: Recent studies by the New York State Comptroller have identified an existing deficit of capital investment in the state’s communities . Survey evidence points to the measured decline capital planning practices among New York local governments at a time when investment needs are on the rise – this is particularly acute among smaller local governments . The Southern Tier Regional Economic Development Council identified the need to “Improve and expand existing infrastructure” as a long-term need in their Southern Tier Recovery Strategy Document 2020. Adequate and timely infrastructure investment is a key building block for the fiscal health and sustainability of New York’s local communities.

This paper examines whether atheists, who believe that God does not exist, can have faith. Of course, atheists have certain kinds of faith: faith in their friends, faith in certain ideals, and faith in themselves. However, the question we’ll examine is whether atheists can have theistic faith: faith that God exists. Philosophers tend to fall on one of two extremes on this question: some, like Dan Howard-Snyder (2019) and Imran Aijaz (2023), say unequivocally no; oth-ers, like Robert Whitaker (2019) and Sam Lebens (2023), say unequivocally yes. Here, I take a middle position: I ar-gue that atheists can have action-focused theistic faith (faith in how they act) but not attitude-focused theistic faith (faith in what attitudes they have).

As educators it is our job to give students the most efficient opportunity to be successful. Not only do educators teach curriculums but they also teach life lessons, cognitive, social skills. This capstone project aims to inform educators on how to incorporate a culturally responsive framework to a health curriculum. Since, English language learners (ELLs) find it difficult to relate to material within the curriculum due to different experiences. In fact, to build opportunities for all our students is important to build an environment where all students feel comfortable, connected, involved, and valued. Health is a class that provides knowledge of health and safety to students. This capstone includes a professional development to teachers on how they can be culturally responsive with the context and topics that are covered in the curriculum. Therefore, the PD strives for teachers to be aware of different cultural views when teachings. Since the research shows that students are more responsible, respected, and engaged when their teachers are intuitive with them. In New York State it is required that in Middle School all students complete 54 hours of health class and high schoolers a health credit is a requirement for graduation. To ensure our students' success, this capstone proposes developing a more culturally responsive framework for health class for middle school curriculum.

This Senior Honors Thesis examines the current state of indigent defense and how the criminal justice system can better protect the right to counsel for indigent defendants. The paper begins by analyzing factors that may impact indigent defense systems throughout the United States as a whole and how these factors may impact outcomes for defendants. Then, the paper's focus shifts to New York State specifically and discusses issues specific to the state. Qualitative research from interviews with public defenders and assigned counsel attorneys from various New York State counties is analyzed alongside quantitative data from each county. The end of the thesis provides an answer to the question "how can the criminal justice system better protect the right to counsel?" based on the research presented throughout the paper.

The project aims to develop an interactive storytelling chatbot by integrating Google Vision API and OpenAI API, using natural language processing and deep learning algorithms. Google Vision API extracts diverse features from images, including landmarks, objects, colors, text, and logos, while OpenAI API processes this information to generate concise image descriptions. This collaboration seamlessly fuses visual understanding and language generation, creating a compelling storytelling chatbot that offers users an immersive narrative experience. The goal is to explore methods for synchronizing image analysis and natural language processing, enhancing education, entertainment, creativity, and accessibility. The project showcases the potential of cutting-edge API technologies in meaningful ways, demonstrating the continuous growth in AI advancements. The presentation will overview the process of how this has been done but also emphasize the potential of its impact and purpose to help improve education systems.

There are various challenges and strategies that correlate to accurately assessing learning disabilities in English Language Learners (ELLs), specifically focusing in on the classification accuracy. The impact of a lack of adequate understanding of second language acquisition among educational professionals is substantial. This is highlighted in issues such as difficulty distinguishing between learning disabilities and language differences due to similar patterns in language acquisition. Educators’ lack of training in second language acquisition is highlighted as a crucial barrier contributing to misdiagnosis of ELLs. Few assessments are often accurate for culturally and linguistically diverse ELLs, which also leads to over-and-under identification of ELLs. Environmental factors, specifically ones related to poverty, are considered factors with sustainable influence on language acquisition and academic performance, which leads to needing a comprehensive approach to assessment. The importance of assessing students in their first language, L1, in addition to English assists in granting a comprehensive understanding of the student’s abilities. To address these problems, a professional development, PD, session had been created for the Liverpool Central School District, where all educators will be explicitly instructed on second language acquisition, SLA. The goal of this session is to better inform the educators on SLA and techniques to use in their classroom and when giving assessments. Recommendations for further research and improvement includes longitudinal studies to track academic progress of ELLs over time, investigate the effectiveness of cultural and linguistically adapted assessment tools, and evaluate the effectiveness of PD programs that attempt to enhance educators’ understanding of SLA.

Parental involvement has been shown to lead to an increase in students’ academic and social-emotional growth. However, teachers often struggle to increase the parental involvement rate of English Language Learner (ELL) parents. ELLs are a growing population within public schools in the United States. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how to involve the parents from this population. The overarching research question that will be investigated is: How can we increase parental involvement at the elementary level within our English Language Learner population? The research shows that ELL parents have a difficult time being involved in their child’s school due to time constraints, being unaware of what is expected of them, and feeling unwelcome within schools. However, the research also suggests that modifying teachers' perceptions of what parental involvement looks like to fit the needs of ELL parents, including offering virtual options, helps increase ELL parental involvement. A professional development (PD) will be given to ENL, general, and special education teachers to go over these barriers and to learn about a new strategy that will be implemented to increase ELL parental involvement that meets the needs of this population. Future research on how these strategies are implemented long-term and throughout a large population is recommended.

The population of English Language Learners (ELLs) in schools is increasing across the U.S. However, mainstream teachers are facing issues in being able to adequately support ELLs in the general education classroom. The literature emphasizes the importance of teacher preparation, and providing mainstream teachers with the knowledge, strategies, and tools to effectively teach ELLs. To address these challenges, a professional development (PD) program was created for mainstream middle school teachers to expand their knowledge and skills in educating the ELL population. It is essential that teachers become educated in pedagogical frameworks, lesson planning for ELLs, and culturally responsive teaching. ELLs academic outcomes and social emotional well being will be positively impacted due to improved instructional strategies and a culturally responsive learning environment. Recommendations include school districts collecting data from teachers and students to discover the most relevant PD programs for teachers to attend. Another recommendation is for school districts to require new teacher candidates to participate in ELL centered training sessions that will prepare them specifically for the demographics of the school they will be teaching in. Extensive research beyond this capstone can be done in the area of teacher advocacy for ELLs to further support mainstream teachers in their work with ELLs.

This thesis capstone project aims to support teachers and educational staff that work with ELs (English learners), who often face misrepresentation in special education—being both overrepresented and underrepresented. This misrepresentation is due to numerous factors including a lack of teacher training on how to effectively educate these students. Misidentified students face many challenges, including loss of instructional time, unaddressed learning needs, lower academic achievement, restricted opportunities for higher education and career, decreased self-determination and self-esteem, double stigmatization, and social isolation. Although overrepresentation and underrepresentation are significant issues, the former is more prevalent. To address this concern, a professional development program was created to help educators at Riverhead Elementary School accurately identify and address students’ educational needs to decrease the overidentification of ELs in special education. The goal of this professional development is to equip teachers with the knowledge, skills and resources to more accurately identify the cause of ELs’ academic struggles.

This thesis capstone project aims to assist teachers, school counselors, and administrators who all work with English Language Learners (ELLs). At Sayville Elementary School, ELLs are a population that keeps growing as the years progress. This group of learners are impacted by the teacher's language output, language practices across disciplines, and the views, interpretations, and motivations of teachers toward academic vocabulary. To increase ELLs academic vocabulary acquisition, Sayville Elementary School must be looked at through a multilayered lens to provide effective changes for Sayville Elementary School District. Solutions to the problem at Sayville Elementary School include implementations of staff lists including faculty that are bilingual or foreign language speakers, changes to school signage, lesson plan templates designed specifically for ELLs, monthly professional development meetings for faculty, and an annual Cultural Welcome night for ELL students and their families. Several culminations are applicable to reducing and eliminating the gap in academic vocabulary acquisition that exists between ELL and non-ELL students. Recommendations include embodying future programs for ELLs and allocated staff to help the school and the population of ELLs. Moreover, programs that were newly established, for instance, the comprehensive vocabulary plan, should be evaluated to aid with obligatory changes for sizable improvement.