Testimony of Mary Vaccaro, UFT Vice President for Education, submitted before the New York City Council Education and Immigration Committees

My name is Mary Vaccaro, and I’m the vice president for education of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). On behalf of the union’s more than 190,000 members, I would like to thank the members of the New York City Council’s Education and Immigration Committees for holding today’s public hearing on immigrant students in New York City public schools, especially Education Committee Chair Rita Joseph and Immigration Committee Chair Shahana Hanif.

As we have stated at previous hearings, we support the city and the school district’s mission to welcome these new arrivals to New York as part of our city’s long history as a place where immigrants and migrants from around the world have found tolerance and opportunity. The effort to ensure that these migrants and their families have safe and secure housing, access to medical care and social services, and the ability to continue their children’s education in our public schools is worthwhile and urgent. However, we remain deeply concerned that the administration’s current response to these students’ and families’ needs is inadequate to the scale of the current situation.

As the number of migrant students in our classrooms has continued to rise over the past year, we have been in constant communication with our members in the field to assess the ongoing situation in schools. One source of information has been the frequent school visits and standing focus groups that we have always used to gauge levels of need for our multilingual learners. In addition, since spring 2023, we have carried out a survey of our chapter leaders in Districts 7 and 9 (two communities that have welcomed many migrant students) and held a listening session in early November 2023, at which members across the city spoke about their experiences, identified supports that are needed, and shared what they have tried to put in place in their individual buildings.

From these conversations with our members, we have identified a number of clear areas of need that have remained consistent over time and across the city.

Basic Needs

We have heard from our members that a majority of schools have provided basic necessities, including food and clothing, to students and their families. However, educators report that hunger remains an issue, and that even when extra food is available in schools, it cannot be brought into shelters. Many students do not have appropriate clothing for cold weather, and we have heard from teachers who bring students’ laundry home on a weekly basis.

Social and Emotional Support

As we have stated previously, there is a dearth of social and emotional support (especially in home languages) for students and families, many of whom experienced and continue to experience severe trauma. More recently, fears that families will be required to leave the shelter system after 60 days have further compounded the situation. Of the spring survey, 68% of schools reported that there was no designated social worker for new arrivals and that 58% of these students were not receiving regular services from a social worker. Educators report not knowing where to refer families who have asked for outside support.

Identification, Services and Staffing

While most new arrivals are being correctly identified as English language learners (ELLs) at their schools, we have found that many are not receiving the mandated minutes of service. Last April, almost half of chapter leaders in Districts 7 and 9 (48%) reported that newly arrived ELLs were not receiving their full services. Some of this is due to a shortage of English as a new language (ENL) and bilingual teachers, and we hope that the agreement made in collaboration with the New York State Education Department and the DOE will bring more teachers into these fields.

However, at our meetings this fall, teachers from multiple schools across the boroughs reported that ELLs did not receive ENL services for over a month while ENL teachers dealt with paperwork and assessment related to the identification process. We are concerned that this will happen again in the spring and that ENL teachers will be asked to cancel services for over a month during New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test administration and scoring.

Instruction

Teachers have reported to us that, due to a lack of adequate resources and training, they and their colleagues are struggling to differentiate instruction, such as by trying to use translation apps simultaneously in multiple languages, to meet student needs. Even for teachers in bilingual programs, it is proving difficult to meet the needs of new arrivals who enter after second grade and have experienced limited or interrupted education (SIFE). Schools report a need for curricula specifically designed for new arrivals and want to include beginning literacy instruction across grade levels.

Professional learning: Last spring, the majority of chapter leaders (68%) reported that staff at their schools had not received professional learning to meet the needs of newly arrived ELLs. Topics requested then and now include:

• Instructional scaffolds and strategies beyond the use of translation apps.
• Social and emotional learning for ELLs.
• Information on the cultures of newly arrived families as well as the causes of migration.

During last year’s testimony, we stated that, “Over the last several years, the UFT has repeatedly asked for a point person from each district to reach out to each school to support educators of ELLs and to listen and provide guidance, even if it’s not possible to meet every need. Most teachers we have heard from feel they are on their own as they try to support these students every period of every day. They are not aware of any DOE outreach regarding instruction. The bottom line is that the human touch has been missing.” Sadly, these words remain as true today as they did a full year ago.

We urge the City Council to continue to advocate for these families and to monitor their situation as they and their children adjust to life in our city and its schools. We look forward to continuing to work with you to make their lives here stable, safe and successful.