NEW YORK – NYC Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos announced that nearly 750 schools can hire over 3,700 teachers across the public school system to reduce class sizes. Following a careful joint review of hundreds of schools’ proposed plans by NYC Public Schools, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA), this investment supports increased compliance with the class size law for the 2025-2026 school year, utilizing a school-driven framework for class size reduction.
“A reduced class size is one of the best ways to help our students learn and for young people to thrive, and today, we are taking yet another step toward making New York City the best place on the globe to raise a family,” said Mayor Adams. “By investing in the hiring of 3,700 additional teachers at 750 public schools across the five boroughs for the 2025-2026 school year, we will help give our schools the ability to create smaller, more nurturing classrooms where all our students can excel and be provided more individualized care. Let me do the math: we have 750 schools over five boroughs with 3,700 additional teachers – equaling incredible benefits for New York City public school students. We look forward to continuing to work with our union partners to implement our plan, maintain compliance with class size regulations, and further enhance learning environments across the city.”
“Today’s announcement is a demonstration of genuine collaboration with our union partners and represents a commitment to listening to our schools,” said Public Schools Chancellor Aviles-Ramos. “We are so proud to be making this new investment in our schools, supporting 750 of them to lower their class sizes for their students, all done in a way that’s driven by our school leaders and school communities.”
Schools had the choice to submit individual class size reduction plans – first announced in the fall of 2024 – for the 2025-2026 school year under a framework created by New York City Public Schools. Plans were developed at the school level, in consultation with school leadership teams, allowing for a school-driven approach to driving system-wide change. This initiative follows on the previous community engagement work done by New York City Public Schools on this issue, including the facilitation of the class size working group in 2023, which produced a series of recommendations on implementation of the law.
This notification to principals comes in advance of distribution of Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget allocations to allow additional time to support principals in hiring teachers and appropriately planning for the 2025-2026 school year. Initial budget allocations, including dollars for class size reduction, will be shared with schools later in the spring as is standard process.
This initiative for class size reduction will help schools bring additional classes below the new state-mandated class size caps and support New York City Public Schools in its efforts to meet compliance with the class size law next school year. New York City Public Schools has already hired an additional 1,000 new teachers for this current school year, and today’s announcement builds on that investment and, once again, shows Mayor Adams’ commitment to investing in New York City families.
