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"I'm Just Not Trained For This": Dept. Of Education Office Workers Sent To Understaffed NYC Schools
By
Sophia Chang
Published Oct 8, 2021
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Scott Heins / Gothamist
By
Sophia Chang
Published Oct 8, 2021
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When Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all Department of Education employees, he repeatedly reassured families the city had plenty of resources to fill any sudden vacancies left by unvaccinated employees in the system’s 1,800 public schools.
Part of that plan was to deploy Central staffers -- the DOE employees who work in the administrative offices -- to schools alongside thousands of substitute teachers.
De Blasio said these reassigned Central staffers had experience and pedagogical licenses to work in classrooms with students.
“We have thousands and thousands of vaccinated, experienced substitute teachers ready to go. That's the obvious first go-to, but it's also true that Central staff has thousands of educators, certified educators, who could step into different roles if needed,” de Blasio said in a September 23rd briefing.
Still, some Central staffers without educational experience have found themselves in classrooms. Erin Couture, a Central administrative employee, was assigned to an early education center Monday in Brooklyn instead of her usual office near the Tweed Courthouse, the Department of Education's headquarters, in Manhattan.
“I'm not certified to work with kids, I literally have no experience working with kids,” said Couture, who has an administrative role as Director of Special Education at Charter Schools and has never worked in a classroom.
“So when I showed up to the Pre-K center on Monday, I definitely thought I would be doing maybe the door desk duty for security staff, or maybe helping out in the kitchen or something,” Couture said. “And basically, I've been a floating (paraprofessional) moving around a lot of classrooms, mostly working with three-year-olds,” calling it “pretty busy and chaotic.”
With three people on her tiny team deployed to schools up until October 15th, Couture said her two remaining colleagues are trying to do the entire team’s workload.
A spokesperson for the DOE said that about 1,000 Central staffers had been deployed to schools this week.
“The overwhelming majority of them have pedagogical licenses, titles, and experience,” said DOE spokesperson Katie O’Hanlon in a statement Wednesday. “For those who do not, they are providing administrative support, supplemental supervision, and more.”
The DOE’s vaccine mandate required employees to have received at least one dose of a vaccine before the start of the school day October 4th or face unpaid leave with health insurance or resignation with severance. After numerous legal challenges and unions forced the city to carve out medical and religious exemptions, the mandate went into effect this week.
O’Hanlon of the DOE said as of Wednesday, 95% of the department’s approximately 148,000 employees have chosen to get vaccinated. Of the 78,600 DOE teachers, 96% or 75,500 were vaccinated. Of the 23,400 paraprofessionals who work with students with special needs, 93% or 21,600 have been vaccinated.
Still, the mandate meant that thousands of unvaccinated teachers and paraprofessionals did not report to work this week, absences that could especially affect students with special needs.
Paullette Healy, a member of the Citywide Council for Special Education whose son Lucas is supposed to receive occupational and speech therapy through the DOE, said those services were abruptly cancelled this week.
“They sent an email through the Google Classroom saying that they were being pulled to cover other classes at the other sites and that they would not be able to provide therapy this week,” Healy said.
The paraprofessional who worked with Jessica Waverka’s seven-year-old son Theo at a Brooklyn school told her she wouldn’t be returning to work this week, Waverka said.
Her son eventually got assigned a new paraprofessional Thursday, but the upheaval meant that Theo, who has numerous special needs, wasn’t receiving the right support for days -- including regular access to food because he has an eating disorder. Waverka kept him home instead.
“The little things that the (paraprofessional) does to make the child's life function appropriately and have access to education clearly was not communicated to anybody,” Waverka said. “And how could it be? Especially when you have Central staff coming down? How could they know the children?”
The shortage of school staff has also meant last-minute changes for DOE teachers who find themselves reassigned or covering for absent colleagues.
“We've had several people out every day, and people are getting pulled to cover,” said Carrie McCormack, who teaches 11th and 12th grade college and career seminars at East Bronx Academy for the Future. “We've had a teacher who was just put on one of the medical accommodations -- the very few and far between ones -- and so now we have two teachers covering his classes. He's a math teacher and so they've picked up some of his extra classes.”
“Everyone is just drained,” McCormack added.
Couture said the early education center where she’s assigned has lost four staffers because of the vaccination mandate.
“The teachers have definitely been in need of help, just extra hands in the classrooms,” she said. “But it is a lot because...I want to make sure none of the kids get hurt. There are some kids that require a lot more special attention and I'm just not trained for this.”
Tagged
education
pandemic
COVID-19
coronavirus
new york city
schools reopening
vaccine mandate
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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