City education officials are attempting to contact all 19,000 former students who attended public schools near Ground Zero on 9/11 to let them know they could be eligible for free medical care.
The ex-students would qualify for coverage under the federal government’s Victims Compensation Fund if they are certified as having suffered any of 68 9/11-related cancers or dozens of respiratory diseases by the World Trade Center Health Program.
“We are launching an advocacy campaign to reach every one of those 19,000 individuals,” Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said during a 9/11 health seminar at the Borough of Manhattan Community College last week.
“The letter will include information about the Health Program and the Victims Compensation Fund,” he said.
“We are also launching a social-media campaign leveraging all our resources and everything we have at our disposal to get this information out to our alumni all over the regions of the country and the world. We are committed to not stopping until we reach every single person.”
The letter will be sent to the students’ last known address, a DOE spokesman said. It is expected to go out in the next week or so.
The move comes several months after President Trump and Congress permanently extended the fund, which covers other people in addition to first-responders who ingested toxins spewed after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and now suffer from 9/11-related illnesses.
The DOE, in concert with the United Federation of Teachers, also is reaching out to 3,000 teachers who worked at public schools in the vicinity of Ground Zero.
Carranza said the DOE is co-hosting a joint information event with the UFT on Oct. 28 to raise awareness about the 9/11 health issue.
Stuyvesant High School was used as a staging area by rescue and recovery workers after 9/11. The elite public high school reopened a month later amid heated debate about whether the building was free of contaminants.
The Post reported that former students who attended Stuyvesant and other downtown schools years later contracted cancer and other illnesses believed linked to 9/11 exposure.
One Stuyvesant graduate and heath activist applauded the DOE’s action.
“I’m happy the city is showing a commitment to reaching the 19,000 public-school students who returned to lower Manhattan after 9/11 before it was safe to breath,’’ said Lila Nordstrom, who runs the group studentsof911.org.
“We’re committed to making sure that every person who qualifies is made aware of the WTC Health Program and given the support they need to apply, especially those who have since moved out of state and may not be aware that they can receive care where they live,’’ added the former student, who says her asthma worsened after 9/11 and that she also suffers from PTSD, which is recognized by the Health Program.
Lawyer Michael Barasch, whose firm Barasch & McGarry represents scores of sick downtown teachers and students, said he is pleased that Carranza is personally committed to the outreach campaign.
“It took 18 years, but they’re doing the right thing,” Barasch said of DOE officials. “Our biggest challenge is reaching the survivors.”
The Borough of Manhattan Community College also just sent out letters to 20,000 of its former students who were enrolled there in the 2001-2002 school year to alert them to the Victims Compensation Fund.