Advocates for Children of New York works on behalf of children who are at greatest risk for school-based discrimination and/or academic failure due to poverty, disability, race, ethnicity, immigrant or English Language Learner status, sexual orientation, gender identity, homelessness, or involvement in the foster care or juvenile justice systems.
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Spotlight
AFC Testifies on Early Childhood Education Programs
06.27.2018 | Today, AFC testified before the City Council Committee on Education and Committee on General Welfare about how 3-K, Pre-K, and EarlyLearn can better serve students who are homeless, Dual Language Learners, and students with disabilities. Read our testimony [PDF], as well as testimony from an AFC client [PDF] whose four-year-old son... Read more
AFC Response to Adoption of City Budget
06.14.2018 | Today, Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), issued the following statement in response to the New York City Council’s vote to adopt the Fiscal Year 2019 city budget: School Accessibility: We thank the Mayor and the City Council for including in the budget an additional $150 million over... Read more
AFC’s Fiscal Year 2019 City Budget Priorities
06.06.2018 | On March 23, AFC testified before the New York City Council Committee on Education regarding the Fiscal Year 2019 Preliminary Budget. On May 24, we testified before the City Council Committee on Finance regarding the Executive Budget. Read our full March [PDF] and May [PDF] testimonies, and click on the links below... Read more
New Report Shows Need for More Social Workers at Schools with High Concentrations of Students Living in Shelters
05.24.2018 | Today, Advocates for Children of New York issued a new publication entitled Gaps in Social Workers for Students Living in Shelters [PDF], documenting the number of New York City schools with high concentrations of students living in shelters that do not have a social worker to serve these students. During the 2016-2017... Read more
AFC in the News
New York Set to Revise Role of School Safety Agents
07.03.2018 | WNYC | Advocates for students said this is a surface-level solution to a broader issue of overly involving agents and police officers in student discipline and mental health crises. Since 2012, school safety agents have issued fewer summonses and arrests but they are still heavily involved when it comes to responding to instances of a... Read more
‘We didn’t have options’: A new Staten Island charter school aims to fill a gap for students with dyslexia
07.03.2018 | Chalkbeat New York | In 2016, the city announced it would increasing the number of reading coaches in each school through a new Universal Literacy Program. That may be helping, Moroff said, but some students still find themselves without needed support. “If kids didn’t have private attorneys, then what they ended up doing... Read more
City budget includes influx for school accessibility, social workers for homeless students
06.12.2018 | Chalkbeat New York | Most of New York City’s schools are not considered fully accessible: entire neighborhoods lack schools that can accommodate students with physical disabilities. And since the city had already exhausted all of its funding to make schools more accessible for the next fiscal year, advocates feared there would be no... Read more
Mayor de Blasio urged to boost resources to tackle the rising homeless student population
06.05.2018 | New York Daily News | In a letter sent to de Blasio Monday, the leaders of 16 influential nonprofits that work with homeless students urged de Blasio to dramatically increase supports for those kids by adding staff and funding in his upcoming budget. “The growing number of students in temporary housing represents a crisis... Read more