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- Common Sense Media Coronavirus Parent Support
- New York Times Preschooler Lessons on Coronavirus
- Self care and parent support
- Headspace
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After-School
- Trailblazers
- New Rainbow House INC (RBH Center) 754 45th Street, 1FL, Brooklyn, NY 11220 (718) 666-2459
- Brooklyn Wild
- Salvation Army
- Kairos Learning Community of Sunset Park
- Center for Family Life
- CPC
Resources for children on COVID-19 and staying healthy
- BrainPOP: Coronavirus (4-minute video, activities, and games)
- National Public Radio: Just for Kids: A Comic Exploring the New Coronavirus
- PBS Kids:
How to Talk to Your Kids About Coronavirus (includes a list of videos, games, and activities about handwashing and staying healthy at the bottom of the article)
Child Mind Institute Resources for Families
- Family resources include Facebook Live video chats with expert clinicians, remote evaluations and phone consultations, and parenting tips for managing anxiety, discipline, and behavior.
NYC Assistance Search
Food Pantries
- Center for Family Life
5505 4th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11220 Tel: (718) 492-3585 Tuesdays 10am-1pm; Wednesdays-Thursday 11am-1pm. Photo ID required. Serving 11220, 11232, 11209, and 11219 zip codes. - Fourth Ave Presbyterian Church
6753 4th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11220
Tel: (718) 836-0681
Monday-Friday / Call before you go - OLPH
545-60th Street Brooklyn, NY 11220 Tel: (718) 492-9200 (For members of the parish and zip codes: 11220 & 11209) (Food Vouchers: Tuesday-Thursday 9-10am) ID and proof of address Friday 10:00-12:00 - OLA Human Services 336-73rd Street Brooklyn, NY Tel: (718) 680-6344 (Once a Month Monday & Friday 10:00-12/1:00-2:00) ID for each person (children birth certificate) and proof of address.
- Salvation Army Sunset Corp
520-50th Street Brooklyn, NY
Tel: (718) 438-1771 Monday& Friday 9:30am-11:30am/1:00pm-2:30pm
ID & Proof of address
Farmers Markets / Greenmarkets
GrowNYC’s Greenmarkets
Most Greenmarkets are open and operating on schedule, so you can still shop for fresh, healthy food and support local farmers. Check GrowNYC for updates.
Local Hospitals
Maimonides Medical Center
4802 Tenth Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11219
Tel: (718) 283-6000 (Call before)
NYU Langone- Brooklyn (Lutheran Medical Center)
150 55th Street Brooklyn, NY 11220
Tel: (718) 630-7000 (Call before)
Housing/Shelters:
Brooklyn Community Housing 25 Chapel Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 Tel: (718) 852-9322 Shelter/housing assistance in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Polish, and French; Monday – Friday 9am- 5pm
Crisis and Hotlines
- Call 911 if you are in danger and in need of immediate help.
- List of common hotline numbers (USA only)
- ThriveNYC’s Mental Health Services, Support, mobile crisis, referrals, suicide prevention by talk/text/chat through NYCWell
Find information on a wealth of mental health resources for all New Yorkers, as well as services tailored to the needs of aging New Yorkers, veterans, students and young people, and people harmed by violence, crime or abuse. All services are free to New Yorkers, regardless of insurance coverage or immigration status. NYC Well is available 24/7: Call 1-888-NYC-WELL, text “Well” to 65173, or on the web at nyc.gov/nycwell. - Gender-Based Violence/Domestic Violence coping and support
- NYC Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-621-4673 (HOPE), TTY: 866-604-5350 (if you are hearing impaired), or call 311 and ask for the hotline
Community Organizations
- Brooklyn Chinese-American Association
5000 8th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11220 Tel: (718) 438-0008 - Family Support Center at NYU Langone 6025 Sixth Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11220 Tel: (718) 630-7171. We focus on five areas of service: early childhood services, youth and adolescent services, community development, family strengthening services, and older adult services. The Family Support Center staff continue to be available to help community members during this difficult time by providing short term counseling, referrals to community resources, monthly access to food at their food pantry, and assistance in applying for benefits such as SNAP and WIC. Please call (718) 630-7186 to make a phone appointment for the Food Pantry.
Legal Assistance
Instructional
Additional instructional resources for Students and Families/Caregivers
The links below provide additional instructional supports for families to enhance the remote learning experience:
- Science
- Math
- Music
- Physical Activity: GoNoodle, Hello Wonderful Indoor Activities
- Art appreciation
- Art: Mo Willems Free Online Drawing Session
Brooklyn artist Mo Willems, the first Education artist-in-residence at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, is leading a free online drawing session every day at 1pm. Your little ones can see the magic behind the mind that came up with Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny and many more contemporary classics. You can watch LUNCH DOODLES live here, or catch previous sessions on YouTube. All ages.
Home Learning
Learning Support and Opportunities at Home
If you are choosing a voluntary quarantine at this time for your child, we encourage you to use this time to continue your student’s learning while they are at home. To help students engage in educational material, we have shared the resources below for students by grade level. These materials do not replace what your child has been learning at school, but during this unusual time it is important that students continue to read, write, do social studies and science activities, and work on math problems.
The materials on the grade specific pages below include:
- Suggested daily study schedules
- Guides and materials for instructional activities for 10 days of instruction:
In the event of a school closure, the NYCDOE will provide additional resources that are grade specific.
Resources for Families
How to Talk to Your Children About Race and Current Events
- Guidance for Family Conversations about George Floyd, Racism, and Law Enforcement(Open external link) (Anti-Defamation League)
- Talking to Kids About Racism, Early and Often(Open external link) (New York Times)
- 31 Children’s books(Open external link) to support conversations on race, racism and resistance (Embracerace)
- 13 Children’s Books About Race and Diversity to encourage conversations about race and diversity with your children (PBS Kids)
- Black Lives Matter Still Matters(Open external link) (Teaching Tolerance)
- Talking about Race for Parents & Caregivers(Open external link) (National Museum of African American History & Culture)
- Coming Together, Standing Up to Racism(Open external link) (Sesame Street)
- Talking to Children About Racial Bias (Healthy Children.org)
- Talking About Race
- Resources for Talking to Kids About Race and Racism (Huffington Post)
- Raising Race Conscious Children: Website, Blog, and Organization that offers virtual consultations and workshops that dismantle the “color-blind” framework, and instead raise youth to work towards racial justice.
- 4 Things We Should All Teach Kids About Racism Right Now
- How to talk to kids about racism: an age by age guide (Today’s Parent)
- 60+ Resources for Talking to Kids About Racism
- 13 Tips About How to Talk to Children About Diversity and Difference (Alden H. Bacon)
Mental Health Resources
These can help address stress and trauma that children and families may be experiencing at this time.
- Managing Strong Emotional Reactions to Trauma(Open external link) (National Association of School Psychologists)
- Radical Self Care in the Face of Mounting Racial Stress(Open external link) (American Psychological Association)
Free Mental Health Support
- NYC Well For Staff, students and parents
Call: 1-888-NYC-WELL (1-888-692-9355)
Text: WELL to 65173
Live Chat
Anti-racism
Together for Justice
June 3, 2020 Letter From the Chancellor on Striving for Justice
- View and print this letter in 9 DOE languages.
Dear Families,
It is hard to recall another time as gut-wrenching and heartbreaking as these recent days have been. George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police officers last week was horrifying. I am sickened. But, like many of you, I am not surprised. We have seen this abominable disregard for Black lives so many times before, including multiple times in recent weeks. It is truly agonizing to witness; it is nothing short of another pandemic presenting itself on the streets of America.
The New York City Department of Education condemns police brutality and this brutal loss of life. My heart breaks to know that yet another Black family has lost a son, a father, a brother. I stand in solidarity with Black New Yorkers and Americans, and with everyone who is mourning yet another senseless loss. Pain ripples and resonates across communities all over the City. I am with all of you as we individually and collectively reckon with this tragic injustice. The demonstrations happening in the five boroughs and in nearly 140 cities across the country are a reflection of this anguish, and the desire for a better world.
It is incredibly difficult to be a parent or caregiver right now: grappling with emotions, seeking actions that both feel of service and of the magnitude needed in this moment, and thinking through ways to begin or deepen conversations with children and families about recent horrific incidents and the systemic racism from which they spring—all at the same time. The pain and struggle are very real.
For communities of color, nothing about this pain is new. It’s been in the bodies, minds, and hearts of millions of New Yorkers and Americans for generations—because racist violence has been perpetrated for that long.
Racism also causes new harm in other ways, every day, because it is systemic—woven deeply into the fabric of our institutions, our economy, and the systems that make up our shared community. That is true in New York City, as progressive and forward-thinking as we are, including in our public school system.
At the DOE we have said, and we will continue to say: no more.
We must answer the call to be actively anti-racist and work every day to undo these systems of injustice. We will continue in our resolve to advance equity now. We will honor the dignity and humanity of every student, parent, educator, employee and member of our community every day.
No matter the form teaching and learning takes—in brick-and-mortar classrooms or on a digital device—the goal remains the same: providing an excellent education to every single student. In doing so, we must also continually find ways to dismantle institutional racism and reverse its effects.
That work is underway. It includes implementing restorative practices, training all educators and employees on implicit bias, providing mental health supports to school communities, and more. This work creates a lifelong effect in children and has the potential to transform our society in ways that make that the world safer, more just, and better for everyone.
When, for example, children learn from books featuring protagonists and lessons featuring stories from people of different races, abilities, genders, ethnicities, languages, and more, they learn also to value difference and diversity. When students experiencing anger or resentment are taught healthy ways to communicate, it’s more likely they won’t react out of unfounded fear.
We will not relent in the work to intensify equity until, student by student and school by school, change comes. We all need this, because racism doesn’t just harm Black, Brown, or Asian families—it harms us all.
Everyone has a role to play. In addition to continuing our work centrally, we are supporting educators with resources to teach episodes from our history and our present, episodes where these same shudders of injustice and outrage, peaceful protest, and also violence and destruction have ripped through our city and society.
At the same time, many of you have already been doing this work at home or are otherwise putting personal resources into these efforts—your time, your energy, your heart, or your voice. We see you, and we are grateful for your powerful commitment. Children see and feel the world around them, and now is an important time to guide them in understanding and engaging with their experiences and those of their friends, families, and fellow New Yorkers.
Below you will find resources to help start, continue, or deepen conversations with children about racism and injustice. We are also sharing resources to help with stress, exhaustion, and self-care. As parents and caregivers, caring for yourself is essential in order to be able to care for others. We will continue to update resources as we move ahead.
I have been reminded of this quote by the writer James Baldwin that resonates so powerfully in this moment: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” These are difficult days of reckoning, but we have the opportunity—and a calling—to go farther in facing injustice.
You are our most important partners in the education of the children of New York City and the building of a better world. We are grateful for you today and every day.