Strains on New York City school staffing could hurt literacy efforts, advocates say

The New York City Department of the Education faces an immense challenge finding enough teachers to engage in remote and in-person learning this year – and advocates for youth with disabilities fear it could result in more than 1,400 reading specialists being drawn away from students struggling with reading, Chalkbeat New York reports. 

Principals are already warning that the city’s plan to require more teachers in the classroom for students attending in-person classes and online classes will result in shortages, especially given the city’s hiring freeze and threats to possibly lay off 22,000 city workers. And the likelihood that staff focused on literacy instruction to fill in space to teach concerns advocates.

“It would be a grave mistake to waste the expertise those staff have gained over the past several years, particularly at this critical point in time,” a group of advocates and organizations wrote in a letter to schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.

Virtual schooling has set back many students, many of whom were struggling before the pandemic. Where more than half of general education students from 3rd to 8th grades were proficient readers in the latest state tests, just 16.1% of students with disabilities were proficient.