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 Statement on Reopening Schools
07.08.2020 | Today, Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), issued the following statement in response to Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza’s announcement of plans for reopening school buildings in September: Bringing 1.1 million children and more than 70,000 teachers safely back into the classroom in... Continue reading
More Than 20 Organizations Call On DOE Chancellor to Address the Needs of Students in Foster Care
06.24.2020 | Today, Advocates for Children joined more than 20 organizations calling on the DOE to appoint a senior-level leader to focus full-time on students in foster care and to honor its Fiscal Year 2020 commitment “to ensure bussing for students in foster care” and guarantee that students in foster care, who have a legal right to... Continue reading
AFC Urges DOE to Follow State Guidance & Let 21-Year-Old Students Stay in School
06.24.2020 | Today, Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), issued the following statement in response to new State guidance strongly encouraging school districts to provide over-age high school students the opportunity to return to school next year to finish meeting graduation requirements and to prepare for... Continue reading
AFC calls on New York City to invest in education, not criminalization
06.23.2020 | Today, AFC released a policy brief summarizing the proposed cuts to education funding in the Mayor's FY21 Executive Budget and the devastating impact these cuts would have on schools and students. The brief urges Mayor de Blasio and the City Council to reject cuts to education and ensure schools have more resources—not less—to address... Continue reading
AFC in the News
Some Say Fall School Plan Doesn’t Cater to Kids Who Need Most Support
07.09.2020 | NY1 | While Executive Director Kim Sweet of Advocates for Children of New York admits there’s “no right answer” in these unprecedented circumstances, she says the plan is complicated. Inequities for children in certain situations are only growing, says Sweet, and those with learning disabilities, learning English as a second language... Continue reading
NYC school schedules for in-person learning won’t be set until August. But here are the options.
07.08.2020 | Chalkbeat NY | “Working families who have multiple children attending different schools — or maybe even different grades at the same school — will be forced into an impossible juggling act,” Kim Sweet, director of the nonprofit Advocates for Children, said in a statement. “Schooling is inextricably intertwined with child care,... Continue reading
In New York, Hundreds of 3-Year-Olds With Disabilities Are on the Brink of Losing Services
06.25.2020 | The Chronicle of Social Change | Without an extension, the all-important transition to preschool special education, for many, will be in jeopardy. “We are very concerned that services will end abruptly for children who recently turned 3 but who have not yet had preschool special education evaluations,” wrote a coalition of 80... Continue reading
NYC students in foster care need their own education department point person, advocates say
06.24.2020 | Chalkbeat NY | “It would be great if someone within that office was tasked solely with looking at students in care as opposed to it being ... a very, very, very tiny part of a few people’s job,” said Erika Palmer, Supervising Attorney for Advocates for Children of New York.Palmer said students in foster care often don’t get the... Continue reading