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 facilities.

But council members pressed for more precise, regularly reported data. Stevens pointed to an April 2025 state controller audit that found detained youth missed between 13% and 73% of scheduled school days during the 2018–2023 review period. Ginsberg said parts of that audit covered years when the Department of Correction administered Horizon and it included pandemic disruptions; she said ACS is tracking escort and program attendance now through an education associate team and can provide year‑by‑year figures on request.

Advocates and parents described a different experience. Melinda Andrews of the Legal Aid Society said her clients report "they're not being brought to school even when they voice a desire to go," and parents gave multiple accounts of days when their children were not taken to classes because rooms were full or cohorts were kept from leaving residential areas after an incident. "Tutoring is no substitute for school, particularly for a young person with a disability," Andrews said.

DOE officials defending Passages Academy, the District 79 program that provides on‑site education in secure settings, said their staff are increasing screening for learning needs and providing targeted interventions. Glenda Esperance, superintendent of District 79, said Passages has expanded special‑education screening (WIAT‑4 and STAR), hired a dedicated special‑education administrator and will launch Saturday services to help students receive related services and make up lost instruction. She also provided a staff and budget snapshot: 53 teachers, 11 special‑education teachers, 14 social workers, two psychologists and a combined Passages/Restart budget figure the district gave to the committee of about $17.3 million.

Committee members pressed both agencies about absences coded to host‑agency decisions. District 79 staff described a release code (code 90) used when students are not brought to school because of a facility issue; they reported that 16–17% of absences for the current school year to date were recorded under that code. ACS said the figure includes legitimate reasons such as court appearances and medical appointments but agreed to provide the committee with a fuller breakdown of absence reasons and to explore sharing monthly operational indicators tying ACS incidents (for example, lock‑ins or staff absences) to instructional hours.

On housing and space, ACS acknowledged that over the summer higher admissions forced use of classrooms for sleeping at times but said that number has fallen to one classroom in each facility in the most recent period and that on Nov. 9 there were 16 youth without housing placements (11 of whom were sleeping in classrooms). ACS said it is working with the courts, DDC and provider partners to expand temporary housing and speed case processing.

Several witnesses urged structural changes: advocates asked the city to stop using classrooms for housing; they called for timely IEP/SEP completion, bilingual and culturally responsive staffing, expanded vocational programming, and a stronger reentry model that guarantees placement and continuity of services after discharge. Advocates for Children's Rohini Singh recommended a virtual transition school so students can continue instruction while placement is secured.

The chairs closed the hearing requesting follow‑up documentation and pledged continued oversight. ACS and District 79 agreed to provide detailed attendance breakdowns, absence‑code definitions and IEP compliance data requested by the committee, and the council signaled site visits and further data reviews to verify reported improvements.

The committee did not take any formal votes on legislation during the hearing. Follow‑up materials requested by the council will be due to committee staff as part of ongoing oversight.