Pols, teachers move to trim size of classes
City Council members and the teachers union introduced legislation Thursday to reduce public school class sizes, citing both the health benefits of minimizing crowding to prevent COVID-19 spread, and the long-term educational advantages.
The bill would cap the size of most city classes at between 14 and 21 students, and would be phased in over three years.
The Department of Education would be expected to bring one third of city classrooms into compliance by September 2022, another third by the following September, and 100% of classrooms by fall 2024.
“There are many reasons to support smaller classes, and health concerns are the most immediate,” United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew said Thursday. “Making sure that we are not cramming too many children into each classroom is an important step to reassuring parents that we have learned from this pandemic, that it is not business as usual.”
The Council has limited direct authority of Education Department policy, but the proposed legislation would attempt to get around those limitations by amending the city’s administrative code, which sets occupancy rules for public school buildings.
Current rules require 35 square feet for per child in kindergarten and pre-K classrooms, and 20 square feet in all other classrooms. The new legislation, which is co-sponsored by Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan), Finance Committee Chairman Danny Dromm (D-Queens) and Education Committee Chairman Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn), would change that standard to 35 square feet in every class.
The rules would also apply to larger classroom spaces like art and music studios and assembly rooms.
Average class sizes citywide ranged from about 22 in kindergarten to 28 in some high schools in 2019, according to DOE data.
Some advocates and the teachers union have long pushed to reduce class sizes as an educational imperative, but the issue took on new resonance during the pandemic because of its health implications.
City officials initially required six feet of social distance between students, significantly reducing the number of students in each classroom. Roughly 60% of city students were still fully remote by the end of the school year, further thinning out the numbers in buildings.
“There is an increasing possibility that COVID variants will be with us for years to come. To help make sure that public school classrooms remain safe places, we need stricter space limits for all students, not just the city’s youngest,” Treyger said.
Some educators say the pandemic-induced class size reductions also paid educational dividends, and now they don’t want to go back.
The teachers union launched an effort to push the Education Department to use federal stimulus funds to reduce class sizes across the city.
Education officials announced an $18 million pilot program to reduce class sizes at 72 overcrowded elementary schools, though that could mean adding additional teachers to classrooms, rather than splitting kids into multiple spaces.