AFC testified before the City Council Committee on Hospitals regarding the Fiscal Year 2023 preliminary budget, urging the City to invest in a comprehensive system to ensure students have access to behavioral and mental health supports in schools.
AFC works to change education policy so that the public school system serves all children effectively. We publish policy reports and data analyses, testify at the City and State levels, speak out in the press to bring attention to the challenges facing the students and families we serve, and join with other advocates, parents, youth, and educators to call for change.
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AFC testified before the City Council Committee on Hospitals regarding the Fiscal Year 2023 preliminary budget, urging the City to invest in a comprehensive system to ensure students have access to behavioral and mental health supports in schools.
AFC testified before the City Council Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction and the Committee on Health on the need to invest in a comprehensive, integrated system of mental health and behavioral health supports for students.
AFC testified before the New York City Council Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction on the youth mental health crisis and the urgent need for a comprehensive system to ensure that our young people have access to and receive behavioral and mental health supports in schools.
Mayor-elect Eric Adams will take office at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the longstanding inequities in our City’s schools. Based on our 50 years of on-the-ground experience helping students and families navigate the largest school system in the country and get the support they need to learn, we outline some of the most pressing challenges in public education — including those that pre-date COVID — where the incoming Mayor must be prepared to focus attention, energy, and resources.
AFC testified before the City Council Committee on Public Safety, joining the call from students, parents, and educators for police-free schools and urging the City to eliminate the reliance on the New York City Police Department to address the needs of students in our schools.
AFC testified before the New York City Council Committee on Education on the City’s plan to hire 250 new School Safety Agents (SSAs), rather than invest in the social-emotional and mental health supports our students need so profoundly at this point in time.
AFC submitted public comments to the U.S. Department of Education on the exclusionary, punitive school discipline and police policies and practices faced by New York City public school students, the disproportionate impact these policies and practices have on Black and Brown students and students with disabilities, and promising alternative practices.
This report explores data on police responses to more than 12,000 “child in crisis” interventions, where a student in emotional distress is removed from class and transported to the hospital for psychological evaluation. A disproportionate share of these interventions involved Black students, students attending District 75 schools, and students attending schools located in low-income communities of color. We call on the City to end the criminalization of students in emotional crisis by eliminating police from schools and investing in behavioral and mental health supports and services.
AFC testified before the New York City Council Committee on Public Safety at a hearing on the Mayor’s New York City Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Draft Plan.
With the federal government having approved the largest one-time investment in education in our nation’s history, NYC needs an ambitious education initiative to pave the way to hope and opportunity for this generation of students. Such a plan must invest resources in academic support, mental health support, and outreach and engagement. It must be targeted to assist students disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, including the provision of specialized instruction and support where needed. This plan outlines our recommendations for steps the City should take.