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
Motion Filed in Federal Court for Independent Special Master Due to NYC DOE’s Failure to Comply with Hearing Orders
09.03.2019 | After years of the New York City Department of Education (DOE) failing to follow hearing orders to provide or pay for services for students with disabilities, Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) and Milbank LLP filed a Motion for an Independent Special Master to oversee the DOE’s implementation of these orders. The motion... Continue reading
Statement by Advocates for Children in Response to the Release of English Language Arts & Math Test Scores
08.22.2019 | In response to the release of the grades 3–8 English Language Arts (ELA) and Math test scores, Kim Sweet, Executive Director, issued the following statement: We are pleased that test scores for third through eighth graders continue to trend in the right direction. In particular, rising ELA scores for third graders—53.3% of New... Continue reading
Get ready for back to school!
08.19.2019 | The first day of school is Thursday, September 5! In preparation, we've updated our start-of-school question & answer fact sheet [PDF] for families of students with disabilities. The fact sheet (also available in Spanish [PDF]) covers common problems families face at the beginning of a new school year, from services not... Continue reading
Know Your Rights: Immigrant Students and Families
08.15.2019 | Every student in New York City has the right to attend public school, regardless of immigration status. Following recent immigration-related activities by the federal government, the New York City Department of Education (DOE) issued a letter [PDF] and flyer [PDF] to families reiterating this commitment. Both documents are... Continue reading
AFC in the News
Yellow Bus Service Sees Modest Gains At Start Of School
09.10.2019 | WNYC | Randi Levine is policy director for Advocates for Children, which operates a parent hotline. “Overall, it seems like things went more smoothly this year than last year,” she said. “But we did hear from parents whose buses didn’t show up, whose children couldn’t get on the bus because their IEP-mandated bus paraprofessionals... Continue reading
A reading ‘crisis’: Why some New York City parents created a school for dyslexic students
09.04.2019 | Chalkbeat New York / THE CITY | Reading experts and special education advocates acknowledge a host of obstacles preclude a fast and simple solution in a school system as vast as the city’s — including cost, an entrenched way of doing business and lack of political will. But advocates say the consequences of leaving the system as is... Continue reading
Disabled Students Still Not Receiving the Services Needed
09.04.2019 | NY1 | Advocates are accusing the city of violating a 12-year-old legal settlement requiring that all students with disabilities receive the services they need, and they want a federal judge to appoint an independent special master to find out why. "We’d like an independent person to go in and look at what is causing the delays in... Continue reading
Improve services for special needs students, report says
09.04.2019 | Brooklyn Daily Eagle | “It’s important to include students with disabilities in conversations about diversity,” Maggie Moroff, special education policy coordinator at Advocates for Children of New York, told the Brooklyn Eagle. “In New York City, students with disabilities make up about one fifth of the population, but they’re... Continue reading