Q&A
Efforts to keep families with school-age children in the same borough
2:05:39
·
107 sec
Dr. Ted Long from NYC Health + Hospitals discusses efforts to keep families with school-age children in the same borough when relocating shelters. He provides data on recent placements and explains the process of working with the Department of Education to enroll children in schools quickly.
- 90% of families with children in grades K-6 were placed in the same borough
- An additional 8% chose to move to a different borough for reasons such as parental employment
- The administration aims to achieve close to 100% same-borough placement each week
- DOE representatives are present at humanitarian centers to assist with school enrollment
Rita C. Joseph
2:05:39
Tell me.
2:05:40
Talk to me.
2:05:40
Talk to me about New York City kids in your in your care, and what are we doing when we move them around the city, and this council has been asking for us to keep them in place.
2:05:50
Right?
2:05:52
Go
Ted Long
2:05:52
ahead.
2:05:53
The the first thing I you could see me really wanting to say is I agree with everything you just said.
2:05:58
I I would say as a primary care doctor that the most important thing we're doing for the mental health of kids is school, not
UNKNOWN
2:06:04
me.
Rita C. Joseph
2:06:04
That's right.
Ted Long
2:06:05
And so just a couple of things.
2:06:08
At our humanitarian centers, we have DOE on-site at all of my sites.
Rita C. Joseph
2:06:13
I know.
2:06:13
I visited.
Ted Long
2:06:14
Yeah.
2:06:14
But that's been really important though, because that's how, if a family does move on to the site, we try to enroll them in school, as you know, within 24 hours.
2:06:21
And if we don't hear from them, if their child's not enrolled, we knock on their door literally with DOE to make sure that we're moving as fast as we can.
2:06:27
Another just data point, and this isn't exactly what you were saying, but it's, it's at least the way I operationally think about it, is last week, or the week of 5th.
2:06:36
Was it last week?
2:06:37
Yes.
2:06:38
No.
2:06:38
2 weeks ago.
2:06:39
Thank you.
2:06:40
This is, how we looked at it.
2:06:42
So of all the families with kids that came back to the arrival center, my site, that had 1 child in grades K to 6, we placed 90% of them in the same borough.
2:06:53
8% on top of that, we had a discussion with them, and they selected to, and we documented their reason for selection to go to a different borough.
2:07:01
And a common reason for that is, as you might guess, if one of the parents got a job in a different borough, that might be a reason for them to want to have, their kids continue school, where they're were then working.
2:07:11
So, 98% plus 8%.
2:07:13
We've been trying to get those numbers as close to 100% each week as we can.
2:07:17
That's not certainly not always been the case.
Rita C. Joseph
2:07:18
So what's the percentage now?
Ted Long
2:07:20
That's from last week.
Rita C. Joseph
2:07:21
That's from last week.
UNKNOWN
2:07:22
Okay.
2:07:22
Yep.
Ted Long
2:07:23
Or the week, sorry, the week of 5th.
2:07:24
I'm under oath, which was apparently 2 weeks ago.
