Programs and Projects

The Jill Chaifetz Educational Helpline

With the generous support of the New York City Council, AFC operates a telephone helpline that provides information and advocacy assistance to callers who seek our help with education-related issues. Our expertise with regard to the law, the schools and the Department of Education (DOE) makes support available to at-risk families and children that they could not obtain in any other way.

Call the Educational Helpline for all school-related matters Monday through Thursday 10 am to 4 pm. 1-866-427-6033

Project Achieve

AFC’s innovative program, Project Achieve, works to ensure that children in or at-risk of placement in foster care receive access to the educational services and programs they need to succeed in the New York City public schools. Since 2002, Project Achieve has placed AFC staff on-site at partnering foster care and preventive agencies to accept referrals for individual cases and to build the capacity of professionals, young people and birth, foster and adoptive parents to solve school-related problems. Project Achieve has partnered with five agencies including Louise Wise Services, New York Foundling, Forestdale, Graham Windham, and, most recently, Cardinal McCloskey Services. Project Achieve staff also takes part in local and national policy initiatives focused on improving the delivery of educational services to children in or at-risk of placement in foster care.

Foster Care Youth Project

With the support of Morrison & Foerster LLP and the not-for-profit Equal Justice Works, AFC has established the Foster Care Educational Advocacy Project to assure young people age 15 to 21 who are transitioning out of foster care access to appropriate education services. Advocacy efforts will focus on securing appropriate testing, special education programs and placements, post-secondary vocational training programs, as well as providing students with in-depth representation in both disciplinary hearings and special education due process hearings against the New York City Department of Education.

Insideschools.org®

There is no tool, other than our Insideschools.org® website, that provides comprehensive, up-to-date, meaningful, independent information on the NYC public schools for parents. Insideschools.org® assists parents by providing essential information on public school programs, as well as other information they need to navigate the school system.

Insideschools.org® contains reviews and information about every public school in New York City with information gleaned from DOE data, as well as reviews and information conducted and gathered by our staff. Launched in 2002, Insideschools.org has become a widely respected source of information for tens of thousands of NYC parents, students and teachers.
www.insideschools.org

Immigrant Rights Project

For almost a decade, Advocates For Children in partnership with the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), and community based organizations serving the immigrant communities, have been pressuring the city and state to improve educational opportunities for immigrant and English Language Learner (ELL) students and to reverse the ELL dropout crisis that is threatening the future of a generation of immigrant youth.

Project activities include advocacy and assistance to individual parents, monitoring of conditions in regions and schools, issuing policy reports, training sessions for staff of the participating CBOs (who in turn train immigrant parents and community members), and organizing around immigrant education issues. Chief among these issues is the education of ELL (English Language Learners) students and the availability to non-English speaking parents and guardians of materials relating to their child's education in the language that they understand.

Juvenile Justice Educational Advocacy Project

AFC's Juvenile Justice Education Advocacy Project provides court-involved youth and their families with advocacy, information, and referrals to help resolve their school difficulties and secure the educational resources to which they are entitled. Most of the youth are referred by probation officers, judges, or other juvenile justice service providers who identify an education issue that needs a specialist. AFC focuses on identifying youth whose school-related difficulties are a primary trigger for behavioral difficulties or court-involvement and then works to achieve successful educational outcomes. In addition, AFC harnesses the information learned through individual case advocacy to work for systemic change through coalition building and impact litigation.

Out Of School Youth Project

For the past four years, Advocates for Children has been assisting high school aged youth and young adults who have been pushed out of school, counseled into GED programs when they are not ready, illegally suspended, denied access to special education services and warehoused in programs like suspension centers and alternative settings, where they don’t get a quality education. We have assisted individual students, provided workshops, disseminated guides, filed lawsuits, written policy reports and worked with local media.
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Project Thrive

Project Thrive has been at the heart of AFC's mission since our inception. It was initiated to provide in-depth representation at the New York City Department of Education to New York City's low income families struggling to assure their children with special needs an appropriate education.

Parent Centers Without Walls (PCWW)

The Parent Centers Without Walls is a collaborative project of AFC and Resources for Children with Special Needs and the Jewish Child Care Association to create PCWWs in Manhattan and the Bronx. The PCWWs provide parents of children with disabilities in these two boroughs with free information, training and direct assistance. They seek to build the capacity of parents to meet the educational and related needs of children with disabilities. Through training and support, the PCWWs ensure access to programs, community resources and assistance to enable parents to obtain appropriate educational services for their children.

New York State Technical and Education Assistance Center for Homeless Students (NYS-TEACHS)

In December 2005, AFC was awarded a grant from the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to establish the statewide NYS-TEACHS, which is designed to build the capacity of school districts throughout the state to improve education of homeless youth and children. Our TEACHS staff assists individuals via helpline and email, conducts trainings for service providers and holds a number of statewide conferences each year about the educational rights of children and youth experiencing homelessness. http://www.nysteachs.org.

Training and Technical Assistance to Community Based Organizations

AFC equips local agencies with the resources they need to help far more individuals and families than any one organization could on its own. By providing support and information to community-based organizations throughout NYC, we can ensure that they provide high-quality service to their constituencies.

Through a grant from the Robin Hood Foundation, AFC works to strengthen the capacity of CBOs funded by Robin Hood and help them meet the educational needs of the public school students they serve. AFC currently serves 24 Robin Hood-funded-agencies through targeted training and technical assistance and a full range of educational case advocacy services to the families with whom they work.

Parent Training and Information Centers

The Parent Training and Information Center provides training, information, and assistance to parents of children with disabilities and to the professionals who work with them. These services, provided at a time when the school system is undergoing extensive changes and reorganization, enable parents and professionals to become more knowledgeable about educational services available for children with disabilities and their rights and protections under the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). The center also helps families to secure appropriate services for their children and become effective partners in school reform.