NYC To Roll Out School Integration Plan In The Lower East Side

EAST VILAGE, NY — New York City is taking steps to address the persistent segregation in city schools and will roll-out its first district-wide integration plan in schools in the Lower East Side, officials said on Thursday.

The plan, which will be implemented in Fall 2018 for the next school year, was first introduced in September. The plan will affect Manhattan's school school district 1, which spans the East Village and the Lower East Side. District 1 is whats known known as a "choice district" in the city, meaning that the 16 elementary schools don't correspond to a specific neighborhood of geographic area. Parents can rank which schools they'd like their children to attend. This system still, however, amounts to de facto segregation.

To change this, the plan will tweak the school admissions process from this school choice system to a method known as "controlled choice." Parents can still rank their preferences, but schools will also work to keep demographics evenly distributed throughout schools. For 67 percent of offers a school releases, priority will be given to low-income students, students in temporary housing, and students learning English. Students who don't meet those criteria will have priority for the remaining 33 percent of offers at a given school. This means that schools can make offers to a diverse group of students, as the majority of District 1 families are low-income or learning English, education officials say.

In addition, the plan adds a new feature in the wake of feedback from parents: District 1 schools must offer Kindergarten seats to students with disabilities that align with the district's average.

"The DOE has heard and incorporated our feedback and shown commitment to ensuring this is an equitable plan, and we are united in doing what’s best for our kids and our community," said Naomi Peña, a parent and president of local Community Education Council in a statement. "The districtwide Diversity in Admissions pilot and new Family Resource Center are about expanding access to District 1 schools for all families and leveling the playing field."

A second part of the plan is a school resource center for families, which opened earlier this month. The center will help guide parents through the complex school admissions system.

Education officials say that this system should prevent students who are English Language Learners, the majority of whom are non-white, and low-income students from being segregated into schools with a single demographic. For example, 100 percent of students at the Roberto Clemente elementary school in the East Village were low-income students, according to city data from the last year. A 10-minute walk away, at the East Village Community School, about 22 percent of students were low-income, according to last year's data.

The city's education department says it will evaluate the plan's impact on diversity at the end of the 2018-19 school year.

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