Dear John,

It’s hard to be a parent of school-age kids right now, no matter what age they are, how much room you have in your home, how much time and resources you have. Of course, it’s massively harder if you don’t have the technology or broadband or tech skills to help your kids, if you’re an immigrant parent who doesn’t speak much English, if you’re all sharing one room, or if you don’t have a home at all. In education as elsewhere, the gaping inequalities of our society render the pandemic all-the-more more painfully unequal.

But still, I know it’s hard for everyone. Juggling working from home while homeschooling, trying to keep everyone healthy and studying at home while going to work all day, sharing small spaces and limited technology, keeping siblings on good terms, making sure everyone has masks and keeps them on their faces outside … it's all pretty hard right now.

Teachers, principals and administrators have been working tirelessly to get all students the technology they need for remote learning, putting together new curricula, rolling with changes to DOE technology policy, and supporting their students and families in ways that go far beyond the now-virtual classroom. We owe these educators a huge thank you. They have grappled with adapting to this disruption while trying to care for their own health and families, and heartbreakingly, the DOE has lost more than 63 people [[link removed]] , including 25 teachers and 26 paraprofessionals to the COVID virus.

Over the last month, my office, in partnership with Council Member Carlos Menchaca and local educators and community organizations, have organized a series of video calls to help get information to parents and create a community of support, including several calls in English and one each in Spanish and Mandarin. We’ve had hundreds of parents show up, and we plan to continue providing this virtual space to share information, talk about what’s working, troubleshoot problems and connect people to each other.

Parents, please take our survey to help us understand what’s working for you and how to make these forums as useful as possible. [[link removed]] The information shared in the survey will help inform the content of that call and future forums to come, so help us learn about what is needed by taking the survey and sharing it in your school communities.

And sign up for our next parent support call, Monday April 27 at 7 PM [[link removed]] . We have some great educators, child psychologists, and parents lined up to help us share what’s working and build together.

As we look ahead towards what public education in our city needs to help students weather this storm, we have to keep a sharp focus on issues of equity. This week, the DOE released the first stats on student attendance [[link removed]] , showing that 84% of students have “participated regularly” in online learning (compared to the previous average daily attendance of 92%). Because of technology access, physical learning space, language barriers, and varying abilities of parents to help their students, remote learning is likely to exacerbate the already unconscionable achievement gaps for low-income students. So far, the DOE has distributed 118,000 internet enabled iPads for remote learning, including 13,000 devices to children living in shelters. Out of a total of 300,000 devices available, DOE has received 210,000 requests and expects to fill all requests by the end of April. But we know that, despite all these efforts, so many students are being left behind.

As we move forward, we must do even more to target additional support to help those students make up for what’s being lost. I’m proud to be part of an advocacy community with many of you who are thinking and working to address inequities and bring more support to all of our students.

That’s going to mean pushing hard to protect public education as much as we possibly can in this year’s budget process. New York City is facing a huge revenue shortfall of over $7 billion between this fiscal year and next (and Albany made it worse to the tune of $800 million). But those cuts should not fall disproportionately on education spending. And what cuts do take place should come from ancillary functions like borough support offices, contracts, and administration rather than from the schools themselves.

Mayor de Blasio proposed a budget for next year that includes $827 million in cuts [[link removed]] to education spending, including substantial cuts of direct funding to schools. While the Department of Education represents 20% of the City’s budget, they’re getting hit with 22% of the cuts. Meanwhile, the NYPD, which represents 7% of the budget, is only absorbing 1% of the cuts.

If we must freeze hires and not replace retiring teachers, counselors, and social workers, then we should do the same at the NYPD. I’m genuinely grateful for the work our officers are doing in this crisis, and we owe a special debt of gratitude to those who have contracted COVID-19 while working to keep us safe. But with crime at historic lows, we don’t need to hire 2,200 new cops over the next year. That would help us save over $200 million, which we should use to reduce the devastating impacts of cuts to our school.

The City Council will be formally receiving the Mayor’s proposed budget tomorrow at our first virtual Council meeting (it starts at 1:00 pm, and I think you’ll be able to watch it here [[link removed]] ). We’ll then be responding, negotiating, and pushing for a budget that reflects our shared values over the next 2 months (the budget must be adopted by the end of June).

There will need to be painful cuts, and hard decisions. But we also need to account for public health and welfare, for the inequities we’re watching play out every day, for our values, and for our future. I’ll have lots more to share on this as the budget process continues.

In this email:
Resources for Parents
Parent Survey
Upcoming Parent Support Call
City and State Updates

Resources for Parents

Our comprehensive list of resources for parents is on our website here [[link removed]] (and in Spanish and Mandarin here [[link removed]] ). There you can find links to relevant DOE resources and recordings of our past parent support calls.

Teachers, parents, and students are all finding ways to support each other. Here are a few mutual aid education resources for families:

Dial-a-teacher office hours for District 15: Teachers in our district have self-organized to be available to parents for various questions. See the schedule here [[link removed]] and sign up to talk with a teacher.

Free tutoring: College students are providing free tutoring assistance to NYC public school students. Find out more here [[link removed]] .

Parent translation and tech assistance: Parent Volunteers NYC is a group of parents who have organized to provide language and technology assistance to fellow parents. Find out more here [[link removed]] .

Help a D15 Student get the tools they need: M.S. 88 teachers are organizing to get technology, including headphones and wifi to D15 students to help them succeed. Learn more here. [[link removed]]

Upcoming Parent Support Call and Survey

As remote learning will now extend for the rest of the school year, we thought it might be a good time to check in with each other and share those resources and ideas that are working best for you and your children. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey [[link removed]] to help us craft a new webinar forum for all of us to come together to discuss and share these ideas.

Next parent support call co-hosted with Park Slope Parents: Monday April 27, 7 PM. Register here [[link removed]] .

City and State Updates

The state Department of Labor has unveiled a new application to streamline applying for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Independent contractors and gig workers who were previously told they needed to apply for state unemployment insurance and be denied before they could apply for the federal PUA assistance will no longer need to do that. (Here is a new factsheet on applying for PUA). Since the COVID-19 crisis began, the DOL has paid our $2.2 billion in unemployment benefits for 1.1 million people. For many people who were part of the backlog, checks have come too slowly, but hopefully things will move faster with this new system in place. 

The Mayor has cancelled all large public gatherings for the month of June. We will miss the parades, and so many more summer highlights this year, but the most important thing is to keep people safe and healthy. 

Curbside compost pick ups will be temporarily suspended due to budget cuts starting Monday May 4. E-waste pick ups are also suspended. We’re really sad about this, especially during the week of the 50th Earth Day. We must learn from the COVID crisis to prepare for the climate crisis. I’ll be working to see if these cuts can be restored, and pushing hard for bold action on climate change, even during this crisis.

The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has moved their free financial counseling online. Support is available to discuss saving and managing debt. Learn more here.

Governor Cuomo announced that clerks will now be able to provide marriage licenses and perform weddings via video conference. New Yorkers looking to get married will be able to do so remotele, which sadly will be beneficial for many who have lost health insurance and want to get on their partner’s plan. 

NYC is lagging behind when it comes to Census response rates. We cannot afford to be undercounted. Fill yours out online at my2020census.gov and tell your family and friends. (And thanks to those of you who joined our Census text-a-thon yesterday!)

Late last week, the state released data on COVID-19-related deaths at nursing homes, some of the hardest hit communities. The Cobble Hill Health Center in our district had the highest reported number of deaths across the state. Staff at the center are working hard to care for everyone. We visited them yesterday with the Cobble Hill Association to bring appreciation and donuts and I’m going back today to learn more about how we can better support them.

456 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor
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718-499-1090
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