Mike Elsen-Rooney
@michaelelsenroo.bsky.social
📤 1179
📥 227
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Covering NYC public schools for
@chalkbeat.org
pinned post!
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...
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‘They’ve given her a lot of hope’: A NYC school fights to educate an undocumented teen under Trump
For Bridget and Marta, ELLIS Prep often felt like the only public institution with its arms open in a city and country that seemed not to want them.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/08/13/ellis-prep-helps-immigrant-students-hope-amid-trump-ice-enforcement/
6 months ago
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Great read from
@alexzimmerman.bsky.social
on NYC’s new chancellor, his vision for the system, and what happens when Mamdani visits an elementary school:
www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2026...
about 1 month ago
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Come join us Thursday at the Brooklyn Heights library for a conversation on what it means to educate immigrant students in this moment - with educators doing amazing work on the ground + great orgs with resources to share.
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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Important reality check from
@mattbarnum.bsky.social
on the oft-heard refrain that loosening admissions at selective schools will harm the lower-scoring students who get in by setting them up for failure. Research shows precisely the opposite: those students see real benefits.
add a skeleton here at some point
2 months ago
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One sign of how bad NYC’s child care crisis has gotten: there are *10,000* kids sitting on a waitlist for low-income child care vouchers b/c the program is out of $. Some observers say that’s a logical place for Mamdani to start his push for universal child care:
www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
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NYC’s child care voucher waitlist swells to 10,000, leaving working parents in the lurch
The waitlist for child care vouchers swelled to 10,000 children, forcing low-income working parents to rely on unstable care. Can Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani fix the problem?
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/12/01/nyc-child-care-voucher-waitlist-hits-10000/
2 months ago
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New: the arrival of ~50K migrant students from 2022-24 buoyed NYC schools after years of enrollment decline. But over the past year, as the city closed shelters + Trump took office, that pattern reversed - posing long-term challenges for many schls + the system:
www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
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A wave of immigration boosted enrollment at dozens of NYC schools. Now, their numbers are falling.
At dozens of schools that took in the largest shares of migrant students in recent years, enrollment fell by 11% over the past year, wiping away years of gains.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/11/26/immigration-enrollment-boom-halts-under-trump-adams-policies/
3 months ago
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Rly important work by economist Lauren Melodia finds the median income for NYC’s family child care providers, many of whom rely largely on public funding + will be a critical part of any push for universal child care, is $6 an hour:
www.centernyc.org/reports-brie...
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Dignified Pay for Quality Care: What New York’s Family Child Care Providers Need to Thrive — Center for New York City Affairs
As the recent, historic mayoral election campaign demonstrated, the soaring costs and insufficient availability of quality child care continue to be matters of paramount importance to New Yorkers. The...
https://www.centernyc.org/reports-briefs/dignified-pay-for-quality-care-what-new-yorks-family-child-care-providers-need-to-thrive
3 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Gwynne Hogan
3 months ago
VIDEO: Federal Agents Bust Into Queens Apartment, Pointing Guns at Mother and Her Four Kids
www.thecity.nyc/2025/11/19/q...
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On Camera, Fed Agents Point Guns at Mother and Four Kids in Queens
The agents came looking for a relative who no longer lived in the apartment, the shellshocked mother told THE CITY. Days later, her children are terrified to leave their parents' sides.
https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/11/19/queens-ice-raid-guns-children-mother/
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New w/
@alexzimmerman.bsky.social
: NYC declared victory on a major class size deadline: >60% of classes under the caps. What they didn’t mention: they only got there by quietly declaring 10,500 classes exempt. W/o those, DOE would’ve been at 59.5% compliance:
www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
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Eric Adams declares victory on class size reduction — by issuing 10,500 exemptions
NYC officials quietly issued thousands of exemptions to class size law. Did your school get one?
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/11/18/nyc-officials-approve-thousands-of-exemptions-to-state-class-size-law/
3 months ago
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Mamdani’s visit to a BK child care center yesterday illustrated one of the problems in the system he’ll have to confront: 2 of the center’s classrooms, meant for 3K/PreK, have sat empty for 5 yrs. Citywide, ~27,000 free child care seats, 1 in 5, were empty last yr:
www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
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First puzzle Mamdani’s universal child care plan must solve: NYC’s empty seat problem
Last year, more than 27,000 of the city’s roughly 136,000 free child care seats for kids ages 4 and under went unfilled, about 1 in every 5 seats.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/11/13/mamdani-universal-child-care-empty-seat-problem/
3 months ago
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Most of the conversation about whether Mamdani can deliver universal child care has focused - rightfully - on cost. But I've been curious (as a reporter and parent of an infant + toddler) what it would take operationally. So I talked to lots of knowledgable ppl:
www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
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Mamdani pledged universal child care for NYC. What will it take to get there?
Mamdani will face an array of logistical and operational challenges in standing up new public infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of youngsters.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/11/11/mamdani-universal-child-care-pledge-faces-operational-challenges/
3 months ago
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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...
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Former NYC schools chancellor in the running for head of Chicago Public Schools
Meisha Ross Porter, who led New York City Public Schools until 2021, will interview with Chicago Board of Education members, a community panel, and the mayor next week.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2025/11/07/meisha-ross-porter-finalist-for-chicago-schools-ceo/
3 months ago
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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...
3 months ago
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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...
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It’s a ‘blessing’: NYC schools get to keep their cash, despite lower than projected enrollment
Schools that missed their enrollment targets won’t have to return millions in funding midyear back to the Education Department. Some principals say it’s a ‘blessing.’
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/11/03/nyc-schools-held-harmless-avoid-midyear-budget-clawback/
3 months ago
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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...
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As SNAP cuts loom, NYC schools scramble to deliver extra food
Schools are launching fundraisers, setting up food pantries, and collecting donations to try to secure extra food for families at risk of losing SNAP benefits.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/10/29/snap-shutdown-prompts-schools-to-launch-emergency-food-plans/
4 months ago
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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...
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Seeking free child care for kids under 2? A NYC pilot program is about to open 240 seats.
City Council leaders hope the pilot program will be a blueprint for further expanding free child care to a wider swath of the youngest New Yorkers.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/10/27/city-offers-free-child-care-seats-to-kids-in-priority-neighborhoods/
4 months ago
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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...
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How NYC schools become lifelines for children after ICE arrests their parents
Educators and advocates say a growing number of schools are stepping in to support students who have had one or both parents detained by ICE.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/10/23/ice-arrest-parents-schools-support-students/
4 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Alex Zimmerman
4 months ago
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...
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Mamdani’s opponents want to grow NYC’s gifted programs. Attracting students isn’t easy.
Cuomo and Silwa want to expand kindergarten gifted classes. Mamdani prefers to keep programs starting in third grade. A new analysis uncovered lagging enrollment in the current program.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/10/17/mamdani-cuomo-sliwa-debate-gifted-and-talented-as-enrollment-lags/
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Gwynne Hogan
4 months ago
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.
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Gwynne Hogan
4 months ago
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...
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Federal Raid Outside Row Hotel Migrant Shelter Rattles Residents
In what appears to be a first under the current Trump administration, federal agents targeted migrants just outside a shelter.
https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/10/17/row-hotel-ice-raid-shelter/
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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
4 months ago
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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...
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NYC gifted and talented: Mamdani’s calls for change comes amid already shifting landscape
Mamdani wants to rethink gifted and talented in NYC schools. The program has already seen big changes.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/10/10/mamdani-proposal-for-gifted-and-talented-comes-amid-admissions-shift/
4 months ago
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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...
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The shutdown canceled their U.S. Capitol tour. These Bronx students got one from AOC instead.
Students from Zeta Charter School got a tour of the Capitol they’ll never forget when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez escorted them through the building.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/10/02/aoc-gives-bronx-students-capitol-tour-during-shutdown/
4 months ago
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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...
5 months ago
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“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...
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NYC educators are pushing the joys of ‘distraction-free’ schools over fears of ‘cellphone ban’
NYC educators and mental health professionals are trying to help students adjust to school without cellphones. Just don’t call it a ban, they advise.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/09/22/how-cellphone-ban-is-changing-nyc-schools-in-positive-ways/
5 months ago
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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...
add a skeleton here at some point
5 months ago
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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.
add a skeleton here at some point
5 months ago
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Really excited for this talk next week at Lofty Pigeon about two important books. NYC education folks - would love to see you there!
add a skeleton here at some point
5 months ago
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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
6 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Carly Sitrin
6 months ago
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:
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Follow 2 students as SEPTA cuts complicate their commute on the first day of school
Students across Philadelphia are waking up earlier and waiting longer for SEPTA to get them to school. But many say they’re bound to be late anyway, with less reliable service and more crowded routes....
https://www.chalkbeat.org/philadelphia/2025/08/25/septa-cuts-on-first-day-of-school-hit-students/
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Anna Clark
6 months ago
"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
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'The goal is to survive': NYC school for immigrants faces an uncertain future under Trump
Normally, in the final month of school, students at ELLIS Prep worried about moving to the next grade or graduating. This year, they wondered: “Is a masked person going to grab me off the street?”
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/08/14/ellis-prep-nyc-school-educates-immigrant-students-in-trump-era/
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
DAVID C. BLOOMFIELD
6 months ago
@michaelelsenroo.bsky.social
’s eye for detail is impressive
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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...
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6 months ago
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"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
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
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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...
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Carrie Melago
6 months ago
“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...
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‘They’ve given her a lot of hope’: A NYC school fights to educate an undocumented teen under Trump
For Bridget and Marta, ELLIS Prep often felt like the only public institution with its arms open in a city and country that seemed not to want them.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/08/13/ellis-prep-helps-immigrant-students-hope-amid-trump-ice-enforcement/
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Alex Zimmerman
6 months ago
If you read one thing today, read this 👇
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Tim “Positive Subway” Smith
6 months ago
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
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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...
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‘They’ve given her a lot of hope’: A NYC school fights to educate an undocumented teen under Trump
For Bridget and Marta, ELLIS Prep often felt like the only public institution with its arms open in a city and country that seemed not to want them.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/08/13/ellis-prep-helps-immigrant-students-hope-amid-trump-ice-enforcement/
6 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Tim “Positive Subway” Smith
6 months ago
@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/
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Clayton Guse
7 months ago
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-...
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Forged signatures found on Mayor Adams’ petitions to run as an independent
The Adams campaign said it is conducting a review after Gothamist found signatures that were fraudulently obtained or outright forged.
https://gothamist.com/news/forged-signatures-found-on-mayor-adams-petitions-to-run-as-an-independent
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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...
7 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Chalkbeat
7 months ago
After a child care worker is detained, a community is left reeling
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Nicolle Orozco Forero had a gift for working with children with disabilities. Then she and her seriously ill son were taken into ICE custody.
After a child care worker is detained, a community is left reeling
https://bit.ly/46mAf5Z
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Reuven Blau
7 months ago
“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...
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‘It’s a Miracle’: Queens High Schooler Detained for Weeks in Louisiana After ICE Courthouse Arrest Reunites with Family
Joselyn Chipantiza-Sisalema, 20, arrived at the Port Authority bus terminal early Wednesday morning after a federal judge ordered her release from ICE custody.
https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/16/queens-student-ice-detention-joselyn-chipantiza-sisalema/
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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...
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Queens student detained by ICE to be released after month in Texas facility
After more than a month in ICE detention, Derlis Snaider Chusin Toaquiza, a student from Grover Cleveland High School in Queens, was to be released on bond.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/07/15/student-from-queens-grover-cleveland-released-from-ice-detention/
7 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Chalkbeat
7 months ago
Head Start preschools to bar children with undocumented parents under new Trump rule
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Head Start should be ‘reserved for American citizens,’ Trump administration says
A rule change treats the federally funded preschool program like a welfare program and bars the children of undocumented immigrants. It’s a dramatic change from longstanding practice.
https://bit.ly/4locqPO
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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...
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How national immigration politics hung over the graduation ceremony of one Bronx high school
While ELLIS Prep’s principal celebrated the accomplishments of graduates, she also paused to acknowledge the ongoing ICE detention of ELLIS student Dylan Lopez Contreras.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/06/25/bronx-high-school-immigrants-celebrates-graduation-amid-trump-mass-deportation/
8 months ago
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reposted by
Mike Elsen-Rooney
Chalkbeat
8 months ago
Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s school plans include advocating for shared governance, addressing issues like homelessness, and examining the specialized high school admissions test.
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Zohran Mamdani on education: His vision for NYC schools
Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s school plans include advocating for shared governance, addressing issues like homelessness, and examining the specialized high school admissions test.
https://bit.ly/45FUY4d
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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...
add a skeleton here at some point
8 months ago
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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...
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NYC Council delays school segregation hearing amid fears of federal scrutiny
The long-awaited hearing aimed to give lawmakers a chance to publicly question New York City Education Department officials on the state of school diversity efforts.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/02/24/trump-diversity-guidance-sparks-postponement-council-segregation-hearing/
8 months ago
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