Press Room

"Today we recognize and celebrate laborers, working people, and the movements driven by working people throughout our history, whether in centuries past or in recent years. From the 40 hour work week, to minimum wages, to paid sick leave, progress has been driven and demanded by working people organizing together, unionizing, to build power. We celebrate victories won, values championed, and work well done.

"Ordinarily in New York City, we would also be celebrating the West Indian Day Parade out on the Parkway, honoring Caribbean heritage in the largest annual gathering our city sees. Of course this year, that celebration has been altered in size, scope, and execution as we continue to do all that we can keep each other safe as the Delta variant circulates. As someone who has proudly taken to the Parkway for decades, I understand both the desire to celebrate and the imperative to do so safely. I urge New Yorkers to to bring the spirit of the parade, if not the sights and sounds, to their own smaller celebrations.

"This Labor Day, I'm thinking about the essential workers who have put themselves at risk over the last year and a half to keep us safe and combat this pandemic. We owe it to them, to each other, to honor that work and sacrifice by getting vaccinated, adhering to CDC guidelines, and staying safe in celebration today."

"This is a catastrophic tragedy - to the families of all of the New Yorkers we have lost, we mourn with you today. To the people across our city who have lost so much in these waters, who are facing the immense damage in the aftermath of the storm, know that your city, state, and federal government are here for you. My office is here to help to ensure that the focus, the resources, and the financial support for homeowners and all facing damage remain long after the storm has passed, and that we keep our commitment to help.

"I thank all of the city workers repairing and responding in the streets right now, thank the Mayor and Governor for their cooperation and collaboration, thank New Yorkers for all they've done to keep each other safe, and ask for all of their partnership in the work to come.

"Each time there is an extreme storm in the city, one that overruns our systems and our streets, one that puts New Yorkers' safety and security at risk, we hear that it's 'once in a decade, or once in a generation, or once in 500 years...' I've heard it once too often. Those statements simply aren't true anymore. What we used to call extreme, outlier events are now just storms which have become a new normal, a result of our failure to combat climate change and prepare for its effects.

"Right now, our focus is rightly on making sure New Yorkers stay safe in the aftermath of this crisis and repairing the damage it caused, but we need to keep this level of emergency and crisis response- in overhauling our systems which were already failing, investing in green infrastructure to replace them, drastically enhancing our resiliency and preparation, readying our emergency response systems and the agencies managing them to be proactive rather than reactive, and advancing climate policy that could mitigate future harm. There are things we can repair in the wake of this flooding, but there has also been loss that we can never make up for, we can only work to prevent it from happening again."

NEW YORK: With under two weeks until the start of the school year, and as the Delta variant continues to spread, the city has yet to announce crucial safety plans or remote learning protocols. At a City Council hearing on the impending reopening today, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams called for a remote learning option to be available to vulnerable students to start the school year, and lamented the fact that a lack of adequate transparency or planning has yet again created confusion and concern about the reopening process.

"It's déjà vu all over again..." the Public Advocate said at the start of the Wednesday hearing of the Committee on Education, citing the administrative struggles of last year which he feels are repeating in the lead up to the reopening. "... The highly contagious Delta variant poses a new challenge to the vaccinated and the unvaccinated alike. It is imperative that the Department of Education have a clear, transparent plan for protecting students, educators, school staff, and their families before the school year begins. The DOE should also provide a remote learning option for students and educators who do not feel comfortable attending learning in-person; until students of all ages can be vaccinated against COVID-19 and the Delta variant is under control, students and educators are at risk in school buildings."

Public Advocate Williams focused on the failures of the city to provide a remote option, as well as ensure that proper precautions are in place in schools, saying "Thousands of classrooms have been cleared by the DOE as having adequate ventilation for safe, in-person instruction even though they do not meet the COVID-19 standards set by federal experts or recommended by building industry experts... and it is unacceptable with the amount of time the DOE has had to prepare for thousands of classrooms to be relying on open windows for clean air."

He also highlighted the risks posed with larger class sizes, saying "Many schools in New York City face a safety challenge the DOE has long been aware of: overcrowding... Mask mandates in school will undoubtedly help control the spread of COVID-19, but there are circumstances in which students and educators will have to remove their masks...There are also some students with disabilities, such as autism, who are unable to continuously wear a mask. With the Delta variant making removing masks even for a few moments a safety risk, the DOE must provide guidance to keep students and educators safe in crowded settings."

In the highly likely event that there are COVID-19 cases in a classroom or school, the Public Advocate noted, there are inadequate procedures and guidances for quarantining and protecting fellow students and staff. This further points to the need for a well-developed remote learning process to begin the year.

Read the full remarks as prepared by the Public Advocate below. Video is available here. TESTIMONY OF PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS TO THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 Good morning,

My name is Jumaane D. Williams, and I am the Public Advocate for the City of New York. I would like to thank Chair Treyger, and members of the Committee on Education for holding this hearing today.

On September 13th, New York City is set to open all of its 1,800 public schools for full-time, in-person instruction five days a week. There will be far more seats filled than last year, when about 350,000 students opted into in-person learning at some point during hybrid schooling. While educators and school staff are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and students ages twelve and older are eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, all students younger than twelve are unable to be vaccinated. Further, the highly contagious Delta variant poses a new challenge to the vaccinated and the unvaccinated alike. It is imperative that the Department of Education (DOE) have a clear, transparent plan for protecting students, educators, school staff, and their families before the school year begins. The DOE should also provide a remote learning option for students and educators who do not feel comfortable attending learning in-person; until students of all ages can be vaccinated against COVID-19 and the Delta variant is under control, students and educators are at risk in school buildings.

Despite repeated requests from students and their families, there is no remote learning option for this school year. Because all students, regardless of their ability to get vaccinated, are required to attend in-person learning, it is extremely important that schools are transparent about their safety plans and that the DOE is monitoring these plans to ensure that all possible safety precautions are taken. However, there is no policy in place to ensure that this happens. Approximately 1,500 classrooms are still undergoing ventilation repairs with no publicly set deadline for completion. Thousands of classrooms have been cleared by the DOE as having adequate ventilation for safe, in-person instruction even though they do not meet the COVID-19 standards set by federal experts or recommended by building industry experts-and at least 4,000 of these classrooms rely exclusively on open windows for ventilation. Ventilation is a key mitigation measure for preventing the spread of COVID-19, and it is unacceptable with the amount of time the DOE has had to prepare for thousands of classrooms to be relying on open windows for clean air.

Many schools in New York City face a safety challenge the DOE has long been aware of: overcrowding. At least ten percent of classrooms are unable to adhere to even three feet of social distance, the standard recommended by the CDC in schools, although it is likely that far more space is actually required to remain safe from the Delta variant. Mask mandates in school will undoubtedly help control the spread of COVID-19, but there are circumstances in which students and educators will have to remove their masks for which there is no clear protocol, particularly at lunch. There are also some students with disabilities, such as autism, who are unable to continuously wear a mask. With the Delta variant making removing masks even for a few moments a safety risk, the DOE must provide guidance to keep students and educators safe in crowded settings.

The city is shrinking its school virus testing program, with ten percent of unvaccinated students expected to be tested every other week this year. With the size of New York City's student population, this plan may invite scrutiny; Los Angeles, the country's second-largest school district, is aiming to test every student and staff member each week. At a time when the extremely contagious Delta variant is the predominant strain in the city, testing more students more often will protect our students, educators, and their families. Additionally, when someone in a classroom tests positive for COVID-19, only unvaccinated "close contacts" will have to quarantine for ten days; in elementary schools, when one student tests positive, the entire class will temporarily switch to remote learning. However, the DOE has not provided guidance for how many positive cases would trigger a school-wide closing, which is important for schools to know prior to the start of school.

When students have to quarantine, they will need to utilize remote learning while they are at home. Remote learning was extremely challenging for students and their families over the past two school years, particularly for students with disabilities and English language learners. We do not know if remote learning has been improved in preparation for its inevitable use. Remote learning will have a greater impact on those who are unvaccinated, who are disproportionately Black and brown students. With no updates on how the DOE is working to make remote learning better, these students will be the ones to receive the least quality education. We must have a remote learning option, for at least the start of the school year, as the stakes are too high and our children's lives depend on it now more than ever.

All students deserve an environment where they can learn with as little risk to their health and safety as possible. Of course, it is unfortunately impossible to fully guarantee that no student or educator will get sick at their school, but there is so much more that the DOE can be doing to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection. I hope that we can work together to protect our school communities and make this school year a success. Thank you.

"The historic weight of inducting New York's first female governor today cannot go overlooked or underappreciated. From our state's founding it has been a position held by white men, except when those men were confronted with and faced consequences for their own failure and wrongdoing. As we move forward from this latest moment of scandal, I hope we can end this pattern by realizing what leadership can look like.

"Governor Hochul's success is our success, and with former Governor Cuomo now removed from the position of power that he long abused, it's my hope that we can restore power to the people, and center our objectives on achieving justice, equity, and advancement for New Yorkers. There are immense challenges before our city and state, but as I expressed to Governor Hochul before she assumed her new role, I'm ready to work together to recover from this pandemic and renew New York. As she takes office, I wish her luck and offer her support."

NEW YORK: New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams and incoming New York Governor, current Lieutenant Governor, Kathy Hochul released the following joint statement after their Tuesday afternoon meeting in New York City.

"We had an important dialogue this evening discussing issues that are of vital and immediate importance to New Yorkers, including expanding and escalating COVID-19 vaccination efforts, reframing how we address public safety while reducing gun violence, and expediting distribution of relief funding for renters and owners alike. We also discussed the need to remove unnecessary barriers and fund excluded workers -  largely immigrants - who have been blocked from federal aid. These must and will be immediate priorities of this new Administration."

"We look forward to working together, upstate and downstate, to help New Yorkers recover from this pandemic and renew New York City."

"The people of Haiti, who have already suffered so much pain and trauma in the last weeks, months and years, are once again reeling in the wake of a devastating natural disaster. My appreciation and respect for the Haitian people and culture runs as deep as the diaspora's roots here in New York City. I offer my prayers for peace and comfort to the families of those who have lost their lives, and to everyone in Les Cayes, in Jeremie, on the island and throughout the diaspora still waiting for information on their loved ones as so many lives and livelihoods have been destroyed.

"Together with our prayers, we must provide sustained support. In the past, people  and nations have rushed to Haiti's aid in the immediate moment of crisis, when the headlines are fresh and the cameras are present, only to abandon them in the aftermath and invite future crises. Just five weeks ago the President of Haiti was assassinated, and while that upheaval is ongoing, the world's attention has not been. This cycle cannot continue. We must come together today, yes, but stay together through recovery and rebuilding. L'Union fait la force."