File #: Res 0418-2026    Version: * Name: Ensure that all campuses award an appropriate number of college credits to students who earned a New York State Seal of Civic Readiness in high school.
Type: Resolution Status: Committee
Committee: Committee on Higher Education
On agenda: 4/16/2026
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling on The City University of New York to ensure that all campuses award an appropriate number of college credits to students who earned a New York State Seal of Civic Readiness in high school
Sponsors: Eric Dinowitz, Farah N. Louis
Council Member Sponsors: 2
Attachments: 1. Res. No. 418, 2. April 16, 2026 - Stated Meeting Agenda

Res. No. 418

 

Resolution calling on The City University of New York to ensure that all campuses award an appropriate number of college credits to students who earned a New York State Seal of Civic Readiness in high school

 

By Council Members Dinowitz and Louis

Whereas, The New York State Board of Regents is committed to providing civic education for all K-12 students so that they are prepared to make informed decisions that will benefit the public good in our multicultural democracy; and

Whereas, The New York State Education Department (NYSED) defines “civic readiness” as “the ability to make a positive difference in the public life of our communities through the combination of civic knowledge, skills and actions, mindsets, and experiences”; and

Whereas, The NYSED defines the four domains of civic readiness as civic knowledge, including a knowledge of government, law, history, geography, culture, economics, and current events and an understanding of inequities in our system of federal, state, and local governments; civic skills and actions, including critical analytical, verbal, communication, and media literacy skills and participation in actions in and out of school; civic mindsets, including a commitment to democratic values and to an understanding of the responsibility of each individual to the larger group; and civic experiences, including active participation in experiences in and out of the classroom and across disciplines; and

Whereas, The New York State Seal of Civic Readiness (NYSSCR), approved by the New York State Board of Regents for statewide implementation in the 2022-2023 school year, recognizes students who have attained “a high level of proficiency” in the four domains of civic readiness, shows higher education institutions and employers that students have completed “an action project in civics or social justice,” and attests to the “value of civic engagement and scholarship”; and

Whereas, To earn the NYSSCR, a student must earn six points from a combination of various civic knowledge and participation benchmarks, such as earning four social studies credits, passing the Social Studies Regents Exam at the proficiency or mastery level, completing advanced social studies electives, carrying out a research project, completing a service-learning experience, conducting a high school civics capstone project, participating in an extracurricular activity or work-based learning experience, and more; and

Whereas, The NYSSCR also functions as a graduation pathway for New York City (NYC) Department of Education (DOE) students, offering an alternative to the fifth Regents exam for both Regents and local diplomas; and

Whereas, In 2024-2025, 7,855 students graduating from 166 DOE high schools earned the NYSSCR, which was an impressive increase of 72 percent over 2023-2024; and

Whereas, More than 60 percent of DOE high school graduates who go on to postsecondary education do so at The City University of New York (CUNY); and

Whereas, Therefore, a substantial number of incoming first-year CUNY students who have earned the NYSSCR upon high school graduation could and should be recognized and rewarded academically by CUNY; and

Whereas, Ten of CUNY’s community and senior colleges currently award from three to eight college credits, depending on the college, to students who have earned a New York State Seal of Biliteracy, which is similar in its intent to the NYSSCR of credentialling students who have shown significant academic and practical accomplishment in a field of study; and

Whereas, CUNY students who earned the NYSSCR at a DOE high school could potentially meet CUNY’s academic requirements quicker, leading to better completion rates, if CUNY campuses were to award credits for earning the NYSSCR as they now do for the Seal of Bilteracy; now, therefore, be it

                     Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls on The City University of New York to ensure that all campuses award an appropriate number of college credits to students who earned a New York State Seal of Civic Readiness in high school.

 

LS #21933

3/9/2026

RHP