Healthy

Address the child and adolescent behavioral health crisis

• Enable the behavioral health system to meet the urgent demand by investing $195 million to enhance the existing rate structure for children’s behavioral health clinics (Article 31 and Article 32-822) services, Children’s Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), and Child and Family Treatment and Support Services (CFTSS).
• Require commercial insurers to pay Medicaid APG rates for in-network and out-of-network behavioral health services.
• Across all state agencies that license or regulate behavioral health services for children, youth, and families, include a Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) tied to the Consumer Price Index-U (CPI) at 3.2% (July 2023) in the SFY 2024-25 Executive budget proposal and add it back to the statute.
• Invest in new and expand eligibility and funding for existing recruitment and retention strategies – particularly those supporting BIPOC and multi-lingual professionals – including through loan repayment, tuition remission, scholarship programs, increasing residency and fellowship positions, and employee assistance grants.

Enhance health supports for young children, including young children with disabilities

• Increase reimbursement rates for all in-person Early Intervention services to 11% to help address provider service shortage and increase access to in-person services.
• Reform methodology for Early Intervention reimbursement rates by conducting a comprehensive assessment of methodology used to determine payment for all evaluations, services and service coordination and publish a report within 12 months.
• Ensure all eligible children remain continuously enrolled from birth to age 6 in Medicaid and Child Health Plus (CHP) health coverage.

Housed

Prevent evictions and a surge in family homelessness, keeping children and families housed

• Enact and fund the Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP) to create New York’s first ever statewide rental subsidy program.
• Return to a shared state-local funding partnership on ALL shelter costs.
• Increase the Public Assistance housing allowance for the first time since 2003 to a level that stabilizes housing for more families.

Educated

Support children’s school readiness and parental workforce attachment 

• Create and invest in a permanent compensation fund to increase child care worker pay. This fund should be robustly resourced and sufficient to raise child care worker pay to parity with similar positions in the public school system.
• Build from state-wide pilot created in the 2023-24 NYS Budget and Promise NYC program to provide state-funded child care assistance to all immigrant children barred from accessing federally funded subsidies.
• Increase capacity for non-traditional hour care and care for children with special needs by paying an enhanced reimbursement rate of 15% statewide for non-traditional hour care and implement a pilot program to provide a monthly per-child supplement for non-traditional hour care and for children with special needs.
• Develop a collaborative plan between OCFS and SED to create and fund a path toward year-round, full-day universal care – that expands access to 3K and infant toddler care as well as actualizes UPK – drawing on lessons learned from UPK and expanding and diversifying funding sources.

Enhance K-12 Education supports

• Ensure that Foundation Aid is funded this year with an increase of $1.3 billion, as expected by current law, and invest $1 million toward a study conducted by SED to update the Foundation Aid formula based on current need.
• Dedicate funding to expand Community Schools statewide and maintain the current Community Schools Set-Aside to ensure sustainability for current community schools.

Safe

Reimagine child welfare services to strengthen families and communities

• Restore and enhance Child Welfare Funding to a 65/35 state/county statutory share for preventive, protective, and independent living services
• Add ongoing automatic increases to the child welfare subsidy tied to inflation and rising housing costs and increase the age limit to age 24 to better support more young people and families.
• Deepen support for the child welfare prevention workforce, including timely COLAs, living wages, and professional development opportunities
• Expand opportunities to fund UBI pilots, including a pilot for pregnant and parenting households with children under three years of age, focusing on counties with high rates of child poverty.

Support youth and invest in communities

• Expedite the distribution of Raise the Age funds to counties, prioritize directing a share of resources to local CBOs that work directly with justice-involved youth, and ensure NYC can access RTA funds.
• Invest in primary prevention youth services such as academic and college and career readiness supports, and year-round youth activities, that support their growth and development.
• Continue the SYEP expansion and increase state funding for programs so there are enough seats to meet the demand of all interested youth and children

Economically Secure

Lift Incomes and Combat Food Insecurity

• Strengthen the State child tax credit so it reaches the poorest New Yorkers, currently excluded from the full credit, and provide an increased credit amount that would have a meaningful impact on a family’s budget;
• Strengthen the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) so that all working New Yorkers who are eligible may file, including those filing with an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN).
• Establish a Task Force for a state-funded version of SNAP for All, regardless of immigration status.
• Expand on progress made in the past year by establishing and funding a statewide Healthy School Meals for All program for all New York State students, regardless of income.
• Establish a state SNAP minimum benefit program that brings the minimum SNAP benefit above the minimum federal SNAP benefit.
• Increase funding for anti-hunger programs including the Nutrition Outreach and Education Program (NOEP), Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP), and Nourish New York
• Build on recent minimum wage increases by ending the subminimum wage.