{"id":239834,"date":"2026-05-21T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T22:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/239834\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T22:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T22:00:08","slug":"nyc-after-school-contract-shakeup-sparks-parent-fury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/239834\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC after-school contract shakeup sparks parent fury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

A reshuffling of contracts for New York City\u2019s sprawling free after-school program has separated some schools from beloved, longstanding providers, sparking fury from parents, program staffers, and school administrators.<\/p>\n

The changes came as part of the city\u2019s first attempt in years to re-bid contracts for community-based organizations, who get city funding to operate the COMPASS after-school program for more than 100,000 elementary and middle school students.<\/p>\n

Re-bidding the contracts allowed the city to expand the program by 10,000 seats<\/a> and make long-needed changes to providers\u2019 pay rates, which now come out to around $4,000 to $7,000 per student depending on age, city officials and providers said. <\/p>\n

But the new contracts, which were announced earlier this month and run through 2032, in some cases edged out providers who have been working with schools for more than a decade, and had the support of principals and families.<\/p>\n

In Manhattan, multiple middle schools that have long worked with the organization Manhattan Youth were assigned new providers starting this fall, according to a petition<\/a> and joint letter<\/a> from parent leaders across the schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking sweeping changes to successful and trusted afterschool programs without transparency, stakeholder engagement, or demonstrated justification does not serve students or families,\u201d wrote the parents, some of whom staged protests Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately clear how many programs citywide were turned over to new providers. <\/p>\n

Chantal Alba, a spokesperson for the Youth and Community Development Department, said \u201cmost\u201d of the 927 schools with after-school contracts are continuing on with their existing provider \u2013 71 schools are opening a program for the first time next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cDYCD understands how important long-standing afterschool relationships are to families, and we recognize that a change in provider can feel disruptive,\u201d Alba wrote. \u201cThese transitions are the result of a standardized competitive process, not a reflection on the value a particular organization has brought to a school community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Providers who lost out on contracts at schools where they\u2019ve been successfully working for years said they\u2019ve gotten no clear explanation on why they weren\u2019t selected. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all very confused,\u201d said Manuela Garcia, a program director for the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services at Louis Armstrong Middle School in East Elmhurst, Queens. Garcia\u2019s program has operated an arts-focused after-school program at Louis Armstrong for 12 years, but lost out to a larger provider in this year\u2019s contract re-procurement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did everything we were supposed to do,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy are we being uprooted \u2026 to bring somebody else brand new to start over?<\/p>\n

New rules, little transparency<\/p>\n

In past years, providers had to secure a signed agreement from a principal before applying for a contract at that school, giving the principal broad discretion to select a provider. This year, principals could rank multiple providers, according to people familiar with the process. In some cases, they didn\u2019t get their top choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite our school clearly identifying Manhattan Youth as the best fit for our community, a different provider was selected,\u201d Computer School principal Jessica Shalom wrote to families last weekend, according to a copy of the letter shared with Chalkbeat.<\/p>\n

In seeking \u201cclarification\u201d from the Department of Youth and Community Development, Shalom said she \u201creceived dismissive responses that failed to acknowledge the depth of our current partnership with Manhattan Youth and the significant impact this potential change would have on our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat New York is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

Alba, the DYCD spokesperson, said more than 80% of principals received their first- or second-choice provider. Asking principals to rank programs allowed \u201cmore providers to participate \u2026 while still ensuring principal input is reflected,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDYCD must balance principal preferences with competitive scoring, capacity, and provider diversity,\u201d Alba added.<\/p>\n

Severing longstanding relationships between providers and schools isn\u2019t the only concern. Providers that are losing their contracts after the summer might struggle with retaining staff for Summer Rising, the city\u2019s free summer program, said Nora Moran, policy and advocacy director at United Neighborhood Houses, an umbrella organization for several after-school organizations. <\/p>\n

She also wondered if the city\u2019s notoriously slow contracting process would be able to meet the demand of having to certify so many new contracts for the fall.<\/p>\n

Still, the outdated contracts needed to be rebid, Moran said. And throughout the bidding process, the city had been open about wanting to diversify the pool of providers.<\/p>\n

While that\u2019s a \u201cgood goal,\u201d Moran said, it\u2019s a \u201chard situation all around\u201d because there are \u201calways winners and losers\u201d in a procurement process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some circumstances, these are really longstanding relationships, and so for certain schools, it is going to be a really big change,\u201d she said. \u201cAlso, there\u2019s new opportunity that comes with new providers, and some organizations are happy that they\u2019re going to have the chance to expand their work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Particular after-school programs are often a draw for families<\/p>\n

Families at some of the schools switching providers say the shift could significantly diminish their kids\u2019 school experience \u2014 and undercut one of the reasons they chose the school in the first place.<\/p>\n

Alexandra Cardasis, whose daughter is in sixth grade at Simon Baruch Middle School, compared Manhattan Youth\u2019s vast offerings, including theater and a multi-school sports league, to \u201ca suburban experience at a large school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to keep like families in the public school system,\u201d she added, \u201cthese are the things that make people want to come.\u201d <\/p>\n

Families at Simon Baruch are trying to fight back, said Gilberte Lal, president of the school\u2019s parent-teacher association, who planned to deliver about 400 student letters to the city. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe anxiety that these children feel wondering what\u2019s going to happen to their mentors, it\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d said Lal. <\/p>\n

Out of the school\u2019s roughly 1,000 students, all but about 36 participate in Manhattan Youth\u2019s array of 50 weekly offerings, from ceramics and nail art to orchestra, drama, and Dungeons and Dragons. The program also offers many teams that are part of the Middle School Athletic League \u2014 that would cost the school about $200,000 to cover next year, Lal said. <\/p>\n

The program has 90 staffers, three of whom are full-time, and many of whom are paraprofessionals or teachers at the school. <\/p>\n

The new provider, the Imogen Roche Foundation, which focuses on social-emotional health<\/a>, has mainly worked with elementary schools, raising concerns among families whether it can quickly scale up a sophisticated program for middle schoolers. <\/p>\n

At Louis Armstrong, an arts-focused middle school in Queens, the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services over years built a theater-based after-school program that perfectly fit the school\u2019s needs, said Garcia, the program director.<\/p>\n

The program has developed partnerships with professional theater organizations, worked closely with school staff to build a shared performing arts program, and routinely connects students to outside services like therapy, access to food, and healthcare, Garcia said. She\u2019s now working on gathering documentation she can use to support an appeal of DYCD\u2019s contract decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been really devastating,\u201d she said, \u201cand I\u2019ve taken it upon myself to organize the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[26383,93732,93733,93727,9,56,63,65,64,93734,93731,93730,93729],"class_list":["post-239834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-after-school","tag-after-school-provider","tag-craig-slutzkin","tag-manhattan-youth","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-president-of-district-2s-community-education-council","tag-salk-school-of-science","tag-school-of-the-future","tag-simon-baruch-middle-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}