I support the NYC City Council “Librarians Count” Bill (Intro 1125)

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I support the NYC City Council “Librarians Count” Bill (Intro 1125)

Council Member Rita Joseph, Council Member Lincoln Restler, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams

The Librarians Count Bill (Intro 1125) would require the Department of Education (DOE) to report annually information on school librarians and library access in all NYC public schools.

Why support the NYC City Council “Librarians Count” Bill?

School librarian loss in the NYC public school system is staggering. In the past twenty years we’ve lost most of our school librarians—going from 1,500 school librarians on staff in our 1600+ schools in 2005 to as few as 260 in 2023.
School libraries are being shuttered and students are losing out on a school-wide culture of reading joy and discovery, as well as the numerous data-backed benefits that school libraries, staffed with librarians, provide including: improved overall literacy, critical research skills and media literacy, boosted test scores and graduation rates.
Schools serving student populations with higher-poverty rates are less likely to have a school librarian/library, exemplifying the inequity within the school system.
Requiring the DOE to report on the current librarian/library landscape is the first step in acknowledging the problem and beginning to solve it.

Sponsored by

Librarians=Literacy

To: Council Member Rita Joseph, Council Member Lincoln Restler, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams
From: [Your Name]

I support the NYC City Council “Librarians Count” Bill (Intro 1125) that will require the DOE to report on and acknowledge the devastating loss of school librarians and libraries in NYC schools.
City Council Members Lincoln Restler and Rita Joseph, you recently introduced Bill #1125 the “Librarians Count” Bill to require the DOE to report up-to-date data on librarians and libraries in NYC schools: how many librarians/libraries are in our schools, who has access to them and who doesn’t.
I support this bill and urge you and the Speaker to bring the legislation to a vote and pass it without delay. It’s time to demand that the DOE share the scope of the problem and begin to fix it.