Classroom to Community Civic Readiness Grant
This year, NYSUT launched the Classroom to Community Civic Readiness Grant program to expand access to the New York State Seal of Civic Readiness and related experiential learning opportunities. Awards ranged from $500 to $5,000.
The following locals received grants:
- Bay Shore Classroom Teachers Association
- Canton Central Teachers Association
- Cornwall Central Teachers Association
- Fulton Teachers Association
- Greece Teachers Association
- Ithaca Teachers Association
- Lynbrook Teachers Association
- Oceanside Federation of Teachers
- Patchogue Medford Congress of Teachers
- Smithtown Teachers Association
- Suffern Education Association
- Trumansburg Teachers Association
- Watertown Education Association
- Webster Teachers Association
- William Floyd United Teachers
As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, NYSUT members are inviting students to participate more fully in their democracy through the Seal of Civic Readiness.
First established by the State Education Department in 2021, the Seal of Civic Readiness is a formal recognition that a student has attained a high level of proficiency in terms of civic knowledge, skills and experiences, as demonstrated through advanced social studies courses or electives and participation in service learning and projects.
Currently, the seal is offered at 500 districts — less than one-third of the state’s 1,800 public high schools — but NYSUT is working to expand the program to more districts.
“If our goal is to prepare our students to be productive members of society, we are failing them if we’re not teaching them how to be engaged citizens,” said Lindsay Hedges, a social studies teacher and member of the Cheektowaga Central Teachers Association.
“We're teaching them all the formulas, and the skills to be successful, but we’re not teaching them how to live within our society and coexist. We're not teaching them how to be civil to one another and how to make change,” Hedges said.
Cheektowaga was one of the first districts to implement the seal in 2021, and since the program launched 150 students have graduated with the seal. Hedges has been instrumental in building the program out. She teaches the year-long “Civics in Action” course, where her students research and present on community issues that matter most to them.
As the course title suggests, Hedges’s students must also find a way to make a real impact. “They have to take action and do something that brings awareness to the issue,” she said. Student work has included organizing fundraisers for mental health and Special Olympics, collecting toiletries for formerly incarcerated individuals, and donating food to emergency food programs.
The seal can be a powerful civic catalyst, inspiring students to engage in their communities.
“When the kids own their passion and it's something that they're invested in, it's amazing what they can do,” said Hedges.
As part of a civics capstone project, students at Cheektowaga Central High School organized a T-shirt fundraiser for mental health.
“A lot of times, I find, it’s that first step. Students don’t think about things outside themselves, but this can be a doorway, helping them see a world beyond themselves,” said social studies teacher Andrew Britto, a member of the Pine Bush TA. Britto and fellow social studies teacher and Pine Bush TA member Renae Bray have supervised the civics seal program since it was implemented in the district in 2024. Since the program launched, 180 Pine Bush students have graduated with the seal.
Britto and Bray said much of the infrastructure needed to make Pine Bush’s program so successful was already in place, so their jobs have focused on re-organizing existing components and tracking student progress.
“We already had a lot of electives that aligned with civics — entrepreneurship, public speaking, criminal justice — so we worked with the teachers to make sure their class projects aligned with seal requirements,” said Bray. “We’ve had huge buy-in from our colleagues. Not just social studies, but English, science, and business.”
The district also boasts a long history of summer leadership and law programs and an active student volunteer population. “Civic engagement was already embedded in our culture,” said Britto, adding that students just needed to understand how they fit in. “The guiding principle is to produce solid American citizens ready to contribute positively to their communities.”