Resolution for CECs & community groups on need for DOE to lower class size in compliance with the law

Below is a draft resolution for CECs and other community and advocacy organizations to consider passing, urging the DOE to adopt the recommendations in the report of the Class Size Working Group and begin to lower class size in compliance with the class size law.

So far,  resolutions urging the DOE to implement plans to lower class size have now been passed by the Manhattan HS Presidents Council,   CEC 4 ,  CEC 5 , CEC 6, CEC 10, CEC 13, CEC 15,  CEC 19, CEC 21 , and the Citywide Council on Special Education, as well as Community Board 1,  Community Board 2, Community Board 11 and Community Board 12 in Manhattan, with more to come.

If you want specific data concerning class size and/or overcrowding in your district to plug into the reso in the highlighted areas below, or  want a briefing on this issue,  please email info@classsizematters.org . 

If you do pass such a resolution, please let us know that as well.  The resolution is also available as a google doc here. 

 

Sample Resolution urging DOE to implement  the proposals of the Class Size Working Group and comply with the new class size law 

Whereas, in 2003, the New York Court of Appeals in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case determined that NYC public school class sizes were too large to provide students with their constitutional right to a sound basic education;

Whereas, following that decision, class sizes in NYC schools increased, and to this day, remain far larger than they are in the rest of the state;

Whereas, smaller classes have been shown through research to improve school culture with teachers  better able to address the needs of their students both academically and holistically;

Whereas, many studies show that class size reduction leads to better student outcomes in every way that can be measured,  including better grades and test scores, fewer behavior problems, greater likelihood to graduate from high school on time and enroll in college;

Whereas, in June 2022, the NY Legislature overwhelmingly passed  Education Law 211-D by a vote of 59-4 in the State Senate and 147-2 in the Assembly, requiring that NYC implement a five-year phase-in of smaller classes beginning in the fall of 2022 to fulfill the promise of CFE;

Whereas, on Sept. 8, 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill into law,  based upon an amendment that the five-year phase-in  of smaller classes would  begin instead in Sept. 2023;

Whereas, the law calls for class sizes to be limited to no more than 20 students per class in grades K-3, no more than 23 students per class in grades 4th-8th, and no more than 25 students per class in high school, with physical education and performing art classes capped at forty students per class;

Whereas, instead of taking any positive steps to lower class size since the law was passed, the DOE’s actions have resulted in average class sizes increasing citywide this fall, including in District X; for elementary and middle school grades this was the second year in a row of increases;

Whereas the percentage of classes that complied with these caps citywide and in District X schools sharply fell at all grade levels;

Whereas in District X, the percentage of classes in grades K-3 and 4th-8th grades in compliance with the caps fell from x% to y%;

Whereas, since taking office, Mayor Adams has repeatedly cut school budgets, and plans to cut them even more next year;

Whereas, these budget cuts have occurred despite more than $1.3 billion in additional annual state aid provided to NYC schools over the last three years, as a result of the CFE settlement;

Whereas,  if enacted, the proposed budget cuts will likely lead to even sharper increases in class size next year;

Whereas, principals at overcrowded schools were also told that this fall they cannot ask for their schools’ enrollments to be capped at  lower levels  to enable them to lower class size;

Whereas, the DOE has also proposed more than $2 billion to be cut from school construction and expansion in the proposed five-year capital plan for FY 2025-2029, which  would likely make it impossible for schools in the most overcrowded communities to have enough space to lower class;

Whereas, the new proposed capital plan also cuts twenty thousand school seats compared to the current five-year plan, and specifies new seats in only four school districts;

Whereas, the plan  also fails to identify the locations for 77% of the seats funded, as well as their grade levels,  and instead declares that this information will only be provided after school sites have been acquired and the design process has begun;

Whereas, this unprecedented lack of transparency would leave parents, Community Education Councils, Community Boards, and local officials in the dark, and unable to provide any input about where schools are needed and should be built;

Whereas, this change also appears to violate the class size law as well as Education Law 2590-o, which requires the Chancellor to annually prepare an “educational facilities master plan…including a list of prioritized projects to the extent ascertainable and [to] list each proposed new educational facility and set forth a justification, including demographic data, documenting the long term need therefor.”

Whereas given current trends, it is highly unlikely that the DOE will make the legal mandate next year that 40% of classes meet these class size caps, and even less likely that they will achieve the mandates in years three to five;

Whereas, the Class Size Working Group has proposed a variety of actionable and effective policies that would enable the DOE to lower class sizes to the mandated levels starting next year and beyond, including changes in enrollment, budgeting, and the capital plan;

Whereas, the Working Group has also proposed that no changes in school utilization be proposed by the DOE without an analysis that there will be sufficient space in existing schools to lower class size to mandated levels;

Whereas, despite this, the DOE has continued to propose changes in school utilization that assume current class sizes in the schools affected by these proposals will remain forever, even when schools have many classes above the mandated levels;

Be it resolved that the DOE will not propose any changes in school utilization without an analysis in the Educational Impact Statement that the change will not prevent the existing schools from lowering class size to the levels required by the law;

Whereas, the Working Group has also proposed that Community Education Councils be involved in the advisory process as Community Boards are currently when the city is considering approving large scale development projects, to try to ensure that schools are built along with housing;

Be it resolved that the Community Education Council in District X calls on the Mayor and the Chancellor to refrain from cutting school budgets or the capital plan, but instead to increase  funding in both purposes to ensure that schools can be able to  lower class sizes to the levels required by the law;

Be it resolved that the Community Education Council in District X demands that DOE and the School Construction Authority specify in the proposed capital plan where new schools are needed and where they will be built, and how that will provide enough space in every district to lower class size to mandated levels;

Be it resolved that the Community Education Council in District X recommends that City Planning should include  CECs as well as Citywide Councils in the advisory process when large scale developments or rezonings are proposed; to ensure that sufficient school space is  built along with new housing and that local schools do not become even more overcrowded and unable to lower class size;

Be it resolved that the Community Education Council in District X  urges the Mayor and the Chancellor and immediately adopt the Class Size Working Group’s proposals, so that NYC students are able to benefit from the personalized feedback necessary for them to have a better chance to learn;

Be it resolved that should the Mayor and the Chancellor fail to take these necessary steps, the Community Education Council in District X urges the State Education Department to require them to devise and implement an effective class size reduction plan as soon as possible to achieve these goals.