NYC School of Data 2026

How might access to specific public and private datasets help nonprofits to target their programming and advocacy work?

We'll explore this question using the work of the Clean Air for Schools Fund as one example, using the public data set of NYC's air quality and overlaying it with neighborhood-level attribute data, school performance, and private air sensors to determine where indoor air quality interventions might be maximally effective. The presentation will be led by Jordan Sucher, Senior Product Manager at Recidiviz and a public technologist who has used open and not-so-open data for creative ends; and Jessica Cole, co-Director of Clean Air for Schools and former leader of U.S. Digital Response and the Aspen Institute's Tech Policy Hub and long-time civic technologist.

A discussion will follow about how to use open data to tailor your own organization's strategy and advocacy and to build demand for other relevant datasets. Notably, NYC's open data is a powerful tool for both targeting advocacy and informing policy recommendations or other interventions, and it is often just one element of a larger research process. The currently available data is most effective when paired with other data sources, whether public, private, or self-collected.

This interactive workshop is ideal for data analysts or data scientists who work around policy advocacy, environmental and otherwise; nonprofit and policy leaders who want to level up evidence for your work; and anyone interested in identifying gaps in the NYC open data portal that prevent challenges for policy work, and ideating ways to work through or around them.