Support Bills A-2338 and S-4604 to Prioritize Student Safety in Schools Designated for Early Voting

Here's the letter body: Here's the letter body: Action is needed to address safety issues at NYC public schools during early voting when kids are in school. There are 33 schools across 4 boroughs that are designated as early voting sites, affecting over 25,000 students. NO Queens public schools have ever been used as an early voting site. The other 4 borough's schools demand the same exemption Queens has, where they use museums, libraries, houses of worship, community centers, fraternal organizations and other venues. Impact on schools: ▶️ Security breaches where voters have made their way beyond the designated voting area and into school hallways, classrooms or cafeterias during instruction, presenting serious security risks. Incidents have also included theft, vandalism, using student restrooms along with students, and even aggression towards staff. ▶️ No guidelines or protocols for handling lockdowns/shelter-in-place scenarios during early voting. ▶️ School programming, D75, clubs, after school activities, PSAL sports, to list a few examples. ▶️ Where cafeterias are used as a voting area, no access to hot meals affects our most vulnerable students. In many cases, school meals are the only hot meals a student may receive. ▶️ The lack of security agents due to cuts forces principals to dip into their budgets to hire substitute teachers to fill in security gaps. Bills A-2338 and S-4604, currently in the State Legislature, aim to amend the election law in line with this. We urge you to support these bills to prioritize the safety of our students before something more serious occurs. Our students deserve nothing less!