Last night, Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced an agreement on a $78.5 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2016. Citizens’ Committee for Children (CCC) is issuing the following statement in response:

“We are pleased that the Mayor and the City Council have come to a budget agreement that includes critical investments in New York City’s children, youth and families. The budget agreement includes support for breakfast in the classroom at over 500 elementary schools; 50 additional Physical Education teachers and an assessment to address barriers to providing PE; 50,000 Summer Youth Employment Program slots; additional funding for emergency food programs; funding to preserve mental health services for children under age 5; and investments in community schools. We look forward to reviewing the details of the budget agreement when documents are voted on later this week,” said Jennifer March, Executive Director of Citizens’ Committee for Children.