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Students and advocates press City Council to fund restorative justice and school mental‑health clinics, call to stop new school cop hires
Summary
Dozens of students, parents and advocates urged the Council to expand restorative justice, baseline mental‑health clinics in schools and redirect vacant school‑police funding. Testimony included student accounts of policing, requests to baseline $6M+ for restorative justice and expand school‑based mental health clinics.
Lede: Students, parents, advocates and school staff packed testimony sessions to demand more mental health staff, permanent funding for restorative justice in every school and for the city to stop recruiting and hiring school police — requests that would shift tens of millions of dollars from police budgets to social support and prevention.
What people asked for: Students and youth organizers asked the Council to ' (a) baseline and expand restorative justice staffing (youth leaders and school coordinators), (b) expand school‑based mental health clinics and add more social workers and psychologists to reach recommended caseloads, and (c) freeze hiring for school police and redirect vacant police positions'funding into counseling and restorative programs. Youth testimony described feeling criminalized by police presence and reported examples of searches and disruptions that students said harmed school climate.
Numbers and requests: The executive plan includes a $12 million item for restorative justice with $6 million baseline and $6 million one‑year funding; students and advocates asked for higher, sustained targeted investments to expand RJ to more schools and to embed coordinators. Advocates also urged increased funding for the in‑school mental health continuum and baseline funding for school mental‑health clinics (advocates asked the Council to add $3.7M–$5M in targeted mental‑health investments for clinics and related supports). Student leaders asked the Council to stop filling roughly 675 vacant school‑police positions and to repurpose those dollars — City witnesses estimated that eliminating hires and vacant slots could free an immediate pool in the low‑hundreds of millions depending on treatment and timeline.
DOE and advocates: DOE officials described investments in NYCPS Cares, school nurses, and mental health clinic expansions (DOE cited $194 million for nurses and other investments in mental health and restorative justice in their testimony). Advocates said these funds are not yet sufficient and asked for permanence, district coverage and priority in under‑resourced neighborhoods.
Voices from the hearing: Students from multiple high schools and districts described being stopped and searched at school and said they felt less safe because of an arrest‑oriented response instead of counseling. Parent and nonprofit witnesses highlighted how restorative practices prevent escalation and build relationships, reducing suspensions and downstream interactions with law enforcement.
Next steps: Advocates and students asked the Council to adopt budget language that freezes recruitment for school police for the coming fiscal year, to baseline restorative justice and mental‑health clinic funding in the final budget, and to require reporting on deployment and outcomes. The Council will weigh these asks in negotiations with the administration during the adopted budget cycle.
