The COVID-19 pandemic has forced every one of us—individuals and organizations—to re-evaluate all aspects of our lives, but one thing remains certain: Schuyler Center’s work is as important as ever.
The racial, social, and economic disparities evidenced by this deadly virus cannot be overlooked. It is abundantly clear that the novel Coronavirus does discriminate. A family’s neighborhood, income level, and race and ethnicity are all significant contributing factors to whether someone gets and dies from this deadly disease, and the extent to which their community is affected.
Over the last several months, we have introduced Policy Priorities for Building Back Better: Putting Children in the Center of Recovery. We have effectively shared data which highlights the historical and ongoing racial discrimination in employment, housing, and education, among other realms, causing New York children of color to experience poverty, near poverty, and insecure parental employment, at approximately twice the rate of white children. We have also promoted that New York’s refundable tax credits exclude some of the very New Yorkers most likely to live in poverty, yet this tax policy is among the most effective strategies for reducing poverty. We are excited to showcase our work and thank our incredibly generous supporters with this reportdemonstrating our focus on preventing families from hardship.
For almost 150 years, the Schuyler Center has advanced effective and inclusive public policies that put children and families first. Today we continue to focus on income inequality and its ill effects on the health and well-being of New York families. We hope you will join our fight to shape policy so racial inequalities highlighted by COVID19 don’t continue to exist—with this virus, or the next one.
On June 11, 2020, Schuyler Center along with the Empire State Child Care Campaign, Winning Beginning NY, and other partners, hosted a press conference and virtual rally on the importance of child care in reopening New York’s economy and for the well-being of New York children and families. More than 500 parents, child care providers and advocates as well as state legislators, virtually came together to urge New York and federal leaders to invest in child care NOW.
Our message: There is no more time to delay. New York cannot recover without child care.
We organized this event because we’ve been hearing from more parents every day that they’re being called back to work, but don’t have a plan for their children. School is over. Many camps are cancelled or uncertain about reopening, and many child care providers are still closed. Those child care providers that are open, or re-opening, must operate at reduced capacity and follow intensive new safety and cleaning protocols. Without a way to cover the high costs associated with these new rules, there is a risk that many, if not most of New York child care providers will be forced out of business. And yet, New York still has no sustainable plan for ensuring parents access to safe, affordable child care.
The press conference featured remarks by two parents about the challenges they have faced balancing work and caring for their children during the pandemic, and their fears about finding and affording safe, quality child care in the coming months. Paulette Guerrero-Duran, a parent from Staten Island, spoke about her concern for child care providers and schools. She said juggling homeschooling and working full time during the pandemic has been one of the most difficult challenges she’s faced. She also voiced concern that child care centers need the proper resources, as well as a solid safety plan, for her to be able to return to her office. Vonetta Rhodes-Osi, a parent, former child care provider, and an essential worker who’s been required to work outside her home throughout the pandemic, discussed her concerns about being able to afford child care because her work hours have decreased. “Parents are struggling. Government must provide support.”
Alicia Marks, Director of Marks of Excellence Child Care in Suffolk County, said if you want to know how families are doing in New York, ask a child care provider. They’ve become a part of the vital workforce engine that keeps the economy sound. Rebecca Gonzales, Director of Time to Learn Day Care in the Bronx said, “child care providers are screaming for help to get more funding.”
Assemblymember Ellen Jaffee spoke not only as a legislator, but as a mother, a grandmother, and a former educator. “We cannot recover from the devastating impacts of COVID-19 without childcare. New York parents struggled to afford child care before the pandemic. How are they going to cover that cost now?” She called upon Governor Andrew Cuomo to immediately invest the remaining $134 million in emergency child care CARES Act Funds according to the plan recommended by New York’s Child Care Availability Task Force—a Task Force she fought hard to create.
We also heard from Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi who, as a parent himself, understands that parents need to get back to work but cannot do so without safe, quality, secure child care. Senator George Borrello thanked all the child care providers who’ve continued to work throughout the COVID-19 crisis and acknowledged, “We cannot rebuild our economy without the foundation of child care.” Assemblymember Michaelle Solages added, “We are fighting a crisis within a crisis within a crisis…We need to be smart, and we need to be loud.” She stressed that children are depending on both state and federal lawmakers to wake up and focus on child care. She urged Congress to allocate $50 billion to child care in order to get New York, and the rest of the country, back to work.
Closing out the press conference was Gladys Jones, leader of ECE on the Move. “New York State will not be able to revive if we don’t resurrect childcare.” No industry will be able to go back to work in New York State without it.
We ended our press conference and rally on a call to action: what is needed right now to save the child care industry is to speak up! Harness this energy and reach out to your lawmakers.
On Thursday, May 28th, 2020, the CHAMPS-NY coalitionheld a press conference to highlight the need for a moratorium on “aging out” of foster care in New York State during this ongoing public health crisis. CHAMPS-NY, a statewide group of providers, advocates and thought partners, works to promote state policy and practice changes to ensure children entering foster care are placed into family-based settings whenever possible.
In the press release, Kate Breslin, Schuyler Center President and CEO and CHAMPS-NY co-chair notes,
“In the middle of a global health crisis, when a safe and stable home are vital to both individual and public health, no young person should be pushed from their home or be forced to leave foster care without a family simply because they turn 21. Governor Cuomo needs to take Executive Action to ensure that all young people in foster care in New York State have the option to remain in foster care after their 21st birthday, and for at least 180 days after the last region in the state has fully reopened.”
The press conference itself was featured on Friday, May 29th, 2020 in an article in Chronicle of Social Change. It was the fifth article in that month to shed light on this urgent issue.
Since the pandemic began, nine states have taken executive action to protect youth in foster care. New York, the state hardest hit by this crisis, is not one of them.
On Monday, May 18th, 2020, the Raising NY Coalition released a planto offer affordable, safe, high-quality child care during this ongoing public health crisis, and to begin rebuilding the child care system to make it stronger and more equitable than before the pandemic. New York cannot reopen without essential supports for our children and families—including child care.
The Raising NY coalition is a diverse statewide coalition of parent, early childhood, education, civil rights, business, and health organizations dedicated to increasing the number of children who are on track for school readiness and is co-chaired by Schuyler Center President and CEO Kate Breslin.
Parents of infants and toddlers across New York State are experiencing intense financial insecurity during the coronavirus pandemic, with the crisis exacerbating pre-existing inequities among communities of color and families from low-income backgrounds. At the same time, more than a quarter of child care providers are closed due to the pandemic, and without significant financial support, many may not be able to reopen.
The federal emergency relief and stimulus bill known as the CARES Act provided New York State with significant funding to address critical child care needs. The plan recommends how those and other available funds can be most effectively invested to meet the immediate, emergency needs of families and providers, and to begin to implement longer-term reforms to expand access to quality child care to more infants and toddlers.
As New York slowly reopens, New York lawmakers—federal, state, and local—must stand firmly with our children and families, particularly families of color, and consider implementing the policies we recommend in our Building Back Better: Policy Priorities for New York’s Recovery. These recommendations are intended to meet the immediate, emergency needs of New York children and families, and to take advantage of the critical opportunity presented by the recovery to rebuild New York’s systems to be stronger and more fair than before the pandemic.
While all New Yorkers have faced challenges associated with the pandemic, the challenges are not borne equally. Those already facing poverty, disability, ill-health, and racial discrimination are far more likely to contract COVID-19, and fall severely ill, or even die. Those same New Yorkers are more sharply impacted by school closures, layoffs, supply shortages, social distancing, and other measures being implemented to address the COVID-19 pandemic—due to longstanding structural inequities. New York families with young children are also among those being hit hard by the impacts of the pandemic, particularly the economic fallout.
There is much work to be done to ensure the well-being of New York families and children facing the many challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis. We look forward to continuing to work with our many partners inside and outside government to meet these challenges, and to build a stronger, more equitable New York.[/vc_column_text]
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