by Schuyler Center | Jun 23, 2026 | Health, News, Oral Health
By Kate Breslin, Schuyler Center President and CEO
Every person deserves access to good health care, and that includes dental care. That is not a radical idea. It is a basic expectation that our health systems should be built to meet. Yet right now, too many New Yorkers cannot get basic dental care. Not because they have not tried or don’t care, but because the doors are locked. There is no dentist in their area. The nearby practices do not take their insurance. Appointments are unavailable. Out-of-pocket care is unaffordable. These are not personal failures. They are the predictable result of a system that wasn’t designed to reach everyone.
Schuyler Center recognized this pressing issue and launched the Future Oral Health Workforce Project in 2024. Over two years, this initiative brought together and synthesized insights from over 300 individuals, statewide studies, expert consultations, and community convenings to develop comprehensive recommendations for building a more equitable and effective oral health system. The goal is both simple and challenging: Bring good, affordable oral health care to more New Yorkers in more areas of the state.
As a result of this work, Schuyler Center is committed to authorizing dental therapists to practice in New York. Dental therapists are trained members of a dental team that expands access where they practice.
We didn’t arrive at this conclusion without taking the time to talk with consumers and providers; to thoroughly investigate how dental therapy is working in the other states where it is authorized; and review data about safety and effectiveness spanning several decades. The data and the experiences in other states show that adding dental therapists to the oral health workforce brings better care to more people, especially people with low incomes and in rural communities.
For Schuyler Center, this is both an equity and a public health issue. No one should lack access to dental care because of where they live or what insurance they have. As an organization dedicated to reducing poverty and creating an equitable New York for all populations, we see that dental therapy can improve access to oral health treatment for the most underserved populations and can create good jobs near the people they serve.
And it can start working soon: Other states have shown that it is possible to create and open a program to train dental therapists in just a few years.
We are fully committed to bringing dental therapy to New York State because getting dental care shouldn’t depend on your zip code or your income. That is basic fairness and basic humanity.
We invite you to join us to get this done, and in a few years we will all be celebrating the graduation of New York’s first class of dental therapists.
About New York Partnership for Dental Therapy
The New York Partnership for Dental Therapy is a statewide coalition of organizations committed to expanding access to oral health care by authorizing dental therapists to practice in New York State. Dental therapists are credentialed providers who bring preventive and restorative dental care to communities that have long gone without adequate access.
by Schuyler Center | Jun 4, 2026 | Child Care, Child Poverty, Child Welfare, Early Childhood Health, Family Economic Security, Food Security, Health, Legislative, News, NYS Budget, Oral Health
On May 27, 2026, the Governor signed into law the 2026-27 New York State Enacted Budget. Schuyler Center’s Last Look is our initial assessment of the enacted State budget and how it advances priorities that improve the health and wellbeing of all New Yorkers, especially children and families living in poverty. The dollar amounts included in this document—and all of Schuyler Center “Looks”—reflect budget appropriations, or “spending authority.” Appropriations tell us the maximum spending authority permitted by the State, which is often much greater than what the State actually spends. Actual state expenditures are more closely reflected in the financial plan which will be released in a few weeks.
This year’s budget makes key investments that will support children experiencing poverty but will likely not be bold enough to protect families from the full impact of federal cuts and rising costs. The Enacted Budget makes meaningful investments in child care, including record funding for child care assistance, pre-K, and universal child care pilot programs, and includes new protections for immigrant families, some new funding for legal services, and inclusion of New York City in funding for Raise the Age services. It does not include new investments in health coverage, nutrition supports, Early Intervention Services, and WIC funding.
The Last Look breaks down the NYS 2026-27 State Budget to consider:
- Child Welfare and Youth Justice Services
- Support for Immigrant New Yorkers
- Child Poverty Reduction and Affordability for Families
- Universal Child Care and Pre-K
- Afterschool, Early Intervention, and Community Schools
- Public Health, Health Coverage, Access and Care
Read Last Look at the NYS 2026-27 Budget.
by Schuyler Center | Feb 11, 2026 | Data, News, Oral Health
After a year of statewide convenings and workgroup discussions, the Schuyler Center has released Moving Oral Health Workforce Reform into Practice, a roadmap for translating policy into accessible care across New York State.
More than 5 million New Yorkers live in dental shortage areas. 43% face major barriers to dental care. But here’s the critical point: New York already has many necessary policy tools in place. The challenge is implementation, not authorization. Too many reforms remain on paper while people navigate pain, missed school and work, and worsening health.
From Vision to Action
Following the release of our 2025 Barriers to Bridges report, more than 100 providers, consumers, advocates, policymakers, and researchers spent five months in workgroups identifying concrete steps to strengthen the workforce. They focused on areas where needs are high, policy authority already exists or is within reach, and there’s clear potential to expand access.
What’s in the Report
The report presents ready-now strategies sequenced by implementation feasibility:
- Teledentistry can be deployed immediately using existing providers and infrastructure. Recommendations focus on establishing a practice and innovation center and developing comprehensive state standards.
- Early Childhood prevention offers the highest return on investment. Recommendations include building a coordinated training pathway through existing systems families already trust—WIC, Head Start, pediatric care.
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities recommendations address some of the deepest access barriers by making existing Medicaid codes functional, creating care coordination tools, and strengthening provider training.
- Care Capacity outlines the structural workforce reforms required to sustain these approaches, including authorizing dental therapy (one of the only recommendations requiring legislation and the only strategy that adds new treatment capacity), implementing the 2025 collaborative practice dental hygiene law, and expanding community-based workforce roles.
- Cross-cutting recommendations align Medicaid policy, expand fluoride varnish access, and embedding oral health into non-dental systems to scale prevention statewide.
What’s Required
Most recommendations can be implemented without legislative action. Many require only coordination, clear guidance, and modest starter funding. The report outlines specific roles for state agencies and philanthropy to accelerate progress.
Waiting is not a strategy. These recommendations focus on what can be done now.
by Schuyler Center | Feb 9, 2026 | Data, News, Oral Health
The Promise
All children should have the opportunity to grow up free from the pain and long-term consequences of dental disease, regardless of income, race, or country of origin. Families require accessible and affordable preventive care and treatment to support optimal oral health throughout childhood. Expanding access to oral health care will improve childhood health and wellbeing overall and set New York children on a path to be healthier as adults.
The Challenge
Although children’s oral health care has improved over recent decades, cavities remain the most common chronic condition of childhood.1 One key reason the prevalence of dental caries persists is a persistent shortage of dental providers. When families cannot find a dentist that accepts their insurance or is located in their area, they often postpone preventive and surgical dental care, which can result in the need to eventually seek care in an emergency room.2
Insurance coverage is also crucial for accessing oral health care. Looking ahead, impending cuts to Medicaid funding and imposition of work reporting and other requirements for adults, are expected to result in thousands of children losing coverage. Studies have shown that parental health insurance continuity is integral to maintaining children’s insurance coverage.3
What We Know
Disparities in dental disease are significant, stemming from the same social and economic determinants that drive broader health inequities, including poverty, racism, education, access to nutritious food, cultural norms, and environmental conditions.4
A persistent shortage of dental providers—particularly those who accept public coverage—contributes to poor oral health outcomes for children.
One significant barrier to ensuring broad access to oral health care—including to those groups traditionally underserved— is the shortage of dental providers who accept public insurance and the limited availability of providers in low-income and rural areas.5 In addition, gaps in language access and cultural competence restrict care for immigrant and refugee populations.6
Most oral health conditions in children are preventable, and preventive services for children are covered by both Medicaid and commercial insurance. However, insurance coverage does not guarantee access when local provider capacity is insufficient or when providers decline to accept public coverage.7 For example, in most years over the last decade, less than half of New York children enrolled in Medicaid received a dental service annually.
Pregnant individuals experience unique risks but limited access.
Physiological changes during pregnancy increase vulnerability to oral disease, and inadequate care during this period can adversely affect both maternal and infant health.8 Yet, many pregnant people encounter difficulty obtaining timely and appropriate oral health services. In 2022, 18.8% of pregnant women reported needing dental care for a problem and just 14.4% reported going to a dentist or dental clinic for a problem during pregnancy.9
- Permit parents/caregivers and medical assistants in primary care, clinic, and other settings to apply fluoride varnish under the guidance of a licenses provider.
- Create a teledental task force to promote services and expand care in underserved areas.
- Sustain and strengthen community water fluoridation.
- Establish pilot programs in pediatric and obstetric/gynecologic settings to integrate oral health screening, preventive care, and referral to dental providers.
- Authorize dental therapists, a mid-level provider, to practice in New York.
- Create an oral health training program for community health workers so they may become members of oral health teams.
[I would like to see] more providers that reflect the communities that they work in or that they are living in. We need a lot more representation and we need to also break those barriers that make it very, very hard for diverse communities to enter those fields because of financial reasons or just…systemic biases.
1 Crall. J.J., & Vujicic, M. (2020). Children’s Oral Health: Progress, Policy Development, And Priorities For Continued Improvement.
2 Chalmers, N.I., Wislar, J.S., Hall, M., Thurm, C., Ng, M.W. (2018). Trends in Pediatric Dental Care Use.
3 Yamauchi, M., Carlson, M.J., Wright, B.J. et al. (2013). Does Health Insurance Continuity Among Low-income Adults Impact Their Children’s Insurance Coverage?. Maternal Child Health J 17, 248–255.
4 Krol, D.M., & Whelan, K. (2023). Maintaining and Improving the Oral Health of Young Children. American Academy of Pediatrics.
5 National Institute of Health. (2021). Oral Health in America: Advances and Challenges.
6 Le, H., Hirota, S., Liou, J., Sitlin, T., Le, C., & Quach, T. (2017). Oral Health Disparities and Inequities in Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
7 National Institute of Health. (2021). Oral Health in America: Advances and Challenges.
8 Hartnett, E., Haber, J., Krainovich-Miller, B., Bella, A., Vasilyeva, A., & Kessler, J. L. (2016). Oral Health in Pregnancy.
9 New York State Department of Health. (2022). Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System.
*For all sources and computations, go to: https://scaany.org/sonyc-sources-2026
by Schuyler Center | Dec 31, 2025 | Child Care, Child Poverty, Child Welfare, News, Oral Health
2025 Wins for New York's Children and Families
As 2025 draws to a close, Schuyler Center applauds Governor Hochul for signing into law several bills we have championed that will bring opportunity to New York’s children and families.
Child Care
(S.1926 Persaud / A.7145 Walker) – Requires counties to maintain waitlists for child care assistance. This bill would require all counties to maintain waitlists, and collect basic information to inform future state efforts to ensure there are adequate resources reaching all communities to meet child care assistance needs.
Oral Health
(S.3157 May / A.2341 Paulin) – Expands the settings where a dental hygienist can practice . This new law improves access to essential dental care by allowing dental hygienists to provide dental care in settings accessible to New Yorkers who often face barriers to oral health services such as federally qualified health centers, long-term care facilities, schools, domestic violence shelters, and other locations.
Child Welfare
(S.550-A Brisport / A.66-A Hevesi) Anti-Harassment in Reporting Act – Anonymous calls to the State Central Register are sometimes made maliciously—by domestic abusers or others trying to punish a parent—and are more likely to ultimately be unsubstantiated, meaning there is insufficient evidence of abuse or neglect. This change will protect children from intrusive, harmful, and unnecessary investigations.
(S.3781 Brisport / A.5434 Hevesi) – Requires the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) to provide luggage to young people entering, living in, moving between, and exiting state custody, placement, or guardianship.
Earlier this year, we also celebrated the inclusion of the first ever expansion of the New York State’s child tax credit in the 2025-2026 NYS State Budget. This historic expansion is among the most effective and equitable ways for the State to fulfill its commitment to reduce child poverty and support economic security for all families. Also included in the State Budget was universal free school meals for all children in schools across New York State that participate in the National School Lunch Program.
In 2026, Schuyler Center urges leaders to champion policies that improve health, well-being, 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. Read our full 2026 Policy Priorities for Child and Family Wellbeing.
Join Us for our 2026 State of New York’s Children in-person data briefing!
📅 Tuesday, January 13th
📍 Legislative Office Building, Albany
🕘 9:00 AM
Registration is free but space is limited.
Thank you for all of your support in 2025! This work is possible thanks to our partners and supporters who join us in our advocacy efforts. We look forward to working alongside you in the new year as we continue to create a New York State where all children and families are able to thrive.
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.
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