Plot twist in NYC's chancellor search! Meisha Ross Porter, a former schools chief under de Blasio who's considered a top contender for the job under Mamdani, is a finalist for CEO of Chicago schools. www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2025...

A little more election-eve news for NYC schools: Enrollment is down 2.4%, the largest drop in 4 yrs. Seems likely immigration played a role - the influx of 50K migrants propped up NYC’s enrollment the last 3 yrs, but that’s ground to a halt under Trump. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

A bit of news for NYC schools: schools w/ lower-than-projected enrollment won't have to give back $ midyear. That could be especially beneficial to schools that have enrolled large immigrant populations + have seen big drops under Trump. W/ @amyzimmer.bsky.social: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

Hundreds of thousands of NYC students + families are about to lose SNAP. Their schools are scrambling to set up ad hoc food pantries, raise $, + collect donations to keep them fed. Another way schools are trying to hold up a crumbling social safety net: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

As momentum builds for universal child care in NYC, the city is for the first time piloting free, non-means-tested seats for kids 2 and under. Here's the list of neighborhoods getting priority: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

As more NYC public school parents are detained by ICE, schools are often the first places the family members left behind turn for help picking up the pieces. Here’s how some schools are supporting those students: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

After Mamdani announced plans to phase out gifted programs, Cuomo + Sliwa said they would expand them instead Eric Adams tried to do that — and roughly 1 in 3 of the city's gifted programs are underenrolled. Heres why w/ @michaelelsenroo.bsky.social www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

They wandered back to the hotel shortly after to their terrified children who had already seen video of both of their parents being detained. "It was like something out of a movie,” they told me.

This has been updated with strange new details. I spoke to one person who was arrested but then released, who described being taken to a subterranean parking garage and questioned by agents who said they were with ICE and told them they were looking for Venezuelans.. www.thecity.nyc/2025/10/17/r...

Mamdani announcing a teacher recruitment plan where NYC will offer tuition assistance, mentorship, other support to prospective teachers in exchange for commitments to stay at least 3 years. Class size law requires thousands of addl teacher hires in coming years

Lost in the debate over NYC’s gifted and talented program rekindled by Mamdani’s proposal was the fact that the program underwent a big change in recent years: eliminating its admissions test. @alexzimmerman.bsky.social dug into how that change has played out: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

The rare feel-good gov't shutdown story: I talked to some Bronx 8th-graders on a field trip to DC whose tour of the Capitol was canceled bc of the shutdown - and who ended up getting a personal tour from @aoc.bsky.social instead: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

Eric Adams’ first schools Chancellor David Banks shares his thoughts on the last year of Adams’ tenure as news comes he won’t seek a second term. Via @alexzimmerman.bsky.social: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

“It’s truly more socializing than I’ve seen in my 10 years working in a high school.” Seyma Bayram w/ a great story on the early challenges + triumphs of school without phones in NYC. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

More from @amyzimmer.bsky.social and @alexzimmerman.bsky.social on why Adams does not have legal authority to roll back the DOE's bathroom access policies for trans students in NYC despite these comments: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

Families of gender-nonconforming students in NYC have been worried about something like this for months given Mayor Adams’ stance towards Trump + his wide authority over schools (www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...). Now Adams is openly promising to review school bathroom policy.

Really excited for this talk next week at Lofty Pigeon about two important books. NYC education folks - would love to see you there!

Always a pretty wild reminder of the scale of NYC’s school system to see the class of new teachers assembled in the same place

The stellar @rebeccaredelmeier.bsky.social got up at the crack of dawn to ride SEPTA to school with two Philly students. The whole trip took over an hour and they missed a bus and had to walk the last mile to Palumbo. These cuts are already having a real impact on Philly's young people:

"Normally, in the final month of school, students were worried about moving to the next grade or graduating. This year, he said they wondered: 'Is a masked person going to grab me off the street?'" via @chalkbeat.org / @michaelelsenroo.bsky.social

@michaelelsenroo.bsky.social’s eye for detail is impressive

Thank you @bgrueskin.bsky.social for highlighting my reporting on a Bronx HS and undocumented teen navigating the Trump administration. Here’s Part 1: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025... And Part 2: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

"Her unexpected removal...will likely have a deep emotional impact on her classmates and our entire school community. She belongs with her family and her classmates." Message from principal of P.S. 89 in Queens, whose 7 y/o student was detained by ICE + sent to Texas, via @gwynnefitz.bsky.social

Part 2 is out today. It’s about what happens after the deportation campaign arrives at ELLIS’ doorstep and the difficult choices facing Bridget and the school as they try to make it through the Trump administration. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

“It’s not going to be my fault that her dream dies." @MichaelElsenRoo spent months with an undocumented NYC student and the school fighting to keep her education hopes alive www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

If you read one thing today, read this 👇

Here is your must edu-read of the day; terrific embedded reporting on the fear and stress our immigrant neighbors and their children are experiencing and the heroes trying to steer them through it

For 6 months, I’ve followed ELLIS, a Bronx HS for newcomers, to understand what it means to educate immigrant students in Trump’s second term. Proud to share the 1st of 2 stories about ELLIS, Bridget, an undocumented teen, & the fight to keep her education alive. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

@alexzimmerman.bsky.social flexes a deep knowledge of the complicated dynamics of the SHSAT, but in particular his answer at the very end of the show is probably the clearest thing I’ve ever seen in the media about the limits of test prep on a 100% norm referenced test 1/

NEW: Mayor Eric Adams’ re-election campaign submitted faked and fraudulently obtained petition signatures in his effort to secure a spot on the November ballot as an independent candidate, a Gothamist investigation has found. gothamist.com/news/forged-...

Enraging story from @alexzimmerman.bsky.social. NYC hasn’t paid its ~1,000 Teaching Fellows the entire 7 weeks they’ve been working this summer, forcing some to go into debt to cover rent and food. This at a time the city is trying to hire in historic numbers: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

After a child care worker is detained, a community is left reeling

“We had to beg the people working there that they gave us something to eat, they didn’t even give us water. Sometimes a few cookies they’d throw in there. They had us in there like animals.” — via @gwynnefitz.bsky.social www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/16/q...

A Queens 11th-grader detained by ICE last month is set to be released from the Texas detention center he’s been for a month following a judge’s order today: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

Thinking abt how at the UFT Delegate’s Assembly a few days ago one of Mamdani’s former teachers spoke in favor of the resolution to endorse him w specific references to his work as a kid. Teachers literally do make this stuff happen.

Head Start preschools to bar children with undocumented parents under new Trump rule

Schools across NYC are celebrating graduation this week. At ELLIS Prep, which still has a student in ICE detention, national immigration politics loomed large over the ceremony: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s school plans include advocating for shared governance, addressing issues like homelessness, and examining the specialized high school admissions test.

What happens w/ mayoral control of NYC schools (up for renewal in 2026) is going to be really interesting if Mamdani wins. And fwiw Mamdani himself gave perhaps the most clearly anti-mayoral control response of all the mayoral contenders we asked about it: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

A City Council hearing on NYC school segregation + diversity, postponed in Feb amid fears it could make the city a target of the Trump admin (www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...), is now underway: www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_zW...

Mayor Adams hasn't taken question from Daily News reporter @c-sommerfeldt.bsky.social for months. So Chris called out to get his attention at today's press conference and the mayor tells security to bar him from future press conferences. Hard to not see that as by design

New: NYC's teachers union is *not* endorsing in the Democratic mayoral primary due to deep divisions on issues from Israel to affordability “There’s not even somewhat of a consensus on this race," UFT prez Michael Mulgrew told me. "It is split all over the place.” www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

Bronx HS student Dylan’s first public statement from ICE detention - where he remains: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

When mayoral control of NYC schools comes up for renewal again next year, will NYC’s next mayor fight to keep, alter, or get rid of it? We asked the candidates: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

Tune into @wnyc.org Brian Lehrer show now to hear @alexzimmerman.bsky.social break down the latest on where NYC’s mayoral candidates stand on the big education issues!

If you've been following the story of Dylan, the Bronx HS student detained by ICE, I hope you'll read this follow-up. I followed his school, ELLIS Prep, as they navigated the aftermath — rallying around Dylan while managing the fears spreading to other students. www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

A photographer with me this morning just saw the mother and child walking past just now, so its possible these two were not detained, hard to know bc ICE hasn't returned request for comment yet.

A lovely essay from a NYC high school student about how she learned to love her daily subway commute to school. "I have no responsibilities, no duty to do anything for anybody. The train is the one place where I am just another person moving through the city." www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres sent a letter to ICE + DHS today demanding answers about the detention of Bronx high school student Dylan. Read the whole letter here: www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...

Dispatch from 26 Federal plaza where plain clothes federal agents detained at least 7 people leaving immigration court, plus a priest attempting to observe the arrests. www.thecity.nyc/2025/05/28/i...