After nearly two years of setbacks, Mayor Adams’ push to hire hundreds of junior school safety agents could hit a legal snag, a civil liberties group has warned.
In 2023, the Adams administration revealed plans to hire 400 assistant safety personnel — newly minted high school graduates under 21 who could help address staffing shortages in elementary schools. The program languished until this spring when the NYPD finally posted the job.
Now, the New York Civil Liberties Union is alleging the job description violated state law by giving the young agents more responsibility over school discipline than is legally permitted. The posting states that tasks may include “identifying persons violating New York City Public Schools rules and regulations.”
“This responsibility is not merely inappropriate, but unlawful,” NYCLU wrote in a letter made public on Tuesday.
“The law makes it clear that school safety personnel, whether School Safety Agents or Assistant School Safety Agents, must not serve as school disciplinarians or enforcers of school rules. Their intervention is strictly limited to situations involving serious criminal conduct, presenting a clear and present danger of serious physical injury,” continued the memo, which was addressed to Adams.
An NYPD School Safety patch. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)
City Hall rejected NYCLU’s interpretation of the law and stood by the job posting.
“This is clearly inaccurate,” said Zachary Nosanchuk, a spokesman for the mayor. “As Mayor Adams often says, ‘the vocal minority is not the majority,’ and we are expanding school safety resources in direct response to feedback from families and community advocates by creating the new position of assistant school safety agent. This role is completely legal.”
Efforts to restore the ranks of school safety agents have reignited a years-long debate over their presence in public schools.
Last spring, just over 3,600 agent positions were filled out of an authorized head count closer to 4,000, according to data compiled by the NYCLU — a 28% decrease over the past five years.
Proponents of the new initiative say it will not only beef up staffing now, but also build a pipeline of school safety personnel for the future by recruiting new graduates to the NYPD. Junior agents will earn a starting salary of $37,300 and be tasked with greeting students, preventing trespassing, and assisting with “maintaining order,” according to the job description.
NYPD School Safety vehicles are pictured in Manhattan on Jan. 28, 2022. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
But critics of school policing have welcomed the downward staffing trend since the COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd protests, saying some of their work is better left to mental health professionals.
NYCLU also raised specific concerns about the deputy role — which requires candidates have a high school diploma or GED and undergo eight weeks of training. Traditional school safety personnel must be 21 or older and go through up to 17 weeks of training.
“They’re going to be even less trained than the current school safety agents,” said Jake Martinez, deputy director of the education policy center at the NYCLU. “This is straight out of high school.”
“It’s extremely concerning because they don’t really have to have any experience at all to be going into the schools. And now, these young people are going to be responsible for enforcing school rules.”
In the letter, the NYCLU said the Adams administration “at a minimum” should revise the job description and update any trainings to comply with state law. But the civil liberties group also urged City Hall to go further and eliminate the program altogether.
“More fundamentally, New York City should not be expanding police-like surveillance into elementary schools at all,” the letter said.
Applications closed mid-last week, and new hires are expected to start soon. Asked if NYCLU would consider legal action if the job description is not revised, Martinez said the center is “currently exploring all of our options.”
Originally Published: July 8, 2025 at 12:28 PM EDT