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Q&A
School accessibility progress and capital funding allocation
2:05:54
·
3 min
Council Member Gutiérrez inquires about the Department of Education's plans to address school accessibility issues, particularly in her district where 71% of schools are not fully accessible. Deputy Chancellor Vadehra provides information on current funding and goals for improving accessibility.
- $800 million allocated in the next five-year capital plan for accessibility improvements
- Current goal is to reach 40% fully accessible schools in every community school district
- Priority given to D75 programs, aiming for 50% accessibility in the next capital plan
- Vadehra acknowledges more work and funding needed beyond these goals
- Offer to look into specific sites in Gutiérrez's district
Jennifer Gutiérrez
2:05:54
And then lastly, I wanted to ask a capital budget question.
2:06:02
I know that in my district particularly, a large percentage of the schools are not fully accessible.
2:06:08
I believe it's 71% based on a report by Advocates for Children, and I they're not present in the twenty twenty, twenty twenty four capital plan, so I'd like to know what the department is doing, I guess, citywide to address that moving forward in the next series of at least in the next five year capital plan.
2:06:26
And I think that's my time.
2:06:27
Thank you.
Daniel Weisberg
2:06:31
On the first question, council member, thank you.
2:06:33
Good to see you.
2:06:34
You're talking about MyCity or are you talking about MySchools?
Jennifer Gutiérrez
2:06:38
No.
2:06:39
MyCity.
2:06:39
So yeah.
2:06:40
Yeah.
2:06:40
Yeah.
2:06:40
A one stop shop, and it launched with,
Justin Brannan
2:06:42
you childcare.
Daniel Weisberg
2:06:43
Just wanted to clarify.
Jennifer Gutiérrez
2:06:45
No.
2:06:45
That's a good distinction.
Daniel Weisberg
2:06:46
Thank you.
2:06:47
I don't think I mean okay.
Simone Hawkins
2:06:51
Yeah.
2:06:51
So I wasn't aware of your concerns councilmember, so if you're comfortable I don't mind rounding back.
2:06:56
We don't We wouldn't
Jennifer Gutiérrez
2:06:57
be aware.
2:06:57
I made it to OTI and they were
Amanda Farías
2:06:59
like that's with DOE so that's why.
Rita Joseph
2:07:00
You
Simone Hawkins
2:07:00
don't have it, that's I appreciate No.
2:07:02
But we don't mind figuring that alongside you, and so if you I will round back and want to respect your time.
2:07:08
In regards to capacity, you have done a wonderful job educating me about kind of the dynamic nature of your specific district, And so, again multifaceted approach for a very multifaceted issue and so yes we are limited in some instances and just kind of ramping up, but it's also financial, it's also space wise, right?
2:07:29
Some spaces and some programs expand.
2:07:32
They don't have the physical capacity although that they have the desire to do so.
2:07:37
And so, we can modify within their seat capacity, we work really closely with them and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene because they are the issuers of their permits and that very much dictates the contracted capacity in which we can operate within.
2:07:51
We'll work closely to see what's possible and so again we've been having a few conversations with a few of the other council members that I know we haven't had the opportunity to do so, but I would love to sit with you and really give you a data dump of all of your sites, the capacity and enrollment levels and we can see what's possible.
Jennifer Gutiérrez
2:08:11
And I just had a question about the five year cap plan and accessibility.
Melanie Mac
2:08:15
Yes,
Emma Vadehra
2:08:19
so we touched on this a little bit earlier.
2:08:21
So as you know there's $800,000,000 in the next five year capital plan for accessibility.
2:08:27
That is more than the last plan but not nearly enough to get all of our schools to full accessibility.
2:08:34
The first deputy mentioned this.
2:08:35
There's schools that are very old and have a long way to go, but there's a lot of schools where we think we can make progress.
2:08:41
So the goal with the $800,000,000 we have is that every community school district will get to 40% fully accessible.
2:08:50
Currently we are a bit over 30% fully accessible across the city and another like 35% partially accessible.
2:08:59
So seventy percent one or the other across the city, 30% in every district.
2:09:03
The goal is to get to 40%.
2:09:05
One of the things we are prioritizing is our D75 programs, and so the hope is in the next capital plan we'll get to 50% for D75 programs in every district, but there's absolutely more work to keep doing after that, and that would take additional funding to get beyond that.
2:09:21
And if you have specific sites in your district, happy to look into them.