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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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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]
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10.10.2018 | Today, Advocates for Children of New York is releasing a new data brief entitled Access Denied: School Accessibility in New York City [PDF], which looks at the accessibility of New York City’s 1,800 public schools. The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires the...
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Page: Who We AreWho We AreAt Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), we are dedicated exclusively to protecting every child’s right to an education, focusing on students from low-income backgrounds who are struggling in school or experiencing school discrimination of any kind.For more than 50 years, our staff of...
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Z.Q. v. NYC Department of EducationIn the Z.Q. case, Advocates for Children of New York (“AFC”) and Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP filed a class action complaint in federal court against the New York City Department of Education (“DOE”) and New York State Education Department (“...
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07.18.2022 | NY Daily News | Just 9% of students who started ninth-grade in District 75 went on to receive diplomas within six years, according to the Independent Budget Office. Students in the specialized district were more than 10 times as likely than their peers in traditional schools to be...
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07.17.2022 | NY Daily News | But for thousands of kids with emotional disabilities sent to District 75, it often serves as little more than a holding ground, according to interviews with 10 current and former district families and staffers from multiple schools. “It’s become outrageous what’s...
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Students with DisabilitiesClick on each student's name to read more.Abigail, a student with learning disabilities who needed help getting services during the pandemic.Adrian, a hardworking student who was stuggling with undiagnosed dyslexia.Angenis, a student with dyslexia who was a non-...
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Recent High School GraduatesClick on each student's name to read more.Al-Yasid is a young man on the autism spectrum who graduated from high school in 2013 after years of hard work. He was the 2014 recipient of AFC's Education Champion Award.Angelisa was 18 years old and stuck in the 8th grade...
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Page: Yacine's StoryYacine's StoryAt a family celebration this summer, 13-year-old Yacine’s relatives couldn’t believe how bubbly and social she had become – the same young girl who had been so quiet and reserved just a few years earlier! When Yacine and her mother, Fama, first came to Advocates for...
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Page: Hamza's StoryHamza's StoryCongratulations to Hamza Bani-Hani, a longtime AFC client who not only graduated from high school this June, but was also AFC's Education Champion at our 50th Anniversary Spring Benefit! At the benefit, Hamza shared his story, reflecting on how he used to feel in school: “When I look...
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07.07.2022 | BronxNet | Host Daren Jaime sits down with the Staff Attorney of the Immigrant Students' Rights Project at Advocates for Children, Diana Aragundi speaking about the initiative establishing a permanent, central system for immigrant family communications. Watch video
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07.12.2022 | Politico New York | Randi Levine, policy director for nonprofit Advocates for Children of New York, said the Covid-19 stimulus funding presented an opportunity to invest in some key programs like adding social workers in schools and helping address the shortage of preschool special...
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07.13.2022 | The Imprint | “It’s really important to get these folks in place in time for the beginning of the new school year so that they can begin to support students,” said Erika Palmer, supervising attorney at Advocates for Children. “We don’t want another school year to go forward when...
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07.12.2022 | City & State | As for students with disabilities and those living in temporary housing, transportation remains one of the biggest barriers, according to Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children of New York. Last year, bussing was only offered at the close of the...