Fighting to Place New York Children at the Center of New York’s Policy Agenda

Fighting to Place New York Children at the Center of New York’s Policy Agenda

There are 6,709 registered lobbyists in New York State, all working to influence public policy. Our policy team at Schuyler Center is among them, part of a tiny fraction of the lobbying community pressing for public policy benefiting young children living in families facing adversity. Our challenge every day is gaining lawmakers’ attention through the clamor. We are, and we are always seeking partners.

Public policy has a significant impact on people; families; neighborhoods; and how we live, grow, and age. It can have a particular impact – good and bad – on people at the margins. Public policy determines our tax rate, how schools, public health, and child care are funded, and where – and whether – public transportation and public infrastructure are developed and maintained. 

Public policy has explicit and articulated outcomes and frequently has unintended consequences.

Public policy directly affects the opportunities we have and the distribution of resources to individuals and communities.

Public policy can make the ground fertile for opportunity, and it can contribute to its desolation. 

Since 1872, Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy has advanced policies to improve opportunity for New York families and improve child well-being so all New York children have a fair chance to thrive. We analyze the data. We examine the impacts of past and current policies and programs. And we work with community-based partners to understand on-the-ground impacts of policies. Our priorities for 2019, as in the past, focus on strengthening families before they experience crises or trauma and preventing hardships like ill-health, economic insecurity, child welfare involvement, or encounters with juvenile justice. Another over­arching priority: ensuring comprehensive and strategic investment in our youngest New Yorkers, ages 0 to 3, when their brains and bodies are most rapidly developing, with impacts that can last a lifetime. 

New York State boasts the 14th strongest economy in the nation, yet we rank 31st in overall child well-being.1,2 With the economy humming and unemployment at record lows, there is simply no excuse for a child poverty level that exceeds 20% overall, and 30% among children of color. It is well established that policies that shelter young children from harm and deprivation, and nurture solid developmental and educational foundations, have among the best returns on investment.  

We welcome New York’s leaders’ pledge to create an equitable, welcoming New York in 2019. Essential to fulfilling that pledge is placing the well-being of our children and families at the very center of their policy agendas.

Kate Breslin
President & CEO

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1Andy Kierscz, Every US State Economy Ranked from Best to Worst. Business Insider. (March 15, 2018). https://www.businessinsider.com/state-economy-ranking-q1-2018-2;
2 Kids Count Data Center: A Project of the The Annie E. Casey Foundation. New York: Kids Count Overall Rank. (2018). https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/9981-kids-count-overall-rank?loc=34&loct=2#detailed/2/34/false/37/any/19338;[/vc_column_text]

Fighting to Place New York Children at the Center of New York’s Policy Agenda

Strengthening Family Economic Security and Improving Child Welfare Outcomes

More than one in five New York children live in poverty, a greater percentage than in 32 other states. And those numbers are substantially higher for children of color. There is abundant evidence that poverty causes children and families to experience not only material deprivation, but also toxic stress and numerous other negative outcomes, which can sometimes trigger – or be mistaken for – child maltreatment or neglect.  Given the overwhelming evidence of connections between poverty and maltreatment (whether real or perceived), a focus of child welfare interventions should be connecting the family with comprehensive and ongoing economic supports. Too often, this is not the case.

The Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy recently released a new white paper, Improving New York Child Welfare Outcomes by Strengthening Family Economic Security.  As child poverty rates in New York remain high, Schuyler Center’s report highlights intersections between poverty and child welfare and the need for our state’s systems and services to more comprehensively address the needs of families.

To ensure families have the resources they need to provide for their children, the State should invest in family economic security in addition to other family supports. Our paper includes a series of recommendations related to strengthening family economic security and preventing child abuse and neglect.

Read the full paper here.

Kate Breslin
President and CEO

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Fighting to Place New York Children at the Center of New York’s Policy Agenda

Voting for Children Because Our Future Depends on It

Children thrive in stable, safe, supportive homes and communities. Children thrive when they have access to quality health care and education, including early education. Children thrive when they are spared the lasting trauma of poverty, food insecurity, and neglect. Government can’t replace families or communities, but plays a critical role in leveling the playing field and filling in gaps for children, families, and communities. 

Today, our public systems are strained and our leaders distracted. As a result, the strains on children and families too often fall from the headlines and go unaddressed. Without the attention of lawmakers, systems that serve children and families in-need are vulnerable to devastating and cumulative budget cuts in tough fiscal times, and to implementation delays, inefficiencies, and mismanagement, even in good times.

New analysis of the Census reveals that even with rising wages, poverty among US children has stayed steady, remaining the highest for any age group. Very young children are the nation’s poorest segment of society. Across the country, nearly one in six children live in poverty. And in New York State, that number is more than one in five.  Think about that for a moment. Twenty-two percent of New York children miss meals, periodically live in their cars or on relatives’ couches, and go without diapers, warm coats, or boots in the winter. And yet addressing child poverty is not even mentioned in most lawmakers’ lists of priorities.     

This must change. New York needs lawmakers who are vocal, dogged champions of children and families. We need lawmakers who will stand up and speak up for families and children.  

This fall’s elections mark an opportunity: to hold candidates and elected officials accountable for their policy priorities. One way to hold leaders accountable is to ask for their positions on issues that matter for children and families. Click here for questions that you can ask candidates and current policymakers about key issues. 

Kate Breslin
President and CEO[/vc_column_text]

Fighting to Place New York Children at the Center of New York’s Policy Agenda

The Science is Screaming at Us

At long last, it is spring!  New Beginnings! Fresh starts!

New York State budget negotiations often place us on the defensive – fighting to save the very same family strengthening programs we helped to build.  This year’s budget – which concluded on March 31, 2018 – was no exception.  The Executive Budget, released in early January, proposed significant cuts to programs that serve and support low-income families and children. Faced with the prospect of harsh cuts, Schuyler Center, with our many partners and allies, were compelled to devote substantial time and resources from January through March fighting hard to fend off these proposals. While we succeeded in helping to defeat some of the worst proposals, this success is bitter because it leaves us, at best, standing in place in our efforts to reduce child poverty, strengthen families, and improve child health, developmental and educational outcomes.   

We are nevertheless hopeful this spring, excited to nurture new initiatives to put children and families on a path to thrive, including the State’s focus on the first 1,000 days of life.  In fact, one of the brightest aspects of the budget for New York children and families was the inclusion of a seed investment to ensure implementation of recommendations made by New York’s trailblazing First 1,000 Days on Medicaid workgroup.  This small investment has potential to improve the health and development of the nearly 60% of New York children age zero to three who are covered by Medicaid.  It may also help cultivate and expand initiatives outside of Medicaid.  Just last month, Governor Cuomo announced a new initiative to target maternal mortality and reduce racial disparities in health outcomes, citing the importance of the first 1,000 days of life. 

What is more, New York’s innovative work is inspiring similar efforts in other states, meaning more children and families across the nation may soon be provided the supports and tools they need to flourish.  We have been asked to brief partners in North Carolina, California, and Ohio about our efforts.  Earlier this month, we learned about a new First 1,000 Days effort in Florida.

In March, we helped convene a forum, Making the Most of a Little: Why the First 1,000 Days of Life Matter to Society, with our colleagues at the Rockefeller Institute of Government.  The forum featured remarks by Jack Shonkoff, the founding director of Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child; Jason Helgerson, former director of New York State Medicaid; Mary Ellen Elia, commissioner of the New York State Education Department; and Rahil Briggs, national director of ZERO TO THREE’s HealthySteps program, all of whom urged investment and collaboration across sectors and boundaries to improve child health and well-being.  Dr. Shonkoff, in his remarks, reminded the audience that we all suffer when we skimp on investments in young children.  “The science is screaming at us, if we’re willing to listen. Everybody’s budget will benefit from this.” 

Kate Breslin
President and CEO[/vc_column_text]

Fighting to Place New York Children at the Center of New York’s Policy Agenda

A Cap is a Cut is a Block Grant: Why We Strongly Oppose the Governor’s Proposal to Cap NYC Preventive Services Funding

At Schuyler Center, we often describe our mission as shining a spotlight on policies that are overlooked because they concern communities without political clout, or because they are obscured by complexity. We aim to pull these policies out of the shadows to hold policymakers accountable to all New Yorkers.

One of the proposals in the Governor’s Budget – to cap funding for New York City’s protective and preventive child welfare – represents a radical restructuring of the State’s child welfare system that could result in drastic reductions in services for children and families who are at highest risk of entering New York’s child welfare system, for years to come. Yet, it is a proposal that is in danger of being overlooked because it affects one of the most politically powerless groups in New York – children and families involved in the child welfare system. In addition, the broad and dramatic implications of this seemingly simple proposal to cap this funding stream are not apparent on its face.   

The State’s child welfare preventive and protective fund allows counties to direct resources to at-risk children and families before children need to be placed in foster care, and be reimbursed for 65% of those expenditures. The Executive Budget would end the open-ended nature of the fund, jeopardizing communities’ capacity to respond to need. While the proposal targets New York City only, it sets a dangerous precedent for future caps based on the Governor’s perception of county capacity and willingness.

Tens of thousands of children receive preventive services in New York State each month.1 These services range from family counseling to substance abuse treatment. And the State’s current financing structure has allowed localities across the state to grow, expand, and tailor services to address new needs as they arise in their communities.

In 2002, New York State made the smart, strategic decision to develop a proactive child welfare system that incentivizes programs that deliver positive outcomes for kids and families, instead of foster care. Prior to this move, the state had seen increases in foster care numbers, along with increased child abuse and decreased use of prevention, under a financial system that block granted all child welfare services. In response, in 2002, the state created the current child welfare financing structure: block grants for foster care and uncapped, open-ended funding for preventive and protective services. 

This financing structure, which incentivizes prevention and outcomes, has been working for over 15 years. New York City has lowered child protective caseloads to an average of 10, which is one of the best ways to ensure high-quality investigations. And the use of foster care has plummeted throughout the state. Since 2002, New York City’s foster care population has decreased dramatically from 18,000 to today’s fewer than 9,000 children currently in foster care.

Our current funding structure works because it allows counties to adjust their spending to meet the needs that arise in their communities. When county need increases, due to an epidemic like the opioid crisis, or a spike in reporting of neglect or abuse, as often happens after a child tragedy occurs, State funding responds to help communities meet increased need.

The proposal that the Governor has put before the Legislature, to cap State reimbursement to New York City for preventive and protective services, would radically restructure child welfare financing, and put our children at risk. Such a cap would limit counties’ ability to expand and adjust services to meet new need, and shift new costs to the City. This proposal is about saving State dollars, but the harsh impact would be felt by New York State’s children and their families – possibly for years to come. 

Please consider contacting your State legislators urging them to remove this financing proposal from the Executive Budget.   

If you would like to learn about the other proposals in the Executive Budget that would harm New York low-income children, particularly children of color, read our analysis here. As we move into the final stages of budget negotiations, it is incumbent upon our legislators and the Governor to enact a state budget that puts our children first, not last.

Kate Breslin
President and CEO
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