In-person learning at 1,600 New York City public schools ground to a halt Thursday after the city hit a 3% positive COVID-19 test rate, but scores of other city schools remained open for in-person classes — and some city educators are questioning the double standard.
The conflicting school closure rules are especially head-scratching in the city’s sprawling universal Pre-K program, where some programs are run in Education Department buildings and others are contracted out to community-based organizations.
The Education Department preschools, whose teachers belong to the powerful city teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, are closed. Community-based programs, whose staff are a mix of non-union and DC37 members, are still open.
“There’s never truly been parity between the community based schools and the DOE schools,” said Denise Alexander, a veteran educator at Our Saviors Lutheran Preschool in Brooklyn, which operates a city-funded preschool class that remains in session.
“We’re providing a service for the Department of Education,” she added, but “it just doesn’t feel like they [the city] care about us.”
Community-based organizations have historically served the majority of the more than 80,000 kids enrolled in free, city-funded childcare. Staffers at those programs have long faced lower pay rates, despite offering similar services and boasting identical credentials. Officials began chipping away at the pay gap last year through a pay parity agreement.
But Alexander said the differing closure rules reinforced the gap in treatment.
“I have friends who teach in the DOE district schools and they were shocked we were still open,” she said.
City Education Department officials say that while they contract with community-based programs to run “high quality early education,” the organizations are technically regulated by the Health Department, which has determined they can stay open safely. Childcare operators are designated as essential workers by the city and state health departments.
“The health and safety of our community-based partners remains at the forefront of everything we do, and we have rigorous supports in place to keep our students, educators and staff safe,” said Education Department spokeswoman Sarah Casasnovas. “Our early childhood programs have been critical partners during this crisis, doing heroic and essential work, and we are here to support them every step of the way.”
The city’s decision to shutter the public schools when the citywide test rate hit three percent has faced fierce scrutiny in recent days, with parents, elected officials and some health experts challenging the metric.
Some community preschool operators say they are okay with staying open to support needy families — but want additional support to operate safely and stay afloat.
“We understand why Pre-Ks need to stay open,” said Jonah Gensler, the associate executive director at Sunnyside Community Services, which runs eight city-funded preschool programs. “This is a lifeline for the community.”
Many communty-based childcare programs lack full-time nurses, Gensler said, and others received little support updating or assessing their ventilation systems.
“Now, when Community Based Organizations are being called to be even more central to the city’s efforts, we want to make sure staff in CBOs have the same protections as the staff in schools,” said Gregory Brender, the director of children & youth services at United Neighborhood Houses, an organization that represents city-contracted youth service providers.
Education Department officials say the community-based programs are working with the same Situation Room that tracks positive COVID-19 cases in public schools, and said the agency is providing personal protective equipment, nursing support, and additional testing.
Some of those same community-based organizations are in charge of the city’s Learning Bridges childcare center for city public school students on days they’re home from school. Those programs will remain open while schools are shuttered to provide childcare for essential workers and vulnerable families, city officials said.
City officials said in a City Council hearing Wednesday that 46,000 families have applied for a slot, and 39,000 students have been assigned to a site.
Charter schools, which are publicly-funded but privately run, are allowed to remain open unless they are co-located in a city public school building, in which case they follow the city’s public school shutdown rules.
The city’s two Catholic school districts — the Brooklyn Diocese and the New York Archdiocese — remain open for in-person learning.
Private and charter schools would be subject to state closure orders if state officials designate the entire city an “orange zone” — which happens if citywide positive test rates hit 3% by state measures. The state bases its positive test numbers on the date that a COVID-19 test reported a result, while the city uses the date on which the test was taken.
