Families, especially in rural and under-resourced areas, have a difficult time obtaining EI services during the critical early years of brain development. Without these essential services, children often struggle to learn all the skills needed for success in school and beyond. 

Ed Trust–NY supports:

• The Governor’s proposal to increase reimbursement rates by 5%, with an additional 4% increase in rural or underserved areas (A8803/S8303) and urges an increase to 11% for in-person visits statewide; 
• Reform of the methodology for EI reimbursement rates to accurately reflect the true cost of care; and
• Creation of a student loan forgiveness program (A8455-Paulin).

While Ed Trust–NY aims for the North Star of universally offered home visiting, we must expand existing programs so that families who desire ongoing services have access to those services. We support an increase in appropriated funding for both ParentChild+ and the Nurse-Family Partnership program.

Ed Trust–NY supports HMG, which provides comprehensive, family-centered, primary prevention services, and urges the State to make previously allocated funding available to programs so that they can expand access.

When the federal government expanded the Child Tax Credit during the pandemic (2021), the child poverty rate fell to a historic low of 5.2%. When that expansion ended, the rate dramatically increased to 12.4%. Child tax credits work.

Ed Trust–NY supports:
S277A/A4022A (Gounardes/Hevesi) to combine and expand existing tax credits — specifically the Empire State Child Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) — into a Working Families Tax Credit.

Ed Trust–NY remains supportive of efforts to extend subsidies to children regardless of immigration status and looks forward to working with policymakers on this issue, which will allow more parents to work while providing stable, nurturing care.

High-impact tutoring can be a critical intervention to support academic acceleration in reading and math, particularly as districts make long-term shifts to evidence-based instruction. High-impact tutoring can also help thousands of New York students recover from the impact of interrupted instruction on their learning. 

• Ed Trust–NY supports A.7788/S.8327 (Cunningham/Fernandez). 

2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results show that New York ranks 46th nationally in 4th grade math performance. We support policies, regulations, and investments that incentivize the use of high-quality instructional materials, including evidence-based curricula and job-embedded professional learning opportunities for current and pre-service teachers.

Ed Trust–NY supports policies that provide equitable access to college credit in high school for students while increasing effectiveness by ensuring programs center equity, provide intentional experiences, and are accountable to both student performance and success in college and career. We support efforts to utilize the New York Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to fund college-level courses at the secondary level, only after credit has been earned by a student and such credit has subsequently been applied toward their postsecondary degree.

• Ed Trust–NY supports S5616, which would utilize TAP funds to support dual enrollment access, success, and attainment (Mayer).

Across New York State, students of color and from low-income backgrounds are denied access to advanced coursework that would set them on a path to postsecondary success. We support policies that create more access to these opportunities while providing information to families about the benefits of enrolling in advanced classes aligned to students’ academic curiosity and postsecondary plans.

Too many recent New York high school graduates are entering college without the skills and support necessary to succeed. As a result, students often require more than the traditional two or four years to complete their degrees, resulting in increased debt and lower graduation rates. Ed Trust–NY supports policies that provide wrap-around services to support postsecondary degree completion and eliminate the use of remedial coursework by replacing them with credit-bearing co-requisite courses. 

New York is in dire need of a comprehensive governance structure and system that connects statewide data from birth through K-12, postsecondary education, and the workforce. We support adoption of a P-20 cross-agency data governance system that would help leaders answer policy challenges, target resources, and better support families and students on their educational journey.