Chair Dinowitz on school safety and restorative justice cuts
Dinowitz raises concerns about cuts to both school safety agents (264 vacancy reduction) and restorative justice programming ($6 million cut), noting both are complementary investments that must be fully funded.
While the plan includes investments in many areas, it also falls short on school safety and restorative justice programming.
School safety agents and restorative justice
While often pitted against each other in policy debates, are complementary investments.
Both make our students and school communities safe.
Yet both are cut in the executive plan.
The DOE saving plan includes a vacancy reduction of 264 school safety agents, meaning that schools would not be able to fully staff SSAs if desired.
Additionally, restorative justice programming faces a $6 million cut.
If you are a person who views these two things as not complementary, as in opposition, wherever you fall on that debate
between asking for more school safety officers or transitioning completely to restorative justice, there is a reason to be concerned.
Both SSAs and restorative justice must be fully funded to keep our students, our teachers, and families safe across the system.