May 4, 2026

Dear Families,                             

Last week, I wrote to you about CPE1’s trip to City Hall this Thursday, May 7.  Some families had additional questions, which this letter will try to answer.

First, some families wondered whether children might be photographed for local news articles.  The answer is no.  If reporters are nearby, we would ask them to put away their cameras.

Another question was what would happen for children whose families do not consent to this trip.  If that happens, we will have one or two substitute teachers who remain at CPE1.  Children would complete work under supervision of these licensed substitute teachers.

We will arrive at approximately 9:45.  Students will walk together around the perimeter of City Hall Park, chanting to call attention to the issue at hand.  Then, all classes will enter a security checkpoint.  We have a permit to occupy the front steps of City Hall.  We are hoping that a representative of the mayor’s office will come out to receive petitions and hear from students.  We will board buses back to school in time for lunch. 

Different classes have discussed this work at different times.  Many have been designing signs to call attention to the issue.  What is that issue?

New York City does not own or operate school buses.  To transport students, the city contracts with private companies.  The contract specifies free field trip buses for grades K-12.  Buses for pre-K are expensive and virtually unavailable. 

In practice, the only field trips available for New York City’s 40,000 pre-K and 3K students are walking trips.  Most educational opportunities are too far to walk.  For example, the main entrance of the Bronx Zoo is too far for 99.7% of Bronx pre-K students, and only three of Manhattan’s 126 elementary schools can walk to the American Museum of Natural History. 

That can change.  New York City is in the middle of negotiating the first new bus contract in more than two decades.  If negotiators demand each bus company equips one or two buses with car seats, the nation’s most ambitious pre-K program could fully access the nation’s most vibrant city. 

No current CPE1 student will benefit personally from such a change.  Most finished pre-K already; thirty more will be kindergarteners before a new contract takes effect.  So why are kids advocating at all? 

First, they voted for it.  Through the city’s Civics for All program, a clear majority of students voted to fund pre-K buses for a protest at City Hall.  The majority of older students also voted to lend their voices in support. 

Second, this trip aligns with our school’s teaching about equity, rights, and fair access.  We read developmentally appropriate texts about real history.  We challenge students to weigh questions of fairness.  We tripled the participatory budget of Civics for All so that students had complex choices to make.  We told students not to list what they personally wanted to buy, but to allocate funds fairly.

Before the idea of a trip to City Hall came up, our fourth and fifth graders were brainstorming how our school could allocate Civics for All funds.  Some proposed buying car seats for pre-K so that our youngest students could take field trips.  Think about what that suggests about our oldest students.

If you grew up with or are raising siblings, you know how tempting it is for the oldest child to disregard or wield power over the youngest.  Our older kids have no personal stakes in this issue.  They take field trip buses regularly, so what happens for pre-K doesn’t affect them. 

Still, in a brainstorming session back in December, some older kids empathized with younger children, and offered help.  They had learned to be allies.

On Thursday, students will experience this exercise in allyship and advocacy at the place where advocacy can make a difference.  Kids on the steps of City Hall will get the attention of those inside.  Pre-K students also wrote letters to the mayor, as did our second graders back when they were in pre-K.  Of course, even well-written letters with logical arguments sometimes go unread.  Going in a large, hard-to-miss group increases the chances that officials with the power to affect bus contract negotiations recognize the simple, inexpensive solution before us.

This week, children are raising their voices for an issue that is immediate and fixable.  They will be in community at the seat of this city’s power.  Learning the hope and spirit of civic engagement can stay with children for a long, long time.