STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 It\u2019s the first day of classes for tens of thousands of students across New York City on Thursday, as both public and Catholic schools welcome kids back to campus for the 2025-2026 school year.<\/p>\n
Parents can prepare for both tears and cheers as students say farewell, and then greet their classmates and teachers for another year of school.<\/p>\n
The last day of classes for public school is June 26, 2026. For Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New York, schools can end as early as June 18, 2026.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a closer look at some important information for the 2025-2026 school year.<\/p>\n
Cellphone ban begins<\/p>\n
A statewide cellphone ban means students in New York City public schools won\u2019t be able to use their phones and other internet-enabled devices during the entire school day<\/a>. The bell-to-bell ban affects all public schools in the state, including city public schools, requiring individual schools to develop their own policies to ban devices.<\/p>\n Schools are required to have a plan to ban phones and other devices, provide a storage option, and provide communication methods for parents. There are some exceptions for students with medical conditions or if devices are required on an Individualized Education Plan.<\/p>\n Since the state law applies to only public school districts, private and Catholic schools technically don\u2019t need to follow the ban. However, many schools in the borough already have implemented their own cellphone ban policies. <\/p>\n An expansion of NYC Solves<\/p>\n New York City is expanding its universal math curriculum NYC Solves<\/a> to six public middle school districts, including Staten Island\u2019s District 31. NYC Solves is an initiative, built upon the success of the literacy initiative NYC Reads, that aims to standardize how math is taught in school using high-quality, research-based curricula. <\/p>\n Already implemented in all high schools and 101 middle schools citywide, the expansion will include all middle schools on Staten Island.<\/p>\n Schools will be able to choose between several curricula options, including Illustrative Mathematics, Amplify Desmos, and iReady Mathematics.<\/p>\n Reducing class sizes<\/p>\n New York City will continue its work this year to reduce class sizes to meet state law requirements.<\/a> <\/p>\n As of Nov. 15, 2024, 46.5% of classes in New York City were at or below class size caps, according to data. On Staten Island, about 31% of K-12 classrooms in the 2024-2025 school year were compliant with the class size limits.<\/p>\n The city is expected to have 60% of classrooms citywide in compliance with class size requirements this year. Another 20% of classrooms in compliance are expected to be added each year until all are in compliance by 2028.<\/p>\n An updated class size report is expected to be released this fall. <\/p>\n Hiring more teachers<\/p>\n In an effort to reduce class sizes, the city has also announced a major initiative to hire more teachers for public schools<\/a>. <\/p>\n On Staten Island, about 250 more teachers will be hired for the upcoming school year. <\/p>\n According to city data, 47 Staten Island schools, including elementary, middle, and high schools, received budget allocations to hire additional teachers.<\/p>\n An extended winter break<\/p>\n New York City added an additional day to winter break this school year. <\/p>\n The 2025-2026 New York City education department school calendar previously closed buildings for winter break from Dec. 24-Jan. 1. Classes were slated to resume on Jan. 2 \u2014 which means students would have been forced to return to classes for one day that week.<\/p>\n Schools will now be closed on Friday, Jan. 2.<\/p>\n The additional day off during recess will allow families more time for travel and vacation.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 It\u2019s the first day of classes for tens of thousands of students across New…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":199313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-199312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115145587460939663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}