The next New York state budget will not include funding targeted to 60 public school districts that must phase out and eliminate Indigenous names, logos and mascots by the end of the 2024-25 school year.

The Board of Regents adopted regulations last week prohibiting public schools from using names, mascots or logos inspired by Indigenous people after the department published a memo in November mandating districts with such logos or related imagery be eliminated. 

Affected districts must adopt and submit a plan to the department by the end of June about how they'll remove all traces of the now-banned names and images by the end of the next academic year.

The state Education Department has opposed public schools using Native American mascots for more than 20 years, citing studies that show they perpetuate stereotypes that cause psychological and emotional harm.

"The use of these indigenous names and mascots is negative for all students — not just students from indigenous communities," Senate Education Committee chair Shelley Mayer said. "It has been shown through repeated studies that the use of these names is in the negative context and it creates a very unfortunate experience for students to think of Indigenous people."

Upgrades to athletic uniforms, fields, equipment and school buildings are expected to cost districts a minimum of hundreds of thousands of dollars. But legislative leaders do not plan to give the affected schools state funds to help comply with the changes in the tight timeframe, pushing some superintendents to say they will fight for the assistance next year.

State Education Department officials are pushing back on funding for schools to remove the problematic logos from buildings, signage, gym floors, and sports fields, citing a 2001 directive to districts about getting rid of Native American mascots and that districts have had more than 20 years to comply.

Several districts, in Waterloo, Lyme, Watkins Glen and Coxsackie-Athens, most recently decided to retire their long-held Native American mascots, names and related images — budgeting for any related costs themselves.

But Rotterdam-Mohonasen Central School District Superintendent Shannon Shine argues the department's 2001 memo applied specifically to mascots and the ban adopted by the Board of Regents this month is much more broad.

"They sent a memo that said to discontinue mascots — Mohonasen doesn't have a mascot," Shine said.

The district's logo features three Native Americans and must be changed, but school administrators continue to have questions about its team, the Warriors, which hasn't had a mascot for years.

SED has not contacted individual districts that must submit a plan by the end of June.

Education Department officials say each school board is responsible to determine if the new rules apply to their district and take action to comply with them. If not, they risk the removal of school officers and losing state funding.

"Since Commissioner Mills’ initial directive in 2001, the Board of Regents and Department have consistently opposed the use of Native American mascots and the time is now to move away from these harmful images," SED spokeswoman Keshia Clukey said in a statement Monday. "School districts have had 22 years – since before their students were born – to consider the damaging implications of the use of these mascots and enact positive change. Further, the courts have agreed that such mascots only serve as a barrier to building a safe and nurturing school community for all students. The regulations adopted this week are clear: Team names, mascots, and associated imagery derived from, or that have connections to, Indigenous peoples that are being used without the express consent of such people are contrary to the requirements of the proposed regulations and New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act. These are issues that will need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and the department is focused on technical assistance and support. NYSED has and can provide assistance to any school or district that has questions. Our best advice to districts utilizing Indigenous team names, logos and/or imagery is to treat this as an opportunity to rebrand."

School districts can use building aid, or state funding given each year based on a formula for approved capital improvements, according to SED. That building aid is available for debt services for school buildings if the cost of the project is at least $10,000. 

Prior decisions by the State Education Department commissioner and an Albany Supreme Court ruling last June established public schools are prohibited from utilizing Indigenous mascots, according to the department.

Shine expects the changes to cost the district at least a half-million dollars, and says it's equivalent to an unfunded mandate.

"It's ubiquitous that mandates come out from New York State that are unfunded," Shine said. "We have a lot of them. A lot of them fall on school districts directly."

But the department officials disagree, saying the rule change respects the dignity of Indigenous people.

"The department believes that the importance of prohibiting offensive or stereotypical imagery outweighs any attendant costs," according to an answer from the department added to the Board of Regents regulations.

Shine has spoken with other superintendents in the state who agree the state must provide assistance for districts to afford the projects to comply with the new rules in less than two years. Meanwhile, districts that completed the change over the last two decades may take issue with other schools receiving aid to make similar athletic and building upgrades.

Sen. Mayer is open to including funding to assist those districts in next year's budget.

"We can't let that be the barrier to change," she said. "We should adapt and celebrate that New York is going to move forward in this way."

Officials with the state Council of School Superintendents and the Association of School Business Officials of New York declined to comment.