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As School Suspensions Soar, Many Seek a Different Approach


Photo (cc) Max Klingensmith

Earlier this school year, a 9-year-old at a Manhattan school asked a girl during lunch if she would share her candy with him. Her friends reported him to a safety officer, complaining that he had approached their table aggressively.

The boy faced a 90-day suspension for assault and harassment. Although the suspension was ultimately dismissed, the experience may have a lasting emotional impact.

"He was terrified the whole time. He was ready to cry,” said Ana Estada, an advocate for Advocates for Children, who represented the child in his suspension hearing.

The case, though, is hardly isolated. Suspensions of elementary school students, ages 4 to 10, are up by 76 percent in New York City over the past decade, with 6,119 suspensions during the 2008-2009 school year compared to 3,469 throughout the 2002-2003 academic year, the Daily News reported recently.

Overall, the Department of Education has increased student suspensions by 66 percent over the past 10 years, according to a recent New York Civil Liberties Union report. One in 14 current public school students have been suspended, compared to one in 25 students 10 years ago.

Black children, who account for one-third of city public school students, have served 53 percent of suspensions over the past decade.

Critics argue that students are being punished too harshly instead of receiving counseling and social services to address their problems. But the Department of Education believes suspending disruptive students is necessary to keep schools secure.

Marge Feinberg, a department spokeswoman, credits the increased suspension rate with a drop in violent crimes throughout city schools. "Preserving a safe and orderly environment in our schools is critical to our student's academic success," she wrote in an e-mail.

Though the department defends the policy, it has also started to look at alternatives.

Behind the Suspension Surge

Estada attributes the increase in suspensions over the past decade to the department's pressuring of teachers to file discipline reports to principals. The principal then decides whether to suspend the student.

When children tell parents about unresolved behavior problems "parents feel like their schools aren't safe," said Estada. "The principals say, 'I have to create a safe environment.' It's the only way to justify the suspension."

The majority of the suspensions are principal's suspensions, which last one to five days and target low-level offenses, such as insubordination and abusive language.

The superintendent's suspension, which can range from six to 90 days, applies to more serious offenses, such as drug and weapons possession. They last an average of 25 school days and require a hearing and the approval of the appropriate community or high school superintendent. Repeated instances of a relatively minor offense can snowball into a superintendent's suspension at the discretion of the principal.

Both types of suspensions have been on the rise since Bloomberg took control of the city's school system.

"They [the Department of Education] have to concede that kids are getting suspended and arrested for things that a generation ago would lead to a discussion with a parent," said Udi Ofer, co-author of the New York Civil Liberties Union report and advocacy director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Certain infractions, such as aggressive violence, gang-related activity and bringing a weapon to school, automatically lead to suspension. Last year the Department of Education reduced the number of so-called zero tolerance policy offenses to 21, down from 29 in 2007. Seven offenses met the criteria in 1998.

The Civil Liberties Union believes the Bloomberg administration's zero tolerance policy denies students their state constitutional right to a free public education.

"A suspension should never be the sole or only form of punishment," Ofer said. "Zero tolerance as a policy completes undermines the authority of teachers and principals."

Ofer criticizes suspension as a temporary solution that only succeeds in physically removing the child from the school and creating a tense environment between students and the administration. The Civil Liberties Union would like to see principals rely more on mediation and counseling when dealing with troublesome students.

"They need to create a positive school environment that fosters communication between students and pedagogical staff," he said.

While the Department of Education has not decided if it will further lower the number of zero tolerance infractions, it is exploring other approaches to discipline.

"This year, we expanded the disciplinary options principals have, including having a parent conference or in-school disciplinary action for certain infractions such as fighting," wrote Feinberg via e-mail. "The DOE is committed to providing a safe and nurturing school environment with a dedicated staff of employees.”

But some experts believe the department must do more to improve student behavior in the long-term.

"If you attend a school where you are treated poorly and even for a minor infraction you might be suspended, students feel disengaged," said Damon Hewitt, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Education Fund's education practice.

He called the disproportionate number of black students being suspended "outrageous and highly disturbing."

The Department of Education, disputes his claim. "Race is not a factor in suspension decisions," Feinberg wrote via e-mail.

Nevertheless, Hewitt recommends that principals have less disciplinary authority. He also believes the vague nature of minor infractions, such as disrespect, gives Police Department safety officers who work in schools broad discretion to punish black students in a harsher manner. "It's in the eye of the beholder," he said.

Hewitt thinks the Department of Education must decrease its Police Department presence in schools in order to improve student relations, foster communication and promote trust.

"If you live in a community that is heavily policed and also attend a school that is heavily policed, you believe you are in a police state,” Hewitt said. "It undermines the effectiveness of law enforcement."

In December, the City Councilapproved legislation, now signed into law, that requires the Department of Education and Police Department to disclose school safety data, including figures on suspensions. The Legal Defense Fund plans on evaluating data, when it becomes available, that will track suspension trends in specific schools.

"The data will reveal differences amongst the schools," Hewitt said, commenting that he hoped "the data will spur improved practices."

Problems in the Process

Critics also find fault with the disciplinary process.

During suspension hearings, held only for superintendent's suspensions, a single official decides whether the student will be punished and, if so, for how long. The Department of Education and the defendant have the opportunity to present facts and call witnesses. Suspension hearings are held within five days of the school’s decision to impose the punishment. Decisions are usually made within three days of the hearing.

"It’s like a mini-criminal trial," said Nelson Mar, an educational law specialist and senior staff attorney for Bronx Legal Services. "Students don’t learn much about how not to get in trouble again."

Mar, who has 12 years of experience defending students facing suspension, criticizes the hearing process.

"A lot of times we don't see an investigation really happening. It's cursory," he said. Parents must make a formal request to the school if they want to view witness statements. But Mar claims the Department of Education does not provide his clients with that information, leaving him "with very limited knowledge of what happened."

According to Mar, most students enter the hearing without a lawyer, are represented by their parents or plead no contest to the charges. Parents often work full-time and plead no contest for their children because they are too busy to attend the hearing.

"Our goal is to protect a student from a long-term suspension, or avoid one altogether if we believe it's inappropriate or the facts don't necessitate such a response," he said. "Sometimes the charges are specific, sometimes they are vague."

One third of his clients avoid suspension entirely. "The greater good is that we wind up getting the suspension reduced," he said.

He described his typical client as an upset student who had an argument with a teacher and made physical contact with the instructor when attempting to leave the classroom. Sometimes teachers file reports to the principal, categorizing what may have been a light shove as an aggressive assault.

"The standard of proof is very, very minimal. You could bring two or three witnesses that say otherwise, but that one other [Department of Education] witness is enough to make the punishment," Mar said.

They Have a Budget Deal but Who Will Vote for It?


social service cuts

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos may have been able to reach a budget deal late on Sunday evening, but the announcement left plenty of questions. The most pressing being, "Who is going to actually vote for this?"

"This budget makes tough choices, which is what you sent me to Albany to do," Cuomo said in a statement. "It closes a $10 billion dollar deficit with no new taxes or borrowing, redesigns government to force it to cut waste and inefficiency, and finally delivers real results for hard-working families across New York State."

Cuomo used tough talk, high poll numbers and the constant threat that he could make his budget a reality through extenders if legislators did not reach an agreement with him before April 1. The deal will force some rank and file legislators into a tough spot: vote for a budget that slashes spending and services and risk losing votes, or vote against a deal reached by the most powerful and popular man in New York State politics.

The $132.5 billion budget cuts spending by approximately 2 percent and makes major cuts to education and Medicaid spending. If passed before April 1, it will be the state's first on-time budget in five years. Not all the details of the budget are clear yet.

At least $250 million has been added to Cuomo's proposal, including funding for human services, state universities and education for the blind and deaf. In a victory for Assembly Democrats and advocacy groups, Cuomo eliminated a proposed cap on medical malpractice rewards. But in other areas, Democrats and advocates lost big: there is no millionaire’s tax extension despite a major last minute push by education, labor and advocacy groups. Also absent from the budget is the renewal of rent control laws that are set to expire in June. And it is unclear exactly how school aid will be distributed. Cuomo said that will be sorted out in the coming days. These issue could keep a variety of legislators from voting for the measure.

Reaction

Reactions from advocates were as expected. Conservative business groups praised the budget.

"This budget agreement marks a dramatic reversal in the tax and spend habits of Albany that drove this state to the brink of fiscal disaster. We congratulate Governor Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for closing a $10 billion deficit without raising taxes. They have sent a clear message to employers that New York is open for business," said Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership for New York City in a statement.

The Alliance for Quality Education’s Billy Easton had the opposite reaction: "Governor Cuomo’s first budget makes heartlessly large cuts to our schools to finance tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, and students in poor and middle class districts will lose the most educationally. Nobody who cares about students is celebrating this budget. Make no mistake about it: this budget will reduce the quality of education in New York."

A number of city Democrats were making a lot of noise this past week about their desire to see rent regulations renewed. "That may be one of the key issues for me as a legislator," Sen. Liz Krueger told Liz Benjamin. "If there is not rent regulation in the budget, or an ability to believe that we are ending up with much stronger laws long before June 15th, the deadline, that may be a basis for me and many of my Senate Democrat colleagues not to be able to vote for this budget."

Krueger even seemed to toy with the idea that the Senate would not have a quorum to bring the budget to a vote if Democrats did not show up to session.

Tentative deals have crumbled in previous years once legislators who were shut out of secretive negotiations were able to dig into the gritty details.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg slammed the deal as the "largest cut of state aid to New York City ever."

"At the outset of the budget process, we urged the governor and State Legislature to adopt a budget that treats New York City equitably and provides the mandate relief and reform that would allow us to absorb the State’s heavy cuts. This budget agreement appears to fail on both counts, and worse, it passes heavy new costs down to the city," the mayor said in a prepared statement. Bloomberg added that it was "encouraging" that a deal was reached on time. Bloomberg also said he hoped the state would move to abolish regulations that require the city to layoff teachers based on seniority.

Silver told reporters that he still plans to lobby the Senate to reauthorize both the millionaire’s tax and rent control laws. "Hopefully by doing this thing early, it will follow through on a lot of other issues," he said.

Meanwhile, as part of the budget, Cuomo will have the authority to close prisons. The deal calls for Cuomo to eliminate 3,700 prison beds --"in consultation" with the legislature. It isn't clear which prisons will be eliminated. It is likely that legislators whose districts face closures will put up a major stink.

"Government had to tighten its belt with the same sense of urgency that working families have been tightening their belts since the economy went into freefall in 2008," said Silver in a statement. "The sole consolation is that working with the Governor, we were able to achieve critical restorations which will soften the cuts affecting working families, our senior citizens, our most vulnerable populations and the children in our classrooms."

Education Department Slashes Plans for Building More Schools


p.s. 41
In recent years, some schools, such as P.S. 41 in Manhattan have become increasingly crowded.

This week parents and officials from lower Manhattan announced the area would soon get another elementary school, the third new school recently slated for the area.

But parents in other sections of the city have less reason to applaud. An amendment to the city's five year capital plan for the Department of Education, to be voted on by the Panel for Education Policy on Wednesday, calls for a major rollback in plans for new school design and construction between now and 2014, with some sections of the city set to get thousands fewer seats than they had anticipated.

Overall, the department anticipates building 19 fewer schools than it did just a year ago, a reduction of almost 10,000 seats. Just one community education district -- 30, which includes Jackson Heights, Long Island City and Sunnyside -- stands to lose three schools with 1,744 places.

Although these cuts have attracted far less attention than the city's intention to lay off more than 4,000 teachers, they have raised concern among advocates who see the reduced plan as a recipe for more school overcrowding and larger classes. City officials blame the scaling back on proposed changes in the way the state reimburses the city for school construction.

The Capital Plan

The administration proposes to reduce the $11.3 billion capital spending plan for 2010 to 2014, which was amended last February, to $9.3 billion. Only five months ago, in November, the city envisioned a much more ambitious program, never officially approved, totaling more than $16 billion.

The city attributes much of the cutback to an anticipated loss of state money. In 2010, the city expected the state to ante up $5.7 billion over five years. It now sees that dropping to $3.5 billion. The city has cut its anticipated spending by slightly over $100 million since the plan was approved last winter. To put it another way, the March plan saw the state putting up 49 percent of the money; the latest plan has the state contributing only 37 percent.

Much of the reduction will come in spending for new capacity, which was set at $4.0 billion in March 2010 and comes in at a bit under $1.8 billion now. The plan includes much smaller cuts in replacement capacity -- finding a new home for a school in a leased space -- and mandated expenses, such as improvements needed to comply with building codes.

Despite the anticipated cuts in state support, the city Department of Education still plans to provide $210 million to help charter schools build new facilities. In the budget plan, the department praises the partnership with charters and says it brings in "valuable private sector resources," with the education department having to pay only 73 percent of the cost of the new facilities for charters.

The latest plan also calls for an increase of $486 million to fund technology improvements, including those needed for new student assessments. Some of this money will go to accomodate the Innovation Zone program, an ambitious though still largely unrealized and untested plan to increase on-line learning and explore new approaches to the school day. This brings the amount slated for the iZone program next year alone to $542.25 million, according to Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters.

Some believe said this money could be better spent elsewhere. Haimson said, "This an extraordinarily large amount to be spending in any one year, especially given the city's (and the DOE's) shaky record in investing in technology projects."

Contending there is no evidence that the iZone works, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in an emailed statement, "The DOE should either publicly release empirical data that justifies the large amount of funding it plans to dedicate to the iZone, or turn back to the basics and prioritize building school seats for our students who desperately need them now."

Finally, the plan calls for $141 million for efforts to increase energy efficiency "while simultaneously addressing the environmental issues associated with older lighting systems," as the education department put its -- in other words removing toxic PCBs from hundreds of school buildings across the city.

Jammed Up

The school crowding issue made headline earlier this year when School Chancellor Cathie Black famously quipped that birth control might be the best solution to the school system's capacity problems. But the shortage of space has been a persistent issue in many part of the city despite the addition -- completed or in progress -- of some 55,000 slots under the previous capital plan.

Although the system may not be above capacity overall, the department's figures show half of the city's children attend overcrowded schools, according to Helaine Doran of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. That estimate, she said, is low because it does not include schools that uses trailers as classroom or students who have to be sent away from their neighborhood school.

One study found that more than half of all the city's high school students attend overcrowded schools. A report by the city comptroller's office in 2009 cited widespread overcrowding and stated, "The new capacity projected to be completed by 2012 will fall far short of the amount required to end overcrowding in primary and primary/intermediate schools in the following communities where enrollment exceeded capacity."

Map
The latest capital proposal from the Department of Education scales back the number of new seats to be added by 2014, essentially reversing a November 2010 proposal to substantially increase capacity and building fewer schools than the city proposed a year ago.

The crowding is not spread evenly throughout the city. While the Department of Education maintains that some schools have far fewer students than they can accommodate, others are packed. The Upper West Side has twice as many young children now than it did in 2000, creating a squeeze in schools there. According to the education department's own figures, P.S. 236 in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx had almost double the number of students it should have.

"In districts all over the city enrollment has been increasing, especially in the early grades," said Haimson.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has widely touted the jammed classrooms as proof that his school policies work. Earlier this week, he cited the shortage of classrooms as one of the "problems of success" that "Buffalo would love to have." Schools have improved, his reasoning goes, enough so that parents who once might have fled to the suburbs now remain in the five borough and send their children to the public schools.

Others additional explanations, including the shutting of parochial schools. Haimson of Class Size Matters believes that some of the mayor's own policies -- notably the closing of big schools and replacing them with small ones and the placing of charter schools in some district school buildings -- have contributed to the space crunch.

Some observers point out that New York, unlike many other cities, does not require builders of major new residential projects to somehow provide for new schools in the area. Such new homes have certainly fueled the space problems in Tribeca and the Upper West Side, forcing the city to play catch up after the developer's work is done.

Funding the Space

Large class size and jam-packed classrooms plaguing city schools were key issues in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit challenging school financing. As a result of the case -- though not as part of an actual legal settlement -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer agreed to fund about 50 percent of capital construction in the city.

The state no longer wants to adhere to that. For most years of the plan, the city will see between $500 million and $600 million in funds from the state -- down from the slightly more than $1 billion a year the city anticipated under the old plan.

Since the settlement of the suit, things have changed. "Both the state and the city have made major investment in education -- billions of dollars in increasing capacity. It's important to recognize that," said Morris Peters, a spokesman for the state Division of the Budget.

The state has aid the city can have up to $1 billion in what it consider allowable expenses annually, with the state reimbursing over 60 percent of that, for a maximum of around $600 million. In addition to a smaller pool, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed changing the system for distributing money, Peters said. It would set priorities for which projects to fund, focusing first on those that address health and safety concerns, then ones that correct overcrowding and so on down a list.

The reimbursement formula also considers the fiscal status of the district. Until now, Peters said, districts could choose a year, going back to the 1980s, that would put them at the best advantage. Under Cuomo's changes, they could no longer do this.

However the state determine's the city's allotment, the Bloomberg "administration understands that our school system needs more investment than that, which is why the city's relative share of this capital plan would actually skyrocket should Albany cap building aid," Department of Education Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld said in an email.

While some advocates say the city wants to lobby Albany for more funds, the Bloomberg administration so far has been relatively quiet on this issue, preferring to press its campaign to end the last in, first out system for laying off teachers.

The mayor did, however, discuss the proposed cuts in testimony before the legislature this year.

"The courts have ruled that class size is too great as it is. Just imagine what would happen if the state does cut its support for school construction by 67 percent. It would be a huge setback -- and make it much harder for us to relieve the pockets of overcrowding that exist," Bloomberg said.

He also criticized prosed changes in the state system for evaluating capital projects, calling it "a recipe, if I’ve ever heard of one, for bureaucratic inaction and delay [that] would also make it harder for local elected officials, and community leaders, to make their voices heard on projects in their districts."

In a joint statement issued yesterday City Council speaker Christine Quinn and Robert Jackson criticized the state for proposing a plan that they said "would force the DOE to scuttle its plans to add 36,000 new school seats." The two council members said they are "pushing hard to reverse this plan."

At least up until now, advocates have not focused on the capital spending either. "The cut is so big on operations," said Doran. "How many pieces can you go for?"

Haimson, though, believes the administration could find money to build schools. "The city has never put any effort into increasing capacity," she said. "There are plenty of capital funds available. They don’t want to spend it on schools."

"Kindergarten waiting lists, which we've never had in this city, and overcrowded schools are going to be this mayor's legacy," she said.

Winner and Losers

A few districts do fare better in this year's plan than last year's. The Upper West Side, for example, which had no new space under the February 2010 amendment now is set for 480 new seats.

The Corona section of Queens, widely seen as among the city's most overcrowded, will add room for 3,123 more students -- a slight increase over the amount in last year's plan.

On the other side of the ledger, Chelsea/Midtown West drops 800 seats. A new, unnamed school slated for District 8 in the Bronx is gone. In another part of the Bronx, District 10, which was supposed to get there new schools, will now only have one. The Van Nest/Pelham Bay section will lose almost half of its anticipated seats.

In Brooklyn, all 612 planned new slots in Williamsburg/Greenpoint have been deleted. A new school for Carroll Gardens and Red Hook is also off the table. Last year, District 20 in Bay Ridge could look forward to six schools with 3,046 seats; that's been cut to two schools with room for 1,075 students.

Bayside, Howard Beach and Hollis are no longer slated for new schools. Staten Island lost one school, in the New Dorp section.

In deciding which projects to drop, the education department said it considered a few factors.

"We study data by neighborhood so we can ensure our investments are going directly to the areas of the city that need the most new school seats. That means, by definition, our new construction investments are going into the neighborhoods with the most need," said Zarin-Rosenfeld. "In putting together this latest amendment, any project that is already in construction or has a site identified remained in the plan. Other projects were shifted to 'design only' for this five-year plan, while the remaining projects were deferred until the next plan."

Many of the projects being abandoned were in early stages of development without locations or advanced design plans. Department of Education documents identified most of them only by borough and number.

(Correction: This article originally attributed all $86 million for technology programs to spending on the Innovation Zone. Instead, according to the education department, that money will go for a number of programs, including the iZone and redesigned student assessments. The story has been corrected.)



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