With the new state budget mandating that New York City make smaller class sizes a priority in its spending, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew today identified 856 high-need city schools with enough space to reduce class sizes this September. 

“Since the class size law was passed, City Hall and the DOE have maintained that it can’t be done, usually claiming a lack of space. Our analysis of the DOE’s own documents prove that in fact these schools have the room,” Mulgrew said. “We don’t need any more excuses. With a $38 billion DOE budget and $10.7 billion in NYC surplus for FY 24 and FY 25, the funding is available to bring our class sizes into line with schools in the rest of the state.” 

The UFT survey found 856 Title 1 schools — enrolling more than 300,000 students, at all school levels and in every borough — will have the space needed to lower class sizes to meet the law's thresholds -- 20 in kindergarten through third, 23 in grades four through eight, and 25 in grades 9 through 12. These are the average class sizes across New York State. The law provides a phase-in process for the system to eventually bring all schools into compliance. 

These Title 1 schools have space for over 207,000 additional seats, yet will need only 31,318 seats to lower class sizes and meet the state law. 

All the schools are eligible for Title 1 federal funds, designed for schools with high-poverty populations. Such schools are a priority for class size reduction under the state law. 

The UFT space analysis looked at current and projected enrollment, building utilization rates, and the number of seats needed to bring the buildings into compliance. See a searchable database of 856 schools with space » 

The state budget signed into law last month contains new class size language that requires New York City to budget enough city education funds "to ensure individual schools can meet the class size targets." Read the new state language outlining New York's city's responsibility to budget for schools to meet the class size law »

The UFT estimates the DOE will need to hire roughly 3,000 additional teachers to lower class sizes to the state limits in these 856 Title 1 schools, at a first-year salary cost of approximately $180 million, less than half of one percent of the DOE’s $38 billion annual budget. 

Over the past six years, the DOE has hired between 3,000 and 6,000 new teachers each fall. 

A sample of Title 1 schools that currently have the space to reduce class sizes this September: 

Bronx 

Bronx Compass High School 
Enrollment: 401 
Building Utilization: 66% 
% Class Size Compliance: 52% 
#Open Seats: 210 
#Seats needed to reach full class size compliance: 32 

Manhattan 

Hudson High School of Learning Technologies 
Enrollment: 176 
Building Utilization: 35% 
% Class Size Compliance: 72% 
#Open Seats: 322 
#Seats needed to reach full class size compliance: 17 

Brooklyn 

School of Math, Science & Healthy Living (elementary school) 
Enrollment: 197 
Building Utilization: 79% 
% Class Size Compliance: 80% 
#Open seats: 51 
#Seats needed to reach full class size compliance: 24 

Queens 

Intermediate School 109 
Enrollment: 925 
Building Utilization: 65% 
% Class Size Compliance: 28% 
#Open Seats: 499 
#Seats needed to reach full class size compliance: 107 

Staten Island 

PS 60, Alice Austen School
Enrollment: 607 
Building Utilization: 70% 
% Class Size Compliance: 27% 
#Open Seats: 259 
#Seats needed to reach full class size compliance: 80 

The state passed the class size law in 2022 and gave New York City time to phase in the program with 20% of classrooms a year coming into compliance until all classrooms are reduced to the state average by September 2028.