City Struggles to Boost Vaccinations in Far Rockaway, Where Rates Are Lowest
Elected officials and public health officials at the Beach 39th Street Vaccine Hub in Far Rockaway (photo: @JCCofRP)
Despite pouring tens of millions of dollars into "credible messengers," targeted outreach, pop-up and in-home vaccination sites, and door-to-door canvassing, New York City health officials have struggled to boost covid vaccination in some historically underserved and overlooked neighborhoods. Among them is Far Rockaway, Queens, one of the places most severely impacted by the pandemic in terms of infection, death and economic turmoil.
In Far Rockaway and other areas like it, where healthcare disparities have existed for decades, limited access to medical care, misinformation, and reported mistrust in the vaccine and government have depressed vaccination rates for months. Only 35% of residents in the zip code, 11691, a church- and synagogue- studded, semi-suburban section on the eastern end of the Rockaway peninsula, have been fully vaccinated, the lowest of any New York City zip code. The city average is 57%. (Forty-two percent of 11691 residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, compared to about 64% citywide.)
Mayor Bill de Blasio and top health officials have said the city has deployed all the "tools" at its disposal to overcome those obstacles in the 33 neighborhoods across the city identified as hardest hit by the pandemic. Almost all of them, including Far Rockaway, have suffered from a history of housing segregation, underinvestment, and government neglect. Recent reporting on Far Rockaway and commentary from de Blasio and other politicians have focused on vaccine mistrust in Black communities but testimony from local service providers indicates gaps in the city's approach to encourage vaccination, particularly its effort to engage those providers in grassroots outreach -- a key pillar of New York's pandemic response.
"We know the Black community was hit very, very hard by Covid. There's a lot of pain. There's a lot of distrust. There's a lot of historical distrust. There's a lot of misinformation out there in all communities," de Blasio told reporters at an August 5 news conference in response to a question about the low vaccination rate among Black New Yorkers, which was just 39% citywide as of August 24.
When asked about misinformation around masks and vaccines two weeks earlier, the mayor said the city would be redoubling efforts to inform and encourage vaccination. "We're going to be more and more sharp about that and use more and more tools to get people vaccinated," he said at a July 20 news conference. At the time and in appearances since, de Blasio touted the city's $100 reward for people getting vaccinated at city sites and for organizations that make referrals. The city has also sought to use vaccine-or-testing requirements to pressure municipal employees to get inoculated and has instituted vaccine mandates for patrons of many private businesses. But many of the city's methods have come up short. At the same July 20 briefing, de Blasio got frustrated with reticent communities.
"We will come to your door for free and vaccinate you in your home. I mean what more do we have to do here at this point? This is getting insane," he said.
Far Rockaway, one of the targeted neighborhoods, has the city's fourth highest rate of Covid-related death per capita; one in every 124 residents has died, according to city data. The eastern end of the peninsula is isolated, with a single hospital and high rates of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. On the western end is Breezy Point, an affluent and almost entirely white neighborhood, with a vaccination rate of 80%.
According to spokespeople for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), which leads the citywide vaccination effort, the de Blasio administration has dispatched pop-up sites and mobile vans to public housing, retirement communities, and houses of worship in the 33 hard-hit neighborhoods. DOHMH has enlisted local organizations and an army of door-knockers and phone bankers to conduct outreach. The department has launched media campaigns in multiple languages, and de Blasio and now-former Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a series of mandates and incentive programs to induce residents to get inoculated. In late June, the city expanded it's at-home vaccination service, originally for homebound New Yorkers, to all residents.
The city has also been providing grants to community-based organizations -- the "trusted" or "credible messengers" -- to inform and encourage people to get vaccinated. Spokespeople for lawmakers representing Far Rockaway, including Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, Senator James Sanders, Jr., and Assembly Member Khaleel Anderson told Gotham Gazette they were working with city and state health departments and their constituents to boost vaccine rates.
"What we're finding is the best way to close that gap is a lot of education, a lot of information, getting trusted messengers out, talking to people in their own community from their own community, doctors and pediatricians talking to their patients directly," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a June 1 press conference.
"We can put up advertising all day long, different types of posters, whatever that helps. But getting community-based organizations to make it a priority to go out and reach people, that really, really helps," he told reporters two weeks later in response to a question specifically about Far Rockaway. "It's going to take persistence and just intense, constant effort at the grassroots."
But those methods have yielded meagre results in Far Rockaway. Conversations with public health officials and local organizations raise questions about the efficacy of the city's approach and the extent of its reach on the peninsula.
Local elected officials and community providers have reported failed pop-up sites on NYCHA campuses and frustrated door-knockers across the district. The at-home vaccination program in Far Rockaway is virtually non-existent: by August 11, only 152 residents in the zip code had been vaccinated in their homes, according to DOHMH.
It is also unclear how much funding to-date has gone to covid vaccine outreach because the de Blasio administration has not released all of that information. The city budgeted roughly $30 million for door-to-door canvassing, phone and text banking, and community-based organizations in fiscal year 2021, which ended in June, according to Laura Feyer, a spokesperson for the Mayor's Office of Management and Budget. Feyer said she could not share what funding had been budgeted for vaccine outreach in fiscal year 2022 but did say an additional $73 million had been spent on advertising since January.
Far Rockaway (11691) was not included in a $15 million state grant program, announced by then-Governor Cuomo, in late July, according to a report by Politico NY.
The department appears to be scrambling to tap resources on the ground nine months after the vaccine became available in New York.
According to DOHMH spokespeople, in the second week of August alone, Far Rockaway had five mobile vaccination sites deployed. But the department would not share information on where those deployments took place, making it difficult to follow-up on their successes or failures. The department also would not share a list of which NYCHA facilities, retirement communities, or houses of worship had hosted pop-up sites -- or even an example of one -- despite multiple Gotham Gazette inquiries over several weeks. Nor did the department provide a full list of the 15 community-based organizations spokespeople said were operating in the zip code. When pressed, a spokesperson provided the names of only eight groups, noting the list was "in flux" with more grants going out "soon."
Of those eight CBOs, at least one -- Public Health Solutions -- confirmed through a spokesperson that it was not operating in 11691. Another, Maspeth Town Hall, Inc., a community center and service provider in Central Queens, was tapped to do outreach in Far Rockaway this year despite not being based in the community. A spokesperson for the Mayor's Office of Management and Budget could not say how much funding has gone to community-based organizations for outreach in the current fiscal year, which began July 1.
"That's why we weren't [originally] targeted to go there," said Sean Kearney, Maspeth Town Hall's director of operations, in a phone interview last week. "They put us on 16 [zip codes, including in Far Rockaway] because they were very in need. But, no, we don't have any services [in Far Rockaway]."
The organization mainly serves Corona, Ridgewood, Woodside, Glendale, Maspeth, and Middle Village. Since 2020, it has received over $450,000 in city funding to do testing- and vaccine-related outreach, according to Kearney. Under it's latest grant, running from July through December, Maspeth Town Hall was not contracted to work in Far Rockaway, but in recent weeks DOHMH has expanded that mandate to the peninsula, coinciding with increased media attention including Gotham Gazette inquiries about CBO engagement there. "The past two weekends, Test and Trace has emphasized that we can do weekend events. So the past two weekends we've been in Far Rockaway," Kearney said.
"There are community based organizations, subcontractors and individuals doing an enormous amount of work," wrote Patrick Gallahue, a DOHMH spokesperson, in an email to Gotham Gazette. "Organizations did a magnificent job setting up local operations and developing partnerships."
"They deserve a lot of credit for their work," he added.
Some advocates have argued that by partnering with large, but not locally-based, nonprofits, the city may be missing an opportunity to reach residents when they receive other services -- the very crux of the trusted messenger approach. It means the trust in messengers may be only skin-deep, reflected in one-time interactions on a street corner or at an event, without the possibility of follow-up.
Fortune Society, another group receiving city funding, is based out of West Harlem and Long Island City, Queens, but does have some clients on the peninsula and operates some scatter site housing there.
"Our staff...are largely members of the Black and Latino communities and what they found is they tend to engage more with members of the same racial, ethnic group," said Brittany Smith, Senior Director of Education and Training, who heads Fortune Society's vaccine outreach program. "That was one of the key [reasons] why the trusted messenger approach was emphasized."
Far Rockaway has close to 70,000 residents in 21,000 households, according to Census Bureau data. The zip code is home to large Caribbean and Jewish populations, with 30% of residents born overseas. About a fifth of the population are living below the poverty line with an even higher rate among seniors.
Reports of mistrust in the vaccine are common and reflect a long history of government neglect and medical inequity among Black communities, which make up nearly half of the Far Rockaway population. But mistrust only tells part of the story and lends itself conveniently to blaming the very populations who have persistently endured poor medical representation.
"Some of it is lack of access to adequate health care to begin with," Smith told Gotham Gazette. "Individuals are like, 'I have all these health issues and you want me to do something else on top of everything I'm taking and everything that I'm going through.' But they may not even be actively seeing a primary care doctor or have great health resources within the community."
Smith said the grim reality was that trauma was the biggest motivator she's seen. "We've seen the most people engaged from individuals who may have lost someone."
According to DOHMH's 2018 Community Health Profile (the latest available), 11% of adults in the Rockaways (including Far Rockaway and Breezy Point) were uninsured and 10% reported going without needed medical care in the previous year -- both in line with citywide averages. In 10.3% of live births, expectant mothers received late or no prenatal care, compared to 6.7% citywide, according to the report. HPV vaccination in the Rockaways drastically trailed the citywide rate and flu vaccination also lagged.
"Let's meet people where they are so that we can remove the barriers that are preventing people from receiving their vaccine," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for mayor, at a news conference on August 5 outside the Beach 39th Street Vaccination Hub, one of a handful of permanent vaccine sites in the neighborhood. "Because you have to remove those barriers," he said, lauding the city's pop-up and mobile sites.
The city has done significant door knocking, which some providers and local elected officials have said are largely unsuccessful. At Redfern Houses, a NYCHA complex in the northeast corner of the zip code, canvassers failed to generate buzz for vaccines, even when a mobile site was situated on the premises, according to Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who until December represented the district in the City Council.
"Redfern Houses-- we put a van right outside and very few people, even with going door to door, actually came downstairs to get the vaccine," said Richards, flanked by other local elected officials and representatives from DOHMH's Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity, at the August 5 press conference. "There's still a lot of hesitancy," he said.
"Think about yourself. If somebody rings your bell or knocks on your door you're always suspicious," Kearney, of Maspeth Town Hall, said. "We sometimes can get some people in the street when they're passing by, sometimes we go into stores, so we're being as creative as possible." He noted the events co-sponsored with other community groups generated the greatest enthusiasm among residents, while canvassing was the least effective.
Nevertheless, as of August 11, city vaccine canvassers knocked on over 70,000 doors in the eastern portion of the Rockaway peninsula, from Belle Harbor to Far Rockaway, and the archipelago known as Broad Channel. In roughly the same area, the health department made approximately 100,000 phone call attempts to residents and sent over 30,000 texts with information on getting a vaccine. The department has held close to 100 events in the Rockaways, including "canvassing, tabling, speaking engagements and virtual briefings," according to a DOHMH spokesperson.
DOHMH officials would not provide a breakdown of how many residents had received shots at pop-up or mobile sites.
Communities Driving Recovery, a citywide coalition of community-based organizations doing grassroots work throughout the pandemic, claims the city and state have overlooked its members for outreach, including in Far Rockaway, despite their ability to follow-up with clientele.
“Instead of re-inventing the wheel with large outside organizations who would first have to get up to speed, the city should use the existing infrastructure of community groups working with it on COVID testing and vaccination to now, finally, launch effective interventions to offset the unprecedented health crises spawned by the COVID epidemic,” said Chris Norwood, a leader of the coalition and the executive director of the Bronx-based healthcare agency, Health People, in a statement. The coalition is pushing the city to invest an additional $54 million in CBO outreach.
According to C. Virginia Fields, the former Manhattan borough president and founder of the National Black Leadership Commission on Health, one of the most important trusted messengers in communities of color are houses of worship. "It is important for interventions and programs to be designed with the target community in mind and working with faith-based and other organizations that provide insight into how the needs can be met as well as direct access from a trusted institution in the community," she said in a statement on August 20. The National Black Leadership Commission on Health is one of the eight named organizations operating in 11691, according to DOHMH, and appears to be the only one that works formally with houses of worship, which are plentiful in the heart of Far Rockaway.
Denean Ferguson is the co-chair of the Far Rockaway/Arverne Nonprofit Coalition (FRANC), an association of local provider organizations, and the director of special projects at Arverne Church of God, a congregation of about 60 people in the heart of Far Rockaway. FRANC was tapped by the city to be an "authorized scheduler" in the spring to help residents set-up vaccination appointments, a designation that came with no city funding, Ferguson told Gotham Gazette. But her church, which is attached to a K-12 school, has not gotten city funding to do outreach, nor have most other FRANC members, she said, despite being well-positioned in the community. (FRANC is also a member of the Communities Driving Recovery coalition.)
"My advocating is around...support for the local, indigenous, community organizations that have been there doing the work," she said last week, over the phone, after the Summer Youth Employment Program she helps run with the NYPD's 101st Precinct let out for the evening. "I'm not talking about a free check to sit around and do nothing. I'm talking about groups that are already vested and at the table and giving you input and ideas and suggestions and corrections."
The mayor's office would not provide a breakdown of how much has gone out through the city's CBO grant program run by New York City Health + Hospitals' Test and Trace program. In a July 14 post on Twitter, Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi said the city has provided over $50 million to community- and faith-based groups "throughout the response to support with education, outreach and connection to services." In May, the health department announced $9 million would go directly to CBOs for vaccine outreach. In June, de Blasio announced a $4 million vaccine referral bonus for eligible organizations to receive $100 for every person they refer to get vaccinated at a city-run site, up to $20,000. Feyer did not say whether that $4 million came from the FY21 vaccine outreach budget or another pot.
According to the Health + Hospitals website, 41 CBOs citywide have received funding under the education and outreach grant program.
Ferguson said she wanted her church to participate in the referral program but administrative hurdles and delays in payment prevented it. Even so, the funding would be too little in the face of structural inequities in Far Rockaway, she said.
"You can't come in with your little grants...for one year or two years and think we're going to solve our community's problems that have been created by years of neglect and disservice," she said.
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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
@GeringerSameth @GothamGazette
Union Leaders Call for Better Covid Protocols, Transparency at CUNY Ahead of First Day of School
PSC President James Davis leads a rally in Midtown Manhattan (photo via PSC)
Labor leaders representing CUNY faculty and staff sounded the alarm Tuesday on the university system's COVID-19 preparedness, one day before students return to class in-person.
At a news conference outside the CUNY Office of Graduate Studies in midtown Manhattan, James Davis, president of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), which represents 30,000 CUNY employees, called the the city's plan to monitor and reduce the spread of the virus on CUNY campuses "inadequate" and "contradictory."
"The administration must take additional steps immediately to follow the science, reduce the risk on campus, and to safeguard the health of the CUNY community," Davis told the gathering of employees, students, and reporters. PSC officials raised concerns about vaccine and testing protocols, ventilation, social distancing and mask policies, and what they call the "lack of a clear safety plan for in-person work and instruction in the event of widespread infection in the city, nearby communities or on campuses." The union is asking the administration to rapidly make a number of changes, which are supported by several and state elected officials.
At the top of the list for PSC is clarifying vaccine mandates for students attending in-person classes. In May, former Governor Andrew Cuomo announced CUNY schools would require students to be vaccinated in order to attend on-campus in the fall.
“Throughout the pandemic, CUNY’s top priority has been, and remains, the safety of our students, faculty and staff. It is essential for all of us to do everything we can to help our city, state and nation finally overcome this dreaded public health crisis," wrote CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez in a May statement. "We thank Governor Cuomo for his leadership and look forward to the healthy and safe Fall 2021 semester that the vaccination requirement will help to ensure.”
According to Davis, the City University of New York issued guidance requiring students to show proof of vaccination by September 14 but also gave leeway to show proof within 45 days of FDA approval of the vaccine for non-emergency use, which was handed down this week for individuals 16 and older receiving the Pfizer vaccine (one of three COVID-19 inoculations authorized in the United States). "These are contradictory messages," he said.
"In-person instructors were led to believe that their students would be vaccinated" according to state and university system guidance, Davis added. "Now, it turns out there will be a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated students taking in-person classes until October 7."
"For more than a year, the University has been preparing to welcome students back to a more in-person fall semester with initiatives to ensure the delivery of classes through a variety of means, while protecting the safety of students, faculty and staff," wrote Frank Sobrino, a CUNY spokesperson, in an email to Gotham Gazette. He noted that students must show proof of vaccination by September 27, in order for it to be received and processed by the October 7 deadline. To enter a CUNY campus, students must show proof of being fully vaccinated or a negative PCR test result from the previous seven days, he said.
"The vast majority of faculty and staff, as well as most students, are already fully vaccinated," Sobrino added, and "[m]ore than half of all courses will be delivered entirely online."
The City University of New York, or CUNY, is the largest public university system in the country, with 25 campuses across the five boroughs and roughly 275,000 students annually. Some CUNY colleges have permitted classes to begin remotely in response to the ongoing spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 delta variant and the lag between the start of the new school year and vaccine deadlines. But not all campuses have made that provision, Davis said.
PSC is calling for a virtual option for all students and for staff whose jobs can be conducted remotely.
Union leaders also raised concerns about the variability in social distancing protocols across CUNY facilities and a policy they say asks students to "self-identify" as vaccinated until the date proof is required in order to inform distancing norms. "That practice is not workable," Davis said.
Davis commended the university for setting up covid testing sites on campus but said a one week window to show a negative covid test in order to enter campus is too long, given the transmissibility of the delta strain. The union is asking CUNY to shorten that window to 72 hours and for regular reporting of testing figures.
"That transparency will inspire confidence," Davis said. "Classes begin tomorrow. These measures should already be in place."
More broadly, the union is calling for a comprehensive framework "for monitoring COVID-19 risk" with a range of metrics on infection and community spread, though what those metrics should be is unclear.
PSC flagged a number of buildings it has identified as having poor air circulation, with trouble spots in Queens College, Hunter College, Baruch College, Medgar Evers College, and Bronx Community College. The union is requesting those facilities be spot-checked by the CUNY administration. PSC's so-called "health and safety watchdog coordinators" also identified unhygienic conditions in some facilities – namely signs of rodent infestation, mold, and a lack of running water in some bathrooms – which they attributed to neglect while buildings have been closed due to the pandemic.
"We have conducted a rigorous inspection of ventilation systems and other essential safety features in the classrooms, offices, laboratories, libraries and other spaces that will be in use," Sobrino told Gotham Gazette. "The University has also reviewed and approved comprehensive reopening plans for each CUNY campus and Central Office location, crafted in accordance with city, state and federal guidance."
A number of lawmakers at the city and state level and other elected officials issued statements in support of PSC's calls, including State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky and City Council Member Inez Barron who each chair committees on higher education in their respective legislative bodies. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, City Council Member and Democratic nominee for city comptroller Brad Lander, and State Senator John Liu, who sits on the Senate's Committee on Higher Education, also spoke out in support.
"CUNY is a vital tool for the social and economic recovery of New York City," Barron said in a statement. "While CUNY, SUNY and other colleges are makings plans to reopen and aim to restore some semblance of normalcy for our college community, I strongly urge the Board of Trustees, Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez, College Presidents and CUNY Central to implement policies that seek to keep safe our community of students, faculty, staff, and support personnel."
Liu lambasted CUNY administrators for what he identified as delays in addressing key reopening questions. “CUNY students and employees deserve a safe return to classes on August 25th, the beginning of the fall term, but key concerns are yet to be addressed at this late date," Liu wrote. "With the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant, it’s become more important than ever that CUNY update their testing protocols, improve ventilation in their facilities, and plan ahead for possible suspensions of in-person instruction."
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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
@GeringerSameth @GothamGazette
City Council Schedules Oversight Hearing on NYC School Reopening
Council Speaker Johnson, right, and Council Member Treyger (photo: John McCarten/City Council)
UPDATE: On Saturday August 21, following the publication of this article on the evening of Thursday August 19, the City Council scheduled an oversight hearing by the education committee on the city's school reopening plans for Wednesday September 1. The hearing will come less than two weeks before the first official day of school for more than 900,000 public school students on Monday September 13. The article below has been updated slightly with some new information, but mostly appears in its original form as published on the evening of August 19.
As of August 19, the New York City Council has not held an oversight hearing on the Department of Education's summer programming or school reopening plans, though both have at times sparked controversy and criticism, including from the lawmakers chairing the relevant Council committees.
The City Council committees on education, youth services, and health have not held oversight hearings -- where officials from the mayor’s administration testify and answer questions about their policies and decisions -- since before the city budget was being negotiated in May. Since then, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Department of Education (DOE) officials have announced a myriad of policies for the city's ambitious Summer Rising enrichment program and the far more complicated plan to fully reopen schools this fall to all students.
Just weeks away from the September 13 start of the school year, City Council representatives told Gotham Gazette during the week of August 16 that an oversight hearing was being planned "soon," though no date had been determined. The gap echoes another: the Council has not held an oversight hearing on the city’s covid vaccination effort since February. (On Saturday August 21, the Council scheduled an education committee oversight hearing on school reopening for September 1.)
“The chairs of both the Youth Services and Education Committees requested and received multiple briefings from DOE and DYCD [Department of Youth and Community Development] on Summer Rising and the Academic Recovery Plan in June and July, and were able to ask questions and lay out concerns," wrote Jennifer Fermino, a spokesperson for City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, in an email earlier this week. "They were productive briefings and changes based on our feedback were made, including allowing families to choose their regular school site for the program."
"In addition, there has been constant communication with schools, CBO partners, DYCD and the DOE to discuss any and all issues that have arisen," Fermino wrote. "We have been planning an education hearing to discuss school reopening. It will be held soon but the exact date is TBD."
Numerous questions remain about how the Department of Education is preparing for the return of roughly 900,000 students next month after a year and a half of chaotic and disjointed learning brought on by the pandemic. The department must make provisions for the physical layout of schools -- ensuring social distancing, air quality, and more -- the covid vaccine, testing, and masking policies, and the academic support needed to make up for months of lost or limited education. Other efforts are focused on providing counseling for students amid so much loss from the deadly pandemic and its socio-economic fallout.
De Blasio and Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter have announced vaccine-or-testing mandates for teachers but have not laid out a comprehensive quarantine and testing procedure for students. The city is purchasing air purifiers for every classroom, a massive undertaking requiring the fast spending of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, and has put another $18 million to reduce class sizes in 72 schools.
There are also questions about the quality of special education and "related services" -- like occupational therapy or transportation -- which have been criticized throughout the pandemic and led to a four-year lawsuit in the Bronx that the city settled with disability rights advocates earlier this month.
Lawmakers like Council Member Mark Treyger, who chairs the Committee on Education, have not been shy about raising concerns over the city's back-to-school rollout in press conferences and on social media. But Treyger’s committee has held no oversight hearing, events that can spur action from the mayoral administration, bring to light new information, provide an opportunity for testimony from other stakeholders, inform the legislative process, and produce other potentially helpful outcomes. He said on Thursday Augsut 19 that he wants to soon hold a hearing, which are scheduled at the discretion of the Council Speaker in concert with committee chairs.
In a separate phone interview on Saturday, after the original publication of this article on Thursday evening, Treyger said his committee had previously asked de Blasio administration officials, including top health officials, for their availability in August through September 1, but was asked by the administration to wait until late September to hold a hearing, which he felt was "not acceptable." Treyger credited Gotham Gazette's reporting with what he said was helping to push Department of Education officials to participate but he noted the Council still had not confirmed whether health department representatives would attend the September 1 hearing.
In July, Treyger appeared with United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew at a press conference outside of City Hall to call for the mayor to reduce class sizes and crowding. Treyger has sponsored legislation to ensure a minimum physical space per student to be implemented over the next three years. It dovetailed with another cause of the committee chair, which is to get the DOE to adopt a remote learning option for students for the imminent school year, for those who may be immunocompromised or in need of quarantine because of the virus, among other reasons.
"To date there still really is no plan" for remote instruction, Treyger told Gotham Gazette over the phone Thursday.
De Blasio has so far rejected those calls.
"We found that our kids were safest in school. We have the gold standard of health and safety measures," de Blasio said at a press briefing earlier that day in response to a reporter's question about developing a remote curriculum.
"I am absolutely convinced that with all the health and safety measures put in place," the mayor said. "A lot more vaccination...is going to happen between now and the opening day of school, with kids and with adults in the school system. This is going to be the place that the kids need to be. It's also the place they need to be for a whole lot of other reasons, including other physical health and mental health reasons."
People 12 years old and up are currently eligible for the covid vaccines. The city has been enhancing efforts to get students vaccinated before the start of the school year, while hoping that federal approval for kids 5-12 years old comes sometime this fall. The mayor has also indicated he is talking with the United Federation of Teachers about vaccine requirements for teachers.
Experts say the Council's oversight hearings are one of the sharpest tools to hold the administration accountable and ensure decisionmaking isn't taking place unchecked behind closed doors.
"It's understandable but not excusable that hearings have been displaced by the summer and by the primary elections but the mayor and the DOE need to be on their toes," said David Bloomfield, an education professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, "particularly explaining to the public through the vehicle of City Council hearings that they are well prepared for the fall opening."
On calls for a remote learning option, "that requires a deep-dive and debate that is essentially only taking place through unilateral statements rather than through give and take," Bloomfield added, referring to some of the exchanges that happen at Council hearings.
The education committee and the youth services committee, chaired by Council Member Debi Rose, had an oversight hearing scheduled in late June but it was "deferred" and never rescheduled. It was intended to examine the city's Summer Rising program and the "Fall 2021 Student Academic Achievement Plan." That would have given lawmakers a chance to raise issues with and induce answers from administration officials.
According to Fermino, the Council spokesperson, the June hearing had to be postponed because of scheduling conflicts with the fiscal year 2022 city budget agreement between the mayor and Council. It was also to accommodate the provider organizations running much of the summer programming in partnership with the DOE who, according to Fermino, were tied up in planning and implementation.
"We look forward to continuing to conduct oversight on Summer Rising’s successes and shortcomings, and to apply lessons learned to DOE’s approach to academic recovery, social emotional supports, and [community-based organization] partnerships in the regular school year," Fermino wrote in an email.
To Bloomfield, who has testified at many Council hearings himself, it's understandable to try to accommodate providers' scheduling needs "but to have them absent from oversight is a disservice to the public."
"I'm concerned about the accountability of not-for-profits using public money and needing to be held publicly accountable for both the highs and lows of their service," he said. "It seems to me that they're no more insulated from public accountability than the mayor's office and the DOE."
In a Thursday August 19 phone interview with Gotham Gazette, Treyger claimed the hearing could not be rescheduled so far because leaders in the Mayor's Office and DOE were not prepared to answer his committee's questions -- though scheduling and holding hearings is entirely at the discretion of the City Council and calling an oversight hearing often compels the relevant administration entities to prepare.
"We want to have a hearing ASAP and we're planning for one as soon as possible,” Treyger said. “The issue is availability of senior administration officials to not just be present but to actually answer questions and to give folks information. Because I don't think it's productive just to have folks sit in a room and hear, 'I'll get back to you' or 'I don't know,' when parents and everyone need answers at this time."
Rose, the youth services chair, did not respond to a request for comment.
“Leaders of the Department regularly meet with the Council formally and informally," wrote Nathaniel Styer, a DOE spokesperson, in response to Treyger's statements. "We look forward to attending the next hearing.” Styer noted scheduling oversight hearings is a decision made by the Council and that moving or cancelling hearings is not uncommon.
Given health protocols involved, an oversight hearing on school reopening could be held jointly by the Council education and health committees.
The Council's Committee on Health, chaired by Council Member Mark Levine, has not held an oversight of the city's vaccine rollout -- a key component of de Blasio's back-to-school plan -- in over six months. Levine, like Treyger, has also been critical of elements of the city's plans, including related to school reopening.
On Tuesday, August 17, Levine suggested the city buy certain masks for public school families in a post on Twitter: "It's very hard to find high-quality masks (like kf94) that fit little kids well. NYC should by [sic] these in bulk and give them out to public school families," he wrote.
According to a spokesperson for Levine, who recently won a competitive primary for Manhattan borough president, the health committee is planning on holding several covid-related oversight hearings in the fall, though the details of the subject matter and dates are still uncertain.
Note: after the publication of this article, the City Council scheduled an oversight hearing on the New York City school reopening for September 1, less than two weeks before the first day of school for students on September 13. The article has been updated to reflect new information.
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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
@GeringerSameth @GothamGazette
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