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Micaela’s Story

Micaela is a dual-language learner who is on the autism spectrum and needed an appropriate school placement for kindergarten.

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News & Media

AFC in the News

Struggling with special education, charter schools join together

11.8.2011 | Gotham Schools | “Historically we have seen that charter schools have not served the students with greater needs, so I think it’s great that the schools are making an effort,” said Kim Madden, director of legal services at Advocates for Children. “Certainly there’s a lot of room for improvement, in both charter schools and the DOE.”... Read article

New York's Educational Progress -- Or Lack of It

11.8.2011 | NBC News New York | “We’ve got a long way to go,” Kim Sweet of Advocates for Children told me, “before the children in our elementary and high schools will be able to benefit from having a major university like Stanford or Cornell offer them such an opportunity. There needs to be a lot of work done before many New York City school children can qualify for the challenging environment of an Ivy League school.”... Read article

Advocates say they haven’t heard from the DOE’s “chief parent”

11.3.2011 | Gotham School | “I worked with Mojica for years when he was in the Bronx, and I know he is a strong advocate for parents, but since he gained this new position I have not spoken with him,” said Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children.... Read article

(Note: This story originally appeared in Spanish in El Diario, which supplied the translation.)

Little horrors: City kindergarteners being suspended for misbehaving

11.1.2011 | New York Post | “It’s troubling, because a lot of these kids are being suspended for behaviors that could be dealt with in a more constructive fashion,” said Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children. “We think suspension is very much a last resort because it removes a child from the classroom and it doesn’t teach them appropriate behavior.”... Read article

Council presses city agencies to do more for homeless students

10.18.2011 | Gotham Schools | Advocates for Children of New York testified before the New York City Council regarding the education of homeless children and youth. “Unfortunately, specific practices at DOE and DHS all but guarantee educational instability for a large swath of homeless students,” testified Jared Stein of Advocates for Children of New York.... Read article

City Public School Officials Paint Dire Picture For More Than 50K Homeless Students

10.18.2011 | New York 1 News | "Without busing, parents of elementary school students must rely on DOE-provided MetroCards to accompany their child or children twice a day, every school day. For too many families, a MetroCard offers no solution," said Jared Stein of Advocates for Children.... Read article

At long last, New York says it will jump on the NCLB waiver train

10.17.2011 | Gotham Schools | Advocates for Children of New York will be serving on a statewide think tank that will advise the State Education Department on its application for a No Child Left Behind waiver.... Read article

State To City: Add More Bilingual Ed Programs

10.12.2011 | New York 1 News | Advocates said it is about time. "It's a great first step if it's put in place properly," said Gisela Alvarez of Advocates for Families and Children. "There is no doubt that these things need to be done."... Read article

NYC to Expand Support for English Language Learners at Outer Borough High Schools, Though Details Remain Scant

09.01.2022 | City Limits | City officials say the pilot has been in the works since last year and was not a response to the increase in the number of immigrant families seeking asylum in New York over the last few months from the southern border. On Aug. 19, the mayor announced the multi-agency plan Project Open Arms, which establishes guidelines for helping these new arrivals in the enrollment process, though his plan didn’t mention transfer schools. 

But advocates say the timing was fortuitous: the recent asylum seekers include more than a thousand school-aged children. Last school year, 43 percent of the city’s public school students spoke a language other than English, according to the DOE. 

Advocates welcomed the news and saw this as the first step, but were awaiting more details. 

“Looking forward to hearing more about it,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students Rights Project at Advocates for Children of New York. Read article