FEATURED NEWS

April is national Child Abuse Prevention Month.  Particularly when it comes to physical and sexual abuse, it is a deeply upsetting topic, and so much easier to avoid or ignore. 

Schumer also addressed the extension of the Child Tax Credit, saying that the law will funnel about $7 billion to eligible families in New York. Some of them will receive $300 monthly payments from the federal government beginning in July.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer visited Rochester on Wednesday, enumerating the bounty of recent federal stimulus funding and promising even further spending in President Joe Biden's proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill.

Preview – The American Rescue Plan and Children … And Much More in the March Edition of TCA’s E-News March 2021 What The American Rescue Plan Means For Children  Significant Wins for State Children in Need  The pandemic, along with the economic downturn and flaring racial injustice, has created new…

When the pandemic ends, it will not be cheap for East’s staff to get students, many of whom have checked out during the school’s remote learning offerings, back up to speed. While the new American Rescue Plan funnels nearly $130 billion into K-12 nationally to deal with fallout from the…

Robin Hood, the largest poverty-fighting organization in New York City, held a press conference with elected officials and advocates calling for the immediate and permanent expansion of the Empire State Child Tax Credit (ESCTC) to confront a crisis of poverty in New York that has left nearly 1 in 4 New York…

The New York State budget process has reached the final negotiation stage, with the April 1st deadline fast approaching.

No child is predestined to live in poverty.  And even though the United States is among the richest countries in the world, we consistently rank as having one of the worst child poverty rates among, for instance, the 37 industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.  Nearly…

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that the Rochester-Finger Lakes region will receive $391 million for K-12 education. The money comes from the recent COVID-19 federal stimulus package.

RCSD is in line for about $87 million from the COVID-19 relief bill that Congress passed in December. The more recent bill signed into law this month will provide an even bigger chunk of money, in the neighborhood of $200 million.

If you’re a part of a family with children – there’s a good chance you receive a child tax credit. President Biden’s $1.2 trillion stimulus relief package signed into law Thursday night is going to raise this credit for a year, and make it easier for you to qualify.

The city school district's Parent Leadership Advisory Council (PLAC) officially re-launched last week after about a year of preparation from a dedicated team of parents, caregivers and the RCSD Office of Parent Engagement.

The two leading plans in Washington to support children and families come from President Biden and... Mitt Romney? It's true - the Republican Senator has released his own plan to boost financial support for children, leading some in his own party to call it "welfare expansion."

February 2021 Federal COVID Relief – What it Means for Children House & Senate to Take Action on “Once In A Lifetime” Legislation in Coming Days  The Biden Administration and Congress have targeted early March as the completion date for the next round of federal COVID relief funding. The Children’s…

Thursday, February 25th will be the first time in over twenty years that Rochester City School District (RCSD) high school students will be returning to the classroom without armed police officers present. These police, known as School Resource Officers (SROs), were eliminated in the 2020-21 Rochester City Budget back on…

The Biden Administration and Congress have targeted early March as the completion date for the next round of federal COVID relief funding. The Children’s Agenda and allied organizations are paying close attention to the emerging deal in Washington DC, and are working with child advocacy organizations around the country to…

Students in the Rochester City School District no longer see police officers in their schools. As part of the approval of the city’s budget in June, all 12 school resource officers were removed from RCSD campuses.

The recent pepper spraying of a 9-year-old girl at the hands of Rochester police is leading to a conversation about the "adultification" of Black youth.

In January 2021, a nine-year-old girl in our community was handcuffed and pepper sprayed by police. As a community that cares for children and sees their fundamental humanity, we must ask how we got to this point, where children of color are viewed as a threat, restrained and assaulted by the…

  Sea Change for Children     By Larry Marx, CEO, The Children’s Agenda Looking up from last year’s nadir of crises (the pandemic, economic downturn, and racial injustice), we see some newly visible ripples of light and hope. At The Children’s Agenda, we are raring to go to turn…

The children and families of Rochester City Schools deserve the right to choose an in-person learning option based on the reopening plan that has been presented and approved by the school board. To remove this option is synonymous with restricting one the right to vote in a democratic government.

We applaud New York’s own Chuck Schumer for understanding “the fierce urgency of now” in fighting for the needs of low-income families with children. The pandemic has caused some economic hardships, worsened others, but for the most part it has only exposed what has been with us all along.

During the week of February 22nd, the Kids Can’t Wait Campaign will be holding Virtual Advocacy Days. We invite you to raise your voice, from the comfort of your home, alongside other advocates from across New York State.

The Rochester Teachers Association has strengthened its stance against students returning to the classrooms in the Rochester City School District. Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small plans to bring thousands of students back to buildings in February. A few hundred students with special needs returned to school buildings in early January.

The latest New York state testing scores show that charter schools outperformed all other public schools in Monroe County in three out of four English and math assessments.

Governor Andrew Cuomo released his 2022 Executive Budget on January 19th.  The Children’s Agenda has conducted an initial review of the proposed budget, as we work with partners around the state, including our local legislative delegation, to ensure that children and families get the support they need to thrive. The…

The pandemic opened up a deep, gaping hole of need and injustice – and just further exposed others, like the health and economic impact of systemic racism, and the fragility of our society’s systemic supports for families with children. It will take a sea change to not only repair but…

The Rochester City School District and ROC the Future hosted an information session with parents Wednesday night to share how they will keep students safe when they return to the classroom.

In her role as family and community engagement specialist, Moyo-White continues to serve and work with PECAN, the first organization she joined in the city. She makes sure to point out that, even in this new capacity, she is not PECAN’s leader.

The Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation announced this week the creation of a two-year Rochester Education Fellowship, the latest reform-oriented effort to fix what ails the city's schools.

A new stimulus is coming from the federal government. Right now, Congress continues to bicker over whether individuals should receive $600 or $2,000. We talk about where the money will go and how it will impact families, individuals, and businesses.

E-News Archive

These final days of 2020, and the coming early days of 2021, are not and will not be easy.  But with hope and each other, we will get by, just as we did in 2020.

The Child Poverty Reduction Act is an important step at reducing New York’s unconscionably high rates of child poverty, and its passage would begin to dawn a brighter day for Rochester’s children. We urge the State Senate and Assembly to prioritize passage of this important legislation early in 2021.

E-News Archive

Youth leaders from across Rochester are coming together in person to train for the future. The group "ROC the Future" launched its Youth Leadership Coalition Saturday, the group met for training at the Avenue D R-Center.

The state monitor for the Rochester City School District is recommending a significant reduction in teachers in city schools and a more disciplined approach to labor relations, according to draft academic and fiscal plans released Tuesday.

In episode 11 of Together for Change, our host Christian Motley talks with community leaders from Rochester, New York, and StriveTogether President and CEO Jennifer Blatz on how parents can lead change in their communities

The likelihood that students will return to school full time is decreasing as COVID cases increase. For many parents, the burdensome process of remote learning is beginning to take a toll.

ESL Federal Credit Union’s impact on the region extends beyond its traditional role as a lender. The credit union counts among its priorities helping the area through its community impact efforts.

ROC the Future, which focuses on bettering the lives of children, gave an update on the impact of the pandemic.

The Rochester City School District is continuing to make plans to safely reopen their schools for in person learning. As of now, Superintendent Dr. Leslie Myers-Small said the district plans to have a group of students come back for in-person learning on January 4th, but there are growing concerns.

Children’s advocates say there are stories of success in the Rochester City School District, however there exist wide differences in outcomes within the district’s various schools.

ROC the Future has released its annual "State of Our Children" report card. It tracks key measures of wellbeing of children and youth in the Rochester area.

Saying that he is fortunate to go to a warm home where there is dinner every night, 16-year-old Isaiah Santiago expressed the desire to help others at least have a Thanksgiving meal.

E-News Archive

Rochester currently stands as a city with the third highest child poverty rate in the nation – and COVID-19 has worsened that. Beyond Rochester, nearly 3 million New Yorkers, including 895,000 children, are living in poverty. One in five kids struggle to meet basic needs. The pandemic has caused another…

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issue with rising unemployment. The virus has hit poor, non-white communities the hardest. An additional 10,000 children in Monroe County, and 325,000 across New York, fell into poverty between March and July, according to research from the United Hospital Fund.

Newly-proposed state legislation aims to aid children who are living in poverty.

Children's advocacy groups have a goal to cut child poverty by half over the next 10 years.

Legislation has been introduced by Assemblyman Harry Bronson, D-Rochester, and Rep. Jessica Ramos, D-Queens, to reduce child poverty statewide by 50 percent over the next decade.

The Rochester City School District has a budget shortfall of either $117 million or $199 million — or far less, depending on one's definition of "deficit," or far more, depending on state aid projections.

The Biden/Harris campaign says its proposals could cut the poverty rate in American in half. Connections discusses the proposals and the impact they could have.

With the election just a month away, a few local advocacy groups held a forum where candidates running for office in the state Assembly and the state Senate were able to weigh in on topics affecting families in our area.

The Children’s Agenda, RocActs and the Rochester Black Nurses Association are teaming up hosting a forum for local candidates running for the state legislature.

E-News Archive

Experts in child health and education say the pandemic will have lasting effects on children's social and emotional needs and their overall wellbeing. Effective in April 2021, the Children's Institute will be ROC the Future's new anchor entity. Representatives from the two organizations say the partnership will enable them to better focus their work…

The Children’s Agenda adds our voice to the thousands of others expressing our deepest sympathy with Daniel Prude’s family. Hearing his daughter Tashyra speak out about how her father was killed just days before her high school prom and graduation – and now, as she goes off to college without…

E-News Archive

Equity means ensuring additional supports for the students falling the farthest behind. One positive trend in reopening plans has been the prioritization of young children, students with disabilities, and English language learners, who research shows are the most in need of in-person instruction. Even so, to make up for the…

Childcare advocates rallied Thursday, calling on the state to release funding from the federal CARES Act to providers across New York.

According to a recent report from Roc the Future, the Rochester community has stepped up to improve the digital divide during the pandemic. The original report from April outlined technology disparities in the Rochester City School District. The updated report published this week says access is now a lot better.

Three decades ago, a team of researchers at Duke University set off to follow a group of schoolchildren in a stretch of rural North Carolina that happened to include a small reservation. Soon after, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opened a casino and began sharing the profits, about $4,000…

The looming threat of a 20% cut in state education funding has school districts across New York anxious — but, as is often the case, it is urban districts like Rochester that stand to suffer the most.

ACT Rochester is sending out a call to action, after publishing a new report that finds that minorities in Rochester are facing huge challenges in education, housing and economics.

Eammon Scanlon, education policy manager for the Children's Agenda, a Rochester-based non-profit, gives the school reopening plans he’s seen mixed marks, but he doesn’t blame school districts.

Students in the Rochester City School District collectively will spend less time in school buildings than any other school district in Monroe County, and nearly anywhere in New York, when classes resume this fall.

E-News Archive

The Rochester City School District will keep distributing MiFi devices known as hot spots to help students who are struggling to access the internet.

Congress returns later this month to work on the next round of help for struggling Americans during the pandemic. Is this the time for a national UBI program? Our guests discuss the possible impact of, well, just giving people cash and letting them decide what to do with it.

E-News Archive

The board of directors of The Children’s Agenda formally endorsed the Rochester Black Agenda Group’s declaration that “Racism is a Public Health Crisis” in its last meeting on June 11th.  We urge as many other organizations and individuals as possible to join us in signing the declaration.

Hundreds of New York toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities may lose access to in-home speech, behavioral, occupational and other therapies next week – because the coronavirus pandemic has prevented them from getting the services approved by their local school district.

An unspecified number of New York 3-year-olds with developmental delays and disabilities may lose their state-provided services next week if the state does not extend a key deadline, according to a group of 80 advocacy organizations.

As Emma Lazarus, the poet who’s other writing (“The New Colossus”) adorns our Statue of Liberty wrote, “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.”

A day after Rochester City Council passed a budget which would remove armed officers from schools, local advocacy groups and activists celebrated a small win, though they immediately called on the district to put more funding behind programs that support students.

The 12 police officers stationed in city schools will not be there anymore. City council defunded the program in an amendment to the 2020-21 budget approved Tuesday. The officers, known as School Resource Officers (SROs), have been a fixture in the district since 1998. 

The Children’s Agenda is encouraged by City Council’s approval of the 2020-2021 City of Rochester budget. This budget includes several measures that will address inequities in the Rochester City School District, in the city’s decision-making process, and will realign city government priorities based on the will of our community. The…

Parents who have been at home with their young children for months are looking forward to getting back to work. Unfortunately, they may come to realize that their child care program won’t be able to take their kids back. Children, whose lives have been disrupted by this crisis and thrive…

E-News Archive

This is the second of a series of blog posts regarding the current RSCD budget situation. The Rochester City School District (RCSD) is currently looking for ways to save $30.1 million this year to make up for overspending in the 2018-2019 budget. In The Children’s Agenda’s first blog post we…

Advocates and parents joined the Rochester School Board in an enthusiastic embrace of the board’s selection of former Brockport Central School District Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small, Ed.D. as the new superintendent of the Rochester City School District.

The Rochester Area Community Foundation has established a COVID Education Fund to urgently support the purchase of technology and home internet access for students who don’t have reliable or high-speed internet access or computers in their homes.

The RACF noted an April 15 report on the digital divide in Rochester, researched by The Children’s Agenda for ROC the Future, illustrates the problem. The U.S. Census indicates that 88 percent of Rochester residents have some type of computer, smart phone, or wireless device and, of those, 63 percent…

Nearly two dozen people voiced their ideas on how Rochester should spend $7.5 million in federal coronavirus relief funds at a City Council committee meeting Thursday.

When schools closed in March and teachers and students were pushed to online learning settings, the transition proved difficult for students who lack internet access and technology. The digital divide continues to be a concern, and the team at ROC the Future has analyzed where the gaps are and the impact they're…

A survey conducted the week of April 22 of New York parents found that 1 in 3 of of the parents surveyed had their hours and income reduced because of the pandemic, and two-thirds of the group said they were concerned about lost hours and lost employment going forward.

E-News Archive

The Children’s Agenda is pleased to help lead Raising NY, a diverse statewide coalition of parent, early childhood, education, civil rights, business, and health organizations. This coalition is dedicated to increasing the number of children birth to age three who are on track for school readiness. This coalition recently commissioned…

Stephanie Townsend is speaking out about the need for scientific literacy. She says the pandemic has underscored the erosion of this kind of literacy, and "understanding the scope, limits, and process of science is critical to an informed citizenry and electorate. No one study 'proves' anything."

There’s a Grand Canyon of difference between using phrases like “woke” for self-congratulatory advertising or for applause from the already-converted (like so many social media posts) -- versus taking action in the world to root out something as insidious and all-permeating as racism.

Distancing measures in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 have pushed early intervention services like Kaia’s physical therapy — required by both state and federal law for children under 3 years old — into the virtual realm.

The day after the Rochester City School District announces its latest round of budget cuts, D&C education reporter will speak with former board member Melanie Funchess and The Children’s Agenda budget analyst Eamonn Scanlon about the implications for children in the city. It took until March 27 for that list…

The Children's Agenda put together an online zoom training to help participants both understand what was in the Rochester City School District Budget and also show people how they could advocate on behalf of students in the district.

Rochester City School District officials have to bridge an $81 million gap in its budget for the upcoming academic year, which means cuts are inevitable.

There's a heated debate happening regarding what to cut, and what to keep, in Rochester city schools. Evan Dawson recently spoke to Superintendent Terry Dade; additionally he interviews board members about teacher cuts, emotional support cuts, building usage, and more.

Today, The Children’s Agenda (TCA) released the executive summary for its annual RCSD Budget Analysis. Key points include the trickle-down effect of the recently passed New York State budget and how it’s impacting cuts to RCSD services and programs are creating devastating consequences for the most vulnerable children in our…