NYC's First District-Wide School Diversity Plan Gets Pushback

Starting next fall, Pre-K and Kindergarten students on the Lower East Side and East Village who meet one of three criteria will get priority for the majority of seats at District 1 elementary schools.

The Department of Education says 67 percent of seats should go to students who are living in temporary housing, learning English or on free or reduced-priced lunch. The remaining 33 percent of seats will go to students who fall outside the criteria. The proposed admissions priorities, set to be finalized next month, are part of the Department’s first district-wide plan to evenly distribute low-income students.

But critics are not convinced it will work. Schools that cannot attract 67 percent of families who meet the three criteria can still give the seats to students who don’t.

"It’s not going to move the needle," said parent Naomi Peña. "Wealthier families are going to be very hesitant to apply to schools that are low-income. The same goes the other way."

Peña, who is on the community education council, has been working with the education department on a diversity plan for more than a year — pushing for of a system called "controlled choice" that would guarantee more of a mix of students.

City education officials call their system "controlled choice" also, but Peña said the community education council proposed a model that would rely on a ranking system and algorithm used in other cities across the country to ensure some schools don’t have high concentrations of wealthy families while others have few.

The current proposal, Peña said, does not guarantee families will choose different schools. 

"For them to come back with this is a major slap in the face," she said. "The DOE knows nothing else but segregation. That’s what their legacy is. So when they take a plan that has a potential for change, and butcher it, it offends me."

The education department said the proposal takes a step toward school diversity while honoring family choice in schools.

"That is the balance that we struck," said Josh Wallack, Deputy Chancellor of Early Childhood Education and Student Enrollment.

In addition to the admissions priorities, the plan includes the launch of a Family Resource Center where parents can get information about every school in the district.

"We believe by getting that information out there to more families, families will choose more and different schools, and in and of itself that will create more diversity within District 1 schools," Wallack said.

The city education department says the pilot received unanimous support from school principals in the district. The Family Resource Center will be housed inside P.S. 15 — an elementary school that struggles with enrollment. There are currently 190 students enrolled, and they are predominantly black and Latino. More than 40 percent of the school's students are in temporary housing and 30 percent have special needs.

"For a lot of families our school is an unknown and that’s why the Family Resource Center is so important,” said Principal Irene Sanchez. "It’s about getting information out there for families, letting them know what schools have to offer."

She said the more parents know about what her school has to offer, the more likely they’ll be to visit the school.

"And I think once you see the school, that’s it," Sanchez said. "Almost everyone that has ever walked into our doors has shared their impression of what a warm environment it is. This is not about forcing families to go to different areas."  

Parent Naomi Peña is less optimistic. She said parents aren't choosing certain schools now. And she said the Department of Education ignored the community’s input.

"The community, myself, were used as pawns," she said. "DOE turned it into an admission policy that the community did not want."