In response to an influx of migrants to New York City this year, Mayor Eric Adams has relocated many upstate. The moves have irked local officials, who say the city hasn’t been coordinating in good faith.
Among those relocated are children and with the school year starting, some will be attending upstate schools. In August, the New York State School Boards Association conducted a survey of superintendents to determine the challenges and questions they face when it comes to educating migrant children.
WAMC’s Jim Levulis spoke with the Association’s Executive Director, Bob Schneider.
Schneider: Well, as of right now, just to right size the situation outside of New York City, we did a survey out to our school superintendents. And what we received back about the asylum-seeking students’ situation is that only about 5% of school districts outside of the New York City area are affected. And most of them, as I said, are in New York City. We quantified the number so far between 230 and 250 students have been moved to outside of New York City districts and communities and right now we can handle that situation as far as the school districts that are intaking them. I don't know if any more are going to be moved out of New York City. I have no idea. No prediction. But right now, our districts that are taking them in are prepared to do. We do this all the time in school districts. For years, we've been intaking migrant students from all over the globe, a lot of these students don't speak English. And one of the things that we have in the system is non-English speaking learning teachers who teach the students because English is part of the public education curriculum. And we work with them in immersive programs, their support systems for these students in the BOCES to support them. We've been doing this for many years. Now, that being said, there still is a cost for each one of these children coming into the system. And they are costly in the sense that a lot of them do not speak the English language and those support systems, along with other support systems, cost money. But again, we will intake them, we have a legal and constitutional responsibility to do that, and a moral and ethical obligation in the public education system to intake these students.
Levulis: This survey, and I think you alluded to some of these items already, what are the biggest needs identified by superintendents, when it does come to serving migrant students?
The biggest issue is the teacher shortage. And we hear this with other positions within the school district. But we need English as a new language instructional staff 95% of them said that they need more, those personnel positions. And as I said, we do have certain structures in place, but and certain incentives, if you will, there's an incentive program where a teacher, a current teacher, teaching whatever subject can get certified to be “English as a new language” teacher. Now, that helps out a little bit and the BOCES have support systems information and resources and actually can teach them also at the BOCES location. But again, we have a thin pipeline, if you will for these type of teachers. That's the biggest issue in regards to the asylum-seeking students. And the other things that we saw that that they need more of, is other personnel. You know, psychologists, psychiatrists, bus and transportation, people, bus drivers and aides that sit on the bus. So it really does revolve around the personnel issue as far as staffing up. The funding is there this year, we have significant record funding. But now it's we need to put all the pieces together as far as the personnel, and that can be very challenging in certain districts like rural districts where there's population decline, and they just don't have enough people to fill those spots.
You mentioned there is room in the budgets there. The state education department pertaining to this issue has said that districts have the resources they need to teach and provide for the migrant students. From what you're seeing, is that statement true?
Yes, at this point, Jim, we are we can handle this. And again, each one of those students is expensive. There's a lot of resources to support them, and we will do that. But if this continues, and we see a large number coming into these districts, then there probably will be a concern. But I don't expect a large number coming in right now. We can handle it right now. And believe me, there are districts out there that are not taking those students and it might be a real big challenge for them because they might not have the resources available. But for the most part, our districts that are taking them in, add the resources right now.
The survey we've been discussing alludes to this and you've mentioned it as well, too. I think a big factor for the New York superintendents is the unknown as it pertains to this situation, whether it be information about the migrant students themselves, whether it be learning levels, any special needs, even immunization levels. From the standpoint of the State School Boards Association, sort of where, when and how to school leaders expect to get that sort of information?
Well, on the first part of that question, as far as the health records, immunization records, we are working closely with our county offices within that county where the school district is, we have to work closely with them. Again, as I said, those students are going to be coming in to the school district. On the educational side, we have to make assessments of where they are as far as grade level and then again, get the required resources to support them, because some of these or many of them might be behind as far as age versus grade level. But it's a two-pronged approach. Obviously, we're in the educational lane. So we'll make those assessments, we'll try to get those records, but it could be difficult, and then working with the county health departments to figure out the immunization records, and then we can figure out what immunizations they might need.
You mentioned the cost per student and obviously this has been broken down for I’ll say the average student in New York. Is there a breakdown yet for serving a migrant student?
I don't have that number. But we could look at the special education students. Special ed students that come into a school district, again, require more resources, and that drives costs significantly. I, you know, two times, three times the cost of a student, you know, that's in the system. So I would estimate around there again, if we get a lot coming into these districts, there could be an issue, but I don't see that at this point.
Shifting to New York schools overall, we've been speaking about teacher staff levels, but in general, how are districts faring, regardless of the English as a new language staffing?
Well, we're wrapping up a research report, which will we'll put out in a few weeks, and probably a lot of similarities. From what I've heard and read preliminarily. We did a survey back in I think 2018 or 19. And certain teachers are in high demand. And there's not enough out there. Special education teachers is one area. And then if you go out into rural districts, getting math teachers, specific type teachers are not available. And based on the pandemic, and what happened, and what we see in the job market right now, those challenges are still there and could be amplified. But again, we're wrapping up that research report. The point of the research report is to compare it to what happened before the pandemic. And then look at the solutions that school districts are coming up with to get more teachers and other workforce into the school district. There are creative things districts can do. And they are doing it for instance, districts can have an apprenticeship program through the Department of Labor, where an existing teacher can shepherd a new teacher who say is changing their career path over a one- or two-year period. And help them learn how to teach, how to set up the curriculum, do all that stuff, and hopefully, you know, recruit people from other industries that might want to be a teacher. And then there's other creative things we're working with as far as working with the university systems. And then state education department is trying to create less barriers to get teachers in the classroom. But the trick is ensuring that they are quality teachers teaching our students and that's a delicate dance. Not everybody knows how to teach, as you know, and some people can do it well. Others just aren't built for that.
How are New York schools approaching COVID-19 this fall? There's a new variant being looked at and there's been an uptick in hospitalizations this summer.
Well, we know the drill Jim as you are aware based on the past. They'll handle it exactly how they've handled it in the past. They know they have the protocols in place. They have the plans. We have not received any inquiries or concerns about this, you know, happening in school districts. But one thing we do have now is, you know, we can pivot a lot more efficiently to doing either the hybrid, or, you know, the online instruction. When we started way back when several years ago, it didn't work out that well at the beginning because it was new and we had to do it immediately. But now we have the infrastructure, the software, the teachers, and the administrators know how to use it. So that will be helpful if those schools have to close down because of COVID issues. But we don't see any at this point happening. We haven't heard about any, but stay tuned. But we are prepared to do that with the plans that each district had to put together during the COVID pandemic.
And finally, I know the academic year is just getting underway. But looking at the political calendar in New York state for the 2024 budget year, are you worried at all about a tougher budget, or potential cuts anything along those lines when it comes to public education?
It's a good question. And you know, every year we work tirelessly with other organizations, education stakeholders, to get the proper funding. We had record funding this year, we had the foundation aid restoration, we had the state aid increase, and obviously we had the federal money, which runs out in 2024. We will advocate for additional money over the baseline number of the foundation aid and state aid. And hopefully you know, we can get more money for the school districts because costs are going up as you know. And we're going to advocate for that. We have to maintain the momentum as far as the learning gap, we've got to keep focusing on all these children that are still behind in regards to what they missed or you know, or the missed opportunities during the pandemic. So we are going to push hard for more money. Again, the economic picture of New York state down the road, according to the comptroller does not look that good, but we're going to advocate to try and, you know, keep all those financial supports in place for the next workforce that you know is coming through eventually. We have to make sure the students are ready to work in the world and be successful individuals to contribute to the local economies statewide and national economies.
