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Julian’s Story
Julian is a 3-year-old preschooler with delays in his language skills, but the DOE failed to provide recommended services.
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06.24.2014 | Chalkbeat New York | While some advocates commended the announcement as a step in the right direction, they pointed out that it is not a new law, but a policy change that must be enacted. The education department has not yet created any new regulations to codify the new policies,...
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06.23.2014 | NY1 | The state data also reveals another alarming trend: over the past four years, the graduation rate for English Language Learners has been steadily declining. "It was really depressing to see the graduation rates for English Language Learners to actually go down," says Kim Sweet....
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06.10.2014 | Education Week | Randi Levine, the director of the Early Childhood Education Project, an initiative of Advocates for Children of New York, said she was pleased with the outreach efforts thus far. "We're working with [city officials] to make sure some of the students who could benefit...
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06.24.2014 | Capital New York | As the de Blasio administration rolls out its ambitious expansion of pre-kindergarten, it will be hard-pressed to accommodate children with special needs, special education advocates say...Groups like Advocates For Children, Parent to Parent and the Interagency...
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06.13.2014 | Capital New York | Deputy chancellor for special education Corrine Rello-Anselmi attends meetings with the citywide council on special education monthly, but Fariña's presence brought out parents in droves. The meeting was standing-room only. "It was a greatest-hits conversation of...
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05.15.2014 | This Saturday, May 17, marks the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared that separate is inherently unequal in public education. The words of Chief Justice Earl Warren ring as true today as they did in 1954: “In these days...
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05.08.2014 | Thank you to everyone who supported our 2014 Spring Benefit! More than 650 guests joined us on May 7 at 360° to celebrate another successful year at Advocates for Children, as well as the accomplishments of this year’s honorees, Eugene Ludwig and Al-Yasid Johnson. This year's event was...
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04.18.2014 | New York World | Youth advocates praise the progress that has been made so far under the Passages program. According to ACS, 98 percent of long-term students have earned credits toward graduation. All the same, they are asking ACS and DOE to disseminate more detailed data about how...
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04.10.2014 | We would like to thank everyone who called, emailed, and rallied in support of making full-day Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) available for all four-year-old children in New York City. We are very pleased that the final state budget includes a dedicated funding stream with $300...
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04.08.2014 | Chalkbeat New York | The new administration’s steep challenge is to ensure that neighborhood schools and general education teachers have the resources and training to serve students with disabilities, said Kim Sweet, executive director of the group Advocates for Children of New York. “...
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04.07.2014 | Chalkbeat New York | De Blasio’s hesitation to make changes to the policy has caused confusion for parents eager to know how much test scores will matter—if at all—when it comes to admission and promotion decisions. It has also flummoxed parent advocates who say that some kind of...
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03.12.2014 | City Limits | The second goal, the promised transfer of all academic credits earned by youth in placement, has not been delivered, either. Attorneys at Advocates for Children say when teens are released from OCFS placement, New York City public high schools frequently reject their...
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04.07.2014 | Education Week | Early-education proponents in the city said they were thrilled about the new money. "We've been waiting more than 15 years for this day," said Randi Levine, the project director of the Early Childhood Education Project, an initiative of Advocates for Children of New...
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04.03.2014 | WABC Eyewitness News | Although Tavian is back in school and working to make up for the time he lost, we're told he might still be on suspension had he not been represented by the not-for-profit Advocates for Children. "This is a case that unfortunately we see too often, where it's...
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03.28.2014 | Salon | In the struggle to find space for both public and charter schools, District 75 schools have long been the first to get shuffled around, according to Advocates for Children, an organization that defends access to education for students with disabilities and other marginalized...
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Resource: Section 504 Fact SheetSummary of how to determine if your child is eligible for services under Section 504, and how to obtain them.
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03.21.2014 | New York Times | AFC Executive Director Kim Sweet responds to the charter school debate with a letter to the editor: "New York City’s charter schools educate only about 6 percent of the city’s students. Yet charter schools continue to dominate public debate about reform in education....
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03.13.2014 | On March 12, AFC's Junior Board and NYU Law School's Education Law and Policy Society held a panel on deconstructing the school-to-prison pipeline to keep kids in NYC schools. The panel was moderated by AFC Skadden Fellow Nick Sheehan. More than 110 attendees learned about several...
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03.18.2014 | Gotham Gazette | AFC coordinates The Coalition for Multiple Pathways to a Diploma, which recently released a report examining the difficulties that high stakes standardized exit exams pose for many students and addressing the need for multiple pathways to graduation. This op-ed by...
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03.16.2014 | Newsday | "Districts face myriad challenges, especially given the budgetary constraints many districts are operating under," said Jennifer Pringle, project director for New York State Technical and Education Assistance Center for Homeless students, an agency funded by the state...