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2007 LEGISLATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS

Established in 1999, FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS NEW YORK is a statewide, bi-partisan, non-profit anti-crime organization of more than 300 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other law enforcement leaders and violence survivors. We are part of the more than 3,000 member national organization, FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS, headquartered in Washington, D.C. As leaders on the front-line in the battle against crime, our mission is to take a hard-nosed look at the research about what works to keep kids from becoming criminals. Research and experience show that certain targeted investments in programs that give kids a good start in life will prevent children from engaging in later crime and violence. These investments include quality early education and care, child abuse and neglect prevention, after-school programs, and programs that help troubled kids get back on track.

Government's most fundamental responsibility is to protect public safety. New York State is far short of the investment needed to keep kids from becoming criminals. This gaping shortfall in investments is our nation's crime-prevention gap, leaving every New Yorker at needless risk of becoming a victim. As a first step toward closing this gap, FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS NEW YORK developed an agenda for the 2007/08 legislative session. T he legislative agenda outlines the FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS NEW YORK priorities in the context of the programs identified by the School and Youth Violence Prevention Plan including programs that prevent child abuse and neglect, early educational childhood care including pre-kindergarten, after-school programs and programs that get troubled kids back on track also known as evidence-based community initiatives.

Outlined below is the agenda for the 2007 New York legislative session:

I) Expand Efforts to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect

Each year, more than 77,000 New York children are confirmed as abused or neglected. Children who survive abuse or neglect carry the scars for life and have an increased risk of becoming criminals. Fortunately, quality programs, such as in-home parent coaching, really work to prevent abuse and neglect.

There are two important in-home parent coaching programs that currently exist in New York state on a small scale: Healthy Families New York (HFNY) and the Nurse-Family Partnership Program. Using the "leveraging public dollars spent" lens, these programs make sense, because they work effectively to prevent early child abuse and neglect and they save money. Currently less than 10 percent of all new parents at risk of abusing or neglecting their infants have access to either of these programs. By increasing access to these programs for families on a voluntary basis, we will create safer communities where all our children have a fair chance to become productive citizens instead of criminals. Last session, the legislature approved a $7.4 million increase for in-home parent coaching programs, but the need still remains high. Furthermore, this year, in his State of the State, Governor Spitzer indicated that we should focus investments "on that period in a child's life that is developmentally the most critical from birth to five years old."

In order to ensure that kids have the opportunity to get the right start life and have access to in-home parent coaching programs, we urge Governor Spitzer and the New York Legislature to:

• Invest an Additional $45 million in New York State's in-home parent coaching programs and set the stage for a statewide system of universally accessible home visitation
• Put $35 million in the 2007/08 Health Budget for the Nurse Family Partnership Program.
• Add $10 million to the Healthy Families New York Program to bring the total investment in Healthy Families to $35 million for 2007/08.

II) Expand and Improve Quality Early Childhood Care and Education

Quality early childhood care and education programs are proven to help children start school ready to learn and to cut later crime and violence. However, due to inadequate funding, only 11 percent, or 68,000, of New York's 620,000 working families receive some sort of child care aid and only one in five New York children are served by Head Start or the state funded pre-kindergarten program.

Quality Early Childhood Care and Education--Create an Early Learning Commission
Given the complexities of developing a coordinated and effective system of services for early childhood, in order to maximize the returns on dollars invested it will be necessary to reach across the usual boundaries of state and local agencies to address duplicative and conflicting regulations and to align funding and oversight.

In order to ensure that kids have the opportunity to get the right start life and that a system exists to provide access to high-quality early educational child care, we urge Governor Spitzer and the New York Legislature to:

I) Create an early learning commission to create an integrated system of early childhood services

We made relatively good progress in the past few years in providing quality early educational child care until recently. Last year, we fell back significantly with a $40 million cut in child care services. Many children who are currently eligible still go un-served in many counties and the field is still plagued by low wages and few educational opportunities for child care workers. In addition, child care has been included in the Flexible Fund for Family Services (FFFS) block grant and will have to compete with many other important services. In order to ensure that kids have the opportunity to get the right start life and have access to high-quality early educational child care, we urge Governor Spitzer and the New York Legislature to:

• Increase funding for subsidies by $140 million, to serve children in slots lost in the 2005-06 budget cuts and to serve an additional 22,000 children.
• Enact legislation to assure that no more than 10% of gross family income is required for co-pays for child care and that no co-pay is required for families under 100% of the federal poverty level.
• Remove child care funding from the Flexible Fund for Family Services (FFFS). If funding for child care remains in this county block grant it will have to compete with so many other worthwhile services. Early prevention services such as educational child care can often come up short in this type of competition. The block grant process, which defers quality standard oversight to the county and away from a managed statewide system, could also prove detrimental in providing the type of quality child care that bears the full crime prevention benefits.

Quality Early Childhood Care and Education- Pre-Kindergarten
The State's Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) program was initially funded to fill 60,000 slots. After six years of flat-funded, in 2006 the legislature and the Governor added an additional $50 million allowing 60 eligible school districts to apply for funding for the first time. Unfortunately, this $50 million is only a modest increase as the program has been losing ground with fewer kids each year being served as a result of inflation. In Governor Spitzer's State of the State he indicated that, "Within four years, we should make pre-kindergarten available to every four-year-old in New York."

In order to ensure that kids have the opportunity to get the right start life and have access to quality pre-kindergarten, we urge Governor Spitzer and the New York Legislature to:

• Add $150 million to New York StateÕs Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program to begin to make pre-kindergarten available for every child in New York State, beginning in rural and high-crime areas

III.) Expand and Improve After-School Programs
Quality after-school programs that connect children to caring adults and provide constructive activities during the peak hours of juvenile crime are among our most powerful tools for preventing crime. However, funding for after-school programs is so limited that more than 800,000 New York children and teens are left unsupervised by adults in the after-school hours.

Currently, there are two after-school funding streams that serve programs statewide - the Advantage After-School Program and the Extended Day/Violence Prevention Program. And while these programs did receive minor budget increases in 2006, funding is still inadequate to provide enough quality programs in New York to meet the need.

In order to ensure that kids have the opportunity to get the right start life and have access to after-school programs during the "prime time for juvenile crime" from 3 to 6 PM, we urge Governor Spitzer and the New York Legislature to:

• The Governor should convene the leadership of the major state and federal after-school funding streams in New York State to identify steps to integrate or better align existing programs across agencies and funding sources. This work should focus particularly on quality standards and administrative requirements (e.g., application processes, regulations, reporting, evaluation, etc.).
• Increase funding for the After-School Advantage Program by $25 from 30.2 million to bring the total funding for the two programs combined to $55.2 million.
• Increase funding for the Extended Day After-School by $12.5 from $27.5 million to bring the total funding for the program to $40 million.

IV.) Help Troubled Kids Get Back on Track.
When children are disruptive and troubled, it is a warning signal that it is time to provide interventions such as social skills training, counseling or other help for children and their families that can lead the children back to a law-abiding path. With research-based interventions, schools and communities can identify warning signals and respond effectively.

In order to ensure that kids have the opportunity to get the right start life and have access to appropriate interventions that can get them back on track, we urge Governor Spitzer and the New York Legislature to:

• Support the use of Evidence-Based Community Initiatives (EBCI), that help get kids back on track by working with them in the context of their family and community, as a Òfront-endÓ service for youth before they are arrested.
• Maintain the 65 percent State reimbursement for community-based preventive services that avert the placement of children in foster care or juvenile justice facilities
• Enact and fund bullying prevention legislation to help address the need for bullying prevention programs in New York schools.
• Ensure that any legislation to address gang violence includes support and incentives for communities to implement comprehensive, coordinated "carrot and stick" responses such as Boston's "Operation Ceasefire". These evidence-based efforts bring together law enforcement, community leaders and youth service agencies to track down gang members and high-risk kids, provide close supervision, ensure that any future gang violence is met with swift consequences, and link kids to community services.