Q&A
Improving communication between agencies in early childhood education
2:59:20
ยท
130 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph and Gregory Brender discuss the need for better communication and coordination between various city agencies involved in early childhood education.
- They emphasize the importance of agencies sharing data and talking to each other
- The discussion touches on involving providers in decision-making processes
- They highlight the complexity of the system and the need for better coordination to serve families effectively
Rita Joseph
2:59:20
How do have you are you in conversation with New York City public schools to take a look at the land the ecosystem and make sure agencies are talking to each other?
2:59:30
That's something we don't do.
2:59:31
Agencies don't talk to each other.
Gregory Brender
2:59:33
Always trying to do that, always trying to gauge, know, early childhood is is engaged with so many different city agencies including now and you know an office for coordinating it.
2:59:43
So always trying to keep those conversations open and really to make sure that this strong community of providers is a key part of it because there are great people, you heard from them today, on the ground doing this work and and they really need to be in the conversations about what's happening.
3:00:01
And they also need to get, you know, they they know a lot of what's happening on the ground but DOE and other city agencies also need to share data back with them because if there's decisions being made about services that affect families and affect the workforce, those families and the workforce need to know how those decisions are being made and need to see the data that supports it or as maybe the case doesn't support it.
Rita Joseph
3:00:25
Yeah because one of the things council member Stevens brought up was ACS, how often do they talk to New York City public schools as as we assess and we move forward and how do we make decisions at that time.
3:00:38
So that's something that I hope to see improve and I told them today communication has to be key in order for us to stabilize that workforce that we talk about all the time.
Gregory Brender
3:00:46
Yeah.
3:00:47
Because the system is is very confusing for parents and it's, you know, I mean I do this, understand this system for a living and sometimes I feel like I don't.
Rita Joseph
3:00:56
And you're confused, right?
Gregory Brender
3:00:57
And I can be confused, right?
3:00:58
So like finding ways so that a family could, you know, if they're applying to ACS or if they're applying through HRA, which currently they wouldn't be able to go into NY CPS contracted programs with that, like finding ways to ensure those families can access these programs which have gone through an RFP process and we know are of quality, we need to have the city coordinated with itself in order to make that happen and to have a city that makes sure it uses its resources best to serve families.