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 on school based mental health clinics, urging the City Council to ensure the budget includes funding to continue the Mental Health Continuum and sustain a range of important education programs currently funded with expiring federal dollars.
This brief highlights the impact of the 100 New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) shelter-based community coordinators (SBCCs) hired in 2022–23 and calls on Mayor Adams and the City Council to sustain funding for this critical initiative in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. Funding for all 100 SBCC positions is set to run dry in June, and the City has not yet committed to continuing to fund their important work.
AFC submitted testimony to the New York City Council Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction and the Committee on Health on the need to continue funding for the Mental Health Continuum.
AFC testified at the New York City Council Preliminary Budget Hearing on Children and Youth about the need for continued funding for Promise NYC, which provides early childhood education and for children who are undocumented.
Today, AFC and the ARISE Coalition (coordinated by AFC) are testifying at the NYC Council Committee on Education’s Preliminary Budget hearing. Numerous education programs, services, and staff positions are currently at risk of deep cuts as a result of the expiration of federal stimulus funding, the expiration of one-year city funding, and the Preliminary Budget cut of more than $700 million.
AFC testified at the Joint Legislative Hearing on the 2024–2025 Executive State Budget Proposal for Elementary and Secondary Education.
This report, which is based on conversations with parents of New York City students about their experiences working with their children’s schools as their children were taught to read, makes recommendations for New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) on how to partner with families as the city enters the next stages of its efforts to improve reading instruction across the school system.
AFC submitted testimony for the Joint Legislative Public Hearing on the 2024–2025 Executive Budget Proposal regarding the need to significantly invest in Early Intervention (EI).
AFC testified before the New York State Education Department regarding mayoral control, emphasizing the need to ensure that any changes to the current model do not negatively affect the student populations AFC serves.
In response to the education portion of Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget address, Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), issued the following statement.