OP-ED
Put politics aside — New York City needs help
ON THE WEB
VISIT US ONLINE AT QNS.COM
CHECK OUT OUR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES:
www.facebook.com/timesledger
www.twitter.com/TimesLedger
www.instagram.com/qnsgram
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | NOV. 13-NOV. 19, 2020 13
BY SCOTT STRINGER AND KIM SWEET
Each day during the pandemic, 13,000 students
in New York City’s homeless shelters attempt to join
Zooms with their teachers and log in to Google Classroom
to obtain the education that is their right. But
for too many of these students, the challenge is not a
math problem or an essay, but accessing their classes
in the first place. Of the more than 200 shelters housing
children across the five boroughs, only a handful
have internet access — leaving many children who already
have faced tremendous loss and disruption also
cut off from instruction, cut off from classwork and
homework, and cut off from their teachers and their
peers.
Mayor de Blasio recently announced his intention
to finally provide Wi-Fi internet access to all family
shelters by the summer — well after this school year
ends. This timeline is too little, too late to provide access
to education for students who can’t afford to waste
this whole year. And while the city offered students iPads
with cellular data plans, the devices have proven
useless in many cases because of limited bandwidth or
non-existent cellular reception at many shelters.
We need a plan to immediately connect students in
our family shelters to the instruction they need. Drawing
on our recent experience during the pandemic, together
we have outlined recommendations to expedite
the delivery of critical internet service and avoid massive
learning loss for children who are already contending
with immense disparities.
Prioritize more shelters to be wired by this winter.
Based on reports of connectivity problems, the
city designated 27 shelters to complete wiring by this
winter. However, we know of many more shelters that
would benefit from immediate Wi-Fi installation. DHS
should be flexible with its prioritization and add shelters
to the short list as more sites with connectivity
challenges are identified.
Meet with the shelter operators who have already
wired their buildings, to learn from their experiences.
Several family shelters successfully wired their buildings
this spring with philanthropic assistance. They
understand the challenges and have developed sensible,
efficient approaches that can help expedite installation
and reduce costs.
Explore bringing in additional Internet service providers
to support this initiative. The city announced
its intention to work with Charter Communications
and Altice USA to provide Wi-Fi access to family shelters.
To expand capacity for the project and provide internet
coverage more quickly, the city should consider
engaging additional Internet service providers.
Offer on-the-ground, linguistically competent tech
support to all students living in shelter. Many families
are struggling to use their devices due to technology
issues or lack of technological know-how. These
families need to be offered in-person support, in their
home language. In-person tech support teams should
also bring additional devices to distribute to students
who are still lacking them, or need broken devices to
be replaced.
Designate an interagency Director of Students in
Temporary Housing. This position should focus on
serving students in temporary housing and have its
authority expanded to guide interagency collaboration
between the Department of Education, Department
of Homeless Services and other agencies serving
students experiencing housing instability.
DOE should work with DHS to use attendance
data to better support families. Careful attention to
attendance data can help identify families in shelter
facing challenges. The DOE should collaborate with
DHS to use available attendance data to target support
to families. Families in need of support could then be
engaged in real time, and if technological access is the
issue, be provided with the prompt, appropriate solutions
for their students.
Families living in shelters should be prioritized for
space in nearby Learning Bridges programs. The city
should double down on efforts to make families in shelters
aware of nearby Learning Bridges sites, which
provide free childcare for children in 3-K through
eighth grade and have Wi-Fi. Families living in shelters
should be directly connected to the host community
based organization and immediately be enrolled
if they so choose. No slot for a child living in a shelter
should be released until the city has confirmed with
the student’s family that the slot isn’t needed.
Read more on QNS.com.
LETTERS POLICY
Letters should be typed or neatly handwritten, and those longer than 300
words may be edited for brevity and clarity. All letters must include the
writer’s name and phone number for verifi cation. Names may be withheld
from publication if requested, but anonymously sent letters will not be
printed. Letters must be received by Thursday noon to appear in the next
week’s paper. All letters become the property of Schneps Media and may
be republished in any format.
LAST WEEK’S TOP STORY:
Little Neck’s Il Bacco restaurant owner votes in person
after leaving hospital following tragic plane crash
SUMMARY: Joe Oppedisano, the owner of Il Bacco Ristorante
restaurant in Little Neck, made sure he left the hospital where he
was being treated for injuries he sustained in a tragic plane crash
in order to cast his vote in person on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
/QNS.COM
/TimesLedger
/qnsgram
/QNS.COM
/timesledger
/timesledger
/TimesLedger
/qnsgram
/QNS.com
