The N.Y.C. Board of Education established the first Department of Special Education for children with learning disabilities and physical handicaps.
Eligible applicants for license as teachers of “drawing and constructive works” in the elementary schools must have reached the twenty-first and not passed the fifty-first birthday. The minimum annual salary was $880 and maximum salary $1900.
N.Y.C. Schools served good hot lunch for three cents.
State funded Institutes provided annual day-long teacher training and certification
P.S. 128, Brooklyn won the elementary schools indoor swimming championship for the McAleanan Trophy at the public baths, West 60th Street against the 1912 Champions from P.S. 10 Manhattan.
Reformers such as Jane Adams initiated the U.S. Government’s establishment of the Children’s Bureau to pay more attention to child labor regulations.
The Wilmat Law of 1912 required youths aged 14-16 who quit school to go to work to attend part time “continuation schools”.
Henry Richardson Linville elected President of Teachers’ Union of N.Y.C. – formerly head of Biology Department of DeWitt Clinton H.S. and Jamaica H.S.
Charles B.J. Snyder Superintendent of School Buildings for the NYCBOE a prolific American architect in the field of urban school building design and construction. Many of his schools became N.Y.C. Landmarks ie: Stuyvesant H.S , Erasmus Hall H.S., Morris H.S. Newtown H.S., Curtis H.S., Flushing H.S., W.L. Garrison P.S. 31, P.S. 64, P.S. 17, P.S. 166 and P.S. 28.
The inclusion in school buildings of auditoriums for lecture purposes indicated the fact that the school was no longer regarded merely as a place for instruction of children, but also a place for the education of men and women. The schools became social and civic centers for their neighborhoods.
The Committee on the Care of Buildings of the Board of Education determined that school playgrounds should be used for dramatic performances using professional actors and plays of “educational nature”. This effort was instituted to educate those in the city’s very crowded neighborhoods.
Publicly accessible assembly rooms or auditoriums were the scene of numerous political events.
William Harvey Maxwell was Superintendent of Schools of N.Y.C. in 1912-Editor of the Educational Review and President of the NEA.
William Jay Gaynor, Democratic Political Party was Mayor of N.Y.C. William Howard Taft, Republican Party was President of the U.S.