Mayor Bill de Blasio's revised executive budget includes $100 million over the next four years to finally ensure that all New York City public schools meet the state's physical education requirements.
A report last year by City Comptroller Scott Stringer's office found 506, or 32 percent, of city schools lacked a full-time certified physical education teacher and 28 percent didn't have a dedicated physical fitness space.
Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose said the additional funding will be spent in two ways: hiring and programming.
A total of 500 licensed physical education teachers will be added, which amounts to a 19 percent increase. There will also be more supplementary classroom-based instruction, which the city calls "move to improve."
Rose said elementary classroom teachers lead "small bursts" throughout the week, which "enable students to do more physical activity during the school day" and can count toward the state's 120 minute-per-week mandate.
The city has another initiative in eight districts called P.E. Works. This is so that schools that share the same buildings can rethink their gym schedules to get more use out of that facility. Rose said the Department of Education learned that some schools don't like to use gyms during lunch periods just in case they need to have indoor recess. As a result, the city is developing model schedules, "so that schools can see what might work best for them to change their schedule to ensure that they are in full P.E. compliance by the end of fiscal [20]19."
Rose didn't question the comptroller's finding that more than 500 schools didn't have licensed P.E. teachers. But she acknowledged it's difficult to get a handle on the city's compliance with state requirements. Currently, the city doesn't offer a physical education license for elementary teachers — only for grades 6-12. As a result, elementary classroom teachers provide instruction under the supervision of a licensed phys ed teacher or supervisor. The city is working with the teachers union to switch to a K-12 license for physical education.
Comptroller Stringer called it "great news" that the department recognized "that the city needs to get in shape on physical education in our schools."
In other education news, the budget includes $30 million to help homeless students through an initiative first reported by Politico New York.
This includes $19.5 million to build new school-based health centers at up to 13 campuses that house elementary schools with at least 1,000 students, including at least 50 of whom are in shelters. Rose said there are several schools located near shelters that have a high concentration of homeless pupils, and the city has seen a "real linkage" between school-based health centers and improved attendance.
Rose said schools with fewer homeless students would also benefit because the city will provide $10.3 million to support literacy programs inside shelters for students and parents, and technology to help keep DOE staff inside shelters in constant communication with families and schools to address attendance and other challenges in real time. Attendance teachers would work directly in the 35 largest shelters with the most challenges, and social workers would be assigned to large schools that have at least 50 homeless students.
The city estimates 17,000 students live in shelters on any given night, and that a total of 29,000 a year spend at least one night in a shelter.
The mayor did not restore money for middle-school summer camp programs, to the dismay of children's advocates. They had lobbied City Hall to restore the funds to keep more than 30,000 students going to day camp this summer. But the administration has said families knew the program was being phased out, after being extended for another year last summer.
Nor did de Blasio restore a summer youth employment program that was cut in his preliminary budget back in January. Council member Jumaane Williams said he was disappointed because this was a priority for him and other members.
"This means that the budget dance begins with a lower amount of job slots than was available last year," he said. "This dynamic risks giving the false impression that achieving the same number of jobs as last year would be a victory."
The mayor did add one education-related item: $5.6 million, growing to $16.8 million in the 2017-18 fiscal year, to increase funding for Beacon programs that provide after-school and community services to 70,000 youth and 65,000 adults a year.