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NYC Sued For Excluding Charter Schools From COVID-19 Testing Program
By
David Cruz
Published Dec 22, 2020
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By
David Cruz
Published Dec 22, 2020
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Families of students from various charter schools across the five boroughs have joined a lawsuit accusing the city of skirting state education law by excluding charters from the weekly COVID-19 testing program.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of nine parents of children who attend five different charter schools across the city. The five charter schools also joined the suit, along with the New York City Charter Center School Center, which helps charter schools get started. They argue that by depriving charter schools of free testing resources for COVID-19, the city is violating a law requiring them to provide the same health services to any resident child in a municipality. This, plaintiffs argue, includes children of charter schools.
"The law requires them to begin doing so immediately, and to continue as long as such testing is administered to children in the traditional public schools," the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, read.
For now, charter schools involved in the suit have kept their students in full remote learning since March until a testing program is in place.
Janelle Bradshaw, CEO of Public Prep in the Lower East Side and a plaintiff in the suit, told the Daily News that city charter schools have been fighting for the free testing program since the beginning of the school year and simply cannot afford the costs of the PCR tests, which range from $80 to $120 per test.
“We were told that charters would not be allowed to take part in random testing,” Bradshaw told the publication.
The lawsuit bears similarities to one filed by the Archdiocese of New York last month, which accused the city of the same negligence at Catholic schools across the five boroughs, particularly those in Staten Island that were in an state-designated orange zone. Catholic schools in the impacted area have been relying on SOMOS Community Care—the same group hired by the city to carry out testing—to administer testing, paying for the program themselves. A state supreme court judge ruled in favor of the Archdiocese, but the city Law Department immediately filed an appeal.
The randomized testing program created by the city Department of Education tests 20% of students and staffers on a weekly basis. Testing initially took place once a month, when schools reopened in September. After Mayor Bill de Blasio closed school buildings on November 18th, following the city's seven-day rolling average of positive COVID test results hitting 3%, he reopened early childhood and elementary school classrooms on December 7th with the testing program required weekly. Each staffer and child arriving to school in person must consent to the testing program.
De Blasio previously defended the withholding of testing resources to Catholic schools, arguing there's simply not enough testing to go around. The lack of testing capacity is one reason middle and high schools in the public school system will have to wait weeks to return to the classroom.
“We got a huge number of kids to serve. We need all the resources that we have right now,” de Blasio said at a news conference on December 1st. “The law is clear that our obligation is to ensure that the facilities we run, we're providing the testing to.”
Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for the DOE, said the city has not ignored charter schools.
“Testing is a crucial part of keeping our schools safe, and the State makes free test kits available for schools that are subject to its testing requirements," Filson said in a statement. "There is no legal requirement for the DOE to conduct our random sample testing program in charter schools, however all charter school staff and students can get tested for free at any of the City’s H+H testing sites.”
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schools reopening
David Cruz
David is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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