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CityAndStateNY.com
August 30, 2021
Will the kids be all right? NYC hired an army of social workers, trained parents and prepared staff. It may not be enough.
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VER A THOUSAND New York City public school kids while learning during the pandemic received personal phone calls wishing them a happy birthday, even during the summer. It was one of the projects that Keisha White, a school counselor at P.S. 117 in Queens, also known as the J. Keld/Briarwood School, came up with to keep connecting with her students as many opted to learn from home during the worst of COVID-19. Students also received an individual shoutout on the school news, accompanied by 240 other videos that White created daily, including fun facts of the day. But now the focus is shifting to a return to in-person learning, leaving many unknowns about how students will react when they come back to school. “We have no idea what we’re going to see. Do you know the amount of crying that happens after just one summer of a kindergarten or pre-K student coming to school on the first day? I’m trying to imagine after a year and a half. It’s going to be extra tough. I think that the children, the parents and the staff – they need stability. They don’t need all of this, ‘OK, we’re happy one day,’ and now everybody’s asked
to stay home the next,” White said. The New York City Department of Education, in anticipation of bringing students back to class, said it has expanded mental health resources available to them, beginning with the hiring of over 500 social workers. The department also said it expanded social-emotional screenings to all schools and offered mental health resource training to parents. Also, the Summer Rising school program this past summer combined academic support with social and emotional learning, along with enrichment programming to offer families child care services. “We know that students cannot fully engage in learning unless their social-emotional and mental health needs are being met,” a city Education Department spokesperson told City & State. All 1,800 public schools are set to open fully, with in-person instruction five days a week starting on Sept. 13. No remote learning option will be offered, despite the threat of the delta variant and mounting pressure from parents and teachers. Time will tell whether the expansion of mental health resources will provide enough of a safety net for the most vulnerable children upon their return.
Students in neighborhoods hit hardest by COVID-19 have already received additional support. Social workers in October were trained to become specialists in trauma-informed work to serve 350 schools identified as being in neighborhoods most affected by the pandemic. Federal funds were used to create 27 additional community schools in the impacted neighborhoods. Mental health and social service professionals have applauded the expansion of services. Cristina Harris, director of training at Vibrant Emotional Health who has worked in education, social work and social services for children and families for 20 years, said she believes that the efforts are well-rounded by the new hires and trauma-based training. “School is the place where all kids are going,” Harris said. “So making sure that those services are being beefed up within schools is really exciting.” However, there also are concerns over the effectiveness of the Education Department’s efforts. Rohini Singh, a senior staff attorney with Advocates for Children of New York, was unsure whether the addition of resources would mean greater accessibility to those resources. “While you look at a list of the programs on paper, it sounds really
RIDO/SHUTTERSTOCK
By Maryam Rahaman
