{"id":260445,"date":"2026-06-09T12:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/260445\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:21:11","slug":"op-ed-a-budget-that-truly-supports-children-and-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/260445\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed | A budget that truly supports children and families"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the day he unveiled his first executive budget, Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted triumphantly on social media that he\u2019d balanced his budget without cutting any social services. That would be terrific, and to be celebrated\u2014if only it were true.<\/p>\n

In reality, Mayor Mamdani has proposed cuts to programs that New Yorkers rely on. Amongst them is a $7 million reduction to an essential component of New York City\u2019s social services network: the system designed to keep families safely together and reduce foster care entry. The Mayor\u2019s proposal would eliminate 360 prevention service slots, meaning hundreds of families each year could lose access to critical support.<\/p>\n

New York City has long led the country in prioritizing prevention of entry into foster care. The City\u2019s Administration for Children\u2019s Services has partnered with our provider community to create a robust prevention network that has become a model for communities across the country. Families receive help navigating housing resources, family therapy, food assistance, parent coaching, trauma-informed services for those affected by intimate partner violence, and more.<\/p>\n

And this incredible effort has produced incredible results: New York City has gone from 50,000 children and youth in foster care in the 1990s to\u00a0today\u2019s low of about 6,300<\/a>. The City\u2019s investment has made this possible, but we have so much more to do to build on this progress together.<\/p>\n

A survey of nonprofit prevention services providers showed that in the calendar year 2024, New York City prevention caseworkers earned just under $25 per hour, while the field experienced a 36% turnover rate and a 16% vacancy rate. If the Mayor truly wants to increase prevention utilization and strengthen families, he must invest in the workers who provide these services.<\/p>\n

We have heard the Mayor repeatedly call on New York State to help close the City\u2019s budget gap. But the Mayor\u2019s proposed cuts actually leave State funding on the table.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

For decades, the State has been a national leader in funding prevention services, reimbursing New York City and every other county for 62 cents of every dollar invested in keeping families safely together. That means that under the Mayor\u2019s proposal, New York City would actually forgo $4.3 million in available State funding in order to achieve just $2.7 million in city savings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In contrast, the City\u2019s previous budget managed to reinvest $8 million into the prevention services system, allowing providers to better meet families\u2019 concrete needs and support a workforce under enormous strain\u2014true help for a system desperately needing it. Given the values Mayor Mamdani has expressed, we had hoped he would build on that approach.<\/p>\n

Instead, these proposed cuts come as families need support more than ever\u2014facing potential cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits while struggling with rising housing, food, and transportation costs.\u00a0 At such a critical moment for New York\u2019s families, why would the Mayor weaken the City\u2019s prevention network and leave State funding on the table in the process?<\/p>\n

The Mayor has made important strides in centering families\u2019 needs through investments in child care.\u00a0Those efforts deserve recognition. We applaud the child care investment, while also highlighting the urgent needs of families relying on prevention services.<\/p>\n

Budgets are about priorities. Will the Mayor prioritize New York City families who need support the most? The final City budget will tell the story of this administration\u2019s vision for caring for children and families.<\/p>\n

We simply cannot afford to reverse decades of progress in keeping families together and avoiding traumatic family separation whenever possible. It is up to the Mayor to continue advancing that progress. At a minimum, New Yorkers should expect these cuts to be restored.<\/p>\n

Brady-Stepien is the President and CEO of the Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies (COFCCA), the association representing more than 100 nonprofit organizations providing foster care, adoption, family preservation, and juvenile justice services across New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the day he unveiled his first executive budget, Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted triumphantly on social media that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7739,6105,560,9,24,55,54,56,2584,299],"class_list":["post-260445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-budget","tag-families","tag-kids","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-op-ed","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}