Council probes missed school days, housing of students in NYC juvenile detention centers

NEW YORK — City Council members on Nov. 12 pressed the Administration for Children's Services and New York City Public Schools over persistent barriers to education for youth detained at Horizon and Crossroads.

Councilmember Althea Stevens, chair of the Committee on Children and Youth, and Councilmember Rita Joseph, chair of the Committee on Education, opened a joint oversight hearing after advocates and parents raised alarms that detained students frequently miss class and sometimes sleep in classrooms that could be used for instruction. "Youth are being denied the education access they are legally entitled to," Joseph said in her opening remarks.

Nancy Ginsberg, deputy commissioner for the Division of Youth and Family Justice at ACS, told the committees that ACS has invested in "youth development specialists" and a nonuniform education team intended to support attendance and school participation. She said those steps, along with expanded tutoring and college partnerships, have produced "improvements in student engagement, school attendance, exam completions, and graduation rates." Ginsberg cited recent graduation counts — 30 in 2022–23, 38 in 2023–24 and 50 in 2024–25 — and said 53 students are currently enrolled in college courses offered inside the…