Child Welfare
Children need safe, nurturing, and permanent families. Schuyler Center promotes policies that advance or maintain effective, high-quality systems that serve families, prevent entry into the child welfare system, and improve child well-being for children who are in care. When families have easy access to economic supports and trusted resources in their neighborhood, children thrive—even when their parents earn low incomes.
Child Care
Every family should have access to high-quality, universal child care that meets their needs by providing the option of family- or center-based care in their community, ensuring that children thrive in culturally affirming care and education. Child care educators must be valued through sustained investment in the workforce.
Child Poverty
No child in New York State should grow up enduring the hardships of poverty. Recognizing this, New York leaders passed the landmark Child Poverty Reduction Act, committing in statute to cutting child poverty in half by 2032. Schuyler Center advocates for policies that get New York closer to this goal, including those that secure or supplement a living wage.
Early Childhood Health and Well-Being
Health is not just the absence of disease, but overall physical, mental, social, emotional, and community well-being. Investment in prevention, early intervention, and health coverage and access to care for children, caregivers, and families, will promote optimal health and development and mitigate the need for more intensive and costly interventions in the short- and long-term.
Oral Health
Schuyler Center is working to eradicate the most common chronic disease in children – tooth decay. Children with tooth decay are unable to eat properly, concentrate in school, or focus beyond their pain. Poor oral health in childhood often means a lifetime of disease and expense.
New York State Budget
New York State budget analysis and advocacy is a cornerstone of Schuyler Center’s work because we understand that no matter how visionary the policy or initiative, it will fail without adequate investment.