Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education

Good afternoon and welcome to today's hearing on the Subcommittee for Early Childhood Development. At this time, I'd like to remind everyone to silence all electronic devices. Also, at this point going forward, no one is to approach the dais. Repeat, no one is to approach the dais. If you would like to sign up for in-person testimony, please see one of the sergeant-at-arms.

Thank you. Chair, we're ready to begin.

Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. I'm Councilmember Jennifer Gutierrez, Chair of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education, and welcome to today's hearing. Double special welcome to the incoming D.C. for our hearing today supporting multilanguage learners in early childhood education programs. New York City is widely recognized as the most linguistically diverse city in the world. Shout out to Queens.

In New York State, the proportion of multilingual young children is higher than the national average of 32%, with approximately 45% of young children ages 0 to 5 in New York identifying as multilanguage learners. Access to multilingual early childhood education serves as a critical cornerstone for both cognitive development and social equity. Nurturing children's home languages develops their positive sense of self and cultural identity.

It also maintains strong ties with family and community and supports young children's social, behavioral, and emotional regulation. Research shows a clear relationship between the age of exposure to a language and a child's success in learning that language. Yet a 2025 study of New York City's pre-kindergarten program found that there are not nearly enough designated bilingual pre-K programs available to support the growing number of multilanguage learners.

Last year, President Trump issued an executive order designating English as the official language of the U.S. And about a month ago, his administration released a notice of proposed rulemaking proposing an English-only instruction requirement in all Head Start programs. Boo. Boo. With the persistent federal attacks on multilingual services, now is the time for the city to step up its commitment to all of its residents in providing these services, including to our youngest learners.

So today we'll ask the administration how you are supporting— how are you supporting multilingual early childhood education students across our city? Are you planning to expand multilingual supports as the early childhood education system grows? How are you informing multilingual families about their early childhood education options? We will also hear Rezo 650, sponsored by myself, opposing the federal— opposing the federally proposed rule change titled reducing federal burden for Head Start programs, and calling on the federal government to prioritize protecting and growing access to high-quality education for young children.

I want to thank the members of Early Childhood Education, our subcommittee, who have joined us today. Councilmember Rita Joseph and Councilmember Simka Felder and online councilmember— Sorry, erase it from your minds. You mentioned my name twice. And Councilmember Kayla Santuoso. Shout out to Brooklyn. We're all here today. Thank you, Simca. Thank you. And additionally, I want to thank the staff of our committee, Julia Goldsmith-Pinkham, Katie Salina, Grace Amato, and Julene Lawless, and Margaret Barnsley, as well as my own staff, Frank Kulka, Angelica Colon, and our outgoing fella Ella Lau for their work on today's hearing.

And finally, thank you to everyone who's signed up to testify. We look forward to hearing from you.

I would like to— am I doing this part? Yes. Okay. I would— sorry. I want to remind everyone who wishes to testify in person today that you must fill out a witness slip, which you can find on the desk of the sergeant-at-arms near the entrance of the room. Please fill out the slip even if you've already registered in advance that you will be testifying in person today.

If you wish to testify on any of the alleged Please indicate on the witness slip whether you are here to testify in favor of or in opposition. I also want to point out that we will not be voting on any legislation today. To allow as many people as possible to testify, testimony will be limited to 2 minutes per person, whether you are testifying in person or on Zoom.

I'm also going to ask my colleagues, uh, to limit their questions and comments to 5 minutes. Please note that witnesses who are here in person will testify before those who are signed into the Zoom webinar, and I'll now turn it over to our Early Childhood Education Subcommittee counsel to administer the oath. Hello. Good afternoon. In accordance with the rules of the council, I'll administer the affirmation to the witnesses from the mayoral administration.

I'll call on you each individually for a response. Please raise your right hands. All please raise your right hands. Thank you. Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee and respond honestly to councilmember questions? Thank you. As a reminder to witnesses and to the administration, please state your name prior to your testimony for the record.

Thank you. You may now begin.

Okay. All right. Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez and members of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education. My name is Emmy Liss, and I am the executive director of the Mayor's Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education. I'm joined today by my colleagues from New York City Public Schools, and we would like to thank you for convening this important hearing and giving us the opportunity to testify before you.

The Mamdani administration is committed to a vision of universal child care, a city in which every child under 5 has access to free, high-quality early care and education offered in a range of culturally competent settings with caregivers and educators who are trained, respected, and fairly compensated. Supporting multilingual learners is a critical component of the mayor's goal because we know that child care cannot be universal in one of the most diverse cities in the world unless we support multilingual learners and providers.

All children deserve access to rich early learning environments that honor and celebrate their heritage and support their growth, no matter what language they speak at home. We are also blessed as a city with thousands of early childhood educators who speak languages other than English in their classrooms and programs, allowing children of all backgrounds to feel a sense of belonging and to thrive.

Creating early childhood education environments that support and encourage multilingual learning benefits all children. We know this from research and evidence. I also share this from experience. Last year, my son was enrolled in one of the city's pre-K Spanish dual language programs. As a child coming from an English-speaking home, he had a chance to learn with and from his peers who came from Spanish-speaking homes.

I saw the ways in which the children learned from each other and saw each other's language skills as an asset and a strength. All of the parents in the classroom were able to engage with the educators and with the day-to-day lessons regardless of which language we spoke at home. I know the benefits that I saw are not unique to my son's experience alone and represent what many families and educators experience every day.

Together with our partners at the New York City Public Schools Division of Early Childhood Education, the Mayor's Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education has been working closely on a number of initiatives and programs toward the goal of delivering free, high-quality care and education for every child under 5 in New York City. I'm thrilled to introduce my newest colleague, Erica Phillips, who recently joined the division as the new Deputy Chancellor for Early Childhood Education.

Deputy Chancellor Phillips brings decades of experience in early childhood education and has worked closely with childcare providers who are serving multilingual children. She will now share more background on the work that the Division of Early Childhood Education is doing to support multilingual learners, and we look forward to then taking your questions. Thank you.

Thank you, and good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez and members of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education. My name is Erika Phillips, and I serve as the Deputy Chancellor for Early Childhood Education at New York City Public Schools. I am joined today by Dr. Georgette Branch, Chief of Learning and Partnerships, Dr. Brenda Garcia, Chief of the Office of Multilingual Learners, and Dr.

Arabelle L. Pembroke, Senior Director of Inclusion and Support for Emergent Multilingual Learners. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and for your continued partnership in supporting New York City's youngest learners. I come to this role with more than 20 years of experience across early childhood and K-12 education, business, and nonprofit leadership. Much of my career is focused on building systems that support young children and families while assisting the educators and caregivers who serve them.

Before joining New York City Public Schools, I served as the Executive Director of the National Association for Family Child Care, where I worked at the federal level to strengthen early learning programs advance child care policies, and elevate the voices of the early educators and providers who have served as the backbone of the early childhood system. Previously, I spent 8 years at All Our Kin, an early childhood organization focused on supporting home-based child care providers, where I helped to bring its family child care network to New York City.

This work is deeply personal to me as the daughter and granddaughter of early educators and caregivers. I am honored to bring those experiences to New York City Public Schools and to lead our work to strengthen early care and education for children and families across New York City. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss how we support emergent multilingual children and families across early childhood programs in New York City, as well as our early childhood dual language bilingual education program.

New York City's children enter our early childhood programs with tremendous linguistic and cultural assets. Across our early childhood system, children may be learning English while also developing one of the many other languages spoken by New York City families. Our responsibility is to build an early childhood system that recognizes those languages as strengths, provides children with developmentally appropriate opportunities to learn across languages, and ensures that families have meaningful access to their children's education.

The process for identifying emergent multilingual learners in early childhood differs from the process used to identify English language learners in K-12 schools. Under Commissioner's Regulation Part 154, K-12 schools follow a formal process for identifying English language learners, including the home language questionnaire, an individual interview when appropriate, and the New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners.

NYCTEL, an English language proficiency assessment. Those requirements do not apply in the same way in early childhood settings where children are identified as emergent multilingual learners based on information families provide about their child's language background and experiences. New York State uses the Emergent Multilingual Learner Language Profile, a family-completed survey available in 24 languages that asks which languages are spoken by parents and caregivers, which languages the child understands and uses, and the family's preferred language for program communication.

The purpose is not to measure English proficiency, but to identify children whose home or primary language is other than English to help programs plan linguistically responsive instruction and supports. Across early childhood settings, multilingualism is treated as an asset. All programs are required to support multilingual learners by using developmentally appropriate practices such as visual aids, modeling, intentional vocabulary development, home language connections, family partnerships, and culturally and linguistically responsive instruction.

The goal is to enable all children to fully participate in learning while also developing English. Emergent multilingual learners across early childhood settings experience language-rich, culturally and linguistically responsive learning experiences. Our emergent multilingual guidance, as well as ongoing city professional learning, supports educators with instructional strategies. Those include using children's home languages and linguistic strengths, visuals and real objects, gestures, intentional vocabulary development, repeated readings, family knowledge, and developmentally appropriate observation across languages and communication modalities.

As reflected in the New York State Education Department's Blueprint for ML/ELL Success, we believe all teachers are teachers of multilingual learners. Every educator can create an environment in which children's languages are visible, valued, and incorporated meaningfully into learning. These distinctions matter because while dual language bilingual education is a specific program model, The responsibility for supporting emergent multilingual learners belongs to the entire early childhood ecosystem.

The Department of Early Childhood Education works in partnership with the Office of Multilingual Learners to align this work within the broader NYCPS guidance and resources for multilingual learners while ensuring that supports reflect the particular needs of young children in early childhood settings.

Multilingualism intersects with other areas of a child's development. A child can be an emergent multilingual learner and also have a disability. Supporting that child requires educators and families to consider language development, communication, learning, and disability together. Language differences should not be mistaken for disability, nor should a disability result in a child's linguistic strengths being overlooked. That is why our work to support inclusion and emergent multilingual learners must remain connected.

Educators need dedicated support, family partnership, and multiple sources of information to understand how a child communicates and learns across languages and settings. In practice, this means providing multiple ways for children to access instruction and demonstrate understanding. Educators can pair spoken language with visuals, gestures, modeling, objectives, and assistive technology. Intentionally build vocabulary in both English and the child's home language, break directions into smaller steps, provide repetition and additional processing time, and use predictable routines that reduce linguistic and cognitive demands.

Small group instruction, peer modeling, and opportunities to respond through speech, movement, pictures, or other communication systems can also support participation. For children with IEPs, accommodations and specialized supports should be integrated with culturally and linguistically responsive instruction. Families are critical partners in identifying how children communicate, what they understand in their home language, and what strategies are most effective across child settings.

Families are essential partners in the education of emergent multilingual learners across diverse early childhood settings that we support, including our dual language bilingual education programs. During enrollment, families have access to translated information, and programs may use multilingual staff, interpretation resources, and appropriate translation technology to communicate with families. NYCPS also provides families with broader language access supports, including written translation and in-person, virtual, and over-the-phone interpretation services.

Families can access interpretation in many languages, and early childhood communications and enrollment resources are available in multiple languages. Additionally, center-based settings and family child care networks have access to over-the-phone interpretation services and translation templates to support direct communication with families, whether in person or by the phone. For family child care providers, the affiliated family child care network is responsible for ensuring providers can communicate with families and connect them to interpretation and translation resources.

Our work is to strengthen consistency across the system so that a family's ability to communicate with their child's program does not depend solely on the language skills of individual staff members. Technology can support that work, but it should not replace high-quality human translation and interpretation, particularly when families are making important decisions about enrollment, instruction, special education, or other services.

The early childhood dual language bilingual education program model provides instruction in English and a partner language across district schools, pre-K centers, and contracted community-based early childhood programs. We have 99 verified dual language bilingual education program sites across New York City. Partner languages represented across these programs include Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, French, Italian, Polish, Korean, and Arabic. Dual language programming is an important component of how New York City Public Schools supports multilingual learners.

Across our early childhood system, programs provide language supports that may include bilingual or multilingual staff, translated family communications, interpretation at family meetings, and instructional practices that support the continued development of both English and a child's home language. An early childhood dual language bilingual education program is not automatically established when a particular number of children who speak one language are enrolled.

Thoughtful planning is essential. DECE must consider the linguistic profile of enrolled and prospective families, parental interests, staffing and bilingual educator capacity, program quality, geography, enrollment sustainability, and opportunities for continuity into elementary school when determining where dual language bilingual education programs can be established and sustained. The strength of any dual language program depends heavily on its educators. Early childhood dual language bilingual education programs require appropriately credentialed bilingual educators, and we recognize that the available pool of bilingual certified early childhood teachers is more limited than than the general early childhood workforce.

New York State and NYCPS support pathways for educators to obtain bilingual extensions. Strengthening that pipeline remains important as we consider future expansion. Furthermore, across all early childhood settings, we believe every educator can create environments that support emergent multilingual leaders. Instructional coordinators, education administrators, and other members of DECE's instructional support structure work within programs on curriculum, instructional practice, professional learning, and implementation.

DECE has access to several important sources of information including home language information, enrollment data, the Early Childhood Emergent Multilingual Learner Profile, MiSchools information, Teaching Strategies GOLD, provider information, current dual language bilingual education program locations and languages, and K-12 bilingual education program data. These data provide an increasingly strong foundation for planning. Our goal is to continue strengthening our data infrastructure so we can better understand where emergent multilingual learners are being served, what languages are being represented, where opportunities may be limited, and how program quality and access can improve over time.

Looking ahead, our work to support emergent multilingual learners is focused on several priorities. First is using data to identify potential gaps in foreign professional learning cycles and build educator capacity. The second is strengthening the bilingual educator pipeline while continuing to build the capacity of all early childhood educators to support multilingual children. The third is to strengthen implementation support to enhance the quality of children's learning experiences.

And the fourth is to ensure families have meaningful language access and a clear voice in determining which programs best meet the needs of their children. Our goal this year is to build sustainable, high-quality programs in the communities where children and families need them while ensuring that every multilingual learner across our early childhood system is supported, whether or not that child attends a designated dual language bilingual education program.

We appreciate the subcommittee's attention to this work and the council's continued partnership on behalf of New York City's youngest learners and families. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, Deputy Chancellor. I also want to acknowledge committee member Kevin Riley, who joined us. Thank you both for your very thoughtful testimonies. And I just want to start by saying my child was also— is also in a dual language program and was able to participate in the pre-K class as like an introduction. And that's what really kind of exposed me to understanding the value of this program as early as 4 and even younger.

So thank you for this testimony, DC. I wanted to ask Just to start, you got something for me? No, I'm sorry for interrupting, but they scheduled— You got to go? That's okay. Okay, thank you, Councilmember. I do love the open transparency. Thank you. Can you just start— can you define— and I graduated public schools here. I think when I went to school, it was— what was it?

What was the name of the class? It was just like the— ESL. And I know that the vocabulary and the languages have changed. So can you just share with me how the DOE defines multi-language learner? I'll— yes, so we are thinking, you know, very expansively about how we're supporting multilingual learners. And to frame it, the way that we view that for the early childhood is a little bit different than how we view English language learners in K through 12.

So I'm going to ask my colleague, Dr. Branch, to provide some detail on how we define our multilingual learners for early childhood, and then Dr. Garcia can share what it looks like in K through 12. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, Chair. So in early childhood education, the way that we define our emergent multilingual learners is students who come from a home that supports, you know, that speaks a language other than English.

Essentially, families self-identify and they tell us that, you know, their little one speaks Spanish or is learning to speak Spanish or another language in addition to English. So that's the definition. And what is the— thank you, that seems easy enough. What is the definition? How is it different from then K through 12 or 1 through 12? There you go.

Good afternoon, Chair. Thank you for the question. The state introduced the term multilingual learner, and so it's an umbrella term. Multilingual learner includes English language learners, which I'll define in a minute, former English language learners, so those are kids who are ELs at some point, and it also includes any student who is learning a new language. That virtually could be any student in our system taking a world language course or heritage language course.

Our English language learners are the students who actually are entitled as per CR Part 154 to English language acquisition instruction. It used to be called English as a Second Language, now it's called English as a New Language or Transitional Bilingual Education programs or Dual Language Bilingual Education programs. Those are the 3 program models. Wow, thank you. Okay, excellent.

And I know it's a little, it's obviously different for early childhood education, but what you shared seems simple, this seems a little more nuanced. Is there any plan, like, does this feel like the appropriate definition for early childhood for the foreseeable future? And I believe it is the most appropriate because all of our students are emergent learners, right?

They're emergent language learners. Some of our students, they come in with very little language, right? Initially, they're coming in as early as 6 months. So we're really looking to the families to share information in terms of what they see as the best approach, and utilize that to also honor that in the classroom. So for the time and the foreseeable future, that will continue to be how we define our emergent language learners in early childhood education.

Thank you. And does the framing of the question change for a 6-month, like the parent of a 6-month-old, 2-year-old, 3-year-old versus a pre-K student where maybe they have more language and you're asking more about the parent, you know, at 6 months or 2 years old versus the 4-year-old? Does that framing change or is it— It's consistent because at the, pretty much at home, whatever language is introduced at home, whether it's the parents' language, or maybe grandma comes over and speaks an additional language.

We're really using that information to determine how to best support the child in the classroom. So it may not even just be that it's a French-speaking household, but maybe, you know, there's grandparents or individuals who come over who speak Spanish as well. And if the family shares that information with us and, you know, the hope and desire is that the language acquisition is advanced across all of those languages, then we support that.

Okay, excellent.

Thank you. My next question is just regarding data for early childhood, and I know that it might be a little bit more complicated, but does NYCPS or the Mayor's Office of Child Care, do you all have an estimated number of multilanguage learners in early childhood education programs? Yes, we do. So currently we have across the entire portfolio, so across all of our pre-K centers, 3K, our 2K expansion programs, and our infants, we have a total of 30,058 multilingual learners.

So I can give you the breakdown if you want in terms of like pre-K versus 3K, 2K. Would you like that? Yes. And can you just repeat then? You said 30,000? The total is 30,058. Okay. Wow, it's precise. Okay. Yes. And please do the breakdown. Thank you. So in pre-K, we have 12,725. 3K, 6,737. In our 2K programs, 581.

And our little infants, 15 currently. Okay, excellent. Thank you. And then how do you all— how do you kind of keep— how do you keep track of this? Is like, how often are you being informed of like, there's a new family who was identified as like a multi-language learner? Right. So initially, the ident— you know, initially, families can actually share that information even when they apply, right, when they're applying through the MySchools account.

But that information is also maintained at the school or at the program. And that information is shared with the division. And we're able to keep track of that because in addition to just the numbers and knowing that we have them, we do a lot of coaching. The Division of Early Childhood Education, that's really— What I'm most proud of is in terms of how we really are able to support programs and really go in and provide support to teachers so that they can better support their multilingual learners.

So that information is captured and sent over to the division quite often. We have people on the ground who are able to also keep track of that information as well. Do you find that it will change in the middle of the school year? Maybe you're a family who, like, just didn't respond in the same way for whatever reason.

Do you find that that happens often where maybe in the middle of the school year they're like, actually, Yes, it's not typically that it changes for the families, but we may get new students, right? So now we have additional multilingual learners in the program, but it's not usually the case that we have a family who says little Johnny is a multilingual learner, he speaks French at home, and now that's no longer the case.

No, I think of the reverse, where I think the way that you defined it earlier could be like maybe abuela comes over once in a while and now my child is being exposed exposed in a way that maybe the parents didn't. So that's kind of what I'm referring to. That's not typical. I would say that it happens from time to time, but I think it's inconsequential in terms of how often.

Sometimes we take a trip and we absorb a whole lot. Right. Absolutely. Okay. Great. I'm going to ask one more question and then I'm going to pass it off to Councilmember Heredia. You have a couple questions. Oh, sure. And I'm sorry, can you just clarify the numbers that you just shared for multi-language learners? That's the current enrollment, 2026-2027, or for last year?

That is our— I believe that's our current enrollment. Yep. Okay. I believe as of September 25th. Okay. Oh, wow. Thank you.

Um, my next question before I pass it off to Council Member Riley, um, do you all— have you all found that if a family wants a seat in, um, 3K or pre-K or— and now our 2K, um, and they want to see in a particular program and it's from a family whose primary language is a language other than English, have you found that that raises any limitations for what schools they attend or even apply to?

Or is that a question that you pose to families? That's a great question. We are very actively looking at what families need, both based on the language of the family and really demand around all of the programs. And that's something that we've been monitoring quite a bit. There is really strong demand for the dual language program from families who speak a language other than English and also for families who, you know, want to expose their child to another language.

And, you know, so yes, we do have, you know, a lot of interest in that and making sure that we are prioritizing. So our goal for classes are for them to be 50/50 native, the language of that program, and families who speak another language. And so we are able to meet families' needs. I think over 80% of families were able to get one of their top schools, including, you know, dual language if that was one of the ones that they prioritized.

There are, you know, options and ways that we need to continue to monitor what the demand is. But for, you know, we are able to prioritize families who need that dual language program. And is the strong demand that you mentioned, is that particularly for pre-K or is it a mix of like families are in 3K and like what year?

The strong demand that I was talking about was for our dual language program specifically. Could be K through 12. It could be K through 12, but specifically thinking about pre-K. And we just for the first time opened up to 3K dual language programs this year. Oh, great. Where are those programs? We will have to get back to you on that.

All right. I will pass it to Councilmember Riley.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Deputy Chancellor, and to the panel that came out here today for testifying. We truly appreciate it. My question is going to be surrounded around program models and access. So the DOE offers the dual language and enhanced language support programs. The dual language programs teach English and target languages. So does the DOE and contracted early childhood programs— how many— excuse me, how many DOE and contracted early childhood programs currently offer dual language or enhanced language, and do you have that by borough, language, and seat count?

Thank you for that question. First, I'll talk a little bit about— we've been talking about the dual language piece and the enhanced language and how we think about that, and then I'll turn it over to Dr. Pembroke to provide some of the detail about the specific programs that we have. So dual language programs, we have 99 of those, and they're very specific of the different languages.

The enhanced language supports is a designation within MiSchools that indicates that a school is able to, you know, offer supports and resources, but in reality on the ground, we actually expect all schools to be able to do that. And so the enhanced language supports You know, we believe that all of the schools have the resources and the expectations to be able to meet any multilingual child that comes into the program.

So I will turn it over to Dr. Branch. You're going to take that question. I just wanted to also just offer a little bit more in terms of the explanation of the enhanced language supports because we see it on my schools. You know, I saw it even before I came to the division and always wondered what it really meant.

And what it truly means is that a family can go to a program and there's someone there who speaks their home language, right? That person could be a lead teacher, a teacher's assistant, it could be a custodial staff, it could be a secretary, any individual. It is not an instructional program, though. That's what's important to note so that it's not— similar or on the same, you know, continuum as dual language.

It's literally about language access. And what you just heard in terms of what D.C. Phillips shared is that that's the expectation of all of our programs. So not only enhanced language programs, but the expectation is that supports are being provided in a family's home language at each and every one of our programs. So that's actually expected. expanded beyond the enhanced language.

In terms of the breakdown, don't have it by district, but I can give you specifically how many programs in pre-K, 3K, and what the languages are. Okay. If that's helpful. Okay. So in terms of pre-K programs, we have 5 programs that support Mandarin Chinese exclusively. We have 1 program that supports Mandarin Chinese and Arabic. So you'll find both languages in that program.

We have 2 programs that support Chinese Mandarin and Spanish. Again, you'll find both in those programs. We have 2 programs, 2 French dual language programs, 1 Italian, 1 Korean, 1 Polish, 2 Russian, 1 program that has Russian and Spanish, and 77 Spanish dual language programs in pre-K. I'm sorry, this is all early childhood? All early childhood. The little ones.

Yes. For 3K, you know, we're very, very excited about the 2 new 3K programs that we opened this year. And right now the 3K programs, they support Russian, one, one supports Spanish. So those are the 2.

And how does the city determine which languages to prioritize when creating or expanding multilingual programs? Good afternoon. So we want to make it accessible to all families, right? So we prioritize based on the community demand. We prioritize based on seat availability. And we also consider what the geographic location of the needs are. Good. When we consider opening a dual language program, we take a look at those different factors to make a decision.

But ultimately, our goal is always to expand the dual language classroom so that all families have access to that type of model for their multilingual learners. And could you share any barriers that will prevent any families from accessing these programs that you've seen? Well, what we want to make sure that we consider are simplifying our families' access to language and language support.

So what we currently have in place now are opportunities for the application to be available in the 13 languages that support the 99% of students and the languages they speak at home. In addition to that, we consider what would be— what would be critical family-facing communications. So we have our internal unit that supports that work. Our interpretation and our translation unit helps to subsidize some of those resources for us, and we also have partner vendors that take care of that work for our CBOs and our family child care networks.

Chair, may I ask a few more? Thank you. I just wanted to go into workforce, if that's possible. So we all know that educators are needed within these specific departments so they could help educate our children. How many early childhood educators in the DOE and contracted programs are qualified to teach in or support each language used by enrolled children?

Okay, so in terms of just multilingual learners, again, in the Division of Early Childhood Education, all of our teachers are equipped to support multilingual learners because all of our kids are emerging language learners. But specifically for dual language, we have 108 teachers who are certified, right? And they are lead teachers in classrooms across our city. So 108 3K and pre-K dual language licensed teachers with the birth to 2 certificate, or they're on a pathway and very close to receiving the birth to 2 certification.

Okay. And lastly, you said everyone's equipped. So can you just explain that a little bit more? Is there professional development? Is there compensation for educators if they want to get a little bit more training? Can you just explain that a little bit more? Absolutely. So in early childhood education, we have a robust ecosystem of support, specifically in learning and partnerships.

That's one of the verticals, as well as capacity building and family engagement. We have what we call instructional coordinators, and they're actually— they're actual coaches that go into programs and they work with teachers side by side. So they're able to provide them specific feedback on the spot that they can utilize today, not next week, but actually today.

Yeah. And they're providing supports around literacy, but also around, you know, really utilizing the home language and how to have that come alive in the classroom on a day-to-day basis. We also have social workers who go into programs. Again, our staff, they are field-based and they support the social-emotional learning aspect. And help teachers to ensure that they're tapping into, you know, culturally and linguistically appropriate approaches each and every day in the classroom.

We even have what we call inclusion specialists, and their job is, on top of the layers of support that I just named, if we have programs where individuals are saying, I need a little bit more support, they are certified teachers who are certified in special education, or bilingual education, and they go in to ensure that there are inclusive practices so that everyone— when we say all, we mean all— will have access to the curriculum, have access to learning environment across our programs.

And of course, we have PL. We offer ongoing professional learning in person. We offer some sessions hybrid, some sessions online, but what I'm most proud of is really that job embedded, that on-the-ground support where you can get feedback automatically and improve your practice the very next day. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Councilmember. Sorry, I was, I was just going to add another piece to the requirement of professional learning based specific to multilingual learners.

So New York State Ed requires 15% of all the continuing teacher and leader professional learning to be focused on multilingual learners for any teacher or leader to maintain their certification. So that's one way in which we ensure every person who's certified to teach in the system has at least 15% of their PL going to that, and then any teacher who's either English as a New Language or bilingual certified, they're required 50% of that CTLE to be specific to multilingual learners.

So that's just another way for us to ensure that teachers are supported to support our really diverse, linguistically and culturally diverse populations. Thank you. Thank you.

I also want to acknowledge we've been joined by committee member Councilmember Gail Brewer and Councilmember Julie Won online. I'm going to ask a couple more questions and then pass it over to— oh no, not a lanternfly. Councilmember Brewer, save us. Goodness. Okay. I had a question about Somebody will save us. I had a question about families who want a seat in, let's say, an existing pre-K dual language program.

I guess, is there designated seats in the lottery for children for these programs whose primary language is a language other than English for these dual language programs? Is there like a certain amount of seats? So by design, dual language programs, those that specifically are teaching in that format, are meant to have 50% of children coming from a household that speaks the target language and 50% of children who are coming from a household that does not speak the target language.

And so in the admissions process, essentially 50% of the seats are held for each group, and so a family does indicate when they apply on MySchools whether or not they speak that language at home. Do you have a sense, are there instances where there are waiting lists for the 50% of those families who speak that language versus the 50% who don't?

Just as with any early childhood program, there may be waiting lists. When a family applies for 3K or pre-K, they can list essentially an unlimited number of programs on their application, and any program that they ranked higher than the program they are ultimately offered a spot at, they are automatically placed on the waitlist. A family may have ranked 5 dual language programs, for example, and gotten into their 4th choice, so they would then be on the waitlist for those 3 that they ranked higher.

Or similarly, a parent who ranked a mix of dual language and non-dual language programs, they would have any of the programs ranked higher than their admitted choice, they'd automatically be placed on a waitlist. Got it.

And do you all have a sense if there is— is there an exact amount of kindergarten through 5 seats or maybe kindergarten seats for that dual language, for the amount of dual language in the pre-K? For example, if there's 22 slots in dual language pre-K, is it expected that there will be 22 slots in kindergarten or potentially more but not less?

I'll just say as a value, I know the Deputy Chancellor mentioned this, when planning, we do look for opportunities to create continuity so that children can have an experience in K through 12 education that builds on their early childhood. I'll turn it to Dr. Garcia for that. Thank you for asking that. That's something that's really important to us. 44% of all students in K-12 report a home language other than English.

We do believe that when kids are just like you experienced, exposed to dual language multilingual education in the early years, being able to establish that foundation and continuing kindergarten is fundamental. We work really closely with the Division of Early Childhood Education on and the community on ensuring that we have a pattern to be able to grow the seats for students who are in pre-K in dual language programs and have them be able to continue in kindergarten.

And are there scenarios where families are not enrolled in an NYCPS pre-K program but in some kind of, kind of dual language or immersion program, and then they may not have a slot in kindergarten just because you're reserving those for the pre-K students? I just want to clarify, they are not explicitly reserved exactly for the reason you just said.

Every school has a different student population for pre-K versus kindergarten. There may be families who change schools between pre-K and kindergarten. There may be families who were in pre-K at a community-based program and are coming in for kindergarten. But the goal is to have sufficient capacity in kindergarten to be able to support Children who are articulating from pre-K to K, as well as children who may be coming from within the community and similarly have a language need.

Got it. And I think that the other piece is that once a child becomes— comes into kindergarten and goes through the formal identification process, if they are an English language learner, the parent comes in for a parent orientation, and they are entitled to choose between English as a new language, dual language, or transitional bilingual education. For kindergarten?

Starting kindergarten. So if the school doesn't offer it, they can request a transfer to a school nearby that does offer the program model that they prefer. Okay. Is that communicated to the families any sooner? It's communicated once the orientation happens. So it's the first 10 days of school generally. Okay. That's a little tough. It's a little, I mean, The idea that parents are engaging with that school leadership team well before orientation is ideal, but I feel like there are scenarios where parents walk into this and not realize that until once they've already made arrangements for their kid to go to that school.

Well, what's distinct for the pre-K students is that a school can start the identification process on June 1st of the year before. If a parent comes in and they register, they can start that orientation process, They fill out the form. How do they know to do that? It automatically happens. Like, all K-12 schools are trained to administer the home language identification survey to begin with, and then if, you know, a home language other than English is reported, then they administer the NYSETL, and then automatically from there they get the orientation and can choose.

I see. Okay, and do you all have a way of checking in with individual schools and school districts to make sure that that is Happening as early as June? Yeah, we have many ways. We do announce that in our P Weekly, which is the weekly email that goes to all principals when that window is open so they can begin identification.

Then we have systems and processes in place. Every school has a CEP, Comprehensive Education Plan. Within that plan, there's a language allocation policy. And there we request for schools to have a plan on how they're going to ensure the identification of students, including students who are coming from pre-K and entering kindergarten beginning June 1st. Okay, thank you.

Thank you for that. I'm going to pass it to Councilmember Brewer for her questions.

Thank you very much. One question. I've been listening on the, uh, online, so I heard all these great discussions. My question is, I have some who managed to get from early childhood all the way through middle school French, but not Russian. So in other words, they'd have early childhood Russian, then they have elementary, but not beyond that.

So is that really possible to continue the language? Because it's not possible in School District 3. So how do you make that happen? Or other languages, you know? I could speak to that. So that's something that We're really committed to— Committed in doing it too. And ensuring that there's continuity from pre-K to 12 and that students graduate with a New York State Seal of Biliteracy ultimately.

We work really closely with superintendents in the community. So for example, in a situation where we have a middle school and community is looking for a feeder, right, to go to high school, we work closely with superintendents. We have with superintendents and principals in the community. Our office specifically has been able to provide a school allocation memorandum over the past 4 years for the revitalization of bilingual programs, which includes a planning year for schools opening up a bilingual program, and we use the data to inform that.

That has been a very specific focus of ours. For example, we've been able to expand in District 15 this year, its continuity for Italian. We can now say we have pre-K, Italian, we have elementary Italian, and this year we'll have middle school Italian. That's just one example. Right? And so it's something, again, we look at the data, we look at the patterns, we take in community input, and then we work with superintendents and principals and then have them participate in our bilingual revitalization efforts, which means that the school gets professional learning for a year on how to plan for the program, on how to hire teachers, on curriculum, on all of the pieces that will lead to a sustainable program.

Because that is like a key piece, is a program that's going to open and it's going to stand the test of time, not, you know, close within a year or two. Okay. I mean, we'll keep working on the Russian then. My question also is, how do you have— I know you talked about the teachers and the workforce.

Do you have enough teachers in these different languages, or is there a shortage? Is that something that is able to be addressed, or is that— you've got so many different languages. I will just say broadly and then turn to my colleagues to speak to some of the particulars. We know that as we continue to expand access to early childhood education broadly and specifically to support more and more of our multilingual learners, we cannot do that without investing in the workforce.

And so as we continue to invest invest in workforce development for early childhood education. We need to continue both bringing multilingual educators into the pipeline and supporting those who are already in our system to get their bilingual extension or otherwise develop the skills to support multilingual learners. But I'll pass to my colleagues. So how are you doing that?

Are you calling the United Nations? That would be one. No, I'm serious. I mean, I think at a high level, we, as we think about you know, how we promote the jobs in early childhood education, doing outreach to diverse communities in New York City. We have so many multilingual speakers in New York City, so making sure that we are reaching them in the communities where they are, partnering with institutions of higher education who are serving a multilingual student population, as well as working with existing teachers in our in our early childhood and K-12 system who want to go back to school and earn their bilingual extension so that they can teach in a formally designated class.

We also, as my colleagues have mentioned, provide onsite coaching and professional development so that all teachers are equipped to support multilingual learners, whatever their own language skills might be.

Okay. And I will just add on to that, the intentional strategy as we are expanding and working with community-based providers and also family child care providers is bringing in educators who have very different linguistic assets and they're able to match their communities. That's a very intentional way of trying to ensure that we have educators who understand the multilingual backgrounds that our children are coming in with.

I'm always trying to get more parents to send their children to public school. So one of the things that you're great at is what you're talking about. What you're horrible at is telling people what you do. Horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible. So my suggestion would be, again, trying to think of ways— I'm not a charter school supporter, I'll be honest with you.

And so I'm trying to get more students to go to your school. So maybe you could do some information nicely laid out, not DOE lowdown. I'm not sure I understand the question. And be able to tell people, because all Americans should speak 2 languages, every single one. But the question is, you have to tell people that you're teaching 2 languages.

Because I have to tell you, if you ask the general public who doesn't have a child in the public schools, who's always complaining, they're going to say we do not have dual language or, you know, or anything. So when you have that material, could you let me know? Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Agreed.

Um, I wanted to ask about, um, just about very quickly about the, the dual language model. I know that you shared it's 50/50. Um, are there, are there other models of dual language implementation that you all are looking at, or is this— I know, does this seem tried and true? Is this on? Thank you for that question.

Within the early childhood program portfolios, our current model is dual language, but we're always, you know, thinking about ways that we could expand language access to families who, under the umbrella term of like bilingual education, thinking how that would look like for our littlest learners. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Um, I'm glad you're open. I know we've got some, um, folks here in, in the room that might have thoughts, so I hope you can stick around for the testimony.

Um, are there any requirements from, uh, NYCPS or the state about language instruction for early childhood education? Is there specific requirements? When thinking about what we value— oh, I'm sorry, sorry, go for it. When we're thinking about what we value most is ensuring that our teachers are equipped and prepared to support multilingual learners in the classroom. So specifically for early childhood education, all teachers are provided with the professional learning cycles around supporting that type of language instruction.

That language instruction is embedded in the day-to-day, the instructional core, right? So from the minute the child enters the classroom to the minute they leave, the instructional time that the teachers spend with the children are pretty much overloaded, right, with language strategies such as repeated read-alouds, translanguaging, you know, supporting the home language and embedding it into the instructional academic outcomes of the child for that day.

Other strategies that our teachers employ, just to kind of name a couple, would include gestures and Thinking about, like, how we could accelerate their vocabulary acquisition by labeling some of the discovery centers or areas in the child's home language or partner language if it is a dual language setting. For a monolingual setting, those same strategies transfer over to support the students who are multilingual and sitting in those programs too.

Did you have anything to say? Thank you. But in terms of a state requirement in early childhood education, so in 3K programs, pre-K programs, unlike the K-12 where we do have state mandates, they do not exist in early childhood education. However, in the Division of Early Childhood Education, it is a commitment of ours. So we, in our policy handbooks for our CBOs, for our pre-K centers, all of the policy handbooks, speaks to ensuring that we are culturally responsive, that we are honoring home language, and that everyone's responsibility is to really ensure that all multilingual learners are supported.

So the state may not, but the division absolutely.

Thank you, your flowers. And is there, just considering with the federal government's decisions on kind of like reining in, you know, executive order making English the primary language, which just sounds insane to me. What can we tell parents that want to enroll? And like Gayle says, as a supporter, we want more of our students to enroll in public education.

What can we tell them that feels more than like we have a commitment in our handbooks? I know that you guys— that it sounds like you're proving it day to day in schools, but what can we do to codify that more? How can we really— lean into that in a more concrete way for parents? I will just start by saying that no matter what stance our federal government takes, multilingual children will always be honored and valued in our early childhood system and our entire education system.

And we will always prioritize ensuring that they can show up and learn in both their home language and in whatever other languages they might be learning in school, and that we see multilingualism as an asset and a strength. I think this is in— there are many ways in which we can codify this in the ways that we as an administration talk about early childhood education and our goal of providing culturally competent settings for every child, whatever that may mean to their family.

As we continue to expand access to specific programming, really emphasizing and making clear to families, as we do today when they browse their options, for programs that they can learn in a variety of languages, continuing to support families when they apply for early childhood education programs to do so in whatever language they are most comfortable speaking. Families can apply to early childhood programs in over 200 languages and receive the support to do so today.

I think to Councilmember Brewer's point, we absolutely can continue to talk about multilingualism as an asset and to promote that, of course, to families whose children speak another language at home and would therefore really benefit from that model of instruction, but also to families like mine who do not speak another language at home and are opting into dual language programs because we see it as a value for our children to learn another language in a city like New York.

So in sort of both policy and in the ways we continue to talk about our programs, the way we engage with families, and the way we speak as a city about our work, we will continue to emphasize the asset that multilingualism is Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Yes, we agree. We will continue to make sure that teachers are supported in having linguistically representative programs, um, and to— and we will continue to expand options.

And to answer your question earlier about those 2 3K programs, they are— one is in District 15 that is a Spanish-speaking program. And the other is in District 31, which is Russian speaking. Wonderful. Thank you.

I have a follow-up there, but I want to just— does every existing elementary K through 5 dual language program, do they also, if they have a pre-K, I mean, they should have a pre-K, do they also offer pre-K dual language? Not every single one. Okay. I will say, not to, again, generalize from my own experience, but my children go to an elementary school that has dual language Spanish beginning in kindergarten, though there is no formal dual language in the 3K and pre-K, different school than I was at last year.

The school is emphasizing language exposure in the early childhood years, so there are ways in which children can be exposed in early childhood even if it is not a formal dual language program. Is there a plan to, if they have these dual language programs existing, is there a plan, and if we can't get there, what are some of those challenges?

But is there a plan to extend, yes, into pre-K and even into 3K? Yeah, we have, we can get you the data on exactly how many of the existing kindergarten dual language have pre-K dual language. And then the next piece that we have been collaborating collaborating really closely with, with Division of Early Childhood Education, is on examining the places that have kindergarten dual language and do not, and have pre-K, but it's not dual language, if there's a community interest and how we can increase continuity in that way.

So it's something that we're actively looking at that data and using that to inform where new programs may be needed.

I'm really encouraged by the 3K dual language programs that you just shared. I think as a parent who does speak more than one language at home, it is incredibly attractive to me to ensure that my child is exposed, right? And I think the transition— I'll just give you the example of my older daughter where we spoke Spanish at home.

She enrolled in a New York— an NYCPS 3K program, and it was wonderful for vocabulary, but no bueno for Español. It really felt like she lost a lot of that. Then we intentionally kept her there so that we could enroll her in pre-K. It felt like that was not happening across the district, in District 32, for example, but really in all of my council district.

I'm really interested in wanting to ensure that, yes, we expand getting all the things we need. I think the concern is obviously the pipeline for all things early childhood education, but obviously, especially if we're talking about immersion programs and dual language, there's a shortage. I think it's really important for us to really spread the word that this is a direction the city is moving in.

I don't know any parent whose enrolled their kid in dual language and regretted it, to be honest. I think there's so much value there. I hope that we can do it and I hope that we can really talk about investment to be able to expand. How are you all looking at expansion for dual language programs? I know that you shared the specific rubric, But just equity-wise, are there school districts in New York City right now that don't have a single dual language program?

If there is, how do you plan to expand? How are you all looking to continue to expand it? What do you need? First, I want to just say one thing in response to what you were just talking about in terms of the path for children to be able to articulate from program to program, and then I'll turn to my colleagues to talk a little about expansion, but do you want to just of course, highlight, obviously we're talking about schools and the continuity opportunity within schools.

We also know that so many of our community-based organizations and family childcare homes provide an incredibly rich multilingual experience for children. And for many families, that may be where they are comfortable with their child attending early childhood education for a variety of reasons, including language access. And we certainly want to help families understand those pathways as well, that they can learn in their home language in a community-based program or a family childcare setting and then articulate into kindergarten at their local elementary school.

So for families, the pathways may not necessarily mean staying in the same building, but certainly we want to make sure we are talking about all of our early childhood settings and the language opportunities within them. But I'll pass to my colleagues to talk a bit more about future expansion. All right, thank you. So, thinking about ways that we'd again could provide our families with more access, one of our current strategies is to convert certain classrooms into dual language programs.

So, what we're working towards with school leaders and districts is thinking about ways that we can invite, you know, schools that already have a dual language program to open up additional classrooms. But like my colleague Dr. Garcia suggested or shared, Our offices work closely together so that there is this more intentional focus and look on what the data suggests and what we can do to now meet those gaps, specifically around making sure that if there is going to be an elementary school down the street that has, you know, a dual language program in Italian, thinking about ways that the local preschools, pre-K centers, family networks can kind of like offer those programs too, so that when the child continues through their, you know, education career, they have that solid continuity and foundation around their partner language that they have been engaging in since they were smaller.

And what is the— I guess just to your point about, you know, encouraging schools to open up new classrooms for the potential of dual language, what is— what does that look like? I feel like my experience with the department regarding early childhood education, it feels like the data and the seat allotment don't match, in my opinion, in some of these districts.

And so how are you all looking, like what is the data that you're looking at? Like how are you able to justify that or rectify that? And are you, in these scenarios, are you asking, are you potentially thinking about additional seats or? or having those schools potentially move seats from existing programs and switch them over to dual language?

So we look at that data and think about, you know, this is a good problem to have, right? We've got the family demand, the seat numbers are what they are, and then the family demands are another sort of like data set. So again, thinking about ways that we can intentionally support and expand those programs, but at the core of that work is always gonna be around like family need and family, you know, requests.

And then thinking about what the supports would be like for that particular school, if there are going to be any needs around, you know, getting a certified bilingual teacher to teach that program. Those are the things that we're considering. And again, it's just more around factoring all of these different elements to make sure that when we do expand, it's intentional.

We don't want to expand for the sake of expanding. We want to make sure it's done well and it's done right and it's sustained for years to come. I mean, I understand it has to sort of feel like the perfect storm to have all of those things in motion. What have— has that garnered any success in opening up new classrooms?

The current strategy right now is to convert classrooms, and there are leaders who are 100%, like, excited about it. My team and I have been on the field. kind of just getting like the interest ideas, the surveys around like what schools and communities are already asking for. And to answer your question, yeah, leaders are completely open to that strategy.

But we haven't started, we haven't opened up a new classroom just yet. Not yet, no.

Okay. So you referenced some of these, some other local providers that might be able to provide potential 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds with some of these like multi-language experiences. I know that we have Joanne here from One World Project. I think I visited her site. If you haven't, D.C., you should. But it's really a really thoughtful and wonderful program. How are you all, as you're thinking about potential expansion, how are you all working with a group like that that is already kind of doing this work?

And is there communication when, for example, a parent goes to a school where this just doesn't exist, they really want it, or they're just not equipped necessarily? Are there referrals to some of these providers in those instances? That's a good question. What I love about bilingual education is it's an umbrella with different models. And one of the models that I know of that One World has is this Spanish immersion model, right?

So that's one model. Then we've got the dual language model. Then we've got transitional bilingual. Those are different types of ways that we support students But to answer your question, if we're thinking about expansion, then that also includes thinking about expanding the different type of models that we offer to our families too. And just to confirm, the only model right now is the existing one that we've been talking about?

Dual language. For dual language, yes. With the exception of One World, who's immersion. Well, yes. Okay, and on that, this will be my last question related to this topic. I know that, for example, in my district, there are a number of schools that offer offer immersion as well in other languages. But in every instance, parents are paying for this.

And I know that there is an interest for many parents of all different sorts of incomes. They want to enroll their child, they just can't afford it. How are you all thinking about expansion and ensuring equitable access to multilingual education in early childhood? childhood for all families? Because I feel like in some neighborhoods, this is where you'll see immersion programs that are usually not Spanish.

It's like French or Japanese. But how can we ensure equity? Because I think parents want to do that. More than anything, they want to be able to ensure that their child is learning another language because like Gail said, we should already be doing that. I think this is connected to just the focus on expanding childcare options on you know, addressing, of course, affordability broadly, but also making sure that we're providing programs that families want.

So we are intentional in working with community-based programs and looking for opportunities where if we are able, you know, to expand, expand, then we're able to work with more programs that might offer different types of dual language settings for young children. But I will just say, we know that there is a lot of demand and interest for different types of multilingual programs.

And as you can hear from many of our responses, this is a priority for the chancellor, for the mayor, and making sure that, you know, we're working together across as many different options and making sure that, you know, principals and schools and superintendents, if they hear of a need, that we're working together to offer programs that families— the families are looking for.

And if I could just add, just, we also are very intentional with understanding that the purpose of bilingual education programs are, again, to support the multilingual learner. Mm-hmm. And if we're thinking about expansion and what the community needs are, at the end of the day, it's what that community needs for the multilingual learner that lives in that community.

So if there's a significant population of students whose home language is Russian, then we're going to think about that when we're, you know, considering expansion. While, you know, monolingual learners benefit from those programs, multilingual learners depend on those programs, right? Mm-hmm. So that's definitely one of our, like, driving markers around what we are looking for when we're thinking about expansion. make that kind of like, you know— No, excellent.

Thank you. How does NYCPS ensure successful transition of a multi-language learner from pre-K to kindergarten, making sure there are no gaps in services? So I spoke a little bit about this before. It does begin with the identification process and the fact that Part 154 allows us to begin the identification process on June 1st is really a game changer.

That was not always the case because it opens that window to be able to bring in the family, do the home language survey, get to know the student, identify them, and if they are, for the parent to make their decision, to understand what they have at the school. Given that in kindergarten, we have the NYSETL, which does provide the language proficiency in English of the student, and that's a good foundational start to know where the child is in English proficiency.

We have a Spanish lab for all students who come in with home language of Spanish to get a sense of their Spanish language skills. Then we have additional assessments that are done at the school level to get to know students along with parent questionnaires to get to know the parent. Thank you. If a multi-language child is also identified as disabled and in need of special education services, how does NYCPS in and Mayor's Office of Child Care ensure that they are meeting both those needs?

And is it different when the child is 3 years old and eligible for EI compared to when the child is over 3 years old and eligible for special education services? I could speak to what that looks like for early childhood. New York City Public Schools never wants to have a family make the decision between having their child choose from a language support or supports with their special education needs, right?

So what we have for our early childhood students is if a child is referred for special education services, our CPSE team, our committee for preschool special education team, then would administer the assessment or the questionnaire in that child's home language. And the rationale behind that is to ensure that if there is going to be an evaluation that comes out of that, that that evaluation may or may not necessarily need to be in that child's home language.

So let's assume it is. If there is a cause for evaluation or a case for evaluation, the child's evaluation is done in that home language. And what happens is now we've got our own internal folks that go out and administer the evaluation or Or sometimes we partner with outside agencies to support that work. If the designation is that the child will now have an IEP, or an individualized education plan, then those bilingual services are embedded into that child's IEP.

Mm-hmm. And what our CPSE team does now is work to ensure that those programs and services are rendered, and they work around the clock to make sure that there's continuity in those services, too. Great, thank you. Thank you.

I want to ask a question about, I think we kind of touched on this, but how many applications does NYCPS receive for dual language programs? And do you have a breakdown of those applications by target language? Okay, so we do have a breakdown. So for 3K, we received 28 applicants for Russian, the language Russian, and 60 for Spanish.

So those are for the 2 3K programs that we opened this year. Now in terms of pre-K, 17 Arabic, 129 Chinese, 100 French, 47 Italian, 24 Korean, 34 Polish, 60 Russian, and 1,574 Spanish. Wow, that's a lot of demand. What are we doing? We're not moving fast enough. We're doing something right, right? For that too. In terms of pre-K?

Yes. Oh, in terms of pre-K, yes. We're starting and, you know, we're looking at the data to see where and when we can expand pre-K, but the demand is there. Yeah, I know, clearly. Families trust us and want their children in these programs, so we're excited about that. How long have these pre-K dual language programs been in existence?

Has it, like, I mean, it might all be different, but Has it been like in the last 5 years or so? There are, there are different, you know, there are programs that, you know, have been developed, I guess, you know, more recently, but the majority of them was definitely during the last expansion under the de Blasio administration.

Okay.

And are there instances where in some of these dual language early childhood programs You know, I think of like putting my parent hat on. I want my daughter to be in a dual language Spanish program. I apply in a pre-K program, and for some reason in the 3rd or 4th grade, it feels like it's falling apart. That's not what's happening.

I'm giving you an example. What does NYCPS do to support schools when maybe enrollment is dwindling? I have a school in my district that had a Japanese dual language program, and I think they ultimately stopped, like they just, the enrollment was very low. I don't know if the support was fully there, but how often does that happen where these schools at some point just, maybe the dual language program is not really a fit?

And what do you do beforehand to support those schools so that they do keep it? Yeah, you bring up a really, really important point. So one of the things, one of the reasons we called our our efforts for over the past few years, bilingual revitalization, was because we needed to take stock of what existed, how they were being supported, and making sure that we didn't have like a revolving door of programs opening and closing.

And so we invested in that. Programs close for various reasons. We have tight protocols in the K-12 space in which if a program is going to close, if a principal either says, we don't have the certified teacher, or our parents aren't interested, or we don't have enough students, they complete a protocol that, that's then submitted to superintendent and EL director for review and sign-off, and ultimately it comes to the Office of Multilingual Learners.

We do everything to try to save a program before closing it. it. Like, really. So— Do you have a sense of how many you've had to close? We have annual data. I don't have it right now, but we can get it for you. What I can say is that over the past few years, because of bilingual revitalization, we've been able to have net increases in programs because there was a time where we were opening up new programs, but programs were maybe closing as well.

But now we're at a place where we're really having a net increase. So programs are being sustained, the existing ones, because we've been able to amp up the professional learning. We've been able to ensure that if a teacher resigns, retires, that we have a pipeline and we're connecting principals with the right resources to get the teacher. And at the Office of Multilingual Learners, we've been really ramping up our efforts to increase access to home language arts materials, which is really critical to be able to develop— to deliver high-quality instructional— instruction.

And so now I can say that we're moving from bilingual revitalization efforts to boldly reimagining multilingual education, because we're at a place where we are increasing programs, and we have the mechanisms in place to really support schools in being able to sustain. I want to just piggyback off of my colleague and thinking about what I mentioned earlier, the different considerations when it comes down to how we expand a program, one of those being the geographic makeup.

So, if we were going to, you know, based on your example, this community once had this robust Japanese dual language program and now it's— you're feeling like it's dwindling, right? family need or the demand isn't there, we gotta consider our wonderful city neighborhoods change. And if what was predominantly a Japanese neighborhood now has evolved into something else, so then now we have to be responsive to that community and consider a dual language program that supports those families.

Well, I'll follow up about that individual school. Thank you. Is there a demand for early childhood educators that can provide instruction in a particular language that the city is currently unable to meet? Of the many languages that you highlighted, of what I think are the 3K and the pre-K programs, is there a shortage of teachers that can speak those languages?

Or that can instruct, excuse me, in those languages legally? Across our current portfolio of dual language programs, No. Okay. And the same applies for early childhood specifically? Well, specifically for early childhood education. So we're talking about our 2K, 3K, pre-K programs. Wonderful. Okay. There's no shortage. And is there— how do you feel about the— It's not specific to a specific language.

We do know that we have more demand than the classes that we have. However, it's not that there is a language that is being requested that We don't have. We don't have. Is there— okay. Okay. All right. That's good.

Do schools— and you spent some time kind of sharing with us how schools are supported when they take on a dual language program. Do schools receive any additional funding specifically? And if so, how much has been directly allocated to schools in this fiscal year? And more or less, what is the average per school? So, for supporting our dual language learners and our multi— our emergent multilingual learners, we believe, again, that's a core responsibility for our— any of our programs.

And so what they are using is their per-seat allocation, and they have the flexibility to design their programs in the way that best meets best meets the children and the families in their program. For early childhood, there's no sort of designated or specific funding for, you know, additional things for dual language learners. We are able to look at what the funding allocation is.

So for the dual language learning programs, it's about $30 million that is supporting the programs who are offering dual language learning. I do believe there is a additional funding on the K-12 side. Dr. Garcia, can you talk a little bit about that? I'm so sorry, before Dr. Garcia, just to clarify, there's no additional funding specific for a pre-K program or the 3K dual language?

No, it's based on the classrooms and their enrollment, not something specifically around the language. Have you found that schools need more funding for the dual language? We find that the schools are using— they have flexibility to support their instruction and their staffing. And it's something that we're continuing to monitor, listen to them, and see how we can be responsive.

In a K through 5 dual language school that wants a pre-K dual language, is the response from NYCPS, do you currently already have a teacher that can do this, or is there Are there scenarios where the school wants it and they don't have it and they need more funding? Dr. Branch, do you want to? Yeah, I can speak a little bit to that.

So we have a school allocation memorandum for bilingual revitalization. We just disseminated the one this year. About $1.3 million went to 193 schools. schools that are in the planning year and the first 5 years of program existence, so that we continue to provide some funding for them to be able to sustain. With that said, this is supplemental, right?

It's not going to completely help a school stand up a whole program. It is for professional learning for teachers and for administrators, for parental engagement to get parents in and informed about the program, and for supplemental materials like home language libraries, home language supplies. We do include our pre-K programs in that school allocation memorandum. So if a pre-K dual language program was to open, we would include it in this bilingual revitalization school allocation memorandum.

So this year, for example, any new program got $15,000. first, um, to support again— For any school? No, for new dual— for K-12, it's any bilingual program, so dual language or transitional bilingual. And specific to pre-K, any pre— new pre-K dual language bilingual education program. Okay, okay. I might have some follow-ups on, on that. Um, and beyond dual language programs, do schools receive— do schools receive any additional funding support for multi-language learners in pre-K and 3K classes?

The question, do schools receive any additional support for multi-language learners? Multi-language learners, not a language program, yeah. Right. So no, in pre-K and 3K programs, they are able to use the funding that they receive based on the enrollment and the age of the children. However they deem in order to meet the needs of their multilingual children. So they can use funding for translation, interpretation, for paying for staff who, you know, will be able to support their— the multilingual students' instruction, you know.

And so we work with them to provide those resources and support. Okay. And does the same apply to enhanced language support programs, do CBOs receive any additional funding to support multi-language learners? So there wouldn't be additional support for those programs because technically enhanced language supports, it's literally about the access, again, the language access for families. So it's not an instructional model.

So because it's not a model— It's just ensuring that someone in the building— Anyone in the building, correct. Correct. Okay. And there would be no addition in the event where a parent is there and no one speaks that language, you're saying you don't need additional support because they can use what, LanguageLine or something? Correct. There is an interpretation line that they can call to provide them with additional support.

Okay. And do you, have you found that there are any asks from schools and maybe like additional support or different support? Like, is there anything, and I know you've outlined specifically kind of what those existing supports look like, but have there been any schools that have engaged with you all on like, this isn't working, this is the way that we would want to be supported?

So not necessarily more funding, but like, we want to do this. Right, we do get requests for additional support in terms of like instructional support, right? In terms of like additional strategies to help support multilingual learners. And again, we're on the ground, so we're tailoring our coaching model to provide the just right support to the those programs.

So yes, and then we are able to adjust and ensure that programs get the just right support.

Okay. Thank you. I have a— I think we're almost done with questions, and so I'm excited to hear from the public. Just maybe, I think just 2 more questions. And I think you touched on it on some of the family child care networks that the majority of them speak another language. In some of these surveys, I see that Spanish, like the majority of them are speaking Spanish, for example.

How will the mayor's office tap into this resource to provide 2K, 3K, and pre-K multi-language education in Spanish? So as we expand— And are we going to compensate these people for this extra gift of exposure and immersion to other languages? Yes. So as we expand access to early care and education in the city, we see our family child care educators as absolutely essential to that expansion because we know it is a setting that families often choose and prefer, especially for their youngest children.

We know families often prefer family child care for a range of reasons, whether that's the intimacy of the program, the mixed age, the flexibility, and often it is for cultural and linguistic reasons. We know many parents feel comfortable knowing their child is in an environment that looks and feels like their home, whether that's the language exposure, the meals they're eating, or just the cultures and customs that are practiced in that program.

And so as we continue to expand access to 2K, family childcare educators are an absolutely critical part of that. We were thrilled this year with our first 2,000 2K seats to include a large number of family childcare homes in that expansion. And I'll turn to my colleagues, but we'll say that as we do that expansion work and as we do outreach to family childcare educators to make sure they, they know about the opportunity to participate.

It is critical, and we have been doing that, this outreach always with translation services directly in the languages that we know family child care educators are speaking, and by partnering with networks who do themselves have staff who speak the languages of the family child care providers in their communities. I agree. I would just add on to that, it is incredibly important to our strategy to make sure that family child care providers are a part of our early childhood system.

We know that that is their, you know, one of their many superpowers is being able to reflect the children in the communities around them. It was a very large part of our 2K plans. They are also offering 3K from their family child care homes. So that will continue to be a significant part of our strategy as we move forward.

Thank you. I think, I mean, I know folks in my community who intentionally will enroll their child in a family child care network because they want to expose their children to Spanish, for example. And so I think we're all saying the words that say we value them, and I just hope that we can make tangible efforts to really show them that and to include them in the further expansion process, because I think they deserve to really feel that value.

And my last question, and I know, Emmy, you responded on kind of the— our city's commitment to doing what we do best, which is continuing to really push for diversity and not necessarily what the federal government wants us to do. But just lastly on that, is there any special efforts that NYCPS or Mayor's Office of Child Care are taking to protect multilanguage multilingual students and family data, special efforts to protect their data from any kind of federal oversight?

I'll just again reiterate the sort of broad value statement and then to my colleagues to talk about the particular data. But, you know, whether it is this latest policy proposal from the federal government around Head Start, some of the other policy statements the federal government has made around English and the stance towards immigrant students, we in New York City will always protect our immigrant students, our multilingual students, and they will always be safe in our education system.

That speaks to both their ability to be themselves, to speak their language, to learn in the language that they speak at home, and to have their information protected and kept safe. But I'll turn to some of my colleagues on the specific policies. Thank you. In my previous role as principal, what you just described is like a very real situation.

Like, they happen, right? But I do want to emphasize that what New York City Public Schools educators, from the crossing guard to, you know, the chancellor, our priority is to ensure that our students' privacy is protected and then we support the families that, you know, they come from. What New York City Public Schools has offered as specific guidance for what to do in that very real situation are clearly outlined as far as, like, what the protocols are when dealing with, like, non-local law enforcement or something like that.

In addition to that, though, a lot of the language data that we collect for the purpose of instruction— Mm-hmm. And meeting those instructional needs, is not correlated or used for identifying a child's immigration status. And with also this understanding that a multilingual learner may not be an immigrant, and an immigrant may not be a multilingual learner too, right?

Mm-hmm. So thinking about just the whole, like, ethos of, like, what that means for immigrant families. What also governs our day-to-day practices is the idea of, like, making sure that we are honoring and following the FERPA laws to the T. So those 3 different kind of, like, things that we consider when we're protecting our students is what kind of guides our day-to-day practice.

And if for some reason there's some kind of, like, back and forth engagement, we are advised, directed to deal with or get our next steps from legal counsel. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Thank you all so much. I am done with my questions. I just want to make a final plug to really let us know how we can help collaborate. I think it's such a value, as I think we've all emphasized here today. We want to make sure that not only are we kind of emphasizing this day to day for the existing programs, but sending a message to parents and all interested parents of NYCPS that this is something that can be— is in their local school district that we are investing in.

Thank you. and that we do want to expand. Again, I think it makes it very attractive to parents, and obviously our goal is to make sure that parents are sending their kids to our public schools. So thank you all so much. And now I want to open the hearing for public testimony. I remind members of the public that this is a government proceeding and that decorum shall be observed at all times.

As such, members of the public shall remain silent at all times. The witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify. No video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table. Further, members of the public may not present audio or video recordings as testimony, but may submit transcripts of such recordings to the sergeant-at-arms for inclusion, inclusion in the hearing record.

If you wish to speak at today's hearing, please fill out an appearance slip with the sergeant-at-arms and wait to be recognized. When recognized, you will have 2 minutes to speak on today's oversight topic and/or legislation. Thank you. If you have a written statement or additional written testimony you wish to submit for the record, please provide a copy of that testimony to the sergeant-at-arms.

You may also email written testimony to testimony@council.nyc.gov within 72 hours of this hearing. Audio and video recordings will not be accepted. First panel. Okay. First panel by themselves. themselves for right now is Emma Gossett from, uh, IBO, from NYC Independent Budget Office. Thank you. Hi. Whenever you're ready. Great.

Good morning, Chair Gutierrez and members of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education. I am Emma Gossett, lead budget and policy analyst at the New York City Independent Budget Office. IBO is a nonpartisan independent government agency mandated by the New York City Charter whose mission is to enhance public understanding of New York City's budget, public policy, and economy. through independent analysis.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify at this hearing. IBO has submitted a public comment to the federal government on proposed rule changes to Head Start programs. In my testimony, I will discuss potential impacts of these proposed changes as well as share information on multi-language learners in early childhood education programs operated or contracted by New York City Public Schools.

Head Start is a federally funded early childhood education program. It serves children birth through 5 as well as pregnant people. Families are eligible if their income is at or below the federal poverty guidelines, or if they're experiencing homelessness, are in foster care, or are receiving public benefits. IBO's comment to the Federal Register expresses serious concerns and urges the withdrawal of the proposal.

IBO is concerned that the proposed— sorry, proposed regulation would introduce uncertainty and undermine implementation of Head Start programs that are critical to New York City families. In addition to providing child care, these programs increase families' access to resources that are crucial to their ability to afford and remain in New York City. city, including alleviation from food insecurity and increased access to dental, physical, and mental health care, as well as job training programs.

Over the past few years, New York City's Head Start programs have withstood major changes, including the closure of the regional office in New York. Prior to 2025, New York City Public Schools served as the grant recipient for approximately 30% of Head Start programs in the city, but their grant was not renewed, and they will no longer oversee Head Start programs.

In the 2024-2025 school year, The 150 New York City Head Start programs served 18,000 children, including 900 homeless students, over 600 students with IEPs, and approximately 30 foster children, as well as over 580 pregnant women. These programs are run by highly trained staff and volunteers who include over 1,400 staff members and over 800 parent volunteers. There are also other positions that employ New York City residents, which include home visitors and evaluators.

I will now highlight a couple of the proposed changes. First, HHS would require all Head Start programs going forward to be taught in English and only English. Head Start programs serve students who speak many languages, and its staff reflect this language diversity. Additionally, families benefit from Head Start's language programming. In 2024-2025, 73%, or 14,000, of New York City's enrolled Head Start students were dual language learners.

Students were equally as likely to speak English at home as they were likely to speak Spanish at home. About a quarter of Head Start staff spoke Spanish, and 35% of staff were proficient in a language other than English. And over 400 New York City families participated in an ESL training over the course of the year. IBO supports the continuation of student language access and urges HHS to reconsider rescinding these— to rescind these requirements.

Secondly, there are a set of proposed changes that would remove requirements for parent engagement and parent committees. Head Start programs rely heavily on parent engagement and parent volunteers. In the '24-'25 school year, Head Start programs served over 4,000 families, and single-family parent households represented just under half of those families. New York City programs also hosted over 800 parent volunteers.

Parent volunteering serves as a crucial touchpoint not only to programs but to families, particularly those with limited supports. Parents who volunteer have opportunities for career development through structured coaching. IBO supports the continuation of parent committees and the continuation of strong parental engagement and urges HHS to reconsider rescinding these requirements. A third set of rules that IBO highlighted in our test— in our comment would impact data and reporting and potentially constrain researchers' abilities to study Head Start's impacts and compare data before and after those changes take place.

IBO strongly supports comprehensive, transparent data practices and supports the continued collection of data measurements. Measurements. Lastly, I will speak about multi-language learners within New York City Public Schools early childhood programs. Of the approximately 40,000 3K students and 60,000 pre-K students who were enrolled in a New York City Public Schools operated or contracted program, 31% of 3K students and 34% of pre-K students spoke a language other than English at home.

Families served by those programs spoke over 140 different languages, but the 5 most common for both grades were Spanish, whose speakers made up 18% of all 3K and pre-K programs, followed by Chinese languages, Bengali, Russian, and Arabic. If proposed rule changes to Head Start are finalized, the families of New York City's multi-language learners may look to NYCPS for programs that support language diversity and access.

NYCPS has an opportunity now to ensure there are sufficient resources for enrolled multi-language learners, as well as to build new supports for future students. Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much, Emma. And this is a really thorough and thoughtful testimony. I guess what— I don't know if we heard directly from NYCPS on this specific Head Start changes, but do you know of any of these conversations or plans that are in motion potentially considering— I mean, this This is the whole purpose of the hearing today, really, is to understand the families, the student population, and to identify how we can better serve or identify holes.

But have some of these conversations started happening? Or, I mean, I think the 2-3K classrooms are great, but my God, it's 2-3K classrooms, right? What can we be doing or what has started? Yeah, I think in terms of Head Start, The changes aren't finalized, so the proposed rules public comments are accepted until October 6th for anyone interested.

And so I think once, if those are adopted and if those regulations come into effect, they may impact the number of students who are seeking dual language programs, but I don't think that there are any currently because those changes aren't in place yet. Okay, and do you, I mean, do you anticipate the same for just multi-language learners and, you know, if they do go into effect, they might be leaning on an NYCPS program?

Yeah, I think if they're like, if there are Head Start programs that stop using other languages, those families may look not only to NYCPS but also to private programs if they can afford them, or family members who could care for them. And I think language is certainly a strength of Head Start. 73% of students speak another language in a Head Start program, which is, I mean, even higher than NYCPS.

So I think it's definitely an important part of the program, and there are certain— there are certainly concerns. Sure. And you mentioned the deadline for public comment is on the 6th. Can you just share on the record where people can share their public comment? Absolutely. On the Federal Register, if you look up— sorry, proposed changes to Head Start, you'll be able to find it.

Oh dear. Well, I encourage everyone to submit a testimony, and thank you again Thank you so much for testifying today. Thank you. Have a great day.

You too. For our next panel, I want to call up Abigail Leonard, Raquel Gramilla, Karen Rogel— my apologies if I'm mispronouncing— Albania Jimenez, and Judy Blumenthal. And, huh? Anybody can start when you all are ready. Okay, you can start and just work your way down. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Gutierrez and colleagues, for convening this hearing. New York is a sanctuary city. Our streets are filled with people speaking many languages, and so are our classrooms. But what happens before those children begin to receive formal instruction? I'm Karen Rogell, and I'm here representing Cities First Readers. The 18 partners of Cities First Readers deliver some of the most effective effective programs around to support multi-language learners.

During the critical period from birth through 5, that's the same timeframe when children's brain grows 90% of its adult capacity, and that's the best time to engage a child with stimulation and experiences that lay the foundation for early literacy. So how does CFR support multi-language learners and their families on the path to school readiness? We focus on play and joy.

We provide tools for parents to create safe and stable nurturing relationships. And that's what the American Academy of Pediatrics calls relational help. And we also deliver free, high-quality, culturally relevant early learning programming. Cities First Readers' approach is an antithesis of proposed changes at the federal level that would, if implemented, require instruction at Head Start programs to be provided only in English.

We value the languages and cultures of multilanguage learners. learners and that bring to New York City, and our programming supports them. So in closing, I want to leave you with 2 thoughts. This is a real and powerful impact that comes from working together to support families with early childhood multi-language learners. CFR Partners operates in a truly collaborative fashion.

So I invite you to come see this for yourself by attending our quarterly meetings or any programs that we have coming. CFR is reaching out to non-traditional settings and establishing relationships with partners who are not conventionally considered educational— clinics, hospitals, healthcare providers, WIC centers, WIC offices, ACS Family Enrichment Centers. Early literacy supports must be a part of holistic process supporting growth, especially for our multi-language learners.

Thank you.

Um, I think I— so good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez and members of the subcommittee. My name is Albania Jimenez, and I'm here on behalf of Literacy in Community, LINC. We work with children birth to 5, their families, and the educators and community partners who support them. LINC is a facilitating agency for Cities First Readers and Upper Manhattan Early Childhood Connect.

A child's home language is a foundation for learning. When a caregiver sings to a baby, tells a story, or talks through the day in the language they know best, that child is building language connection, connection, and a sense of belonging. Families should never feel they must stop using their home language to help their child learn English. I just want to be specific on that.

This November, LINCS plans to launch Supporting Multilingual Homes, a workshop series designed to help families build on every interaction, nurture their home languages, and share what they know about their children with educators. Families cannot do this alone. Early childhood educators need practical training to learn about each child's languages, invite meaningful conversation, support home languages development, and intentionally build English skills.

Families also need welcoming programs and resources they can use in the languages they speak. We ask the Council to invest in family centers, early literacy programs and professional learning for educators who serve multilingual children. Let's start before kindergarten and build on the strengths children and families already bring. Thank you.

Thank you, Armenia. Do I start? Okay. Hi, good afternoon. Hello, Ms. Gutierrez. I seen you in the neighborhood. I'm from Williamsburg. I saw your address. Yes. And, um, I, um, I'm the public, so this is like very new. I never did this before. So welcome, everyone clap for her, please. That doesn't go into her time. Okay.

I would like to address 2 topics: dual language daycare and music programs in daycare And I say music because music also is like a second language. Dual language daycare. All daycares are very necessary part of our community. In order for parents to work and provide for their families, they need a safe place for their children. Daycares provide enriched programs for children to play, socialize, and learn.

Our daycares should not have to struggle for funding. Staff members like the staff members at Nuestros Niños, which is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is a dual language daycare. They had teachers there that were not getting paid due to lack of funding, but still those teachers showed up. As a grandmother, I'm grateful to Nuestros Niños Daycare for providing my granddaughter with a dual language program.

As a former educator myself, and I also was with bilingual— I was early childhood with a bilingual extension, but I'm retired. I've been exposed to the research indicating that knowing 2 languages is not only helpful for learning about other cultures, but it's also beneficial to cognitive learning. In this day and age, anything that can improve overall learning is an asset.

Dual language programs in our daycares give our children an advantage. Please maintain dual language programs in our daycares. Also, I want to personally thank Nuestros Niños from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on South 5th Street for their dedication to our children, because these were teachers that came in when they were not getting paid. And hopefully that was settled. As far as music programs in the daycare classes, I understand many private daycare centers have a music program, whereas a musician usually from a nonprofit company will come into the classes and do an activity with the children.

It would be nice to see this for our children as well in the public settings. It's not— and it's not that costly. And our children would enjoy and benefit from having a music program such as described. The program to be done could be done routinely on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. Why should our children get less than those children attending expensive private daycares?

Please maintain and increase Funding for our daycares and fund our future and give our children as much advantage as possible. Thank you.

Thank you so much for testifying. You did great, and I didn't pay her to come here and represent nuestros niños. It's so good that they hear it firsthand. Yeah, you've always been very present in the neighborhood. Thank you. And listen, the gentleman right behind you helped nuestros niños a lot in this last cycle. So thank you. Next.

Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez and members of the subcommittee. My name is Judy Blumenthal, and I am the pedagogic director of Early Starters USA. We run early childhood safe spaces in 4 of the 5 boroughs for young children and caregivers, including newly arrived families living in New York City shelters. Through play, consistent relationships, and trauma-informed care, our educators help children feel safe.

Thank you. Safe, learn, and build resilience, supporting their school readiness. We also train mothers from the communities we serve to work in our spaces and pursue careers in early childhood education. Many of the children in our spaces only speak Spanish at home. When a young child enters a new setting, hearing a familiar language helps them feel safe, connect with an educator, and express what they need.

But language carries more than words. It carries a family's story, traditions, and ways of caring for one another. When we speak with children and families in their home language, we learn what comforts a child, what they enjoy, and what matters to their family. We can bring that understanding into our work and show the children that their culture and heritage are welcomed and respected.

Parents can ask questions and take part in their child's learning. Children can build confidence in their home language while they begin to learn English. Chair Gutierrez, thank you for recognizing the importance of home language support in Resolution 650. We fully support the resolution's opposition to the proposed English-only requirement for Head Start. What you describe is what we see in our spaces.

Children learn best when their home language is valued, and we appreciate that none of this is new to you, Madam Chair, and that you emphasize and understand this issue better than most, being a bilingual mother yourself. Programs Programs need multilingual educators, interpretation for families, and training that helps staff support young children across languages and culture. Community organizations that already have trusted relationships with families can help the city reach children who might otherwise be missed.

We urge the council and Mayor Momdani to invest in community-based programs like ours that reach multilingual young children and their families, including families living in shelters. Every child deserves to be welcomed in a language they understand, with their culture and heritage respected. Every parent deserves to be a full partner in their child's early learning. Thank you. Thank you, Judy.

Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez and members of the subcommittee. My name is Abigail Leonard, and I am policy and communications analyst at Children's Aid. Children's Aid operates a comprehensive early childhood system across 9 sites in Harlem, Washington Heights, the Bronx, and Staten Island, serving 800 children and families annually. Within that system, our Head Start and Early Head Start programs serve roughly 500 children and families through center-based and home-based services at 8 of our sites.

As a Head Start provider, we know multilingual support is not an optional addition to early education. It is integral to the comprehensive family-centered Head Start model. Children's Aid programs use a planned language approach to support dual language and bilingual Our policy recognizes bilingualism and biliteracy as strengths and supports English acquisition alongside continued development of a child's home language.

When educators do not speak every language represented in a classroom, they use culturally and linguistically appropriate materials and evidence-based strategies to support learning. These practices are especially important in Head Start's family-centered model, but they also benefit children across the city's early childhood programs. A child learning English may understand a concept, but be unable to demonstrate that understanding in English.

Supporting their home language helps children participate, communicate, and build the foundation needed to acquire English. It also helps staff distinguish between language differences and developmental concerns so children can receive appropriate support. For these reasons, Children's Aid strongly supports Resolution 650 and its comments on the proposed federal rule. The proposed rule would generally require Head Start education to be conducted solely in English.

This would take essential tools away from Head Start educators and make it more difficult for providers to fulfill their statutory requirement under the Head Start Act to accommodate children learning English, prepare staff to meet their needs, and communicate with parents in a language they understand. We urge the council to adopt Resolution 650, call on the federal government to withdraw the English-only requirement, and continue strengthening access to multilingual early childhood education across New York City.

We will also be submitting comments and would be happy to provide them to the council. Thank you. Thank you all so much.

I have a couple questions, um, and thank you all, um, our friends over at LINC, for consistently, uh, showing up to these hearings, but also I think just doing the work that you highlighted in your testimony, which is providing joy and making that connection for families. I think everything about the way that you operate is welcoming and encourages families coming to speak in their language, in whatever language they speak at home.

It's just about getting kids excited about reading and speaking. I know the council funds the City's First Readers, so shout out to the council members before us and certainly Speaker Menin who continues to support us in funding it. What is a dream scenario for the providers where you all are doing things, we're all applauding, but you're unfortunately not able to do it unilaterally across the city?

Kind of what is the dream scenario and what do you need to make that happen? Uh, so much, but, um, we will also— we would like to invest in tech, um, because some of our website is so very well, um, if you go in there and just put your child's, um, age, um, in the community they are from, it gives them programs.

But a lot of the partners do not have the support. We manually put it in, Very quickly, just talk about the partners that you're referring to. So the libraries automatically can— it gets automatically updated because of the system they have. And so does LINC. We started using Airtable, but some of the smaller partners do not have access to that technology.

So the website cannot be updated automatically. We would have to like put it in. Another thing would be just more access to books and multi-language books. We work with 4 languages now, but as you know, New York City has one of the most diverse— What are the languages? So right now the languages we work with are Spanish, English, Bengali, and Mandarin.

And one of the partners is already working with Arabic and Russian, but there are so many other, like, African languages or other languages that we would like to be able to provide materials and books in, and that alone is also expensive, the print and the ordering of books. And just to confirm, at this point, you are not necessarily— you're not partners necessarily with NYCPS, like formal partners, correct?

No, we are not. We are— I know you've spoken to Shari, so she's working with the New York City Reads Together. That's what DC is doing. Let me hear it. Oh, yeah. So New York City Reads Together, I know they are trying to incorporate the early childhood piece of it. So we are working with them. They're trying to work with the City's First Readers model.

Excellent.

Well, I supported, and I think so many of our colleagues. We were joined briefly by Chair Dinowitz, who as well has been supporting this initiative for a long time. Ms. Raquel, you said in your testimony that you were retired. There is nothing about you today that sounds retired in that testimony. But I do love that you highlighted music as a second As a second language, what are are there specific is there a specific program that you're speaking of?

And and did you work in Westeros Niños or or you are you just know them from the neighborhood? I worked at PS 250, which is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And no, I didn't work. My granddaughter goes to Nuestros Niños, but she had gone to a private daycare, and they used to have a music. And I understand that there are other private daycare programs. where they have the music teacher come in and do like a weekly or biweekly or monthly activity.

And, you know, with the public— in the public sector, you know, we can't do that. It's kind of expensive. Teachers aren't even getting paid, so we can't get, you know— Sure. You know, hopefully things can get resolved. So— Okay. Thank you. Well, thank you, and you're welcome back anytime. Thank you. Thank you so much. That was beautiful.

Thank you.

And then my question for you, Judy, thank you for your testimony. I guess my question to you, just hearing from the admin, was there anything that you didn't hear that you feel like were not just based on the expansion potentially or how we need to show up for families? Was there something that you didn't hear that you wish you would have heard or something that you love that you heard?

Accessibility is certainly something that we run into. Our spaces are trauma-informed spaces for newly arrived families to the city. These families are— they will stay with us until they feel that they and their child are ready to move into the New York City programs, but like their understanding of the system of how to apply and how to navigate those programs and get into those programs is not very straightforward for them.

And that's speaking for the DOE as well as Head Start. In terms of other things that— Can I ask, when they feel like it's not accessible, is it specifically just a language barrier or just like, what does this all mean? Because obviously they're coming from different countries. They don't do things the same way. I think it's a language barrier.

I think there's also, you know, a level of a bureaucracy barrier, that's therefore it. Sure. A lot of them are also, you know, in the political climate, feeling very hesitant to give information like their zip code and stuff like this. So those are, those tend to be the things that we run into when it comes to when we try to help them integrate into New York City spaces.

In terms of, I'd say maybe Something else that we'd love to see more of is, well, we would love it if we could have more collaboration with the administration because we have begun a workforce development program with our mothers and with our staff to help them find work in early childhood. We're currently partnered with CUNY and with Bank Street College of Education.

The mothers and the staff get a little brief introduction into childhood development. And then we have 5 slots with CUNY to have an apprenticeship with a program in the city that they can get additional training with. And we'd love to— 5 slots? Yes. Yeah, 5 slots. So we'd love to be able to help provide those multilingual— Is that the largest need for, or not need, but Is that one of the larger interests for people at your sites wanting to pursue a career in early childhood education?

We've seen a great interest from it, yeah. We've seen a fair amount of mothers want to sign up and our maestras, who are our staff, they tend to, you know, want to see how far they can go in early childhood. So yeah, that interest is there. And, you know, if they need multi-language learners in early childhood, please reach out to us.

We need it. We absolutely need it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is really cool.

Well, the last budget, the administration and now the council's been able to fund, I think, close to $3 million, $2.5 million to support this CUNY program. So we'll make sure to make that connection. It would be great to really focus on that. Awesome. Thank you.

And then Abigail, thank you. And thank you so much for your testimony. My only question to you is, and I thank you for the support of the resolution, Is there also, is there something that you didn't hear today that you wish you would have heard from the admin? I mean, we greatly appreciate what the admin is doing for multilanguage learners and greatly appreciate the council making the point of where we can go further.

As a Head Start provider, though we currently, as was mentioned before, NYCPS doesn't provide Head Start programs at this point. because of the contract non-renewal. We want to make sure that Head Start programs are a partner in the expansion of early education. Yeah. And especially as a program that is federally funded, there is a great incentive to being able to partner with our early educators in seeking universal childcare expansion.

So we want to make sure that that is, you know, a central part of when we're considering what expanding childcare looks like. I think also that the point made about being able to distinguish between developmental concerns and language barriers is a point that we really, you know, we think a lot about at Head Start as a comprehensive services model.

We want to make sure that there's prioritization for children with learning disabilities and other disabilities, but also there is a big difference between a child unable to respond in a language that is not their native language and them struggling to be able to reach those developmental goals. So I think that that is a point that we are very concerned about for other provisions in the rule as well.

But I think we want to make sure that that's a point that's emphasized. Excellent. Yes, thank you.

Well, thank you all so much for testifying today. I want to call up for our next panel Betty Baez-Melo and Joanne Derwin. Okay, is anyone else here that hasn't signed up to testify? If you are, please approach the sergeant-at-arms. Yes. Great, thank you.

Thank you for the chance to discuss the importance of supporting emergent multilingual learners and their families across the city's early childhood education programs. My name is Betty Baez Melo. I'm an attorney and the director of early childhood education at Advocates for Children of New York. We appreciate that the city has committed to expanding early childhood care and education programs.

As New York City Public Schools continues to grow 2K and strengthen existing programs like 3K and pre-K, it is crucial to support the thousands of young children and families in New York City who speak a language other than English in their home. Among other the city should conduct more robust and targeted outreach in multiple languages to immigrant communities to encourage families to apply to 2K, 3K, and pre-K, helping ensure that families get the hands-on support and information they need to navigate the complicated application and registration processes.

Provide detailed information in the MySchools directories for families looking for programs that offer instruction and support in their home language, including specifying what enhanced language support supports are available at each program and what that entails. Increase efforts to ensure programs are using translation and interpretation tools to communicate with families in their preferred languages, and invest in additional dual language pre-K programs and explore ways to age them down so that more children can receive bilingual instruction.

The city must also ensure that it is meeting its legal obligation to evaluate and serve young children with developmental delays or disabilities who speak languages other than English. Only about a third of preschoolers with disabilities receive their mandated bilingual programs and services. According to data from New York City Public Schools, of the about 4,000 preschoolers who had a right to instruction and services in a language other than English during the 2024-2025 school year, 65% did not receive the bilingual program and services they had a right to receive.

So as the city continues to make investments in early childhood education and considers ways to expand the workforce to create an early childhood education pipeline, it is crucial to address the need for bilingual evaluators, special education teachers, and service providers to meet the need of emerging multilingual learners with disabilities. AFC also supports Resolution 650, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Thank you, Betty. Joanne?

Yeah, thanks so much for having me today. My name is Joanne Derwin, and I'm the executive director of One World Project. We're a Spanish immersion a community center based in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. We were founded in 2012, really started because I couldn't find a Spanish immersion program for my daughter, and I just finished working at the Ford Foundation, and I started an organization that built collaboration between progressive business, labor, and community.

And I was able to use my knowledge in nonprofit development to start a school. So, I just wanted to emphasize how important it is to support multilingual learners. At One World Project, the greatest challenge for us has about— been about funding. So, to respond to some of what the administration shared, The— our current universal pre-K contract every year leaves us with a deficit of $120,000.

It's incredibly hard to offer a high-quality universal pre-K program in New York City with the funding that is allocated by the Department of Education. The Department of Education does not provide our teachers with what they would earn out public school. It's about $25,000 per teacher in our school, so we have to make up that difference by fundraising.

So on October 18th, for example, we're going to make upcycled musical instruments and have a big waffle breakfast, and everyone is making a donation to participate. And that's how we're doing it, um, little by little, trying to build enough enough funds so that we can continue to offer a high-quality universal pre-K. So, it's really frustrating to hear that those funds aren't available.

And just to close, we were offered a 3K spot, and we would have loved to be able to participate. That happened a couple years ago, but it's impossible to sustain a school by signing another deficit So, I encourage the Department of Education to pay community-based organizations what it costs to run a high-quality program, and I really want to thank Advocates for Children, which has been incredibly important to work with our families to secure providers who offer services in Spanish.

It's incredibly hard to find speech therapists physical therapists, occupational therapists, for example, who are able to speak Spanish to the children who are participating in our program. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Joanne. Um, I do have a couple of questions. First, Joanne, I want to thank you for, for coming because you left your business to come and testify. Um, and I don't know if you were in the room, but I encouraged our new Deputy Chancellor to visit and to meet. I think what I saw on my site visit was just the best example of, like, a director who cares, who cares, teachers who care, educators who care, and parents who, like, know a really good thing when they see it.

Yeah, absolutely. And you had raised the challenge it is to participate, that you want to be able to open it up to all kids who need it. And so I second so much of what you raised about what the city should be doing to really compensate folks who want to get into early childhood education. It's very hard to promote a universal childcare program when we currently don't have enough early childhood education teachers to fill those roles or to inspire people to want to pursue a career in this sector if they don't know that they're going to be compensated.

So thank you so much. I also just want to highlight for everybody, you operate a wonderful apprenticeship program as well. as well, which I think is— I think we should be investing more in that with our CBOs because I think it's really special. So no question, just my love. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

I did have a question for you, Betty, and thank you for your testimony. It's disheartening to hear that there's still such a large population of families with preschoolers with disabilities that are just not receiving the services. And I know that they exist. exist. So I'm having a hard time reconciling like why the number is so large. What do you think, what do you think they, what do we need to do?

What needs to happen? What does outreach and communication need to look like for that to happen? Yeah, I think the main recommendation we're making today specific to children who need bilingual special education supports and services is really growing that pipeline and identifying the providers as we've heard, it is really challenging for families to get bilingual supports like speech therapy in Spanish, or for children who have more complex needs to get a special education classroom that— where they're learning in Spanish or their target language.

And so really think that we need to increase efforts across the board to get special education teachers and service providers, but especially ones that are able to provide bilingual supports. And including for evaluations. Unfortunately, we hear from families who wait weeks and months to secure an evaluation. We recently heard from a family who's been waiting since April because their child needs to be evaluated.

This is a special education evaluation? Yes. Okay. And another language, in Bengali? In Bengali specifically. Oh boy. Which is— can we follow up? Are they still waiting? We are in contact with the family. We are assisting. Oh no. Okay, no, let's, um, let me know. But I feel Yes, you are in the know. Okay, she's in the know.

Okay, wonderful.

Well, thank you. Thank you both so much for testifying. Do we have anyone online? I want to switch over to virtual. We have Rebecca Schneider Kaplan signed up. Are they on? You may begin.

Okay. I think we can close out. Once again, I want to thank everybody. Thank you to the admin for staying. Welcome, D.C., to your first hearing. It's a great vibe here. Please come back. And thank you to the Mayor's Office of Child Care. And of course, thank you to our awesome advocates for their testimony. And we look forward to the next hearing this month, seeing you all very soon, which is next week on the 7th.

No, October, right? Yeah. Why do you look at me like it's not? Okay. Next week? Yeah. Thank you.