Council advances outreach and flags 1,600 DOE paraprofessional vacancies amid early-childhood push

Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez introduced Intro 579A, a bill that would require the Department of Education to develop and implement an annual, multilingual outreach campaign to increase enrollment in early-childhood programs such as 3-K, pre-K and 2-K.

Gutierrez said the outreach would target shelters, public housing, transit hubs and neighborhood institutions to reach families who do not currently enroll eligible children, particularly families living in shelters. “This bill strengthens equity and education and helps close opportunity gaps before children enter kindergarten,” she said.

During the session’s question-and-answer period, the presiding official reported that the city has approximately 1,600 paraprofessional vacancies in DOE and said the starting salary for paraprofessionals in New York City is $32,500. The presiding speaker argued that low starting pay contributes to turnover and staffing shortages, citing Boston as a comparator with a $40,000 starting salary for paraprofessionals. “We want to raise the paraprofessionals’ pay,” the speaker said, linking better staffing to improved outcomes for special-needs students and lower litigation costs connected to special-education cases.

Intro 579A was presented for passage during the meeting; the transcript records the introduction and support from council members but does not include a final roll-call or recorded vote. Council members said the measure builds on earlier universal-childcare work and on a newly formed early-childhood committee that the council said will continue oversight and outreach work.

Separately, Council Member Linda Lee described Intro 821A to ensure Department for the Aging information is available offline for seniors without internet access, and Intro 9A to study and recommend improvements to the childcare permitting and licensing process. Those measures were framed as complementary steps to increase access to care and information.