Five years after the start of the pandemic, one of the most profound changes in the New York City schools is that students aren’t showing up.
One in three public school kids last year was chronically absent, missing at least 10 percent of school days, according to New York City Department of Education data. That’s considerably higher than pre-pandemic levels, especially in schools with low math and reading scores and high rates of homelessness.
Alarmingly, just over 40 percent of Black and Latinx children citywide last year were chronically absent, according to NYCDOE figures. Academics are nearly united in the opinion that the problem is bigger than a simple hangover from COVID, the once-in-a-generation crisis that interrupted the educations of young people and crippled their family finances.
New York’s absenteeism crisis deserves a prominent spot in the education agenda of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who has an opportunity to use his charisma, energetic youth and political capital to rally the city behind school reform and expanding opportunities for our young people.
Absenteeism needs his attention because the cost of falling behind for children of color is lethal. Nationwide, schools are less likely to offer Black and Latinx students eighth-grade algebra, limiting odds they will get into advanced high school courses, pursue STEM majors in college and earn more money as adults, according to research from NWEA, a national testing group.
Mamdani’s campaign on affordability draws a direct line to improving the lives of NYC children. The mayor-elect, who attended Bronx High School of Science, certainly knows New York families are struggling to provide for their children. Our city’s livability depends on good schools, boosting the ranks of college-bound students and providing experiences needed to land employment, on-the-job training or trade school after high school.
It seems education is suffering from something deeper and more ineradicable than an attendance problem. Is screen time to blame? Too much time on the phone and laptops, and not enough time reading books? We all have anecdotal observations about what kids today don’t know. How to sign their names; they never learned cursive. How to spell; they work on software that autocorrects. How to navigate a library and crack open a book. That last one is quickly becoming moot. Laptops, smart phones and tablets are becoming the primary delivery systems for information. I’m in the camp that believes students retain more when they read and work on paper.
In the coming weeks, NYC’s chronic student absenteeism could become worse due to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. ICE has announced an upcoming enforcement operation in New York City. Parents in other targeted cities kept their children home from school out of fear of them being detained. NYC schools officials have sought to reassure families that schools are safe, and federal law enforcement officers are not allowed in buildings without a judicial warrant.
We can only hope that Mamdani – whose oval office meeting with President Donald Trump was surprisingly friendly– can take New York City out of the immigration bullseye. Meanwhile, Trump hurt every school by gutting the Department of Education and effectively dismantling the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the agency’s statistical branch.
Last winter, NCES released the results of its semiannual reading and math tests of fourth- and eighth-graders, assessments that are considered the most authoritative measure of the state of learning in American elementary and middle schools. The results, which may be NCES’s last, were troubling. In nearly every category, the scores had plunged to levels unseen for decades — or ever. On reading tests, 40 percent of fourth graders and one-third of eighth graders performed below “basic,” the lowest threshold. A separate assessment of 12th-graders conducted this past spring — the first since schools were shuttered by the COVID pandemic — yielded similarly crushing results.
Mayor-elect Mamdani has decisions to make. He has not stated his intention to retain or replace Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the current chancellor. He has also not detailed his preferences for control of the schools. He may seek to retain power through appointment of the schools’ chancellor or shift authority to elected school boards or other entities. Mayor Bloomberg used mayoral control to generate private-sector support for the public schools and promote innovation. Mayor-elect Mamdani may opt to do the same, while also delegating more authority to local community boards.
He may also face taking steps to fill the void caused by the demise of DOE and NCES, such as authoring studies or partnering with nonprofits, foundations and universities to create programs focused on the needs of kids in the five boroughs.
Hope is not lost, even in the face of Trump’s assault on education, his masked immigration agents and the school system’s troubling absenteeism crisis. Mamdani has options. The mayor-elect and his supporters can take dramatic steps to turn things around for our kids.
New York City has done it before. We can do it again.
David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer. The Urban Agenda is available on CSS’s website: www.cssny.org.