School shutdown further complicates education for kids in homeless shelters
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New York City students head to school. Mayoral Press Office
By David Brand
Few families will feel the impact of public school closures more than parents and children in homeless shelters, where internet access is spotty and students are in danger of falling further and further behind as classes again go fully remote.
“I feel bad for the people in shelters,” said Colin Shamel, who used to stay in a shelter with his 6-year-old son. “The online classes do affect the parents because we have to make sure our kids are doing their schoolwork.”
But that’s no easy task inside shelters, where WiFi is nearly non-existent for more than 20,000 children, he said.
On Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said shelter residents were top of mind in the city’s remote learning plan. He decided to close schools when New York City’s 7-day average positive rate reached 3 percent — a shutdown-triggering threshold the Department of Education established in September.
“We’ve having a lot of technicians going into shelters to make sure [devices] are working,” de Blasio said during a press briefing to announce the school closure.
Advocates say the latest shutdown should compel the city to speed up a plan to wire shelters for WiFi. City officials said last month that they expect to install WiFi in more than 200 shelters by the summer.
That’s still too long to wait, especially now that children are prohibited from attending in-person classes, said Gateway Housing President Ted Houghton. His organization received foundation funding and contracted with local companies to wire 16 shelters for broadband internet earlier this year.
“If you work really hard, you can get it done really quickly,” Houghton said. “With an all-hands-on-deck approach, we can get it done in a relatively short amount of time.”
The process took about a week per building after Gateway began contracting with local vendors to do the installation rather than wait for Altice or Verizon, he said. “They know the building and can move in a way that large corporations can’t,” he added.
Organizations like his can only reach so many shelters, he said. The city has to spearhead the universal WiFi program — something already underway at NYCHA sites — because the installation and monthly service costs are prohibitive for nonprofit agencies, advocates say.
BronxWorks, one of the providers that worked with Gateway, said wiring their three sites cost $100,000 — money they never would have been able to come up with without outside help. Christine Quinn, the president of the organization Win, told the Eagle her organization got a price estimate and learned service would cost $50,000 per month.
“They’re operating on a shoestring,” Houghton said. “But the fact is we have no choice. WiFi in the 21st Century is an essential utility and you have to have it to connect to the modern world.”
Officials from the Department of Education have highlighted their distribution of 15,000 LTE-enabled iPads to students and the recent purchase of 100,000 more. DOE has also provided unlimited cellular plans to allow people to get online with their phones and has hired more than 300 new staff members to provide supportive services, the agency said.
“Whether they’re learning in-person or remote, our students living in shelter will continue to receive the critical supports and services they need including access to counselors, mental health resources, and remote learning devices,” said Sarah Casasnovas. “We have prioritized our students living in DHS shelters every step of the way and will continue to do so no matter the circumstances.”
Citizens’ Committee for Children Policy Director Raysa Rodriguez said those efforts are still not enough.
“We’ve been talking about this whether schools remain open or not,” Rodriguez said. “We need to make sure remote learning is more equitable for all students.”
The main way to ensure students stay up to speed on their schooling is to provide holistic support and access to permanent housing, she said.
“Yes, we need WiFi in shelter and we need short-term fixes there, but families need support,” she said. “We’re talking about internet, we’re talking about equipment, but we’re not talking about what families need for support.”
