New York City school officials have still yet to spell out how they plan to handle the thousands of migrant children in the Big Apple — leaving education administrators and advocates in a panic as the first day of classes fast approaches.
The Department of Education has provided scant details on what plans, if any, are in place to help public schools cope with the influx of extra students, even as parents have already sounded the alarm about the lack of information or support.
New York City kids are due back in the classroom on Sept. 7.
School administrators and advocates say they have heard “nothing” while the head of the DOE, Chancellor David Banks, continues his Martha’s Vineyard vacation into next week.
“We got no specific instructions regarding migrant students, nor have any shown up to register or been sent via the welcome center this summer,” a Bronx administrator fumed to The Post Thursday.
“Seems like everyone is out on vacation,” a DOE insider also griped.
Craig Slutzkin — who sits on the Community Education Council #2, which covers the Upper East Side, Midtown and Lower Manhattan, where many asylum-seeking kids are being housed — said it’s been nothing but radio silence.
“In terms of a plan, I’ve heard nothing,” said Slutzkin, adding, “I’m hoping there’s a plan and they just haven’t communicated it.
“Last year, a lot of principals had to figure it out on their own, but it shouldn’t be left to the principals, there should be a central DOE plan,” he insisted.
The concerns are only compounded as the threat of a school bus strike also continues, which if happens, would affect 150,000 kids in the Big Apple.
Just under 19,000 kids in temporary housing are enrolled in the city school system — the overwhelming majority of whom are asylum seekers, according to the DOE.
School officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly kicked the can down the line when asked about how they are expecting to handle the influx of migrant children, saying more details would be made public over the next two weeks.
During a briefing on asylum seekers on Wednesday, Deputy Mayor of Health and Human
Services Anne Williams-Isom said a school rep is expected to join a migrant briefing at City Hall soon.
“The DOE is constantly working on enrollment and which schools and where should the young people be going to school, so I suspect that in the next two weeks, we’ll probably have somebody here at the DOE and focus on going back to school,” she said.
The school system says it will rely on Project Open Arms, a program created last year with more than 3,000 English as a New Language licensed teachers and nearly 2,000 bilingual instructors to help the migrant kids get up to speed.
“Regardless of their immigration status or language spoken at home, every student deserves access to high-quality schools that meet their unique needs,” school’s spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said.