“While I applaud Gov. Hochul’s initial steps to alleviate the shortage of services in school, I hope that she and federal officials consider addressing the therapist shortage …Without those steps, waiting lists will remain long.”
Across the country, cities are transforming asphalt schoolyards into spongy, shady community centers. The new playground at PS 184M Shuang Wen School in Manhattan’s Chinatown, for example, has a porous turf field that can capture an estimated 1.3 million gallons of stormwater runoff.
More than 8,700 children in New York City are grieving a parent or caregiver who died of COVID. Here are some of their favorite memories, and what they wish others knew.
Schools are uniquely positioned to identify and support grieving children, but families and school staff say the system isn’t equipped to serve them.
“Democracies cannot function when entire groups of people are insulated from the realities of those they don’t understand. By reframing the issue as an urgent threat to democracy, we may become more motivated to change.”
“Reaching children at much earlier ages to teach them about healthy relationships and how to identify abuse will provide them with the foundations to safety and resiliency and provide our youngest New Yorkers with an additional layer of protection against harm.”
New York City’s efforts to green its food system have been limited by a conflicting state law that says food must be procured by government entities based on cost alone. A bill being re-introduced in the upcoming legislative session in Albany would amend the existing law and allow every municipality in the state to opt into values-based procurement, factoring in other qualifications like nutrition and environmental sustainability when choosing food vendors.
“There is a looming youth mental health crisis that must be addressed, and the professionals who educate our children have the knowledge and skills to help our young people. Suspending struggling youth only compounds the crisis, and we must reimagine school discipline to ensure that all students, regardless of race or ability, can thrive in their schools.”
The Fair Student Funding Formula, used to distribute the majority of New York City’s education budget to each of its 1,600 public schools, has been criticized for failing to provide enough funds to students who need it most, including those in temporary housing and in the foster care system. A working group has until the end of October to recommend changes.
A bill that would require high school students across the state to take a personal finance course has been introduced a number of times in the Albany legislature dating back to 2009, but has yet to pass. “This is something that every kid kind of needs to do, and we are kind of thrown into doing it on our own time, without any guidance,” said Anisha Singhal, a senior at Stuyvesant High School who’s pushing more schools to teach financial skills.
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