On January 24, 2017, Mayor de Blasio released his $84.7 billion Preliminary Budget for City Fiscal Year 2018, which begins July 1, 2017.  Despite the uncertainty of continued investments from the federal and state governments, the Preliminary Budget proposes critical investments for children and families.

Notably, the Preliminary Budget includes funding to create 10 new Beacon Community Centers, to maintain summer programs for over 22,00 middle school students this summer, to increase the number of crossing guards, to increase capital investments in schools to address overcrowding, and to improve the data system for special education students.

The Preliminary Budget also includes a shelter re-estimate that baselines an additional $123 million for the cost of homeless shelters, yet there are no new initiatives proposed to prevent homelessness, improve the conditions in shelter, eliminate the use of hotels for families with children and/or help families secure permanent housing.  In addition, the Preliminary Budget does not expand universal free lunch beyond students in stand-alone middle schools, does not maintain funding for social workers in schools with high rates of homeless children, and does not restore many City Council initiatives that are beneficial to children and families.

A detailed list of the Preliminary Budget proposals that impact children and families can be found in the summary.