This bill is an important step toward ensuring that our young people in crisis are met with a trauma-informed and healing response, not with the threat of law enforcement and handcuffs.

However, while we support Int. 0003-2022, AFC has also been calling on the City to shift funding from the NYPD to instead provide needed mental health and social emotional support for students; we are not advocating for additional funding to be allocated to train law enforcement officers to respond to students in emotional crisis. In order to ensure this bill truly fulfills its promise to limit law enforcement intervention and handcuffing when a student is in emotional crisis, the City must invest sufficient resources to ensure that every school can effectively support students’ social-emotional and behavioral needs with a trauma-informed approach.