Need Help?
Call AFC's Education Helpline
(866) 427-6033
Monday to Thursday
10 am to 4 pm
Julian’s Story
Julian is a 3-year-old preschooler with delays in his language skills, but the DOE failed to provide recommended services.
Donate Now
Help Advocates for Children support more New York City students!
Stay connected
Sign up for AFC's email updates and find other ways to take action.
-
This guide is for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning (LGBTQ+) students in New York City public schools, and their allies. It lays out LGBTQ+ students’ rights and what to do if these rights have been violated. It also answers common questions about LGBTQ+ youth in public...
-
02.27.2023 | NY Daily News | The pandemic only exacerbated rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts among youth that were already on the rise. A recent national poll by Effective School Solutions found that 90% of school administrators say the youth mental health crisis is growing....
-
02.28.2023 | Chalkbeat NY | “We’re at a point where thousands and thousands of children are waiting for services and in some cases never receiving their services,” said Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, a group that has pushed for reforms to the Early Intervention system. “We...
-
03.03.2023 | The Today Show | Maggie Moroff, senior special education policy coordinator for Advocates for Children of New York, says open communication between parents and school staff is vital, particularly for students who are neurodivergent or have disabilities. "It's easy to forget that...
-
Blog: Tens of thousands of N.Y. young children with developmental delays are not getting critical services03.06.2023 | NY Daily News | Betty Baez Melo, who leads early-childhood work at Advocates for Children, called for a higher figure for in-person services because teletherapy, while critical during the pandemic, can cause a “two-tiered” system where some kids work with providers at home or in...
-
03.07.2023 | The Hechinger Report | Indeed, low-income Black and Latino children in New York City are much less likely to get timely early intervention services — or at all, according to a 2019 report from Advocates for Children of New York. Pacheco suspects that some therapists don’t want to come...
-
Page: DiversityDiversityAdvocates for Children of New York strives to employ a diverse staff that furthers our mission of ensuring a high-quality education for New York students who face barriers to academic success, focusing on students from low-income backgrounds.AFC values a diverse workforce, in the sense...
-
Page: Send Us a Message
-
10.25.2022 | Today, AFC testified before the City Council Committee on Youth Services about the need to ensure that the City’s summer programming provides needed support for all students, including students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and students who are homeless. Read our...
-
Page: Policy AgendaPolicy AgendaAFC’s mission is to ensure a high-quality education for New York students who face barriers to academic success, focusing on students from low-income backgrounds. At a minimum, this education must allow all students to become literate, develop social-emotional competence, and...
-
Blog: NY’s budget has $100M for academic and mental health programs. Schools still don’t have the money.02.24.2023 | Chalkbeat NY | “It is very disappointing that the money that was allocated for desperately needed services by children and adolescents is not getting to them,” said Dawn Yuster, director of the School Justice Project at Advocates for Children. “There is a lot of trauma, anxiety,...
-
02.20.2023 | NY Daily News | “There are a lot of reasons why a child doesn’t want to go to school, and one of those is the feeling of hopelessness and anxiety of falling behind academically,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, the director of the Immigrant Students’ Rights Project at Advocates for...
-
02.08.2023 | NY Daily News | Meanwhile, than a dozen critical education initiatives are vulnerable to cutbacks or elimination after federal stimulus runs out and the city hits a so-called fiscal cliff, from preschool programs to social workers, according to a brief from Advocates for Children...
-
Blog: Lawsuit on behalf of NYC students with disabilities who lost services during the pandemic goes ahead02.03.2023 | Chalkbeat NY | A class action lawsuit seeking to force New York City to expedite makeup services to students with disabilities has been revived by an appeals court, according to a ruling released Friday. The ruling reverses a lower court’s decision last year to dismiss the case....
-
02.02.2023 | NY Daily News | “The numbers continue to tick up a little bit from year to year, but we’re still seeing broad disparities,” said Juliet Eisenstein, a staff attorney at Advocates for Children who sits on a state commission tasked with reviewing state graduation measures. Roughly...
-
02.02.2023 | Chalkbeat NY | “Our guess is that the Regents exam waivers during the pandemic have disproportionately benefited students who most struggle with those exams,” said Sarah Part, a senior policy analyst at Advocates for Children. Still, she added that “it is noteworthy that we’ve seen...
-
Students with Disabilities and Special EducationReturning visitors to our resource library: If you have downloaded a publication before, we recommend clearing your browsing history before clicking the links below, to ensure you are viewing the most up-to-date versions. Note: Unless...
-
This guide provides information on free/low-cost early childhood programs in New York City, including Pre-K for All, EarlyLearn NYC, and Head Start. (Spanish)