Education

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- As the city still faces challenges making sure every student is connected for remote learning, there's a proposal for a more permanent fix.

At this point, all 1.1 million school kids in New York City are learning remotely either part-time or full-time.

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza recently acknowledged that 77,000 students don't have internet-capable devices for remote learning.

The Department of Education said it’s working on it, but Council Member Ben Kallos said more needs to be done. He and other elected leaders are proposing making the right to have a laptop a guarantee for all public-school students.

“Now is the time to make it a law that every single public-school student should have a right to a laptop and an internet connection during their education,” Kallos said.

The city will have to give a laptop loaded with “culturally responsive” textbooks to every student under a bill to be introduced next week by Council Members Ben Kallos and Farah Louis.

The measure was prompted by a Department of Education official’s stunning testimony at a recent City Council hearing that 77,000 students still lack internet-equipped iPads needed for remote learning.

“Every student should have a computer and internet as part of their public school education. The homework gap was bad before the pandemic and has only gotten worse for low-income students of color who don’t have the internet or a device with a keyboard in their home,” Kallos said.

Students in city schools get both fully remote and blended instruction, a mix of in-person and online classes.

While the DOE recently ordered 100,000 iPads in addition to 300,000 it distributed during the COVID-19 shutdown, the bill emphasizes laptops with keyboards — especially for older students.

“It’s really hard to type out a 1,000-word essay by hunting and pecking each letter,” Kallos told The Post.

The bill would require that all students get laptops or tablets loaded with “culturally responsive” textbooks which reflect student diversity. The books can be obtained for free, Kallos said.

The legislation also would require the DOE to give an annual report on the number and cost of devices distributed, as well as the housing status of students receiving them. Even with Internet-equipped devices, many students living in homeless shelters don’t have access to WiFi.

Kallos and Lewis plan to introduce the bill on Thursday.

New York, NY—New York City schoolchildren are now back in school, alternating between in-person and remote learning during the school week. On the days there is remote learning, parents have had to scramble to figure out child care options for their young children. A new program by the NYC Department of Education provides free childcare options, but a limited number of seats are currently available in Community Board 8’s district.

Last week, CB 8 hosted a webinar on the urgent need for child care that featured numerous officials, including speakers from NYCDOE, NYC Department of Youth and Community Development and the Office of Management and Budget, as well as Council Members Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan) and Keith Powers (D-Manhattan).

Learning Bridges, the new NYC Department of Education program, provides free child care options for children from 3-K through 8^th grade on days when they are scheduled for remote learning.

Kallos Cuts Ribbon Celebrating New French Dual Language Programs on UES

Council Member Ben Kallos

Last Friday, Councilmember Ben Kallos (D-Yorkville, Lenox Hill) attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of two new French dual language classes at the District 2 Pre-K Center.

Kallos first proposed the idea for the classes last December; he hosted a petition urging the New York City Department of Education (DOE) to establish a French dual language program for School District 2. His petition accumulated 200 signatures, and the programs were greenlit three months later.

“I am incredibly proud of the people who did the work in order to make this program a reality,” said Kallos. “Knowledge is power so any opportunity we get to expand and improve education in my district I will be supportive of. We all know the benefits of dual language education and I am proud that we were able to bring them to this district. Thank you to Deputy Chancellor Josh Wallack for his ongoing partnership in expanding early education opportunities, the French Consulate for supporting the Francophone community, and especially to Stephane Lautner and Catherine Remy who worked closely with my office to put meetings together and organize hundreds of other parents.”

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Officials and families cut a ceremonial ribbon at an Upper East Side pre-K center Friday, marking the start of a new French dual language program nearly a year in the making.

The program's origins date back to a December 2019 meeting with City Councilmember Ben Kallos and local school leaders and parents at the Stanley Isaacs Center.

That meeting gave rise to a petition signed by more than 200 parents pledging to send their children to a French dual language program if such a program was created, Kallos's office said.

New York, NY—Council Member Ben Kallos led a ribbon cutting to announce the availability of 40 Pre-K Seats for a French dual language program that will serve members of the Francophone community on the East Side.

According to Council Member Kallos, the New York City Department of Education will operate the classes using a side-by-side instructional model where it will have one Early Childhood-certified teacher who is fluent in French and who has or will work towards a bilingual extension, alongside a second Early Childhood-certified teacher.

Classes started at the Pre-K Center at 355 East 76^th Street on September 21.

Kallos was joined at the ribbon cutting by parents, teachers, school administrators and the French Consulate General to New York, each of whom had an opportunity to say a few words during the press conference about how grateful they are that the DOE recognized the need and agreed to make the seats available.

The ribbon cutting preceded a multi-year effort of activism by numerous parents in the neighborhood, which Kallos recounted in his opening remarks. He talked particularly about one parent, Stephane Lautner, who first reached out to the president of the Community Education Council District 2, Maud Maron, to discuss the possibility of making seats available for a French dual language program.

In-person learning is now supposed to start Sept. 29 for those in kindergarten through fifth grade and to Oct. 1 for older students after de Blasio made an 11th-hour decision to delay the opening.

Councilmen Ben Kallos, who joined Councilman Brad Lander in July saying the program fell far short of the number of slots needed, said the city had done a poor job of explaining exactly what Learning Bridges provided and how to apply.

“I would just say it’s a total mess,” Kallos said.

City Hall could not provide much in the way of answers including how many children had been offered slots.

The 100,000 free childcare seats the city promise New York public school parents won't become entirely available until December, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday. 

Only 30,000 Learning Bridges childcare slots will be available when schools reopen on Sept. 21 and only 70,000 in October, de Blasio said. 

"Starting something from scratch is a huge endeavor," de Blasio said. "The goal was 100,000 and we'll get to 100,000." 

De Blasio announced in July that the city would provide childcare options to help parents of blended learning students rejoin the workforce in the fall.

"So many parents have also said that they can't make it work if they don't get more childcare," de Blasio said in July. "The goal will be to start by serving 100,000 kids and giving those families, those parents that balance in their life, that relief, that support, but then we aim to go farther."

Council Members Brad Lander and Ben Kallos — who said in July need could be as high as 533,000 seats — both said they were disappointed Learning Bridges would reach less than a third of those initially projected. 

“It is a gigantic task to create a whole new program to serve tens of thousands of families, especially as the child care industry craters from lack of support, and I’m glad the administration has committed to doing so," Lander said. 

"But on the other hand, if you are a teacher who had to be at work today and had no child care options, it's too little too late."

Kallos, less reserved in his criticism, said he was extremely frustrated that City Hall never responsed to his repeated offers to help locate childcare facilities. 

"This is nowhere near enough," Kallos said. "I should be surprised, but I'm not.  I'm angry because all these families were counting on us. I don't know how we're going to open [schools] this month at this point.  

The Education Committee member also argued the lack of childcare would only worsen problems sure to arise from the DOE's complicated blended learning schedule. 

"Parents are forced to chose between having a job and taking care of their kids because, right now, you cannot do both," Kallos said. "Where are the parents, children and families supposed to be?"

On Tuesday, two days before classrooms were initially slated to reopen, Youth Services Deputy Commissioner Susan Haskell updated New Yorkers on the program, which will provide childcare and meals on remote learning days for students from preschool to grade eight.

Preschoolers' days will include play, social skills development and early learning while lower and middle school students will get remote learning support, art classes and exercise time. 

Parents who have expressed interest on the DOE website will be automatically enrolled and others can apply here.

"We want to assure parents," Haskell said. "Activities will be offered in a safe and welcoming environment."

During Tuesday's press conference, DOE Chancellor Richard Carranza also informed parents about 2,800 out of 64,550 public school classrooms were deemed too unsafe to reopen. 

"There are little things that need to be done," Carranza said. "But keeping our promise, we said everyone would have functioning ventilation." 

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"My school is not ready to reopen, we do not have the proper ventilation system, our school population increases every year. And we're not prepared for this upcoming school year. And I think that every other school is not ready to do so either," said Diep. "This is coming from a student who did, in fact, struggle with online learning, and was able to be privileged to have the choice between remote learning and the hybrid learning system."

Because the emergency hearing was technically to consider a resolution declaring schools remain unsafe to reopen, it did not obligate the city officials, including de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, to appear and testify. As a result, Councilmember Ben Kallos mockingly marked them down as "absent."

"They're getting an 'F' in today's pop quiz," said Kallos. "And that's just putting it lightly."

Miranda Barbot, a DOE spokesperson, said in a statement, “The resolution was primarily to push back the first day of school, which we already announced earlier this week. We will testify later this month.“