office to request bills for her review as she has hundreds to consider and sign. But Hochul did not call up the mayoral control legislation until about 9:20 p.m. Thursday.

Hochul’s office has declined to say why she waited to sign the bill or whether Mayor Eric Adams was lobbying for changes, saying only in statements this month that she has “consistently supported mayoral control.”

On Thursday evening, Queens Democratic Sen. John Liu, a chief sponsor of the bill, said he was negotiating changes with Hochul. She ultimately signed it with an agreement with lawmakers to delay the expansion of the Panel for Educational Policy, or PEP — a largely mayor-appointed board that approves major contracts and policy decisions, such as school closures and the city’s school funding formula. Originally scheduled to expand from 15 members to 23 starting Aug. 15, the expansion and first-ever term limits for panel members will now be pushed to January 15, 2023.

Lawmakers will vote in January, at the start of their next session, to adopt those changes, which is a routine time for voting on amendments to bills they’ve already passed, said Soojin Choi, a spokesperson for Liu.

The change to the bill was to “ensure that the City has sufficient time” to establish the larger PEP, Hochul wrote in her letter approving the bill. It gives appointers of panel members — most notably, Adams — five more months to make their choices. Adams failed to appoint all nine of his current appointees on time, with one forced to resign, resulting in the city failing to gain enough votes on some policy proposals.

Adams, who endorsed Hochul in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, and schools Chancellor David Banks both expressed disappointment about the bill when it passed earlier this month. It extended mayoral control for half of the time that Adams and Hochul had called for, and it added provisions meant to water down Adams’ control over the Panel for Educational Policy.

Legislators passed the mayoral control bill earlier this month as part of a package deal with a separate bill that would force the city to lower class sizes across all grades. The class size bill passed nearly unanimously, but city officials and a budget watchdog have raised concerns that it’s going to be too costly to implement.

Hochul still hasn’t requested the class-size bill, angering some lawmakers, advocates and the city’s teachers union.

“We are calling on the governor to sign this legislation now,” Michael Mulgrew, president of the teachers union, said in a statement Friday morning. “Our students can’t wait.”

Asked whether Adams was lobbying the governor for changes to either bill, City Hall spokesperson Amaris Cockfield said they do not comment on “private conversations.” In a statement Friday morning, Adams thanked Hochul for signing off on mayoral control.

Had the bill remained unsigned, the city would have had to reconstitute the previous system of 32 community school boards, plus a citywide board of education, made up of members appointed by each of the five borough presidents and two by the mayor’s office.

But it’s unclear that much would have changed in the immediate aftermath. When mayoral control lapsed for a month under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the reconstituted board voted to appoint then-Chancellor Joel Klein.

Here’s how mayoral control will change in New York:

The mayor’s powers will be extended through June 30, 2024.
The PEP will grow from 15 to 23 members.
The mayor will still appoint a majority of the PEP, with 13 picks starting Jan. 15, 2023, four more than he currently chooses. Each borough president will each continue to appoint one member. The presidents of the city’s 32 Community Education Councils, or CECS, which represent each local school district and can shape school zone boundaries, will elect five members – four more than currently – who each must represent a different borough.
Four of the mayor’s appointees must be parents of a child attending city public schools, up from two currently. They must include at least one with a child with disabilities, one with a child in a bilingual or English as a second language program, and one with a child enrolled in District 75, which serves students with the most significant disabilities.
Each PEP member will serve a one-year term that can be renewed annually. The mayor and the borough presidents can no longer remove PEP members for voting against their wishes. Previously, appointers did not have to share a reason for why they wanted to remove someone.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Most NYC schools are losing funding. See what’s happening at your school.

2022-06-28T17:59:30+00:00

New York City educators and families are finishing this school year worried about how hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to school budgets will impact their classrooms in the fall. They’re hearing about rising class sizes, losing teachers, and cutting enrichment.

City lawmakers passed a budget deal earlier this month slashing school budgets based on declining enrollment projections: The city’s public schools (excluding charters) have lost 9.5% of their students since the pandemic began.

Mayor Eric Adams’ $215 million cut to schools was somewhat softened by federal coronavirus stimulus dollars. Without that federal funding, Adams would have cut budgets by $375 million, which he plans to do by the 2024-2025 school year.

Schools must typically return money if they enroll fewer students than projected midway through the school year. But Mayor Bill de Blasio held schools harmless from these cuts over the past two years, largely using COVID stimulus dollars. Adams’ plan reverses this policy and goes back to a funding system that’s more closely tied to enrollment.

To show how those cuts affect each school, Chalkbeat created a lookup tool examining changes to Fair Student Funding — the pot of money that makes up 65% of school budgets and is sent to schools months ahead of the next school year. It’s what principals use to hire staff and create programming. The formula provides more money to schools with higher shares of students with disabilities, those learning English as a new language and those struggling academically.

A majority of schools — just over 1,200 — will see cuts in Fair Student Funding, as high as $5 million at Brooklyn’s Fort Hamilton High School, according to a Chalkbeat analysis. Close to 300 schools will see an increase, up to $2.5 million at Queens’ Thomas J. McCann Woodside Intermediate School.

Some education advocates have encouraged families to look up current school budgets and compare them to what’s posted online for schools for next fiscal year, which begins July 1. However, that won’t show an “apples-to-apples” comparison, since schools typically receive all kinds of funding throughout the course of the year.

“A true apples-to-apples comparison would be looking at preliminary budgets for this current school year compared with the preliminary budget for [next year], because that’s really what schools are using to plan for school opening,” said Sarita Subramanian, assistant director of education policy at the city’s Independent Budget Office.

To account for those discrepancies, this tool shows how much Fair Student Funding each school had as of June 2021, as principals planned for this current school year, and compares that to how much schools have right now, ahead of this fall. We included money that schools received to cover for enrollment losses, but excluded additional funding schools may have received for this halfway through this school year, since school leaders didn’t have that money when they planned for the year.

We also included forgiven debts related to enrollment losses that schools may have owed to the education department.

(Some programs and schools may not show up in our tool because there was no information posted for them in Galaxy, the public website where school budget allocations are posted.)

Numbers don’t add up

Education department officials at a Friday City Council budget hearing said about 400 schools are seeing increases, though did not share details on how they calculated those numbers. Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson for the education department, declined multiple requests for comment on Chalkbeat’s analysis methods.

While the city has said the cuts total $215 million, the actual blow to individual school budgets would have been closer to $132 million, since a chunk of the money was related to fringe benefits that are covered centrally, according to Comptroller Brad Lander. However, a new analysis by Lander found that the cuts this year will actually total nearly three times that amount, at about $372 million. Department officials did not immediately explain the discrepancy.

Schools may see cuts or increases based on rising or falling enrollment projections, but also based on how many high-needs students they are projected to enroll, since those students receive more money under the formula, Styer said.

On top of all of this, the city has reduced the amount of per-pupil funding it provides to schools through Fair Student Funding by about $25 per student, due to a drop in average teacher salaries across the whole system, as first reported by the New York Post.

Schools with veteran teachers earning higher than the citywide average get an extra cushion to help pay their salaries, Subramanian noted.

As they plan for next school year, principals and educators are reporting plans to excess staff and eliminate enrichment programs. While it’s true that fewer students may mean fewer teachers are needed, less funding could mean that principals can’t build out new programming or must increase class sizes — even as the city faces a potential new state law to shrink class sizes.

Additionally, principals have criticized the city for incorrect enrollment projections, resulting in fewer dollars than they’ll need next year. At Friday’s hearing, one City Council member said a principal in her district surveyed every family in her school and found enrollment would be dozens of students higher than the education department’s calculation.

Both City Hall and education department spokespeople have repeatedly refused to share how much enrollment is projected to drop next year. Schools could get money back if they enroll more students than expected, but that money typically arrives after schools have finished hiring for the school year.

Families and educators have forcefully protested the cuts and have questioned why the remaining $5 billion in unspent stimulus dollars can’t be used once again to protect school budgets.

Many City Council members pressed education department officials at Friday’s hearing about why these cuts are happening, in hopes of restoring the funding. The cuts briefly held up a final city budget deal, though all but six of the 51 council members approved the deal earlier this month.

Correction: An earlier version of the lookup table used an incorrect data point for fiscal year 2022. The table and story have been updated to reflect the correct figures, including new totals for schools with highest and lowest increases.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC budget deal cuts school funding amid declining enrollment

2022-06-10T23:08:10+00:00

New York City lawmakers reached a $101 billion budget deal Friday that finalizes cuts to school budgets for the 2022-2023 school year.

Many details of the agreement, which sets the city’s financial plan from July 1 through June 2023, were still unavailable Friday evening. But in April, the mayor’s proposal showed a $1 billion drop for the education department, to just under $31 billion — largely because federal coronavirus relief is beginning to dry up. That budget is made up of state, federal, and city funding, and under Adams’ proposal, the city would boost its own spending on education by about $720 million.

Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council were expected to reach a deal this week. But, Politico reported that an 11th hour disagreement developed over cuts to individual school budgets after school and union leaders decried the decreases, which they saw for the first time this week.

Those cuts were announced in February, but they made it into the final budget.

The cuts, totaling $215 million across all schools this year, represent a reversal of a policy over the past two years, which covered schools financially for enrolling fewer students than expected halfway through the year, during the pandemic.

While schools will see a drop in funding compared to this year’s budgets, Adams would not call them cuts.

“We had a major drop in student population in the [department of education], so what we’re doing — we are not cutting, we are adjusting the amount based on the student population,” Adams told reporters after a ceremonial handshake with Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.

Separately, the budget also sets aside $2 billion in coronavirus relief funds for next school year and expands summer programming for children and young adults.

Here are some highlights from Thursday’s budget agreement:

School budgets

Many schools will see smaller budgets due to the city’s projections of declining student enrollment, which has dropped by 6.4% since the pandemic’s start in 2020.

For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, schools will be funded in a way that’s more closely tied to their enrollment, but school and union leaders are worried about the impact of the cuts on students and staff.

Before the pandemic, schools were required to send money back to the education department if, by halfway through the year, they had enrolled fewer students than originally projected.

To blunt the financial blow on schools during the pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio spent $177 million — 75% of which came from federal coronavirus relief dollars — to cover budgets for 870 schools that saw mid-year enrollment drops. Again this year, the administration spent $324 million to forgive mid-year enrollment drops at 1,200 schools, again with roughly three-quarters covered by stimulus dollars.

In February, Adams announced he wanted to reverse this policy and gradually cut budgets over the next two years. Using federal stimulus dollars to backfill the cuts, Adams plans to cut school budgets by $215 million this fall, just under $300 million for the 2023-2024 school year, and finally $375 million in 2024-2025.

“We are in a very dangerous time that many people are not realizing,” Adams said. “We are dropping students so much.”

Fewer students could mean a need for fewer teachers. But reduced funding complicates plans that principals had for their schools, such as launching new programs or hiring new staff. The city is also facing a new state law requiring New York City to reduce class sizes, but officials have not explained how they’ll reconcile the new mandate with cuts to school budgets.

Principals are also worried they may need to “excess” staff, meaning those staffers would leave the school and could look for jobs elsewhere in the system. If unsuccessful, those staffers could enter the Absent Teacher Reserve, where they still get paid.

Asked how the city devised enrollment projections, a City Hall spokesman said officials calculate them based on recent trends in each grade level from kindergarten through 12th grade. Principals, superintendents, and other education officials who work with schools “review and provide significant feedback” before enrollment projections are finalized.

The plan received blowback from educators and some city officials.

Comptroller Brad Lander said the city must address enrollment drops, but schools should not see cuts yet as schools emerge from the pandemic. He also suggested the city should revisit the Fair Student Funding formula, which is based on enrollment projections but also sends more money to schools with high shares of students with disabilities, learning English as a new language, or facing academic struggles. The city has plans to begin reviewing the formula this year — a process that happened once before in 2019 but never resulted in changes.

“Our schools have endured the hardest two years and need every penny to provide the social, emotional, and academic supports that all our students deserve this summer and fall,” Lander said in a statement.

COVID stimulus spending

The administration plans to spend about $1.8 billion in COVID stimulus money next school year. City schools received about $7 billion in stimulus money, of which $2 billion has been spent through the first week of May, according to City Hall.

While hundreds of millions of dollars went directly to schools this year to create academic recovery programs, some schools struggled to spend the money because they couldn’t recruit teachers to work overtime to staff tutoring programs. Roughly a third of the city’s students with disabilities were expected to have received stimulus-funded recovery services by the end of this school year.

About $160 million will go toward softening the blow of enrollment declines for schools (leading to the overall $215 million cut for next year). Another $125 million is expected to go directly to schools for “academic recovery” and arts instruction, with more funds slated for schools with higher needs students. Schools must use the money to provide academic intervention and additional support for students learning English as a new language.

The mayor’s executive budget proposed some other initiatives to be covered by COVID stimulus dollars, including $176 million for Summer Rising, the city’s universal summer enrichment program.

Summer programming and community schools

The budget calls for $110 million to cover an expanded summer enrichment program that will have 10,000 more slots for kindergarten through eighth grade students, reaching a total of 110,000 elementary and middle school students and 210,000 across all grades.

The budget also includes $79 million to expand the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program, which provides summer jobs for youth ages 14-21. The program will be funded to have 90,000 slots, plus another 10,000 through other city programs. While it’s open to any city resident, the program is not available to undocumented children.

Additionally, the city has restored planned funding cuts for organizations that provide extra support to students in dozens of community schools, said Jonah Allon, a spokesperson for City Hall. The schools provide wraparound services for students in high-needs schools. The cuts, related to a changed funding formula, meant that these organizations would have to lay off staff and shrink their services, such as attendance monitoring and mental health support.

The city will spend $14 million to restore those cuts, but the organizations had only requested $9 million. It wasn’t immediately clear what accounted for increased funding.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC educators wrestle with budget cuts for 2022-23 school year

2022-06-08T00:33:04+00:00

Educators across New York City are grappling with millions of dollars in planned cuts to school budgets, released this week for the 2022-23 school year.

While school leaders had expected the cuts, many saw for the first time in two years what their budgets will look like as the federal stimulus funding starts to wind down and they continue to grapple with declining enrollment, which has dropped by 6.4% since the beginning of the pandemic.

For many schools, the cuts will mean rolling back plans to hire more teachers or cutting back on programming. While schools see budgets that are more closely tied to their enrollment, they’re still grappling with losing students — all while New York City also has been newly tasked with lowering class sizes over the next five years.

“Maybe some people have dealt with huge attrition, but [the education department is] really lowballing people, and they need to go back to the drawing board,” said one Bronx principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity and may need to cut back on extra support at her school.

Over the course of the pandemic, former Mayor Bill de Blasio used federal stimulus dollars to allow schools to keep money if, midway through the school year, fewer students actually enrolled than the city had expected. Before the pandemic, in those situations, schools were typically required to give money back to the education department.

Mayor Eric Adams has decided to phase out that pandemic policy as part of his budget proposal for next year. Under Adams’ proposal, the overall city budget for the education department would drop by about $1 billion next year to just under $31 billion, largely due to the drop in federal stimulus funds provided during the pandemic. While the city is boosting its own contribution to the education department by $720 million as it attempts to expand some initiatives, they’re also planning for a gradual cut to individual school budgets in response to declining enrollment.

Adams wants to cut school budgets gradually over the next two years by backfilling a portion of the cuts with federal stimulus dollars — meaning schools will see a $215 million cut for this fall, just under $300 million for the 2023-24 school year, and finally, $375 million in 2024-25.

Last school year, the city spent $177 million to cover budgets for 870 schools who saw mid-year enrollment drops, with 75% of that cost covered by federal stimulus dollars, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office. This year, roughly 1,200 schools saw mid-year enrollment drops. In response, the city spent $324 million in additional funding, with roughly three-quarters of that cost covered once again by federal stimulus dollars.

The policy reversal means many schools are likely experiencing cuts that are deeper than they’ve known over the past two years, especially with the infusion of billions in federal stimulus dollars.

“During the current school year, the tension between rightsizing school budgets based on actual student enrollment, even as schools’ needs have increased as a result of the pandemic, continues,” the IBO said in a recent report.

According to the IBO, these cuts are coming out of Fair Student Funding, a city formula that sends more money to schools with larger shares of students with disabilities, those learning English as a new language, and students with academic struggles. That pot of money covers about 65% of school budgets and can be used flexibly to hire staff and create school programming.

Officials have said that they’re not expecting layoffs, but for the city to simply not fill vacant positions. City officials did not respond to a question about whether there are other cuts to school budgets on top of those to Fair Student Funding.

Generally, fewer students could mean that fewer teachers are needed, but in practice that’s a far more complicated problem to solve, said Sarita Subramanian, assistant director of education policy at the Independent Budget Office. For example, a principal might have planned to offer a new Advanced Placement course but won’t have the money to cover a teacher licensed in that subject area, she said.

“It depends on what types of offering a school has and wants to make for students,” Subramanian said.

An additional complication: the city is now tasked with limiting class sizes over the next five years, which could require the hiring of more teachers and creating more classroom space. Officials did not respond to a question about how it plans to meet those requirements while also cutting school budgets amid declining enrollment.

On Twitter, the teachers union chastised Adams for the planned cut, insisting that the billions of dollars left in federal stimulus funding and an increase in state funding could help cover costs — including separate costs for lowering class sizes.

“Does the mayor need a math lesson, or is he just playing games with our schools?” one tweet said.

The Bronx principal said the education department projects about 12% fewer students at her school in the fall, even though she’s anticipating an increase in students. She is still calculating the total cuts to her school but city records show about $100,000, or about 4% less, in Fair Student Funding.

She may lose a music teacher and move two teacher-mentors back into the classroom. She may also need to cover some classes with a teacher who specifically teaches students learning English as a new language, and she isn’t sure she can replace any of the three teachers who are leaving.

“I hope they forgive our budgets, or at least really try to forgive a large amount,” the principal said.

Harlem’s Central Park East I elementary school will see just over $11,600 in cuts to Fair Student Funding alone, compared to the current school year. Parent Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, who is a member of its School Leadership Team and a member of the city’s Panel for Educational Policy, said that’s not as severe as other schools. School officials have assured families they’ll be able to manage the cuts without decreasing staff or increasing class sizes.

But even with that cut, they won’t be able to hire a full-time art teacher, she said.

“It’s a big thing in terms of what we believe children need to get a full educational experience,” she said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s ‘community schools’ are a lifeline for many students. Dozens are bracing for cuts.

2022-05-19T19:21:08+00:00

Big cuts are coming to nonprofits that partner with dozens of New York City’s “community schools,” providing them with wraparound support for students, such as mental health services, attendance monitoring, and dental or vision check-ups.

One organization that serves a 1,600-student Queens high school may have to slash a program helping students apply for college. Another that works with three Brooklyn high schools plans to eliminate attendance workers, who have been coaxing teens back in efforts to make a dent in high chronic absenteeism rates.

The cuts stem from a new formula meant to more equitably fund organizations working with schools across the five boroughs. Out of 145 campuses housing community schools that were affected by the change, 93 are seeing an increase, but 52 campuses stand to see significant cuts.

Research has found that the city’s community schools — which embed social services in high-needs schools — boosted math scores, graduation rates, attendance, and the rate at which students move on to the next grade. But some of those successes could be hampered at campuses whose partner organizations will likely face tough decisions about laying off staff and cutting back services that have been a cornerstone of the city’s much-lauded program, said leaders of those nonprofits.

Meanwhile, the federal government has embraced community schools as a way to grapple with the high social, economic, and academic needs, earmarking $413 million across the nation for expanding the model.

“The reason why I think this is incredibly disappointing is because many of the things we work on — mental health, college access, addressing chronic absenteeism, after school – all of those things are areas in which the current administration, the [Department of Education], have expressed as important as we continue to come to the other side of the pandemic,” said Sonia B. Sisodia, executive director of South Asian Youth Action, or SAYA.

Her organization is expecting to see its funding slashed by nearly 50%, or roughly $420,000.

SAYA provides services to nearly a third of students at Richmond Hill High School, where 78% of students are from low-income families. Losing funding will force administrators to cut or eliminate their college access program. It would “significantly reduce” after school programming, such as clubs for robotics, books, arts, LGTBQ students, and one focused on leadership, Sisodia said. The organization would also shave mental health services.

All of this means that staff might work with a student just once or twice the entire year, if at all, compared with their current practice of keeping up with students more regularly, Sisodia said.

‘The needs are so great’

The cuts currently on the table were supposed to take effect last year when the city revamped the funding formula for community schools. But City Council intervened, giving organizations — who were caught off guard by the change — a reprieve as they braced for the reopening of school buildings during the pandemic.

Some organizations were receiving as little as $87,000, while others got as much as $1 million, explained Chris Caruso, former director of the Office of Community Schools.

The new formula gives each organization a base of $250,000, then adds money based on factors such as student enrollment, the percentage of low-income students in the campus they serve, and the type of grades they’re serving. Elementary schools are weighted three times higher than high schools because those elementary schools might provide more extended learning time “due to child care needs,” according to an email from education department officials obtained by Chalkbeat, which revealed that the highest contract amount was just under $550,000 and the lowest was just under $400,000.

The new formula also allows the city to expand the number of community schools, Caruso said. A department spokesperson said they plan to open about 100 more community schools by this fall.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts “is going to be noticeable,” Caruso said, but he noted that increased funding to schools, such as from federal coronavirus relief, could help offset some of these losses.

Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, which works with three schools on the Franklin K. Lane campus in Cypress Hills, had a budget of just over $1 million this school year. It is expecting a $590,000 cut for next year, said Emily Van Ingen, the organization’s deputy director.

Each school has a team of two full-time staffers, plus several part-timers, who work on “some of the core tenements of community schools,” including improving attendance and graduation rates by finding ways to keep students interested in school. Those teams meet with students and their families and connect them with mental health, housing or other services.

With the cut, the organization will reduce its staff to one full-time director at each school and a part-time social worker who would work across all three campuses.

But the needs remain high. The East New York and Cypress Hills communities were “rocked” by COVID, Van Ingen said. Many students are dealing with the loss of loved ones and remain apprehensive about coming to the building. In the first nine months of the school year, there were 16 attempted suicides among students, compared to none in the 2019-20 school year, Van Ingen said.

“We have to be realistic about how much you can expect one human being to do because the needs are so great,” Van Ingen said.

At one of the schools on the campus, chronic absenteeism hit 45%. Citywide, schools are projected to see a 37% rate of chronic absenteeism, which is when students miss 10% or more school days. That would be the highest level since at least 2000.

The front line workers from community organizations are worried these rates will continue to remain high next school year.

“Students have been online, remote learning and have had a hard time socializing and reintegrating into school, so if they’re not coming now, what’s the indicator that they’re going to come in September or October?” asked Anju Rupchandani, of Zone 126, which works with Long Island City High School in Queens.

Zone 126 plans to cut six full-time people, half who work on improving attendance through home visits and one-on-one mentoring. The others provide drama-based therapy to students. They also contract with an outside organization for mental health services, which they plan to pare back.

That will leave the school with two full-time Zone 126 staffers, one who will potentially work on attendance and then a director who will “coordinate any and all programs.”

Students at the school have struggled this year to connect with their peers and even have one-on-one conversations, Rupchandani said. They’ll often walk into the Zone 126 office at school seeking a place to “chill out” because they’re overwhelmed, and some have been nervous about falling behind academically. She’s noticed a concerning level of chronic absenteeism among the school’s ninth graders.

Failure to get paid

Suzan Sumer, a spokesperson for the education department, said the department will work with the City Council “to continue funding our community schools and the incredible work they do in support of all-around student health and wellbeing.”

The funding cuts are just another issue facing these organizations: Multiple nonprofits have not yet been paid for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in services they’ve provided to schools this year.

Cypress Hills may have to cut back on end-of-the-year student events, such as graduation, if they’re not paid by June, Van Ingen said.

SAYA has not yet been paid “one dollar” for the more than $600,000 worth of services they’ve provided so far this school year, Sisodia said, who added that they’ve received no clear explanation for the delay.

As a result, SAYA’s cash balances were drained this year, and they dipped into investment accounts to help make payroll. At one point, they were faced with the decision whether to pay their employees or pay the vendor they contract with that provides mental health services for Richmond Hill students, Sisodia said.

The education department declined to explain why organizations have not been paid, what the problems are, and how many are waiting on payments. Any delays in payment “are being addressed and are related to contract procurement and registration,” according to a department spokesperson.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC education panel approves school funding formula after last month’s rejection

2022-05-19T01:26:50+00:00

Following a stunning rejection last month, New York City’s education panel approved Wednesday the city’s school funding formula for next year, as Schools Chancellor David Banks promised to create a group that will review the 15-year-old formula.

The commitment from the city followed concerns from some panel members and public school advocates who want the current funding formula to provide more support for additional groups of high-needs students, such as students living in temporary housing.

The panel voted 12-1, with an additional abstention, to approve the formula, known as Fair Student Funding. The 15th member, a Staten Island borough appointee, quit last month. Chancellor David Banks said he, too, supports a more equitable formula, calling it a “horrible and ridiculous” situation that he inherited from previous administrations. He said he would put in writing his commitment on a working group.

But Banks, who called last month’s vote “deeply disappointing,” said schools could not afford a delay in getting their budgets if the formula was rejected again. Receiving a delayed budget could hamper hiring decisions, making it tougher to plan out classes for next year — an issue schools faced over the past two school years as the pandemic wore on, officials said.

“Passing it tonight does not mean that this is a chancellor who doesn’t give a damn — quite the opposite,” Banks said. “I have to keep the system moving.”

Officials had planned to get budgets to schools this month before the panel’s rejection in April. After Wednesday’s approval, it was not immediately clear when schools would receive their budgets.

Each year, department officials ask the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP), composed mostly of mayoral appointees, to reapprove the funding formula. The formula accounts for $10 billion in funding and 65% of school budgets. It is structured to send more money to schools that are struggling academically, as well as those with higher shares of students with disabilities and English language learners.

But after hearing from public speakers last month who opposed the current formula, six panel members, who were not appointed by the mayor, shared their own concerns. Some pressed city officials about why the previous administration never released a report created by a 2019 task force that was charged with reviewing the funding formula.

Even then, the formula likely would have been approved at last month’s meeting. But Mayor Eric Adams, who appoints nine of the panel’s 15 members, had failed to replace an appointee who was forced to resign in March, and another of his appointees was absent. As a result, five panel members appointed by borough presidents abstained from voting on the formula after raising concerns, and a sixth elected representative voted against approval — leaving the city one short of the necessary votes.

Hours before Wednesday’s meeting, City Hall officials announced the appointment of Kyle Kimball to fill the final mayorally appointed seat which became available after the panel member was forced to resign over anti-gay remarks. Kimball is a former Bloomberg and de Blasio administration official who oversaw the New York City Economic Development Corporation. He is now vice president of government relations for Con Edison.

It’s possible that a future working group could look at what the 2019 task force came up with. A draft report from the task force called for adding weights to the formula for more student groups, such as children who are homeless, living in poverty and in foster care, as well as increasing weight for high schools to match those that have specialized academic portfolios — a matter related to how the formula sends money to some higher performing schools, which tend to enroll fewer Black and Hispanic students. The report did not specify what the weights should be.

On Wednesday, Banks said he would have First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg oversee the creation of the new working group and put that commitment in writing. He also said before the vote that revamping the formula would take time, and that another rejection of the formula “would bring the system to a grinding halt.”

Still, roughly two dozen people — mostly parent leaders — asked the panel to again reject the formula because it was not equitable.

“This is not new,” said Isha Taylor, a member of the parent council in Bronx’s District 10. “We appreciate the new [department of education] administration for creating a space for us parents to be a part of this process, but we really ask you, take a hard look and hold your team accountable for making these decisions.”

Some speakers asked the city to create a commission that would be independent of the education department so that it would feel free to analyze and pick apart the formula. Panel member Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, who is an appointee of Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, said she voted to approve because the panel received a commitment from the chancellor to review the formula. Still, Salas-Ramirez wants a commission with experts who can conduct a financial analysis of the formula.

Tom Sheppard, the lone elected member of the panel who voted no, said he was torn over how to vote but couldn’t ignore what he heard from the community. He, like Salas-Ramirez, said he wants a commission with financial analysts.

“That said, please don’t take my no vote to mean that I am uninterested in fixing this — I am very much interested in fixing this,” he said.

Christina Veiga contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

New York to increase weekly instruction for medically fragile students

2022-05-17T20:45:15+00:00

New York state officials will increase the number of hours students with medical conditions must receive after a flurry of questions from parents and school districts — but the mandate won’t take effect until the 2023-2024 school year.

The changes affect students who, for medical reasons, won’t be in school for at least 10 days over a three-month period and are learning from home or a hospital setting. Starting in 2023, these students must receive at least 10 hours of weekly instruction, up from five, if they’re in elementary or middle school, and at least 15 hours for high schoolers, an increase from 10 hours a week.

The increase does not go into effect until 2023 because state officials wanted to give districts time to budget properly, according to a spokesperson for the state education department.

“I think there was a common understanding that the five to 10 hours were not nearly enough,” Mary Beth Casey, assistant commissioner at the state education department, told the Board of Regents Monday.

State officials say the new regulations come after hearing many questions from caregivers and districts as the pandemic wore on about how to provide instruction for medically fragile children, including immunocompromised students. They’re also, for the first time, requiring districts to follow a timeline to approve and provide such instruction for these students.

In New York City, 20 different conditions qualify children for medically necessary instruction. This school year, just over 2,500 students applied for such services, and 84% of them were approved, according to an education department spokesperson, who did not immediately share the equivalent pre-pandemic data. Sixty-five percent of these children received in-person instruction, which involves a teacher coming to their home or another setting to teach them, while the rest was virtual.

At the start of this school year, parents whose children have medical conditions and were at higher risk for severe COVID infections faced agonizing decisions about whether to send them back to school buildings. Should they risk their child getting infected, or should they apply for the home instruction program, which would mean getting 1-2 hours of schooling a day?

“We had to make a really difficult decision to send her to school,” parent Rodney Lee told Chalkbeat in October about his daughter who has a seizure disorder and was at a higher risk for severe COVID. “Every day we pray, and we hope that she stays healthy.”

The new rules will mean just an extra hour of learning a day for these students. Still, it’s a “really critical” change for families, said Maggie Moroff, a special education policy expert at Advocates for Children, who said that even pre-pandemic students at home were getting far fewer hours of instruction when compared to their peers in school.

“There was so little oversight, and experiences were so dramatically different, but in a world where more and more students are needing to learn from home in order to remain healthy and safe, we really want to make sure that they get the supports that they need,” Moroff said.

The state also created several more requirements that districts must meet.

Previously, there was no required timeline around how quickly students could be approved and receive such instruction. Starting this July, districts must start home or hospital instruction for a child within five school days of either being notified of that student’s medical condition or a guardian’s request for such instruction — whichever happens first. Districts must decide and notify parents whether their child is eligible for home or hospital instruction five days after a parent or guardian sends a doctor’s note verifying the child’s medical condition. Parents can appeal a denial within five days, but the district must continue providing services while the appeal is being considered.

Creating an approval timeline could also have a big impact on families. Moroff said some cases took so long for services to be set up, that some children lost months of schooling.

“We would wait sometimes for months for their home instruction to start, even after it had been approved,” Moroff said.

The state is also requiring districts to create plans for these students that describe how many hours of instruction they’ll receive and how their lesson plans are keeping them on track — something New York City already does, the city spokesperson said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Proposal would make it easier for NY students to pass Regents exams

2022-05-17T14:50:38+00:00

Update: The Board of Regents approved this proposal on Tuesday, May 17.

After a third school year disrupted by the pandemic, New York state officials want to allow students to more easily appeal failing scores on Regents exams, starting this spring through the end of next school year.

Students now must earn a 65 or higher to pass Regents exams, which are required to earn a high school diploma. But students could appeal scores of 50-64 if they pass the related course under a proposal expected to come before the state Board of Regents Tuesday. If approved, the change would go into effect immediately, likely allowing more students to meet graduation requirements.

The changes are meant to soften the blow COVID has had on schools across the state this year and would mark the third year in a row that officials have changed rules around New York’s high school exit exams. The pandemic has “continued to have adverse impacts on students and schools,” and that instruction has “varied significantly across the state,” state officials wrote in a memo about the proposed changes.

New York is approaching a “high alert” level for COVID with hospitalizations on the rise, and it’s possible schools could see yet another major disruption to student and staff attendance. During the omicron variant surge after winter break, cases skyrocketed among New York City schools students and staff, disrupting schooling and leaving children at home with little to no instruction.

While attendance improved after that surge, chronic absenteeism in New York City could reach the worst levels since at least 2000 if attendance rates don’t improve.

The temporary changes proposed Monday make it significantly easier for students to appeal failing scores. That may ultimately help to once again boost the state’s graduation rate, which was on the rise before the pandemic but has continued to increase as Regents have been canceled or decoupled from graduation requirements.

Currently, students can appeal failing scores of 60-64, with some exceptions for students learning English as a new language and students with disabilities. But there are a slew of other restrictions: Students can only appeal a score if they’ve failed the exam at least twice, have passed the related course, have received extra academic help in the subject, and are recommended for an exemption by a teacher or department chair. Students can only appeal scores on two of their five Regents exams that are required to graduate. Under the proposal, students must pass the related course but don’t need to meet any of these other requirements through next school year. Their parent or guardian, however, may refuse a granted appeal if they want the student to receive more instruction.

Regents exams have been a long debated topic in New York, one of about a dozen states that administers a high school exit exam. State officials are rethinking the role of the exam and will launch a pilot program looking at new ways to earn a diploma. In recent years, the Regents have made it easier to meet exam requirements by approving more pathways to graduation and lowering the score needed for an appeal.

This will be the third school year that state officials have tweaked rules about Regents exams in response to the pandemic. State officials canceled the exams when the pandemic first hit in the 2019-2020 school year. In the 2020-2021 school year, students were not required to pass exams in order to graduate as they currently are, and most Regents exams were canceled. January exams were canceled this year during the omicron surge.

Regent Roger Tilles, who represents Long Island, criticized the department’s decision to continue with the exams this year and said they are “twisting like a pretzel” to make the exams work instead of rethinking how they are being administered this year.

“Virtually everything on Long Island is being disrupted fairly drastically, and I’ve talked to a number of school superintendents, and their numbers are very high of kids who are out of school right now, and I think we ought to reevaluate how we are re-administering the Regents,” Tilles said.

Asked why the state didn’t instead remove the exams as graduation requirements, a spokesperson pointed to the proposal memo, which said the exams are important “as one of multiple measures of student achievement in the 2021-2022 school year.” The tests can help determine whether students are achieving state learning standards, the memo said, and help state officials determine steps “to foster equity and improve educational opportunities.”

But decades of research shows these exams don’t better-prepare students for life after high school and, in fact, can harm students of color from low-income families.

One Brooklyn high school principal said he expected the state to expand safety net options for students this year, as rates of chronic absenteeism have shot up and COVID has continued to disrupt instruction with many students and staff forced to isolate at home.

But the principal, who requested anonymity to speak freely, questioned the decision to make the exams easier to pass rather than canceling them.

“The breadth of material tested is so large that every teacher who teaches Regents feels that content pressure at the best of times,” the principal said. “This year, so many students are out so many days, the crunch becomes exacerbated.”

Even though the exams will be easier to pass, students still will face pressure to score well above a 50, as low Regents scores typically appear on student transcripts, the principal said.

“On top of all the trauma and challenges they’ve been through over the past two years, I’m not sure what the state is hoping to accomplish by having the Regents exams at all,” he added.

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC to expand transfer high schools to help English language learners

2022-05-11T22:10:53+00:00

New York City education officials are planning to expand the number of transfer high schools that can serve students learning English as a new language, using a Bronx school for newcomer immigrants as one model, according to a top department official.

The city shared few details but the move could be an answer to calls from advocates who want more support in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx for new immigrant students, who can struggle to find schools that fit their academic needs and ultimately may not graduate on time or even stay in school. The city defines a newcomer immigrant student as someone who has been in the United States for three years or less, but officials did not specify whether other English learners would qualify for the seats.

The Education Collaborative has been pushing for such an investment since before the pandemic, arguing that newer immigrant students may be juggling work and family responsibilities, know limited to no English, or have gone years without formal education before arriving in New York, but cannot find high schools that meet their academic and social-emotional needs. These advocates have been working with education department officials to craft a pilot program that would place more English-as-a-new-language teachers and bilingual social workers in some of the city’s existing transfer schools, which are designed for any student not on track to graduate on time. Sixteen percent of English language learners dropped out last year, compared with 5% of all city students.

A primary goal of the pilot is to bring more intensive support to schools in neighborhoods where immigrants actually live. Four of the five existing transfer schools that serve students learning English as a new language are located in Manhattan, and one is in the Bronx, even though the majority of newer immigrants, ages 14-21, live in the Bronx, followed by Queens and Brooklyn, according to Census data analyzed by the Migration Policy Institute.

In April, department officials said they have been working with advocates on the idea, but any decisions will include “input from our superintendents, school leaders, and communities.” On Tuesday, Deputy Chancellor Carolyne Quintana said the city is planning to “expand the number of transfer schools that currently serve the needs of our English language learner population” in the upcoming school year. She pointed to English Language Learners and International Support Preparatory Academy in the Bronx as a model to follow. ELLIS Prep is one of the city’s five transfer schools for English learners and specifically serves newcomers.

Quintana told City Council members they want to develop individual schools down the road that serve these students “and wherever possible…design or find existing transfer schools so that they can meet the needs of our English language learners by using models that are already successful.”

The Education Collaborative’s proposed pilot program would cost $8.2 million over three years to reach 400 newcomer immigrant students, with $2.1 million next school year alone. The money would be infused into a handful of existing transfer schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. In addition to ENL teachers and bilingual social workers, the money would cover overtime for teachers planning summer and after-school programs, training for current teachers to work with newer immigrant students, student internships, wraparound support provided by community-based organizations, and enrichment programs for students who are two or more years below grade level in their home language in literacy, math, or both.

The education department is looking at districts where programs like ELLIS Prep don’t currently exist and “working very closely with our school design folks to make those decisions and to build those out as soon as we can,” Quintana said.

A department spokesperson declined to answer questions about Quintana’s comments, including whether she was referring to the pilot that advocates are proposing, saying only, “More to come soon.”

Advocates — who held a rally on the education department’s front steps Wednesday in support of the city expanding these programs — were surprised by Quintana’s comments. Officials haven’t confirmed to advocates that they will be expanding these programs, but have previously said they’re “committed” to making them work, said Andrea Ortiz, education policy manager at the New York Immigration Coalition, who has been working on the pilot program proposal.

“We haven’t heard anything about new schools, but we will take them if they come,” Ortiz said. “We know that’s a longer-term process — it might take a few years to find funding for that. That’s why the pilot program was a great first step: We can create a model, and then if we have the funding and we have the energy for a new school, then we know what to do and how to implement it.”

ELLIS Prep Principal Norma Vega said she was “grateful” that her school is being considered a model, but she hasn’t heard anything from department officials about helping to duplicate it. Department officials visited her school last month, she said, but this initiative was not mentioned.

Rather than creating individual programs, Vega thinks the city should focus on creating dedicated new schools like hers for new immigrants, primarily because she thinks the principal should be solely focused on that student population since they can have varying degrees of high needs.

But with dipping enrollment, it may be tough for city officials to justify opening new schools.

“If the leader doesn’t feel passionate about it, then it’s not going to work,” Vega said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

What the education panel’s rejection of NYC’s funding formula means for schools

2022-04-28T23:52:27+00:00

What began Wednesday night as a routine vote by the city’s Panel For Educational Policy ended with concern among principals, union officials, and even the schools chancellor about the potential delay of school budgets and plans for the upcoming school year.

The panel, a mostly appointed board that makes decisions on major contracts and policies, rejected an annual request from the city to approve its 15-year-old school funding formula, which sends more money to schools that are struggling academically, as well as those with higher shares of students with disabilities and English language learners.

The formula accounts for about $10 billion in funding and makes up 65% of a school’s budget, most of which goes toward hiring staff, and the vote could delay school leaders’ ability to build classes for their students next year, said Lindsey Oates, the department’s chief financial officer. Though city officials said they are “committed” to reviewing the formula, Chancellor David Banks called the vote “deeply disappointing.”

The matter may be made moot by a May 18 meeting if all of Mayor Eric Adams’ appointees are present — one of them was absent Wednesday night — or if he appoints a new panel member to replace one he forced to resign in March.

Either way, the controversy highlights longstanding concerns about whether the formula is equitable enough, such as it not providing extra support for students who are homeless. When members of the public raised those concerns, at least one panel member who had planned to vote “yes” abstained instead.

“It was a moral vote in the sense of making sure that we held the city accountable for once again forgetting the most vulnerable students,” said panel member Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, who was appointed by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “We do not in any shape or form want it to impact school communities, and we will definitely do our best to push forward and to have some form of clarity or agreement.”

The panel’s vote is unlikely to have an immediate effect on school budgets, according to a former senior education department official who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely. But if the panel does not approve the funding formula at its next meeting in May, or if panel members approve a modified version that requires recalculating school budgets, that could delay principals’ ability to plan and make hiring decisions for next school year since they won’t have a clear sense of their upcoming budgets.

“Do I think it’s the end of the world? No,” the former official said. “Do I think it’s a really bad practice? Yes.”

How did this happen?

The mayor appoints nine people, or a majority, to the 15-member board, meaning the administration’s proposals are rarely rejected. However, Adams has failed to replace a minister who was forced to resign after the New York Daily News revealed her anti-gay writing.

Additionally, another mayoral appointee was absent because of a family emergency, according to Gregory Faulkner, panel member and mayoral appointee. That left the administration with seven of the eight votes they needed. While they all voted yes, the members appointed by borough presidents all abstained, and the elected member, Tom Sheppard, voted no.

Wednesday night’s vote stunned some observers. To some, the vote suggested that City Hall and the education department were not paying close enough attention to how PEP members planned to vote — or even ensuring they had filled every vacancy allocated to the mayor.

“Weeks leading into a PEP meeting you had to understand where people were on the issues,” the former education department official said. “Is someone managing this process?”

Still, the former official said: “The likeliest outcome is they commit to the PEP to rethink the funding formula for next year and they bring it back for a vote.”

That’s along the lines of what Salas-Ramirez is hoping for. Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, education department officials briefed the panel members on the funding formula.

Salas-Ramirez said she raised concerns about the formula during her group briefing and in a one-on-one discussion with a department official.

Eventually, Salas-Ramirez felt that Oates and other department officials were frank with her, understood that the formula needs to change, and were committed to reworking it, so she had planned to vote “yes” Wednesday night.

“But then last night, the community outreach was so powerful,” Salas-Ramirez said. “Having so many [Community Education Council] members and folks in the community talking about the inequities in the Fair Student Funding formula for students with disabilities, the limitations that it has in terms of serving marginalized communities, the lack of accountability of students who live below the line of poverty and temporary housing — all of those things really resonated with us.”

Some of the panel members seemed to be swayed by NeQuan McLean, president of the parent council in District 16, who said that he was part of a city task force that spent nine months making recommendations to change the formula that were ultimately not released to the public.

A copy of that draft report, which was never officially released by the de Blasio administration, shows nine recommendations. They include adding new weight to the formula for students living in poverty, are homeless or in foster care, and increasing weight for high schools to match those that have “specialized academic portfolios” — an issue related to how the formula sends money to some higher performing schools, which tend to enroll fewer Black and Hispanic students.

There were no specific recommendations about what the weights should be, but instead suggestions on what steps the city should taske next. Some of the recommendations appeared to have the support of a majority, but not all, task force members.

Members of the panel asked why that report wasn’t released, and some asked to see a copy, including Salas-Ramirez. Faulkner, the mayoral appointee, said in an interview that he’d like a copy, too.

On Wednesday night, Oates, who worked during de Blasio’s tenure, said she “cannot speak to the previous administration’s decision to not release the report,” but noted that the release was planned around when the pandemic hit.

She said the city should discuss how the formula can be improved and that she understands “the frustration” around the task force’s work not being released or enacted upon. But what should also be considered is that the recommendations in the report “would require new resources to pay for [them]” which won’t be an easy lift. Despite this, the city previously addressed one of the biggest criticisms by giving schools all the money they were owed under this formula, following historic increases in state funding and an infusion of federal stimulus dollars.

Salas-Ramirez said she and other borough appointees had no plan to abstain together during the Wednesday vote, and said she abstained instead of voting “no” because she had not discussed the matter with Levine, her appointer. Still, she called the resulting vote “a strategy” to get the city to commit to working on a revamp of the formula.

“What we can do with this vote is take this opportunity to have a formal commitment to make a change by next year,” she said.

Faulkner said he felt fully informed during his briefings. He agrees that there are problems with the formula, but last night felt like the wrong time to vote it down. He also felt “somewhat surprised” by the comments because no one on the panel had raised issues with the formula until Wednesday night.

“I think there are definitely issues with the formula but because it was last-minute, we need to err on the side of, ‘What’s gonna do the least harm?’” Faulkner said. “If this was a bad formula, like, OK, I get it, but do we now put all of the kids in jeopardy?”

What does this mean for schools?

It wouldn’t be the first time school budgets would be delayed. Oates said schools received their budgets in July and June in 2020 and 2021, respectively, due to the “extreme fiscal crisis” the city was facing due to the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, schools typically received their budget plans in mid-May, meaning that they knew how much money they would get for the following school year and could begin to make decisions on hiring and how many classes they may need.

Former Washington Heights principal Julie Zuckerman said the delay in her budget last year caused a hiring mess at her school. She was feuding with the education department over an apparent miscalculation, which prevented her from hiring another teacher before the start of the school year — issues that perhaps could have been resolved had her budget come on time.

“It’s a many-tiered situation, and when one little piece goes off, it has a lot of repercussions,” Zuckerman said.

Mark Cannizzaro, head of the city’s principals union, said he doesn’t anticipate a major impact to school budgets if the PEP approves the funding formula at its next meeting but warned of disruptions to school planning if funding uncertainty extends beyond that.

“It’s got to be straightened out at the next meeting,” he said. “The city and the DOE should have made sure this was going to pass prior to the vote.”

Before the vote was cast, Banks said his immediate reaction upon hearing concern from panel members was to table the matter, but it was too late to do that.

“Essentially what we’re saying is that we don’t have time to address it now, which leaves you essentially with no choice as PEP members in how we should be moving forward,” Banks said. “I’m not happy with that process.”

An education department spokesperson declined to say what the city was planning to do next.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

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

Advocates seek more school programming for NYC’s newcomer immigrants

2022-04-21T18:13:49+00:00

Choosing a public high school can be a daunting process for New York City families. But it can be particularly confusing for older students who are new to the United States, speak limited to no English, and in some cases, may have gone years without formal schooling.

For years, immigration advocates have cited those students as they pushed the city to create more school programs tailored to the needs of new immigrants — and this year, they may get their wish.

The Education Collaborative, a coalition of more than 30 community organizations, wants the city to launch a three-year, $8.2 million pilot program that would hire more teachers and bilingual social workers to work with up to 400 more newcomer immigrant students, ages 16-21. Those staff, paired with professional development for current teachers, would be directed to several of the city’s existing transfer schools, which are for students not on track to graduate on time.

“Public schools are in many ways largely inaccessible for thousands of newcomer youth from the ages of 16 and up,” said Andrea Ortiz, senior manager of education policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, which helped draft plans for the pilot.

Every city school must identify and provide extra language services to students learning English as a new language and receive extra funding to do so. However, newcomer immigrant youth often face even more challenges, such as balancing a job with school, than others learning the language. They also report that they don’t receive enough support in learning English at school, or that it’s tough for them to navigate and understand classwork. Advocates point to the city dropout rate as a key indicator of these problems: 16% for English learners last school year, compared with 5% of all students.

Those schools may also lack enough teachers trained in serving English learners or bilingual social workers. And the teens might be refugees or the officially designated Students with Inconsistent/Interrupted Formal Education — meaning that they’re two or more years below grade level in their home language in literacy, math, or both.

There are five transfer schools with more intensive programming for students learning English as a new language. The pilot program would expand that sort of model into Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. Four of the five existing schools are located in Manhattan and one is in the Bronx, even though the majority of newer immigrants ages 14-21 live in the Bronx, followed by Queens and Brooklyn, according to Census data analyzed by the Migration Policy Institute.

“It’s very frustrating and actually quite depressing for us as advocates because we know that when we meet a student who lives geographically far from the [English language learner] transfer schools, we know immediately it is going to be an uphill battle,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students Rights Project at Advocates for Children New York.

Carolyne Quintana, deputy chancellor of teaching and learning, said the city plans “to increase the number of transfer schools for newcomer [English language learners]” during a town hall meeting last month.

Asked about Quintana’s comments, city officials say they have been working with these advocates and are interested in the idea, as Mayor Eric Adams crafts a budget plan for next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

“Expanded access to high quality transfer school programs for older newcomer students is one way we can meet the needs of students who need alternative forms of education in supportive, welcoming environments,” said Nicole Brownstein, a spokesperson for the education department, in a statement.

Immigrant students face struggle to find right services

Just under 22,000 immigrants ages 14-21 lived in New York City for three years or less — the city’s definition for a newcomer — between 2015 and 2019, according to Migration Policy Institute’s analysis. Nearly 18% of them — or 3,900— were not enrolled in school or had not yet received a diploma or an equivalent. Just 500 of those non-enrolled teens were ages 14 or 15, while the rest were between 16 and 21 years old.

Like any city resident, newly arrived immigrant youth have the right to enroll in school up to age 21. But for many years, advocates have highlighted complaints from their newcomer immigrant clients that they’ve struggled to find a program that fits their needs or is nearby, or both. Sometimes students have reported being told by enrollment staff that they’re too old to enroll and are better off pursuing a GED — a complaint that state officials also received in 2019 about New York City’s enrollment practices.

If the pilot program is established, just over $480,000 would go to each participating school. Among other things, that money would go toward:

hiring an English as a new language (or ENL) teacher
a bilingual social worker
overtime pay for school year and summer planning
wraparound supports provided by community-based organizations
professional development so that all teachers at the school can learn how to work with older immigrant students
student internships
enrichment for SIFE students

During visits to the five transfer schools focused on students learning English as a new language, Rodriguez-Engberg was struck by how many students said they were glad to have a bilingual social worker who “could help them navigate not just school life but life in the U.S.” Students may be dealing with varying levels of trauma, she said, such as coming to the U.S. alone, leaving conflict behind in a home country, being detained at the border before being released, or just missing home.

Still, the dropout rate is high at those five schools: 29% for English learners on average, or 13 percentage points higher than for English learners citywide.

But Ortiz, from New York Immigration Coalition, noted that these programs tend to serve a higher proportion of high-needs English learners, such as low-income students and those who have not had formal education for multiple years.

In four of the five schools, more than 73% of students are English learners. In two of them, more than 92% are English learners, and at all of the schools, 78% or more students are low-income.

“This is a population that’s being pulled in a lot of directions that often has really real responsibilities — they are oftentimes being pushed to work and support their families — but that doesn’t meant they don’t need a school option or the time they were in school is not worth celebrating,” Ortiz said.

‘I would refer it to everybody’

Georges Remy, who is now 23, graduated from one of the Manhattan transfer schools in 2019, two years after arriving in New York City from Haiti. He felt welcome in the school because there were many students like him who were new to the country. His teachers took time to translate their lessons into various languages, and had an open door policy before and after class to seek out help.

Georges Remy

He attended after-school classes, and also credits his guidance counselor who checked in on him throughout the week and encouraged him to pursue an advanced Regents diploma.

“Personally, I would refer it to everybody who comes to the U.S.,” he said.

The pilot program’s effectiveness will rely not just on the hiring of more ENL teachers, but also how well other subject area teachers are trained in serving English learners, said Sebastian Cherng, an associate professor of international education at New York University who has studied the city’s English learners.

The state has previously highlighted the city’s failure to provide enough services for the city’s English language learners in a yearslong corrective action plan to improve how it educates these students.

Last August, state officials told city officials they were “extremely dismayed and disappointed by the overall lack of bilingual education programs,” according to a letter obtained by Chalkbeat through an open records request. The city has also failed to provide legally required bilingual special education services to most English learners with disabilities.

One of the city’s priorities is to boost the 60% graduation rate for English language learners, a department spokesperson said, though her response to a question about the issue from Chalkbeat did not specifically mention older immigrant students. Its efforts to address the issue include building teams of teachers who create a “welcoming environment” for English language learners, and teaching immigrant students about financial aid options and their rights as they figure out life after high school.

While $8.2 million for the pilot program is a start, the city should consider a larger investment, Cherng said.

“It is the last time that many of our young people will experience schooling,” he said. “It has broader implications than just academic stuff, but also a sense of belonging.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC schools have spent just half of this year’s COVID relief, report says

2022-04-12T22:32:08+00:00

Last spring, New York City schools celebrated its receipt of $7 billion in federal stimulus dollars as the administration of former Mayor Bill de Blasio planned how it would reopen buildings following two school years disrupted by the pandemic.

But as of the first week of March, the education department had spent just half of the $3 billion in federal COVID stimulus dollars it had planned to spend through June 30, according to a new report from Comptroller Brad Lander. All of the money can be spent through the 2024-2025 school year.

De Blasio and his administration last year devised a plan to spend those stimulus dollars on a slew of items. That included operating school buildings, extra academic support for students, and an ambitious new reading and math curriculum.

The report, based on data obtained from the education department, found the city has spent:

Less than a quarter of the $984 million plan for boosting academic recovery and instructional support
24% of what had been planned for investments to care for “the whole child,” which includes social emotional supports
65% of costs associated with reopening school buildings

The education department called the report a “mischaracterization of our stimulus spending to date” because “the snapshot of data as of early March does not account for all spending,” said Dan Weisberg, first deputy chancellor, in a statement.

“This funding continues to be available to the Department of Education beyond this year, and we are evaluating ways to utilize any unspent funds to continue supporting students and schools going forward,” Weisberg continued.

New York City’s slow spending mirrors issues seen in school systems across the nation facing labor shortages and supply chain issues that have struggled to spend their COVID relief dollars.

In response to questions from the comptroller’s office, education department staff blamed the underspending on many reasons, including pandemic-related delays, difficulties in hiring and supply chain issues, and problems with contracting and procurement, the report said.

But separately, a department spokesperson said the “full and final account” of stimulus spending won’t be known until the fall, when the city completes its fiscal year accounting. She added that spending in many categories, such as building accessibility, will rise “significantly” before the end of this fiscal year.

Reasons for underspending can include “work not beginning until later in the fiscal year to goods and services having not yet been fully received,” for various initiatives, the spokesperson said.

In a news release, Lander raised concerns about his office’s findings.

“The city cannot afford to squander this opportunity to invest in the programs and supports to help our young people begin to succeed again academically, process the trauma they’ve experienced, and address long-standing inequities in our school system,” he said. “We still have an opportunity to spend this one-time funding wisely – but the clock is ticking.”

In some areas, the department appeared to be near or on track with that spending. It has spent most of the money it earmarked for reopening school campuses, which includes health and safety costs, and to “maintain current services.” It spent about 70% for its Summer Rising program that wrapped up in August, but city officials said the remainder of the money can be used in the future.

The comptroller’s office raised concerns about the low spending for academics and so-called “supporting the whole child” initiatives, which include social and mental health supports. Spending delays, the report said, “mean that schools are failing to provide urgently needed additional support” after “the trauma of the prior two school years.”

Slow spending on academic support

The city has spent 22% of the nearly $1 billion it had planned for extra academic support and programs, the report found. Included in that bucket was $350 million that went directly to schools to provide extra tutoring for their students and professional support for teachers. Schools have spent just under a third of that money, according to the report. Chalkbeat reported in February that some school leaders were struggling to spend this money because they couldn’t persuade enough staff to work overtime and oversee such programs and services. This money was reserved for this year only, and schools must return any unused money.

Academic recovery also included a $49 million initiative called “Early Literacy for All,” which included a tool to screen K-2 students for reading skills, as well as hiring more reading coaches and providing more training to K-2 teachers. The city has spent $10 million for this.

The department has only spent 12% of the $251 million it planned for extra support in special education and creating more pre-K special education seats. At least $158 million of that money went directly to schools to provide extra services for students with disabilities. But Chalkbeat recently reported that just 35% of the children who were offered services will have participated. On top of staffing issues, children were not guaranteed transportation to these programs, and some parents said it was unclear what services their children would receive.

About $17 million has been spent of $202 million planned for the creation of a new culturally responsive reading and math curriculum, called “Mosaic.” The plan was originally to roll out the curriculum by the fall of 2023, but education department officials told the New York Daily News last month that it will only be available to middle school grades by then.

Low spending on ‘whole child’ investments

Similar to academics, the city has spent about 24% of its planned investments in initiatives to support “the whole child.” The city has spent just a third of its planned $80 million for social-emotional support, which includes plans to hire more social workers and a three-year, $18 million contract for a screener for schools to assess their students’ social-emotional skills. Officials have spent $1 million of the $12 million reserved for expanding restorative justice programs.

Lander’s office noted that these funds can be rolled into the $1.8 billion in federal funds planned to be spent next fiscal year, which begins July 1. They can either be used as planned or allocated to different priorities.

The report suggests the department could use unspent funds to provide salary parity to teachers and staff at community-based preschool special education programs. It could also be used to increase support for English language learners, for whom advocates had hoped there would be specific, dedicated COVID stimulus funding, similar to the money for students with disabilities.

The education department is expected to release an updated spending plan for stimulus dollars “in the coming weeks,” according to Lander’s report.

Here is a link to the report.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Here are education highlights from New York’s state budget

2022-04-18T19:37:04+00:00

New York state lawmakers passed a budget over the weekend that will boost funding for New York City schools by about 4% per pupil next school year.

The city’s public schools will receive just over $12 billion in state funding. State funds represent roughly 40% of the city’s education operating budget.

School funding is usually a bitter battle among lawmakers and advocates during budget season. But lawmakers reached a deal last year to fully fund Foundation Aid, the formula that sends more dollars to high-needs schools.

As a result, even the most fervent school funding advocates shifted their attention to expanding other programs and initiatives. One of the largest pushes went toward expanding subsidized child care across New York.

The final budget deal calls for $7 billion in early child care funding over the next four years, which could pave the way for universal child care and greatly expand access for New York City families. But some advocates and lawmakers were disappointed by that level of funding and are frustrated that it still excludes children who are undocumented.

Lawmakers also passed legislation to mandate electric school buses and instituted some funding changes for private special education programs, which serve public school children with the most challenging disabilities and have been struggling to retain teachers.

Here are highlights from the state budget.

NYC schools get $56 million less than proposed

New York City schools will see about $475 million more in state funding next school year. That figure is $56 million less than what Gov. Kathy Hochul had proposed; it wasn’t immediately clear why the final budget sent less money to the city.

Unlike previous years, it was clear from the governor’s proposal in January that school districts would receive an influx of cash following commitments last year to boost Foundation Aid, which gives districts the most flexibility, including the ability to hire more teachers or create new programs.

Some advocates, however, were disappointed not to see a funding increase for career and technical education programs. The New York State Educational Conference Board, a coalition of large school organizations, including the state teachers union, had called for updating a three-decade-old formula that helps fund career and technical education. The state’s Board of Regents also asked for more funding.

“Completing high school should put every young person on a path toward success in adult life,” Charles Dedrick, executive director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, said in a statement. “Quality CTE programs have proven to be an effective option for students, including those planning to enter the workforce, to pursue further education, or both.”

Thousands more NYC families will be eligible for subsidized child care

The state’s $7 billion, four-year agreement for expanding subsidized child care would make it more affordable for families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty limit, or around $83,000 for a family of four. Previously the upper limit was around $55,500 for a family of four, or 200% of the poverty level.

While the final deal did not make care free, keeping in place co-payments that advocates had hoped would be eliminated, those payments are now capped at 10% of a family’s income.

About 74,000 more New York City children under the age of 5 will be eligible for significantly subsidized care, for a total of about 290,000 children across the five boroughs, according to an analysis of 2019 Census data conducted by United Neighborhood Houses, which represents child care providers.

Children who are undocumented will not be included, leaving an estimated 5,000 children across the state excluded from the program. Because state and federal dollars are “co-mingled” for subsidized child care, covering undocumented children would violate federal law, according to a spokesperson for Hochul’s office.

But advocates believe officials could separate out state funds and use them specifically for excluded children. It could work like the state’s excluded workers’ funds, which provided benefits to New Yorkers who lost work during the pandemic but were left out of federal relief programs, said Gregory Brender, director of public policy for the Day Care Council.

Many advocates called the investment “historic” for the industry and for families desperately in need of support. But some who had called for even more funding said the plan will fall short and cause families long waits for subsidized care — leading at least one leading lawmaker behind the universal childcare push, Sen. Jabari Brisport, to vote against the budget.

New York City in recent years has significantly expanded free child care for 3- and 4-year-olds through free preschool programs, but families with infants have struggled to find and afford care.

It remains to be seen how many families will take advantage of more affordable care and how the rollout will work. In 2019, more than 93,000 families qualified, yet only about 8,000 were enrolled in publicly supported programs, according to public data analyzed by the Citizens’ Committee for Children, or CCC, a nonprofit advocacy group.

The annual cost of care is about $18,000 to enroll in center-based programs or about $10,000 for programs that are run out of providers’ homes. Many women who left the workforce during the pandemic have not returned, with 35% of those reporting lack of childcare as the reason, according to census data analyzed by CCC.

Providers, meanwhile, have struggled since well before the pandemic. Many operate as private businesses, while those that participate in public programs say the rates they’re paid do not come close to covering costs. COVID only made things more difficult, with more expenses and plummeting enrollment. Many were forced to close.

Districts will start purchasing electric buses

The final budget requires all school districts to use zero-emission school buses that don’t use gasoline by 2035. Starting in 2027, districts can only purchase or lease green buses, or they must require the same of companies they contract with for transportation services.

This follows a law passed by New York City Council in November 2021 requiring that all school buses in use are zero-emission by 2035. Roughly 10,000 school buses service New York City, according to the New York State Association for Pupil Transportation, or NYAPT.

Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had committed last April to changing 75 of 960 city-operated buses to electric by 2023, costing $30 million. The city contracts with other companies to run other school buses. An education department spokesperson said there have been no changes to de Blasio’s commitment.

Hochul had pitched the change in her budget proposal in January, earning pushback from NYAPT and other school advocates over the complicated logistics that could arise from the mandate. The groups worried about the costs that would come along with the mandate, such as building charging stations.

To meet the mandate, a district without any electric buses would have to convert close to 8% of its fleet on average annually in order to meet the new requirements by 2035.

NYAPT estimated the new mandate will cost at least $1 billion a year across the state, assuming about 4,000 new zero-emission buses are purchased annually. That organization had called for allowing districts to convert 5% of their fleets annually beginning in 2029, or pushing the start date of the mandate out to 2035, while letting districts choose a fleet of all-electric school buses or “a diversified fleet of school buses is more appropriate when considering the safety, environmental, and economic factors of their school district.”

A spokesperson for the association did not immediately share its response to the final budget.

The budget dedicates $500 million for zero-emission school buses in the state’s environmental bond act, a borrowing plan that must still be approved by voters this November. It also allows districts to apply for a two-year extension to meet the requirements of transitioning their fleets.

Dedrick, from the state’s superintendents group, said the $500 million allocation “will be a significant help to school districts.”

Private special education funding

Advocates and education policymakers had hoped for changes in how New York funds state-approved, privately run special education programs that serve thousands of school-age and preschool children with severe disabilities.

But those requests didn’t make it into the final budget.

Advocates welcomed a commitment from Hochul to boost funding for these programs by $240 million. But there was no final deal to freeze a complicated policy called “reconciliation,” which they argue could make the funding increase moot.

Under reconciliation, not only must programs return state funding they don’t use in a given school year, they also lose that funding in the following year. That means, for example, that if a teacher quits, and the school is unable to hire a replacement, then the school will not get the money for that position in the following year, said Chris Treiber, associate executive director for children’s services at InterAgency Council of Developmental Disabilities Agencies, Inc., which represents these programs.

“Our schools are so understaffed, they’re unable to recruit teachers, teacher assistants and clinicians,” Treiber said. “If they had to spend all this money in one fiscal year, they never would be able to.”

Last school year, 853 schools which serve school-age children had a teacher vacancy rate of 29%, while preschool programs had a vacancy rate of 33%, according to figures from Treiber’s organization.

The final budget allows these programs to retain a certain portion of unspent funding. Over the next three years, schools can hold on to up to 11% of surplus funding. That percentage would decrease to 8% in the 2025-2026 school year, to 5% the following year, and then 2% by 2027-2028 and annually after that. Treiber said his organization is still working to understand how exactly this would impact their programs.

Stagnant state funding has contributed to the closure of these programs and a shortage of seats for 3- and 4-year-olds with disabilities.

More than 22,000 New York City children are enrolled in these programs. Rate increases for the preschool special education programs stalled after the 2008 recession. Since 2015-16, the state has approved a 2% annual rate increase, which trails what public schools and programs for older children have received.

Hochul vetoed a bill in December that would have provided preschool special education programs with the same annual rate increase that school districts receive.

On Monday, State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said she’s concerned about these programs closing due to funding issues, leaving children with the most severe disabilities with fewer options. Her team also requested just over $1 million to begin reviewing the tuition rate-setting methodology, but that, too, was left out of the final budget.

“While we are still looking at this issue, we do believe the tuition rate setting methodology is one that has to be addressed,” Rosa said. “We are hopeful we can continue the dialogue because there has to be a full understanding of the long-term implication this has.”

More mental health and tuition help

A total of $100 million in state grant matching funds will be available over the next two years to match what school districts are spending to address the fallout from the pandemic, including for student mental health and academic recovery. Hochul pitched this in her budget proposal in hopes of helping school districts address a youth mental health crisis spreading across the nation.

That funding will match what school districts are spending, including on extended day and after school programs and hiring mental health professionals.

The state will also spend $150 million toward New York’s Tuition Assistance Program in order to help cover tuition for 75,000 more part-time college students.

Christina Veiga contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Correction: This story previously stated the state has expanded free child care. In fact, more families will now qualify for subsidized care, but families will still be required to contribute a co-payment capped at 10% of their income.

New York’s $7 billion deal could pave the way for universal child care

2022-04-18T19:35:51+00:00

Gov. Kathy Hochul is pledging a historic $7 billion in child care funding for New York families as part of this year’s state budget deal announced Thursday.

Lawmakers must still vote to approve the budget deal that Hochul said she’s reached with leaders of the state Assembly and Senate. If passed, the multi-billion-dollar investment would be spread over the next four years, paving the way for universal child care and helping to stabilize an industry shaken by COVID.

Hochul said the deal would double how much the state currently spends on subsidized child care and expand the number of eligible families.

It’s unclear how the state will roll out the ambitious expansion, which would dramatically increase which families qualify for reduced-cost care and steer more money toward providers.

“What we’re seeing in New York could propel us to the national forefront,” said Steven Morales, New York policy director for All Our Kin, a national nonprofit organization that supports child care providers who work out of their own homes.

Hochul did not share more specifics about the deal, and her office did not immediately respond to questions. Two sources familiar with budget negotiations said they are expecting subsidies for free care to include families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty limits by August, up from the current 200%. That means that a family of four earning around $83,000 would qualify for subsidized child care. Previously the limit was around $55,500 for a family of four. (The final deal did not make care free, keeping in place co-payments that advocates had hoped would be eliminated.)

Some advocates were disheartened by the deal. Alliance for Quality Education, which had pushed for a $5 billion investment next year alone, believes the plan falls short and will lead to a “slow roll out” that may force parents to remain on wait lists for years or “continue to be forced to pay high costs” for child care.

“The issue with all of this is that they are doing a lot more in terms of including more families with the 300% eligibility, but they’re not adding a lot more money, so it’s almost like this illusion that more families will get access to child care when they actually know the counties will run out of money quickly,” said Jasmine Gripper, executive director of Alliance for Quality Education.

In a significant loss for advocates, children who are undocumented will not be eligible for subsidized care, leaving out an estimated 5,000 children across the state who are excluded from more affordable programs because of immigration status, according to an estimate from Empire State Campaign for Child Care.

Children who are citizens but whose parents immigrated without papers could still qualify for care, but advocates worried that work requirements would be a barrier for those families, especially those who “work under the books and get paid in cash,” Gripper said. It is unclear what work requirements would look like for the program or if any changes are being considered.

For providers, sources said they expect the budget will include just over $340 million in stabilization grants to help cover the costs of operating through the pandemic. The sources also expect the state will change the way it calculates reimbursement rates and help centers stay financially viable over the longer term by paying providers more than they currently receive to care for young children.

Many of these investments have been on the wish lists of early childhood education advocates for years. Jessica Sager, All Our Kin CEO and co-founder, said the pandemic finally made the need for child care more obvious than ever as parents struggled to teach their children from home or had to leave the workforce altogether.

“We have been forced, as a society, to deal with the consequences of this broken system,” Sager said.

New York City has significantly expanded child care for 3- and 4-year-olds through free preschool programs in recent years, but families with infants have struggled to find and afford care.

In 2019, there were more than 200,000 infants living in New York City and more than 93,000 whose families qualified for subsidized care because of their income. Yet only about 8,000 were enrolled in publicly supported programs, according to public data analyzed by the Citizens’ Committee for Children, or CCC, a nonprofit advocacy group.

It costs almost $19,000 to enroll in center-based programs or more than $10,000 for programs that are run out of providers’ homes, putting care out of reach for many families. Many women who have left the workforce during the pandemic have not returned, with 35% of those reporting lack of child care as the reason, according to census data analyzed by CCC.

Providers, meanwhile, have struggled to make ends meet since well before the pandemic. Many operate as private businesses, while those that participate in public programs say the rates they’re paid do not come close to covering costs. COVID made things more difficult, with more expenses and plummeting enrollment. Many were forced to close their doors.

Jennifer March, executive director of CCC, said the proposals from the state Senate and Assembly, which called for investing at least $3 billion, had the potential for “real impact on the workforce, real impact on parents and their ability to work and access affordable care, and real impacts on children,” March said.

Gregory Brender, director of public policy for the Day Care Council, said his organization is still hoping to push lawmakers to make care eligible for more families even after the budget is finalized, including those with varying immigration statuses.

“Child care has been treated differently than public education, where it’s been based on income requirements and work requirements and other requirements,” Brender said. “We really need to move to a system where early childhood education is a right.”

Christina Veiga is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on school diversity and preschool. Contact Christina at cveiga@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Correction: This story previously stated the state budget deal would expand free childcare. In fact, the deal expands which families qualify for dramatically subsidized care, but co-payments will still be required.

Summer jobs for all — except NYC’s undocumented youth

2022-04-06T21:50:46+00:00

Three years ago, then-16-year-old Javier hoped to get a summer job to gain some work experience.

He tried filling out an application for the city’s sprawling Summer Youth Employment Program, but quickly discovered that applicants needed a social security number. He didn’t have one. Javier, who emigrated from Honduras to Brooklyn in 2016, is an undocumented immigrant.

The teen “was disappointed with the system.” He couldn’t understand how the city expected him to attend school and graduate but wouldn’t let him get professional experience.

“I know they are trying to give us as much knowledge as they can for the future,” said Javier, who asked to use his middle name for privacy reasons, “but when I discovered I can’t be part of the program, it was like, damn, how this is possible?”

The city’s Summer Youth Employment Program, or SYEP, is the largest of its kind in the country, offering job and enrichment opportunities to youth ages 14-24. Participants are paid minimum wage, or $15 an hour, while younger youth get a stipend.

Mayor Eric Adams plans to expand the program from about 75,000 slots to 100,000 this summer. His goal is to offer a job opportunity to every young person who wants one.

But this city program still excludes undocumented youth, who may have entered the United States without legal permission or have stayed longer than they were authorized to. There were 77,000 undocumented youth ages 16-24 in New York City in 2019, according to Julia Gelatt, senior policy analyst at Migration Policy Institute. (A breakdown of 14 and 15-year-olds was not available.)

Officials say there are legal barriers that prevent them from offering jobs to undocumented youth through the $170 million summer program, which is funded largely through city dollars but also through millions in federal and state aid.

“Because SYEP is an employment program and youth are paid a wage, federal guidelines require that participants are legally allowed to work in the United States and must be able to submit their I-9 documentation,” or documents that verify an employee’s authorization to work, said Mark Zustovich, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, which oversees SYEP.

Lowell Herschberger, who helps pair youth with jobs through SYEP at the nonprofit Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, said he gets questions every year from school leaders and youth about opportunities for undocumented people.

“SYEP has done some innovative things around partnering with schools to make a more cohesive and great program that goes year-round, but the undocumented youth continue to be left out in the cold,” he said.

Advocates say these children’s families are more likely to need the cash that comes from SYEP since they are not eligible for many public benefits and tend to work in low-wage jobs. Nearly 29% of undocumented New Yorkers were living in poverty as of 2017, according to city estimates. That’s compared to 18% of naturalized citizens at the time.

Advocates and lawmakers are searching for a workaround. Some have suggested offering stipends to youth instead of paychecks to avoid legal issues. The program itself could be around enrichment and work-based learning instead of traditional employment.

The city and state have implemented multiple programs to offer more benefits and rights to immigrant New Yorkers, including undocumented youth, such as offering tuition assistance for the state’s public universities through the New York DREAM Act, said Vanessa Luna. She is co-founder of ImmsSchools, which holds family workshops and provides professional development for educators on supporting undocumented students.

“I think we have a responsibility as the largest district in the country to create a pathway to internships for students that are immigrants that have different types of immigration status,” Luna said.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said he’s lobbying for a program that would operate parallel to SYEP, offering “educational enrichment” programming to undocumented youth that would provide participants with a stipend instead of a paycheck.

He unsuccessfully proposed legislation to create such a program in 2019.

Advocates are concerned, however, that undocumented youth could be paid less and not get the same type of work opportunities as their peers under such a structure. Youth without social security numbers, for instance, cannot be paid over $599 because anything above that requires filing work authorization documents, said Monia Salam, program director for work-based learning at ExpandED schools.

Some programs have been able to work within these confines, Salam pointed out. Last summer, for example, the city offered $599 stipends to nearly 500 students at 19 schools with high immigrant populations for participating in “work readiness” training, she said. Participants were not asked for their social security numbers.

“The problem is that all of these solutions are just duct tapes — they are not systemwide solutions, they’re not equitable,” Salam said. “What we’re asking for is that the city commits to this and says, ‘We’re gonna have a summer job for all young people regardless of their immigration status and create a system similar to SYEP where everyone can apply.’”

Williams acknowledged that equity is a concern, but that a systemwide change could involve big hurdles, such as changing federal laws. His idea, he argued, provides some level of access to everyone.

He said he’s had some preliminary discussions with the Adams administration about his vision.

Zustovich, from DYCD, said the Adams administration would welcome a change in federal laws and “is proactively investing in unique programs to address those disparities and, to the extent possible, help level the playing field for undocumented youth.” He did not immediately elaborate on those programs.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

11th-hour changes may be coming to NYC’s high school admissions

2022-03-04T20:14:32+00:00

Despite New York City’s looming high school application deadline, last-minute changes might be on the horizon, schools Chancellor David Banks suggested Friday.

Banks has been listening to concerns from parents and elected officials about the new admissions process and could announce changes “very early next week, Monday or Tuesday, exactly what position we will take,” he said during a state hearing over mayoral control of city schools.

Every New York City public school student must apply to attend high school. They rank their top-12 high school programs and are eventually matched with a school. Banks noted that he’s up against a deadline: Applications are due March 11. Any new changes to the labyrinthine admissions process stand to cause panic among families who have navigated the new system and have already submitted applications or have, at the least, decided which schools to rank.

Banks didn’t detail what changes he’s considering, but he noted that the process at some of the city’s coveted “screened” schools is a lottery this year — which has resulted in backlash from parents of students with high grades and been criticized for harming Asian American students.

“It’s a process that I kind of inherited as I got here, and I didn’t have a long time to fully absorb all of it,” Banks told state lawmakers. “And I know decisions had to be made for parents to know what’s going to be happening for next year ... And if there’s a change that’s going to be made, you’ll know about that over the next couple of days.”

Announced this winter, the process now includes a “centralized” screening rubric that schools can choose to use instead of creating their own admissions criteria. Schools can screen for grades from a student’s seventh and eighth grade years — whenever their marks are the highest. They cannot consider attendance or test scores, since last year’s state tests were opt-in and most students did not take them.

This year, students will be placed in four different groups based on how high their grades are. The education department will then run a lottery, beginning with the students with the highest marks.

While most high schools in New York City have no admissions criteria, about 100 screen for at least one program. Eight of the city’s prestigious specialized high schools admit students based on an exam. (A ninth specialized school for the arts uses auditions.)

Integration advocates welcomed the changes, but backlash stemmed from families of children with high grades about how students will be chosen.

At a Queens public meeting last month, department officials said they expect the new process to result in a 13% increase in offers made to Black and Latino students, who, along with English language learners, students with disabilities, and low-income students, are underrepresented at many of the city’s most competitive schools

Vocal parents have complained that the new model doesn’t acknowledge the hard work of students with top grades, and that the rigor of instruction will be watered down if students with a greater range of academic achievement are admitted to the city’s most competitive schools.

Felicia Wilson, a parent in Morris Park in the Bronx, hasn’t been very concerned about the new lottery system because there aren’t as many screened schools in the Bronx as other boroughs. She’s not sure she wants her son traveling very far because she’s worried about his safety, so Wilson said she would like to see more screened schools in her borough.

The biggest obstacle in the process, she said, has been simply trying to find information about schools near her. Wilson started a Facebook group just for Bronx parents weighing their high school options, but said it would be more helpful if the city centralized information, such as when campuses host open houses.

“If you are a parent who is in the Bronx, a lot of the schools that are here are not being talked about in those groups, and a lot of the schools that are also being talked about tend to be the schools that are the screened schools — the schools that everybody is killing themselves to get into,” she said. “If you’re a Bronx parent, a lot of the things that they’re talking about may not apply to you.”

Francine Almash, a member of the Citywide Council on High Schools, an education department advisory group, said she has been dismayed by debate around the lottery system. She said it has taken focus away from how the process disadvantages certain students, including those who, like her own son, have a disability.

“I am of the camp that I thought the high school process was bad to begin with. I actually think the changes that we’re making are a move in the right direction,” she said. “I actually think there is a small number of parents making a lot of noise about this idea, that one of the things that’s happening is that we’re losing our ability to sort and segregate students the way we used to be able to.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Christina Veiga is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on school diversity and preschool. Contact Christina at cveiga@chalkbeat.org.

Bucking national trends, NYC’s 2021 graduation rates inched up as state eased requirements

2022-02-16T21:40:29+00:00

You can find your school’s graduation rate using the searchable table at the bottom of this story

Graduation rates in New York City rose to 81% last school year, about 2 percentage points higher than the previous year, state officials announced Wednesday.

Across the state, 86% of students graduated — roughly 1 percentage point higher than the previous school year.

New York’s data comes as graduation rates have dipped in at least 20 states.

For the second year in a row, as the pandemic disrupted teaching and learning, state education officials made it easier to graduate in the 2020-2021 school year. They canceled most Regents exams and allowed students to be exempt from taking the exams to graduate, since many students were learning exclusively from home. Instead, students had to pass the course tied to the normally required Regents exam.

In New York City, about 60% of students remained fully remote by the end of the school year, while the rest spent most of the year splitting their weeks between learning from home and inside a classroom.

With two years of school disruptions, many students who graduated in 2021 did not have the opportunity to take Regents exams during their junior or senior years, which is when many of the exit exams are typically taken, state officials said. Because of that, a total of 44,545 New York City seniors — or nearly three-quarters — were granted at least one waiver last year for the exams, compared with roughly 8,000 seniors in 2020. Statewide, 82% of seniors were granted an exemption.

Betty Rosa, the state education department’s commissioner, told reporters that canceling the Regents exams was “likely a factor” in the graduation rate increase. But, she added, the magnitude of the effect “can not be determined, as many of these affected students would have passed the Regents exam” had the tests still been offered.

Along with rising graduation rates, dropout rates dipped. Five percent of city students dropped out — 1 percentage point less than last school year — compared to 4.2% statewide.

‘Identify where inequities exist’

Graduation rates of New York City’s Asian students far outpaced their peers. Roughly 91% of Asian students graduated within four years, compared with 82% of white students, 79% percent of Black students and 78% of Latino students.

White students saw graduation rates dip by 2 percentage points year-over-year, unlike their Asian, Black and Latino peers, who saw rates increase.

Students learning English as a new language and children with disabilities continued to graduate at significantly lower rates than their peers — but there was improvement compared to last year.

English learners posted a graduation rate of 60%, more than 14 percentage points higher than last year. The big jump might be due to the cancellation of the English Regents exam, state officials said. Additionally, students who may no longer have met “English Language Learner” status could not test out of the program in 2020, since the exam was canceled that year, and was not required for remote learners last year. Former English language learners tend to post graduation rates that are higher than students citywide, and these students may have skewed this year’s results.

About 58% of students with disabilities earned their diplomas, 5 percentage points higher than 2020.

While graduation rates were highest in Staten Island and Queens at about 85%, they grew the most in the Bronx, to 77% up from 73% in 2020. About 82% of Manhattan seniors graduated, and 78% of Brooklyn’s did.

“Graduation rates are one metric we use to identify where inequities exist so we can better support our students and education communities,” Board of Regents Chancellor Lester W. Young Jr. said in a statement. “Every student can succeed when given the support to do so. Until we address them, inequities will continue to diminish opportunities for too many students.”

‘Focused on graduating’

The state is planning to administer Regents exams this June and August, even though officials canceled the exams in January amid a spike in coronavirus cases, Rosa said.

“We’ve been having all of these conversations, with superintendents, with principals, all of our stakeholders,” she said. “And right now, the Regents exam is still on schedule.”

The lack of Regents exams helped Clementina Sarpong, who graduated last spring as valedictorian from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. She received an exemption her junior year for her Chemistry Regents and another waiver last year for Spanish, which she needed to earn an Advanced Regents diploma.

Teachers also seemed more flexible. For example, Sarpong’s teacher for Advanced Placement biology would give students more time to complete assignments when needed, she said. However, some of her peers said it was tough to grasp complicated concepts through remote learning. They felt it was harder to ask questions in a Zoom chat room, compared with raising their hand in class.

Clementina Sarpong

The isolation of remote learning took a “mental toll,” Sarpong said. She and her fellow student government board members tried to arrange various student events at the start of last year, but the administration denied most of their proposals out of concerns for COVID safety or lacking the funds to put on events, Sarpong said.

“It was a bunch of continuous ‘no’s,’ where we just gave up and focused on graduating,” said the 18-year-old, who now attends a 7-year program at the CUNY College of Medicine to earn her bachelor’s and medical degrees.

The Board of Regents is continuing long-delayed discussions on how to reconfigure New York graduation requirements and have created a blue ribbon commission to study potential changes, but tweaks wouldn’t be considered until at least 2024.

That discussion had been stalled from March 2020 until last fall as state officials responded to the public health crisis. In October, state officials announced a pilot program for alternate ways of earning a diploma that don’t involve taking a Regents exam.

Search for your school’s graduation rate below.

School	# Total Cohort	% Graduated
A PHILIP RANDOLPH CAMPUS HIGH SCHOOL	338	83.4%
A-TECH HIGH SCHOOL	76	85.5%
ABRAHAM LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL	399	86.2%
ACADEMY FOR CAREERS IN TELEVISION AND FI	144	100.0%
ACADEMY FOR COLLEGE PREP & CAREER EXPLOR	59	81.4%
ACADEMY FOR CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRON	65	98.5%
ACADEMY FOR EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP	64	84.4%
ACADEMY FOR HEALTH CAREERS	55	89.1%
ACADEMY FOR LANGUAGE AND TECHNOLOGY	77	100.0%
ACADEMY FOR SCHOLARSHIP AND ENTREPRENEUR	88	79.5%
ACADEMY FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERING	109	92.7%
ACADEMY FOR YOUNG WRITERS	76	92.1%
ACADEMY OF AMERICAN STUDIES	293	99.0%
ACADEMY OF FINANCE AND ENTERPRISE	190	97.4%
ACADEMY OF HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM	62	80.6%
ACADEMY OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY	107	90.7%
ACADEMY OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY - A COLLEG	101	76.2%
ACADEMY OF URBAN PLANNING AND ENGINEERIN	55	100.0%
ACHIEVEMENT FIRST BROWNSVILLE CHARTER SC	77	71.4%
ACHIEVEMENT FIRST CROWN HEIGHTS CHARTER	106	87.7%
ACHIEVEMENT FIRST EAST NEW YORK CHARTER	87	95.4%
ALFRED E SMITH CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUC	101	94.1%
ALL CITY LEADERSHIP SECONDARY SCHOOL	64	98.4%
AMERICAN DREAM CHARTER SCHOOL	74	85.1%
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE & ENGLISH SECONDA	31	93.5%
ANTONIA PANTOJA PREPARATORY ACADEMY - A	60	86.7%
ARCHIMEDES ACADEMY FOR MATH SCIENCE AND	79	67.1%
ART AND DESIGN HIGH SCHOOL	328	93.0%
ARTURO A SCHOMBURG SATELLITE ACADEMY BRO	87	23.0%
ASPIRATIONS DIPLOMA PLUS HIGH SCHOOL	56	16.1%
ASTOR COLLEGIATE ACADEMY	113	78.8%
AUGUST MARTIN HIGH SCHOOL	80	95.0%
AVIATION CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION	459	98.5%
BACCALAUREATE SCHOOL FOR GLOBAL EDUCATIO	116	97.4%
BARD HIGH SCHOOL EARLY COLLEGE	161	95.0%
BARD HIGH SCHOOL EARLY COLLEGE QUEENS	160	98.1%
BARUCH COLLEGE CAMPUS HIGH SCHOOL	127	99.2%
BAYSIDE HIGH SCHOOL	706	99.4%
BEACON HIGH SCHOOL	382	98.2%
BEDFORD ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	83	97.6%
BELMONT PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL	91	75.8%
BENJAMIN BANNEKER ACADEMY	191	95.8%
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL FOR FINANC	106	92.5%
BENJAMIN N CARDOZO HIGH SCHOOL	799	93.4%
BOERUM HILL SCHOOL FOR INTERNATIONAL STU	52	92.3%
BOYS AND GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL	76	81.6%
BRONX ACADEMY FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERING (	81	81.5%
BRONX ACADEMY OF HEALTH CAREERS	83	92.8%
BRONX AEROSPACE HIGH SCHOOL	79	78.5%
BRONX ARENA HIGH SCHOOL	43	23.3%
BRONX BRIDGES HIGH SCHOOL	102	89.2%
BRONX CAREER AND COLLEGE PREPARATORY HIG	65	80.0%
BRONX CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS	110	94.5%
BRONX COLLABORATIVE HIGH SCHOOL	144	88.2%
BRONX COLLEGIATE ACADEMY	86	94.2%
BRONX COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	56	19.6%
BRONX COMPASS HIGH SCHOOL	102	87.3%
BRONX DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ACADEMY	84	72.6%
BRONX EARLY COLLEGE ACADEMY FOR TEACHING	66	98.5%
BRONX ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY	81	79.0%
BRONX ENVISION ACADEMY	102	86.3%
BRONX HAVEN HIGH SCHOOL	51	25.5%
BRONX HEALTH SCIENCES HIGH SCHOOL	60	98.3%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW AND COMMUNITY	84	97.6%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL FOR MEDICAL SCIENCE	70	81.4%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE VISUAL ARTS	123	81.3%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL FOR WRITING AND COMMUN	89	73.0%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS	63	81.0%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL OF SCIENCE (THE)	740	100.0%
BRONX INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	98	88.8%
BRONX LAB SCHOOL	88	79.5%
BRONX LATIN SCHOOL	75	93.3%
BRONX LEADERSHIP ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	123	80.5%
BRONX LEADERSHIP ACADEMY II HIGH SCHOOL	144	80.6%
BRONX PREPARATORY CHARTER SCHOOL	88	81.8%
BRONX REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	53	20.8%
BRONX RIVER HIGH SCHOOL	100	83.0%
BRONX SCHOOL FOR LAW GOVERNMENT AND JUS	115	83.5%
BRONX SCHOOL OF LAW AND FINANCE	100	83.0%
BRONX STUDIO SCHOOL FOR WRITERS AND ARTI	82	81.7%
BRONX THEATRE HIGH SCHOOL	76	88.2%
BRONXDALE HIGH SCHOOL	124	81.5%
BRONXWOOD PREPARATORY ACADEMY (THE)	86	84.9%
BROOKLYN ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	53	11.3%
BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF GLOBAL FINANCE (THE)	23	82.6%
BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND THE ENVI	92	82.6%
BROOKLYN ASCEND CHARTER SCHOOL	88	72.7%
BROOKLYN BRIDGE ACADEMY	68	20.6%
BROOKLYN COLLABORATIVE STUDIES	94	91.5%
BROOKLYN COLLEGE ACADEMY	153	97.4%
BROOKLYN COLLEGIATE: A COLLEGE BOARD SCH	72	88.9%
BROOKLYN COMMUNITY ARTS AND MEDIA HIGH S	128	86.7%
BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL FOR EXCEL	51	80.4%
BROOKLYN DEMOCRACY ACADEMY	64	28.1%
BROOKLYN EMERGING LEADERS ACADEMY CHARTE	52	96.2%
BROOKLYN FRONTIERS HIGH SCHOOL	77	37.7%
BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW AND TECHNOL	109	82.6%
BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOL FOR LEADERSHIP AND	61	19.7%
BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS	217	93.5%
BROOKLYN INSTITUTE FOR LIBERAL ARTS	95	91.6%
BROOKLYN INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	96	82.3%
BROOKLYN LAB SCHOOL	73	97.3%
BROOKLYN LABORATORY CHARTER SCHOOL	89	85.4%
BROOKLYN LATIN SCHOOL (THE)	162	97.5%
BROOKLYN PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL	108	93.5%
BROOKLYN PROSPECT CHARTER SCHOOL-CSD 15	85	98.8%
BROOKLYN SCHOOL FOR MATH AND RESEARCH (T	60	93.3%
BROOKLYN SCHOOL FOR MUSIC & THEATER	68	80.9%
BROOKLYN SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE (THE)	78	84.6%
BROOKLYN STUDIO SECONDARY SCHOOL	159	86.2%
BROOKLYN TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL	1476	96.1%
BROOKLYN THEATRE ARTS HIGH SCHOOL	78	78.2%
BROOME STREET ACADEMY CHARTER HIGH SCHOO	87	59.8%
BROWNSVILLE ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	34	20.6%
BUSHWICK COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	53	22.6%
BUSHWICK LEADERS HIGH SCHOOL FOR ACADEMI	70	84.3%
BUSINESS OF SPORTS SCHOOL	98	86.7%
BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY EARLY COLLEGE HIGH S	119	99.2%
CAMBRIA HEIGHTS ACADEMY	94	87.2%
CAPITAL PREPARATORY (CP) HARLEM CHARTER	17	70.6%
CAREERS IN SPORTS HIGH SCHOOL	114	77.2%
CASCADES HIGH SCHOOL	64	29.7%
CELIA CRUZ BRONX HIGH SCHOOL OF MUSIC (T	90	100.0%
CENTRAL PARK EAST HIGH SCHOOL	130	99.2%
CHANNEL VIEW SCHOOL FOR RESEARCH	151	98.7%
CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW AND SOCIAL J	122	79.5%
CHELSEA CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION H	108	88.9%
CINEMA SCHOOL (THE)	78	94.9%
CITY COLLEGE ACADEMY OF THE ARTS	88	100.0%
CITY POLYTECHNIC HIGH SCHOOL OF ENGINEER	80	96.3%
CIVIC LEADERSHIP ACADEMY	143	94.4%
CLARA BARTON HIGH SCHOOL	277	76.2%
CLAREMONT INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	83	86.7%
CLINTON SCHOOL (THE)	124	97.6%
COBBLE HILL SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIES	120	83.3%
COLLEGE ACADEMY (THE)	88	90.9%
COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE FOR MATH AND SCIENC	153	86.9%
COLUMBIA SECONDARY SCHOOL	94	96.8%
COMMUNITY HEALTH ACADEMY OF THE HEIGHTS	104	91.3%
COMMUNITY SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE	79	67.1%
COMPREHENSIVE MODEL SCHOOL PROJECT MS 32	107	87.9%
CONCORD HIGH SCHOOL	56	28.6%
CONEY ISLAND PREPARATORY PUBLIC CHARTER	78	85.9%
CROTONA INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	91	86.8%
CSI HIGH SCHOOL FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIE	126	100.0%
CULTURAL ACADEMY FOR THE ARTS AND SCIENC	61	88.5%
CURTIS HIGH SCHOOL	656	75.2%
CYBERARTS STUDIO ACADEMY	50	68.0%
CYPRESS HILLS COLLEGIATE PREPARATORY SCH	92	92.4%
DEMOCRACY PREP ENDURANCE CHARTER SCHOOL	76	68.4%
DEMOCRACY PREP HARLEM CHARTER SCHOOL	82	80.5%
DEMOCRACY PREPARATORY CHARTER SCHOOL	80	72.5%
DEWITT CLINTON HIGH SCHOOL	206	90.8%
DIGITAL ARTS AND CINEMA TECHNOLOGY HIGH	72	97.2%
DISCOVERY HIGH SCHOOL	110	90.0%
DR RICHARD IZQUIERDO HEALTH AND SCIENCE	96	77.1%
DR SUSAN S MCKINNEY SECONDARY SCHOOL OF	54	87.0%
DREAM CHARTER SCHOOL	97	99.0%
DREAMYARD PREPARATORY SCHOOL	50	86.0%
EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN	71	83.1%
EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN II	80	95.0%
EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN III	52	86.5%
EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN OF HARLEM	47	72.3%
EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN OF STATEN IS	21	85.7%
EAST BRONX ACADEMY FOR THE FUTURE	106	79.2%
EAST BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	63	28.6%
EAST NEW YORK ARTS AND CIVICS HIGH SCHOO	62	82.3%
EAST NEW YORK FAMILY ACADEMY	66	100.0%
EAST SIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOL	79	92.4%
EAST WILLIAMSBURG SCHOLARS ACADEMY	51	76.5%
EAST-WEST SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIE	86	96.5%
EBC HIGH SCHOOL FOR PUBLIC SERVICE-BUSHW	116	93.1%
EDWARD A REYNOLDS WEST SIDE HIGH SCHOOL	85	11.8%
EDWARD R MURROW HIGH SCHOOL	867	85.9%
EL PUENTE ACADEMY FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE	47	76.6%
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL	133	100.0%
EMMA LAZARUS HIGH SCHOOL	95	48.4%
ENERGY TECH HIGH SCHOOL	110	94.5%
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND INTERNATIO	79	46.8%
EPIC HIGH SCHOOL - NORTH	111	92.8%
EPIC HIGH SCHOOL-SOUTH	97	91.8%
EQUALITY CHARTER SCHOOL	93	87.1%
ESPERANZA PREPARATORY ACADEMY	85	84.7%
ESSEX STREET ACADEMY	95	97.9%
EXCELLENCE GIRLS CHARTER SCHOOL	72	91.7%
EXCELSIOR PREPARATORTY HIGH SCHOOL	96	84.4%
EXIMIUS COLLEGE PREPARATORY ACADEMY: A	105	88.6%
EXPLORATIONS ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	57	78.9%
FACING HISTORY SCHOOL (THE)	66	81.8%
FANNIE LOU HAMER FREEDOM HIGH SCHOOL	113	81.4%
FDNY-CAPTAIN VERNON A RICHARDS HIGH SCHO	53	75.5%
FIORELLO H LAGUARDIA HIGH SCHOOL OF MUSI	768	98.6%
FLUSHING HIGH SCHOOL	320	83.4%
FLUSHING INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	103	83.5%
FOOD AND FINANCE HIGH SCHOOL	81	81.5%
FORDHAM HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS	83	96.4%
FORDHAM LEADERSHIP ACADEMY	65	100.0%
FOREST HILLS HIGH SCHOOL	891	91.6%
FORSYTHE SATELLITE ACADEMY	55	36.4%
FORT HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL	1168	81.9%
FRANCIS LEWIS HIGH SCHOOL	1114	94.3%
FRANK MCCOURT HIGH SCHOOL	103	97.1%
FRANK SINATRA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS HIGH SC	208	98.6%
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL	760	74.5%
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY	187	83.4%
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY II SECONDARY	64	90.6%
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY III SECONDARY	98	74.5%
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY VI HIGH SCHOO	86	48.8%
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY VII HIGH SCHO	26	100.0%
GAYNOR MCCOWN EXPEDITIONARY LEARNING SCH	105	95.2%
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER HIGH SCHOOL FOR	99	84.8%
GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE CAREER AND TECHNICAL	181	90.6%
GLOBAL LEARNING COLLABORATIVE (THE)	113	89.4%
GOTHAM COLLABORATIVE HIGH SCHOOL	143	67.8%
GOTHAM PROFESSIONAL ARTS ACADEMY	31	96.8%
GRAMERCY ARTS HIGH SCHOOL	86	95.3%
GREGORIO LUPERON HIGH SCHOOL FOR SCIENCE	156	96.2%
GROVER CLEVELAND HIGH SCHOOL	407	77.1%
HARLEM CHILDREN'S ZONE PROMISE ACADEMY C	59	98.3%
HARLEM CHILDREN'S ZONE PROMISE ACADEMY I	50	100.0%
HARLEM PREP CHARTER SCHOOL	75	66.7%
HARLEM RENAISSANCE HIGH SCHOOL	87	17.2%
HARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMY EAST CHARTER SCHO	33	97.0%
HARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMY WEST CHARTER SCHO	35	94.3%
HARRY S TRUMAN HIGH SCHOOL	523	80.3%
HARVEST COLLEGIATE HIGH SCHOOL	108	90.7%
HARVEY MILK HIGH SCHOOL	29	62.1%
HEALTH OPPORTUNITIES HIGH SCHOOL	110	75.5%
HERBERT H LEHMAN HIGH SCHOOL	172	80.2%
HERITAGE SCHOOL (THE)	68	75.0%
HERO (HEALTH EDUCATION AND RESEARCH OCC	91	92.3%
HIGH SCHOOL 560 CITY-AS-SCHOOL	196	55.6%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR ARTS AND BUSINESS	172	97.7%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR CIVIL RIGHTS	61	73.8%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE (THE)	134	83.6%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP	126	96.0%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS	109	78.9%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR DUAL LANGUAGE AND ASIAN	99	99.0%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY	81	93.8%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR ENTERPRISE BUSINESS & T	203	85.2%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES	286	93.0%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATIO	56	69.6%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP (THE)	46	87.0%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR HEALTH CAREERS & SCIENCE	112	72.3%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONS & HUM	449	96.4%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR INNOVATION IN ADVERTISIN	55	78.2%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR LANGUAGE AND DIPLOMACY (	44	81.8%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR LANGUAGE AND INNOVATION	109	95.4%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW ADVOCACY AND COMMUN	83	75.9%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW & PUBLIC SERVICE	108	63.9%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS	89	86.5%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR MEDICAL PROFESSIONS	117	89.7%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR PUBLIC SERVICE-HEROES OF	107	92.5%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR SERVICE AND LEARNING AT	70	82.9%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR TEACHING AND THE PROFESS	102	78.4%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR VIOLIN AND DANCE	64	78.1%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR YOUTH AND COMMUNITY DEVE	131	85.5%
HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS SCIENCE AND ENG	139	100.0%
HIGH SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIES AT LEHMA	93	98.9%
HIGH SCHOOL OF APPLIED COMMUNICATIONS	83	98.8%
HIGH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY	99	82.8%
HIGH SCHOOL OF COMPUTERS AND TECHNOLOGY	116	82.8%
HIGH SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS & FINANCE	174	92.0%
HIGH SCHOOL OF FASHION INDUSTRIES (THE)	334	95.2%
HIGH SCHOOL OF HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT	88	79.5%
HIGH SCHOOL OF SPORTS MANAGEMENT	74	73.0%
HIGH SCHOOL OF TELECOMMUNICATION ARTS AN	303	97.0%
HIGH SCHOOL OF WORLD CULTURES	131	91.6%
HIGH SCHOOL-CONSTRUCTION TRADES ENGINE	257	98.8%
HILLCREST HIGH SCHOOL	786	80.8%
HILLSIDE ARTS & LETTERS ACADEMY	105	96.2%
HOSTOS-LINCOLN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE	98	79.6%
HS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AND PUBLIC SAFETY	90	87.8%
HUDSON HIGH SCHOOL OF LEARNING TECHNOLOG	111	85.6%
HUMANITIES AND ARTS MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL	91	91.2%
HUMANITIES PREPARATORY ACADEMY	69	94.2%
HYDE LEADERSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL	19	68.4%
IN-TECH ACADEMY (MS/HS 368)	150	82.7%
INDEPENDENCE HIGH SCHOOL	124	26.6%
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL	243	88.5%
INNOVATION CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL	101	82.2%
INNOVATION DIPLOMA PLUS	51	21.6%
INSTITUTE FOR COLLABORATIVE EDUCATION	71	98.6%
INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONS AT CAMB	110	86.4%
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	103	71.8%
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL AT LAFAYETTE	89	73.0%
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL AT LAGUARDIA C	106	90.6%
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL AT PROSPECT HE	83	80.7%
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL AT UNION SQUAR	94	88.3%
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL FOR HEALTH SCI	70	80.0%
INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP CHARTER HIGH S	67	89.6%
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL FOR LIBERAL ARTS	93	79.6%
INWOOD ACADEMY FOR LEADERSHIP CHARTER SC	121	96.7%
INWOOD EARLY COLLEGE FOR HEALTH AND INFO	102	88.2%
IT TAKES A VILLAGE ACADEMY	165	81.8%
JACQUELINE KENNEDY-ONASSIS HIGH SCHOOL	65	83.1%
JAMAICA GATEWAY TO THE SCIENCES	122	93.4%
JAMES BALDWIN SCHOOL-A SCHOOL FOR EXPEDI	86	54.7%
JAMES MADISON HIGH SCHOOL	994	91.5%
JHS 74 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE	1
JILL CHAIFETZ TRANSFER HIGH SCHOOL	78	23.1%
JOHN ADAMS HIGH SCHOOL	659	83.8%
JOHN BOWNE HIGH SCHOOL	859	79.2%
JOHN DEWEY HIGH SCHOOL	558	82.6%
JOHN JAY SCHOOL FOR LAW	111	84.7%
JOHN V LINDSAY WILDCAT ACADEMY CHARTER S	97	15.5%
JOHN W LAVELLE PREPARATORY CHARTER SCHOO	48	95.8%
JUAN MOREL CAMPOS SECONDARY SCHOOL	64	54.7%
JUDITH S KAYE SCHOOL (THE)	64	34.4%
KHALIL GIBRAN INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY	53	81.1%
KINGS COLLEGIATE CHARTER SCHOOL	81	92.6%
KINGSBOROUGH EARLY COLLEGE SCHOOL	91	100.0%
KINGSBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	119	58.8%
KIPP ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL	69	85.5%
KIPP INFINITY CHARTER SCHOOL	237	89.0%
KNOWLEDGE AND POWER PREP ACADEMY INTERNA	110	100.0%
KURT HAHN EXPEDITIONARY LEARNING SCHOOL	74	67.6%
LABORATORY SCHOOL OF FINANCE AND TECHNOL	88	95.5%
LANDMARK HIGH SCHOOL	73	84.9%
LEADERS HIGH SCHOOL	88	93.2%
LEADERSHIP & PUBLIC SERVICE HIGH SCHOOL	93	87.1%
LEADERSHIP PREPARATORY BEDFORD STUYVESAN	55	94.5%
LEADERSHIP PREPARATORY OCEAN HILL CHARTE	92	90.2%
LEON M GOLDSTEIN HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE SCI	240	95.4%
LIBERATION DIPLOMA PLUS	76	25.0%
LIBERTY HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMY FOR NEWCOMER	155	36.8%
LIFE ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL FOR FILM AND MU	59	96.6%
LONG ISLAND CITY HIGH SCHOOL	499	84.6%
LONGWOOD PREPARATORY ACADEMY	85	82.4%
LOWER EAST SIDE PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL	158	39.2%
LOWER MANHATTAN ARTS ACADEMY	76	80.3%
LYONS COMMUNITY SCHOOL	68	80.9%
MANHATTAN ACADEMY FOR ARTS AND LANGUAGES	62	66.1%
MANHATTAN BRIDGES HIGH SCHOOL	144	95.1%
MANHATTAN BUSINESS ACADEMY	103	93.2%
MANHATTAN CENTER FOR SCIENCE & MATHEMATI	429	97.2%
MANHATTAN COMPREHENSIVE NIGHT AND DAY HI	242	24.0%
MANHATTAN EARLY COLLEGE SCHOOL FOR ADVER	101	92.1%
MANHATTAN INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	72	69.4%
MANHATTAN VILLAGE ACADEMY	119	100.0%
MANHATTAN/HUNTER SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL	110	97.3%
MARBLE HILL HIGH SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL	106	99.1%
MARIE CURIE HIGH SCH-NURSING MEDICINE &	93	82.8%
MARTIN VAN BUREN HIGH SCHOOL	301	87.4%
MASPETH HIGH SCHOOL	400	99.3%
MATH ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE ACADEMY CH	125	94.4%
MATHEMATICS SCIENCE RESEARCH AND TECHNO	109	73.4%
MAXINE GREENE HIGH SCHOOL FOR IMAGINATIV	91	78.0%
MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL	234	96.2%
METROPOLITAN DIPLOMA PLUS HIGH SCHOOL	112	19.6%
METROPOLITAN EXPEDITIONARY LEARNING SCHO	102	100.0%
METROPOLITAN HIGH SCHOOL (THE)	82	73.2%
METROPOLITAN SOUNDVIEW HIGH SCHOOL (THE)	101	76.2%
MICHAEL J PETRIDES SCHOOL (THE)	111	96.4%
MIDDLE COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL AT LAGUARDIA	109	89.0%
MIDWOOD HIGH SCHOOL	994	95.7%
MILLENIUM ART ACADEMY	100	79.0%
MILLENNIUM BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOL	173	99.4%
MILLENNIUM HIGH SCHOOL	158	99.4%
MORRIS ACADEMY FOR COLLABORATIVE STUDIES	117	91.5%
MOTT HALL BRONX HIGH SCHOOL	86	84.9%
MOTT HALL HIGH SCHOOL	46	80.4%
MOTT HALL V	93	95.7%
MOTT HAVEN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	111	52.3%
MOTT HAVEN VILLAGE PREPARATORY HIGH SCHO	70	61.4%
MULTICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL	72	87.5%
MURRAY HILL ACADEMY	75	84.0%
MURRY BERGTRAUM HIGH SCHOOL FOR BUSINESS	21	81.0%
NELSON MANDELA HIGH SCHOOL	45	88.9%
NEW DAWN CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL	99	29.3%
NEW DAWN CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL II	79	0.0%
NEW DESIGN HIGH SCHOOL	100	87.0%
NEW DIRECTIONS SECONDARY SCHOOL	60	36.7%
NEW DORP HIGH SCHOOL	755	88.9%
NEW EXPLORATIONS INTO SCIENCE TECH AND M	131	99.2%
NEW HEIGHTS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL	81	88.9%
NEW UTRECHT HIGH SCHOOL	814	73.8%
NEW VENTURES CHARTER SCHOOL	67	34.3%
NEW VISIONS AIM CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL I	59	27.1%
NEW VISIONS AIM CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL II	110	12.7%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR ADVA	125	98.4%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR ADVA	118	95.8%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR ADVA	83	97.6%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR ADVA	124	96.0%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE	101	84.2%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE	114	100.0%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE	46	95.7%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE	68	94.1%
NEW WORLD HIGH SCHOOL	73	83.6%
NEW YORK CITY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR AR	106	94.3%
NEWCOMERS HIGH SCHOOL	217	74.7%
NEWTOWN HIGH SCHOOL	463	74.5%
NORTH QUEENS COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	41	2.4%
NORTHSIDE CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL	82	93.9%
NUASIN NEXT GENERATION CHARTER SCHOOL	50	92.0%
NYC AUTISM CHARTER SCHOOL EAST HARLEM	8	0.0%
NYC ISCHOOL	116	100.0%
NYC LAB HIGH SCHOOL FOR COLLABORATIVE ST	109	96.3%
NYC MUSEUM SCHOOL	105	98.1%
OLYMPUS ACADEMY	61	27.9%
OPPORTUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL	52	90.4%
ORCHARD COLLEGIATE ACADEMY	65	93.8%
ORIGINS HIGH SCHOOL	83	92.8%
PACE HIGH SCHOOL	141	75.2%
PAN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	102	93.1%
PAN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL A	84	89.3%
PARK EAST HIGH SCHOOL	92	100.0%
PARK SLOPE COLLEGIATE	82	79.3%
PATHWAYS COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL: A	73	95.9%
PATHWAYS IN TECHNOLOGY EARLY COLLEGE HIG	106	81.1%
PELHAM LAB HIGH SCHOOL	119	75.6%
PELHAM PREPARATORY ACADEMY	123	92.7%
PERFORMING ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHO	75	86.7%
PHAROS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL	51	64.7%
PORT RICHMOND HIGH SCHOOL	403	82.9%
PREPARATORY ACADEMY FOR WRITERS: A COLL	92	87.0%
PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS HIGH SCHOOL	90	24.4%
PROFESSIONAL PERFORMING ARTS HIGH SCHOOL	96	99.0%
PROGRESS HIGH SCHOOL FOR PROFESSIONAL CA	166	71.7%
PROVIDING URBAN LEARNERS SUCCESS IN EDUC	67	10.4%
PS 116 MARY LINDLEY MURRAY	1
PS 24 SPUYTEN DUYVIL	1
PS 43	1
QUEENS ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	132	15.2%
QUEENS COLLEGIATE - A COLLEGE BOARD SCHO	112	91.1%
QUEENS GATEWAY TO HEALTH SCIENCES SECOND	92	97.8%
QUEENS HIGH SCHOOL FOR INFORMATION RESE	110	89.1%
QUEENS HIGH SCHOOL FOR LANGUAGE STUDIES	105	91.4%
QUEENS HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE SCIENCES AT Y	129	100.0%
QUEENS HIGH SCHOOL OF TEACHING LIBERAL	211	94.8%
QUEENS METROPOLITAN HIGH SCHOOL	250	85.6%
QUEENS PREPARATORY ACADEMY	76	85.5%
QUEENS SATELLITE HIGH SCHOOL FOR OPPORTU	57	10.5%
QUEENS SCHOOL OF INQUIRY (THE)	81	95.1%
QUEENS TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL	371	83.8%
QUEST TO LEARN	82	84.1%
RACHEL CARSON HIGH SCHOOL FOR COASTAL ST	151	88.7%
RALPH R MCKEE CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCA	198	79.3%
RENAISSANCE CHARTER SCHOOL	53	86.8%
RENAISSANCE HIGH SCHOOL FOR MUSICAL THEA	115	85.2%
REPERTORY COMPANY HIGH SCHOOL FOR THEATR	57	96.5%
RESEARCH AND SERVICE HIGH SCHOOL	68	27.9%
RICHARD R GREEN HIGH SCHOOL OF TEACHING	86	88.4%
RICHMOND HILL HIGH SCHOOL	447	74.0%
RIVERDALE/KINGSBRIDGE ACADEMY (MS/HS 141	188	91.5%
ROBERT F KENNEDY COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	158	88.0%
ROBERT F WAGNER JR SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR	114	96.5%
ROBERT H GODDARD HIGH SCHOOL FOR COMMUNI	159	98.7%
ROCKAWAY COLLEGIATE HIGH SCHOOL	81	79.0%
ROCKAWAY PARK HIGH SCHOOL FOR ENVIRONMEN	64	82.8%
SATELLITE ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	80	12.5%
SCHOLARS' ACADEMY	179	100.0%
SCHOOL FOR CLASSICS HIGH SCHOOL	51	78.4%
SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE	85	60.0%
SCHOOL FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (THE)	78	88.5%
SCHOOL FOR TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY	41	51.2%
SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE HIGH SCHOOL	101	97.0%
SCHUYLERVILLE PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL	101	85.1%
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH EARLY COL	85	100.0%
SCIENCE SKILLS CENTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR SC	154	99.4%
SOUTH BRONX COMMUNITY CHARTER HIGH SCHOO	85	75.3%
SOUTH BRONX PREPARATORY - A COLLEGE BOAR	81	97.5%
SOUTH BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	92	30.4%
SPECIAL MUSIC SCHOOL	45	100.0%
SPRING CREEK COMMUNITY SCHOOL	62	83.9%
STATEN ISLAND TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL	332	99.7%
STEPHEN T MATHER BUILDING ARTS AND CRAFT	104	88.5%
STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL	809	99.5%
SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL-HARLEM 1	70	81.4%
SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL-HARLEM 3	64	82.8%
SUMMIT ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL	38	73.7%
SUNSET PARK HIGH SCHOOL	269	88.5%
SUSAN E WAGNER HIGH SCHOOL	808	89.1%
TALENT UNLIMITED HIGH SCHOOL	110	98.2%
TEACHERS PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL	41	75.6%
THEATRE ARTS PRODUCTION COMPANY SCHOOL	71	81.7%
THOMAS A EDISON CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDU	558	94.1%
THURGOOD MARSHALL ACADEMY FOR LEARNING &	79	82.3%
TOTTENVILLE HIGH SCHOOL	953	95.9%
TOWNSEND HARRIS HIGH SCHOOL	292	100.0%
TRANSIT TECH CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCAT	132	86.4%
UNION SQUARE ACADEMY FOR HEALTH SCIENCES	89	87.6%
UNITY CENTER FOR URBAN TECHNOLOGIES	58	96.6%
UNITY PREPARATORY CHARTER SCHOOL OF BROO	77	88.3%
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS SECONDARY SCHOOL-BRON	154	98.7%
UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOOD HIGH SCHOOL	134	98.5%
UNIVERSITY PREP CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL	106	95.3%
URBAN ACADEMY LABORATORY HIGH SCHOOL	44	56.8%
URBAN ACTION ACADEMY	48	66.7%
URBAN ASSEMBLY ACADEMY OF GOVERNMENT AND	60	88.3%
URBAN ASSEMBLY BRONX ACADEMY OF LETTERS	79	83.5%
URBAN ASSEMBLY CHARTER SCHOOL FOR COMPUT	2
URBAN ASSEMBLY GATEWAY SCHOOL FOR TECHNO	105	99.0%
URBAN ASSEMBLY INSTITUTE OF MATH AND SCI	61	96.7%
URBAN ASSEMBLY MAKER ACADEMY	104	95.2%
URBAN ASSEMBLY NEW YORK HARBOR SCHOOL	126	89.7%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR APPLIED MATH A	86	89.5%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR COLLABORATIVE	88	90.9%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR EMERGENCY MANA	55	92.7%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR GLOBAL COMMERC	59	78.0%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR GREEN CAREERS	75	94.7%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR LAW AND JUSTIC	108	92.6%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR LEADERSHIP AND	87	92.0%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR MEDIA STUDIES	98	88.8%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR MUSIC AND ART	23	82.6%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR THE PERFORMING	97	81.4%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS FOR YO	35	74.3%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND CONS	57	84.2%
URBAN DOVE TEAM CHARTER SCHOOL	76	13.2%
URBAN DOVE TEAM CHARTER SCHOOL II	102	26.5%
VALIDUS PREPARATORY ACADEMY	90	71.1%
VANGUARD HIGH SCHOOL	102	67.6%
VERITAS ACADEMY	158	84.8%
VICTORY COLLEGIATE HIGH SCHOOL	68	86.8%
VOYAGES PREP-SOUTH QUEENS	117	42.7%
VOYAGES PREPARATORY	84	10.7%
W H MAXWELL CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATI	92	82.6%
WADLEIGH SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR THE PERFOR	46	100.0%
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS EXPEDITIONARY LEARNIN	100	93.0%
WEST BRONX ACADEMY FOR THE FUTURE	61	100.0%
WEST BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	62	19.4%
WESTCHESTER SQUARE ACADEMY	112	87.5%
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT HIGH SCHOOL	567	86.8%
WILLIAM E GRADY CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDU	91	73.6%
WILLIAMSBURG CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL	249	83.9%
WILLIAMSBURG HIGH SCHOOL FOR ARCHITECTUR	147	98.0%
WILLIAMSBURG HIGH SCHOOL OF ART AND TECH	76	94.7%
WILLIAMSBURG PREPARATORY SCHOOL	171	98.8%
WINGS ACADEMY	87	71.3%
WOMEN'S ACADEMY OF EXCELLENCE	58	72.4%
WORLD ACADEMY FOR TOTAL COMMUNITY HEALTH	55	70.9%
WORLD JOURNALISM PREPARATORY: A COLLEGE	84	100.0%
WORLD VIEW HIGH SCHOOL	132	100.0%
YORK EARLY COLLEGE ACADEMY	92	98.9%
YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL	79	100.0%
YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL OF BROOK	57	96.5%
YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL OF THE B	62	93.5%
YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL-QUEENS	66	92.4%
YOUNG WOMENS LEADERSHIP SCHOOL - ASTORIA	77	100.0%

School-by-school graduation rates

Kae Petrin

Adams wants summer jobs for all youth who want one. Can NYC scale it up quickly enough?

2022-02-04T19:21:43+00:00

Maria Bonilla began to cry after failing for the sixth year in a row to get a job through New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program. She had applied annually through its lottery-based system since turning 14.

“I really wanted to help my parents with rent and everything,” Bonilla said. “They were struggling.”

Bonilla finally landed a spot when she was 21 and was placed at a Staples store in Brooklyn’s Cypress Hills, where she lived at the time.

“I always wanted to keep myself occupied,” said Bonilla, who is now 27 and works as a medical assistant in Arizona. “I wanted to get some time [and] experience in the summer instead of being in the park hanging with the wrong crowd.”

Despite more attempts, Bonilla never got back into the program, known commonly as SYEP. Just half of the people who apply get spots in the program, which pairs people ages 14-24 with summer jobs at minimum wage, or $15 an hour. But those odds could become less of an issue under a new plan being floated by Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams wants to expand the $170 million program as part of a broader plan he announced last month to combat gun violence. He has revealed few details, but aims to identify a paid internship “for every young person who wants one” for this summer, he said. The city would forge partnerships “with large businesses and corporations across the city” to make that happen.

The program, created in 1963, is the nation’s largest summer jobs program for youth.

On Thursday, city officials said the number of seats and cost of an expanded jobs program have not been determined. The mayor’s office and the Department of Youth and Community Development, or DYCD, which administers the program, is getting feedback and ideas from providers, according to a DYCD spokesperson.

Adams is working with DYCD “to determine the most effective ways to deliver as many jobs and opportunities to young people as possible,” said Lauren Bale, a City Hall spokesperson.

Scaling up to meet ‘universal’ demand

The news has been exciting for SYEP providers, who are community-based organizations that receive city funding to provide job skills training and pair young people with work in such fields as retail, nonprofits, food service, legal services, and government agencies. While many have long hoped for an expansion, it won’t come easily and will need significant financial investments from the city, they said.

“It’s a very important policy position for him to strike early in his mayoralty,” said J.T. Falcone, senior policy analyst for United Neighborhood Houses, or UNH, which represents settlement houses that support summer youth programs. “We just wanna make sure we hammer out all of the details.”

Since 2018, 156,500 youth, on average, applied for the program each year, according to annual city reports, excluding 2020 when the program was slashed because of the pandemic.

To meet “universal” demand, Falcone’s organization believes the city must make 150,000 spots available — roughly double what the program has offered since 2018 (excluding 2020).

Falcone believes that an expansion should include a boost in how much the city pays providers for each youth they are pairing with jobs, which currently ranges from $400 to $1,000, depending on the type of program. (Some programs are reserved for participants who live in public housing or are justice-involved, for example.) This would ensure that organizations can offer more than minimum wage to attract qualified people who can work with young people, especially as various industries are struggling to recruit and hire.

It will also allow providers to hire many more staffers in order to spin up a dramatically larger program, Falcone said.

Last summer, Falcone recalls getting many phone calls from providers who were struggling to find job sites that would agree to take on kids. The program eventually served more youth than ever before in its history — but it took a lot of effort.

“If I think about the calls I got last summer in a bit of panic, I anticipate asking them to double those numbers over the course of a few months is gonna take really hard work,” Falcone said.

UNH plans to propose a gradual expansion, starting with 100,000 spots this summer, 125,000 in the summer of 2023 and finally, 150,000 in the summer of 2024.

A universal program would be “extremely hard” on providers to pull off for this summer but not impossible, so long as there’s enough money in the budget and providers are getting enough support from DYCD, Falcone said.

Lowell Herschberger, the director of career and education programs at the nonprofit Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, is not as optimistic. He believes a universal program is a “fabulous idea,” but believes this summer may be too soon because it would be too difficult to staff up that rapidly.

One challenge in growing seasonal programs, such as SYEP, is working with temporary or seasonal employees, both Herschberger and Falcone said. Those employees leave after a few months, making it tough to retain “institutional knowledge” about the program or build relationships with job sites that can offer work to young people, Herschberger said, whose summer jobs program last year served 479 youth.

One fix to that issue is creating programming that could keep more staff on full time. Herschberger said the city should consider expanding CareerReady and Work Learn Grow — established by the de Blasio administration — which connect children to internships and job skills training during the school year.

That allows providers to keep seasonal staff longer, and more importantly, gives young people more opportunities during the school year, said Herschberger and Falcone.

A DYCD spokesperson said the administration is reviewing those programs “to determine the best investments to make” for city youth.

Youth advocates want a say

Expanding the program could also be an opportunity to consult with more young people about what they want to see, youth advocates say.

Kai-Lin Kwek-Rupp is a 17-year-old senior who, as an advocate at Teens Take Charge, has pushed for expanding the summer youth jobs program. She said she’s heard from many participants who felt they weren’t placed in jobs that piqued their interest. That’s why she believes the Adams administration should consult young people to understand what kinds of opportunities would attract them to the program.

“I think there is an opportunity to create a program where participants are going to programs that really suit their interests and their passions,” Kwek-Rupp said.

A DYCD spokesperson said the agency has “engaged and will continue to engage young people and advocacy groups.” Participants have been surveyed and attend focus groups to “help inform programming,” the spokesperson said.

Kwek-Rupp declined to say whether Teens Take Charge has approached the mayor’s office about his SYEP plans. But she hopes that the administration considers the program as more than a violence prevention initiative.

Adams’ gun violence prevention plan justifies expanding the jobs program as a way to reach “young people long before they turn to guns and violence.” One recent study that examined participants from 2005 through 2008 found that those enrolled in SYEP were 17% less likely to be arrested in those summers compared to youth who applied but were not accepted. However, the study did not find the program had any significant impact at reducing arrests or convictions five years after those summers.

“It’s clear that SYEP does reduce violent crimes, but also, SYEP is so much more than that, and to reduce it to a point in a gun violence prevention program seems to make these assumptions about who is participating and creating this idea that the only reason we’d have such a program is to prevent violence,” Kwek-Rupp said.

NYC to open new school for students with dyslexia, Banks says

2022-01-26T22:51:21+00:00

New York City officials are planning to open a new school focused on serving students with dyslexia, Chancellor David Banks said Wednesday.

Banks made the announcement during a virtual, education-focused state budget hearing, after Bronx Assemblyman Michael Benedetto asked for Banks’ thoughts on screening young children for learning disabilities.

“I’ve met with many other advocates around the city. We’ve worked very closely around the creation of a school, specifically a public school that will be dedicated specifically for kids with dyslexia — be the first time that we’ve had it in New York City,” Banks said. “And so you’ll hear in the coming weeks more about that new school.”

Banks added that Mayor Eric Adams wants such a school “in every borough.”

An education department spokesperson declined to offer more details, including where the school would be located, what grades it would serve, and how students would be admitted. If the new school comes to fruition, it would be the first district-operated school and the second public school in New York City to focus specifically on students with dyslexia. The first, Bridge Preparatory Charter School, opened in 2019.

The chancellor’s comments suggest that addressing gaps in the city’s approach to reading instruction may be one of the administration’s early priorities. Advocates and experts have argued for years that the city has no systematic approach to reading instruction, leading to scattershot approaches at individual schools that often fail to properly serve students who struggle to master the relationships between sounds and letters, one of the hallmarks of dyslexia.

At the same time, an increasing number of students with disabilities, including those with dyslexia, have left the public school system entirely, winning hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tuition reimbursements from the city. That process tends to favor families with time and resources. (In 2019, 16% of the city’s students with disabilities were proficient in reading in grades 3 to 8, compared with 56% of general education students, according to state tests.)

Frustrated with the city’s approach, some parents have been working to launch a public school specifically designed to adopt best practices in teaching students with dyslexia. A group of parents applied to launch such a school in 2019 as part of a flashy effort to open 20 new schools, though that program appears to have stalled during the pandemic and none of those schools have been publicly announced.

Parents Jeannine Kiely, Ruth Genn, Emily Hellstrom, Akeela Azcuy (left to right) submitted an application to open a school dedicated to serving students with dyslexia.

Naomi Peña, the parent council president in Manhattan’s District 1 and part of the parent group working to launch a school geared toward students with dyslexia, said the parents met with Banks in October, before Adams officially won election. “We presented our model, we presented our idea, and he liked it and even had some more feedback,” she said. It was not immediately clear if the new school Banks mentioned on Wednesday is the same as the one outlined in the parent group’s proposal; a department spokesperson declined to comment.

“If they do tap us, we are ready,” said Emily Hellstrom, another parent involved in the project. The group has been in continuous talks with the education department and has been working to line up partners to help provide teacher training, even though the city has not formally greenlit their proposal. “It is so refreshing and exciting to hear the chancellor speak in these terms.”

On the campaign trail, Adams repeatedly mentioned struggling with a learning disability of his own and said he supported universal screening for dyslexia. Some state and city lawmakers have long pushed for more screening, including during Wednesday’s hearing.

Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, officials set plans to screen about 200,000 students in kindergarten to second grade to see if they were struggling readers. While the screens don’t test for dyslexia, literacy experts said they can identify gaps that are associated with dyslexia, Chalkbeat previously reported. That plan was part of the city’s $635 million plan for pandemic-related academic recovery, almost entirely funded by a portion of the $7 billion federal COVID relief dollars for New York City’s school system.

Banks previously indicated that opening new schools will be a component of his administration’s approach as a way to replicate models that are doing good work. The chancellor recently visited The Windward School, a private program that specializes in reaching children with reading challenges, as part of a tour with Brooklyn Assemblyman Robert Carroll, who has advocated for universal dyslexia screening.

“I’m looking in as many places as I can for innovative and dynamic solutions to the pressing issues facing our children and school system,” he said in a statement at the time.

‘Words can’t describe my pain’: NYC schools grapple with grief and loss from Bronx fire

2022-01-14T22:54:01+00:00

Channel Alvarez clutched a bouquet of pink carnations at the makeshift memorial on the fence between her middle school and the Bronx high-rise where a fire had killed 17 people, including one of her classmates, Seydou Toure.

Channel, an eighth grader at M.S. 391, pointed to his picture surrounded by brightly colored flowers. She couldn’t shake the thought that 12-year-old Seydou was so close to her own age.

“He was a nice boy, he was friendly,” Channel said Thursday. “He liked to play. Every time when he walked through the hallway, he said, ‘Good morning.’”

The Sunday blaze, sparked by a space heater, tore through an apartment building known as Twin Parks North West and is considered the worst fire New York City has seen in three decades. So far, eight children are among the dead. About a dozen people remain hospitalized, according to reports.

Multiple school communities are grappling with how to respond as the area’s tight-knit community, largely of Muslims from Gambia and other West African countries, is reeling from grief, loss of shelter or both. Six Bronx schools that serve families affected by the fire are getting extra counseling support, according to the education department. Democracy Prep, a charter school network, did not lose any students, but said it serves 11 students who were impacted in some way. The school is raising money for victims.

Community leaders report that many families are fearful of returning to the apartment building, and some may need to switch schools. Still, in the days and weeks to come, school may be the only place children feel a sense of normalcy, several people echoed.

How to help

The education department’s Bronx borough office is accepting donations, including toiletries, unworn clothing, outerwear, socks, laundry supplies, blankets, bedding and neck pillows. They can be delivered to 1230 Zerega Ave., Monday to Friday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The Mayor’s Fund is also collecting money for fire victims.
M.S. 391 was set with donations for families, according to community group Replications. However, P.S. 85, located at 2400 Marion Ave. in the Bronx, was seeking donations of sanitary napkins and undergarments for young children.
The Gambian Youth Organization, at 214 E. 181st St., is offering water, food and clothes for families in need, as well as mental health support. They also have a GoFundMe page.
Democracy Prep is raising money for its students affected by the fire on its website, and members of its board will match up to $10,000 of contributions.
The American Red Cross can be reached at 1-877-733-2767.

“Public school needs to do the best for them, whatever they can,” said Imam Musa Kabba, who leads a mosque that has become a key gathering place for many of the families displaced by the fire.

Care packages and grief counseling

Kabba’s mosque is near P.S. 85, one of the schools serving children from the Twin Parks North West. Between that school and nearby M.S. 391, as many as 40 children were affected by the fire, said Joahan Suarez, senior program manager for Replications, a community-based organization that partners with both schools to provide wraparound services.

Suarez’s organization has made care packages with toiletry kits and clothes for displaced families. But their biggest focus is ensuring that their mental health professionals, including a psychologist, are helping the schools check in with students and families, giving them a space to talk. School counselors have been calling some of the students each morning. They’re checking on their sleep habits. They’re making sure they’re eating.

“There are children who are saying they’re having a hard time sleeping,” Suarez said. “They’re even having a hard time having a desire to talk to their friends right now.”

Some of P.S. 85’s students from the building returned this week — saying that school is the one place they “have felt a little safety” — but others are not ready, Suarez said.

Volunteers in winter clothing prepare donations of clothes, food, and other items for people displaced by a fire at an apartment building nearby in the Bronx.

Schools this year already needed to take extra care in ensuring that students feel safe and heard after the loss and isolation that they have experienced over nearly two years of the public health crisis, officials and community leaders said. Now, the devastating fire comes during a difficult school year, made even more chaotic after the winter break amid a surge in COVID infections.

“Something we talk about often is compound grief, and that is, our children have suffered so much already. And so this is just another blow to them, to our school community, to our neighborhoods,” said Dr. Roger Ball, head of the education department’s social work team in the Bronx.

“And so part of our responsibility to them long term — not just now, but long term — is to ensure that we are present with them, that all of our kids are connected to caring adults, to make sure that we have the mental health support within our schools community.”

Ball’s team has been working with six Bronx schools to provide grief counseling and check in with children and, in some cases, their families. They’ve seen many kids who were close to peers or relatives who died. Ball noted that grief can come “in waves” and children may display it in vastly different ways — some may laugh when talking about the fire, while others may want to be alone. His team plans to provide extra support to schools who need it in the coming weeks.

The education department is working on other logistics, such as school reassignments or new bus routes for displaced students, said Suzan Sumer, an education department spokesperson.

Educators contending with loss

Mahamed Keita, a substitute teacher and technology support staffer at Bronx International High School, was credited with saving a 3-year-old girl from the building. He has been unable to return to work after losing his own 16th floor apartment — the first he’s ever rented on his own.

On Sunday, as Keita waded through smoke-filled hallways at Twin Parks, he bumped into a mother with two young girls. He carried the younger daughter out of the building, covered her in his jacket, and rode an ambulance with her to make sure she was OK, he said.

The little girl was fine, but Keita received oxygen and was hospitalized for six hours.

Mahamed Keita, a substitute teacher at Bronx International High School, was credited with saving the young girl pictured above from the deadly highrise blaze in the Bronx that left 17 people dead.

Familiar with so many residents who died, he’s still processing the tragedy, he said. Separately, he must see a specialist for the ongoing effects of smoke inhalation. His landlord told residents they could return, but when Keita did, he found the hallways still filled with smoke and his apartment caked in ashes.

He’s staying at a hotel with other residents, where they’ve been told they can remain until Jan. 24. He’s frustrated that they’ve received no answers from the city on what happens after that.

Thankfully, he said, his principal said there’s no rush to return to work while he’s figuring everything out. Keita said the principal has visited him a few times and has called to check in.

“The school has really been helping me a lot,” Keita said. “They’re all calling me.”

Michelle Gabriel, a high school teacher at a Harlem charter school, was caught by surprise on Monday when she discovered three of her students had either been displaced or lost loved ones. One of them, a Gambian student who lost six cousins, three aunts and two uncles to the fire, attended class on Tuesday because she wanted to remain focused on school, Gabriel said.

Gabriel upended her lesson plan for the day and instead asked students to write letters to the victims. The student who lost relatives — who Gabriel said has requested anonymity — drafted a 974-word note for Mayor Eric Adams, raising concerns about the conditions of the building and whether the city cares for its low-income, immigrant communities.

The space heater that caused the fire has highlighted concerns over adequate heat in the building. Additionally, a door that should have automatically closed failed to do so and allowed smoke to spread. Residents had logged building complaints about both problems in recent years, but city records showed the issues had been resolved.

“Where will survivors live? How will you, the city, and the government help these families? And what is the next step towards a better future?” the student wrote in the letter. “Like many others, I have cried every single day since that fire. Words can’t describe my pain. I have little hope due to the government failing us over and over again.”

NYC schools failed to provide students with adequate remote learning access: lawsuit

2022-01-06T21:25:40+00:00

When the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to go remote in March 2020, Queens mom Marie struggled to help her then-seventh grader access coursework using her phone or computer.

Because her daughter had fallen so far behind, she was mandated to go to virtual summer school. Despite obtaining an internet-enabled iPad for summer classes, the seventh grader could not get Zoom or other applications to complete assignments. School officials repeatedly told the family there was nothing they could do, she said.

Ultimately, her daughter had to repeat seventh grade, said Marie, who asked to use her middle name for privacy reasons and is one of five families suing state and city officials over their failure to provide adequate internet access and working devices to city students, particularly low-income children of color. The families are represented by attorneys from from Legal Services NYC, Arnold & Porter, and the Education Law Center.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in New York State Supreme Court, alleges that top state and city officials knew the scope of the digital divide as the pandemic progressed, but failed to properly address it. It claims that the city violated state and city law by not providing a “sound, basic education,” resulting in a disparate impact on low-income children and those of color, and is calling for academic services to help affected students catch up.

Marie’s daughter continued to learn at home during the 2020-21 school year with a faulty device and still had trouble accessing websites or certain assignments, Marie said. The school gave her a new device in October 2020, but that one didn’t work well, so Marie purchased high-speed internet from Spectrum hoping that would solve the problem. It didn’t, she said. According to the lawsuit, she still pays more than $100 a month for that service, which she said she cannot afford.

Marie said her daughter became depressed — she struggled both with school and with being held back a grade as her friends moved on. At one point, Marie said she took her daughter to the emergency room because she had attempted suicide.

“You have no idea psychologically what this did to my child,” Marie said through tears. “As a mother, this broke me. I did everything I could. I did everything I did to try to help her.”

‘Falling behind’

Many children were left without a connection to their teachers and classes, the suit said, which names Gov. Kathy Hochul, State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa, former Mayor Bill de Blasio and former schools chancellor Meisha Porter as defendants.

When the families in the lawsuit, as well as others, reached out to their schools or the education department for help with getting or paying for internet, they were instructed to reach out to local internet providers and request discounts, the complaint said.

A basic internet plan costs an average $40 a month in New York City, where about 45% of low-income families don’t have a connection, and 100,000 city children live in homes without internet, according to a 2020 analysis from former Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Even though this lawsuit comes nearly two years after the pandemic started, the attorneys said they only filed it after repeated attempts to contact the education department and find solutions for their clients. Additionally, they said, remote learning in some form will likely persist as children may have to go remote and quarantine if they test positive for COVID as the city experiences another massive surge. (Classes are also remote on Election Day as well as snow days.)

“It’s our hope that the city will act quickly to fix this and not choose to litigate for years before addressing these problems,” said Lucy S. McMillan, one of the attorneys behind the suit. “The point is that these students have missed so much, and they are falling behind. If it takes years to assess this and implement some sort of remediation, that’s not going to be helpful for these students, who are getting older every year. Our hope is that the city will take this on now.”

When the pandemic first shuttered schools, city officials had to quickly distribute hundreds of thousands of devices to students across the nation’s largest school system. The city would go on to spend nearly $260 million on 511,000 internet-enabled iPads that were purchased from the 2019-20 school year through last school year, plus $4 million a month for data plans, according to an audit by Stringer.

But that massive task took months to carry out. Five weeks after schools closed, 19,000 children were still waiting for devices, the lawsuit noted.

Many families struggled to get online, sometimes barred from discounts offered by internet companies aimed at helping school children. Even with internet-connected iPads in hand, families still ran into spotty connectivity, could not get their devices to work, and weren’t able to get timely help from their schools or the education department, the lawsuit said. Internet access was a particular problem for children who lived in homeless shelters, where WiFi wasn’t available and cell phone connection was poor.

When it was time to return for the 2020-21 school year, most children had still chosen to learn remotely full-time, while others were going into their schools part time. Even then, the lawsuit claims, the city didn’t ensure every family had working devices and internet access before classes began.

By October 2020, one month after school started, 77,000 students were still without a device, city officials said at the time. Reliable internet access was also still an issue, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also claims that the education department did not have a consistent system to fix or replace broken devices, especially for families who primarily spoke a language other than English.

Calls for reimbursement

Another plaintiff, a mother who primarily speaks Bengali, had repeatedly asked her then-kindergartener’s school for assistance with navigating remote learning, their city-issued iPad, and internet connectivity, according to the lawsuit. However, she was not provided with a Bengali interpreter, and any written information on how to navigate remote learning was provided in English.

As a result, her family had to purchase internet service, but her son’s device still did not work some days. Now in second grade, her son has struggled with school so far this year, the lawsuit claims.

All five plaintiffs, with children ranging from elementary to middle school, say that they failed to get help from their schools or the education department to troubleshoot technology issues, the lawsuit said.

Among their demands, they are asking the city to fix remote learning so that it doesn’t force families to pay for anything out-of-pocket. They also want city officials to develop a claims process so that families can be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket costs related to remote learning since March 2020.

Additionally, they want the city to assess what sort of academic recovery services are owed to children who struggled with remote learning, as well as other damages and attorneys fees. The education department created a $635 million academic recovery plan this year, including a plan to ensure all students have access to a device with internet service and extra services for students with disabilities.

New York City education department spokesperson Sarah Casasnovas defended the city’s record in getting devices to children.

“Facing the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, New York City launched one of the most robust device distribution efforts in the nation, putting hundreds of thousands of devices into the hands of students,” she said. “We will review the suit.”

A spokesperson for the state education department said it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The governor’s office did not immediately respond for comment.

NY Regents call for $2.1 billion increase in state spending on schools next year

2021-12-13T23:10:38+00:00

New York’s education policymakers want legislators to boost spending for the state’s schools by $2.1 billion.

Unlike in past fiscal years, their wish will likely be granted.

The Board of Regents unveiled a $31 billion budget proposal Monday that reflected a promise made by state lawmakers earlier this year: to fully fund the Foundation Aid formula by the 2024 fiscal year, which starts in April 2023. That formula provides the funding base for school districts and sends more money to those with higher needs.

Because of that promise, coupled with a separate legal agreement to pay school districts what they’re owed, state lawmakers will likely meet the Board of Regents’ budget demands on behalf of districts for the fiscal year starting on April 1, 2022.

The board’s request this year “doubles down on our efforts to create a more equitable and inclusive education system to better support New York’s diverse student population,” Chancellor Lester Young Jr. said in a statement.

On top of boosting Foundation Aid, state officials want more funding for several initiatives focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, including more than $6 million toward improving education for children in the juvenile justice system, $200,000 for their work rethinking graduation requirements, and $250,000 to compile a set of culturally responsive resources for schools.

The budget climate is vastly different than it was at this time last year, when schools were threatened with potential cuts if federal COVID relief did not come through. In the end, federal stimulus dollars brought an influx of cash to the state, including $7 billion for New York City schools alone. Separately, with the help of tax increases, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed to give schools what they were owed under Foundation Aid over the next two years. After long resisting to fully fund the formula, he reversed course around the time he faced allegations of sexual harassment that eventually led to his resignation.

Though Cuomo increased funding for schools during most of his time in office, earning New York the nation’s top spot for per pupil spending, he refused to heed calls from the Regents and other education advocates to fully fund Foundation Aid, arguing that the state wasn’t obligated to do so.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has already struck a different tone than Cuomo on school funding. Just two months after taking office, Hochul announced an agreement to settle a lawsuit that charged New York with underfunding Foundation Aid. The agreement requires New York to fully fund that formula by the 2024 fiscal year — essentially solidifying the promise made in this year’s budget – or risk reopening the lawsuit.

About 70% of the Regents’ proposed increase for schools is for Foundation Aid, which is money that districts can use flexibly. It helps pay for the individual school budgets in New York City.

The Regents are also calling for increases to specific programs or resources, such as money for instructional materials and building and transportation aid. This year, they’re calling for a $65 million boost in funding that districts receive for occupation and business education classes, such as career and technical education, or CTE. They want to double the $3,900 per student enrolled in CTE programs over the next three years, with a third of that increase coming in by next fiscal year. The current rate, officials said, has not been updated since the 1990s.

State officials believe that a lack of funding has made it challenging for districts, including New York City, to expand CTE options. Such a proposal may find a booster in Mayor-elect Eric Adams, who voiced support for career and technical education on the campaign trail.

Separate from aid for school districts, officials are also asking for more money to hire more staffers for the state education department itself. State officials say that the department has lost 700 full-time staffers over the past 13 years, and argue that the department’s responsibilities “have grown exponentially.”

Examples include a $1.85 million ask to pay for more staff who oversee and monitor the money that districts receive, and just over $905,000 for staff to help with grants, student mental health, and programs that serve high-need student populations.

Much of the state’s priorities matched those made recently by the New York State Educational Conference Board, a coalition of influential organizations, including the state teachers union.

Advocacy organization Alliance for Quality Education largely lauded the Regents’ proposal, but they did not think the Regents’ call for a $7 million increase for universal pre-K was enough, noting in a statement that “many districts outside of New York City still do not provide Universal Pre-K.”

State officials and budget hawks will now look for Hochul’s budget proposal, which comes from the governor’s office in January. From there, both the state Assembly and the senate will craft their own proposals and will negotiate a final budget plan with the Hochul administration. Lawmakers must pass a plan by April 1.

NYC pols push fix for transportation woes plaguing students in shelters

2021-12-06T16:52:44+00:00

For New York City’s nearly 30,000 students living in shelters, unreliable transportation has long been one of the hurdles in getting to class, contributing to significantly lower attendance than their peers, advocates have charged.

Now, the city must find solutions, according to a newly approved City Council bill nearly five years in the making.

Still, the bill, originally proposed in 2018, offers no quick fix: It creates a task force that has one year to publish a report identifying the barriers to transportation for students in shelter, as well as issue recommendations on how to address them.

Advocates, who have raised the alarm on this issue for years, remain optimistic, particularly because the bill requires heads of multiple city agencies to brainstorm together.

The mayor must appoint members consisting of representatives from multiple agencies, including the departments of housing preservation and development, social services, the education department, as well as at least two parents of children who live or previously lived in shelters, organizations that manage shelters and bus companies. Given the timing of the bill, which still requires the mayor’s signature, the group would convene under the administration of Mayor-elect Eric Adams, once it becomes law.

“I think what the task force can really focus in on is, how can we make sure that busing is set up promptly and students and their parents know exactly when it is starting so that the lack of transportation doesn’t pose a barrier to attendance,” said Jennifer Pringle, director of Project Learning In Temporary Housing at Advocates for Children.

Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2015 pledged to extend bus service to children in kindergarten through sixth grade who live in a shelter, following an NBC New York report that showed the lengthy commutes for these students. (Families who refuse bus service can receive Metrocards instead for caregivers and children.) But some families still deal with delays in getting placed on a route or, once they’re approved for service, with no-show or late bus service — sometimes even getting dropped off to the wrong school, advocates have reported.

“To have the bus not show up, or show up to the wrong address, or show up to the wrong school — all of these things impact attendance, not to mention the parents’ ability to focus on securing permanent housing,” Pringle said.

These problems are even harder on the roughly 40% of families who live in shelters that are outside of the borough of their child’s school, Pringle said. Five years ago, de Blasio unveiled a plan to prioritize families in shelters closer to their child’s school, but thousands continue traveling long distances.

Advocates believe that shoddy transportation options contribute to lower attendance rates for students in shelter, who had an average attendance rate between 81-82% in school years before the pandemic — roughly 10 percentage points less than children who are permanently housed, according to data compiled by Advocates For Children and the city’s Independent Budget Office. That means homeless children missed, on average, about 30 days in the school year.

A mother who lives in a shelter in Bushwick was approved for bus service in November for her two children, who are in third and fourth grades — three months after they started classes at a charter school in Midtown Manhattan. (The mom asked to remain anonymous for safety concerns.) Even when the city tried to provide a solution, it was still rife with issues, she said.

While awaiting a bus route, the mom turned to a city-subsidized cab service called Limosys. The newly available prepaid service connects parents and children to free cabs to and from school to “ensure there is no disruption for students in shelter getting to school,” according to an education department spokesperson.

But the mother found the cabs often arrived late or sometimes did not come at all. As a result of having to make a last-minute scramble on the 45-minute subway commute, her children were marked late eight times, she said. Four separate times, drivers asked her to pay for the ride but backed off after she insisted that it was a free city service.

A spokesperson for the education department declined to comment on most of the issues that the mom described, but said they’ve asked Limosys to remind drivers that the service is prepaid and they shouldn’t ask families for money.

The mom’s children finally got placed on a bus route just before Thanksgiving, but they are picked up at 5:30 a.m., about two hours before school starts. Some days, her kids “are miserable” because of how early they have to awake. Additionally, her children can no longer participate in after school clubs as they did pre-pandemic and before they entered the shelter system because they don’t get bus service home after school hours — another issue that the bill requires the task force to address.

“Sometimes, when you receive help, you expect things to be better,” the mom said. “I was really so happy with the cab service and so happy with the bus in place that when they don’t work — and I’m so used to doing things on my own — I would get so down on myself.”

Problems like these are what advocates and Council member Stephen Levin, who sponsored the bill, hope the task force will tackle.

Levin, who unsuccessfully proposed the task force nearly five years ago, seized on the opportunity to push for it now, as the de Blasio administration is winding down.

“We think there are really meaningful opportunities to make some policy changes here and bring issues to the forefront that [the administration] might not always see or hear,” Levin said.

The group must form within 60 days of the mayor signing the bill into law. If de Blasio vetoes the bill, the Council would likely override it given that it won unanimous support. If the mayor takes no action within 30 days of the council passing the bill, it automatically becomes law. A spokesperson for City Hall did not immediately say whether de Blasio would sign it.

The de Blasio administration made “critical strides” in providing transportation for students in shelters and looks forward to working with City Council further on the issue, education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle said in a statement.

NYC expands translation of special education plans, but onus still on parents with limited English to request it

2021-12-01T22:38:55+00:00

Parents of students with disabilities who don’t speak English have long struggled to get their children’s learning plans translated into their native language, a crucial barrier to advocating for extra help or ensuring they are receiving the correct services.

Officials are now taking more significant steps to address the issue. Last school year, the education department quietly launched a citywide effort to centrally translate students’ individualized education programs (or IEPs) instead of leaving the process up to individual schools that didn’t always have the capacity to conduct the translations or find an outside vendor to provide it.

The citywide program, which scaled up a small pilot program announced two years ago, will be permanent, officials recently said.

IEPs are essential documents that spell out a student’s individual goals and the services they’re entitled to receive, such as speech or occupational therapy or a smaller class size with specialized instruction. Without translated versions, families may struggle to know whether their children are getting the services they’re entitled to and effectively advocate on their behalf.

But even as advocates said the centralized process is a step in the right direction, the burden is still on families to request that the documents be translated, and families may not know they can request a translation. For now, there is a large gap between the number of families who may need translated IEPs and the requests.

About 78,000 students with disabilities live in homes where English is not the primary language, according to city officials. Last school year, 7,078 IEPs were translated, the first year the centralized translation process was available citywide.

About 1,100 IEPs have been translated so far this school year, a 70% uptick compared with the same period last year, officials said.

It is unclear to what extent the pandemic may have curtailed families’ requests for translated IEPs or how those figures stack up historically, since the education department did not track how many IEPs were translated by individual schools before the process was centralized.

Nevertheless, advocates said the new translation process represents progress.

“It’s way overdue,” said Lori Podvesker, a policy expert at INCLUDEnyc, an advocacy group that focuses on special education. “If special ed documents are not translated that prevents families from being a part of the decision-making, and that equates to inferior outcomes.”

Relying on schools to translate IEPs resulted in a patchwork system. Individual schools may not have anyone on hand to translate the documents or may struggle to find a translator who can provide high-quality translation of documents that often include jargon and other technical language.

Department officials have argued that centralizing the process would create a more streamlined process and lead to better translations, since the city could use translators with more practice reviewing the highly technical documents and reuse boilerplate language for certain parts, freeing them up to focus on sections that are unique to each student. (The city is using an outside company, Lingualinx, to conduct the translations.)

Paola Jordan, who co-directs Sinergia, an organization that helps Spanish-speaking families navigate special education services, said many families — and even schools themselves — may not know they can request translations.

“I am still seeing Spanish-speaking parents who have [IEPs] in English,” Jordan wrote in an email. “The burden still is on the parent to request the service.” She also raised concerns that families may have to wait several weeks for the documents to be translated.

Education department officials did not immediately indicate how long translations typically take, saying only that they are completed as soon as possible. Nor did they respond to a question about why the city won’t automatically translate IEPs for families who primarily speak other languages.

They did, however, say they are working to get the word out through letters, text messages, and advertisements to “promote the availability of language access services.”

Families who want to request an IEP translation can contact their school, call 718-935-2013, or visit the department’s website.

More than 100,000 NYC students are homeless, new report finds

2021-11-08T11:00:00+00:00

Nearly 1 in 10 New York City public school students were homeless last school year, a staggering rate that has barely budged for several years.

About 101,000 students lived in unstable, or temporary, housing in the 2020-2021 school year, according to an analysis of state data released Monday by Advocates for Children. That’s a larger number of children than the entire school district of Denver.

Homeless students face a host of barriers to education in any given year, especially in terms of attendance. In a year when the COVID pandemic continued to disrupt in-person schooling and place extraordinary challenges on families and students across the five boroughs, homeless students faced even more hardships.

Accessing classwork and instruction — which was difficult for many children last school year — was sometimes impossible for homeless students and their families. Family shelters did not have Wi-Fi and are only getting it now, following a lawsuit from Legal Aid. Even students equipped with city-issued internet-enabled iPads struggled to log on for classes because shelters had spotty connections to the cell service that those devices depend on.

Now, advocates are looking ahead to Mayor-elect Eric Adams in hopes that he’ll take aggressive steps to curb student homelessness and address their dire educational outcomes. Just 29% of homeless students passed their grades 3-8 reading exams, while just 27% passed math — both about 20 percentage points lower than their peers living in stable housing, according to 2019 data. Sixty-one percent of homeless students graduated on time in the school year before the pandemic, compared to 84% of their peers with stable housing.

“We are hopeful that given the incredibly poor outcomes we’re seeing, particularly for students in shelter, that Mayor-elect Adams’ administration will recognize the crisis for what it is,” said Jennifer Pringle, director of Project Learning In Temporary Housing at Advocates for Children.

Barriers to learning

More than 3,800 students had no shelter and lived in cars, parks or abandoned buildings, while another 200 students lived in hotels or motels, according to the Advocates for Children report. Another 28,000 lived in city shelters, while about 65,000 students lived “doubled-up” with friends or family. (Information was not available for roughly 3,900 students, the organization said.)

Though the rate was similar to prior years, the overall number of homeless students — 94% of them Black or Hispanic — appeared to have fallen by 9.5% year-over-year. That decrease could be due in part to a drop in student enrollment across the system, which lost more than 3% of its students last school year. Additionally, schools may have faced more challenges in identifying where students lived because the majority of children chose to learn remotely — an issue that advocates also flagged last year.

Homeless students were far less likely to show up for remote or in-person school last year. Between January and June 2021, attendance rates for students living in shelters were roughly 10 to 14 percentage points less than students in stable housing, according to city data analyzed by Advocates for Children.

The struggles have continued this year. The first couple weeks of this school year, the attendance rate was about 73% for those in temporary housing, rising to 78% more recently, compared to the citywide rate hovering around the “high 80s and low 90s,” according to what education department officials have shared with Advocates for Children.

For one mom last year, attendance wasn’t the issue. She struggled to simply enroll her son in preschool while moving between shelters and trying to find permanent housing.

Comfort Mensah, a 33-year-old mother in the Bronx, needed a program for her then-3-year-old son Gabriel that would provide support for his recent diagnosis of autism and developmental delays.

Mensah regularly called the education department to find a placement for Gabriel while also caring for her 2-year-old son. At the same time, she also was navigating her housing search on her phone since there were no computers at the shelter to use, and without the internet, she often went over the data limit on her mobile plan. Sometimes, she spent chunks of the roughly $400 she received from public assistance to buy him toys from Amazon that were meant to improve his motor skills.

“At this point, I was in tears every day because my son is not telling me what he needs, he’s always crying,” Mensah said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

About 30% of students in shelters have been identified to need special education services, compared to 21% of permanently housed students, according to data obtained by Advocates For Children.

Calls for more support in shelters

The de Blasio administration has made some investments in support for homeless students, including $12 million for more school-based staff and training and 100 “Bridging The Gap” social workers for schools with high numbers of homeless children. Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson for the education department, said the department has “nearly doubled” the number of staffers who work with students in schools and shelters but said “there is always more work to do.”

Advocates For Children, along with about 40 other community organizations who work directly with families and students, are calling on the Adams administration to go much further.

They have asked Adams to tackle a slew of issues, including hiring 150 shelter-based coordinators who would help families like Mensah’s to navigate the education department and help with school enrollment, bus service, and special education services.

The organizations are also calling for several more changes, including improving school attendance, creating more coordination between housing agencies and the education department and moving more families in shelter closer to their home schools, as roughly 40% of families are in shelters outside of the borough of their child’s school.

After more than half a year waiting for the city to find her son an appropriate placement, Mensah eventually connected with Advocates For Children, which began helping her in February. By April, after Advocates contacted the education department, Gabriel was enrolled at Kennedy Children’s Center, a special education preschool in the Bronx, where he’s been since. The school serves children ages 3-5 who have been identified as having significant developmental delays.

Mensah has now found permanent housing at an apartment building in the Bronx that she said she loves. At school pickup last Friday, a teacher told Mensah that Gabriel has improved so much that they want to reevaluate certain parts of his individualized education program.

“He can talk now, he can hold a pencil, he can hold a crayon,” Mensah said.

1 hour of instruction a day: NYC parents grapple with limited learning for medically fragile students

2021-10-01T19:41:33+00:00

Rodney Lee began looking for alternatives to in-person instruction for his daughter as soon as it became clear that New York City would not offer a remote option for families this year. Ten-year-old Priya suffers from a seizure disorder that could be exacerbated if she contracts the coronavirus.

Lee learned that his daughter would be an excellent candidate for “medically necessary instruction,” a revamped education department-run program that allows students to learn from home if they have health needs, including seizure disorders, that prevent them from safely returning to classrooms this school year.

But the Manhattan family soon learned that the program would only offer an hour a day of instruction, far less than what Priya received last school year when she opted for fully remote learning.

It left the family with a difficult choice: accept the possibility that she would slip behind her peers academically or risk the resurgence of a seizure disorder that has not flared up in three years but can leave her struggling to breathe.

The family decided the academic risks were too great.

“We had to make a really difficult decision to send her to school,” said Lee, noting that Priya’s school reported a positive COVID case just a couple days into the year, though his daughter was not a close contact. “Every day we pray, and we hope that she stays healthy.”

Rodney Lee with his daughter Priya.

Families across the five boroughs are grappling with the same dilemma about whether the potential safety benefits outweigh the possible academic costs of the city’s program for medically necessary instruction that allows students to learn from home.

The program only guarantees five hours a week of instruction for elementary school students and 10 hours a week for middle and high schoolers, minimums that are set by state regulations. And while hundreds of families have applied for the program despite the limited hours, some are still waiting for instruction to begin weeks after the school year started as their applications are processed.

New York City Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter said in August that she expected between 3,000 and 5,000 students to participate this year. But so far, fewer than 500 families have applied, about 40 have been rejected, and roughly 300 are currently enrolled in the program, according to education department officials. With rolling admissions, enrollment is expected to grow throughout the fall.

“I think there’s a lot of interest and a lot of suspicion at the same time,” said Maggie Moroff, a special education policy expert at Advocates for Children, referring to the limited hours of instruction.

Revamping home instruction

City officials expanded access to home instruction by explicitly defining 20 different conditions that can quickly qualify students for the program with instruction expected to start within a day or two. The move aimed to cut through some red tape and has won some praise from advocates, who said that in previous years the program’s admission criteria were not always clear, and there were sometimes delays getting instruction started.

In a decision made just weeks before the school year started, the city changed the program’s pre-pandemic model of sending educators to meet with students in-person, to also allow for virtual instruction.

“Medically Necessary Instruction provides our immunocompromised students with high-quality education and support, and keeps them connected to their school communities,” education department spokesperson Sarah Casasnovas said in a statement. “Families may apply at any time, and students receive learning materials from their home school while their application is reviewed.”

Brooklyn mom Jennifer Goddard applied to the program on behalf of her 10-year-old son, August Huete, who she said has asthma and an overactive immune system. For the first several days of school, she used the workbooks provided by his school, P.S. 216, though it was a disorienting experience for her son to miss out on a more traditional start to the school year.

A schedule Jennifer Goddard made with her son, August, while they waited to hear about the possibility of home instruction.

Now, August is receiving virtual instruction at home one-on-one for an hour a day, which has focused heavily on reading with only a couple sessions devoted to math so far. A recent math session introduced powers of 10, though some of the reading lessons have been less engaging, focusing on assessing August’s skill level, or devoting big chunks of the hour to reading a text.

“I think the teacher is doing the best he can,” she said. And despite the limited hours, she said home instruction wasn’t a hard choice. “I can find other ways to make up a loss of education,” she said, “I don’t have other ways to make up a loss of health.”

The family is filling in some of the gaps by providing supplemental social studies, art, science and physical education activities. Goddard is also paying out-of-pocket for online math classes through the website Outschool three times a week, which she expects will cost $500 through December. By then, she’s hoping August will have been vaccinated and can return to his classroom.

Jennifer Goddard with her son August.

In the meantime, Goddard said she is hopeful the city considers moving more students like her son into online group sessions that are offered for more than one hour a day.

State officials said schools should consider providing more hours of instruction than the minimums established in state regulations.

Casasnovas, the city education department spokesperson, said the city plans to offer additional hours “in the coming weeks” to students who receive remote group instruction.

‘It’s medical home instruction or withdrawing entirely’

Other families are still waiting for their home instruction applications to be processed.

Erin Alexander said her efforts to apply to the program were delayed because her pediatrician’s office was slow to provide the application’s required letter explaining why her son needs to stay home. She formally applied Sept. 22, but has not yet heard whether her application will be approved.

Alexander, who lives in Brooklyn, acknowledged that her 6-year-old son’s case falls in a gray area. He doesn’t have a condition listed on the education department’s list of pre-approved illnesses, though officials have said that students with other medical issues may still be accepted. The 6-year-old boy was born 14 weeks early, and his lungs were underdeveloped, so he was immediately intubated and put on a ventilator, spending the first three months of his life in intensive care.

Her son has also struggled with other infections, becoming hospitalized after contracting RSV and pneumonia simultaneously just after beginning day care when he was 2 years old. The family worries a coronavirus infection, or even a regular cold, could have severe consequences. On top of that, she’s worried that her autistic son, who also has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and struggles with transitions, will not do well in school if classes are disrupted by quarantines.

“It’s medical home instruction or withdrawing entirely,” she said, noting that he looked forward to his classes when they were remote last year. “That’s where our level of concern is.”

For now, Alexander remains in limbo. Even as they hope her son’s application to learn from home is approved, Alexander is not thrilled with the prospect of an hour or two a day of instruction.

If she’s denied a spot in the program, she said she’d likely homeschool him. (City officials said that it can take 7 to 10 days to process applications, which are reviewed by health department doctors or education department psychiatrists to determine if the medical need meets the city’s standards.)

So far, Alexander’s son hasn’t been receiving the constellation of therapies on his special education learning plan, and the school has not yet provided assignments for him while they wait for a decision from the city, though his teacher said she plans to provide workbooks and some digital materials soon.

The teacher offered to allow Alexander’s son to stop by for recess outside to connect with his classmates, a gesture Alexander said she deeply appreciates after more than a year of social isolation.

But whatever happens with her son’s application, she hopes it will be temporary. Asked when he would likely return to a classroom, she said it would be two weeks after his second shot. Children ages 5-11 could begin receiving shots later this fall, though the exact timeline is not clear.

“We’re not terrified of it,” she said of the vaccine. “Give it to him now.”

I was a Stuyvesant senior on 9/11. It changed me forever.

2021-09-10T01:25:31+00:00

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Stuyvesant High School’s drafting department sat on the 10th floor, an isolated outpost at the very top of the building. Whereas the original Stuyvesant building on 15th Street stood out as a grand beaux-arts monolith, the newer Battery Park City building blended in with the upscale brick- and glass-clad condos going up around it. In Mr. Scotti’s drafting class, I sat with my back to the window, so it was my desk mate who, overlooking the southern tip of the island out toward the Statue of Liberty, bore the brunt of the distraction.

On the morning of September 11, halfway through our lesson, Mr. Scotti was teaching us to draw straight lines or something of the sort. Only three days into the school year, we weren’t bored yet, but we were still teenagers in an early morning session who had been doing something incredibly repetitive for three-quarters of an hour and knew we were only halfway through class.

Lila Nordstrom, left, and her new book ‘Some Kids Left Behind.’

Suddenly the sound of a major explosion shook me out of my line-drawing stupor. My deskmate’s eyes went wide. The building shook violently, and when I turned around to look outside, a huge fireball had engulfed the north tower of the World Trade Center. Mr. Scotti looked alarmed, but when he finally spoke, it was to tell us to return to the lesson. He’d been at Stuyvesant in 1993 when a bomb had gone off in the basement of the World Trade Center. They hadn’t evacuated the school then, so he assumed we’d stay put this time, too.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Scotti’s “focus on the lines” approach didn’t do much to calm the class. Isolated in the 10th-floor classroom, I couldn’t see how the rest of the school was reacting, but I suspected I should panic. As Mr. Scotti taught, attempting to keep the class calm, a student popped in from a room next door, where they had turned on the television, and announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.

That idea seemed absurd — absurd enough that I didn’t really give it much thought as the fire burned. I watched as what looked like objects fell from the North Tower. I told myself that they were just construction materials — pieces of plaster, sheetrock, nails. I didn’t worry that these objects seemed to move. The smoke made everything look like it was moving. For almost 20 years, I’ve known that those falling shapes were people. In that moment, however, many of the important details weren’t registering.

What did register were the sounds. Screams fled in from the street below, shouting surrounded us, and sirens blared from all directions. The first 15 minutes of the disaster felt like hours, and during those “hours,” I thought a lot about how every day on the way to school, as clouds moved past the Twin Towers and made them look like they were migrating toward me, I would think to myself, Those are too tall — they could fall on me. When the first tower was hit, my first thought was, I am scared, but my second thought wasn’t about the victims or how emergency services would possibly be able to respond to something this big or anything even remotely as generous. My second thought was, I was right.

Eventually, a voice over the loudspeaker told us to stay put. A few minutes later, something with wings pierced the shadow of the fires. I assumed it was a curious, death-defying bird. It was a plane. We heard another huge explosion. I’ve thought a lot about the fact that the second plane, which passed directly by my window, was the last plane in my life that I didn’t pay attention to. It was the last time that I didn’t track an aircraft’s path until I could be sure it would make it out of view. Since 2001, I have lost hours of my life, little moments every day, to watching planes go by. Despite all that was going on, 9:02 a.m. on September 11, 2001, was the last minute of my life that was free of the obligation of noticing.

The rhetoric around 9/11 is always that it was this massive singular event that will never be replicated. That we should #NeverForget it. That it’s special. It’s not. Little 9/11s happen constantly. We often create them out of situations that didn’t have to be disasters at all.

Unsurprisingly, the people who suffer the most in disasters big and small are often the people with the least agency — kids. Every day in America, millions of children head to school worried that a random act of gun violence could end their lives. Kids in Flint, Michigan, prepare for school without clean water or living with the complicated legacies of having gone years without that resource. Kids in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Houston, Texas, get dressed in homes and neighborhoods still dealing with flood damage or flooding anew. Kids in California wake up in neighborhoods suffused with smoke from acres-wide fires and have to pretend it’s like any other day. Kids living in pandemic hot zones or, frankly, anywhere in America in 2020 and 2021, watch their world shrink overnight.

The experience of 9/11 may have been on a larger scale than a few of these, an act of mass violence paired with a major health and environmental disaster, but that doesn’t mean that these individual crises aren’t bad enough on their own. Lives are irrevocably changed by smaller disasters, too.

Lila Nordstrom in a Stuyvesant High School yearbook photo taken on Sept. 10, 2001.

Often the way we process the scale of a disaster isn’t really about how big it is, anyway. A lot of big and little 9/11s happen to kids and communities that don’t have the coattails of responders or other designated “heroes” to ride or financial resources to throw around or voices the media is willing to seek out. Even with the clarifying effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on many Americans, we at most do some hand-wringing. We ask, “What did we do to create this problem?” Then we do nothing.

Occasionally, when adults fail to take proper stock of the situation, we leave kids to ask what’s going on themselves. March for Our Lives, the impressive organization that was formed by student survivors in the aftermath of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, is an outgrowth of a system in which adults shirked their duty to think critically about the role they had played in creating a crisis. It shouldn’t have been on the kids who were victimized to inquire about the policies that led to their trauma, but somebody had to.

In 2006, fresh out of college, I started an advocacy organization called StuyHealth that advocates for young adults impacted by the 9/11 disaster and the World Trade Center cleanup. Ever since I have been doing the work of raising the profile of that story and letting the students of 9/11 know about the services available to them. In 2019, I testified before Congress alongside comedian Jon Stewart and 9/11 first responder Det. Lou Alvarez, who has since died of cancer, to make sure students would be a part of the Zadroga Act’s permanent renewal.

If we learn anything from the slow-rolling, still simmering COVID-19 crisis, I hope it’s this: That preemptive action to save people from suffering is always a good idea. That it’s worth a risk to the economy to make sure people are safe. People are our most important asset, not financial indicators. In the aftermath of a crisis, however, I don’t think that we should be initially preoccupied with how we allowed the crisis to happen. When the damage is done, what we should ask first is, “How can we protect survivors from further harm?”

People rarely mention the unpleasant reality that is living with the long-term consequences of a disaster, but we do see glimmers of it in the news sometimes in reports, for example, about GoFundMe accounts popping up for gunshot victims and cancer patients. (Medical bills account for one-third of GoFundMe’s business, and crowdfunding platforms have become one of the main ways that American families pay for sudden health expenses.) Trauma can result in higher rates of substance abuse and suicide. And traumatized adults may make terrible decisions that traumatize kids further in the name of safety.

We think we’re addressing the question of how to prevent further harm while asking Stuyvesant students to wear IDs, claiming that is how we will protect them from terrorists. Or asking kids in Parkland to use clear backpacks to protect them from guns. Or watching kids in Flint bathe in donated bottled water.

Unfortunately, wearing IDs doesn’t clean the air at Stuyvesant, nor does it make the student body feel safer from terrorism. Clear backpacks in Parkland inflicted their own trauma because they were a visual reminder that something terrifying had happened recently and that nothing would ever be the same. Bathing in bottled water doesn’t stop Flint’s kids from experiencing the effects of having already bathed in and ingested contaminated water.

Instead of waiting around or letting ourselves get drawn into a system that pits trauma victims against each other, we should proactively attend to all of their unfortunately imminent problems: Flint’s need for clean water, the need to pass some kind of gun control legislation, the need to wear masks to stop the further spread of COVID, as well as the problems that forthcoming disaster victims are sure to face down the road — and the never-ending health care costs that come with living through the aftermath of a crisis. Figuring out how to do this is, in part, the responsibility of victims like myself.

Those of us who have the obligation of noticing the world around us should take the victories we’ve won and lessons we’ve learned and start thinking broadly about how to help others like us. We should fight for their access to care as if it’s our own community on the line because, in so many ways, it actually is.

Lila Nordstrom is a writer, producer, activist, and the founder of StuyHealth, an advocacy group representing former students who were in Lower Manhattan during 9/11 and the resulting cleanup.

This essay was excerpted from “Some Kids Left Behind: A Survivor’s Fight for Health Care in the Wake of 9/11” (Apollo, 2021) by Lila Nordstrom.

This NYC counselor is helping students work through COVID-era trauma

2021-09-07T12:00:00+00:00

After Randy Bowen lost three family members to COVID-19, he knew he needed to prioritize the activities that center him, such as meditating and riding his bike, so that he could show up for his students at Community Health Academy of the Heights.

Bowen, a school counselor of 14 years and a certified practitioner of a trauma therapy known as EMDR, started an evening meditation group to help his students deal with pandemic-era stresses ranging from social isolation to food insecurity. “I think the biggest hurdle to meditation for people is just taking 3-5 minutes out of the day to disconnect,” said Bowen, who began his career in finance before finding his professional calling as a school counselor.

Randy Bowen

Community Health Academy in Upper Manhattan provides wraparound social services for the whole family. “While we were able to leverage our relationships with families and conduct constant outreach, technological and mental health support [during the pandemic], I think that students are ready to get back to school.”

Bowen is ready for the new school year, too. He spoke recently to Chalkbeat.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What led you to become a school counselor?

I started out in finance and worked at a financial investment firm for about two years but became despondent with the lack of passion I had for my role as a licensing analyst. I visited St. Joseph’s College and met with an academic advisor in the school counseling program at Long Island University in Brooklyn. She told me to take two classes, and all I had to lose was money and time. It was the best decision I made. It was the first time in my academic career that what I was learning in school felt like an extension of my personality, strengths, interests, and who I was at my core. I share this story with my students to let them know that even counselors need to be counseled!

How did your students fare during the prolonged stretch of remote learning and social isolation?

Our school culture promotes getting to know students on a deep level as we are a 6-12 school, and the lack of physical interaction made this extremely difficult. Many of our students are first-generation Americans and come from low-income families in the Bronx and Washington Heights areas. Many of them also come from multigenerational households. As someone who lost three family members, including my grandmother, to COVID, I know first-hand the anxiety, depression, and isolation that comes with being away from a place of stability, care, and attention.

I’m so sorry to hear about the losses you’ve endured. You have a job that centers on caring for others. How did you take care of yourself through it all?

I have always counseled from a place of do as I say and as I do. When the pandemic started, I reminded my students that although education is an important step toward financial freedom and generational wealth, mental stability comes first. I shared with my students the anxiety and uncertainty I felt as an adult about the pandemic and the things I did to make me feel stable: meditation, riding my bike, and communicating with family and friends. I even started an evening meditation workshop for students to wind down after a tough day. Initially, students believed that you had to spend an hour in the gym or dedicate the same time every day to meditate. Showing them that we all struggle and equipping them with techniques to alleviate stress will be extremely vital going forward. This also held me accountable for daily meditation. It was a win-win!

Tell me about your evening meditation group. How do you teach young people to meditate?

Prior to the pandemic, I became certified in EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Processing, to support students who suffered through trauma that traditional talk therapy alone would not help mediate. One of the components of EMDR is grounding or mindfulness — ensuring that the client or student is aware of the present moment, as processing past trauma can be intense. During the session, we start by thanking ourselves for taking time out of our day to prioritize our bodies while finding a quiet space. I then walk students through deep breathing (in through the nose, out through the mouth) and talk through what they are aware of using the five senses, awareness of any pain or stress in the body while allowing distractions and thoughts to be a part of the session.

What student needs have you seen arise or grow during the COVID era?

COVID has exacerbated many of our students’ needs, including food insecurity, home displacements, inadequate living areas, technology and internet access, language barriers, and financial hardships. The lack of basic needs contributes to a rise in mental health crises felt by the entire family.

That’s a lot to endure, especially as a young person. How can schools best support their students’ needs this coming school year?

I think that all schools should start with a general wellness assessment that inquires about a child’s food, technology, housing, mental health, and financial situation within the household. Our high school social worker created a Google Form that was sent out to all our students. This data was then used by the high school guidance/social work department to provide support, such as at-risk counseling, referrals to our school-based health clinic, outside mental health organizations, and affiliated programs of our school’s community-based organization, CLOTH, or the Community League of the Heights. Our school also has an advisory system where teachers are matched with a group of kids. Daily meetings in these groups can also provide us with anecdotal information that can bridge any gaps students may be challenged with.

Last year, you wrote for Chalkbeat about how many of your students were traumatized by George Floyd’s murder. Since then, your school has created the Committee on Racial Equity. What are the committee’s goals, and how is it changing the culture and policies at Community Health Academy?

This year, the committee’s focus is on our instructional practices and how they align with Gholdy Muhammad’s five pursuits for teaching and learning. We believe that the student voice needs to be amplified in our community, but that can’t happen unless students are intrinsically motivated and invested in their education. The hope is that if students see themselves in the curriculum, it will spark their interest while connecting why they are in education to what they want out of education.

Tell us how you collaborate with teachers, parents, and others to ensure students have what they need to thrive.

My role as the chair of the Committee on Racial Equity has required collaboration among all parties to ensure that our students are not only seeing themselves in our curriculum but that their voices are valued. Last school year, I was in charge of coordinating our various subcommittees — assessing our instruction to ensure that it was aligned with culturally responsive practices, training students on topics such as race, equity, and microaggressions, and conducting monthly group meetings with our staff. I meet with teachers weekly in our grade team meetings to discuss students who may be at risk or struggling with a death in the family, illness, financial issues, etc. As a community school, we pride ourselves on not only supporting students but also the community. Parents talk to me about their students' progress, but also about services like burial assistance, housing, employment referrals, and more.

What was your own experience with school, and how does it affect your work today?

As a first-generation, low-income student from Guyanese descent, I was fortunate to attend a private school from K-6 and then New York City public schools after that. I benefited from small class sizes and a focus on mathematics in elementary school. In middle and high school, I was also enrolled in the Honors programs. I understand the generational trauma associated with those expectations of being successful for one’s culture. There were numerous people in my academic career, like my middle school dean, my AP U.S. History teacher, and my Spanish teacher, who helped me along the way. I hope that I am making the same impact on my students.

Will expanded child tax credits reach NYC families who need it most?

2021-08-19T14:39:37+00:00

With sneakers on her feet, a take-out cup of coffee in hand, and fliers tucked under her arm, Karla Velasquez hit the streets of the South Bronx with a mission: to get more money into the pockets of families who need it.

As director of financial empowerment at the nonprofit BronxWorks, she leads programs that help low-income families get on more stable financial footing through tax preparation assistance, and providing guidance for chipping away at their debt and boosting their credit scores. This year, her job also entails going to where kids and families are to spread the word about a historic expansion of child tax credits.

Sometimes described as guaranteed income for families or social security for children, the tax credits are a centerpiece of massive increases in government aid during the pandemic. Coupled with more food aid and jobless benefits, they have the potential to drive poverty in America down to the lowest level recorded. The sharpest declines are expected among children. And with more money in their parents’ pockets, research suggests many children could wind up performing better in school.

But before any of that can be true, people like Velasquez have to make sure the benefits reach everyone who qualifies.

“We’re trying to be everywhere in the Bronx,” she said.

Karla Velasquez stops at a local health fair in the South Bronx, hoping to tell families about the expanded tax child tax credits.

Approved as part of the nearly $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, the expanded tax credits are bigger — up to $1,600 more per year for younger children and $1,000 more for those up to age 17. They also now extend to families who previously did not earn enough to file taxes. Not only are these families off the radar of the Internal Revenue Service, which is administering the credits, they might not be known by local organizations like BronxWorks, which this year helped 6,500 people file their taxes.

That makes reaching them all the more challenging. Payments have already gone out to more than 2 million children across New York state, according to the Treasury Department, out of an estimated 3.2 million who are eligible.

Most households, about 875,000 in New York City, will automatically receive checks because they’ve previously filed taxes or applied for stimulus payments during the pandemic. But an estimated 250,000 families in the five boroughs haven’t filed before, according to city estimates. The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is leading efforts to reach those families, partly by funding organizations including BronxWorks to offer assistance beyond the regular tax preparation season.

At stake: $1.3 billion that New York City families are eligible to receive, said Sandra Abeles, acting commissioner of the department.

“It’s a massive amount of money,” she said.

The city has zeroed-in on about two dozen community districts with the highest numbers of families who haven’t filed taxes, including Port Richmond on Staten Island, Flushing in Queens, Manhattan’s East Harlem, and Coney Island in Brooklyn. The Bronx ZIP code where Velasquez pounded the pavement on a recent August afternoon is home to an estimated 900 children whose families are non-filers, according to federal data.

She was not only out to reach the non-filers. In the Bronx, more than 19% of households are unbanked and another 29% are underbanked — meaning they may not be able to produce the documentation necessary to open an account, or have enough money to maintain minimum deposit amounts. That is the highest rate of any borough in the city. It can make for complicated tax situations, and require some detective work on the part of people like Velasquez.

She and a team of people from BronxWorks, the Department of Worker and Consumer Protection, and other local organizations dropped off fliers at a job fair at a local public housing complex, a school where families could pick up free meals, and a summer school site. They made made their way to a block party outside a health clinic, where Velasquez bumped into Rosa Hidalgo scanning the information booths.

Representatives with BronxWorks, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and other local organization recently visited local schools, a job fair, and community centers to spread the word about the expanded child tax credits.

A mother of three, Hidalgo told Velasquez that she had heard about the expanded federal child tax credit. She didn’t know she should have received the first payment already — $300 a month for children under 6-years-old, and $250 for those up to age 17. The credits began going out mid-July and will continue every month through the end of the year, something else that sets the them apart from the annual payments of prior years. Half of the money is paid through December and the rest will be dispersed after families file taxes next year.

Velasquez quizzed the mom about her taxes: Did she use a preparation service? Did she file jointly with anyone? Where was her return sent? They swapped cell phone numbers and Velasquez promised to follow up.

Mixed-status families — where children are American citizens but their parents are undocumented — face particular barriers to accessing the credits. Any child with a social security number is eligible, but parents without social security numbers must have an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN. Those who don’t already have ITINs face a current backlog of applications.

Other parents may need to hunt for their payments, such as those who don’t file taxes but allow other family members to claim their children as dependents. In those cases, the monthly benefits are automatically sent to the account of the filer. For others who use tax preparation services and don’t have bank accounts, their refunds may go to the business place where parents filed. If families don’t know to claim their checks, the money could be sitting there, unspent.

Hidalgo wasn’t sure if her family would qualify for the credits since she and her husband filed their taxes with an ITIN, and they had been left out of previous rounds of stimulus funding. Without money coming in, the pandemic had been hard on her kids and their schooling.

Hidalgo only recently began working again after a year without employment as a nanny and housekeeper. She depended on community organizations to keep her family fed and did her best to help her children through remote school even while dealing with the grief, still fresh, of losing her brother and cousin to the virus.

“It was hard, to tell the truth,” she said. “Sometimes they didn’t understand their homework, and I couldn’t help them. No one expected this. It was frustrating for them and for me too.”

The extra money, she said, would go towards buying clothes for heading back to school, catching up on the rent, and putting food on the table. She found it hard to settle on a spending priority when money was needed for “everything,” she said.

Rosa Hidalgo’s young sons played with ballon swords while she learned about how to access the expanded child tax credit from Karla Velasquez.

Giving families more money does more than keep cupboards full. It can change the trajectory of children in school and later in life. Research shows that anti-poverty programs can lead to higher test scores and graduation rates for students, and even increased earnings after joining the job market.

As Democrats lobby to make the tax credit permanent, a spotlight will be on how it boosts outcomes for families — making it all the more important for supporters to make sure the money actually reaches those who could benefit most.

“Before the American Rescue Plan, the structure of the original child tax credit was so regressive that it left behind a third of American children — the poorest children in America,” said U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents the South Bronx and made approval of the credits a top priority in his freshman year in Congress. “When you lift people out of poverty, you improve the overall quality and stability of their lives — including their education. Especially their education.”

Velasquez said the families she has talked to all have different spending plans. Many are hoping to build savings that were drained during the pandemic or pay down debt accumulated while moms and dads were out of work. Others will use it for basic needs, like finally being able to buy a bigger bag of rice and cooking oil, she said. The timing of the payments, coming just before children are set to return to school after many spent the last year learning online, means more will start classes on more stable financial ground.

“You’re going to be able to afford to buy school supplies, to have a meal for breakfast to make sure that your kid goes to school, and they’re not hungry,” she said. “You know, like peace of mind for a child.”

These 72 NYC schools will hire more teachers to lower class sizes

2021-07-27T20:14:20+00:00

The New York City education department on Tuesday announced which 72 schools will hire more teachers in a bid to boost reading outcomes for students.

The $18 million initiative aims to lower teacher-to-student ratios, with a focus on campuses where class sizes are larger than the city average, test scores in reading and math are below the city average, and more than 70% of students come from low-income families. City Council members pushed to include the pilot program in the city’s budget, which was approved this month.

“Educators know that smaller classes mean more attention for each child,” education department spokesperson Katie O’Hanlon said in an emailed statement. “Thanks to our partners at the city council, we’re adding staff and reducing class sizes at some of our highest-need schools to make that happen.”

It’s unclear how many of the schools will add teachers to classrooms, instead of whittling down the total number of students in a room. Since many overcrowded schools are crunched for space, it will likely be hard for many of the campuses to accommodate more classrooms with fewer students.

O’Hanlon pointed out that the education department’s capital plan funds 57,000 new school seats across the five boroughs. Officials also hope that an historic increase in school budgets will also mean that principals hire more teachers to reduce class sizes.

Below is the list of schools included in the pilot.

District	School
5	P.S. 046 Arthur Tappan
6	P.S. 153 Adam Clayton Powell
7	P.S./M.S. 029 Melrose School
8	The Dr. Emmett W. Bassett School
8	P.S. 130 Abram Stevens Hewitt
8	P.S. 138 Samuel Randall
8	P.S. 146 Edward Collins
9	P.S. 110 Theodore Schoenfeld
9	P.S./I.S. 218 Rafael Hernandez Dual Language Magne
10	PS/MS 20 P.O.George J. Werdann, III
10	P.S. 023 The New Children's School
10	P.S. 032 Belmont
10	P.S. 033 Timothy Dwight
10	P.S. X037 - Multiple Intelligence School
10	P.S. 094 Kings College School
10	P.S. 095 Sheila Mencher
10	P.S. 205 Fiorello LaGuardia
10	P.S. 279 Captain Manuel Rivera, Jr.
10	P.S./M.S. 280 Mosholu Parkway
10	P.S. 310 Marble Hill
10	P.S. 315 Lab School
11	P.S. 041 Gun Hill Road
11	P.S. 083 Donald Hertz
11	P.S. 087 Bronx
11	P.S. 089 Bronx
11	P.S. 096 Richard Rodgers
11	P.S. 105 Sen Abraham Bernstein
11	P.S. 106 Parkchester
11	P.S. 111 Seton Falls
11	P.S./M.S. 194
12	P.S. 047 John Randolph
12	P.S. 057 Crescent
12	P.S. 214
12	Bronx Little School
17	Norma Adams Clemons Academy
19	P.S. 089 Cypress Hills
19	The Fresh Creek School
20	P.S. 179 Kensington
20	P.S. 503: The School of Discovery
21	P.S. 128 Bensonhurst
21	P.S. K225 - The Eileen E. Zaglin
22	P.S. 119 Amersfort
22	P.S. 139 Alexine A. Fenty
22	P.S. 194 Raoul Wallenberg
22	P.S. 198 Brooklyn
22	P.S. K315
22	P.S. 361 East Flatbush Early Childhood School
23	P.S./I.S. 323
24	P.S. 014 Fairview
24	P.S. Q016 The Nancy DeBenedittis School
24	P.S. 019 Marino Jeantet
24	P.S. 143 Louis Armstrong
24	Elm Tree Elementary School
27	P.S. 104 The Bays Water
27	P.S. 123
27	New York City Academy for Discovery
28	P.S. 082 Hammond
28	P.S. 160 Walter Francis Bishop
28	P.S. 182 Samantha Smith
29	P.S. 034 John Harvard
29	P.S. 035 Nathaniel Woodhull
29	P.S. 036 Saint Albans School
29	P.S. 052 Queens
29	P.S./I.S. 116 William C. Hughley
29	P.S. 118 Lorraine Hansberry
29	P.S./I.S. 268
30	P.S. 092 Harry T. Stewart Sr.
30	P.S. 127 Aerospace Science Magnet School
30	P.S. 148 Queens
30	P.S. 149 Christa McAuliffe
31	P.S. 020 Port Richmond
31	P.S. 21 Margaret Emery-Elm Park

Class Size Pilot Program Schools, 2021

Source: NYC DOE

A Bronx principal turned congressman unveils ambitious Green New Deal for nation’s schools

2021-07-15T21:19:12+00:00

New York City Democratic Congressman and former principal Jamaal Bowman returned to his public school roots in the Bronx on Thursday to unveil a pricey federal proposal that would help construct energy-efficient schools, hire more staff and create more culturally responsive curricula.

The $1.43 trillion package would create hundreds of billions of dollars in grants over 10 years that districts could use to do “green retrofits” of buildings — such as installing solar panels and getting rid of toxic substances — for the nation’s top third of highest-need schools, as measured by socioeconomic indicators. Other schools could also qualify for partial grants and low- or no-interest loans, according to a news release about the bill.

“Schools, as the heartbeat of our communities, can be the epicenter of clean, green, renewable sustainable energy, not only for themselves but for the extended, larger community,” Bowman, who aligns with a group of the most progressive federal Democratic lawmakers, told reporters outside of Sousa Junior High School in the Bronx.

Bowman’s package is meant to address “environmental justice, economic justice, and racial justice” by sending more resources to the highest needs schools, as well as teaching children about systemic problems. He said he wants students to understand the history of redlining, which blocked people of color from getting loans to buy property in certain neighborhoods, and why school buildings in low-income communities tend to be in more disrepair than those in more affluent neighborhoods.

Improving school buildings is a perennial issue, but it gained renewed attention during the pandemic when many districts scrambled to repair their ventilation systems as a way to protect against coronavirus transmission. In New York City, officials raced to fix faulty ventilation systems at buildings before they reopened for students this past year.

Recent research has found that upgrading school facilities results in better student performance.

Bowman is hoping that his proposal, dubbed the Green New Deal for Public Schools, will be included in a broader infrastructure plan as the White House negotiates a new budget. With 22 co-sponsors and a price tag exceeding $1 trillion, it is an ambitious measure introduced by the freshman congressman. Bowman, who was the founding principal of Cornerstone Academy for Social Action in the Bronx before he ran for public office, gave a shout out to his Bronx and Queens colleague, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who co-penned two years ago the Green New Deal, a resolution that maps out a larger plan to combat climate change.

Bowman noted long-standing building issues he experienced in his two decades as an educator and has heard about across the country, such as schools with non-operable or lead-laced drinking fountains and faulty ventilation or HVAC systems, as well as rodent-infested schools. He blamed those problems on “the historic neglect of resources that have not come from our federal government.”

New York City, which is home to the nation’s largest school system, has taken some steps to build greener school infrastructure, including a recent commitment toward a fully electric bus fleet by 2035. In February, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city would install solar panels on top of 47 public schools. The city’s roughly 1,600 schools that house nearly 1 million students contribute to one-third of the carbon emissions released by all city buildings, officials have said.

Bowman’s bill would allocate federal funds that would help the city do much more, according to Chancellor Meisha Porter.

“There’s no doubt that the new Green Deal for Public Schools will help New York City and districts across the country and will continue to ensure that New York City and New York City public schools chart the path forward for this nation to strengthen academics, build greener schools and combat climate change,” Porter said.

Major sections of the bill go beyond energy efficiency. Another $250 billion in block grants would go toward hiring more staff at high-need schools, which districts could use to hire and train more teachers, paraprofessionals, school psychologists, and counselors. This pot of money could also be used to design curriculum that’s “trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and restorative justice practices,” as well as to partner with community organizations who can offer more services to schools, such as after-school programming, according to a news release.

The city has taken some steps in this regard, as well. Officials recently announced a $200 million plan to bring culturally responsive English and math curriculum to all schools by the fall of 2023. (Schools would be required to use the curriculum unless they get a waiver to use existing courses of study.)

The largest chunk of Bowman’s bill — nearly $700 billion — would go toward boosting Title 1 funding, which goes toward schools with high shares of students in poverty, and toward services for students with disabilities.

The bill’s impact on saving energy could be significant for New York City, if passed, said Jeff Vockrodt, executive Director of Climate Jobs New York, a coalition of city labor unions advocating for more climate-friendly infrastructure. The city could save $70 million in energy costs annually if energy efficiency was improved by just 25% across all schools, according to a campaign the group launched to push for clean-energy schools. The organization recently wrote a letter highlighting their findings to New York’s federal leaders, urging them to build greener schools.

“Just here in New York City, we can have the impact of the equivalent of planting 400,000 trees — that impact on emissions,” Vockrodt said during Bowman’s press conference. “We can create thousands of good union jobs [and] we can address a lot of long-standing facilities issues in schools.”

NYC’s budget deal pilots smaller class sizes, dedicates millions to COVID learning loss

2021-06-30T21:59:37+00:00

New York City lawmakers approved Wednesday a record-high budget that will send billions more to schools, including for testing and tutoring students next fall, and a pilot program to reduce class sizes, a longtime goal of many local education advocates.

The $98.7 billion spending plan marks the largest and final budget under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure. It is also, arguably, his most consequential, paving a path for the city’s economic and social recovery after the coronavirus pandemic upended two school years for nearly 1 million students.

Many budget figures weren’t immediately available. However, officials confirmed that the education department’s spending would increase by $2.4 billion year-over-year. That would put the total budget for the nation’s largest school system at $31.6 billion.

When starting the budget process in January, de Blasio initially shared a pessimistic outlook for schools if the federal government and state didn’t send more money to New York City. But now, the city is flush with nearly $7 billion in federal coronavirus relief dollars for schools and another $1.3 billion in state aid.

Even with the influx of cash, it’s still a big question whether the extra funding will provide enough support for students and teachers as they return to buildings — many for the first time since March 2020 — after 16 months marked by death, isolation, and the challenges of remote learning. Budget watchdogs also raised concerns about how sustainable some of these new efforts will be after federal relief runs out in 2024. The de Blasio administration has insisted that tax revenues will grow now that the city has reopened and will support these programs in the future.

Additionally, officials have not shared a full accounting of how the city plans to spend federal coronavirus relief dollars. State law requires the city to post their plan for the money online by Thursday.

The budget agreement covers fiscal year 2022, which runs from July 1 through June 30, 2022.

Here are some of the preliminary highlights for schools.

More money for school budgets

The bulk of money schools get to run their day-to-day operations, such as teacher salaries and services for students with disabilities, comes from a formula known as fair student funding. This year, for the first time, every school will get 100% of the dollars they’re entitled to receive under the city’s fair student funding formula. About three-quarters of schools previously did not get their full allotment and will now see boosts.

“Now, they will have money to hire new teachers, art, music, gym, you name it,” said Brooklyn Councilman Mark Treyger, chair of the City Council’s education committee, during the budget press conference Wednesday.

It will cost the city a total $605 million next fiscal year, plus another $140 million to cover fringe benefits and pension costs, according to the Independent Budget Office.

That formula determines how much funding goes to each school and generally is designed to send more money to high-needs schools.

For years, city officials blamed the gap in fair student funding on a lack of money from the state through its own funding formula. But Albany’s budget grew this year after an increase in federal funding and increases to income taxes on millionaires and corporations, resulting in more money for schools.

‘Academic recovery’ — with few details

The final budget will include an “academic recovery” plan after children lost out on instructional time in the classroom: all students spent about a third of the 2019-2020 school year fully remote, and more than 60% finished out the following school year learning exclusively from home.

The mayor had proposed spending $500 million on helping students catch up by giving students diagnostic tests when they return this fall to measure their English and math skills. Students will then get extra support, such as high-dosage tutoring, to catch up on those subjects where they are below grade level.

But many questions remain unanswered, including what the diagnostic tests will be, what sort of extra support will be available for students, and who will provide tutoring. Aside from some details revealed during a City Council budget hearing in May, city officials have declined to offer more specifics. In response to questions from Chalkbeat, an education department spokesperson said more information would be shared “in the coming days.”

Smaller class sizes and literacy

The City Council proposed a $250 million investment to reduce class size. Instead, the city is planning an $18 million pilot program for smaller classes, though officials declined to share details about what it would involve. A department spokesperson said more details would be shared “in the coming days.”

Reducing class size has been a perennial issue. This year, as social distancing required small classes, many families and educators saw benefits of having fewer children in a classroom, and many believe that small classes are critical again next year since children will likely have a range of needs and could be at widely different levels academically. Advocates were hopeful that the billions in federal and state dollars could support such an initiative.

This final investment is a “piddling amount of money,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of the advocacy organization Class Size Matters.

“I think this is a very sad end to a mediocre mayoral record when it comes to our schools,” Haimson said. “He could have easily funded that out of the $8 billion [in federal and state money].”

Separately, the city will spend $27 million on a literacy curriculum focused on helping students read at grade level and “address learning loss,” according to a press release from Speaker Corey Johnson’s office. City officials declined to share more details Wednesday, saying that more will be shared in the “coming days.”

Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates For Children New York, said the investment is just over half of what City Council and advocates had asked for and falls short of the need.

“In addition, the budget does not include any additional funding for evidence-based literacy interventions for students who need additional support in reading,” Sweet wrote in a statement. “Every year, AFC hears from hundreds of families concerned that their students are not learning to read within NYC public schools, and the data show that less than half of 3rd through 8th graders are reading proficiently with alarming disparities based on race, disability, and housing status.”

Special education seats for preschoolers — with a catch

Universal pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds has been de Blasio’s signature education accomplishment. Thanks to an influx of federal dollars, the city had proposed spending $377 million next fiscal year to ramp up programming for 3-year-olds, with the goal to make “3-K” universally available by September 2023, according to figures shared in April.

But the rapidly expanding program will still leave out many students with disabilities who are entitled to smaller classes with specialized instruction, in part because they are often served by nonprofit organizations that have been struggling to stay afloat amid years of nearly flat funding from the state. At the end of the 2019-2020 school year, 1,215 preschool students with disabilities were still waiting for classroom seats, according to an analysis of city data conducted by Advocates for Children.

De Blasio and the City Council have agreed to spend $22 million on a slew of initiatives for preschool students with disabilities, including opening dozens of classrooms that integrate students with disabilities and their peers without disabilities. But the city is not directing additional funding to eliminate the gap in seats for students who need more specialized classrooms until the fiscal year beginning in July 2022. That means many preschool students with disabilities could be forced to sit at home without access to instruction next school year.

“Preschoolers with intensive needs should not have to wait for the City to uphold their legal rights,” wrote Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children. Levine also noted that the city has not committed to eliminating the yawning pay disparity between preschool special education teachers at city-run programs and those at nonprofit community organizations, which often amounts to a $30,000 difference. The discrepancy can make it difficult for community organizations to attract teachers and keep classrooms running.

More social workers and mental health support

The budget will set aside money to make sure every school has a full-time social worker or access to an in-house mental health clinic, which employ psychologists and other types of clinicians.

In all, the mayor proposed spending $91 million in federal COVID relief dollars to pay for 500 additional social workers as well as a short mental health assessment for every student when they return in the fall. (Families can opt their children out of getting screened, officials have said.)

The budget will also include another $5 million to support schools in connecting with “health experts rather than police” when children are experiencing a mental health crisis, Treyger said.

“We don’t need the police to respond to 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds having a bad day in school,” he said.

During the 2019-20 school year, Black students received nearly half of all suspensions or removals from school that also involved contact with the police, and six police-involved incidents involved 6-year-old children.

A Council spokesperson did not immediately share more details about which schools would receive this funding or how the program would work.

Sweet, with Advocates for Children, praised the investment, adding that this type of model is based on schools partnering with hospital-based mental health clinics for advice and care.

Expanding community schools

The mayor had proposed spending $51 million on expanding the community schools program, which provides high-needs school communities with wraparound services, such as mental health support and extra academic help. His plan was to open 140 more such schools by the fall of 2022.

Separately, an additional $9 million will go toward restoring funding cuts for community organizations that partner with 52 community schools, which resulted from a new funding model the city has begun to implement.

Alex Zimmerman and Christina Veiga contributed.

NYC to pay for summer school taxis for homeless students and those with disabilities after facing criticism from advocates

2021-06-30T01:17:15+00:00

The city will pick up the tab for taxis to ferry homeless students and those with disabilities back from its summer school program after facing criticism from advocates who said the education department’s transportation plans violated the law.

The announcement, which was made in a Tuesday evening Twitter post, comes one week before the summer program is set to launch for most students and after advocates urged the city to offer a car service at the end of the day if bus transportation is not available.

“We will offer reimbursement for travel expenses (such as car service, taxi) for families of students with disabilities and students in shelter who receive busing during the school year and would like to stay at their Summer Rising program until 6 p.m.,” wrote Sarah Casasnovas, an education department spokesperson.

Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, which has raised concerns about the busing policies in recent weeks, said the transportation plan could still impose logistical burdens on families.

“While reimbursement may help some families, many families who are homeless or have low incomes cannot afford to lay out money for daily car service and wait for the DOE to reimburse them,” Levine wrote in an email.

Levine said the education department should pay upfront for families to take taxis to Summer Rising sites and accompany their children home.

Casasnovas did not say how the reimbursement process will work or how families who couldn’t front the cost would be accommodated. She said more information would be provided to families soon.

The city’s summer school program, which is open to all city students for the first time, includes an academic portion for the first part of the day followed by afternoon enrichment, such as field trips and other camp-like activities. The afternoon enrichment wraps up at 4 p.m. for middle school students and 6 p.m. for elementary students. (The structure of the high school program varies.) Until today, city officials had offered to provide MetroCards as transportation back for students who wanted to stay beyond the academic portion.

For weeks, Advocates for Children demanded that city officials provide round-trip yellow bus service at the day’s end to students who typically receive it during the school year. Without it, they said, some of the city’s most vulnerable students, including those who use wheelchairs and homeless students who live far from public transportation, would be shut out of a significant chunk of the summer enrichment program.

City officials initially declined to provide any yellow bus service to many homeless students and those with disabilities who typically receive it during the school year. And even for eligible students, officials said they would only provide round-trip service for the academic part of the day.

After pressure from advocates, the education department recently agreed to expand bus transportation — but again, only for the academic portion during the first chunk of the day. Now, officials said they will cover the cost of a taxi or car service back for homeless students and those with disabilities at the end of the full day, so long as they also received busing during the school year.

About 50,000 students with disabilities and 5,000 homeless students typically receive busing during the school year; it’s unclear how many of them will participate in the summer program. Officials previously indicated that they could not provide bus service at the end of the school day due to “operational constraints and safety considerations” but have not elaborated on what that meant.

Busing isn’t the only possible barrier for students to attend summer school. Some families and advocates have raised concerns about whether there will be enough specialized staff on hand to meet the needs of some students with disabilities. And the enrollment process for the summer program has also sparked confusion, as some families have been turned away from specific summer school sites or placed on waitlists.

Immigrant students will need more support next school year. Improved translation services are high on the wishlist.

2021-06-28T21:58:15+00:00

A couple of months into the pandemic, Marleny De La Cruz lost her job as an office cleaner. Shortly after, her husband lost his supermarket job near their East Harlem home. She told herself there would be a silver lining: She could spend more time helping their 10-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter navigate remote learning through the tail end of the 2019-20 school year.

Being home full-time, however, didn’t solve the biggest hurdle for De La Cruz, who only speaks Spanish. Communicating with her children’s schools remained exceedingly difficult.

It wasn’t until this spring — nearly a year later — that her daughter’s high school in Queens set up De La Cruz with a translator during teacher phone calls, she said.

“It was really frustrating this year, and I’m still really unsure about what they did and what they didn’t learn,” De La Cruz said in Spanish through a translator. “I, as a mother, felt that I should have done more, and it was really upsetting and depressing to try to go to a meeting where you’re not going to understand anything about your son or daughter.”

Throughout the pandemic, communities with large immigrant populations were among the hardest hit, with disproportionately high infection rates. Many working-class immigrants like De La Cruz and her husband lost their jobs. On top of that, remote schooling presented a huge challenge for families who speak languages other than English to untangle problems with technology and questions about their children’s progress.

Now, ahead of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to bring every child back into classrooms, advocates, families and educators say immigrant families and the 140,000 students learning English as a new language need extra communication, more one-on-one academic support and more socio-emotional services as they reacclimate to classrooms — as well as to regain any lost trust.

De Blasio’s proposed budget, expected to be finalized this week, allocates billions of federal COVID relief dollars toward education, including a $500 million initiative targeted at helping students catch up. But officials have not outlined a specific plan for how they’ll support English language learners.

Advocates find that problematic, especially because these students continue to have the highest dropout rate among student subgroups, and may need extra support following a year marred by spotty internet access, communication barriers with schools, and more responsibilities for students — such as work or babysitting younger siblings — that may have disrupted their focus on school.

“We will provide opportunities to accelerate learning and evaluate the needs of all students, including ELLs, as we recover from the impacts of the pandemic, and we’re investing in targeted summer supports for these students to meet their unique needs,” wrote Sarah Casasnovas, a spokesperson for the education department, in a statement.

Improving communication

Schools have long struggled to communicate with families who don’t speak English as their primary language, but the language barrier was especially daunting this year as pandemic-related guidance and schedules shifted often. Some of the spaces where schools shared this information and provided a forum for families to ask questions, such as Parent Teacher Association meetings, were not accessible to families who speak little English.

Many families didn’t even have the information about the city’s special summer school program, open to all students, said Vanessa Luna, co-founder of Imms Schools, which holds family workshops and provides professional development for educators on supporting immigrant students. At New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, where nearly 20% of students are English language learners, teacher Nathan Floro had to print out and deliver COVID testing consent forms to families who were not native English speakers and couldn’t navigate the form online.

Communication problems appear to have persisted throughout the pandemic. A survey conducted by the New York Immigration Coalition in summer 2020 found that one-third of 100 parent respondents had not received information or assignments from their child’s school in the language they speak at home. Nearly 30% of families said at the time that their schools had not shared plans for the 2020-2021 school year.

The education department says that over-the-phone interpretation services are available 24/7 in 350 languages for schools staff to communicate with families, but advocates have found many instances like De La Cruz’s, where those services aren’t used.

“Currently we hear these cases every day — that they weren’t given an interpreter,” said Andrea Ortiz, education policy manager at the New York Immigration Coalition. “That right there means it hasn’t been implemented.”

The Education Collaborative, a coalition of advocacy organizations that support immigrant New Yorkers, are pushing for $45 million in the city’s budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1, to improve school communication with families. This includes putting more school communication on paper, doing more outreach through telephone calls and on WhatsApp and WeChat, and marketing campaigns that place school information in places immigrants frequent, such as houses of worship. They also want every school to have interpretation equipment for town halls or PTA meetings, money for community-based organizations to do outreach, a language telephone line for uncommon, indigenous languages, and a program in community schools that pays parents and students to help communicate with people at the school.

A spokesperson for the education department said officials have tried to close the “communication gap” by translating letters sent to families — as well as their web page and social media posts — into 10 languages. They’ve also turned to “multilingual” media outlets to share updates about devices or remote learning, and also held live workshops for families in languages other than English in partnership with community organizations and the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.

But advocates argue that immigrant families who don’t use email, especially those speaking less common languages or dialects, are often unaware of those efforts.

Bolstering academic support

Many older immigrant students had to work to support their families, sometimes becoming the sole breadwinners after parents lost jobs, meaning sometimes they couldn’t show up to class. Officials with New York Immigration Coalition and Advocates for Children New York said schools have “admitted” to them that they have not been providing all of the hours of extra language support that English learners are entitled to receive because they didn’t have enough staff during hybrid learning, which required teachers for both in-person and remote schooling.

One analysis found that in January of this year, English language learners in high school had attendance rates that were eight percentage points on average lower than their native English-speaking peers. (Attendance meant anything from showing up on Zoom to answering a teacher’s phone call.)

George Badia, principal at Elmhurst’s Pan American High School, which exclusively serves new immigrant students in a community that was one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus, recently held a town hall with parents to remind them of social services and food benefits available to families so children feel less pressure to work and not show up to class in the fall.

Many of Badia’s 386 students have said that they need more English literacy support and help with math. The school has already started paying teachers overtime for one-on-one tutoring and has hired peer mentors to encourage students to show up to class, he said. Next year, they plan to use a bump in school funding for Saturday classes and other tutoring supports, as well as more advisory sessions for students.

With a funding increase across most schools, many may be able to hire more teachers or pay for extra services for students. But advocates want to see more targeted support. The Education Collaborative wants $78 million to go toward a suite of academic help, including one-on-one and small group literacy development for this summer, and after-school and weekend classes during the school year for both English learners and students with parents who don’t speak English. They also want to establish mentorship and peer tutoring for newcomer English learners.

Some educators want a key part of next year to focus on socializing because it is an important part of practicing a new language. This will be key for newer immigrants who haven’t had a chance to get to know their schools and their neighborhoods because of the pandemic, they said.

Teachers said they will assign more group work in the fall, focus more on oral assignments so that students can practice speaking, and will take students on field trips to explore their school’s neighborhood more and so they can use the language outside of a classroom.

“We need to provide not just test prep, but really provide room for authentic socialization and just individualized attention,” said Eleni Filippatos, an elementary English as a new language teacher in Washington Heights. “Every kid is different, every kid has been through something different during this.”

Over the summer, the department has promised to provide English as a new language curriculum for English learners at Summer Rising sites across the city and will hire more teachers who are trained to support these students. They also pointed to their plan to partner with community organizations, who will be charged with creating enrichment activities for students, including English learners.

In the fall, department officials said they plan to ensure multilingual learners are on track to graduate and have “equitable access” to college and career pathways, and plan on “strengthening partnerships” with immigrant families and communities – but a spokesperson didn’t specify how they’ll achieve these things.

Leaning on community-based organizations

Education Collaborative also wants the city to earmark an additional $20 million in grants for community-based organizations, to help provide extra academic support next year, since many filled in that gap over the past two school years.

At a rally outside of the education department, advocates, families, and students pushed for more money in the city’s budget to go toward services for English language learners and immigrant families.

High school junior Kelitha Nazaire, an English language learner, said it was tough to get extra support from her teachers in a remote environment, especially because some only speak English. So she turned to Flanbwayan, a community-based organization where she is a youth member. It supports older immigrant students which started also providing extra support to younger students in response to the pandemic.

“I had to get to Flanbwayan every day to do my work [but] not everyone has a safe place to go,” Nazaire said during a recent rally for immigrant students.

The Brooklyn-based Arab-American Family Support Center, which provides academic support to largely immigrant families, saw such an “incredible uptick” in people asking for help with school that they created a wait list. They helped English learners with homework, figuring out college applications, translate conversations between teachers and families who spoke little English, and created peer support groups for those who were feeling isolated.

“They were turning to organizations like ours to help fill in that gap,” said Kerry Sesil, the center’s senior director of resource development.

Supporting social emotional needs

At Pan American in Elmhurst, principal Badia can list from memory the 15 students who have reported losing relatives, including parents to COVID. Early on the school surveyed every student about their stress levels and developed a counseling plan for each student, if needed.

“We are seeing an increase in students and families looking for services,” Badia said.

The mayor has proposed spending $93 million to ensure every student can be screened for social-emotional needs at the start of the school year, as well as placing a full-time social worker in every school without one or without access to a school-based mental health clinic.

But advocates, students and families believe that social workers and guidance counselors must be able to communicate with students and understand the cultural perspectives they’re coming from.

As this school year wore on, Sarah Factor, a middle school English as a new language teacher in Manhattan’s District 2, could see how physically exhausted her students looked. Her newcomer immigrant students had not had a chance to meet their peers or get acclimated to school, and some students’ relatives had died from COVID.

How, she thought, could schools expect these students to be motivated to learn a new language?

“If we’re all back in the fall, kids who haven’t been inside a school building for a year and half are gonna have vastly different needs,” Factor said. “It’s gonna be a culture shock situation.”

Nazaire, who came to New York City from Haiti five years ago, said she and her peers have found it tough to confide in guidance counselors because they don’t speak their language.

Some schools do an “incredible job” with social-emotional support, said Luna, from Imms schools. But Luna is also in touch with a family who has reported that their child’s school “never shared there are counselors available, never shared there are translators available.”

A spokesperson for the education department said there are roughly 300 bilingual guidance counselors employed in city schools — about 10% of all guidance counselors.

De La Cruz, the parent from East Harlem, said her 17-year-old daughter has been talking to a counselor at her Queens high school, but there were times the counselor would delay or cancel on her. The school finally provided an interpreter for De La Cruz this spring because her daughter was falling behind with school work, she said. Previously, she relied on her eldest son, a 25-year-old juggling his own work and college, to interpret during teacher meetings and would sometimes need to cancel if he wasn’t available.

Even with the interpretation service, De La Cruz found it hard to ask many questions about her daughter’s progress, feeling rushed on the “quick call with a translator.”

“This year was really tough for her, and I don’t think she feels good in that school,” De La Cruz said. “Maybe I can engage better if she’s closer in the neighborhood, and if I’m able to translate better.”

‘How do we rebuild a sense of community?’ A Brooklyn school seeks to find joy and connection after a devastating year

2021-06-24T20:10:43+00:00

Milagros Reyes’s husband was in the first wave of New Yorkers to succumb to the coronavirus, taking his last breath in their East New York apartment. His death in April 2020 left Reyes alone with her two children, ages 3 and 10.

Milagros Reyes’s husband, Patricio Mendez, succumbed to COVID in their East New York apartment in April 2020, leaving Reyes to care for their two children.

Reyes called 911 to retrieve her husband’s body, which was quarantined in a bedroom. But hours passed and no ambulance arrived. When the parent coordinator of her fifth grader’s school, P.S. 89, called to check on the child’s absence, Reyes explained the dire situation, setting off a series of messages to the school’s principal, district superintendent, anyone who could help.

Eventually, after 24 hours, paramedics arrived.

“For a young child, it’s a trauma. It wasn’t easy,” Reyes said in Spanish. But she is striving to move forward, leaning on her support system in the school community. “We’re fighting still.”

The grim situation was not the only time a P.S. 89 family struggled to have a relative’s body removed from a home. Those crises served as an early warning of the devastation many members of the community would experience and foreshadowed the ways in which the school would respond with an all-hands approach.

At P.S. 89, an English/Spanish dual language pre-K-8 school in Cypress Hills, the pandemic caused immense damage, including the deaths of loved ones, job losses, mental health challenges, and significant disruptions to student learning. Now, as infection rates plummet and officials promise a return to in-person learning for all students this fall, principals are grappling with how to fully reopen in September while addressing the deep emotional wounds and learning gaps students are facing.

P.S. 89 officials made great efforts to re-engage José David after the loss of his father, making accommodations for him to return to the classroom after the city’s deadline to sign up for in-person instruction closed, and offered him additional small group tutoring.

For many families, the emotional scars and learning disruptions are intertwined. Reyes’s initial concerns were about survival after the death of her husband, Patricio Mendez, a taxi driver who enjoyed playing dominoes, Monopoly, and dropping his stepson off at school every day.

Suddenly the sole breadwinner after seven years of marriage, Reyes saw her work as a hairdresser dry up during the pandemic, and the family had to move. The upheaval quickly impacted the education of José David Sime Reyes, a fifth grader who was learning remotely full time and often missed virtual classes.

P.S. 89 officials went out of their way to re-engage José David, making special accommodations for him to return to the classroom even after the city’s deadline to sign up for in-person instruction closed, and offered him additional small group tutoring. The 10-year-old is making academic progress now that he’s back in the school building, though Reyes has started inquiring about counseling for him — and for herself — to help process everything they’ve been through.

The staff at P.S. 89 knows the trauma and disruption of the past year will linger. As a school that has focused for years on fostering deep ties with families and deploying wraparound services, Principal Irene Leon is optimistic in the school’s ability to meet the moment. But with no tried-and-tested roadmap for this situation, Leon is drawing up one of her own.

“It is overwhelming to think about what the needs are going to be next year when you have everyone in the building,” Leon said. “How do we rebuild a sense of community?”

Milagro Reyes and her fifth grader José David in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. The staff at his school, P.S. 89, know that it will take great effort to get their students past the trauma and challenges of the past year.

Road to recovery in the new school year

Since March of 2020, roughly half of the school’s students have been learning completely virtually, disrupting social rhythms and making it difficult for teachers to get to know their students. As city officials plan to require all students to attend school in person this fall, Leon is planning to waste no time recreating a sense of belonging.

P.S. 89 will launch a weeklong set of outdoor team-building activities at the nearby Highland Park, a space where the school can gather more of the community at once, given uncertainty about social distancing rules within schools this fall. She hopes the outdoor activities will ease students back and help them form social bonds that may have atrophied during the pandemic.

Those activities will also give the staff a sense of where students are emotionally and what their interests may be. Although P.S. 89 has a longstanding advisory program for its middle school students, Leon is hoping to tweak the program to group students more intentionally by their passions or needs based on what staff glean in that initial week, boosting the odds that students will quickly form bonds with each other and at least one caring adult.

P.S. 89 Principal Irene Leon has been with the school since its founding in 1997, starting as a teacher. She is trying to bring a sense of belonging back to the school, launching a weeklong outdoor team-building exercise in September.

Once they settle into classrooms, some will find they have two teachers instead of one, thanks to a boost in the school’s budget and money that Leon was able to roll over from last year. The school plans to deploy the additional staff to reach students in grades K-2, so that most of them will take classes that are co-taught, a popular model for serving students with disabilities that is rarer in traditional classrooms. As students will return at widely varying reading levels, with some struggling to master letters and their sounds, Leon is hoping that additional teachers will work with students who need extra help while also nudging along students who are farther ahead.

After a twice delayed school year and frequent closures due to positive coronavirus cases, school officials are also trying to build in ample time to catch students up. P.S. 89 is planning to assess students at the beginning reading and math sequences, leaving as much as a week or two between each unit to tackle material students may have missed the previous year.

“The year was shortened, no matter how you look at it,” Leon said. “It’s important that we address those skills that they missed that they haven’t mastered.”

But Leon isn’t measuring the success of this fall primarily on how quickly teachers can catch students up, or whether test scores rise. She said the truest measure of the school’s success next fall is about how students feel when they walk through the school doors: “The biggest sign is that kids are happy,” she said.

There are still a dizzying array of unknowns that will shape the coming school year. The city has earmarked $500 million for an “academic recovery program,” though it is not yet clear how that will filter down to schools.

P.S. 89 may soon receive additional funding by becoming part of New York City’s “community schools” program.

The school may receive additional funding to become part of the city’s official “community school” program, which provides wraparound services similar to what P.S. 89 has been providing for years — though the school will likely not find out until later this summer.

At the same time, key details about how schools will operate this fall are up in the air, including health and safety rules. Those regulations could have big implications since they will determine how many students fit in a room, which affects scheduling and how many teachers a school needs.

And there are other immediate planning needs, including an expanded summer school program that launches next month and which many principals like Leon are responsible for organizing.

“It just takes a lot of planning to do it well, and I feel like I’m doing two jobs right now,” she added.

Student mental health includes working with families

P.S. 89 may be better situated than most schools to tackle the emotional and academic needs students will have in the fall. Its deep relationships with parents proved essential during the pandemic and may be a key to its recovery.

Founded in 1997 by a group of parents in concert with a local nonprofit organization, P.S. 89 was an early pioneer of the idea that schools could help knock down out-of-school barriers to learning like hunger or unstable housing by directly embedding wraparound support and social services. The school’s partnership with the Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation gives families easier access to housing services, job training or other social support. The organization also runs P.S. 89’s after-school program.

“We have been doing all of this for more than 20 years, we were prepared, we knew our families, we knew what type of questions to ask,” said Sasha Rincon, a guidance counselor.

The school also has the benefit of a unique leadership structure with a parent co-director in addition to a parent coordinator, who helps orient families and organize workshops on topics like healthy eating.

This past year, the school bolstered its staff to help meet families’ needs, including a new social worker in addition to its two existing guidance counselors. Rincon is already laying out plans this coming year to make sure students get the support they need outside the classroom, and she’s anticipating more acute challenges with following directions, motivation, bullying, dealing with romantic rejection, and processing grief. She’s looking forward to restarting the school’s peer mediation program, where students take the lead in resolving interpersonal conflicts.

During the pandemic, the school has bolstered its support staff to address the emotional well-being of families and their students. The school has an additional layer for parent involvement through its parent co-director Maria Jaya, who had deep ties in the school community. “I’m the eyes, the ears,” she said.

Based on what school staff have learned about students’ individual circumstances this year, she’s already identifying students who may need counseling, including those in temporary housing, a group she expects will be larger this year as the economic fallout will continue to reverberate in a neighborhood already suffering from housing instability. She’s hoping to partner with the city’s health department to run a group focused on grief for a handful of students who lost parents or faced other trauma including abuse.

Still, efforts to address trauma and help students catch up academically can only work if they actually show up.

The school has historically posted impressive attendance rates, despite a high-needs population: About 41% of the school’s students are English learners and 91% come from low-income families, far higher than the city average.

Before the pandemic, about 11% of the school’s students were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year, according to city data. That’s significantly lower than the citywide chronic absenteeism rate of about 21%.

Despite its track record of high attendance, P.S. 89 found itself in a similar situation as other schools, struggling to keep all of its students engaged over the past year. Although attendance remained high on paper, some students were missing a significant amount of virtual instruction. (Any interaction with the school on a remote day, however brief, meant a student was counted as present, according to the city’s policy.)

Despite P.S.89’s record of high attendance, the school has struggled to keep all of its students engaged through a year of remote learning.

As some middle school students began skipping morning classes, P.S. 89 staffers conducted wake-up calls. It was often difficult to reach students directly, especially those who were home alone and didn’t answer their phones, Rincon said. As work dried up or parents struggled with the logistics of remote learning while holding down jobs, some students moved out of Brooklyn or returned to their home countries such as Mexico, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, with a handful of these children learning remotely from outside the country. (In all, the school’s enrollment fell about 4% this year, in line with the city average.)

Even though school officials had resisted attendance incentive programs, the school launched one for the first time, with rewards for improved attendance like pencils and hoodies — or, in some cases, McDonald’s and Amazon gift cards.

Come September, students won’t have the option to learn from home, which has sparked criticism from some parents across the city, who said they weren’t consulted before the mayor changed his mind about the need for virtual options, and want to ease back into classrooms at their own pace or simply see advantages to remote instruction.

For her part, Leon indicated that parents at P.S. 89 have not clamored for a remote option, and multiple families said they are looking forward to sending their children back to school in person full time.

“I think parents want to come back,” Leon said. “I think the kids want to come back.”

Jumping in with hands-on projects

Many crucial decisions about how to welcome students this September will fall to teachers.

P.S. 89 art teacher Elizabeth Velazquez is beginning to think about what her classroom will look like next year — and how to restructure her lessons to engage students who may have had negative experiences with school this year.

Instead of beginning with structured lessons about specific artists or techniques, she’s planning to just give her students space to draw, paint, or make collages on their own.

“I feel like they’ve been held back from materials and play for so long, like playing outside, playing with each other, they need that movement,” she said. “I want them to immediately come into the classroom and start making things.”

Art teacher Elizabeth Velazquez is planning on giving her students the space to make art with less structure and direction, in the hopes of better engaging her students.

Remote instruction was particularly difficult for art teachers like Velazquez, who couldn’t count on families having materials at home. She coached them to make paints with cabbage, turmeric and other household items, and noted some students found art as an outlet for the pain and confusion they felt during the pandemic. She also took advantage of the remote setup to make it easier to attract guest speakers, including George Ibañez, a well-known graffiti artist who has deep roots in New York.

For many students, though, art class felt optional, especially those who were overwhelmed by the pandemic and keeping up with virtual assignments in other classes. Velazquez was also pulled in different directions this year, as complicated scheduling arrangements and safety rules meant that she also helped facilitate everything from gym to humanities classes.

Velazquez is hoping that unleashing students on blank pages will help ease them back into the classroom and spark a little joy. It’s an experiment, and how her students respond remains uncertain. But if there’s one thing she took away from this past year, it’s that she may not have complete control over how the year unfolds.

“I’m not sure exactly how things are going to be,” she said. “I’m holding on to the joy that I know exists with my students and bringing that to confront any of the challenges that come into being in this new year.”

Christina Veiga and Amy Zimmer contributed reporting.

Chalkbeat produced this Pandemic 360 series in partnership with Univision 41.