Federal judge delays vaccine mandate for New York City teachers and staff
From Chalkbeat: New York City’s vaccination mandate for education department employees was put on hold after a federal judge on Friday night temporarily blocked it, officials said. The requirement to receive at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine was set to take effect close of business Monday, with unvaccinated staffers barred from entering schools […]
NYC students heading back to school got form letters instead of MetroCards to ride transit
From Chalkbeat: Julie Lam, 16, had to crawl under a turnstile to catch the subway on her second day of school this week. Lam relies on a school-issued MetroCard to commute to and from Manhattan’s Baruch College Campus High School. But, on the first day of classes, instead of a pre-loaded card to ride city […]
Unvaccinated and masked students no longer have to quarantine as COVID testing becomes weekly in NYC schools
From Chalkbeat: After just one week of school, New York City will make a significant change to its COVID quarantine and testing policies. Unvaccinated students who are masked and follow the social distancing guidelines of three feet will no longer have to quarantine if they are a close contact of a positive student, Mayor Bill […]
NYC plans to screen nearly 200,000 students in the early grades to uncover struggling readers. Then what?
From Chalkbeat: In a massive bid to gauge reading skills following COVID-related learning disruptions, New York City’s education department is introducing literacy screening for its nearly 200,000 children in kindergarten through second grade. This fall’s early literacy effort is part of a wider $635 million infusion, almost entirely federally funded, aimed at getting thousands of […]
NYC teachers union, city at impasse over vaccine mandate for medical and religious exemptions
From Chalkbeat: Negotiations have stalled between New York City’s teachers union and City Hall over a vaccination mandate for school staffers, pushing union leaders to file a formal complaint with the state. The city has refused to pay teachers who have a legitimate medical or religious reason not to take the shot, according to the […]
I am an elementary school educator, and I embrace critical race theory.
From Chalkbeat: My lessons center on my students’ lives and stories. As a new teacher in Arizona 20 years ago, I found myself in the middle of a campaign against bilingual education. Arizona voters had recently passed Proposition 203 restricting bilingual education and English as a Second Language instruction, as it was called then, following […]
Teaching Teachers
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, teachers are losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement money because of the fees in their 403(b) plans. When I tell this to most teachers, they look at me with a level of skepticism that should be reserved for the salesperson who signed them up for a 12-year variable […]
NYC to increase special education services for Bronx students following settlement
From Chalkbeat: A federal district judge has approved a settlement agreement between the education department and disability rights advocates in the Bronx, resolving a four-year-old lawsuit that challenged the city’s process for allocating certain special education services. The settlement, in effect for three years, requires the education department to make a series of changes to […]
