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    School Absences Rise as Special Education Fails Students, Suit Says

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    A class-action lawsuit argues that the New York City school system falls short in helping students with emotional disabilities, leaving them to miss too many school days.New York City “regularly fails” to provide special education services to students with disabilities, leading to chronic absences, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Legal Aid Society.The suit seeks to confront a pervasive problem in the city’s school system, the nation’s largest. Tens of thousands of children may struggle to attend class because of anxiety, clinical depression and other emotional disabilities, the suit says. These students have the right — enshrined in federal law — to have their needs accommodated by their public schools.But the city’s Education Department “has a pattern and practice” of falling short in providing evaluations, support services and robust plans to help these children attend class, according to the complaint. This failure results in a “systematic, wholesale denial of access to education,” the suit argues.H.B., a 16-year-old sophomore who is identified by his initials in the lawsuit to protect his privacy, says his anxiety makes it feel like he is watching his classes on “a really old TV” with the signal going in and out.When he was in sixth grade, his mother sought a special education plan — a legal document that outlines the support services and other accommodations to which a student is entitled. But it took almost the entire school year for him to receive one, the suit says.In the meantime, administrators at his middle school told him that if he needed to leave class to collect himself, he could sit with the guidance counselor. The counselor later reported his mother to child services for neglect, in a case that was eventually dismissed.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      David Banks, N.Y.C. Schools Chancellor, Moves Up His Departure

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      The chancellor, who previously announced that he would step down at the end of December, will instead leave the job on Oct. 16. Melissa Aviles-Ramos, a top deputy, will succeed him.David C. Banks will step down as the New York City schools chancellor on Oct. 16, months earlier than he had previously said he would, City Hall announced on Wednesday.In recent weeks, Mr. Banks has been swept up in a wide-ranging corruption scandal, which has resulted in the indictment of Mayor Eric Adams and has also involved Mr. Banks’s brothers Philip Banks III and Terence Banks, and his wife, Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor, as well as other members of the mayor’s inner circle.The Banks brothers and Ms. Wright had their phones seized by federal agents in early September as part of an investigation into a consulting firm run by Terence Banks.The announcement on Wednesday came just hours after federal prosecutors told a judge that they might bring additional charges against the mayor and that charges against other people were likely. The chancellor has not been charged with any crimes and has maintained that he has done nothing wrong.In a statement on Wednesday, he did not address the change in timing of his departure from the role, but he reiterated that he had been told that he was not a target of the federal investigation involving the mayor.“I have conducted myself with integrity for almost 40 years, educating New York City’s young students,” he said. “My record and my reputation speaks for itself.”Tracking Charges and Investigations in Eric Adams’s OrbitFour federal corruption inquiries have reached into the world of Mayor Eric Adams of New York. Here is a closer look at the charges against Mr. Adams and how people with ties to him are related to the inquiries.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      NYC School Workers’ Families Took Disney Trip Meant for Homeless Students

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      New York City school employees took their children or grandchildren to Disney World and other places through a program intended for homeless students, investigators found.A half-dozen New York City school system employees took their children or grandchildren to Disney World, New Orleans and other destinations by exploiting a program intended for homeless students, investigators said in a report released this month.The trips were meant as “enrichment opportunities,” attendance incentives and rewards for academic achievement for students living in shelters and other temporary housing, according to the report by the special commissioner of investigation for the city’s public schools.The abuse of the grant-funded program was led by Linda Wilson, who at the time was the Queens manager for the Department of Education office that supports homeless students, the report says. As many as one in nine of the city’s roughly one million public school students are homeless.Ms. Wilson, who supervised about 20 employees, took her daughters on some of the trips and encouraged several workers she supervised to do so as well but to keep the activities secret, the report says.“What happens here stays with us,” she told one employee, according to the report.Ms. Wilson and others forged the signatures of homeless students’ parents as part of the scheme, and she used a nonprofit organization to arrange the trips to evade Department of Education oversight, the report says.“Few of the homeless students listed on the trip paperwork actually attended the trips,” the report says, although at least in the case of the Disney World trip, some homeless students did attend. One person interviewed by investigators told them “he had to beg” Ms. Wilson to allow him to add two of his students to the trip, the report says.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Cellphone Bans in Schools? NYC Is ‘Not There Yet,’ Mayor Says

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      Districts and states across the United States have supported restrictions on student usage, but New York City’s leaders are backing away from the idea because of logistical concerns.Los Angeles became the largest school district in the United States to ban cellphones in June. Entire states, such as Virginia, Ohio and Minnesota, have moved to institute broad crackdowns on phones in schools. But not New York City.At least not yet, Mayor Eric Adams said on Tuesday.Mr. Adams said at a news conference that New York City was a “unique animal” and that while there would be “some action,” the city was not yet ready for a full ban.“We’re not there yet,” he said. “We have to get it right.”Earlier in the summer, David C. Banks, the schools chancellor, suggested that new cellphone restrictions would be unveiled before the fall semester. So the mayor’s announcement — a week before the city’s first day of school — came as a surprise to many families.Mr. Adams’s comments will likely placate some parents and educators concerned about the logistics of a ban, while worrying others who argue that the devices harm students.A growing list of states, cities and school districts have curbed students’ cellphone use as concerns rise over their mental health. Officials point to the potential damage that access to social media and an “always online” culture may do to children.Mr. Adams said that while he did not want any distractions in city schools, he also wanted to be careful about the implementation of any eventual ban, so that the city wouldn’t have to backtrack on its plans.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Debby Lee Cohen, Who Helped Prune Plastic From Schools, Dies at 64

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      Her successful campaign against foam lunch trays in New York City led to similar city and statewide bans — and taught a group of fifth graders how to take on City Hall.As an artist who liked to play with scale, Debby Lee Cohen created monumental pieces, like the giant puppets she designed for Manhattan’s annual Village Halloween Parade, as well as miniatures, like the tiny forest she once made for a work by the interdisciplinary artist and compose Meredith Monk, with whom she often collaborated.A decade and a half ago, she became a plastic activist when she learned the scale of waste in New York City’s public schools.Her daughter Anna, then in second grade at a school in the East Village, had announced that she was boycotting lunch after seeing an exhibition on climate change at the Museum of Natural History that included a diorama of polar bears atop a mountain of what she recognized as her school’s lunch trays. It was then that Ms. Cohen learned that school lunches were served on foam trays — and that the city’s more than 1,800 public schools were using and throwing out at least 800,000 of them daily.Ms. Cohen, an artist, animator, performer, puppeteer and environmental activist whose campaign to eliminate foam trays from New York City’s public schools paved the way for similar bans in the city and state — and who taught students how to advocate for themselves at school and at City Hall — died on April 7 at her home in Manhattan. She was 64.The cause was colon cancer, said her sister, Ellie Cohen.The interdisciplinary artist and composer Meredith Monk, left, and Robert Een wearing costumes designed by Ms. Cohen in a performance of Ms. Monk’s “Facing North.” Ms. Monk and Ms. Cohen collaborated frequently.T. JunichiIn 2009, after her daughter’s school lunch boycott — which she solved in the short term by making her daughter’s lunches herself — Ms. Cohen looked for organizations that were dealing with the tray issue. There were none. But she found like-minded parents who were also working to reduce the staggering amount of plastic waste in their children’s schools, and they banded together to push for citywide action.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Mayor Adams Promised NYC Families Free 3-K Seats, but Hundreds Did Not Receive One

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      Many New York City families counted on the prospect of free preschool, but hundreds were not immediately offered a seat and may have to travel across town to available spots.New York City once sold a promise of free prekindergarten for all as an unusual benefit designed to make it far easier to raise children in this expensive city.So as families worried over whether their 3-year-olds would have spots this fall, Mayor Eric Adams pledged last month that everyone would have “access” to a seat. But when the Education Department released offers this week, hundreds of families were left without a place after all, facing another potential year of child-care bills that often soar over $2,500 a month.Every 4-year-old in New York is guaranteed a free preschool seat, and 3-year-olds were next in line for a universal program. But Mr. Adams canceled plans to expand that initiative because of empty slots in some neighborhoods, and he has cut millions of dollars from the program.On Thursday, about 2,500 children did not receive a prekindergarten offer, leaving their parents in limbo. Many are still on huge waiting lists and scrambling to rethink their finances and future in the city.Ben Lowe, a father in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, did not receive a 3-K offer, and his daughter was behind dozens of other children on waiting lists for nearby programs. He said an extra year of paid child care could be a “devastating financial cost” for his family.“I feel completely betrayed by this mayor,” Mr. Lowe said. “We don’t know how we’re going to solve this.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      N.Y.P.D. Often Ignores Parking-Permit Abuse, Report Says

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      Failing to ticket illegally parked cars with officially issued permits is “a form of corruption that erodes the public trust,” the Department of Investigation said.The New York Police Department routinely fails to ticket illegally parked cars that have city-issued parking permits, especially near precinct houses, and residents’ complaints about permit abuse rarely result in summonses, according to a report issued on Wednesday.The report, by the city’s Department of Investigation, confirmed what many New Yorkers know firsthand: that tens of thousands of people with city-issued permits, many of them police officers, can typically park anywhere they like with little fear of consequences.In a city where street parking is at a premium and a space in a garage for even a short period can be costly, the failure to crack down on the misuse of city-issued permits, the report said, is “a form of corruption that erodes the public trust in municipal government.”“Parking permit abuse obstructs streets and sidewalks, creating potentially dangerous conditions for pedestrians and motorists alike,” Jocelyn E. Strauber, the Department of Investigation commissioner, said in a statement. “And a lack of enforcement of parking laws with respect to permit-holders sends a message of special treatment.”The report included about 11 recommendations for tackling the problem, including developing a uniform permit across agencies; conducting annual audits of active permits to determine whether they should be revoked; and scrapping “self-enforcement zones” near precincts.The Police Department, the report said, “has no written policies or procedures regarding the self-enforcement zones, and the rate of enforcement of parking laws within those zones was significantly lower than outside of those zones.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The End of Online Classes

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      [Want to get New York Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.]It’s Tuesday. Weather: It should get sunnier as the day goes on. High in the low to mid-70s. Alternate-side parking: In effect until Monday (Memorial Day). Sarah Blesener for The New York TimesThis September, New York City’s public school students will no longer sit in front of a computer screen for class. Parents won’t have to juggle working from home and helping their children through technical difficulties. Teachers won’t have to remind students to mute themselves on Zoom.Schools will fully reopen this fall, and remote learning will be eliminated, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced yesterday. The complete return to in-person classes is a major indicator of the city’s economic recovery.“It’s time to do things the way they were meant to be done,” Mr. de Blasio said during a news conference. “All the kids in the classroom together.”[New York is one of the first big cities to remove remote learning this fall.]Here’s what you need to know:The detailsSchools will fully reopen, without a remote-learning option but with safety precautions. Masks will still be required, and schools will follow social-distancing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The city is not yet requiring staff members and students to be vaccinated before returning.Parents will be able to tour schools during open-house events in June.The contextMr. de Blasio said the school reopening was possible thanks the city’s low positivity numbers and availability of vaccinations.On Monday, he said the city’s positivity rate was 1.13 percent, the lowest it had been since last September. Over 7.9 million vaccine doses have been administered in the city, he said, and 50 percent of adults have been fully vaccinated.Several coronavirus restrictions were lifted throughout the state earlier this month.“Covid is being run out of New York City,” the mayor said.The reactionParents on Monday had mixed reactions.For Jenn Adams, who is a tutor and has a 5-year-old who attends Public School 319, the announcement was welcome news to both her and her son. She has balanced tutoring students over video calls, scheduling in-person visits and making sure her son was learning in his online classes. It has been exhausting.“I’ll have more time to work,” she told Nate Schweber as he reported for The Times. “He will learn better. It’s exciting.”Juan Gomez and his wife, Elvia Gonell, who are parents of two children, said they felt conflicted about the end of online learning. Ms. Gonell said she worries about virus variants spreading in schools, especially since her 9-year-old child has not been vaccinated.“It’s good, but I don’t feel safe,” she said.From The TimesMeet the 12 High Schoolers Who Won a New York Times Scholarship This YearHow to Vote in the New York City Primary in JuneWho’s Winning the N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race? Even Pollsters Are Confused.Whales Sing in New York WatersTo Find New York’s Best Jerk, Follow the SmokeWant more news? Check out our full coverage.The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.What we’re readingThe police were searching for someone who they said had spray-painted over 60 cars in a Queens neighborhood. [NBC New York]Local leaders are calling for stronger safety measures after a 24-year-old woman fell to her death during a rooftop party in Manhattan. [ABC 7]A man pulled a knife on a security guard at the Times Square M&M store after shoplifting, law enforcement said. [New York Post].css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-1jiwgt1{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;margin-bottom:1.25rem;}.css-8o2i8v{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-8o2i8v p{margin-bottom:0;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}And finally: Did you see Andrew Yang on ‘Ziwe’? The Times’s James Poniewozik writes:Years from now, when we look back on the history of pop-political interviewing, we may find it quaint that Sacha Baron Cohen had to disguise himself as Borat and Ali G in order to get public figures into uncomfortable situations.Turns out all you have to do is ask.At least that was the case with the New York mayoral candidate and media omnipresence Andrew Yang, who accepted a dangerous offer from the comedian Ziwe to appear on her self-named Showtime program.The invitation (announced in a tweet that appeared to include a still from an already completed interview) would give many political handlers heartburn. The three-week old “Ziwe,” based on the comedian’s online show “Baited With Ziwe,” is a crucible of cringe.But cringe, in many ways, has been what the Yang campaign runs on.In her interviews, Ziwe uses the persona of an extremely online interviewer fond of influencer-speak (everything, and everyone, is “iconic”) to set up productively uncomfortable questions about politics and culture. Her signature is to take a softball-question template (“Your favorite ____”), soak it in acid and surround it with mousetraps. She asked the author and celebrated New York grouch Fran Lebowitz, “What bothers you more: slow walkers or racism?”[Read more about Mr. Yang’s cringeworthy — yet “iconic” — interview with Ziwe.]Sunday’s interview delivered. After a cheerful introduction by teleconference — Mr. Yang was, of course, an “icon” — Ziwe asked the candidate to name his four favorite billionaires. (His answer included Michael Bloomberg, whom the Democratic base considers less than iconic; Oprah; Michael Jordan; and a tie for fourth between the possible/potential billionaires LeBron James and the Rock.) His favorite subway stop? The punitive Times Square station.When Mr. Yang said he was a fan of hip-hop, Ziwe asked his favorite Jay-Z song, a loaded question about a New York rapper for a candidate whose local cred has repeatedly been challenged.There was a pause.It’s Tuesday — be iconic.Metropolitan Diary: Friendship testDear Diary:I was at the dry cleaner. A woman came in with an ungainly heavy bundle, which she dumped onto the counter. It was a patterned comforter completely covered with stains.“My friend’s cat threw up all over my bed,” she said. “Can you clean this?”“That will be $50,” the woman behind the counter said.“She must be a very good friend,” I said.“She is not a friend anymore,” the woman replied.— Patricia RichNew York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com.What would you like to see more (or less) of? Email us: nytoday@nytimes.com. More