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Julian’s Story
Julian is a 3-year-old preschooler with delays in his language skills, but the DOE failed to provide recommended services.
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This fact sheet explains diploma and non-diploma options for students with disabilities in New York State. (Chinese)
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Criteria for promotion from 9th, 10th, and 11th grades. Also includes high school graduation requirements (credits and regent exams). In Korean.
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08.19.2022 | PIX 11 | “Our concern is that there isn’t sufficient staff at each school that are bilingual and that are knowledgeable to be able to help families and to help all the students are coming in,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of immigrant students’ rights at Advocates for...
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08.22.2022 | Today, AFC is testifying before the City Council Committee on Education about the impact of the school budget cuts. We are calling on the City to restore funding for school budgets and also continue key investments targeted to students with the greatest needs. Read our...
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08.19.2022 | Chalkbeat NY | “We know there aren’t enough bilingual programs in the city for all of the English language learners that qualify for them,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students Rights Project at Advocates for Children New York. “We also know schools don’t...
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08.18.2022 | Telemundo | El alcalde Eric Adams declaró que no quiere que los niños enviados desde Texas por el gobernador Greg Abbott interrumpan su educación y diversas organizaciones se aliaron para brindar asesoría a sus padres para que continúen sus estudios. Watch video
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08.18.2022 | Chalkbeat NY | “Students living in shelter and students with disabilities who rely on bus service shouldn’t have to leave the program hours earlier than their peers,” said Randi Levine, from Advocates for Children. The city provided prepaid ride-sharing services for the home trip...
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08.17.2022 | NY1 | Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrants Students Rights project at Advocates for Children, says some families may want to seek bilingual programs, taught in English and Spanish. But not every school offers them. “All schools should be providing English as a new...
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Resource: Developmental MilestonesA chart that lists developmental milestones (physical, cognitive, communication, social-emotional) for children from ages 2 months to 3 years.
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Reviews changes to graduation requirements due to COVID-19, including Regents exam exemptions, appeals, and high school equivalency options. (In Chinese)
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08.16.2022 | Telemundo 47 | El Departamento de Educación indicaron que tienen ocho centros de inscripción de menores en toda la ciudad. Carlos Zapata habla con Rita Rodriguez-Enbgerg de Advocates for Children of Nueva York para más información. Watch video
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08.15.2022 | NY Post | Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students’ Rights Project at Advocates for Children, said that the recent arrivals who are learning English and living in shelters “will need targeted support in school, including programming to help them learn English and...
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08.11.2022 | NY Daily News | “You have this influx of families and at most [shelter] sites, there’s no one from the Department of Education there to help them with enrollment,” said Jennifer Pringle, a project director at Advocates for Children. “It’s not fair to families or schools to...
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08.11.2022 | The New York Post | “The State did not exempt students from completing their coursework, passing their classes, earning the required number of credits, or meeting their teachers’ expectations,” said Sarah Part, a policy analyst at Advocates for Children of New York, including its work...
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08.11.2022 | Chalkbeat NY | “It sounds a little bit like shifting the blame to the families, but the reality is there isn’t somewhere in the public school system for many of those families to turn,” said Maggie Moroff, a disability policy expert at Advocates for Children, which offers free...
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08.15.2022 | City Limits | In order to address the cascading effects of homelessness in New York, we must first understand the scope of the problem. In March 2022, there were 15,087 homeless children sleeping each night in New York City’s main municipal shelter system. What’s more, New York...
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07.29.2022 | Chalkbeat NY | To the outward facing part of the world, it’s very last minute,” said Maggie Moroff, a special education policy expert at the nonprofit Advocates for Children. “It’s hard for me to imagine, if this hasn’t been communicated to the schools yet, how it’s going to play out...
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07.22.2022 | Newsday | On the other side is the Coalition for Multiple Pathways to a Diploma, another statewide group, which lists more than 80 members. They include Advocates for Children of New York, with a center in Manhattan; Learning Disabilities Association of New York State, Rochester; and...
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06.09.2022 | Today, Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) released a new data analysis, More than Translation: Multi-Faceted Solutions for Communicating with NYC’s Immigrant Families, estimating that more than 329,000 public school students do not have a parent who speaks English fluently and...
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06.24.2022 | Today, Advocates for Children of New York is testifying before the City Council Committee on Education and Committee on Oversight and Investigations regarding our deep concerns about school budget cuts. Read our testimony [PDF]