MAYOR ADAMS RESTORES FUNDING FOR COMMUNITY SCHOOLS, MAKES NEW INVESTMENTS IN SUMMER RISING FOR YOUNG NEW YORKERS

 

Administration’s Measured, Responsible Fiscal Management Has Reduced Migrant Costs, Allowing for Select, Reasonable Funding Restorations and Investments

 

Funding Will Help Young People and Families Thrive All Year Round With New City Investments in Summer Rising Program and Holistic Support for Community Schools

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that, thanks to measures implemented to responsibly manage the city’s budget and strategically navigate significant fiscal challenges, the city will be able to restore $10 million in funding for New York City Department of Education (DOE) community schools and make $80 million in new investments in Summer Rising, jointly funded by the DOE and the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD).

 

Community schools are schools that partner with community-based organizations to provide holistic support to students and their families, including providing health care, additional learning opportunities, and social and emotional counseling. This funding will be spread across 170 community schools. Summer Rising is the city’s summer program that connects 110,000 elementary and middle school students to fun, culturally relevant, hands-on experiences to strengthen their academic, social, and emotional skills. Summer Rising — a permanent program that had its $80 DOE portion funded under the previous administration using exclusively temporary COVID-19 federal stimulus funds — will now be supported, for the first-time ever, entirely with city dollars.  

 

The funding restorations build on the Adams administration’s historic investments in young people — including expanding both the Summer Youth Employment and Summer Rising programs to serve record numbers and increasing spending on young adult career success programming by 25 percent, as announced in “Pathways to an Inclusive Economy: An Action Plan for Young Adult Career Success” — a forward-thinking roadmap to build inclusive pathways for the city's young people to discover their passion, receive hands-on career experience, and, ultimately, enter the workforce. The restorations also follow targeted and effective steps taken by the Adams administration in the face of a $7 billion budget gap in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 due to federal COVID-19 stimulus funding drying up, expenses from labor contracts this administration inherited being unresolved for years, and the growing costs of the asylum seeker crisis — steps that have included helping put migrants on the path to self-sufficiency and reducing per-diem costs. The restorations will be reflected in the FY25 Preliminary Budget, which will be presented next Tuesday, at the City Charter deadline.

 

“When we invest in our young people, we invest in the future of our city,” said Mayor Adams. “That’s what programs like Summer Rising can achieve — providing a full year of education, social interaction, and active play to our young people. This funding will continue to open the doors to opportunity for a record 110,000 New York City children, while community schools continue to provide essential support to young people and their families with the resources they need, both in and out, of the classroom. Through community schools and Summer Rising, our administration is prioritizing investments in our young people’s futures, but we need to also be honest about the fiscal challenges ahead. Without additional support to fund the asylum seeker crisis from our state and federal partners, we will have massive budget gaps we will need to address in the next fiscal year.”

 

“Ensuring access to quality, affordable youth development and academic enrichment is something our administration is deeply committed to,” said Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar. “I am thrilled that we are able to allocate $80 million in city funding to our Summer Rising program. After serving 110,000 students last summer, this funding will allow us to continue that level of support this summer.”

 

“Ensuring Summer Rising can continue and restoring funding for our community schools is a tremendous win for our families. Schools are the centers of our communities and programs like these are shining examples of the transformational power they wield,” said DOE Chancellor David C. Banks. “None of this would be possible without the deft decision-making enabled by

mayoral accountability, and I commend Mayor Adams for putting our families front-and-center.”

 

“Mayor Adams’ visionary leadership has led to a record number of K-8 students being offered the academic and recreational opportunities critical to their development through Summer Rising,” said DYCD Commissioner Keith Howard. “The city’s additional $80 million investment will ensure families have a place to keep their children safe and engaged during the summer. Planning for Summer Rising 2024 is already underway, and DYCD looks forward to collaborating with our community-based partners and DOE to deliver the excellent programming New Yorkers have come to expect.”

 

In August 2023, Mayor Adams laid out projections estimating the cost of the asylum seeker crisis to grow to more than $12 billion over three fiscal years — between FY23 and FY25 — if circumstances did not change. From April 2022 through December 2023, the city has already spent an estimated $3.5 billion on shelter and services for over 168,500 individuals who came through the city’s intake center during that timeframe. With sunsetting COVID-19 stimulus funding, slowing tax revenue growth, expenses from labor contracts this administration inherited being unresolved for years, and a lack of significant state or federal government action on the asylum seeker crisis, Mayor Adams took action — announcing a 5 percent Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) on city-funded spending for all city agencies with plans for additional rounds of PEGs in the Preliminary and Executive Budgets. And, when the state and federal governments did not change circumstances, through strong fiscal management that included implementing measures to reduce asylum seeker household per-diem costs and helping put migrants on the path to self-sufficiency, the Adams administration will achieve a reduction in city-funded asylum seeker spending on the migrant crisis, which will be detailed in the FY25 Preliminary Budget.

 

As a result of the administration’s policies, nearly 60 percent of the asylum seekers who came through the city’s intake center have left the city’s care and taken the next steps in their journeys. Through the Asylum Application Help Center and the city’s satellite sites, the city has helped submit more than 27,000 work authorization, temporary protected status, and asylum applications, moving asylum seekers that much closer to being able to legally work and be self-sufficient.