Public school districts in New York have just over two weeks to apply for millions of dollars available in state funding to hire specialized staff to help New York students overcome their education gap sustained during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The final $229 billion state budget included $100 million for the state's Recover from COVID School program. Publicly funded districts can apply for the aid with the state Education Department through Aug. 18 for funds to be distributed over the next two years at $50 million per year.
Math and reading scores have plummeted across the nation after years of remote learning during the pandemic, coupled with an ongoing mental health crisis.
"We could not have foreseen the impact that this has had on our most vulnerable — our kids," Hochul said Thursday in the state Education Department building in Albany. "So 'back to normal' isn't going to work when our kids are already starting from behind. And our kids are also experiencing a mental health crisis like never before. So we have to do something differently."
Education Department Commissioner Betty Rosa, New York State United Teachers President Melinda Pearson and other state education leaders were in attendance.
Funding will be prioritized to districts with the highest need, or those in low-income, minority and rural districts affected most by the pandemic's consequences.
Districts that receive funds to combat student learning loss must expand the number of specialized teachers, intervention programs and resources to provide academic recovery and support to students.
But there's doubt money alone can help districts close the gap. Officials question where they can find qualified candidates to fill the vacancies in a shortage that's persisted for years.
"We're never going to find enough mental health professionals as much as we need to grow that field, so we have to take a multi-faceted approach," Assemblywoman Pat Fahy said Thursday. "A lot of the professionals are not out there, so you have to help train the teachers on intervention tactics who may not be mental health professionals."
At a legislative hearing about student learning loss last December, education leaders testified to lawmakers addressing the school staffing crisis is the best way to help academically backslidden students.
Fahy, who chairs the Assembly Higher Education Committee, says the Legislature needs diverse strategies to address systemic educational inequities, help teachers and reclaim students who fell through the cracks.
"What leaves the K-12 system comes to higher education ... [and] we know this COVID cohort that's moving up is struggling," the assemblywoman said.
The state will also provide $8.3 million to schools to expand their mental health staff and services.
Individual districts or BOCES or a consortium of school districts can apply for the Mental Health Recover from COVID School Program and the Learning Loss RECOVS grants.
The programs are intended to give students a means to get educational and mental health supports on-site while at school, the governor said.
"We have come a long way since the pandemic started, and the effects of COVID the pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges and created new ones for schools and districts across the state, particularly when it comes to trauma," Rosa said of effects like food and housing insecurity, isolation and death of family members.
"These experiences have, in many ways, affected students' ability to regulate emotions and behavior," the commissioner said.
Schools awarded the funding will be required to increase the number of mental health professionals, services, programming and other support to better identify mental health concerns and related behaviors and improve wellness.
Several studies show a person who drops out of school or lacks an education is much more likely to become involved with criminal behaviors. Combatting the learning gap and mental health crisis in youth is an important part of the conversation around improving public safety here in the state — an area critical for New York voters.
Fahy says lawmakers need to act to identify students impacted by the COVID learning gap who have already left the K-12 school system and help connect them with alternative education and GED programs or the local job corps.
"We have lost hundreds of thousands of students that we have not reclaimed," Fahy said. "We've got to reach in more and try to reclaim these students and get them identified. We've got to reclaim these students, or the streets claim them. And we know from crime statistics, the streets are claiming them if we don't."