Parents on the Community Education Council in a district that will be among the first to feel the impact of Mayor Eric Adams’ 60-day shelter limit for migrant families have a message for the mayor. They say he should reconsider.
The Community Education Council in Manhattan’s District 2 — home to several migrant shelters including The Row hotel, where families have already received 60 days of notice that they’ll need to move — voted 8-4 last month to pass a resolution asking the mayor to waive that policy.
“As parents, which is what Community Education Council members are, I think we all can understand personally what it feels like. Just little changes in your child's life, how that can be disruptive. And then thinking about this larger picture, what it means for so many. It's just, it's just not right,” City Councilmember Jessica Savage told NY1.
The resolution asking the mayor to waive the policy is not binding, but it’s coming from parents who are keenly aware of what the policy will mean — not just for migrant students, but for their peers and their principals.
Gavin Healy of the Community Education Council recently visited P.S. 51, which serves students from eight different shelters, including The Row hotel.
“It's very difficult when you have students, many students, who could potentially be moved like five times in a school year under this rule,” Healy said.
Adams has said no child’s education will be disrupted by the policy and federal law allows children without homes to remain in their school if they move.
But if they’re sent to a new shelter far from their current school, they’ll face a difficult decision.
“It's not a choice that is easy for any family to make. And it's not — it's just downright unfair and dehumanizing to these families that have been through so much,” said Lupe Hernandez, a District 2 parent and former member of the Community Education Council, who now serves on the Citywide Council on Special Education.
The Citywide Council on Special Education passed the same resolution last week. Hernandez noted parents of children with disabilities already know how overburdened the school bus system is, and they say adding dozens of new routes won’t help.
“It impacts the whole system. We have many kids that still to this day, or going into December, that don't have bus routes from the beginning of the school year,” Hernandez said.
Critics say the policy will also make it difficult for schools to budget properly, since funding is tied to student enrollment.
These parent leaders aren’t the only ones opposing the mayor’s move. The United Federation of Teachers and several City Councilmembers have also called on the mayor to abandon the policy.