Have you heard of the Class Size Law? Not many have, let alone parents. It’s a law that was sponsored by Senator John Liu and signed in 2022 by Governor Kathy Hochul. While smaller class sizes sound appealing, it’s about to cause more pain to families throughout the city because of the unintended consequences.The way the law was written has some parents across NYC so concerned that we formed a group – the Coalition for Class Size Equity.
Our mission is simple – to demand that the NY State Legislature fix the Class Size Law and address the obvious inequities that will have tremendous impact on our school system before the chaos kicks in.
For the last two years, NYC Public Schools (NYCPS) was able to comply with the law so no one noticed. In fact, in some instances, conditions got better for some schools. But, now is when the real pain will start to set in because the law demands more than what is realistic for NYCPS to accomplish as an unfunded mandate.
It requires all grade K-3 classes to be limited (or “capped”) at 20 students, all grade 4-6 classes capped at 23 students and all grade 9-12 classes capped at 25, so when students begin to apply to elementary, middle, and high school next fall, the admissions process will start to look really ugly because schools will have to reduce the number of available seats at their schools to comply with the law. Fewer seats will mean a lower chance your child will be admitted to the school of your choice. If parents hate the lottery for admissions process now, it will only get worse.
Are you a Pre-K parent looking forward to enrolling at your neighborhood school in the Fall of 2025? Surprise, surprise! If that school is over the Law’s caps, then even living in the zone won’t guarantee you a seat. If the school is very popular, you might be told you have to attend a school several miles away!
Maybe you are a parent of a student in a school with low enrollment but benefits from a dedicated group of caring, long-tenured teachers. Guess what – you’re not immune to the impacts. Many of those teachers will soon be in very high demand for thousands of new teaching spots opening up in some of the wealthiest school districts in the City. And who wouldn’t want a raise or the promise of a spot in a parking lot or at a school with less behavioral issues? Feeling nervous yet? You should. Despite what supporters of the Law say, the nationwide teaching shortage makes it very unlikely that New York City will be able to hire thousands of new, qualified educators needed to replace the senior teachers who transfer to wealthier districts which will have more new teaching openings.
Or does your middle school child thrive in their bilingual class of 25 students? Well, we have some bad news. The inflexible Law has arbitrarily decided that your child’s class must now be 23 students, not 25. Will your child be one of the two students that loses their spot from the classrooms? Will they have to enter another lottery?
These are just a few scenarios and the Class Size Law could have over the next three years by when NYCPS must comply. It is a very real, very expansive unfunded mandate that will have dramatic impacts across the New York City public school system that needs to be taken seriously now.
Next fall is when schools have to plan their admissions process around the new class size limits. Meanwhile, the City will start frantically hiring thousands of teachers, prioritizing quantity over quality. Funding for these new teachers will come from budget cuts. Schools in under-enrolled, higher need districts will see a dramatic decline in spending per student.
While we support small class sizes, it is evident this Law is poorly written, too ambitious and not tailored to meet the highly diverse needs of the largest public school system in the country. In its current form, the Law will create incredible disruption for families, result in a massive shift in spending toward the most crowded, wealthiest districts, and deprive children of many quality components of a well-rounded education.
So what can be done? The good news is that parent voices matter! And yours can make a difference. We are asking for the Class Size Law to be fixed. Changes that will help ease the pain include extending the period to implement the Law to 10 years instead of 5 years. And let’s start with implementing the Law in our neediest schools with the highest academic need and lowest socioeconomic indicators. And since the Law is based on mostly experimental research conducted on younger children, it’s only common sense to start with grades K-3 instead of cramming in all grades in a rushed way.
There is more information on the Class Size Law available on our website. And please – sign our Open Letter urging our elected officials to do the right thing!
