New York City’s incoming schools chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said Sunday she wants to get to the root of why so many students are missing class, amid new data demonstrating a statewide absentee crisis and a class action lawsuit that claims the city is failing to provide sufficient educational access to students with mental health issues.
Speaking in a conversation with Mayor Eric Adams on his WBLS 107.5 radio show Sunday, Aviles-Ramos said she knows first-hand about the “barriers” keeping kids from school because of her experience growing up in the Bronx and struggling to afford essentials like food and clothing.
“Sometimes we didn't know where our meals were going to come from. The community helped us get coats and food,” she said. “So we need to figure out what those barriers are and work family-to-family and help bring the kids to school.”
Aviles-Ramos is set to take the reins of the school system from current Chancellor David Banks this week, who announced his retirement weeks after federal investigators searched his home and took his phones as part of another probe into high-ranking officials in the Adams administration. It’s unclear what precisely authorities were searching for, but Banks has denied any wrongdoing.
Aviles-Ramos has promised to maintain the administration’s focus on literacy and career pathways, which officials have argued are part of a broader strategy to keep kids on track through graduation.
But the headwinds are strong. Earlier this month, New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, released a report saying that student absenteeism, which spiked during the pandemic, has remained stubbornly high.
In the 2022-2023 school year, nearly one in three students in the state were chronically absent, DiNapoli said, meaning they missed 10% or more of school days. Absentee rates among Black and Latino students, students living in poverty and students with disabilities, were especially high. New York’s data reflects national trends: some 14 million children are considered chronically absent nationwide.
Adams administration officials have touted Aviles-Ramos’s success as a principal at Schuylerville Preparatory High School, where they said she increased the graduation rate from 23% to 83% in two years. But the incoming chancellor did not offer specifics about how she plans to address absenteeism systemwide on the Sunday radio show.
“Schools are well equipped to monitor attendance,” she said. “They make calls. They have attendance teachers. They have school counselors and social workers who help. But what we really need to do is connect with our families … Everybody wants their kids to come to school.”
As reported by Chalkbeat New York last year, city officials have pointed to some new initiatives – such as giving superintendents authority over attendance teachers who work with individual schools, and the creation of new virtual and hybrid programs – as efforts to address the crisis.
But a new class action lawsuit filed against the public school system by the Legal Aid Society claims the city is not doing nearly enough, particularly for students with disabilities. According to the suit, more than 46% of New York City students with disabilities were chronically absent in the 2022-3 school year.
The suit accuses the city’s public schools of “systematic failure to provide equal access to education for students with disabilities who are chronically absent or otherwise suffering from school avoidance.” That failure, the suit claims, violates the rights guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (“IDEA”), the Americans with Disabilities Act, the New York State Constitution and New York Human Rights Law.
Plaintiffs include students with anxiety, depression, ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder, or some combination of those diagnoses. The lawsuit said some of the plaintiffs’ parents were told to pick their children up early over and over again, while others were encouraged home schooling without offering them the support they need.
Cecilia Rodriguez, whose daughter is among the plaintiffs, said she and her husband spent weeks taking turns sitting with their daughter outside her classroom as she refused to enter, until the school recommended home schooling. Then she was shocked by how little guidance she received about how to teach her children at home.
“I'm not a teacher, I don't know what I'm doing,” Rodriguez said. “She needs to be doing so much more than she’s been doing at home. She needs to learn.”
Susan Horwitz, Supervising Attorney of The Legal Aid Society’s Education Law Project, said the school system has to figure out a better plan to get students struggling with school refusal to come back.
“Students can’t get an education if they’re not in school. If absences are the result of a disability, it is [the school system’s] job to find a way to get them back in,” she said.
In a statement, education department spokesperson Chyann Tull said the school system is committed to reducing obstacles for kids and helping them overcome any resistance they have.
“We know that this is an issue among our most vulnerable students, including students with IEPs, and as such, we provide instructional supports, paraprofessional services, and mental health services based on students’ individual needs," she said.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the public school system say they were encouraged to home school their children with little support.
