Advocates for Children of New York works on behalf of children who are at greatest risk for school-based discrimination and/or academic failure due to poverty, disability, race, ethnicity, immigrant or English Language Learner status, sexual orientation, gender identity, homelessness, or involvement in the foster care or juvenile justice systems.
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Spotlight
AFC’s Fiscal Year 2022 City Budget Priorities
Spring 2021 | On March 23, 2021, we testified [PDF] before the City Council Committee on Education on the preliminary budget, outlining our prorities for an ambitious education initiative to direct the largest one-time federal investment in education in our nation’s history. Click on the links below to learn more about each of AFC's advocacy... Continue reading
3-K Cannot Be "For All" While Preschoolers with Disabilities Go Without Needed Classes
03.24.2021 | Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) issued the following response to Mayor de Blasio’s announcement that New York City plans to use federal COVID-19 education relief funding to expand 3-K citywide: While AFC has strongly supported this Administration’s commitment to expanding access to early childhood education, 3-K and Pre-... Continue reading
AFC Testifies on the New York City FY 2021 Preliminary Education Budget
03.23.2021 | Today, AFC is testifying before the City Council Committee on Education on the preliminary budget, outlining our priorities for an ambitious education initiative to direct the largest one-time federal investment in education in our nation’s history. Read our testimony Continue reading
Over 100 Organizations Call on New York State to Allow All 12th Graders Who Age Out in 2021 to Return to School Next Year
03.09.2021 | Today, more than 100 education and advocacy organizations and over 150 parents, educators, and other individuals from across New York State sent a letter to the New York State Board of Regents and the State Education Department (NYSED), urging them to give students aging out of school this year the opportunity to return to high school... Continue reading
AFC in the News
State budget to bring a long-awaited windfall for NYC schools
04.06.2021 | NY Daily News | Randi Levine, the policy director of Advocates for Children, said that with the influx of state and federal cash, the city should “fund a major education initiative” that includes academic support and mental health support with extra attention to students hit hardest by the pandemic. City officials have invested... Continue reading
The Bronx Social Justice and Anti-Violence Forums | Advocate for Children of New York
04.01.2021 | BronxNet TV | Host Daren Jaime sits down with the Policy Director of Advocate for Children of New York, Randi Levine discussing the COVID-19 Education Recovery Plan and recommendations focus on summer programs for students, intensive one-on-one tutoring, services for disabled students, and much more. Watch video Continue reading
Advocates calling on New York state to allow high schoolers ‘aging out’ during pandemic more time to earn degrees
03.31.2021 | amNY | “This is a matter of basic fairness,” reads a letter from the group Advocates for Children to the NYSED Chancellor Lester Young and Board of Regents Commissioner Betty Rosa. “Students turning 21 during the 2020-21 school year should have as much time to complete this year’s coursework as their younger classmates. In the face of... Continue reading
For Second Straight Year, Students Will Be Exempt From Regents Requirements
03.30.2021 | NY1 | “There's no federal law that requires that state accountability tests be tied to graduation,” said Ashley Grant, director of the Postsecondary Readiness Project at Advocates for Children of New York. “And New York state's a real outlier right now on this, so we're one of only 11 states that uses a high-stakes test as a... Continue reading