The NYPD is sending ‘youth coordination officers’ to schools. Who are they?
From Chalkbeat: Last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a fairly new kind of cop would be sent to city schools following a spate of violent incidents, including five guns allegedly recovered from students within a week. The NYPD initially rolled out the “Youth Coordination Officers” program in 2020, with an early target of moving […]
Year-round school in New York? De Blasio makes pitch as he hints at gubernatorial run
From Chalkbeat: As he eyes a possible political future in Albany, Mayor Bill de Blasio pitched his next big education ideas Thursday: year-round school and extended school days across New York. De Blasio stopped just short of announcing a run for governor as he touted his statewide education plan on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” and he […]
Settlement to give Black and Latino students more access to NYC high school sports teams
From Chalkbeat: New York City will expand access to sports teams in the wake of a lawsuit that claimed Black and Latino students were systematically denied access to the same athletic opportunities as students of other races. Under a preliminary settlement agreement announced Wednesday, the education department will group certain nearby high schools so they […]
NYC special education referrals plunge 57% from pre-pandemic levels
From Chalkbeat: Significantly fewer students were referred for special education evaluations last year, dropping 57% since the year before the pandemic started, raising concerns that thousands of students have not been identified for services they may need. During the 2020-2021 school year, 9,457 students were referred for evaluations to determine if they need more intensive […]
‘There’s been a teacher shortage crisis looming across the country’
From Yahoo: Aaron C. Spence, Virginia Beach City Public Schools Superintendent, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the impact of teacher shortages and burnout. We’re dealing with a lot of things, obviously. We’re trying to keep school up in the middle of a pandemic. And we’re dealing with fairly significant staffing shortages and dealing with some […]
NYC students heading back to school got form letters instead of MetroCards to ride transit
From Chalkbeat: Julie Lam, 16, had to crawl under a turnstile to catch the subway on her second day of school this week. Lam relies on a school-issued MetroCard to commute to and from Manhattan’s Baruch College Campus High School. But, on the first day of classes, instead of a pre-loaded card to ride city […]
NYC teachers union calls for weekly covid testing for some students as first school closes with at least 16 positive staff cases
From Chalkbeat: New York City’s teachers union called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to ramp up the frequency of random coronavirus testing in schools for students under 12, just one day after the city’s first school closure of the year due to widespread virus transmission among staff. The city should test 10% of students under […]
After nixing gifted and talented test, New York City awards seats to 4-year-olds based on educator nominations
From Chalkbeat: Roughly one out of every five 4-year-olds who applied for kindergarten seats in New York City’s gifted and talented program received a spot, according to preliminary data the education department released Tuesday. The charged debate over these sought-after classes came to a head this year as officials were forced to abandon the test […]