Child Care Is Essential Roundtable

Child Care Is Essential Roundtable

On July 22, 2020, the Empire State Campaign for Child Care (co-facilitated by the Schuyler Center), and NYS Assemblymembers Michaelle C. Solages and Ellen C. Jaffee co-hosted a roundtable on the urgent need to pass the Child Care Is Essential Act, and a federal investment of $50 billion to stabilize child care. The roundtable was attended by more than 250 New Yorkers and featured remarks by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, NY Lieutenant Kathy Governor Hochul, U.S. Representatives Grace Meng and Adriano Espaillat, as well as numerous NYS legislative leaders, parents and child care providers. Schuyler Center’s press release details the event. A recording on YouTube is also available to watch below. 

The message conveyed by all participants of the roundtable: New York parents cannot return to work without access to affordable, safe, high quality child care. New York child care providers cannot care without the necessary financial and other support to follow stringent safety protocols, including operating at significantly reduced capacity. The Child Care is Essential Act would enable child care providers to:

  • continue operating, or to reopen, at reduced capacity to allow for social distancing
  • to cover the additional costs associated with keeping facilities and materials disinfected
  • to allow providers to make necessary infrastructure improvements, like partitioning rooms to create smaller, more contained classrooms
  • to provide essential workers quality, safe, free, or low-cost child care
  • and to ensure that child care is available to other workers as states begin to reopen

These funds could also be used by child care programs that need to scale up in a safe way to accommodate more school age children who may be attending in-person classes on a staggered basis to allow for social distancing in schools. CLASP has released a Fact Sheet detailing why it will cost an estimated $9.6 billion in public funding each month to sustain the fragile child care industry, and ensure that parents can access safe, affordable child care during the recovery. Accordingly, this $50 billion is the minimum needed to get working families back, and children back to school.

In addition, after the Child Care is Essential Act passed the House of Representatives on July 29, 2020, Schuyler Center and our partners pivoted our attention to urging members of NYS Congressional delegation to ensure the next federal COVID relief package includes at least $50 billion for child care.

Aging Out of Foster Care in the Midst of a Pandemic

Aging Out of Foster Care in the Midst of a Pandemic

On Thursday, July 2nd, 2020, the CHAMPS-NY coalition held a second 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, our own Kate Breslin (Schuyler Center President and CEO and CHAMPS-NY co-chair) notes,

“Young people leaving foster care already face many obstacles. Now, 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. New York needs to take simple, straightforward, and urgently needed action to ensure that 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.”

Since the pandemic began, nine states have taken executive action to protect youth in foster care.

View the press conference video below. 

 

Leading Child Care Advocates Join with Schuyler Center to Urge the NYS Congressional Delegation to Prioritize Children and Families in the Next Federal Stimulus

Leading Child Care Advocates Join with Schuyler Center to Urge the NYS Congressional Delegation to Prioritize Children and Families in the Next Federal Stimulus

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a terrific blow to families and communities in New York and the systems that provide essential health and human services. Even as the State begins to recover, it is clear that those already facing challenges of poverty, disability, ill-health, racial discrimination, and poor mental health were ravaged by this illness. These same families have also been more sharply impacted by school closures, layoffs, supply shortages, social distancing, and other fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plain truth is that while the pandemic abruptly ruptured the often tenuous yet interconnected systems on which poor families rely, New York cannot rebuild alone. It will need extraordinary support from the federal government for state and local governments to pull out of this crisis and into recovery. Federal funds are essential to prevent New York State from slashing social services, education, child care, child welfare, and other family and child-serving programs.

On July 20, New York State child advocates joined together to urge Congress to stand firmly with children and families during negotiations on the next federal stimulus package. These advocacy organizations, dedicated to improving the lives of New Yorkers, particularly children living in poverty and in marginalized communities, outlined a set of appropriations and actions that need to be included in the next federal stimulus package to support families with young children and keep many of them from slipping into intractable poverty.

View our letter to the Members of the New York State Congressional Delegation.[/vc_column_text]

Our Impact 2020

Our Impact 2020

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 report demonstrating 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.

Read about the details and impact of our work:
Schuyler Center’s Work 2020
President’s Message: Our Work Is As Important As Ever!
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Our work is as important as ever!

Our work is as important as ever!

Dear Friends,

Wow. What a difficult and uncertain time it has been and continues to be. We hope you and your loved ones are well.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced every one of us—individuals and organizations—to re-evaluate everything: how we rely on each other, where and how we work, and how our goals align with what is happening around and to us.

The health and safety of Schuyler Center’s staff and their families has been a priority. We moved to remote work in mid-March and are constantly improving our systems to work efficiently as a team.

We are extremely grateful to those who support us financially, many of whom have reached out to remind us Schuyler’s work is as important as ever. They have been flexible on grant reporting and timing, and continue to rely on us for insights and practical ways to reduce poverty and inequity in New York State.

Our funders are right—this work—shaping public policy to make it fairer and more focused on those in-need—is as important as ever! We are hopeful that much of the country is coming to acknowledge the same thing. As attention to systemic racism and police violence continues to grow, we are all called to re-examine our implicit biases. The coronavirus has made that abundantly clear over the last several months. The racial, social, and economic disparities evidenced by this deadly virus cannot be overlooked. 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.

Schuyler Center continues to focus on income inequality and its ill effects on the health and well-being of New York families. We continue to examine and make concrete recommendations about strengthening New York’s public health infrastructure. New York has the resources to address these challenges, it needs the political leaders and will to do so. Governor Cuomo, in one of his daily news conferences recently said, “It always seems that the poorest people pay the highest price. Why is that?”  Why indeed?

For almost 150 years, the Schuyler Center has advanced effective and inclusive public policies that put children and families first. We hope you will help us with this fight to shape policy so when COVID-19 returns or the next epidemic hits, we’re not again asking what we could have done differently.

Sincerely,

Kate Breslin
President & CEO

Read about the details and impact of our work: Focused on Strengthening Families and Enduring Hardship in 2020.