Committees on Education, Children, Youth, April 4, 2025

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA JOINT COMMITTEES ON EDUCATION AND CHILDREN & YOUTH Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Friday, April 4, 2025 10:05 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS, CHAIR COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY

240632, 240642 - - -

Good morning, everybody. We are going to start our hearing in a matter of minutes. Before we get started, I just want to take a moment to say thank you everybody for coming down to City Hall today and seeing your action, your government in action. So within the next couple minutes we'll be starting today's hearing. I just wanted to give everybody a little heads-up that we'll be starting pretty soon. Thank you. And a couple minutes went that fast. Good morning, everybody. This is the Joint Committee on Education and Children and Youth. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Chair of the Children and Youth Committee, to my right, Chairman Phillips. I'm Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, Chair of the Education Committee. I want to thank Councilmember Kendra Brooks for introducing today's resolution. And I know that -- oh, I'm sorry. Today is Friday, April 4, 2025 and I now note that the hour has come. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance will indicate you're present when your name is called.

Ahmad.

Present.

Thomas.

Present.

Phillips.

Present.

Brooks.

Present.

Landau. (No response.)

Harrity. (No response.)

Squilla. (No response.)

And that's it.

Thank you. This Committee's -- this Committee is now -- I'm sorry. Thank you. This hearing is now called to order. This is the public hearing on the Committee of Education and the Committee of Children and Family regarding Resolution Nos. 240632 and 240642. Mr. Clerk, will you please read the titles of both resolutions.

Resolution 22 No. 240632, authorizing the Joint City Council Committees on Education and Children and Youth to hold hearings exploring the creation of a School District of Philadelphia Chief of Joy. And Resolution No. 5 240642, authorizing the Joint City Council Committees on Education and Children and Youth to hold hearings on the prevalence of the usage of exclusionary school discipline and the use of collective punishment practices in public schools across Philadelphia and how these and other policies and practices perpetuate anti-blackness and anti- black racism and harm students academically, socially, emotionally, to the detriment of their health, well-being and future life outcomes.

Thank you. Before we move on to today's dialogue, I would like to take a moment to allow members of the Committee to offer any remarks that they may have around these two hearing resolutions. Chair recognizes Councilmember Brooks.

Good morning, everyone. And thank you, Mr. Chair and Mr. Chair. I'm Councilmember Brooks, and I'm excited to be here with my colleagues on the Committees on Education and Children and Youth. This work is personal to me. As many of you know, I stepped into public life through a fight for Philadelphia public schools, right, at Edward T. Steel Elementary in North Philadelphia. I was out of work raising my children when I found myself face- to-face with the School District's plan to hand over our neighborhood school to a charter operator. The School Reform Commission was right out here closing schools in Black and Brown neighborhoods like ours and schools were the anchors in our communities. I wasn't an elected official back then. I was a mom, a volunteer President of the School Advisory Council, but I knew what was at stake. So I organized. We came together as parents, as neighbors and we fought like hell to keep Steele public. And guess what? We won. (Applause.)

That's what power looks like. That's what public education organizing looks like. So I'm so excited to welcome the parents from Lift Every Voice and youth from We Reighn and YEAH Philadelphia. Can you all stand? (Applause.)

We're going to hear directly from them, school staff and labor leaders, about what it's like to be in our schools right now and how our daily experience shapes -- the daily experience of schools shapes their learning, their growth and their mental health, because school is not just a building or just curriculum and test scores. Schools are where our kids figure out who they are and what kind of future they believe they can have, and it's possible. If a child feels welcome, engaged and seen, they can thrive. But if a child feels punished for who they are, misunderstood, invisible, it chips away at their spirit and the future of our city. So as a parent, a former educator and a lifelong advocate for our schools, I believe deeply in the vision for public schools that affirm the value of every child, places filled with joy, places families want to be, places that honor children's dignity and their brilliance. But let me be clear, we are not there yet. Too many of our students, especially our Black students, students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ students are still facing anti- Blackness and discriminatory discipline practices that should have been buried a long time ago. I've seen it up close. I know the research. I know the history and we know the consequences. If we want better outcomes, if we want our kids to show up and succeed, we have to make sure our schools are places where they feel safe, supported and valued. I remember last year when Let Every Voice Philly called for a Chief Joy Officer in the city, in the district. (Applause.)

It hit me that joy is a serious intervention. Joy is not a luxury. It's a necessity. As a proud sponsor of a resolution calling for an end to anti-Black discriminatory practices in our school, which we'll also be discussing today, to truly invest in our children, we have to lead with joy. We have to lead with care and we have to be willing to tell the truth about what's not working. As a restorative justice educator, I've seen the harm caused by discipline policies rooted in racist past, practices that disproportionately target Black children and special education students, practices that are remnants of systems designed to control and not support. So today, this hearing is more than policy. It's a chance to return to our roots, to center the needs of our children and families and to say with our full chest, we owe it to this generation and the next generation to protect our Black kids, our trans kids, our immigrant kids and our children with disabilities. (Applause.)

I've spent my life in North Philadelphia, and I've seen the hope and the harm our schools can carry. And I know we've got work to do, but I believe in our people. I believe in our children and I'm ready to keep fighting alongside with you to make our schools or make our schools what they should have been a long time ago. So thank you to everyone that took the time out of their day to support and protect our school community. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you, Councilmember Brooks. And thank you for your leadership on this issue and other educated- related issues. I would like to take a moment of privilege to acknowledge that Councilmember Rue Landau has joined us, good morning. I would also like to acknowledge that Councilmember Jim Harrity has joined us, good morning. And Councilmember O'Rourke, who's not on the Committee, is with us today as well too. Thank you all. I would also like to take a moment -- (Applause.)

I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge all of the organizations who are here today. I know Councilmember Brooks called some of them out, but I especially want to say welcome and congratulations to the leadership of UNITE HERE. If you don't know, UNITE HERE just won an amazing contract after a long dispute. So congratulations and thank you for being here. (Applause.)

And it's very important that when we have dialogue like this that the people who are responsible for making the decisions are here. So outside of just members of City Council, I would like to thank members from the School District who are here to listen to some of the concerns and some of the issues that are going to be discussed today and hopefully that information is taken back. So, Laurel, thank you, Laurel. She doesn't hear me. But thank you, Laurel. We appreciate you. Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. I want to just follow up on what my colleague Kendra Brooks spoke about. I am the child of a teacher, a social worker turned teacher. She is no longer with us, but I watched the joy that she had in shaping and working with young people, and that imprinted my brain forever. I sit here not just as a member of this Education Committee but the Chair of the Public Health Committee, and this is where I want to really underscore that joy has a tangible impact on our brain chemistry. It is critical that we create environments for young people to thrive, and I commend all of you for working hard on what some might call, what are they talking about, joy. Joy is real. Joy can make (inaudible) everything we do. And when the youngest child comes into a learning environment, when they can feel the joy, they don't have to see the joy, they have to feel the joy, their brain changes. They can accept information. They can accept knowledge. And as the first world country, this, the United States, is a first world country. I come from a third world country. And for me to see that we are penalizing children because of the way they look and the system continues to discriminate and we haven't changed those alarms, that we should not be worrying -- not only not worrying about the environment we create for our young children to thrive, they don't have books, they don't have toilet paper, they have schools that are crumbling, that all impacts joy. You can't have joy when your eyes tell you that your city, your government is not investing in you. That's a message no child needs to be told that, they can feel it. So I am very grateful for all of you for advocating for this, for making sure the youngest amongst us have a good start. We already know all the systemic barriers we still have. We are still grappling with the original sin that started with this country, the fact that a race has become weaponized. You know, as a scientist I can tell you race is a social construct. However, we weaponized it where we can use it to discriminate, to differentiate how services are given. So I commend all my colleagues who are pushing for change to make sure a 12-year- old young Black boy is not looked upon as an adult and then shot because he had a toy gun. That all percolates all into what we are doing here. So once again, I want to make sure that you understand that my support comes not just because it's a feel-good thing, but this is the future of our city which depends on the young people because they are the leaders of today. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you, colleague. Mr. Clerk, will you please call -- I'm sorry. Are there any other members of the Committee who would like to make remarks? (No response.)

Hearing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the first panel we have to testify this afternoon.

Will Keisha Nicholson, Amy Faulring and Jameela Carter please come up.

Hold on. I'm sorry, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Clerk, I'm sorry. Hold off on that first panel. Chairman recognizes Councilmember Landau.

Thank you so much. I want 30 seconds because I can't wait to hear from you guys. First of all, Lift Every Voice, you never cease to amaze me. Love the pom-poms. Thank you. (Applause.)

Second of all, you have brought to the forefront such an incredibly important issue that every other place we go we are now hearing stories of ways in which we can transform our schools. I was literally at the Chef's Conference this morning and heard from people there who have some kids in the suburbs in their schools, just to find out Wyncote Elementary School has transformed their hallways into an obstacle course, and the kids get to go out into the hallway and run around and enjoy themselves and they say the results they see in their classroom are tremendous. There's another story from California I heard today where there was a horticultural expert who partnered with a school for blind and deaf students who brought planters outside of the schools that the teachers and the principal didn't want because they didn't want the dirt in the schools. What do you think the result was? Not only was it was transformative for the schools, for the students' behavior, it was transformative to their growth. And even when the horticultural expert left the schools, she then came by and found the teachers outside with the kids with their hands in the dirt, growing herbs, tasting them, understanding what they were growing. And they said the behavioral changes and the joy that the children felt in their classes was just changed. Thank you so much for bringing this to us. I think you guys are rock stars and thank you. Can't wait to hear from you. (Applause.)

Are there any other comments from members of the -- or any other members of the Committee who would like to make remarks? (No response.)

Hearing none, Mr. Clerk, will you please call the first panel we have to testify this afternoon on the resolutions?

Will Keisha Nicholson, Amy Faulring and Jameela Carter please come up. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good morning.

Good morning.

Please state your name for the record. And after that, you may proceed with your testimony. We're going to allow everybody on the panel to provide testimony consecutively. And then after all three members of the panel completes their testimony, we'll open it up to members of the Committee for questions. You may proceed.

Good morning. My name is Keisha Nicholson -- good morning. My name is Keisha Nicholson. I live in the 5th Council District and I am a parent of a child at Bryant Elementary. Today I'm speaking as Lift Every Voice Philly's first member and a member of our Board of Directors. Lift Every Voice Philly is a Black-led parent membership organization. We are united across class, race and neighborhoods to demand urgent action on our schools. Right now we have members representing 18 schools across the city. Standing with me today are fellow members and supporters who are resolute in our commitment to fundamentally changing our schools. LEV began organizing in 2022 following a yearlong planning process and comprehensive landscape analysis. We interviewed over 100 parents, primarily Black and low-income mothers in North, West and Southwest Philly. What we heard was sobering. No single parent believed that their schools was delivering the kind of education their children deserve. Over and over again we heard about parents being shut out of decision-making and left in the dark. So we set our mission to support parents closest to the pain through three core strategies: Lifting parent voice, advancing parent-led, visions for our children and our city and sharing parents' stories that cut to the heart of the matter. Our base- building happens in schools that are close to that pain from West and Southwest Philly and North Philly. We come from the communities that have lost the most and have the most to gain. We also have a mighty at-large chapter made up of parents from more stable schools who know that what's happening 10 blocks away is unacceptable. In a district as underfunded as our Black, immigrant and diverse as ours, no child is truly untouched by decades of pain. While others choose to divide, at LEV we choose to unify because we know it is our only way to drive the system change we need. I mentioned earlier that I was LEV's first member. Bryant Elementary was LEV's first chapter. In 2023, one of our members discovered the school didn't have a full-time nurse. The absence reopened a deep wound. Bryant was the same school where LaPorshia Massey, a beloved child, dead 9 years earlier after spending the 10 day in school without access to medical care for her asthma. Within days, we discovered that Bryant wasn't alone. By calling around, we learned that Heston, Locke and Barry were also without full-time nurses. This wasn't just a staffing issue. It was a matter of life or death. Without nurses, our families were forced into impossible choices. Parents had to leave work and lose pay to administer asthma medication or pick up sick children. One member showed up to school with her newborn only to be told that her child had been rushed to the hospital. At Barry, a student suffered a silent seizure. And the only reason anyone found out was because another child alerted a teacher. We kept our kids home to keep them safe. We weren't met with care. We were hit with truancy threats and DHS investigations. We were exhausted by the ambulance ride, the endless calls and the constant blame. We said, no more. This was a fight for nurses, but it was also a fight against a deeper truth, that disinvestment and violence that too often poor Black parents are left to pay the price and shoulder the blame for broken systems. So we organized, along with parents from West Philly, the ride or die members of our at-large chapter and in deep solidarity with our school nurses, we showed up outside school buildings, shared our stories and built power together. We gathered petitions, demanded meetings and pushed the District to change how nurse positions were funded and we won. (Applause.)

Within months, we cut the nurse vacancy by 80%. Today every LEV Chapter 13 school and every school across the District has a full-time nurse. (Applause.)

It proves that when parents stand together, when we organize, systems move and our children receive the care they deserve. This is the LEV way. Today you hear from members across the District and from voices of 600 parents who have shown us what we call the Dirty Dozen, 12 of most painful realities in our schools: Silent lunches, collective punishment, shaming, yelling, (inaudible) things happen across the District. You'll hear now recess, art and music are treated like luxuries, when we know they're the way things that give our kids reason to love school. You'll hear us call for a Chief of Joy, someone to build basic standards for children and an explanation of support team for educational partnerships. Let me make it personal. My daughter has faced bullying. She lost classmates. She sat through too many classes with nothing but a string of substitutes. She is a child. She deserves more. As you listen to us today, I urge you to remember so many of our city's problems begin and can be solved in our schools. We don't want to hear that our kids are bad when they're sitting in classrooms without teachers. We don't want to be labeled uninvolved when schools treat us like the enemy, and we refuse to accept anything less than a bold, sheer vision for schools that help, not hurt our students and families. (Applause.)

We refuse to treat any of our children as disposable. We refuse to obey and advance and sacrifice any of our kids. We will protect our Black children, our LGBT children, our special education students and immigrant students, no matter who it is while in (inaudible) house. We want you to carry our stories, our grief, our rage, our hope and our clarity. And to the budget process, we want you to make sure everyone pays their fair share, not cut taxes to the wealthy while constituents struggle. (Applause.)

We want you to ask hard questions, demand real answers and win compliments for our children's -- commitments, for our children, our communities and our future. Because no matter what issue you care about, housing, safety, jobs, health care, it all gets better or worse depending on what we do about it, Philadelphia schools. Thank you. (Applause.)

Good morning. My name is Amy Faulring. I live in the 3rd Council District and I have been a Philadelphia School District parent for seven years. My children are currently at Pennell elementary and in middle school at Masterman. I am a member of Lift Every Voice Philly, a Black-led parent membership organization. We are united across class, race and neighborhoods to demand urgent action on our schools. We see it as our duty to push for systems change by leading together. Standing behind me are our members and supporters who are resolute in our commitment to fundamentally change our schools. I'm speaking today about the urgent need to bring joy into every public school, not as an extra but as a core necessity for our children. As a Philly public school parent, I've gotten used to seeing things like art, music, field trips, digital literacy classes and extra-curricular clubs treated as extras, something we're supposed to feel lucky to have rather than the basic parts of a well-rounded education. I was overwhelmed when my oldest started at Masterman last year. The options there are incredible. He can join afterschool clubs like chess, Dungeons and Dragons, book club, math, counts, robotics and more. He can sign up for track and field, ultimate Frisbee, soccer and many other countless sports. He gets free music lessons on nearly any instrument and the field trips I've lost count, Woodford mansion, World Cafe Live, the Philadelphia Zoo and an upcoming trip to the Philly stadium for weather day. Meanwhile just up the road parents at Wright Elementary, organizing through Lift Every Voice are fighting for their children to have just one field trip this year or across the river at Powell Elementary where my youngest is in school, the administration had to choose between offering art or music. This year the school, despite having a beautiful library, has no full-time librarian and has lost both its math and literacy lead teachers. This kind of inequity is unacceptable. Every child deserves access to the joy, enrichment and opportunity that makes school a place they want to be, not just survive but thrive. My child at Masterman is no more special or no 14 more deserving than any other Philly public school child. If we have figured out how kids at Masterman can access this enriching curriculum, then we can figure out how every single school in the District can get it. (Applause.)

I refuse to accept the bare-bones curriculum and unrelenting focus on standardized test prep as the core focus in our schools. As parents, we will not feel grateful or lucky when our children finally have an art class, have access to music or get to have a field trip. City Council, you have a critical role to play when the School District comes before you on April 29th and during public comment on April 30th. We're asking you to use your power to hold the District accountable and to fund the District well over what is proposed in the budget cycle. We're calling for a number of things: One, end the Dirty Dozen. The District must immediately stop the harmful practices, the 12 most painful and widespread realities in our schools, the silent lunches, the collective punishment, the shaming, the yelling and the berating. These practices strip joy, dignity and opportunity from our children. Get the District on record, demand that they end the Dirty Dozen now. These aren't isolated incidents. They're patterns. They're policies. They are preventable and they must end. Two, call for a Chief of Joy. The District needs to create and fully fund a Chief of Joy, a new senior level role charged with conducting a joy audit, dismantling dehumanizing practices and designing policies that uphold the humanity and dignity of children and school-based staff. This person would also establish new standards and guarantees to ensure recess, rest, arts, music and other enriching experiences at every school in the District. The District also needs to dramatically increase the Support Team for Educational Partnership, also known as STEP initiative. These teams provide crucial behavioral health interventions and social work support to students, families, teachers and schools, starting with those facing the highest needs. This time is urgent. While children all across the country are being targeted for being themselves, we can lead and double down. We need leadership that sees our children's potential, not just their problems. We're asking you to stand with us. Help us turn the page toward healing, accountability and joy. Thank you. (Applause.)

Good morning, everyone. My name is Jameela Carter. I live in the 2nd City Council District and I'm a parent of a child who attends Science Leadership Academy Middle School better known as SLAMS. Today I am speaking as a member of Lift Every Voice Philly, a Black- led parent membership organization. We are united across class, race and neighborhoods to demand urgent action on our schools. We see it as our duty as parents, as voters and community leaders to push for systems change by leading together. Currently we have members representing schools 14 across the city. Standing behind 15 me are our members and supporters 16 who are resolute in our commitment 17 to fundamentally change our 18 schools. I've been a Philadelphia School District parent for 13 years. I am here today not just as a parent, but as someone who has dedicated my life to the well-being and development of children. With a background in psychology focused on young children on the autism spectrum and experience running both an independent PreK through 6th grade school and a child care center serving 348 families, I've seen firsthand what children need to thrive, and just as importantly, what harms them. Today I am speaking out against practices that have no 11 place in our schools: Yelling, berating, punitive discipline and public shaming. But I don't want to just speak in broad terms. I need to tell you my family's story, just one of our stories: My 7th grader -- my 7th grade daughter came home from school distraught after witnessing something no child should have to experience in a classroom. A fight broke out between students, during which racial slurs were exchanged. Instead of de-escalating the situation in a constructive way, the teacher's response made matters worse. My daughter told me that in addressing the incident the teacher referenced Trump's election victory. Not sure what the context was. When a student laughed, the teacher called them a fake Muslim. To make matters worse, the teacher taunted the students, daring them to tell their parents and making it clear that there would be no 14 consequences for his words or actions. Instead of setting an example of accountability and respect, he used his authority to intimidate, shame and humiliate the students. These are not outliers in incidents. LEV member children have been called dumb, threatened with police and punished for dancing in line. This is unacceptable. My daughter should not have to sit in a classroom where power is used to degrade instead of uplift. No child should. Our children are already navigating a world filled with fear, division and uncertainty. The classroom should be a place where they feel safe, where the adults entrusted with their education model respect, empathy and emotional regulation. Instead in this instance the person in power used their position to belittle and cause harm. In this moment where so many of our children are at risk of being targeted at the federal level, from our trans and non-binary to our Black immigrant and special education children, it is imperative that the School District create an environment where every single one of our children is protected. That starts with every member of the City Council committing to fight for our kids in this budget during this policy cycle and certainly over the next three years. City Council has a critical role to play in supporting our schools when the District comes before you on April 29th and April 30th. We're asking you to use your power to hold the District accountable. First, end the Dirty Dozen. The District must put an immediate stop to the harmful practices we call the Dirty Dozen. These practices joy, dignity and opportunity from our children. Get the District on record, demand they end the Dirty Dozen now. These aren't isolated stories. They're patterns. They are policies. They are preventable and they must stop. Second, we've been asking and we'll ask again, call for a Chief of Joy.

Appoint a Chief of Joy to lead a district- wide joy audit, someone focused on ending harmful practices, supporting student wellness and making joy a real priority in every school in a District with a $3 billion budget. Investing in a senior level role to transform school culture will pay for itself many times over. And lastly, expand what's working. Bring DBH, CBH and the District together to expand STEP teams, school-based mental health teams that include social workers, behavioral health staff and family support. Start with the schools that need it most. We need leadership that sees our kids' potential, not just their problems. Stand with us. Help us move toward healing, accountability and joy. Thank you. )

Thank you all for your testimony. Before I open it up for questions, I listened to the incident that you spoke about involving a facilitator. I'm hoping that that information was reported. I hope that that was something that was communicated to the proper folks in the District. And hopefully, that's something that we could follow up on because we don't want incidents like that taking place and those incidents not being reported. So thank you for sharing that and thank you for reporting. Chair recognizes Councilmember Brooks followed by Councilmember Harrity.

I want to start off by saying thank you to Amy, Keisha and Jameela. You guys know that I come out of education organizing and activism and I feel so honored to see such a presence now. I kind of miss being on that side. (Applause.)

And individuals like Amy, you talked about the contradictions between what you see and know that your children receive at one school and what's not at the other school. And as a parent who has done Neighborhood schools and Special Admit I see it firsthand and I thank you for that advocacy. That's why I'm really excited about the work for Lift Every Voice. And, Keisha, in your testimony, you talked about just the presence of joy. Just the joy that you bring made this hearing a little -- it's an early morning on a Friday and just the pom-poms, you see we're all smiling. We don't always sit up here and smile during hearings. And our children deserve just the same. So thank you for your advocacy around that. And ool, Jameelah, all right. You just hit a trigger point for me. Because as a parent of a child in Philadelphia public schools, and I'm saying this to the parents here, with so many incidents that happened that we just let slide, and I'm saying this as an elected official and our children said they don't want it to be a big deal, they don't want to be targeted afterwards, the other kids participated, the teachers and administration just let it slide. Thank you for your advocacy and standing up for that. And you just kind of -- I have some things to take here on my own behalf as well. So I want parents to know that you're not alone. It's no separation from being here on Council than being a parent in the audience. These issues that you are experiencing are real. I'm going to go to my questions because you struck something in me that I need to address as soon as I leave this panel. Can you tell us about your efforts to kind of end these practices? What meetings have you had with the District or that you were able to receive meetings with the District about this as a collective? Because I know just like in your testimony, like I said it triggered something in me, I'm pretty sure other parents -- if you could raise your hand how many of you have experienced something with your children that you just chose not to report just to get by today? (Hands raised.)

That's unacceptable. So how can we have a collective messaging to the District to talk about these things? And the other thing I want to talk about bullying. Bullying is trauma. I don't care if it's coming from adults or children because adults bully too. Have you heard any success stories based on your demands where bullying was addressed, whether it's within the classroom setting or from teacher to student? Those are my two questions for the panel.

So we haven't heard -- your question about success stories, I mean I think we have success stories within LEV, right. You heard about the nurse campaign and that. But on an individual level, we're not really focused on, you know, our parents and the children as individuals. So this is a collective effort. I think us sitting here right now in front of you is a success story, and we expect to more. (Applause.)

I'll add to that. We have been meeting regularly with the District and we're grateful for those meetings with them. We are working hard right now on working with the District to actually create a recess policy. There's actually no 19 standardized recess policy across the entire District that says the minimum number of minutes, the number of breaks that our children need, and we know from all the stories we've heard from, all the parents here that our children need breaks, they need body breaks, they need brain breaks, they need to get out and run. And so, we're looking forward to continuing to work with the District on that recess policy. But that's clearly not enough. There's a lot more that we need to do and a lot more that we expect and demand of the District.

Thank you for answering my questions.

Thank you, Councilmember. Chair recognizes Councilmember Harrity.

Hello, hello. All right. There we go. First, thank you all for coming down here today. We feel the importance. When you came first came to my office about the Joy Officer, I thought it was great. I do feel that our children are definitely the future here. And we actually as the adults need to give them that future. I remember being a kid. I went to the Philly school system. Recess was important. It gave us a break and let you clear your mind and just forget about what you were learning for a minute so that you could clear yourself out to be ready to learn more information about something different later. Since I've been here, I came from the Senate and worked with Senator Street for the Fair Funding. We fought long and hard for that. Because when I first got there, I found out how they did the funding and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that neighborhoods like mine where people pay low-to-no real estate tax, and schools are funded on real estate tax, that those schools are going to get shorted, and that's exactly what has happened for many, many years. Still disappointed that our state hasn't come up with the money that they owe us, that they owe our children. They've been robbing all of us for many years. Anyone who went through the Philadelphia school system -- and not to slight our teachers there, they do amazing job with what they have. But we have been shorted, all of us. But it's for groups like yours who start this fight and bring attention to these things. And as you can tell, you get results. The fact that we now have nurses in all the Philly schools is a big win, man. And I -- (Applause.)

And I congratulate you for that. The fact of the matter is the mental health of our kids are at stake. There was just a study out. I mean, I don't understand why people aren't as alarmed as I am. There's a study that says about 51% of our children in the public school system have suffered with depression in one form or another. The number of kids that actually contemplate suicide are alarming. That's why it's so important to have joy. If you look at other countries and what they're doing, man, in Japan kids don't start learning anything. They don't even take a test until they hit around 6th, 7th grade. Most of the learning that they have between that time is having fun, learning civil and societal responsibilities. They have no 24 janitors in the schools in Japan. The kids clean the school so that they see what work is and they see that everybody's supposed to pitch in to clean up to help out. So for me, I would just like to know how you see this Chief Joy Officer working in the School District to bring and to get rid of the missteps that we got going 10 on here? 11

12 Before you answer that question, why don't you all state on the record what the Dirty Dozen is, and then go ahead and answer Councilmember Harrity's question. Did you hear me? Can you hear me? (No.)

Okay. So I said before you answer that question, why don't you state for the record what the Dirty Dozen is. You got to understand that there are people who are not here that are watching this online and they may watch it on YouTube later, so they don't see that sign that's in the back. So take a minute to tell us what the Dirty Dozen is. Tell the public what the Dirty Dozen is. And then please proceed to answer Councilmember Harrity's question. Thank you. I'm sorry. It's the teacher in me, right. Like, I'm a former teacher. So when you hear these terms that people don't know, right, you got to make sure we explain it. So go ahead and read the Dirty Dozen and then go ahead and answer Councilmember Harrity's question.

The Dirty Dozen is, one, silent lunch; two, collective punishment; three, no recess; four, bathroom restrictions; five, harsh discipline; six, yelling and shaming; seven, unengaged curriculum; eight, teaching to test; nine, no enrichment; 10, too much screen time; 11, not enough art and music; and 12, too few or no field trips. That's your Dirty Dozen. (Applause.)

Yeah, that's good. I'd just like to also know how they expect this Chief Joy Officer to interact?

So I think -- is this on? Can you hear me?

Yeah.

So it's really multi-faceted, right. So if you have a Chief Joy Officer on a District level, the first thing you want to do is examine what's going on in the schools, right. Take a look at the policies. And once you get that baseline, the Chief Joint Officer can coordinate mechanism to address these things, right, whether it be training and development, whether it's talking about where funding needs to be directed, whether it's just overall evaluation of programs. And I think one of the most important things too is putting in policy, right. There's a lot of things that we're talking about that there just simply isn't a policy around. So I think in terms of that Chief Joy Officer, those are some of the things. I think that's a start for where how they'll interact. (Applause.)

Thank you.

Then if I could also add, I deeply appreciate your comments about lack of funding, lack of fair funding and especially as we see threats at the federal level, the state not providing funding. We also know that you all have the power to provide more funding to the schools. And so, we ask you to hold your power. It's budget season. Our schools are underresourced and we know that you all have the power to provide more resources and we ask you to do that.

Yeah. Let me go ahead as the Chair of the Committee and address that point right there. So, number one, this City Council under our leadership has put more money into the School District than any time in the history of the City of Philadelphia. So let's be very clear about that. The second thing, we've already been advocating. The Mayor's budget proposal has the School District's percentage of real estate taxes going from 56.5% in 2030 and we're asking that to be moved up to this fiscal year. So when it comes to recognizing the financial crisis that the School District is facing, specifically the Education Committee on City Council has been leading that charge. Even last year there were a number of us who went to Harrisburg to advocate, to testify to let them know that we were in a space of desperation not just with funding and a funding formula, but most importantly, with the facilities crisis. We have a $6 billion deficit as it relates to facilities. And this legislative body led the charge along with Dr. Watlington and his team to put together a Facilities Committee that we hope will announce a facilities plan next year. So when it comes to the finances of the School District, we are more invested than any legislative body that has ever existed in the city of Philadelphia. The issue that we run into is while we are responsible for giving them the money, we have no control of how they spend it. And I think sometimes folks feel like because money is being managed in a way that they don't agree with, that we can do something about it. The reality is, is we can't. And my shameless plug for that as I pass it to Councilmember Landau -- I mean Councilmember Ahmad, then Councilmember Landau, my shameless plug for that, we've been advocating to examine how our schools are governed, right. And if we change how our schools are governed, then we could put ourselves in a position to hold somebody accountable when the spending is done in ways that we feel like are not reflective of the best interest of our children in the communities who go to our school. So I'm passionate about the funding issue. It is the biggest crisis we have in the city of Philadelphia next to poverty right. Poverty, schools, poverty, schools, those are the two biggest problems we have in this city right now. And I pray that before we leave office that we are able to raise our hands in victory and say, we fixed the education crisis in the City of Philadelphia. So thank you for that comment. (Applause.)

Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad, then Councilmember Landau. But I will also say this: Please keep continuing to fight and advocate for funding specifically. Even if we don't like how the dollars are spent, we know that the children in the City of Philadelphia get less resources, less dollars than any other District in the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. So in the midst of sometimes being disappointed when these fights happen, we can't give up. Because we know when we give up, our children are the ones that suffer. So just wanted to add that for context. Chair recognizes Councilmember Ahmad, then Councilmember Landau. And then I think we'll be ready to move on to the next panel.

Thank you. Chair. Just to piggyback on what my colleague was asking about, the Chief Joy Officer, it would be great if we had a report card for all schools on the issue of joy and have some sort of a dashboard where we can actually -- the communities and parents can actually see that. My question is really about the role of mental and behavioral health in the School District. From your vantage point, what do you see in sort of realtime training such as cognitive behavioral therapy for our teachers adapted to a classroom, do you see any of that? Do you see support coming from the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities? Do you see CBH involved because we can go back to the School District to ask about those issues? But I wanted to know from your vantage point, how and what have you seen?

So some of our schools do a pretty good job. My husband is a mental health clinician. He works in the schools. He has a whole team that are there to support children with mental health issues. Our schools are filled with children that have experienced trauma, that are just, you know, working through all kinds of things. And I think what we want to see is an increase in programs like these, like real programs that address these issues inside of the schools that are readily available, but most important, with individuals who are really trained and competent and understand our children, Black children, immigrant children, trans children and that can really help support families as well. So I just think that some of it is happening, but it needs to be expanded on a huge level.

So I think we will follow up with the School District to ask which schools across the board have what your husband is doing in X school to know what Y and Z is happening, because that's when we can actually say how are these resources allocated, how do you make that decision to have it in this school but not in this school. And of course, we can overlay that data with actual disinvestment of the area the child comes from, right. We can overlay that with the issues we're facing and I think we can have a real plan about how to deploy these resources. So thank you very much for that.

Thank you. (Applause.)

So I just want to jump in real quick before Councilmember Landau gets out, I just want to put something in the record that I think that folks may not realize. To Councilmember Thomas' point, the majority of Councilmembers that have children that are school age go to Philadelphia public schools. I don't think people understand that. I think the assumption is that our kids go to private school or something other. And I'm saying from being on that side. What I haven't experienced right in this Council body, the investment into public school is real. And even some of us have children -- I have graduates and some that are still in. I think Nina's daughter graduated from Central?

No, no, my children didn't go -- they're older.

Oh, okay. Older. But the majority of our Councilmembers that currently have children that are in school attend Philadelphia public schools.

My son went to public school and my grandkids are going to public school.

So I think that's a perspective that's not in the room -- yeah, I went to public school too. But I just want to say this fight is real for us. It's not like we are far removed and all of us send our kids to private school or something other. So I just wanted to put that on the record and let Councilmember Landau take it.

Thank you all so much for your testimony. I think between the three of you, you touched on all of the essential issues that we're facing. Wanted to give two personal stories because you touched them from me too with your testimony. And the first is my son went to -- he's in public school. He went to a preschool that was very artsy, got to run around, do whatever he wanted to do. And when he got to public school and went to kindergarten, it was extremely structured and there was a lot of discipline. I promise you I'm not making this up, very quickly we said in our house that this school was sucking the joy out of him. He came home every day and laid on the couch and seemed depressed and it was an immediate transformation for him. And we watched this go on week after week after week. And about five weeks in, we're like this is becoming an emergency now. They have fully sucked the joy out of him. Thankfully, he snapped out of it. Thankfully, he's had a great experience in public schools. But I've seen firsthand -- one of the things I did is I went in to go help with the school one day. So it was at the time when they had cut the teacher's aides. And the teacher was handling 34 kindergarteners by herself and did it by being extremely structured all the time. So I saw firsthand what was happening. Must admit I came home saying it felt like Military academy to me and it was sad, but things did transform and things did get better in the schools. But I certainly don't need to have my real-life experience to fully understand and lift up every voice you are bringing here today to know your stories are real. They are heard and there are so many of us who are seeing this around the city. The second thing I wanted to say is how COVID opened up the door for us to the classrooms. So our kids come home, they tell us things, right, but we weren't there. We didn't get to see it. We didn't get to hear it. Did they misunderstand, was it a different perspective. Very, very different when you got to walk by that classroom and your kids are sitting at the kitchen table or in the room and hear how teachers who were told to talk to their students about the murder of George Floyd and how they talked about security guards at school or some other way in which they mishandled what could be a wonderful teaching moment and turned it into something completely else. I heard time and time again by listening to the classroom in my own house about actually being in there and what was happening sometimes. So I say all of that to lift you up and to thank you for your stories and to know that what you're saying is that the Chief of Joy is the person who sets the standard. It's the leader at the top. It is the person who has made sure that their ideas are trickled down to every school, to every classroom. And I leave you with this question: Why do you think the School District has been resistant to creating this position and getting rid of the Dirty Dozen? (Chanting.)

We're shaking our heads because we're asking the same question, right. Why is the School District resistant to something that all children deserve, joy, right. It's hard to wrap our heads around. We did meet with the District. And basically, very frankly, was told that I'm not going to add another FTE at the District level for this purpose. I'm not sure what the reason is. Maybe someone back there would probably be -- LaTi, I wish you were up here -- that could really articulate, but that's the question. That's really the question. And you mentioned your child and what you saw and the joy being sucked out of them. And here is a theory of mine, right. I'm a Black parent with Black children. The District is majority Black, and sometimes I get the feeling that people believe our children don't deserve joy. I've sat in rooms where as a progressive educator and the way that I ran my school was pushed back against, like that doesn't work for Black children, but the proof is in the pudding. We had happy, joyful children that had dance, art, music that weren't punished just for being children whose dignity and humanity was honored, right. So I put it on you all, anyone else in this room, if you can get an answer as to why they're resistant to a Chief of Joy, please let us know.

We're going to work on that for you. Thank you so much. (Applause.)

Chair recognizes Councilmember Harrity.

(Inaudible).

I'll let him know.

Because point of information is that I'm very alarmed about this. So I've done some research and the last Pew study showed that we have one child psychiatrist for every 10,000 kids in the state of Pennsylvania. Now, in Philadelphia it's a little bit better because we're a bigger city, and we have a lot of schools here, but the fact of the matter is that that's a profession that we do not have a lot of people doing. And the fact that your husband is doing it here in the school system when I know he could be doing it someplace else making a lot more money just goes to show the commitment that you have as a family. So I thank you for that. And that's all I wanted to say was just the number is 1 for 10,000.

Thank you. Councilmember O'Rourke, you're not a member of the Committee. It looked like the brain is turning. Did you want to add anything before we move on to the next panel?

I don't know if I want to add anything. I am curious though. I heard some mumblings about a joy audit. Could you just articulate more about the joy audit for the record please?

Thanks for the question. It's hard to know where there is and isn't joy when we don't have that type of data. And so, we need someone who's in charge of looking across the District and examining where are we seeing some of the Dirty Dozen and where are we not. And so, you can't solve a problem if you don't know the data behind it. And so, we need someone who's in charge of thinking about what does that audit look like, how can we gather that data, diagnose the problem more fully and then be able to move towards solutions.

So the idea is that you get data and you give someone the job to tend to that data, and then by doing that we can realize actual joy within our School District?

That's right.

I think it's a fabulous idea. I think when we talked about this last year in my inaugural budget hearings, we did raise the question around the Chief of Joy role. I remember trying to articulate this idea. Within the Christian New Testament, there's this book called Hebrews. In the 11th chapter it says that the worlds were framed by the word of God, the idea that worlds were realized or erected through language, through what we call a thing. And my hunch was that the idea around having a Chief of Joy was something to be dismissed. It's silly, it's fluff and flourish. But I think the intentionality around finding the data, giving someone a job to tend to joy is actually the kind of law-making, word-writing that we ought to be in the business of. So I commend you for even raising the concept of a joy audit as genuine legislating and real policymaking and practice within our School District, obviously we could use more of it. Thank you for your advocacy. Thank you for your work. More power to you. (Applause.)

Thank you to this panel. As we transition to the next panel, we're going to just have some operational stuff take place. So we're going to be shifting and moving some things. Mr. Clerk, can you please call the next panel to come testify this morning.

Will Dr. Jayme Banks, Nicole Hunt and LeShawna Coleman please come up. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

As these folks come up, I just want to remind everybody that -- not really remind, but really commend the idea of an audit. The audit is extremely important because when you talk about a position like we're discussing today, as of right now it's up to someone's discretion, right. We all may sit here and say that there's not enough joy happening in our schools. Someone else may say there is enough joy happening in our schools. The one thing an audit would do, it will put us in a position to have data to be able to back whatever conversation or whatever advocacy points the audit actually produces. So I really want to commend that first panel for advocating for the audit. I think that's something really important and I think it can put us in a position to be able to assess where we are, how we're doing and what we need to do to make sure every school is reflective of those parents who talked about Masterman and SLA and some of those schools, so absolutely. Mr. Clerk, did you call the next panel?

Yes. Will Dr. Jayme Banks, Nicole Hunt and LeShawna Coleman please come up.

We see a lot of young people in here. Who are those young people over there? What school are they from? (Inaudible.)

We can't hear you. Say it louder. (Jubilee.)

Can we all give a round of applause to the young people from Jubilee that's here. (Applause.)

Thank you all for being here. I know we recognized UNITE HERE earlier and congratulated you on a contract. Also, see representation of the PFT is here as well too. So for the members of the PFT that's here, thank you for the great work you're doing and thank you for being a part of the conversation today. Please state your name for the record and you may begin with your testimony. Similar to the last panel, we're going to allow the entire panel to provide their testimony. And then after that, we'll open it up for questions from members of the Committee. You may proceed.

Good morning. My name is Dr. Jayme Banks and I'm Chief of Student Support Services for the School District of Philadelphia. Thank you for inviting me. So good morning, City Council. My name is Dr. Jayme Banks and I serve as the Chief of Student Support Services for the School District of Philadelphia. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about the District's efforts to center student wellness, inclusion and joy in everything we do. Our work is grounded in the District's Accelerate Philly 2023, 2008 -- 2028, excuse me, strategic plan, which identifies joy as a core value and prioritizes the social, emotional well-being, mental health and physical safety of our students. As we pursue these goals, we are committed to advancing practices and affirm student dignity, eliminate barriers to opportunity and foster inclusive, supportive school environments where every child feels seen, valued and empowered to succeed. We are proud to be in an active partnership Lift Every Voice. Collaboration has helped us strengthen our accountability and transparency around student wellness. This partnership includes regular scheduled meetings, timely responses to inquiries and ongoing sharing of relevant data. We have also followed through on key commitments such as including with every voice in our wellness policy and student code of conduct review process. Their engagement continues to be a valuable part of our work to create policies, practices that reflect the needs and voices of our students, families and communities. The work that Student Support Services strongly reflects the spirit and intent behind the vision for Chief of Joy, as outlined by the resolution. Our mission is to ensure students feel safe, connected and respected and supported, essential conditions for a joyful and engaging school environments. Through systems that promote respectful and inclusive practices affirm student dignity and elevate student voice, we are advancing many of the values at the heart of this vision. This includes trauma- informed and healing center initiatives, the expansion of school-based mental health supports like STEP and efforts to ensure every student has access to rest, enrichment, essential resources and meaningful relationships. Our work serves as the foundation that can help guide and form continued prioritization of joy in the District. I'm going to highlight a couple areas that we are focusing on: The access to food, water, restrooms. The District affirms that access to food, water, restroom facilities is a basic right for all students. Schools are expected to provide scheduled breaks and should not deny access to bathrooms under any circumstances. These practices are critical to upholding our students' dignity. Facilities, food services and school leaders monitor access and conditions and student feedback such as through the Philadelphia School Experience survey, which is open now, helps us inform ongoing improvements. We recognize that consistency and implementation across schools is essential and we are working to ensure expectations are clearly communicated and enforced. In terms of rest and movement breaks, rest movement breaks are essential for students' regulation, engagement, learning. While the District does not currently have a singular policy defining rest, we encourage practices that include brain breaks, sensory strategies and opportunities for quiet rest, especially when students are experiencing stress or dysregulation. Implementation is supported through training in social emotional learning, trauma- informed practices, comprehensive health and wellness guidance. We are continuing to explore strategies to better monitor and standardize these practices in alignment with the developmental needs across every school. In terms of recess and physical activity, right, recess is a key driver of student joy, physical health and social emotional growth.

Schools are required to provide daily recess for elementary students as well as access both structured and unstructured play. Access to safe equipment and adequate supervision is a priority. Physical education is offered throughout the year. Implementation is supported through professional development and -- sorry, professional development. As part of this effort, we are continuing to revise our policies and procedures. So currently, in this current policy cycle we are updating our wellness policy. This is a policy we have had for years where it states that recess should occur. But through our partnership with Lift Every Voice and other stakeholders, we've kind of doubled down on this, including that 13 minutes, actually putting a number 14 in the procedures that says 15 students should receive 20 minutes 16 of daily recess along with a very 17 strong recommendation that schools 18 should prioritize more than that as 19 the schedule allows. 20 Enrichment opportunities: Our vision of student wellness includes a robust access to enrichment opportunities. The District supports programming in the arts, music, project-based learning, field trips, afterschool activities and athletics. These experiences are not extras. They are essential to the whole child development and engagement. So in terms of the Dirty Dozen, like we doubled down. I want to know about that, where that's happening because it shouldn't happen. Our vision is to advance the work, which includes two key efforts from our Office of Strategic Partnerships. We are developing a partnership database and we have published the enrichment theory of change. The partnership database, part of our Accelerate Philly Plan tracks reoccurring school-based programming provided by external partners. It will allow us to identify gaps aligned with resources, with school needs and make data-informed decisions to better support students. Our enrichment theory of change defines what we hope students experience through enrichment. Joy, community and fulfillment are key. By using these terms, we are naming the kinds of lives we want our students to lead, not just being successful academically but full of purpose, connection and self-worth. This shared language helps us focus on what really matters and align our work across schools and partners. The District Office of Student Life supports a variety of out-of-school time and afterschool opportunities for students. The Afterschool Enrichment initiative invests nearly 9 million annually to provide vendor-led enrichment programming, before and after school and summers in nearly 40 schools. The office also supports teachers and staff-led opportunities to engage students and enrich in enrichment by providing supplemental funding for schools, for teacher pay and materials so these clubs and school level interest activities can occur. In 2017, the STEP program was created in collaboration with the School District, the Mayor's office, CBH, Drexel Community Partners and DHS. This was a new strategy for addressing mental health and complex needs for students and families. The Support Team for Educational Partnership, known as STEP, currently provides mental behavioral emotional support services to students and families in 45 of our schools. Each school team can include up to four roles, which is a clinical coordinator, which is the master's level clinician, a school behavioral consultant, master's level clinician, a case manager and a family peer. The model is designed to embed trauma-informed, multi- tiered supports in the school community. Currently, out of the 45 programs are fully staffed with 14 those four positions, and the 21 15 remaining have partial staffing. 16 You may ask why. The initial 21 17 are funded through our partnership 18 with CBH and DBH, and the remaining 19 are funded through various funding 20 streams inside the District. So 21 all schools cannot necessarily 22 afford to purchase all four of 23 those positions.

24 Again, this program helps with school-wide services, individual group services and in terms of access, any student or family in this school are able to be referred to these services for support. Although the program has expanded, barriers to full implementation remain. Like many districts nationwide, we continue to face challenges related to sustaining funding and staffing shortages, particularly on securing qualified mental health professionals. These constraints limit our ability to support further expansion. Nevertheless, the impact of the program has been profound and we remain deeply committed to securing resources necessary to continue to grow this support. In addition to STEP, the District also partners with CBH and DBH for Intensive Behavioral Health Services known as IBHS. These services are provided in every school in the District, so every school in the District has an IBHS provider. These services are coordinated with school teams and are delivered by licensed community-based mental health organizations. The goal with IBHS is to support emotion regulation, long- term skill building stabilization and enabling students to remain engaged and successful in their school communities. Our team has also led professional learning around healing-centered engagement, which is a strengths-based approach that emphasizes cultural identity, connectedness and agency and holistic wellness. The framework informs how we support students, families that have been impacted by trauma and adversity. Together these efforts reflect the District's ongoing commitment to growing comprehensive mental health continuum, one that meets students where they are that supports their full well-being and ensures every school community has access to responsive healing center care. The last area I will speak about is around discipline practices and the use of collective punishment. The District does not endorse or support practices that impose consequences on groups of students for the actions of few. While the term collective punishment doesn't appear in District policy and interpretations of it may vary, we recognize that certain actions such as canceling a recess for the entire class or instituting silent lunches can be perceived as punitive and may erode trust between students and staff.

Hold on. Hold on. I said I wouldn't do this.

Yes.

Let me make sure we understand what you're saying correctly.

Sure.

So if I hear you, you're saying that the School District of Philadelphia, while not in writing, has a practice where the School District does not have collective punishment?

No. So we talk about -- in our Code of Conduct we say, do not penalize the whole class. We don't use that word collective punishment --

All right. So I'm going to use your term and then I'll let you finish your testimony.

Okay.

So you're saying that the School District of Philadelphia has a policy in place where you're not allowed to punish the whole class?

In our Code of Conduct, we say that the whole class should not be punished for an action of one or few.

Just out of curiosity, and I promise I will let you finish your testimony.

Yes.

The lawyer is saying should not or cannot or must not, because the lawyer said that those are two different things. So that's the first thing. And then if it's must not, what are the consequences?

So number one, we have to be informed of it. So if we find out, right, that a class, that this occurs, I want to address it in terms of who did it, right. If it's a teacher or if it's a school-level problem, we want to address it so I have to be made aware that it's occurring. And then if it's found that the whole class's recess is pulled, right and it's happening multiple times a week, that doesn't align with our Code of Conduct.

So I'm going to let you finish, but give us something tangible, right. That helps me a little bit more. I'm a teacher, right, so I want to know if I tell this class everyone has to stay after school for 15 minutes because you guys were talking too much, what happens to me? Am I getting a verbal warning? Am I getting written up? Is it a conversation with the principal? Because I hear your testimony. And while you were testifying, I literally said to Councilmember Brooks I'm not going to interrupt you, but then you said something that just shocked the conscious.

That's fine. The school leader, right, has the code of conduct and knows what our policy is. If the classroom is not following that, the teacher is not following that, then they need to be held accountable, right. And so, the first level of offense would be that principal.

Okay. And so, go back to what Councilmember Landau said. Is it a recommendation or is it a practice you can't do? Is it should not or cannot?

I don't want to --

All right. Fair. Go ahead and finish your testimony. We just got a lot of people -- I'm looking at faces and reading expressions. Again, I'm a teacher. So as you're saying some of this stuff, a lot of us are like whoa, wow. I mean, even me I remember being a kid, and it's like, yo, everybody's staying after school, right. I'm a teacher. I was a teacher. I just was at -- I've been at so many schools. It's a common practice to be able to say, the whole class is going to be five minutes late to lunch because you all can't get it together. These are common things that happen in education not just in Philadelphia, but all across the country. So what we don't want, right, is for you to provide testimony that's catered to the demographic that's here. What we do want is accurate information --

Of course.

-- so we can figure out what we're doing well and what we need to improve. So go ahead please finish your testimony. (Chanting.)

No, I'm sorry. I agree with you, but let's let the doctor finish her testimony. And then we'll give you plenty of time to chant and advocate. You will get plenty of time for that. I promise.

So we rely on -- and again, I'm not exactly sure where I left off so bear with me. We rely on strong partnerships with staff, family and advocates to bring these instances to our attention so they can be addressed promptly and constructively. With more than 200 schools across the District, ensuring consistent for implementation of student-centered restorative practices remains an ongoing challenge. Continued support is essential to strengthening our accountability systems and equipping school leaders with the tools and professional development they need to respond to student behavior effectively. Our broader commitment is to emulate -- emulate, eliminate, excuse me, exclusionary discipline practices, especially those that disproportionately impact Black and Brown students and to foster culture rooted in dignity, accountability, inclusion and student success. Each year the student code of conduct is reviewed and revised with input from a diverse range of stakeholders. The code includes resources, strategies that encourage staff to respond to behavior in restorative and developmentally appropriate ways. School leaders are encouraged and led through trainings to review this code with staff. And District provides ongoing professional learning opportunities to focus on positive behavior supports and restorative approaches. We believe that every child in Philadelphia deserves a joyful, supportive, equitable school experience. We are grateful for City Council's focus on these issues and your partnership in creating conditions where all students can thrive, not just academically but as a whole person. Thank you.

Thank you. Before Nicole goes, I just want to take a moment to recognize that Council President Kenyatta Johnson has joined us. Council President, thank you for being here. Thank you for being a part of today's conversation. (Applause.)

Nicole, please state your name for the record and you may begin with your testimony.

I feel like I'm short. Is it on? Can you hear me because I feel short? I think it's the chair. Thank you. So good morning. My name is Nicole Hunt, President of UNITE HERE, Local 634. Our Local represents over 2000 food service and student climate staff employees across the School District of Philadelphia. As you know, a majority of our Union's members are Black and are women. Unlike other School District employees, 95% of Local 634 members live in the city of Philadelphia and have children, grandchildren who live with us and attend public schools. Local 634 food service workers are employees who cook and prepare meals for students. Meanwhile, our student climate staff workers support students as they go from classroom to classroom, talk in our lunchrooms and play in the school yard. We ensure that students are kept safe in hallways, lunchrooms and recreation areas. We ensure that students are kept fed throughout the school day. We believe that we are the staff at the heart of Philadelphia public schools. I first want to put on the record that our members of Local 634 remain underpaid. Our lowest paid members make just $17 per hour. During our most recent negotiations, the School District insisted that it is not bound by the City Council's 21st century minimum wage ordinance. Unfortunately, the School District continues to take the position that we should not receive the same automatic cost-of- living increases that City contractors and employees receive. Many of you stood with us two summers ago during our most recent campaign for fair and equitable contract. We have made progress, but we are still working hard to make sure that the School District is prioritizing members of Local 634, and the rest, the nourishment and the play that we helped make possible. Unfortunately, all of our members are in schools right now hard at work to put smiles on students' faces. But I am here on their behalf to stand against dehumanizing practices like collective punishment and for the School District to put joy first. (Applause.)

Local 634 members are more than just hall and recess monitors and cafeteria workers. We call ourselves the staff at the heart of Philadelphia schools. That's because we are responsible for making sure that students feel welcome, safe, happy when they are outside of the classroom. We form connections and support for young people as they unwind and explore outside of their formal learning process. We know kids want to come to school each day -- we know kids want to come to school each day when they have the chance to develop who they are with their peers, to play and to explore. At the same time, we have seen firsthand how policies like silent lunch and denial of recess impact young people. These practices are far too present across the District, especially in majority Black schools. These anti-Black practices devalue students and have clear impacts on their mental health. When school are places of fear and not places of joy, they are not places where students want to be. That is not acceptable. (Applause.)

Our union has time and time again stood against the School District's appetite to provide substandard wages and benefits to our union, its only union disproportionately combined of Black women. We have stated that we believe substandard wages and benefits for our members is anti- Black. And now, we are advocating for an anti-Black policy that significantly punish Black students. But of all that, I want to be crystal clear about what my members see. We see firsthand that positive and uplifting score vibrance boosts attendance. We see that Philadelphia students feel confident when they are allowed to play and explore. We see that our work in helping to create joy matters. That means that the School District needs to invest in ensuring joy and it needs to invest in the necessary staff to allow joy to happen. We need more student climate staff and food service workers to make sure there's enough supervision so that our young people are safe while they play, explore and grow together. And we need to make sure that these jobs have has adequate wages and benefits and are supported by the School District and its administrators. I know when my members are happy and feel supported they can best do their job. And that means that they can and will help to guarantee joy during the school day. This is why we are here to support the creation of a new Chief of Joy position that will be committed to ensuring that our schools are places of joy and happiness and not places of punishment. And we support to explore what is going on in our classrooms, our halls and our lunchrooms and our school yards. Our union has long demanded that our members be valued for the work that they do to ensure that students are safe, feel happy, valued, respected and engaged. It's time for joy itself to be valued as well. Thank you. (Applause.)

Good afternoon to the members of the Joint Committees on Education and Children and Youth of Philadelphia City Council. My name is LeShawna Coleman. I'm the Treasurer and Chief of Staff of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers or PFT, and I'm pleased to be here today at the invitation of Minority Leader Kendra Brooks. The PFT represents more than 14,000 education professionals who work in the School District of Philadelphia. We are proud to be the foremost advocates for children's education, health and wellness in the city of Philadelphia. Right now the student population in Philadelphia public schools is growing after years of decline. This is due to a number of developments realized in great part by the hard-working, dedicated members of the PFT. Many of us are lifelong educators who have been working for the District since it was under state control. We came to work every day during the School Reform Commission years when it wasn't clear that the District would have enough funding to start a new school year. We came to work during the reckless mass closures of schools, which cut gaping wounds in communities that have yet to fully heal. We even came to work after politicians in Harrisburg tried to illegally cancel our collective bargaining agreement with the District. Many lifelong educators, including myself, are still here and still dedicated to Philadelphia students, despite the turmoil and uncertainty because we know education has power to ameliorate the inequities too many children in this city are born into. We know firsthand the curiosity and light that lives in all children. Light that must be nurtured with skill, wisdom and care in order to lead our youth towards a path to challenge, reward and inspire. The stated purpose of this hearing is to explore the role of joy in K-12 education. I want to acknowledge how thrilling it is to just say those words out loud. As public school educators and activists, we spend so much time calling out systemic deprivation that frankly affects every school building in this city. There are so many longstanding unmet needs in our schools which directly impact our children and more importantly, how they view their place and potential in this world that it breaks my heart daily. But today in the year 2025 and everything that is happening to public educators and students right now, we are in Council chambers to talk about joy in Philadelphia public classrooms. I again want to thank the members of this Committee for the opportunity to talk about the hope, possibility and light in each and every one of our students. Our most effective educators are not stereotypical disciplinarians, although to be clear, Philly educators take our job seriously. Rather our most effective educators teach from a place of love, of dreaming and of joy. Our working conditions are children's learning conditions. And when schools are understaffed, that means more work for existing personnel, whether it be having to cover additional classrooms, having to teach in overcrowded rooms with not enough time to devote to students who need individualized attention or having no time during the school day to perform bureaucratic tasks such as lesson preparation and paperwork, eating into the time our members need for family rest and personal care. In addition, staff shortages cheat students, as you see from our campaign buttons. It is a daily occurrence in our schools that a child is forced to wait an uncomfortable amount of time to go to the bathroom or that one student's health emergency or episode effectively cancels learning or recreation for their peers, because there simply aren't enough staff to supervise students. Staff shortages make it impossible for our members to provide the individualized attention, support and care that every Philadelphia public school student deserves. That is why the PFT collective bargaining team, of which I am a member, is hard at work negotiating new caps on class sizes.

Our proposals will require the District to provide extra compensation to members when class sizes exceed those caps, because overcrowded classes force members to work outside of regular hours. Additionally, our contract proposals include a demand to implement lower caseloads for counselors and nurses. We have also requested that the District institute a maximum caseload for counselors so that they too can effectively do their jobs. When working conditions are optimal for our members, so are learning conditions for students who are then able to access noncore and engaging curricula, exposure to the arts and music, educational field trips and exposure to cultures that both affirm diverse experiences and broaden student worlds. Adequate staffing in every District school is the baseline of what we should be providing for Philadelphia students. Only from there can we begin to implement an agenda of joyful learning and exploration for our students. Thank you again for inviting public school educators to this important discussion about making K-12 learning and Philly affirming and joyful for all students. )

Before I recognize Council President Johnson, I have a question. We've heard what we don't want to see. I'm a former dean, former teacher. I've taught everything from undergrad down to kindergarten. What do you think after listening to everything that we've heard today what are appropriate disciplinary measures that we all feel like are acceptable when our children misstep? We heard the dozen of things we don't want to see. What do we think are appropriate disciplinary measures when we see missteps from our children in our academic settings?

What we've been trying to do is really lean into that restorative space, right. So our kids will make missteps. That's part of learning in life. It's not supposed to be -- it's supposed to be a time where they can learn, how to process, how to communicate with each other, how to then understand what choices could be made and then think about what can happen next time, because they will have a challenge again, right. We know that. So it should be used as a time of learning but leaning into a restorative way versus, you know, you don't get recess, you don't get to kind of take things away. That's not where we want to go. We want to go and give them a bag of tools, right, that they can continue to use as they have issues as they proceed in life.

As I said, we're asking for lower class sizes as well as lower caseloads for our counselors. Many of our students need time to talk to someone so when things don't always go right, we don't have enough counselors in our school to take them aside and have a reflective conversation so they can think about what happened or express what they're feeling, because sometimes things happen the night before at home and they don't have someone to talk to because the counselor is doing all of the college applications or high school applications and there's just one counselor in the school. So increasing those positions would greatly affect our children and their ability to reflect.

I agree with you 100% -- (Applause.)

If we have those positions that we probably wouldn't need to use as many creative measures to try to redirect our children. So I agree 100%. But I do think that we have some homework to do. So in the midst of today's dialogue we're hearing a lot about what we shouldn't do. I'm challenging the District to sit with some of the community stakeholders, union representation and other people that are here that really care about this issue, so there can be an opportunity to not just talk about what we don't want to see in classrooms but what are some best practices as it relates to what we do want to see. Because if we understand that we have educators who have issues around classroom management, right, because that's where a lot of this comes from is classroom management. It's not necessarily Nicole's folks and the climate people that's in the hallways as much as the facilitator in the classroom. We need to make sure that we have common practices, not just don'ts but also do's. So when things take place, we know what our go to are. Chair recognizes Council President Johnson.

Thank you, Chairman Thomas. I just wanted to come past and just show my support for the hearing, most importantly, my colleagues, Councilmember Rue Landau and Kendra Brooks. And I ask y'all to give them a round of applause for taking the leadership position around this particular issue. (Applause.)

I remember growing up as a kid. And some of you may remember, some of you may not remember we had corporal punishment. And so, I remember the paddle in elementary school and I remember going to Barratt Junior High School, we had a room called Room 3, right, where Room 3 you had to go down there and do your work and you wouldn't be associated with the rest of your friends and the other students. And then obviously, when I was in high school I went to Bok High School we also have another room, Room 101, just based upon -- I was bad, but that's a different story. I remember all the room 22 numbers. But we're in a different day and time. And as a parent, as a dad of two boys, right, and as a father and parent, I understand the difference of how I might have been raised as a young man and this may not be how I'm going to raise my children. Hurt people hurt people, right. And a lot of young people come to school. A lot of young people come to school for a variety of different issues that they need support for from just the environment and the pressures of living in the inner city of the city of Philadelphia. And so, a couple questions in terms of, one, to Dr. Jayme Banks. And I just talked to Dr. Watlington and see where he's at on this issue. And his exact response is that this is one of their core issues and he wants to be supportive of this process, Chairman Thomas. He said it's one of their core strategic values. So he said he will be looking at figuring out how he can put more joy into the overall strategic plan. (Applause.)

For me, I want to see also how do you incorporate -- I'm an advocate of allowing the boots- on-the-ground organizations to come in and participate and work in partnership with the District, right. When we were young, we had NTAs. Somebody got the great idea to get rid of NTAs, right. But with all due respect and I support all the teachers and so forth, but teachers aren't social workers to be quite frank with you, but I also recognize that NTA, Ms. Brown from the neighborhood, Mr. Rob from the neighborhood, right, when I would act up was set me straight, right, while I was at Bok, while I was at Barratt, while I was at Childers Elementary School. And I don't know if we can go back to that type of model, but I would think we should, right, because I know it's very, very effective, and also making sure we're taking advantage of again partnering with the outside organizations like the Mothers in Charge. Listen, we were at a walk yesterday for a young lady, 17-year-old murdered in the driveway. And while we're knocking on doors, we met a young lady who was a friend who attended the same school. And she said, Well, I'll be 19. She could have been turning 18, but now she won't see the full value of her life. You got a kid that's dealing with trauma, right, that may act out in a certain type of way. You got from the drafting policies coming from D.C. kids that's not going to school with a full belly of food for breakfast. And so, if you're hungry and crash, you're going to act out, right. And you shouldn't be punished because that's the type of symptom of what's going on at home. So maybe we could push more toward I'm not going to say public-private partnerships, but allowing nonprofit organizations to be even more partners with the District. And last but not least, just making sure that we're taking a holistic approach in how we support our young people, because I think a lot of them dealing with trauma, right, and also just make sure we have culturally-competent diverse teachers inside the schools, because -(Applause.)

-- raising two Black boys, I recognize what one teacher may perceive is aggression, it's just him just responding, you know, how he want to respond. And if you're not able to discern between the two, then you want to punish him because you're saying he's being "aggressive," where he's just barking a little bit. And so, could you just give me an idea -- I know that was a lot that I said, but I wanted to put some of those things on the record. But give me an idea where we're going in terms of making sure we're bringing in support systems to support our teachers, right? And then also in terms of the PFT, I know y'all do collective bargaining. I guess is the joy position and the joy agenda a part of what you're actually asking for? I know you said counselors, I get that. But, no, specifically here's the joint agenda. When we go in the room 6 with the District, we're negotiating these positions, the audit that Kendra Brooks was speaking of, that needs to be done, and things of that sort as a part of your agenda. So I just wanted to say that and give a shout-out to Rosslyn Wuchinich, who's the head of Local 634 UNITE HERE. So that's it.

Partnerships are everything. And Dr. Watlington will say this, we cannot do this alone. We need our partnerships. I think part of what I did share earlier is we have been building this partnership database so that we can really understand all the partnerships we have, what schools they're with, what schools don't have partnerships and we should connect so we can better leverage partnerships. And so, that's something out of the Accelerate Philly strategic plan Dr. Watlington kind of asked us to do so that the Office of Strategic Partnerships is finalizing that right now, so definitely utilizing partnerships in ways in which they can help where we need support and they have expertise, right. Your other question around training and supports, your example is one that resonates with me. When we started a couple years ago and continue to lean into it as a supportive environment series, which is trainings that we do for our schools, so sometimes that teacher that you said that may think that that student did something disrespectful, I actually want to go a step further. Sometimes it's the car ride -- the teacher woke up late and the car ride, they hit a pothole and then they got to school and their aide isn't going to be with them today, and then they have an interaction with a student, right. And that leads to them maybe not handling it in a way in which is restorative, right, and more punitive. So we started giving training to our teachers to say, we have to look at just you as well, right. We have to lean into what supports we're giving you so that you can then be there for our students. So I think that's a conversation that we continue to kind of lean into in terms of professional development as well as our Labor Relations, Human Resources side kind of looked at what supports and knowledge do our workforce need to do the job as well.

Can I respond?

Go ahead.

So my union represents -- because I know you spoke about the NTAs. And so, I remember when the NTAs were in school. But our people were named noon time aides, so it was always kind of like, oh, noon time aides, NTAs. So our role, what you talked about earlier, is doing just that, supporting the students. We monitor hallways, we monitor the lunchroom. We are the cafeterias, so we are student climate staff and we do that. We have been pushing the District for more training for our student climate staff so they hire them off the street, and we've been talking about de-escalation training, conflict resolution and making sure that the District does these things so that we can support the students. Because I believe in just what you said about students act out because they want attention. And some of our folks are in the neighborhood. They live in the neighborhood. They walk to school, they have relationships, they see the students at home, they know the parents. And so, we want to make sure that they have those relationships because sometimes students, you know, we always say everybody in the School District that works in the School District have their own specific role. You know, teachers teach, principals manage the buildings. Our folks are huggers or we talk to them. Sometimes our students in the schools confide in our student climate staff about things that go on at home, things that go on in the neighborhood and we need more of that. And so, we keep pressing the District. You can have a school -- like me that's close to my office, I believe they have two student climate staff. That's ridiculous. But then you go to a school -- and that's an all Black school. But then you go to a school like Lincoln, even though it's bigger, you have student climate staff. 16 Most of the schools in the 17 Northeast have so many student 18 climate staff, but then you go to a 19 school, majority Black school, they 20 don't have enough student climate staff to manage the students so they can't build those relationships with those students because it's too many of them. This is the time where they're running around the lunchroom, but we want the kids to make sure that they're able to feel comfortable with us. So when you talk about it we need to push a District to train our folks when they hire them, don't just bring them in and then set them up for failure. Teach them so that they can work with those students so those students can feel trust in those workers so that they can be better in school and then have more joy in school. (Applause.)

And I just want to add that we are working on that. We are working on a training plan to really kind of lean into how valuable they are and then making sure that they have what they need to be supportive. So we are working on a training plan, I believe, for the upcoming school year for those team members.

So let me just add to that. So homework for when this District comes before Council is a training plan for climate staff. We also had a separate meeting where we talked about when you hire climate staff, for them to be places that's age-appropriate, so if I'm hiring a 20-year-old climate staff, that person probably shouldn't be working in a high school, right. And then last but not least, as it relates to homework we spoke last year around -- now, I remember the exact example -- it was Kensington Health and Science, we compared it to Frankford High School, and we looked at the public-private partnerships, to use the Council President's terminology, nonprofit partners, and we seen that some schools had significantly more partners than others and we were told it's based on a discretion of the principal. So the last homework assignment for when we come to budget from the District will be to bring us a list, especially our comprehensive high schools, of who are the nonprofit partners for all of our comprehensive high schools so we can compare and contrast West Philly High School, Overbrook High School to a Lincoln, a Northeast and Ben Franklin and Masterman, so those are the things we want to see when you come for the budget. (Applause.)

The person who brought us together today is -- if we could give her a round of applause because this dialogue is amazing. So I want to take a moment to not just recognize Councilmember Brooks because she's next, but also turn it over to her to chair the remainder of the hearing. But overall, can we give Councilmember Brooks a round of applause for bringing us together today on such an important topic. Councilmember Brooks. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you so much. But I've also done this in conjunction with Councilmember Landau, so she has to get some love too. (Applause.)

Thank you, Councilmember Landau. Thank you. Appreciate the love. Thank you for bringing us together.

So I just have a few questions --

(Gestured).

You wanted to start this off -- oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Thank you. I couldn't agree with you more, president Johnson, concerning non-teaching assistants, NTAs. The PFT has been advocating for close to years now to return that 9 position to our schools. They were 10 people who were largely members of 11 the communities in which they 12 worked. They were full-time 13 employees who earned a fair wage. 14 The District eliminated 15 those positions many years ago, to 16 our opposition strongly. Those 17 positions were filled by people who 18 had firm but loving touches with 19 our children. I remember as an 20 early teacher they would come to the classroom, they would help you, I mean for everything. Whether you had to run to the bathroom, whether a child was having a rough day, they would take them out. They were able to talk to them in a way that sometimes somebody who didn't know the children or community as well wasn't able to, so we strongly support returning those positions to our schools. In addition to answer your question concerning what PFT is doing with the District in terms of joy and making sure that kids have access to activities, we recently worked with Randy Davila in the Office of Student Life to implement additional extracurricular time for our students to make sure that schools that are not our typical schools that have access to things like robotics and other higher level clubs, we found money and ways to distribute it in a way that was equitable so that those schools would have access too, so our schools that do serve the children who are majority Black and Brown or from economic backgrounds that are not doing as well. (Applause.)

Thank you very much.

All right. I have a bunch of questions, mostly for the District. But I would start off with you mentioned about restorative practices. And my question is, who determines that a restorative route is going to be taken? Who makes that determination when a report is made that something happened, who determines if it's going to be sent through a restorative framework?

So in our code of conduct -- sorry, can you hear me? In our code of conduct, it not only says kind of what the infractions are but goes into kind of restorative practices and gives schools a whole kind of matrix of different options in terms of dealing with issues, as we then train our school leaders on how to utilize the matrix --

Okay. Let me explain. I'm a restorative practitioner that trains School District staff. So my question is who makes the determination that that is going to happen? Who determines if an infraction is reported, and I know it's a bunch of things that could, you know, so who says that? Who says I'm going to send you through this route?

Right. So it's the school leader and the discipline system. So the school leader might be the principal themselves, it could be a climate manager, it could be a dean. They usually have a process where they choose kind of what the process practice is going to be. We help give them ideas of what is restorative and what they can do.

Even if it's from staff to student? Not student to student, but staff to student. Some of the violations that the parents mentioned were infractions between adult and a young person. So if it's reported --

Sorry. I'm thinking you're talking student to student.

Yeah, not student to student.

Adult to student, we have kind of a labor relations process, right. So the school principal would alert the issue, it would be investigated, right. And then upon that investigation in terms of what needs to happen, to rectify with the adult, it is determined. So it could be, you know, it could be handled at the school level. It could raise up to a labor relations investigation and then recommendations come from that. Then what happens next.

Then is the parent or family then informed of the result of the investigation once they made the request?

They are provided an update. I'm not sure about the specifics, so let me get back to you on that, in terms of what level of specifics can be given to the family.

Okay. And I'm just thinking from a framework. I don't know if you were earlier when I was highly triggered by their parent's testimony. So I'm not going in as hard as I could because I don't want to be specific. But from the framework of hurt people hurt people, the example that you used, if an adult had a bad day coming into school, they need to check themselves before they deal with young people.

They do. They --

I'm saying coming into this hearing today, I was on 95 from an event in Frankford. My staff didn't show up. I didn't know who was picking me up. I broke the heel of my shoe. I'm sitting here smiling. I met you on of the elevator. You didn't know all that was going on. I still said good morning and kept it moving. And this is an adult to adult. So the social, emotional learning piece falls on the adults, on the professionals. (Applause.)

And that's why I'm kind of trying to figure this trickle-down because our children get lost in the framework, especially if we're starting with a teacher had a bad day.

Right. No, no, no. What we're trying to do is educate adults about themselves too, right.

Thank you for that.

And they understand their impact.

Right. Okay. So I'm going to my real questions. I just had to put that out there. Back to the bathroom breaks. So the testimony today made it clear that while the District expects schools to allow bathroom and recess breaks, many children are still routinely denied both. There's a difference between an expectation and a mandate. In some Southwest Philadelphia schools from what we are understanding is parents report sending their children to school wearing incontinent products out of fear that menstrual products will fail and access to the bathroom is uncertain and children are afraid to ask. So my questions are, how many bathroom breaks are for students in PreK through 12th grade? How many are guaranteed a day?

The -- sorry. I'm trying to get my words together. I cannot. I do not have that to give you in terms of this many bathroom breaks. What we do -- what we tell them to do is they should not -- they should not be withholding bathroom breaks. So, number one, if you have -- I want to know about these incidents that you share. So if someone feels as though they have to come to school and wear those products because of fear, that's not okay.

This is a norm. This might be one reported incident, but this is not uncommon that kids aren't allowed to go to the bathroom. (Applause.)

So that's of concern. I cannot -- it's not as if it's prescriptive in that we say there needs to be five bathroom breaks in this amount of hours. I will take this back and look into it further, but that's not okay.

And I'm saying this because it goes back to when the lawyer here, is it a should or is it a must. And I think that we need to probably put some parameters there. Because if there is no clear policy -- like in Pennsylvania, minor employees are entitled to a 60-minute break during an eight-hour shift. Yet we're asking young people to go an entire school day without a guaranteed break. (Applause.)

So the Lift Every Voice parents submitted feedback on the wellness policy calling for bathroom access at all times, two dedicated breaks per day separate from lunch, clear posted water breaks and access guidelines. So my question is, are you guys willing to commit to writing, something in writing for district-wide guidance for how principals include these basic protections? This is like -- like you said, you need to look back on it and really surprised. And I'm saying this firsthand as a person, and folks here know, I spent many of years full day volunteering in schools. My oldest daughter is 34 years old. My youngest is 16. This is not nothing new. Can we have something in writing that guarantees that young people are allowed to go to the bathroom a certain amount of times a day?

I will take this back. I mean, there's no 19 reason why this should be an issue, right. Bathroom break is a natural occurrence, so I will take this back.

Thank you for that. My next question goes into STEP teams. The STEP program began in 2017 and seven years, just 9% of the School District have full-time STEP teams. That's not enough. This model works. It's embedded in trauma- informed support into schools, but it requires investment in some interagency coordination. So, yes, we realized that a workplace shortage is happening, but the District, we were able to overcome the nursing shortage with every voice pressure and internal leadership. So the question is, what is the District recruitment and staffing goal for STEP teams? What is the target for this year and next year? And if this model works, why aren't we scaling it up, right?

So in terms of the specific staffing numbers, the District will be coming back with those on the 29th hearing with my Talent colleagues. But in terms of STEP, I want to be really clear in that the initial 21, which again was funded via the partnership and continue to be funded through the partnership with DBH and CBH, are the fully funded. Everything outside of that, so there's 45 so the -- -- I can't do math right 11 now. You get me? 12

13 Yes. 14

Those are 15 funded from District dollars. So I 16 just want to be really clear the 17 District has put out funding to 18 grow the programs. And all of 19 those are funded, again a couple 20 different funding streams, but it's funded via District dollars. With the shortage of funding, it's always our school leaders every year are able to look at their budgets and determine if they can allocate funding towards their needs. And some of our school leaders have identified the STEP program as something that they want to fund in their buildings. As we identify other dollars, as we get grant dollars, we always look to increase this, but it's something that we need more consistent funding to be able to definitively say we're trying to grow this by X number.

So the STEP programs are at the discretion of the principal. Is it a request like when they do their budget, you get to pick -- I used to work very closely with my principal. So when you select teachers and principals and you go to Title funding, is this the same money you're trying to figure out to pay -

There's two avenues. There's one avenue where, yes, a principal can decide with their budget to allocate funding for this program just like they would allocate funding for climate staff, teachers and so on. At times when we have additional grant funding, grant dollars and we're looking to really -- like when we were leaning into some of our gun violence areas and things of that nature and we have additional grant dollars, we will then say STEP teams would be really helpful in these schools and we have funded them that way as well.

So one of my questions is so when we think about -- I know it's at the principal's discretion and the budget allocation determines how much the school has, but if there are certain schools that are in critical zones that are identified as needing more trauma-informed or more assessment, there's no 4 stipulation to determine that those schools will get the particular funds needed to make sure they're able to afford additional programs like a STEP team?

So this is again a little bit out of -- more of my CFO's lane than mine to be able to discuss. However, what we have done as we have identified additional dollars is look at the communities that we really think need it and kind of put it in those. So when the funding is identified, that's how we decide where to go next in addition to our principals being able to opt in on their own.

My next question is around discipline and collective punishment. So the Lift Every Voice members report that the District has agreed to ban collective punishment in the updated code of conduct. And that -- (Applause.)

That's a meaningful step. But these practices which was silent, lunches, canceled recesses, recess is still happening. Will the District explicitly ban collective punishment -- I know you don't use that terminology -- in the updated code of conduct, including silent lunches and canceled research? And how will enforcement be insured at the school level?

So we are in the updated code of conduct for next school year. We are saying they may not, right, do this collective punishment, meaning, shall not, may not, they can't. We are using stronger language to underline that we do not want recess and such taken away for the entire class for behavior for one, right. So we are using and will be using language. In addition, as I shared before our Lift Every Voice team members will be part of our review process of the updated. So we're doing it right now. They will be seeing the proposals as well as giving feedback to how to make it stronger and better.

All right. Because little Kenyatta, he spoke for himself, kept me in lunch a whole lot of times. I had to miss lunch because of little Kenyatta. He's not here right now. Council President stepped out, but I remember in my years growing up and I came from corporal punishment, so we had a paddle when I was in school.

Understood.

So my next question is healthy air. I want to ask about your plan to improve air quality in schools. Philly's childhood asthma rate is triple the national average and our Black and Brown and Latino children in our city are hospitalized for asthma attacks more than four times as often as White children. So the issue of indoor air quality in our schools is extremely important to me. I'm sure that we can all agree on that. The listening session that the School District conducted recently was very helpful. And in those sessions, I'm glad to hear that Dr. Oz Hill told families and staff that the School District acknowledged the need to acquire HEPA filters for classrooms and occupied spaces across the school. This would be a major step towards healthy schools that we all need and our children deserve. Given the urgency of our students' health needs, will you commit to pouring -- I mean, sorry, procuring these HEPA filters for every school in next year's budget?

As I'm Student Support Services, this is Dr. -- I was going to say Dr. Oz Hill. This would be our Deputy Superintendent Oz Hill's area. So I will ask Laurel and team members when they come back on the 29th to be able to respond to that. I will say in terms of asthma we've been doing a lot of work around asthma, including that we stock Albuterol in all of our schools which we didn't do previously. Again, that sort of answered your question, but I want to say we are proactively trying to think about how to have resources inhouse as much as possible and help our students so they don't have these episodes.

I have two more. One is special education, the next one is special education. So in 2019 the Pennsylvania Department of Education found that the District was not referring or evaluating students in a timely way. This denied many student services they are legally entitled to. So the questions are, what is the average wait time for a special education evaluation? Is there a backlog and what are we doing about it? And are evaluations up or down compared to prior years?

Again, I apologize. Dr. Natalie Neree, diverse learners is where special education falls, so I'm unable to provide those responses but we will get back to you with those questions shortly after this.

All right. Maybe you can help me with this. Maybe we don't have the -- no knock against you. Maybe the District didn't send all the correct people to be prepared for this hearing, but I thank you for your testimony so far. You've been very helpful. Discipline disparities, I think that falls --

Say it again.

Discipline.

Yes.