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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Randi Levine, Policy Director at Advocates for Children of New York
5:36:09
·
140 sec
Randi Levine from Advocates for Children of New York urges the city to make additional investments in education beyond maintaining the status quo. She outlines specific funding requests to address unmet needs in various areas of education and support for students with disabilities.
- Requests include $70 million for preschoolers with disabilities, $3.75 million for school-based mental health clinics, and $3 million for immigrant family outreach
- Advocates for $17.5 million to expand reading support and $450 million in capital funding to improve school accessibility
- Calls for restoring funding for student success centers and baselining important education programs currently funded for only one year
Randi Levine
5:36:09
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.
5:36:11
My name is Randy Levine.
5:36:12
I'm policy director at Advocates for Children of New York.
5:36:16
We are pleased that the executive budget restores funding for a number of key education programs that had been supported by expiring funds.
5:36:24
While ensuring that existing initiatives remain funded at their current levels is important, simply maintaining the status quo is not sufficient given the pressing unmet needs we see in our work on the ground with families every day.
5:36:38
We urge the city to make the following additional investments to address outstanding needs.
5:36:44
The city should add $70,000,000 to provide preschoolers with disabilities with the evaluation services and classes they need.
5:36:51
As more than 80 organizations recently urged the mayor to do given the thousands of preschoolers with disabilities currently waiting for their mandated services to begin.
5:37:01
A challenge highlighted in a recent city council statement at today's hearing, and one that AFC hears about on a regular basis from New York City families struggling to raise young children with disabilities and get the help they need.
5:37:14
Dollars 3,750,000.00 to enhance services at school based mental health clinics and better meet students behavioral needs in schools as recommended in the city council's budget response.
5:37:25
$3,000,000 to expand the immigrant family outreach initiative to help meet the growing need at a time when changes to federal policy make it essential for schools to be able to communicate key information to families.
5:37:38
Dollars 17,500,000.0 to expand access to small group support for students who need more help learning to read.
5:37:45
Families should not have to find lawyers to sue for private tutoring because our public schools are not equipped to provide effective reading intervention to students who need them.
5:37:54
And $450,000,000 in capital funding over five years to make more schools accessible as recommended in the council's budget response Because accessibility benefits everyone and students, parents, educators and community members with physical disabilities should not be turned away from any school because they can't get in the building.
5:38:12
We also join with the coalition for equitable education funding in urging the city to restore funding for student success centers and to baseline the important education programs that are funded for one year only.
5:38:24
We are grateful for the support of the city council.
5:38:27
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you.