The United Federation of Teachers said in a new report that hundreds of thousands of New York City students are in oversized classes.
Photo courtesy of Leonie Haimson/X
More than 300,000 students at New York City’s “high-need” schools are currently enrolled in oversized classes, according to the United Federation of Teachers, despite the city’s assertions that those schools meet legal class size limits.
Michael Mulgrew, president of the UFT, gathered with elected officials, parents, educators, and advocates at the Brooklyn Landmark School in Ocean Hill on Tuesday to share the findings of a new union survey, which indicated that hundreds of classes in Title 1 schools have more students than are allowed by state law.
“Claiming these schools have no overcrowding problem is just one example of how the city is working to undermine the new class size mandate,” Mulgrew said in a statement.
New York State’s class size law, which was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last year, placed firm caps on class sizes for different grade ranges. Those caps are being rolled out over the next five years, with class size limits being applied to 20% of classes each year until 2028, when all classrooms should be in compliance.
The law prioritizes schools that serve populations with high poverty levels.
According to the UFT survey, at least 50% of classes across 665 Title 1 schools – including dozens in Brooklyn — exceed state law limits for the current school year. Consequently, more than 322,000 students in these schools are in classes larger than what the state law permits. In 40 of these schools, every single class breaches the class-size limit.
Overall, 97% of New York City’s 1,267 Title 1 schools have at least one oversized classroom.
The overcrowded classrooms are spread across every borough. At the Brooklyn Landmark School, where Tuesday’s press conference was held, eight out of 15 total classes are oversized, according…
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