​Mayor Adams,

Just as winter is falling, you’ve notified 2,700 unhoused families that they’ll either have to reapply for shelter or find alternative housing within 60 days. That means families will have to leave their shelters as early as Dec. 27. For families who do reapply for shelter, there’s no guarantee they’ll end up in the same site or even the same borough.

Among the families faced with this inhumane decision are thousands of our city’s students. The educators of New York City have worked to welcome and build relationships and trust with our newcomer students, many of whom have already experienced trauma. To uproot these families from their current housing during the coldest months of the year and interrupt these students' educational progress — creating further distress, insecurity and potentially unsafe experiences for them — is reprehensible. With this action, you will traumatize not only these families but entire school communities.

Our schools are working through enough challenges as it is, without this callous disregard for the humanity of an already vulnerable population.

We believe that no children should be subject to this policy. We are calling on you to withdraw this policy before it creates chaos in our schools and harms families who are the most in need of our support.