QUESTION
What is the impact of the 60-day shelter rule on school stability for children and family relocations?
2:01:40
·
6 min
The 60-day shelter rule aims to prioritize children's education, maintaining 90% of affected children in their schools despite relocations.
- Despite challenges, coordination with the Department of Education allows 90% of the children affected by the 60-day rule to stay in their schools.
- The administration found issuing the 60-day notices difficult, but necessary due to lack of federal support.
- The majority of families are also placed in shelters within the same borough, ensuring closer proximity to schools.
- Council Member Lincoln Restler criticizes the policy as inhumane and harmful to children’s educational continuity.
- The administration is coordinating with the Department of Education but does not actively track all data related to school stability following relocations.
Lincoln Restler
2:01:40
Commercial Park, every year, if I recall correctly, we see a big increase in children, families in our shelter system at the end of the school year.
2:01:50
Is that right?
Molly Wasow Park
2:01:53
That is the pre COVID traditional pattern in the last few years.
2:01:57
Things have been a little bit unsettled, but yes, that's historically accurate.
Lincoln Restler
2:02:01
And, you know, families do their best to hold on and doubled up circumstances and tenuous challenging dynamics.
2:02:09
So that kids can stay close to the school that they're attending during the school year.
2:02:15
And And I'm I just can't understand how a 60 day rule for children for families with kids is good for them.
2:02:27
I can't understand how uprooting a family that has We have a a shelter that just opened a a hurricane that just opened in Katzen District on the border of mine in Clinton Hill.
2:02:40
Is sending many dozens of families, dozens of students to 2 schools in my district, PS 54 and IS157.
2:02:47
And we have brought in all of these donations and supports, and the school communities have done an extraordinary job in welcoming these students and families into our community and we're approaching a 60 day deadline where they're gonna be relocated and presumably we'll go to some other schools somewhere far away from Clinton Hill And Bedside.
2:03:11
Is that right?
Molly Schaeffer
2:03:14
I will take this question.
2:03:17
So we this administration has really prioritized in this period of emergency families with children.
2:03:26
We haven't made we it was an incredibly hard decision to start doing the 60 day notices.
2:03:32
It's not something we wanted to do.
2:03:34
As everyone knows, the cavalry didn't come from the federal government.
2:03:40
We have also said many times that we do not want to disrupt education.
2:03:47
Because of really careful coordination and planning with the Department of Education and our staff and the HR staff and everyone at the arrival center, 90% of the children that were affected by this policy remained in the same school.
2:04:06
Some of of the 10% that didn't, some moved away.
2:04:10
Some move to other parts of the nation or other parts of the country, but 90% stayed in their school as when they after they made this change.
2:04:21
And so we really, really did prioritize education and the education of the youngest children when making these types of choices and moves.
Lincoln Restler
2:04:30
So 90% of the kids who were subject to a 60 day rule who were forced to uproot their lives in an all likelihood move to not just a different neighborhood, but a different borough are staying in the same school according to the data that you have as of
Molly Schaeffer
2:04:44
January.
Lincoln Restler
2:04:45
January.
Molly Schaeffer
2:04:48
AND SAME BUREAU.
2:04:49
I MEAN, I THINK IT'S MORE THAN SAME BUREAU.
2:04:51
Reporter:
Lincoln Restler
2:04:52
BUT THEY'RE SAYING IN THE school is the point is I mean, I'm just I mean, the point is they're maintaining enrollment.
2:04:57
And I'll give an example in Clinton Hill Betts Dot in this area.
2:05:00
You know, I as you know, as a native of the 33rd, it's probably the most expensive district in Brooklyn.
2:05:07
And it's not easy to live there, especially for a newly arrived migrant family.
2:05:12
They're probably moving to a very faraway place, like the Bronx or Staten Island or Southeast Queens, or Brownsville where they can manage to live and afford to come into our community.
2:05:23
So Are you looking at travel times as folks are staying at the same schools of the distances that people are traveling and how far people are going?
2:05:32
Spending multiple hours a day in each direction is is not good for a six or seven year old either.
Molly Schaeffer
2:05:38
We also the majority of our families were placed in the same burrow as well.
2:05:42
The burrow of their children, their youngest children.
2:05:46
We don't track when people leave our care where they're going, but everyone was given the offer tunity to either stay in their same school.
2:05:53
Gotcha.
Lincoln Restler
2:05:54
So the 90% figure you're referring to is for people who were reticketed place in another shelter.
2:05:59
They were placing another shelter in, and a majority were placed in the same borough.
2:06:04
And then
Molly Schaeffer
2:06:04
The majority were placed
Lincoln Restler
2:06:05
in the same school for the families that went through the reticking process, went to a different shelter in state.
2:06:11
But for everybody else who couldn't make it through that process, we don't actually have any indication of whether they're staying in the same school.
2:06:18
Are you tracking that data?
Molly Schaeffer
2:06:20
I have to check with the Department of Education.
Lincoln Restler
2:06:23
That's not something that your office is tracking in a proactive way.
Molly Schaeffer
2:06:27
We're coordinating with our colleagues at the Department of Education.
2:06:31
I'm happy to follow back up with you.
Lincoln Restler
2:06:32
And what percentage of the families that have been subject to the 60 day rule stayed in shelter for that and went to another shelter?
2:06:40
Upon relook being uprooted.
Molly Schaeffer
2:06:42
Sorry.
2:06:43
Say that question again.
Lincoln Restler
2:06:44
For the families that have been subjected to the 60 day rule so far, it sounds like the most recent day you have is January.
2:06:50
What percentage of those families stayed in the shelter system, and what did not?
2:06:55
How many
Althea Stevens
2:06:56
were I have
Molly Schaeffer
2:06:56
to follow back on the exact numbers.
Lincoln Restler
2:06:57
Okay.
2:06:58
I just Look, I think that it's fair for you're not gonna have every data point at your fingertips.
2:07:02
But and I appreciate I mean, this You all have a really hard job, 178,000 people coming through the city of New York without the appropriate federal assistance.
2:07:14
It has been deeply challenging.
2:07:16
And I am empathetic to the challenges that you all faced and how hard you have worked to try to provide some services and care.
2:07:23
But I do think that uprooting families after 60 days is inhumane, and it is heartless, and it is a really problematic policy for kids and their ability to learn.
2:07:39
And, you know, I would have thought that would have been a central piece of the testimony.
2:07:43
I would have thought we would have had better data today to discuss this because To me, I just can't understand how we don't want that kid staying in the same school, all school year to get the help that they need, transitioning to a new country, getting the support that they deserve, and figuring things out in the summertime if we need to do so.
2:08:04
That would be a much more compassionate and effective policy from my vantage point to support our kids.
2:08:11
And I leave this hearing no more even more dissatisfied and concerned than when we started.
2:08:19
So thank you.