One dramatic example of the rapid enrollment rise + fall is ATLAS HS, formerly known as Newcomers, in Queens. Enrollment more than doubled in 3 yrs, then almost cut in half again over the past two.

Citywide, enrollment is down 2%. But at the 60 schools that took in the largest shares of immigrant students starting in 2022, enrollment is down 11% this year, wiping away years of gains.

And far fewer new students are coming in - down 7% this year so far compared with last.

Principals + parents we spoke w/ at several schools that received exemptions hadn’t even heard about them, much less requested them.

Providers are asking for the flexibility to convert unused 3 + 4-yr-old seats into infant + toddler seats. That could be a win-win - stabilizing current system while expanding care for kids 2 and under. But it will require a change to existing child care contracts, which were just extended 2 yrs

The pic here is from Mamdani visiting a preschool pumpkin patch after the press conference. One of the kids shouted (after a prompt) a perfectly pronounced "Mamdani," to which Mamdani said, "he says my name better than Cuomo!"

At one Manhattan HS for newcomers, enrollment is down ~200 students this year, the school’s superintendent said last week.

But this is currently happening at the individual school level and won't come close to meeting the need. School leaders I spoke to hope for a bigger, citywide mobilization to use schools as food distribution sites, like happened during COVID.

They wandered back to the hotel shortly after to their terrified children who had already seen video of both of their parents being detained. "It was like something out of a movie,” they told me.