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Challenges in offering convenient seat locations for three-k students
1:59:17
ยท
70 sec
Council Member Restler addresses the issue of inconvenient seat locations for three-k students, highlighting the difficulties faced by families.
- Restler points out that offering seats two miles away from a family's home is impractical for three-year-olds
- He argues that the DOE's claim of offering a seat to every student is disingenuous when the seats are not conveniently located
- The discussion emphasizes the need for more localized planning within subdistricts to meet demand in targeted areas
- DOE officials acknowledge the importance of offering convenient seats but defend their current offer rates
Lincoln Restler
1:59:17
And you know that's because we're offering people seats that are two miles from their home.
1:59:21
Right?
1:59:21
In my in my council district, in Districts 131415, you offer a family in Greenpoint a seat in South Williamsburg, and it's useless.
1:59:28
You can't take a three year old two and a half miles each way every day.
1:59:31
That doesn't work.
1:59:31
But that's exactly what we're doing.
1:59:33
And that's when the DOE says we're offering a seat to every student, it's totally disingenuous.
1:59:37
Right?
1:59:37
So how can we get to a place where we're offering a convenient seat for every student?
Daniel Weisberg
1:59:41
The vast majority, 90 plus percent, are getting an offer from a place they have designated as as a place they wanna go.
1:59:49
But we can't just look at application rates is my point.
1:59:53
That's not that's not the only metric.
Lincoln Restler
1:59:55
We're looking within subdistricts and making sure that we're meeting demand in those much more targeted areas.
Daniel Weisberg
2:00:00
There's no question about it.
2:00:01
We agree with you 100% council member that there's
Lincoln Restler
2:00:04
some But I'm disappointed you're not giving some data this morning to say our goal is to operate at 85 or 90% capacity within every subdistrict of every school district across the city to make sure that there's a convenient three k seat for every family.
2:00:16
There should be a clear metric goal that we're trying to accomplish because we're failing today.
2:00:20
Right?
2:00:20
We are failing when in 18 out of 32 school districts, we are at 90 something percent capacity or over a % capacity.
Daniel Weisberg
2:00:27
95 is our benchmark.