Testimony of Lara Lai, Senior Policy Analyst and Strategic Organizer for Education to the New York City Council...

Testimony of Lara Lai, Senior Policy Analyst and Strategic Organizer for Education to the New York City Council Committee on Children and Youth: Afterschool Expansion

Good afternoon, Chair Stevens and members of the City Council Children and Youth Committee. My name is Lara Lai and I am the Senior Policy Analyst and Strategic Organizer for Education in the Office of NYC Comptroller Brad Lander. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today at this important hearing.

In support of your deliberations today on the administration's afterschool expansion, I will review the findings and recommendations from the two recent afterschool reports published by our office: Stranded Afterschooland Afterschool for Some, and the afterschool survey of 627 school leaders conducted by our office this past spring.

While our geographic and demographic analysis of the current 5,000 seat 40 school rollout revealed inequities in seat placement and a lack of transparency on the metrics used to award seats across the City, today I will focus on afterschool for District 75 and students with disabilities. We found that in the new rollout, no District 75 (D75) programs received any of the newly allocated afterschool seats.

The lack of D75 seats follows the findings of our Stranded After Schoolreport in June that children with disabilities face a disproportionate lack of access to the free afterschool programs that many of their peers enjoy.

The lack of afterschool bus transportation is a major barrier to afterschool care citywide, posing a particular challenge for the 62,000 students with IEP mandated school bus transportation as well as students in temporary housing.

Another barrier identified by our survey is the way District 75 afterschool programs are funded and operated, which significantly constrains their ability to meet students' afterschool needs.

District 75 programs do not have access to the primary source of supplementary afterschool funding in the City: Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD).

None of our District 75 respondents have DYCD funded afterschool programs compared to 49% of respondents from other schools.

In a letter sent to the Comptroller on September 8 responding to our most recent afterschool report, DYCD Commissioner Keith Howard indicated that the COMPASS program would dramatically expand access to afterschool programming for students with disabilities. While we appreciate DYCD's commitment to equity, the COMPASS program's impact is likely to be very limited in scope. Most DYCD-funded and contracted community-based organizations (CBOs), which run 90% of afterschool programming in New York City according to our survey, are unable to meet the specialized needs of District 75 students. As a result, most District 75 schools must fund afterschool programming directly. District 75 staff also provide most of the afterschool services themselves and are typically paid through per session.

There are also inequities in City Council CASA grant allocations: only 6% of District 75 schools in our survey benefit from CASA grants, compared to 15% of other respondents. In addition, fee-for-service programs (where parents cover the costs) are less common in District 75 (6%) than among other respondents (20%).

To advance equity in access to afterschool, the Comptroller recommends a comprehensive strategy as the City designs and rolls out its universal afterschool program, including:

1. Increase City Council investment in CASA by $10M per year for District 75 schools. 
2. Create dedicated afterschool funding and contracts for District 75 programs.
3. Rebid DOE's school bus contracts to allow for afterschool bus transportation.

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today and for holding this important hearing. The Comptroller looks forward to partnering with the New York City Council to ensure that all our students get the support and resources they need to succeed and thrive in New York City.

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