 Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us for today's public safety briefing led by deputy mayor for public safety fill banks Following our last speaker We will take a few questions from the media followed by some questions that have been submitted by the public ahead of today's briefing I would now like to turn it over to deputy mayor fill banks. Good afternoon On behalf of on behalf of me Adams, I like to start by wishing all those who celebrate a happy Passover a Happy Holy Week Happy Easter and they continue Ramadan or Barrett I'm joined here today by NYPD. Please commission a quiche on soul the New York City Department of Education Chancellor David Banks NYPD school safety commanding officer deputy chief Marlon laren and the Department of Education's chief of safety and prevention partnership Mark Rampus and We're here today to talk to you about an extremely important and critical safety issue and that is school safety At the core we are talking about the safety of our most treasured population our children But before we begin The police commissioner is going to be speaking about some crime status and information that she talked about yesterday Commission. Thank you deputy mayor. So yesterday the NYPD did its first quarter crime briefing And we were able to report on some very encouraging numbers for the first quarter We are down in five of the seven major categories of crime in the city and Transit crime is at an eight percent decrease a year to date We talked about the numbers being year over year. We're largely flat But we are in a very different place and we were last year Mayor Adams made a point that we were going to focus on the violence that was plaguing the city at the time at the Beginning of last year our greatest challenges were gun violence They were shootings and shooting victims and that's what was driving a lot of our crime data But as we are today that number is coming from felony assaults and grand larceny So we have continued to see the double digit decreases in shootings and shooting victims and homicides But we were also tackling the other major crimes as well. Most of our felony assaults Result a lot from domestic violence cases. There are some assaults on officers as well But we recognize that's something we have to drill down on and we did a presser with the mayor about our grand larceny Auto issues as well But I think when we look at where we are and all of the numbers that we're able to drive down in the last Year in three months is a true testament to the work of the women in the NYPD And we're going to continue to push forward to drive down those other categories as well. Thank you. Thank you commissioner So one of the purposes of this public safety briefings is to keep the public informed of what is happening in the city and It gives the administration the opportunity to talk directly to you and for us to hear directly from you And you can sign up At here from Eric calm right here from Eric calm to receive email notifications from a atoms and submit Questions in your comments We will try to answer as many of these questions during these briefings and the questions that we were not able to get to You will receive a reply Listen the mayor believes in collaboration This is evident in the many facets of this administration From the meetings that he has held which has produced the soon-to-be-release retail death report To the original ones which was the criminal justice summit To the many meetings he has with community and elected officials He has stated over and over again that we can win But only if we all work together This is especially true when it comes to public safety Every single agency plays a role in protecting the public While much of this collaboration goes on behind the scenes If you have watched any of the previous public safety briefings before you have seen examples of this And we will be giving you a closer look as some of these initiatives in the future But even if you can't always see the interagency collaboration, our hope is that you can feel it Collaboration leads to better delivery of services and better results for the residents So today we are focused on one example of cross-agency collaboration Which is arguably our most important job Protecting our children and keeping our schools safe The leadership team at this table knows that school safety does not begin When the kids walk through the doors in the morning Nor does it end when the last bell rings at the end of the school day To that point it's not just the responsibilities of these two agencies to keep our kids safe But just about all city agencies as well and members of the community It is especially important for parents to be proactive in talking to your kids about school safety It could be as simple as asking them how the day was at the dinner table Let them know if you feel unsafe Don't have to be afraid Tell somebody tell one of the adults at school. Tell your parents. Tell the neighbor. Tell someone To the parents monitor your kids social media Parents should be aware of what their children are posting or interacting with online This is a true group effort as the mayor says we can win but only if we work together So today we are going to provide everyone with a snapshot of just some Not all but some of the ways that the NYPD and the Department of Education work together with the public to make sure we're keeping our kids safe The mayor recently directed that a meeting be held with all the precinct commanding officers and all the school principals To my knowledge, this was the first time this has occurred. I spent many years in the NYPD I do not have a recollection where we held such a meeting This relationship building has and is developing great success And is contributing to the safety of not only the children in the schools But the teachers administrators agents and visitors alike So with that, I'd like to start turning it over to NYPD Commissioner Kisan Suu Thank you again deputy mayor All of new york city's students need a safe learning environment in order to succeed in the classroom and to thrive in their communities The NYPD is committed to ensuring that this environment exists in every new york city public school And protecting our school communities students staff Families and teachers is at the core of our public safety mission This is the the determined focus of our nearly 4 000 school safety agents assigned to our school safety division Which chief larin will speak about But we also recognize that safeguarding and improving our schools is not something that our school safety division does on its own This administration has rightly taken the position that public safety is a collective responsibility And part of this effort is for the NYPD to deepen its relationships in coordination with our partners And one of those critical partners is the department of education under the leadership of chancellor david banks The police department and the DOE have established true collaboration when working through issues related to school conditions safety and training Our agents and officers cannot do their work without strong relationships with school principals school administration teachers parents and most importantly students While we do communicate frequently in fact the chancellor and I actually meet weekly Earlier this year as the deputy mayor said the nypd formalized a process that now requires That our borough and precinct commanders meet either in person or virtually on a monthly basis with every school principal in their area of responsibility The response to this directive has been very positive from both our personnel and the DOE And these meetings have provided an additional opportunity to discuss safety plans with our local schools and workshop new ideas The nypd has also been intensely focused on youth crime Over the last several years they have been a significant increase in the number of shooters under the age of 18 And the number under 18 of people who are victims and arrested with a gun In fact under 18 shooting victims actually accounted for 10 percent of our shooting victims over the last year So pointedly what we see is an increase in youth crime and more youth victims of crime Over the past few months the nypd has deployed resources to ensure that our children have what we call safe passage to and from school each day A child's commute is an extension of their school day and wherever we see an issue arrive We must have the resources in place to address it This includes leveraging our patrol officers traffic safety personnel and our transit police officers To be strategically aware and visible on school routes and corridors In addition to our school safety agents our precinct-based youth coordination officers are also deployed daily to school dismissals across the city But we know we cannot do this work in silos We work closely with the mayor's office the DOE and others to keep our children safe Lastly it's important to highlight the joint work we perform with the DOE when it comes to active shooter and active threat training While we all regret that there is even a need for such training it addresses a stark reality of our modern times Prior to the school year in response to a number of school shooting incidents nationwide The nypd counterterrorism division and school safety division facilitated training and programs for school safety agents and members of the DOE This training was designed to strengthen the response capabilities to all of those working in a school environment In the event of an active school shooter incident and provide techniques and principles That can be effectively used to diminish threats of all types Over 5 000 members of the nypd school safety division and the DOE received this training All of this is done to remain vigilant and to supplement the school safety plans that each precinct and patrol borough maintains Which are tailored to the conditions of our communities Providing a safe climate in every new york city public school is of the utmost importance to the nypd And the police department will continue to work in partnership with the DOE School leaderships parents students and the communities we serve in furtherance of that responsibility Mr deputy mayor, thank you I like to know we're going to hear from now chief marlon larin. He's going to give us uh Updates specifically on what we're doing with the school safety. This is school chief. Thank you, mr. Deputy mayor Good afternoon, police commissioner school chancellor banks DOE chief of safety mark ramperson and members of the public I am deputy chief marlon larin of the school safety division and i'll provide a brief overview of our operations as it stands today The division is responsible for working hand in hand with the department of education To promote positive youth outcomes and to provide safety and security to the 1800 plus school communities housed in approximately 1400 buildings throughout the city The division is staffed by just over 4000 civilian and uniform members of the service We will be welcoming a new class of 118 school safety agents on may 1st And we anticipate another class of approximately 175 agents in april Finally on may 3rd There will be a school safety agent exam for the 5000 plus candidates who filed earlier in the year Many of these candidates were recruited by active school safety agents who are normally assigned to community outreach functions These same community outreach agents Comprise our outreach with options unit This unit is a blend of agents with police officers that are responsible for interacting with students To offer support and to raise awareness on trending items such as vaping drug use suicide bullying and trafficking At our wellness centers in the bronx south queens north brooklyn and coming soon to harlem They deliver virtual reality training sessions that are anchored in social emotional learning and conflict resolution Additional workshops cover topics such as financial wellness photography spoken word and videography Moving on to improvements in technology and training During the current school year every school safety agent has been equipped with the same cell phones and capabilities That are afforded to police officers for instant connectivity with the rest of the department We moved over to a radio infrastructure that gives agents direct access to 911 police communications technicians in the event of crime or disorder In and around our schools while still being able to communicate with doe administrators Agents and two boroughs are using the latest model radios and we seek to expand this on a citywide basis As the police commissioner said we enlisted the help of the counterterrorism division To train our agents in the most up-to-date curriculum regarding active threats and patient management We will also be upgrading some of the equipment of our agents And they will be armed with belt worn trauma kits which include first aid materials in the event of an emergency The school safety division operates under the purview of the community affairs bureau And we work in tandem with other major bureaus within the police department to provide safe corridors to young people As they travel to and from school Some of the steps that we take to achieve this include but are not limited to Overlaying mobile patrol units with our partners in patrol housing and transit for high visibility coverage actively monitoring 911 calls for shots fired stabbing slashings and group conflicts within the immediate vicinity of school In order to implement doe general response protocols such as sheltering in place Notifying patrol services of any incidents or events that may escalate to an act of violence Implementing plans to increase coverage when a threat to a specific person or to a school site is made An unimpeded communication with our partners at doe to avert conflicts and to solve problems that affect school communities In closing the school safety division is a proud partner of the department of education It is our honor to bear the mantle of keeping our school community safe Finally, we as a division and the police department at large will not rest until every young person is safe Thank you for your time Thank you chief. Uh chief I want to just point in question I was on the merger team when school safety, which was under the DOE originally before we merged And then when I was the chief of community affairs as you mentioned and one I just want to give a shout out I've always felt as though that they were one of the truly truly like Unsung heroes in this city. Uh, they they never get the focus. They don't get their recognition As I think they deserve and I just want to one applaud you for the work that you're doing over there And just to the agents that stand to you mark as well because uh, It truly truly do a fantastic job But I just want to a critical part is that We see around the country where we have these instances where danger takes place in school And the amount of time in which responders can get there is critical You're stating now that we have the radios that they can now communicate directly With patrol forces now. Can you just speak a little briefly on that because That it appears that that's going to cut some time, right? And the time we understand is very critical for we can get help there to assist the children Can you just speak about that? Yes, sir. And thank you, mr. Deputy mayor for your comments I truly believe that under this administration our agents are getting the most support that they've seen in a long time They do very much with very little and we're very proud of the work that they do But as it relates to our radio capabilities now The way that the agents communicated prior to this school year Was directly with other school safety agents at our headquarters in long island city Those are additional steps That were in the middle of getting police officers and our emergency services unit if necessary To the scene because in that event the agent on the field will communicate with an agent at our building Then they in turn would have to call 9-1-1 So we cut that middle step out of the way and the agents on the field can communicate directly To a 9-1-1 Communications technician on their own division and that technician will laterally over To the technician in charge of that specific geographical area So it cuts down the response time Significantly and the agents are still able to communicate with the DOE administrators to take those steps And implement them to ensure that a shooter or a threat does not penetrate the school site Okay, so we can still communicate with the School safety headquarters But in circumstances situations we can skip a step and get directly to 9-1-1 which cuts down our response time That is correct sir Okay, so as I mentioned earlier school safety is not just confined to any walls of any building And it's not just the matter of having security measures at the school entrance or a school safety agent at the front door This ensures a holistic approach to school safety And I think that this is what the ministry has been focused on. This is what the chancellor has been focused on Um, and right now we're going to hear from the chancellor to speak to us about the message taking place Yeah, thank you. Um, thank you everybody who's here. Um, and everybody who is listening participating in this forum Um, there there's no more important responsibility that I have as chancellor Um, then keeping our all of our children safe. I don't do that by myself The nypd is tremendous responsibility. I'm in this but I think to the police commissioners credit She recognizes it is it is a joint venture. It is the village. It is parents. It is community members It is nypd. It's all the folks who work every single day in our schools With our kids They all play a role in addition to the school safety agents and I have the greatest respect for school safety agents Uh, and some folks know that I was a school safety agent I worked at cloudbot in high school Um, and wore a uniform before I was a school teacher Uh, and so I recognize of a particular sensitivity to ensuring that every single one of our children Not only that they're safe but that they feel safe Those are two different things and so it it is it is um I want to I really want to credit the mayor because one of the first things that the mayor um Really pushed to make sure that it happened a couple months ago Was to get every principal in new york city public schools Which by the way guys, we're trying to get away from DOE We're trying to change the narrative on how we refer to our schools. Which is important We're referring it more and more to new york city public schools Because a lot of times our parents and our families experience even the term DOE as a very, um negative term Uh, and so we've taken to encourage more and more of new york city public schools and in our public schools Uh, the mayor said let's get all of our Precinct commanders together on a zoom with every principal in the city And it was it was a very powerful message that he delivered. Which was essentially to say Um, we have to build a greater level of communication We have not seen an appreciable increase Of real incidents in our schools What we've seen is a lot of what's been happening on the exterior right outside the school around the block up the street, um And we have seen a pretty dramatic rise in the number of weapons that our kids have brought to school um But what our kids are telling us is that they're not bringing the weapons to do damage to their classmates in school They're doing it to protect themselves As they make their way to school and when they're leaving school I think that's an important distinction that we have to make And so, uh, the mayor's point in bringing all of us together was to say there are issues that start to brew While they're happening in school We need to be aware of it so that we can get in front of it And uh, and I think that's going to make a big big difference. So these meetings are happening every week I talked to principals all over the city. They find them to be extremely valuable And one of the things that we found out was that, uh, the charter school principals Uh, were not initially part of those conversations and we've subsequently Brought a meeting together with the charter school leaders from around the city And now all the charter schools are also represented as part of this process. So it's really very very important. We're really excited about that um But many members of the community said you cannot police your way out of this The community has to be involved and that's one of the reasons why we launched project pivot We launched project pivot as a nine plus million dollar Effort to engage community-based organizations These are folks who grew up in the community who know the community Who are mentoring young people or providing all kinds of additional supports? They are members of the community and they are playing a huge part Um in this turnaround and so we're still we're very early on in the process Uh, but we're feeling really good about where we are. We're looking to increase the level of investment In getting the community specifically through project pivot to be much more involved much more engaged Because young people tell us over and over That they want to see more programs Please commission our early in the year Or together and we saw we went to evander child's high school And while we were there we were talking about issues of safety and Commissioner when you agree over were overwhelmingly They told us we want to see more programs things that will keep us engaged keep us off the street positive Things that we can be a part of and that's that's what we are trying to lean into and making those things happen But I will tell you also something that keeps me up at night is When I look around the country And I see the issues that are happening with these mass shootings Well, people just walk into the building And shoot the place up That keeps me up at night And that is part of reason why the mayor Has authorized us to move forward with what we're calling our safer access system some folks know it as a door locking camera system We intend to lock the front doors once our kids are in school And anybody who's coming to visit the school will have to present themselves before entry is made the doors will not be wide open For anyone to simply walk into We're going to start this process in may we're going to start with our elementary schools first It's going to take place over a number of months. We so certainly hope to have all of our schools outfitted with this new technology By the spring Of our school safety agents are being trained In this new system as well And so that is a that is a different level of safety. That's not the daily issues that we're looking at But that is meant to prevent the mass tragedies that we've been seeing all too often across the nation And we're going to do everything we can to prevent something like that from happening as well The final thing I just want to say here's as well is Again going back to what the police commission has said The responsibility for the safety of our children arrests with all of us It is not just the chancellor's responsibility. It's not just the mayor's responsibility It is not just the police commissioners responsibility and I say this at town hall forums all across the city Parents who say to me all the time we want to be more involved. We want to be more engaged This is a way you can be engaged We want you to be at the schools. We want you to be involved with your principals Uh, and we want you to show up and be present and be an extra set of eyes and ears Together if we're all working together, that's how we not only ensure that kids are safe But we help them to also feel safe And that's what our obligation is and that's what we're working toward. Thank you Thank you chancellor Hey, so mark, uh, this system that the chancellor just spoke about right I went out to a school with you I believed it was in queens early in the year and uh You gave me an orientation on that. Can you speak briefly exactly what that is and Yes, absolutely. Uh, good morning everyone So this system it just states the chancellor just shared the safer access system will give the school safety agent the ability To do access control right from the main desk It will allow visitors to be seen and communicate directly with the school safety agent before the school safety agent grants access This is not a a system that we're employing to keep our parents out of our building This is a system that we're employing to keep anybody with ill intentions Um from accessing our school buildings It'll give these school safety agent the ability right there from the desk to see through a two-way camera system And communicate through a communication system as well buzz the uh visitor in once they've confirmed Their meeting or their business at the school Now in the event that Police have to get into the school and the door is locked. Did we did we take that into consideration? Yeah, 100 percent. Um, we took some we took a a very very A comprehensive look at the different systems that were out there before choosing a system that will allow for us to answer the question of When and if something happens in our school how our first responders will have direct access So this particular system has the ability to give our officers Access by by using a code that will be provided to all of our precincts That will give uh police officers direct contact or access to our schools And this is when our door when our alarms go off in our schools and there is a check needed Currently a custodian has to come and give access this way the police officers or first responders will have direct access By punching a code that will give them direct access to the school. Great. Great. Thank you mom Okay, so thank you. We've heard from all of our guests. I very much appreciate it. I think that was a lot of good information Hopefully that the parents out there will take heed. I'm certainly confident that they feel a lot safer after hearing this particular information But this is not the end This is the beginning and we're going to continue to move on to move on As we protect our citizens and specifically our children Derek Thank you, deputy mayor we will now open it up for a few on topic questions from the media Fabian concerns from some pet members who voted no to this door lock camera system Was the concern that students who are seeking help oftentimes when we have these shootings after school or during school hours involving students outside of the school they often run to school for a safe haven If a school security person is not manning the desk, what happens to those kids who desperately need help? Let me answer No, listen, we heard that we heard the concern that was raised at the pep um Listen, there there's no system right that will answer Every single question and be fully responsive the number of students that we have Who are just out in the streets who need to run into a school is few and far between The the the the challenge that we have is to ensure that we keep all of these kids safe And the idea that we would somehow keep that front door open I have heard from leaders all across the city who have said we've been saying this for years You have to lock the front door now This front door will still be man There was still going to be somebody there if there's a young person who's in some level of distress That school safety agent at the front door is going to see that and they're going to respond to that That will be part of the training that they're also getting will be expected this safer access system It's it's part of the training that they will in fact receive Oftentimes we see shootings at 3 30 happening after dismissal In the area oftentimes school safety has has left the desk right correct? No, no, no, no the the the agents It'll it'll go on as long as in fact agents are in fact in the building and agents are assigned to the building as long as There are people in the building and so if there are programs that are happening in the school at 6 or 7 o'clock at night Agents are assigned to the school the agents don't check out at 3 o'clock or 3 30 And there are still people in the building and it's good luck to everybody else No There's always an agent assigned to the building if there are people in the building And if there's no one in the building then there's no school safety agent And if a child showed up at a time when there was nobody there, there's nothing we would be able to do At that point anyway You guys talked about kind of De siloing, you know in terms of the department of education the public schools as you're referring to them now And the nypd communicating So, you know, I mean many elected officials have kind of highlighted Well, there's this aspect of public safety that deals with social services and social services Delivery in the the kind of front end of it. So I'm curious You know, what kind of interactions have has Have public schools had with agencies like dss acs like to kind of better communicate Moving forward. Do you have plans to kind of do that more? Well, we are regular communication across a whole host of mayoral agencies Um, the guidance councils that are in our schools the uh, the social workers that we've got across pretty much every school in the city now as well As thankful thankful to the city council and the legislation that they passed that allow for that to happen There is a tremendous level of communication that happens on a regular basis The what we've been talking about here is really establishing a very strong level of communication Certainly between the police commissioner and myself. I don't know that that has happened much In the past and that has been a kind of our foundational experience But but I meet with a host of commissioners also not as regularly as I meet with the police commissioner Um, but we're in constant communication and the mayor brings us together on a very regular basis So these conversations that are happening very regularly There are many fewer school safety agents today than there were before the pandemic that'll be true even after these couple of upcoming classes We haven't really seen an indication in the budget of plans to you know Fill many of those vacancies or get back to those prior levels. I'm curious. Is that a policy decision? Is it a budget decision? Is it trouble? Recruiting and if so, do you think the salary could be a concern? That's an issue the union has raised So we're operating as you stated with some significant vacancies in our school safety agents but uh, that's largely uh Due to the fact that there was an extended hiring freeze on that title, excuse me During the prior administration. So as we try to hire up to those positions We've done a significant amount of recruiting as the chief mentioned. We are graduating a class. It should be out in may 1st I believe of 122 We expect to hire another group on april 19th So while we continue to recruit and hire up to the numbers that we'd like to see them We're doing a lot of outreach to be able to tell people this is a great position They do so much they they truly are as as was stated here. They are the unsung heroes So anyone who is interested to Join us and become a school safety agent. We encourage you to come on come on and join the myp day But is there any intention to get back to the level that you were at before the pandemic? I mean, this is like thousands difference We were about 400 short. We actually about 3928 I believe we're about 400 short Don't quote me on that exact number, but we intend to hire up to the other point where we were before if we can Thank you commissioner Earlier this week the administration reached out to new yorkers asking them to submit questions for the officials that have Joined us here today We will now get to as many of those as we can with the amount of time that we have left Our first question comes from crystal in the Bronx She asks with the focus of making the school environment more inclusive and accepting for all students Are there any current or future plans to increase repercussions for cyberbullying? Cyberbullying is is is a an example of of bullying and we've got protocols in place for bullying of all types And so, uh, yeah, it's you know cyberbullying is a is a more recent occurrence with the with the recent, you know technology Advancement particularly coming off of the the pandemic. So our teachers are becoming much more aware of it And and we're constantly looking at new ways to to monitor it Because some of these things happen they're not happening on school time. Generally, we've been dealing with traditional bullying We've been dealing with issues that take place in school and so I think The issues of cyberbullying are things that are happening very often outside of the normal school hours But but we are still monitoring that and when we're we're made aware of the issues We still deal with them very much in the same ways And again cyberbullying is another the effect of that is again for kids to Not feel safe So you might physically be safe But emotionally you're not safe if you feel under assault you feel like you're being mistreated Um And uh, and so that's a body of work that we still continue to engage with in our school communities And that is why we continue to fortify the work that we're doing in our schools Together with again, not not just our social workers, but our teachers our principals When you create a great culture in school Where kids recognize and respect everybody in their school, um, you minimize issues like cyberbullying So that's a body of work that we continue to to be a part of and I just like to add on to that to that question I think it's a very Good question Is that when we started out earlier about the mayor's points about parents paying attention On as the chancellor said a lot of this bullying will take place after in fact school hours If you're the internet you have to get into your children You have to stay into your children You have to notice when something is wrong and you have to have an environment where they're comfortable coming to speak to you No disabling a neighbor And it starts with just those conversations because if we catch it early then We just increase our You know our chances of negating it future, but in the fest is and then it has an impact on that particular child No signs you see so we look we ask for everyone the chancellor just said that the The school officials look for it But we also need that to be reinforced at the parents level and if we do that together as the mayor says We can win if we all just work together Thank you our next question comes from kathleen from east harlem do b cops also patrol school areas It's a responsibility of all police officers to uh protect every area of their responsibility, but uh We do have youth coordination officers that are in each precinct that are go to the priest Excuse me the school is at the time of dismissal Uh officers do patrol the areas But I do want to add something that we talked about briefly earlier is our safe passage or safe corridor That we put in place in conjunction with the new york city public school system We have we use our patrol officers our traffic safety agents Everyone to be able to provide students A safe way to get to and from school But the chancellor during one of our conversations he actually brought forth a very Uh Important part of this similar to what the deputy mayor just talked about and that's getting our parents involved in those safe corridors as well So it's going to take all of us to keep our children safe about our patrol officers do patrol around the schools But we have youth coordination officers as well that work with our school safety agents Our next question comes from page roe in the bronx who asks is there a reporting system for teachers Who see disturbing behavior like gang activity in the schools? Yes, that is correct. So all of our teachers Are familiar with our ores reporting system, which is our online occurrence reporting system Anything that happens in the school is reported directly to the dean and or the assistant principal Or a designated a designated staff member identified by the system principal All of these incidents are recorded in our ores system and followed up with the appropriate disciplinary Action interventions or action Thank you Jacqueline from queens asks how many social workers to school safety officers are there per school How many school safety agents per Social workers to the ratio of school safety agents to social workers. Is that the question is correct? So I can just speak to the number of school safety agents varies per school based on the size of the school The number of different factors, but I'll let the uh the chance Yeah, we'd have to run the numbers in terms of the ratio on that. Yeah, but uh, but You know every school now has a within their budget and a level of autonomy to hire a social worker Um, so we've got a couple of thousand social workers that are in our schools Um, but that this that that decision is made by the school the school level We don't direct from the chancellor's office to every school that you must in fact have a social worker Most of them have taken advantage of you of of doing that But some schools have decided they wanted to use their funding For other personnel. Um, and we leave that to the discretion of the school leadership Thank you Next question comes from rosa and niece harlem It is important for the doe nypd and mayors office to have an open communication with residents and parent leaders Who are outside each day doing the work and helping our schools? How do you plan to implement this effort? So as we've stated repeatedly To our communities that we are always in collaboration We always want to be able to be accessible through community council meetings Parent teacher conferences that our community affairs and our school safety agents will attend as well It's important that we recognize that this is going to have to be a group approach We do so much outreach with our communities in the nypd. Our community affairs bureau goes out To talk at a number of different events that happen at all hours of the day because you recognize the challenges with some parents And communities in terms of work schedules, but we always want to remain connected with our communities There are a number of different outreach opportunities I'm sorry. I should say connection opportunities that the communities have with the nypd We encourage you to go on our website and be able to volunteer or be able to find out when we have a meeting or a An event that you can come and participate in as well. Let me say also Since I've become chancellor I have had more engagement with parent organizations Than not there are dozens of parent organizations and we are in collaboration and communication With so many of them from our c ecs to our sot's and parents associations and Presidents councils. I mean, there are just there are so many parent organizations where there's a level of communication that is Built into our system And we continue to try to refine that and hone that and to hear from our parents Around what they think are the best ways in fact for us to move forward But parents are not a monolith either. Are there parents in certain parts of the city who have very different thoughts and feelings? Um, then parents in other parts of this city My job is to try to listen to all of them and try to help to create policy and procedures here that meet the needs of Um, of all of our families recognizing level of diversity that we do have but mark you want to add something as well Absolutely. And just to piggyback on that we talked about the importance of parent involvement in our schools So when we talk about whether or not that exists currently all of our parents are welcome To participate in our schools and we continue to push and push and push to get that member of the community The village's voice heard in our schools, right? And so the chancellor just reiterated the importance of having parents volunteer, right? And so I wanted to reiterate that to get that on this platform that we need the support of the entire Community in order to keep our schools safe Mr. Deputy mayor just may add one more thing also for the parents They may not know there are advocacy groups that are out there that we work with I can name one right now the new york city school Safety coalition. They're very active. They show up at the schools They promote safety all around for the young people and just recently they held a resource fair Up in Harlem that the mayor attended Personally and it was a town hall style meeting with parents and kids where they can voice their concerns as to what's affecting them Because we all here at this table believe that we shall also be youth informed So instead of doing things to them or talking to them, we should be talking with them And let me just say one last thing on this as well And it's not just the parents. It is the community And and and so what I mean by that that there are community organizations There are credible messenger groups. We're engaging all of them because it's going to take all of us working together In order for us to solve for this Yeah, I just wanted to just you know, we've all touched on that um every Precent has a precent council They meet monthly where you can sit down And converse with the precent commanding officer and it can be the precent commanding officer is just has um You know, they're coordinating the public safety efforts in your respective precincts And I would just strongly suggest That everyone go to at least one meeting I guarantee if you go to one you'll go to two if you go to two you go to three But if you look at government the opportunity that you can sit down and directly ask the precent commanding officer a question These meetings should be standing remotely some are And they are increasing But you have the opportunity to hear directly what's going on specifically in your community And the things that you could do to help yourself become safer, but more importantly What you want that precent commanding officer to know what you're seeing and what you're hearing what you're feeling It's a critical tool that's there it's been there for a long time and a lot of people don't take advantage of it So we're just pushing that every person has a precent community council going to a ypd's website It will actually lay out exactly when it is and what the time is and I strongly encourage Or to take advantage of that Our next question comes from angelica in queens I believe the commissioner may have touched on or the chancellor may have touched on this during his remarks But she asks do new york city schools have a uniform system to id visitors I can take that question So any visitor coming to a school site has to check in at the main entrance at the main desk The school safety agent there will request who the person is via identification What the nature of their businesses and then they will reach out to the administration to verify that and allow access into the school And our final question comes from emily in minhatten who asks With the accessibility of marijuana products are schools seeing an increase in students who are attending school under the influence or disruptive in our classrooms Yeah, one of the things that um that we shared earlier is the relationship by um Relationship that is established between our school leaders and our precent commanders And our schools have shared an uptick in the number of Shops that are opening up around schools And we are very concerned that those those shops have direct access to our young people As it relates to an increase there have certainly been more More um concerns expressed by young people under the or potentially under the influence All of our school leaders are trained to take the appropriate action if we feel like a young person is under the influence But one of the good things that that has been put in place is that relationship that exists So we can report those concerns directly to our local precent commanders We are concerned I want to be I want to say that it is it's it's anecdotal Evidence that we've seen so far. We don't have the you know full on numbers on it But uh as what we hear from our school leaders Across the city people are concerned with a bit of an uptick and uh Our students getting access to these uh to this kind of stuff So it's uh We're paying close attention But as you've seen the mayor has made a priority to make sure that the police department in conjunction with the sheriffs Are addressing these smoke shops. There's a lot of nuisance abatements. We have uh filed But we're going to continue to work with our partners to be able to shut most of these down when we can Thank you commissioner On behalf of the adams administration, I would like to thank everyone for tuning into today's briefing We look forward to seeing you at our next one. Have a great day. Thank you