by Schuyler Center | Oct 31, 2025 | Child Care, Child Poverty, Child Welfare, Early Childhood Health, Family Economic Security, Health, News, Oral Health
Download the 2026 policy priorities document here.
During the 2026 New York State Legislative Session, Schuyler Center will prioritize policies and investments that improve health, wellbeing, and economic security of New York’s families, children, and communities, with a focus on New Yorkers who are working hard to make ends meet. While New York has made a statutory commitment to cut child poverty in half by 2032, the rate of children experiencing poverty across New York State remains high, with over 18% of all New York children experiencing poverty. Further, recent and pending federal actions have eliminated or weakened services that New York families rely on in times of need. This means it is more important than ever for New York leaders to act boldly and with urgency to advance policies and investments proven to reduce child poverty, strengthen families, and set up New York children to thrive.
(View the details on policies that will achieve each goal here.)
- Goal 1: Family Economic Security — Effectively implement and expand existing policies and adopt new approaches to reduce child poverty and racial inequity statewide
- Goal 2: Child Care — Take substantial strides toward achieving statewide universal child care.
- Goal 3: Children’s Health — Expand and increase investment in child and family health.
- Goal 4: Child Welfare — Transform child welfare by supporting families and communities.
Details on reaching each of the above goals can be found in the full 2026 Policy Priorities document.
by Schuyler Center | Sep 3, 2025 | Child Care, News
By Shoshana Hershkowitz, Campaign Manager for the Empire State Campaign for Child Care
As fall arrives in New York State, many families are transitioning from a summer of patched-together child care for school-aged kids to figuring out before- and after-school care. Without a supportive child care system, parents are left to navigate the logistics, stress, and finances on their own.
Summer Care: Camps, Grandparents, and Vacation Time
Summer is supposed to be a laid back, relaxing time of year, but for too many working families, it is a time where the stress of finding child care looms large. We talk a great deal about the expense of child care from birth to five years old, but any parent will tell you that that’s far from the end of the child care struggle.
For many working parents, summer means weaving together eight weeks of camp programs, relatives, and using vacation time to fill the need of caring for younger school aged children. This requires months of advance planning to align schedules, with many summer programs filling by February. It requires parents to pay deposits to secure a space for their child in care. It often means hiring a babysitter to fill the gap between half-day camp programs and full-day jobs. All of this occurs as parents are navigating work, their children’s school schedules and activities, and all of the curve balls that life throws.
The stress doesn’t just take an emotional toll — the financial cost of summer care looms large in family expenses. A recent article from Motherly sums it up: “Parents need a system that fully supports child care as a core part of family life—especially in the summer months. That includes public investment in summer programming, employer flexibility, and school calendars and community options designed for the actual lives we live—not the ones we were expected to live in 1955.”
As a working parent, summer means stitching together programs for my own children. It’s leaving work midday to pick up one child, taking a meeting in the car en route to pick up the other, and logging back on after work hours to finish what was interrupted. This isn’t a unique experience – our recent Empire State Campaign for Child Care podcast episode shares the stories of three working New York parents and their struggles for summer care for their children – including one parent who realized it’s more affordable to send their child abroad for the summer than keep them in camps in New York State.
Back to School, Back to Wrap-Around Care Needs
As a new school year begins, the challenges of care continue for parents of school age children. Whether it’s finding before school or after school care, or evening care for parents working nontraditional hours, the need for year-round, high quality, affordable, and accessible care persists for many New Yorkers.
At the Empire State Campaign for Child Care, we are focused on building a statewide system that delivers the care children and families need- year-round. A supportive child care system would ease the logistical and financial burden on parents and providers. We’re determined to ensure that the educators caring for our children are adequately compensated, so that they can afford to care for themselves and their families. We believe that a child care system that works for children, families, and caregivers benefits all of us, and makes for a stronger New York State. That’s what we’re fighting for- year-round.
Join the movement for statewide universal child care at EmpireStateChildCare.org/Take-Action.
by Schuyler Center | Aug 21, 2025 | Child Care, News
“Care is Work. Pay is Respect.”
by Adanech Makey, Policy and Community Engagement Specialist
As the daughter of a paraeducator who spent her days in kindergarten classrooms, I grew up seeing what early care looks like up close: the joyful chaos of morning hellos, tiny victories as letters click into words, and the comfort of a trusted adult when big feelings overwhelm small bodies. On the days my school was closed, I tagged along with my mom and saw—clearly—the difference it makes when children arrive ready to learn and when they don’t. Those experiences led me to volunteer in a preschool classroom during college and, ultimately, to a career working alongside child care providers from Washington, D.C., to the Seattle region, and now New York.
Everywhere I’ve been, one truth remains: this is one of the hardest-working fields filled with some of the most passionate, nurturing, fun, and determined people you’ll ever meet—and it is systemically underpaid and undervalued.
Fair pay for child care workers isn’t a perk—it’s the foundation for quality, stability, equity, and family wellbeing.
When we discuss the child care crisis, we often focus on families who can’t find or afford care. That’s real. However, we talk far less about the workforce that makes care possible. From our country’s earliest days—when enslaved Black women were forced to provide care without compensation—care work has been essential and yet chronically devalued. Today, that legacy persists: Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women—and women overall—still disproportionately make up this workforce and remain among the lowest-paid workers in our state.
New York cannot build a high-quality, stable child care system with low wages. Programs can’t hire or keep staff. Turnover disrupts the relationships children rely on. And too many providers—people who care for our kids—struggle to care for their own.
A thriving child care workforce impacts everyone. Children thrive with consistent, trusted relationships. Stable staff = better outcomes. Families can work, study, and plan when programs aren’t constantly short-staffed or closing rooms. Providers can stay in the jobs they love when they’re paid enough to live with dignity. Communities gain a stronger economy when parents participate in the workforce and local programs remain open. We all benefit from being a part of this movement!
New York has taken steps to expand access to child care. Now we need leaders to be audacious in ensuring equitable pay for the workforce. That means investing in compensation that reflects the professional skill, emotional labor, and developmental expertise child care demands.
We are grateful for the legislative champions who’ve stood with providers across the state. And we invite more leaders—especially those focused on increasing access—to join us in addressing the root cause of instability: compensation.
Take Action: Use the Toolkit
Help us keep the focus where it belongs—on the people making care possible.
- Host a community conversation about the realities and solutions at your center, library, or neighborhood meeting.
👉 Get the Toolkit: https://empirestatechildcare.org/support-the-child-care-workforce/
We’re running this campaign throughout the fall and hope the messages resonate with child care providers across New York State. Let’s use it as an invitation—to listen, to learn, and to act together. Equitable pay is a social justice issue, a racial equity issue, and a child wellbeing issue.
If you’d like to host a community conversation, please contact Adanech Makey at amakey@scaany.org.
by Schuyler Center | Aug 8, 2025 | Child Care, Federal Advocacy, News
By Adanech Makey, Policy and Community Engagement Specialist
“We tell our families that they should continue speaking their native language with their children—the children will pick up English in the classroom. We need to celebrate the cultures our children and families come from because we want them to be proud of their heritage”.
As an immigrant who came to the United States in the early 2000s, this comment made by a Head Start Director felt refreshing and affirming. I felt great pride that in my community, there was a program actively welcoming, celebrating, and partnering with families to give their children a strong foundation.
This has been the Head Start approach for the last six decades—providing comprehensive early childhood and wraparound services to all age- and income-eligible children and their families, regardless of immigration status. It is a model built on the principles of inclusion, equity, and trust.
A recent policy change poses a threat to Head Start’s foundational principles.
On July 10, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a notice reclassifying Head Start, among other federal programs, as a “federal public benefit” subject to immigration restrictions. This change reverses a 1998 reinterpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which had explicitly excluded Head Start and Early Head Start from such restrictions. For decades, this exemption has allowed eligible families—regardless of immigration status—to access the program.
Under the new classification, only “qualified” immigrants would be considered eligible. This includes, among other categories, lawful permanent residents, refugees, asylees, and individuals paroled for at least 1 year. However, it newly excludes many other immigrant families, including those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status, or those who are undocumented.
While it remains unclear how programs will be expected to implement this new rule, there is no question this policy change will have a chilling effect that will keep many families from accessing Head Start. Even families who may remain eligible for Head Start may be hesitant to participate in the program should they be required to provide proof of immigration status.
Further, such a requirement could prevent many non-immigrant families from being able to enroll due to lack of documentation. And children who would otherwise benefit from Head Start’s proven outcomes, including higher graduation rates and long-term health and academic success, will lose out on these benefits.
We must act now.
What you can do to protect Head Start
On July 14, this proposed rule was published in the Federal Register, and the public has until August 13 to submit comments. You can help Schuyler Center advocate for Head Start to remain an inclusive program by submitting a comment. Public comments can help influence federal policy. It can also slow implementation, requiring the government to reconsider its plan. We urge you to submit a comment and share why Head Start must remain accessible to all eligible families, regardless of immigration status, and we’re sharing tools to help you do so.
With guidance from our national partners, we’ve created a template tailored for New York to assist you in drafting your comment. If you need assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact our team. Comments are due on August 13, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET and should be submitted HERE.
For 60 years, Head Start has embraced the richness of our communities and celebrated the cultures of participating families. As a young immigrant child, I would have loved to experience a program like Head Start—one that partners with families and honors who they are and where they come from. Head Start is not just about school readiness. It’s about belonging and building a strong foundation for our youngest children, centered on care and equity.
The policy decision to limit access to Head Start doesn’t just impact individual children and their families—it undermines the very promise of equity that Head Start was founded on.
Let’s join together to protect that promise for all our children. Let’s protect Head Start.
by Schuyler Center | Aug 6, 2025 | Child Care, Child Poverty, Child Welfare, Early Childhood Health, Family Economic Security, Health, Legislative, News, Oral Health, Resources
Schuyler Center is continuing to monitor the impact that federal changes will have on children and families across New York State.
With the recent passing of the HR.1 bill, our efforts remain steadfast to ensure that New York’s families can access resources and are protected in these challenging times.
Steps you can take right now include:
If you have a suggested resource or day of action, please reach out to our policy team.
by Schuyler Center | Mar 25, 2025 | Child Care, Child Poverty, Child Welfare, Health, NYS Budget, Oral Health, Past Events
On March 21st, 2025, the Schuyler Center’s policy team hosted a webinar to discuss what we’re watching as the NYS Legislature and Executive negotiate the investments that will be included in the final enacted state budget. As state budget negotiations continue, members of Schuyler Center’s policy team provided an update on priorities related to child poverty reduction, universal child care, child and family health, and child welfare. The team also shared ways that attendees can advocate for investments in New York’s children. Materials from the webinar can be found below.
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