New York City Education Department officials in recent months quietly relaxed a controversial curriculum mandate for early childhood education programs, Chalkbeat has learned. “Every early care and education program serves a unique community that they know best,” said Education Department spokesperson Dominique Ellison. “It is a big shift,” said Shael Polakow-Suranksy, president of Bank Street College of Education and a former deputy chancellor in the city Education Department. But People’s Early Childhood Education, an advocacy group of providers, Education Department staffers, and others, began organizing opposition to the mandate. The city Education Department has paid Teaching Strategies nearly $33 million since summer 2023, according to Checkbook NYC.