[[link removed]]Dear John,

Yesterday the NYC Department of Education released more information about health and safety protocols for school [[link removed]] this fall, including how they plan to handle testing & tracing of coronavirus cases. For parents trying to decide by the August 7th deadline whether to register for “blended learning” or keep their children full-time remote, the City’s plan (contained in its submission [[link removed]] to the NYS Department of Health, and available on the DOE’s “Return to School” portal [[link removed]] ) still leaves more hard questions than good answers.

Under the proposed guidelines, NYC schools will only open for blended/in-person learning if the city’s infection rate stays below 3% (lower than New York State’s threshold of 5%; right now we’re averaging 1.2%). In cases where 1 or 2 students or teachers test positive, their individual classroom would close for 14 days. Entire schools will close if there are multiple cases in different classrooms. The protocol for handling positive tests in the schools relies heavily on frequent, timely testing (with priority given to DOE staff at the City’s 34 testing sites) and contact tracing investigations. Given the long testing delays we are seeing right now, it is hard to imagine that this plan will feel particularly reassuring and the situation may change by time classes start.

As a public school parent, as the son of a life-long public school guidance counselor, as someone who loves public education, I share your anxiety, uncertainty, and frustration. There are no good answers this fall, and what is best for families will vary, even by child. With two different kids of our own, Meg and I know that for some kids, the need for in-person time, limited as it is, with teachers and fellow students feels utterly urgent. For other kids, the focus and self-direction of remote learning, while not ideal, works ok. For some families or teachers, of course the concern about a vulnerable family member will be the deciding factor for choosing all-remote. For other families, the need to go to work for as many hours as possible to avoid eviction and keep food on the table will weigh out over concerns about health and safety. These are abominable choices.

We shouldn’t have to make them either. If our country’s leaders had locked down harder, faster, and longer, we would have had a much better chance of drastically reducing community spread earlier. If we had invested early in testing and tracing, maybe after 6 months we could count on doing it broadly and efficiently. If nationwide we had prioritized schools over bars, we would be in a much better place to open schools with reasonably good social distancing measures. If we lived in a country that had robust child care or would pay to keep people home while we worked to isolate outbreaks, things could be different. But here we are, facing a fall with a lot of uncertainty and no good answers.

For whatever it’s worth, please know that you have my compassion and support in whatever decision you make, and that my team & I will be there to support your families, and your school communities, however we can.

Here are a few things we’re doing to try to make school work a little better this fall. We’d love to work together with you on them:

Let schools use outdoor spaces

One of the few encouraging ideas to emerge over the summer is to support schools to make as much use as possible of nearby streets and parks to expand their footprint and keep students together safely. Unfortunately, yesterday the Mayor and Chancellor belittled this idea, saying it was impossible “because of weather,” despite the success of opening streets for restaurants, of public pools, of playgrounds. But we’re not giving up.

Sign the petition to allow schools to use parks and open streets and tents this fall. [[link removed]] Join and spread the word about our digital townhall on Thursday, August 6th at 7 p.m. [[link removed]] to build a strong citywide coalition, and to hear and share creative ideas and resources already being developed in schools around the city.

With limited teachers, space, and funds, we’re not expecting magic. But we are fighting hard for the city to tap into the creativity and resilience of New Yorkers to make the best of the situation. The Department of Transportation has made it easy for restaurants to apply for and be granted the ability to utilize street space outside. They can do the same for schools, many of which are hoping to be able to use a little outdoor space for lunch and recess while their cafeterias are transformed into classrooms. New York City is lucky to have hundreds of amazing parks, many of which would be great sites for lessons on scientific observation or descriptive writing. Let’s work together to support schools across the city to safely and consistently make use of this space, for as long as the weather allows. I know more than a few kids and teachers who strongly prefer bundling up to staying all-remote.

Child care and accommodations for working parents

I’m continuing to push hard for more investment in child care so that working parents who need to can go to work, and so that the child care industry can survive this crisis. This week we convened a good call with the NYC Department of Education (thanks to Deputy Chancellor Josh Wallack) and a coalition of Brooklyn Coalition of Early Childhood Programs [[link removed]] , about the City’s RFI for organizations interested in providing wraparound child care [[link removed]] this year.

It’s a good first step, but there’s a lot more to do, under any of the educational options. So I will keep pushing for the plan we laid out to make back-to-school work for working families [[link removed]] : wraparound child care for all working families who need it, a workplace accommodation law to make sure working parents can keep their jobs, and support for childcare providers to stay safe and solvent.

Social and emotional learning in the face of trauma

One of the more encouraging parts of DOE’s plan [[link removed]] (the pages aren’t numbered, but I think it’s page 17) is it’s focus on social and emotional learning, with the goal of helping our kids deal with the overwhelming trauma of the pandemic.

DOE pledges that before school starts it “will implement a comprehensive, multi-part professional learning series that empowers teachers with foundational knowledge and basic skills of trauma-informed care; this is for all staff serving students from Birth to 5 and K-12 populations.” All students will take part in a “Bridge to School” plan that will help “build coping skills, process grief, re-connect, build community, and orient themselves to the new dual environments and expectations,” and have access as needed to a multi-tiered system of mental health supports. There’s not a lot of time to get that ready, but it’s definitely what I long to see for our schools and our students this fall.

If the DOE is serious about these goals, they’ll join us in the effort to cancel high-stakes State tests this year [[link removed]] , which will serve no purpose other than increasing anxiety. And they should adopt an admissions process that does not rely on screens that have been rendered meaningless during the pandemic [[link removed]] .

If you know parents around the city who share these concerns and want to get involved, please forward this email to them. It won’t bring good answers to all the hard questions, that’s for sure. But this pandemic, and even the maddening failures of leadership in response, is a lesson -- for our kids, and for ourselves -- of something that’s deeply true about the greatest suffering and most difficult challenges: often times, in the face of questions that don’t have good answers, working together in solidarity is the best thing we can do.

Brad

In this email:
Updates and Resources
Upcoming Events

Updates and Resources:

*
Latest
Virus
Data:
There
were
285
new
cases
identified
yesterday,
and
6
more
New
Yorkers
died
from
the
virus.
We
have
lost
23,531
people
in
NYC
from
the
virus,
and
225,148
total
cases
have
been
identified
in
the
city.
Currently,
the
percent
of
tests
that
came
back
positive
remains
low,
1.1%
as
of
yesterday.


*
Congress’
Failure:
This
week,
the
extra
$600
in
federal
unemployment
benefits
expired,
as
did
a
national
moratorium
on
evictions,
tearing
away
the
support
that
has
kept
millions
of
families
afloat
during
the
last
few
months.
An
estimated
1.5
million
New
Yorkers
are
expected
to
lose
out
on
$700
million
each
week
in
the
absence
of
these
payments,
growing
the
already
alarming
numbers
of
people
facing
potential
evictions
and
food
insecurity.
Catastrophe
doesn’t
even
cover
it.


*
Census
Door-Knocking
Cut
Short:
The
federal
Census
Bureau
quietly
changed
the
timeline
[[link removed]]
to
end
door-knocking
a
month
earlier
than
they
had
said
was
needed
to
complete
the
once-in-a-decade
count
during
the
pandemic,
leading
many
to
worry
about
an
undercount
that
will
leave
out
communities
of
color
especially.
Here
in
Brooklyn,
we
are
well-behind
where
we
need
to
be
still.
We
had
a
great
group
making
calls
to
remind
New
Yorkers
to
fill
out
the
Census
on
Thursday
night,
and
we
hope
to
host
another
phonebank
soon.
Fill
yours
out
at
my2020census.gov
[[link removed]]
.


*
Resources
for
Parents:
Recordings
from
our
past
community
calls
for
parents,
advocacy
we
are
working
on,
and
a
collection
of
resources
for
parents
are
all
on
our
website
here
[[link removed]]
and
continue
to
be
updated.


*
Rent
Relief
Application
Extended:
The
application
deadline
for
COVID
rent
relief
has
been
extended
to
August
6.
The
COVID
Rental
Assistance
Program
will
provide
direct
aid
for
tenants
who
lost
income
due
to
the
COVID-19
pandemic.
It
is
funded
through
the
Coronavirus
Relief
Fund,
which
is
part
of
the
CARES
Act.
New
Yorkers
can
access
the
program
application
here
[[link removed]]
.



Upcoming events

Sunday, August 2 from 1:30 - 5 PM: Census March for Racial Justice. RSVP here [[link removed]] .

I’m joining State Senator Zellnor Myrie and others for a racial justice march to remind Brooklynites to fill out the Census and make sure all of our communities get counted. We will march from hard-to-count neighborhoods (the march has two kick-off locations, one in Sunset Park and one in Brownsville) that are behind in the census count to rally at Grand Army Plaza at 3:30 PM for a full count in Brooklyn.

Thursday, August 6 at 7 PM: Mobilizing Our Communities for Outdoor Space for Schools Townhall. Register here [[link removed]] .

Join us to connect with parents, teachers, and advocates to organize for schools to be able to use more outdoor space and share creative ideas and resources for outdoor learning already being developed in schools around the city.

Lander for NYC
456 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor, Suite 2
Brooklyn, NY 11215
[email protected]

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