On Thursday, March 20, Senior Policy and Advocacy Associate Caitlyn Passaretti submitted testimony to the New York City Council for a preliminary budget hearing with the Children and Youth Services Committee. On behalf of CCC, the testimony underscores the necessity of funding youth-centric education and development programs that best support families and communities. 

Read the full testimony below.

Testimony of Caitlyn Passaretti, Senior Policy and Advocacy Associate
Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York
Submitted to the New York City Council FY’2026 Preliminary Budget Oversight Hearing
Children and Youth Services Committee
March 20, 2025

Since 1944, Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York has served as an independent, multi-issue child advocacy organization. CCC does not accept or receive public resources, provide direct services, or represent a sector or workforce; our priority is improving outcomes for children and families through civic engagement, research, and advocacy. We document the facts, engage, and mobilize New Yorkers, and advocate for solutions to ensure that every New York child is healthy, housed, educated, and safe.

We would like to thank Chair Stevens and all the members of the City Council Children and Youth Committee for holding today’s important hearing on the Mayor’s FY26 Preliminary Budget. Below we include recommendations for how our City can improve access to youth programming and family services that are essential for supporting youth development and professional opportunities, economic security and community networks.

Invest in Youth Opportunity, Youth Services, and Workforce Development

We believe every New York child deserves access to enriching, engaging, and high-quality afterschool programming. COMPASS and SONYC programs can offer art and culture, sports, experiential learning and academic support essential to children’s social-emotional development, health and wellness, and academic success across age ranges. These programs are also a lifeline for working parents who deeply value having their children engaged in programming while they are at work.

Unfortunately, SONYC and COMPASS have both been deeply underfunded for years. Providers are being asked by the Department of Youth and Community Development to sign contract extensions that continue to perpetuate deeply inadequate rates that undervalue the workforce and further destabilize the afterschool system.

CCC, in partnership with the Campaign for Children, urges the City to raise rates for COMPASS and SONYC providers, beginning with a phase in process of a halfway increase of base rates for COMPASS Elementary to $4900, and for SONYC middle school programs to $4150. The end goal must be fully funding elementary and middle school programs in a new procurement in FY27. This change would greatly improve the lives of providers and will also ensure programs are well resourced and robust for youth.

Moreover, we are concerned about the delayed release of the RFP for COMPASS. We urge the City to prioritize the release of the COMPASS concept paper that includes a model budget reflecting the rates referenced above, allowing the RFP process to begin on an equitable foundation.

CCC believes it is essential to provide families with free and affordable, high-quality afterschool options for their children. These options can only be available and sustainable if the City commits to funding COMPASS and SONYC with adequate base rates.

Enhance Summer Programming Efficiency

We are pleased to see the one-year $19.6 million investment in the Preliminary Budget for Summer Rising. Restoring Summer Rising funding early in the budget cycle allows the City, agencies, and providers to address persistent issues that have plagued the Summer Rising programs. I addition to requesting that this funding be baselined, we urge the City to address the following operational issues to ensure summer programming serves families and youth as effectively as possible:

• Allow CBOs to control enrollment instead of New York City Public Schools: Currently, NYCPS’s system does not successfully integrate with the program used by DYCD, making it challenging for CBOs to manage enrollment or update waitlists. Returning enrollment control to CBOs will allow them to enroll on-site and manage waitlists directly, thus ensuring available spots are utilized effectively.
• Inconsistent Paraprofessional Staffing: The availability of paraprofessionals for the full duration of summer programming remains inconsistent, preventing students with disabilities from having the fun and fulfilling summer with their peers that they deserve.
• Lack of Clear Communication: Communication between NYC Public Schools, the Department of Health, and CBOs remains unclear, especially regarding critical staffing needs, background checks, enrollment, and updated regulations. Improved coordination is essential to the smooth operation of summer programs.
• Relocation of Programs: Relocating programs to new buildings, especially when CBO staff lack prior relationships, disrupts years of trust and collaboration between CBOs and schools, and can often lead to competition for space with other co-located CBOs. We recommend minimizing relocations and ensuring that adequate time and support are given to both CBOs and NYCPS staff to plan and acclimate to new settings.
• Flexibility in Scheduling Field Trips: A key request from our programs is the ability to schedule field trips on days other than Fridays. Allowing Summer Rising programs, the flexibility to schedule trips on various days would enhance the overall summer experience for participants, providing a more dynamic and engaging program.

Finally, we urge the City to implement summer programs that provide greater choice to families. It is inequitable that the only free option available for families requires a summer school model, while many youth and families prefer full-time camp options with more flexible programming. We look forward to collaborating with city leaders to support and expand models that meet the needs of families and provide enriching programming for youth.

Enhance Services for Systems-Involved Youth and Families

Ensure Transportation for Youth in Foster Care

While both federal and state law require the City to provide transportation to students in foster care so they can remain in their original schools, the DOE currently does not guarantee any form of transportation to these students. This is causing deeply harmful disruptions for students in foster care, including forcing them to transfer schools or foster homes to access an education.

Being in foster care is disruptive enough for a young person; the DOE must do everything in its power to ensure that students in foster care are supported and, at the bare minimum, can get to school. During the 2019-20 school year, one in five NYC students had to change schools upon their initial placement in foster care. As of April 2022, students in foster care had an attendance rate of 79% and had missed roughly 7 weeks of school.¹ Without sustainable transportation, students cannot get to their schools. We therefore ask the City Council to ensure that the budget includes $5 million for the DOE to provide bus service or other door-to-door transportation to the relatively small number of students in foster care who need it to maintain school stability.

Restore Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) and Supportive Programming for Youth and Young Adults

Extensive research demonstrates the positive impacts of ATI and reentry programs, including lowering recidivism and crime.² Moreover, for every dollar invested in ATI programs, studies estimate between $3.46-$5.54 in returns, in addition to reduced costs for the criminal justice system and better community health outcomes.³

Despite the well-established benefits of these programs, since 2023 the City Administration has cut nearly $6 million from probation programs that have proven to be successful in supporting re-entry and connecting young people to mentorship and services. Failing to provide robust reentry services or supportive probation programs will harm our youth and is counterintuitive to building safe communities.

We therefore recommend the following investments and restorations in the FY26 Budget:

• Restore and baseline $3.3 million to the IMPACT program, an alternative to placement program for young people who would otherwise be sent to Horizons or Crossroads
• Restore and baseline $2.6 million for Next STEPS (cut August 2023), which offered one-on-one and group mentoring within a cognitive behavioral therapy-based curriculum designed to help young adults make the attitudinal and behavioral changes necessary to avoid criminal activity and re-engage with education, work and community
• Restore and baseline the $3.8 million cut to the Office of Criminal Justice for Alternative to Incarceration programs
• Restore and baseline $8 million for reentry programs

Deepen Investments in the Runaway and Homeless Youth System

Numerous challenges currently face Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) in New York. The Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) is mainly responsible for supporting this population; however, it is not uncommon for RHY to also be involved with ACS, DHS, and HRA in the efforts to find housing or social services. We must ensure that Runaway and Homeless Youth have access to more beds and more support. Since youth do not have a right to shelter and DYCD does not have enough beds for young people (especially older youth), many young people are driven onto the streets or into dangerous living situations. We therefore urge the City to increase the rates for providers, which have not been updated since 2017, to $70,000 per bed. This investment will provide safe, temporary housing for youth who otherwise would be without a stable option.

Furthermore, we also urge the city to restore and baseline $1.62 million to maintain funding for the Peer Navigator positions and $1.5 million for the 16 housing specialists in the DYCD-RHY System. The housing and youth services systems are complex and convoluted, and it is critical to have a trusted support person to offer advice, resources, and answers for young people.

Additionally, we echo the calls of the Runaway and Homeless Youth providers on the following investments to support this population of young people:

• Baseline $1.03 million for Street Outreach and Drop-in Centers
• Invest $1.63 million to support services for newly arriving youth and unaccompanied minors
• Invest $625,000 for Youth-specific Immigration Legal Services
• Invest $2.6 million for two Mental Health-Focused Transitional Independent Living Pilots. To address the significant mental health needs of RHY, we propose funding two pilot programs that include on-site clinical services and intensive case management. These programs will offer the specialized care necessary to stabilize youth with complex mental health challenges.

Invest in Child Welfare Primary Prevention and Workforce Stability

Fundamental to preventing child welfare involvement is investing in the primary prevention supports families need to be safe and secure, including housing, child care, healthy food, and economic supports.

At the same time, the prevention workforce currently in place to support families is in crisis. To help ensure that prevention services can best serve children and families, we recommend the following:

• Enhance child welfare prevention contract flexibility to allow providers the ability to aptly respond to different family circumstances
• Invest in salary increases, scholarships and tuition assistance to help agencies sustain a highly trained and credentialed child welfare workforce.
• Ensure that child welfare staff are paid completive salaries and agencies are paid the true cost of services on prevention contracts.
• Reform the current NYC procurement system to ensure timely payments to contracted agencies.

Support Families in Need of Child Care

Promise NYC provides childcare assistance to low-income families who may be ineligible for other, federally funded subsidized childcare. We are grateful that last year the City Council ensured that Promise NYC funding was restored and increased to $25 million for one year funding. We must ensure that this vital program is not eliminated. All parents want a safe, high-quality, and culturally responsive place for their children to learn, and Promise NYC provides this option. We strongly urge city leaders to restore and baseline $25 million for Promise NYC to ensure that all families can access child care.

Supporting Critical State Investments

Address the CCBG Funding Cliff That Threatens Child Care Assistance for Thousands of New York City Families

In recent years, New York City and other counties have significantly expanded the number of children receiving child care assistance, and have used the Child Care Block Grant (CCBG) to fund this enhanced access.  CCBG funds are used to provide child care assistance to families on cash assistance; contracted child care for children 0-2 years old and 3-and 4-year-olds in extended day/year; and child care vouchers for low-income families engaged in work, training or other qualified activities.

In February 2025, New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) shared that the state Child Care Block Grant (CCBG) funds will be exhausted as early as summer 2025.  This is due to a combination of significant and targeted increases in child care assistance uptake; increased market rates; and the re-institution of engagement requirements for families on cash assistance, which will increase the demand for child care assistance as parents return to work and training activities. Between June 2022 and February 2025, the number of children using low-income child care vouchers in NYC increased by over 700%.

Ultimately, the City estimates that without additional funding, thousands of families will lose child care access. As families’ eligibility ends, each month 4,000-7,000 children would lose child care assistance, as the City would have insufficient funds to recertify their care. This threatens to destabilize the provider system and deny thousands of families affordable and safe child care options.

ACS has stated that New York City will need an estimated $2.006 billion included in the FY 2026 New York State budget for the City’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) in order to continue to serve the same number of children moving forward. This includes an additional $127M for FFY25 and a total of $1.879B for FFY26 (about $860M above the Governor’s commitment) to maintain child care assistance for low-income families at the level to which NYC has expanded.

The Assembly One House budget proposal did include $212.5 million in additional funding for CCAP, with New York City likely receiving about 61% of this increase according to ACS. Even though this increase will help reduce the deficit, it is not enough to ensure all current families will maintain child care. We urge City leaders to work with the Governor and the Legislature to ensure that New York City has the necessary funding to prevent the loss of essential child care voucher access.

Raise the Age Waiver of Hardship

Last fall marked six years since Raise the Age was first implemented across New York State, ending a shameful chapter in our history of prosecuting 16- and 17-year olds as adults regardless of the offense. Prior to the passing of this legislation, thousands of 16- and 17-year-olds were held in dangerous conditions on Rikers Island and other adult jails across the state. Moreover, these youth were systematically locked-out of age-appropriate services in family court programs designed to meet the needs of adolescents and avoid the barriers of an adult criminal record.

Youth crime has consistently decreased since Raise the Age implementation in 2018. In New York City alone, since 2013 there has been a 48% decrease in adolescent arrests for serious offenses.[1] Evidence from implementation across the State clearly shows how the law has improved community safety and youth well-being.

Despite making up half of the state’s youth justice system population, New York City is currently excluded from accessing the Raise the Age funding because the City exceeds the tax cap prescribed by state law. However, it is possible to access this funding by submitting a waiver of hardship, indicating that our city and our programs need the resources that are available through the Raise the Age law. New York City accounts for half of the state’s youth justice system population and should be able to access more funding. However, Mayor Adams has yet to apply for the waiver of hardship, despite the administration’s claim that the current fiscal cliff necessitates drastic cuts to many of the supportive services and programs that are vital to New York City’s youth and families.

It is critical to invest in programs and organizations that are serving our communities through youth development, violence-prevention services, and other alternatives to incarceration to prevent the necessity of further investment in the carceral system. We therefore urge the Council to work with the Mayor and the Administration to submit a letter with the waiver of hardship to allow NYC to be considered for the funding. This would be beneficial for young people and community-based organizations offering these services alike.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony.

[1] In NYC, there was a decline of 77% in total arrests, and a decline of 48% in Index Crimes for youth under the age of 18. Data from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services: Juvenile Arrests (Non-NYC) 2013-2022; Analysis of New York City Police Department data by Citizens Committee for Children of New York for 2013-2022. On file with the author.