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 Education regarding our concern about the 800 preschoolers with significant disabilities who were waiting for seats in their legally mandated preschool special education classes as of June 2022.
Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), issued the following statement in response to the release of the 2022 New York State English Language Arts (ELA) test scores for New York City, showing that only 36% of Black and Hispanic students, 18% of students with disabilities, and 13% of English Language Learners (ELLs) in grades 3–8 are reading proficiently.
AFC testified before the City Council Committee on Education about the serious obstacles that students with disabilities and their families continue to experience every day on the ground. Every day, Advocates for Children hears from parents struggling to get their children with disabilities the education they need.
AFC testified before the City Council Committee on Education about the impact of school budget cuts, calling on the City to restore funding for school budgets and also continue key investments targeted to students with the greatest needs.
AFC submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights recommending changes to the federal regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
AFC submitted comments to the State Education Department supporting changes to regulations to increase the minimum number of hours of home instruction and establish a new process for requesting home instruction, as well as suggesting further changes.
Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) joined more than 30 organizations to call on the City to honor its commitment to fully staff a DOE team dedicated to meeting the unique educational needs of students in foster care, and to meet its obligation under law to provide busing for this population.
Advocates for Children of New York testified before the City Council Committee on Education and Committee on Oversight and Investigations regarding our deep concerns about school budget cuts.
This June 2022 data analysis estimates that more than 329,000 public school students do not have a parent who speaks English fluently and calls for investments in a permanent, central system for immigrant family communications at the Department of Education (DOE). The analysis uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) to illustrates the need for multi-faceted approaches to communication that go beyond making translated documents available online.
Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) joined more than 200 organizations and individuals in calling on Mayor Adams to invest $5 million to continue the Mental Health Continuum, an innovative, evidence-based model for supporting students with significant mental health needs by integrating a range of direct services and developing stronger partnerships between schools and hospital-based mental health clinics.