{"id":251252,"date":"2026-06-01T19:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251252\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T19:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:41:07","slug":"nyc-to-get-2-year-extension-to-comply-with-state-class-size-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251252\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC to get 2-year extension to comply with state class size law"},"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 widely anticipated last-minute deal will give New York City two additional years to comply with a state law to shrink classes, according to legislation<\/a> introduced Monday.<\/p>\n

And in a separate agreement between the United Federation of Teachers and the city\u2019s Education Department announced Monday, educators will be eligible for a pay bump if their classes are above the caps, union officials said.<\/p>\n

The 2022 state law had required the city to cap 80% of its classrooms by this fall at 20 to 25 students, depending on grade level. By the 2027-28 school year, all classes were expected to meet the mandate. Now, the city will instead have to bring 70% of its classes into compliance this school year with an additional 10% in each of the next three school years, giving the city until the 2029-30 school year to meet the mandate.<\/p>\n

Those changes \u2014 which state, city, and union officials have been negotiating for months<\/a> \u2014 are a significant part of Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s plan to balance the city\u2019s budget. City officials banked on the delayed rollout of the law to save hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a> to help close a multibillion dollar budget gap.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s campaign to convince state officials to give the city more time to comply represented a departure from his campaign pledge to swiftly implement the class size law, which he accused former Mayor Eric Adams of slow-walking. Mamdani voted for the law when he was a member of the state assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud that our administration is implementing it in good faith,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement. \u201cExtending this timeline gives our schools the opportunity to reduce class sizes in a way that is sustainable and responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s teachers union acknowledged Monday that the city is unlikely to reach the 70% compliance rate without relying on exemptions allowed under the law. (This school year, the city relied on thousands of exemptions<\/a> to meet the 60% threshold required by law.)<\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf giving this new administration two more years gets us a partner committed to building the necessary seats, then it is the fastest way to turn the law into reality,\u201d UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The union secured an \u201caccountability incentive\u201d that will put financial pressure on the city to avoid exemptions in the long run, union officials said. In cases where the city issues exemptions from the law because a building doesn\u2019t have additional space to shrink classes or can\u2019t hire enough staff, teachers will be eligible for additional pay. <\/p>\n

Neither the Education Department nor the union provided a copy of the agreement or confirmed how much money teachers could earn. <\/p>\n

The deal is likely to renew equity concerns, as more affluent schools tend to be more crowded and stand to benefit the most from the class size law. Union officials said additional pay would be distributed to schools based on their economic need, though it was not immediately clear how that would work. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope a differential will be an incentive to do the recruitment, hiring, and construction needed to fulfill the law,\u201d Mulgrew said.<\/p>\n

An Education Department spokesperson did not respond to questions about the incentives. <\/p>\n

The legislation extending the deadlines to comply with the class size law was initially expected to be folded into the state budget, which was finalized last week nearly two months past the April 1 deadline, but negotiations dragged on. The legislative session ends Thursday. <\/p>\n

Calls for transparency on city\u2019s class size plan<\/p>\n

Research suggests smaller class sizes tend to boost student learning and are broadly popular with families and educators. But the law would benefit relatively more affluent schools<\/a> the most because they tend to be more crowded, multiple analyses have found, sparking concern from the state\u2019s education commissioner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

City officials have argued that reaching 80% compliance this fall would have been difficult without a major influx of funding. They also expressed doubt about whether the city could recruit thousands of additional teachers. <\/p>\n

In Mamdani\u2019s February preliminary budget, he earmarked $547 million in new spending to lower class sizes, and officials had previously indicated they would need to hire 6,000 additional teachers. But anticipating a rollback to the class size law, Mamdani\u2019s executive budget plan released this month included just $122 million to hire 1,000 teachers. <\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s budget proposal also added $1.5 billion in capital funding<\/a>, as many schools need additional space in their current buildings to shrink classes. <\/p>\n

The Education Department has so far avoided more contentious measures to reduce classes that could avoid costs associated with building new classrooms, such as capping enrollment at popular campuses and sending students to schools with empty seats or rethinking school zones. <\/p>\n

State Sen. John Liu, a Queens lawmaker who championed the class size law and sponsored the changes to it, said he was open to giving the city more time to comply with the law if the Education Department came up with a clear plan. On Monday, Liu said in a statement he was satisfied the city had \u201cclear and accountable teacher recruitment and classroom construction plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

But neither Liu nor the city\u2019s Education Department provided copies of those plans, and some advocates for smaller classes demanded transparency. <\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see the city\u2019s class size plan to confirm it\u2019s not all smoke and mirrors,\u201d Leonie Haimson, the executive director of the advocacy group Class Size Matters, said in a statement. \u201cAt the very least, the Department of Education should have to present it before the [city] council votes on the education budget and the capital plan.\u201d The city\u2019s budget must be finalized by the end of the month.<\/p>\n

Asked about the class size legislation, Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters it will give the city \u201cmore breathing room to roll out the cost of it,\u201d according to a transcript. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a budget issue that the city asked the teachers for relief from,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@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":251253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[22552,22553,11874,22554,22555,75,22556,9,24,55,54,56,63,10780,2585,5181,22557],"class_list":["post-251252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-class","tag-classroom","tag-high-school","tag-laptop","tag-learning","tag-manhattan","tag-new-design-high-school","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-school","tag-students","tag-teachers","tag-thalia-juarez-for-chalkbeat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251252","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=251252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}