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
The ARISE Coalition Calls for Increased Funding for School Accessibility
09.12.2018 | Today, members of the ARISE Coalition (which is coordinated by AFC) and Parents for Inclusive Education (PIE) sent a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio asking that the City include a major investment in the FY 2020-2024 School Construction Authority Five-Year Capital Plan to make at least one-third of schools accessible to students,... Read more
Federal Court Allows Lawsuit to Proceed Against DOE for Failure to Provide Needed Services to Students with Disabilities
08.29.2018 | Yesterday, the federal district court for the Southern District of New York issued a decision allowing a lawsuit filed by AFC and Greenberg Traurig, LLP to proceed. The lawsuit alleged systemic failure on the part of the NYC Department of Education to provide services, including nurses, to students with medical needs who require such... Read more
Get ready for back to school!
08.21.2018 | The first day of school is Wednesday, September 5! In preparation, we've updated our back-to-school fact sheet for families of students with disabilities, which answers frequently asked questions, such as what to do if a child does not yet have a school assignment or the school assigned says they cannot serve the child’s needs. View... Read more
AFC Comments on the Implementation of New York’s Approved ESSA Plan
08.17.2018 | Today, Advocates for Children of New York submitted comments to the New York State Education Department on proposed amendments to the regulations regarding New York’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability system. Our comments discuss the proposed definition of “out-of-school suspension rate” as well as the State's method... Read more
AFC in the News
80% of NYC schools aren’t fully accessible to students with physical disabilities. Activists say $850 million could make a dent.
09.12.2018 | Chalkbeat New York | In a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio, dozens of advocates and disability-rights groups are calling for $750 million more over the next five years to ensure that at least a third of schools are accessible. Currently only 20 percent of schools are fully accessible, some 30 years after the passage of the Americans... Read more
Dozens of students separated from families still in limbo as school starts
09.05.2018 | Politico New York | Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, project director for the Immigrant Students’ Rights Project for Advocates for Children of New York, said that she does not know what type of education the children are receiving. “The big unknown for us is what happens inside the ORR shelters in terms of education, and two, how many of those... Read more
Opinion: NYC’s schools bureaucracy creates horror for parents and kids
09.03.2018 | New York Post | As The Post reported, federal Judge William Pauley III last week let a lawsuit against the Department of Education proceed, ripping the DOE as a “cumbersome and counter-intuitive bureaucracy” whose failure to coordinate nursing and transportation services for four disabled kids forced them to miss class for much of the... Read more
Families of public school students with disabilities win legal battle
08.29.2018 | New York Daily News | Families of public school students with disabilities won a legal battle Tuesday when a federal court judge dismissed the city’s attempt to throw their suit out on procedural grounds. The lawsuit filed in October 2017 by three city families with the advocacy group Advocates for Children charged the city... Read more