The Path to Salary Parity in Early Childhood Education

By Mai Miksic

Decades of research have demonstrated the importance of early education, especially for children from economically and historically disadvantaged backgrounds.  Researchers have also cautioned that the financial returns on investments in early childhood are contingent on the quality of programming. High-quality early childhood education programs require high-quality teachers. By July this year, EarlyLearn, the City’s subsidized early childhood education program, will be merged with Pre-K for All under the City Department of Education, creating a birth-to-high-school continuum of education that includes a truly unified early childhood system. That system should include pay parity for all qualified teachers.

READ MORE


Building Health Homes for Kids: New York’s Reforms for Children on Medicaid Finally Take Shape

By Abigail Kramer

New York has begun its ambitious project to re-engineer health care for low-income children. In a new report, Building Health Homes for Kids: New York’s Reforms for Children on Medicaid Finally Take Shape, the Center for New York City Affairs looks at the opportunities and challenges presented by the State’s first major step toward reform.

READ MORE | DOWNLOAD REPORT


NEW REPORT | CHILDREN, YOUTH & FAMILIES | REPORTS

Small Children, Big Opportunities

The Department of Education Will Soon Take Charge of Child Care for Babies and Toddlers. What Can They Do to Build Capacity and Improve Quality?  

The last in a series of briefs looking at child care for babies and toddlers in New  York City's subsidized early education centers, this report presents our key findings. It also provides recommendations for building the centers’ capacity to provide quality infant and toddler care. With the City preparing to move its subsidized child care system from its current home at the Administration for Children’s Services to the City’s Department of Education, our advisory board of early education stakeholders, argues that now is the time to dream big when it comes to babies and toddlers, and to build a rich continuum of early education from infancy onward that will prevent the need for more costly interventions down the line.

READ MORE | DOWNLOAD


Brief | Young Children, Child Welfare Watch,  Children, Youth & Families

New York's Tale of Two Child Care Cities

By Kendra Hurley

Growing interest in early education has led to more infant classrooms in child care centers—but they’re mostly for wealthy families.

READ MORE


Brief | Young Children, Child Welfare Watch,  Children, Youth & Families

What's Needed for '3-K for All' and Child Care Centers to Work and Play Well Together?

By Kendra Hurley

IN LATE APRIL Mayor Bill de Blasio announced two new plans that could determine the future of the country’s largest child care system for poor and low-income families. 

Will the new plans further disrupt a child care system still reeling from challenges that arose from pre-K expansion, including a roughly 20 percent decline in enrollment of 4-year-olds since the expansion? Or might they, present a key opportunity for the DOE to identify and address those challenges? 

READ MORE


How 'Growing Up NYC' Aims to Improve the Lives of Children (2016)

By Richard Buery

New York City is home to almost three million children, youth, and young adults under the age of 24. The City is committed to helping each of those young people thrive at each stage of their childhood and grow up to become healthy and happy adults. To help us get there, the City’s Children’s Cabinet has launched Growing Up NYC: a unified vision for promoting the well-being of children and young adults. 

READ MORE


In October 2012, New York City launched EarlyLearnNYC, a plan that would upend its system for providing subsidized child care to working class and low-income families. The goal was to take the city’s sprawling assortment of child care programs—ranging from subsidized babysitting services to nationally accredited preschools—and blend them into a unified, holistic spectrum of early education services for children from 6 weeks through 4 years old.

READ MORE


Why Child Protective Investigations Can Make Parents Fearful and Put Kids at Risk (2016)

By Jeanette Vega

In many big cities the number of children entering foster care has dropped dramatically while the number of families receiving support services has grown. But across the country, just as many families continue to be the subject of child protective investigations; across the country, more than three million children are the subjects of such investigations each year. 

READ MORE


To Improve Family Child Care
Offer More Coaching
(2016)

By Kendra Hurley
The Center for New York City Affairs recently investigated New York City’s nearly four-year-old “EarlyLearnNYC” reforms of city-contracted home-based programs. We found those programs encumbered by well-intentioned but misguided requirements

READ MORE


Report | Young Children, Child Welfare Watch,  Children, Youth & Families

Executive Summary
Bringing It All Home: Problems and Possibilities Facing NYC's Family Child Care (2016)

By Kendra Hurley with Janie Ziye Shen 
In 2012, NYC launched one of the country's largest experiments in raising the quality of subsidized family child care. More than three years since the launch of EarlyLearnNYC, we investigated what has worked and what has not.

     READ | DOWNLOAD


Report | Young Children, Family Court, Child Welfare Watch,  Children, Youth & Families

Is Reform Finally Coming to New York City Family Court? (2016)

By Abigail Kramer
While delay and dysfunction plague Family Court child protective cases, a combination of factors has opened a window for reform. 

READ | DOWNLOAD 


Report | Young Children, Child Welfare Watch,  Children, Youth & Families

Baby & Toddler Takeoff (2015)

By Kendra Hurley, Abigail Kramer and Bruce Cory with Evan Pellegrino and Gail Robinson
With nearly 15 million new dollars earmarked in the 2016 city budget for the social and emotional health of the youngest New Yorkers, the city's growing interest in what's often called "infant mental health" is undeniable. This report offers the first comprehensive look at New York's key new goals and efforts to protect the well-being of babies and toddlers.  

    READ | DOWNLOAD


Big Dreams for NYC's Youngest Children: 
The Future of Early Care and Education (2014)

By Kendra Hurley and Abigail Kramer with Myra Rosenbaum and Alison Miller
In October 2012, New York City launched EarlyLearnNYC, a plan that would upend its system for providing subsidized child care to working class and low-income families. The goal was to take the city’s sprawling assortment of child care programs—ranging from subsidized babysitting services to nationally accredited preschools—and blend them into a unified, holistic spectrum of early education services for children from 6       weeks through 4 years old. 

    READ | DOWNLOAD


Baby Steps: Poverty, chronic stress, and NY’s youngest children (2014)

By Andrew White, Kendra Hurley, and Abigail Kramer
We look at the science of early childhood development—and we illuminate how supportive, nurturing caregivers can buffer children from the negative impacts of early adversity, including the ambient stress that so often accompanies intractable poverty.

READ | DOWNLOAD