Youth Justice

  • Child Poverty

    CDF-NY Children's Sabbaths ® 2021 Call to Action

    On this 30th Annual National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths ® Celebration, the Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) urges you to take action for our State’s most vulnerable children and families.

  • Youth Justice

    CDF-NY Pushes for Criminal Record Sealing This Month

    Criminal convictions create life-long barriers to employment, housing, and education that directly impact the conditions for children and families. Clean Slate is a crucial step toward racial and economic justice, addressing some of the deep racial disparities that are evident at every stage of the criminal legal system, and providing pathways to more full participation in our neighborhoods and communities, which is essential to the well-being of children, youth, and families.

    | National

  • Education

    This Month, Act to End the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline

    The cradle-to-prison pipeline targets Black children and other children with marginalized identities. We must end school policing and exclusionary discipline and invest in student supports instead so students aren’t pushed out of school and into harmful systems.

    | National

  • Child Health

    What Children Need as They Head Back to School This Year

    This school year, as concerns loom large for many families, children need protection from COVID-19, mental health supports, safe and supportive school climates, opportunities to finish learning, and certainty and reassurance about their futures.

    | National

  • Education

    New Research Confirms Suspensions Harm Students and Target Black Students and Students with Disabilities

    Harsh and exclusionary discipline practices have long-lasting, traumatizing, and potentially life-threatening consequences on students, disproportionately targeting and harming Black students and students with disabilities. As schools consider returning to in-person in the fall, we must ensure our students aren’t returning to a norm of criminalization and harm.

    | National

  • Youth Justice

    The Juvenile Justice System Should Treat Kids Like Kids

    CDF joined more than 50 organizations writing to Congress in support of this legislation to reduce children’s contact with the criminal justice system; address racial disparities in criminalization, arrests, and sentencing; and create more equitable and age-appropriate measures for those children that do encounter these systems.

    | National

  • Child Health

    2021 Legislative Session Report Card

    With the conclusion of the 2021 Legislative Session, we pause to take stock of progress for New York’s children and families, celebrate our victories and assess where further advocacy is needed to level the playing field for the youngest New Yorkers.

  • Youth Justice

    We Must Put an End to the Racist and Counteractive Practice of Juvenile Fees and Fines

    Juvenile fees and fines are not rehabilitative – instead, they increase recidivism and destabilize families, criminalize poverty, and heighten existing racial disparities within the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. It's time we move beyond reforming broken policies and put an end to these harmful practices altogether.

    | National