Res. No. 504
Resolution calling on the New York State Legislature to introduce and pass, and the Governor to sign, legislation to amend the Education Law, in relation to authorizing limited borough-level emergency operational flexibility for New York City public schools during declared states of emergency
By Council Members Morano, Carr, Hanks and Louis
Whereas, During the 2024-25 school year, the New York City (“NYC” or “City”) Department of Education (DOE), the largest public school system in the United States, enrolled 906,248 students at nearly 1,597 schools across the five boroughs; and
Whereas, Pursuant to Education Law Article 52-A, DOE schools operate under a centralized mayoral control governance structure in which the Mayor appoints the Chancellor as the superintendent of schools and chief executive officer for the NYC district, with broad powers and duties over all aspects of DOE operations, programming, and personnel; and
Whereas, Under Education Law § 2590-h, the Chancellor is required to appoint a deputy superintendent for each borough, responsible for coordinating and periodically consulting with the borough president, the Chancellor, and community superintendents on borough-specific issues and issues of borough-wide significance, including transportation, purchasing, capital planning, and coordination with municipal services; and
Whereas, However, Education Law § 2590-h defines the role of deputy superintendents only in terms of coordination and consultation, and no provision of the law confers independent authority to implement borough-specific emergency school operation determinations - including delayed openings, school closures, or remote instruction - without direction from the Chancellor; and
Whereas, NYC’s five boroughs are geographically distinct and subject to materially different weather, transit, and infrastructure conditions during severe weather events, a disparity that is particularly acute for Staten Island, which is served by a single commuter rail line - the Staten Island Railway - and which relies predominantly on surface roadways to move students to and from school, with significantly greater roadway dependency and more limited transit redundancy than any other borough; and
Whereas, In February 2026, a historic nor’easter struck NYC, delivering peak accumulation of approximately 29 inches of snowfall on portions of Staten Island - the highest totals recorded among the five boroughs - prompting Governor Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency for 22 counties and Mayor Zohran Mamdani to issue a citywide travel ban effective February 22, 2026; and
Whereas, Pursuant to Education Law § 3604, and with approval from the NYS Education Department Commissioner, Mayor Mamdani designated February 23, 2026 a traditional snow day for all DOE schools as blizzard conditions rendered the City unsafe for travel; and
Whereas, On February 23, 2026, as the storm was ongoing, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) confirmed that the Staten Island Railway was fully suspended in both directions due to hazardous weather and track conditions; and
Whereas, On February 24, 2026, the Mayor ordered all DOE schools to reopen for in-person instruction though the Staten Island Railway remained partially suspended, and residential streets in multiple Staten Island neighborhoods remained impassable due to unplowed snow and ice accumulation, with the City acknowledging that sanitation crews had faced significant challenges on the borough’s narrow streets and had been unable to complete plowing in numerous areas within 24 hours of the storm’s end; and
Whereas, MTA buses serving Staten Island continued to operate under severe service disruptions on February 25, 2026, with routes subject to detours and curtailments based on road conditions, and longer accordion-style buses remaining out of service and replaced by 40-foot standard buses; and
Whereas, Students with disabilities, who are entitled under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Education Law Article 89 to receive specialized transportation as a component of Free Appropriate Public Education, faced heightened accessibility barriers on reopening day due to snowbanks obstructing sidewalks, curb cuts, and school perimeter access points; and
Whereas, Student attendance at DOE schools in Staten Island on February 24, 2026, was reportedly between 10 and 30%, substantially below the citywide average of 63%; and
Whereas, More than 172,000 people signed a petition in fewer than 24 hours calling on the City to designate the day a remote learning day, with Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella publicly stating that his request that City Hall grant Staten Island an exemption for its schools to remain closed was not accommodated; and
Whereas, The Mayor claimed that a remote learning option was not feasible on that day due to DOE’s inability to confirm sufficient device access for all students immediately following mid-winter recess; and
Whereas, Despite comparatively hazardous weather conditions on Staten Island, the school reopening decision was made on a uniform, citywide basis because the Education Law provides no formal mechanism authorizing the Chancellor to delegate limited emergency operational flexibility to borough-level administrators based on objectively verifiable, borough-specific threshold conditions; and
Whereas, The absence of structured, threshold-triggered borough-level emergency authority creates operational strain, produces inequitable outcomes for students in severely impacted boroughs, and generates avoidable safety risks by compelling students, families, and staff to travel under dangerous conditions that do not exist uniformly across the City; and
Whereas, Authorizing borough-specific implementation of remote instruction, delayed openings, or hybrid emergency instructional models would better align educational decision-making with ground-level safety realities while preserving the Chancellor’s ultimate supervisory authority and final decision-making power; and
Whereas, An amendment to the Education Law to provide this flexibility would modernize NYC’s emergency educational governance framework to reflect the geographic, infrastructural, and transit realities across the five boroughs; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls on the New York State Legislature to introduce and pass, and the Governor to sign, legislation to amend the Education Law, in relation to authorizing limited borough-level emergency operational flexibility for New York City public schools during declared states of emergency.
CGR
LS #22404
5/15/2026 11:43 AM