Young detainees on Rikers Island are being deprived of their right to take high school classes while behind bars, the Legal Aid Society alleged in a new filing in federal court this week.
Read MoreThe little-explained closure of a city-run Gotham Health clinic inside a Jackson Heights school is hitting students and parents hard, and has left a gap in healthcare for students and families struggling to find it elsewhere.
Read MoreThe state legislature passed a bill marking a Diwali school holiday in the city’s public schools. But bringing the holiday to the city’s schools isn’t a done deal yet.
Read MoreIn District 30, parents and school staff say that while they’ve embarked on several different efforts to meet the needs of the influx of newly arrived students, institutional support from the city has been lagging.
Read MoreThe city announced that it’s taking steps toward making Diwali a public school holiday. After years of advocacy, some in South Queens remain skeptical the long-desired public holiday will officially be put in place.
Read More“Mayoral control is not imperial control – it's a collaboration with parents and if David Banks doesn't understand that, I'll be happy to explain it to him.”
Read More“Having a remote option would be prudent due to the current reality we are all unfortunately confronting,” Donovan Richards said.
Read More“No one will be turned away, I want to really emphasize that there's no charge and no one will be turned away.”
Read MoreiPad distribution starts this week, and remote learning goes live on Monday, March 23.
Read MoreA Queens training will be held at the Long Island City branch of the Queens Public Library beginning at 4 p.m. today.
Read More“No. Enough. I’ve spoken to you personally 4 times about these issues.”
Read MoreM.S. 158 has been the subject of intense scrutiny following reports of student fights and a girl being sexually harassed.
Read MoreThe study found that 41 percent of all New York City schools — 755 in total — did not reflect their districts’ demographics.
Read MoreA spokesperson for the Queens DA said the office is “still evaluating our decision and looking at our options.”
Read More
Councilmember Adrienne Adams wrote a letter to the Department of Education stating that city schools are “not sufficiently prepared” for a mass shooting incident. The letter was signed by 27 councilmembers. Photo via City Council/Flickr.
By Jonathan Sperling
More than two dozen city councilmembers agree that the Department of Education’s schools are “not sufficiently prepared” for a mass shooting incident, according to a letter signed by the pols and addressed to Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.
Queens Councilmember Adrienne Adams, who formerly served as the education chairperson of Community Board 12 in Southeast Queens, wrote the letter following an audit by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. A total of 27 councilmembers signed onto the plea for preparedness.
DiNapoli’s audit found that the DOE can do more to comply with the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education, or SAVE Act, which lays out a comprehensive policy for school staff and administrators regarding the protection of students.
“It is alarming to know that erroneous, outmoded and untimely safety plan submissions are prevalent in our school system,” the letter reads, before urging the DOE to mandate compliance with the SAVE Act prior to the start of the 2019-2020 school year.
DiNapoli’s audit also found that five “of the 25 sampled schools did not conduct the minimum number of evacuation or lockdown drills and, for the 2016–17 school year, 3 of the 25 schools did not conduct drills within the required time frames,” among other findings.
A bevy of Queens councilmembers, including Councilmembers Donovan Richards, Paul Vallone, Robert Holden, Barry Grodenchik and Peter Koo also signed off on the letter.
The councilmembers encouraged the DOE to follow DiNapoli’s recommendations, which include working with the Education Department to develop a process to submit School Safety Plans to state police, as required under both the law and the state regulations, as well as reviewing procedures for monitoring emergency drills to ensure that all drills required by law are completed within the required time frames.
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