|
Newsletters 2007
January
Betsy Gotbaum This Week
January 28, 2007
Voting Rights Remain Compromised in NYS
Much to my disappointment, New York State continues to lag behind every other state in implementing the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Passed by Congress in 2002, that act seeks to modernize voting machines and to ensure all votes are captured, thus preventing the debacle of the 2000 Presidential election. Last year, New York State was sued by the Department of Justice to force compliance with HAVA. Now, citing problems with the company hired to test new voting machines, the State Board of Elections further reinforced our finish in last place by delaying the deadline for the new machines. At the earliest, it appears new machines won’t be installed until the 2008 presidential elections.
This delay means the poor, the elderly, the disabled, minorities, and those with language barriers will continue to be disenfranchised. These are the groups most benefited by HAVA. This bad news comes on the heels of a series of hearings and voting machine demonstrations held by the New York City Board of Elections. These will have to be repeated.
Additionally, because of the State's ineptitude, the City now stands to lose approximately $20 million and the State $50 million in federal funds to pay for new machines.
As a member of the Voters’ Assistance Commission, I have been monitoring this process for the past several years. Just this past week, I joined the public and many civic groups at a New York City Board of Election's public hearing on replacing the voting machines. I testified in support of optical scan voting machines, which leave a vital paper trail. Research by New York University’s Brennan Center, the League of Women Voters, the New York Public Interest Research Group and New Yorkers for Verified Voting shows that undercounting is greatly reduced by optical scanners. The State needs to act without further delay in certifying machines, and allow county and city boards of elections to select, purchase, and install new voting machines. Having your vote count is a basic right we must ensure. To read the complete report, click here.
New Education Reforms Fail to Inspire Confidence
As I said last week during a City Council hearing, the latest reforms announced to address the school system’s problems do not inspire much confidence.The reforms are mostly focused on structural reorganization that creates chaos in the system. For example, a few years ago the old community school district structure was condemned and scrapped in favor of regions. Now, though the regional structure is being heralded a success by the mayor, he has announced that we are returning to a community school district structure. This obsession with organizational structure is a distraction from what should be the main focus of the Mayor and the Department of Education: improve teaching and learning in classrooms. The reforms have caused concern among many New Yorkers. A New York Times editorial summarizes the concerns well.Since 2002, we’ve watched the Department implement one sweeping reform after another, focused on what the mayor and chancellor called “accountability” and “transparency.” Yet there is little evidence of either.
At the hearing, Chancellor Klein touted the Department of Education’s great strides in improving parent engagement, crediting the success of Parent Coordinator program. Yet, two surveys conducted by my office in 2003 and 2004 found that about half of parent coordinators did not even return a simple call from a parent. It’s well known that parents’ concerns are ignored by the school system. The Department of Education’s focus on structure may be why there are so many questions about whether or not we’ve seen meaningful gains in student achievement.
Betsy Gotbaum This Week
January 22, 2007
Mayor’s State of the City Address Leaves Education Hanging in the Balance
After last week’s State of the City address, I applauded the Mayor for calling to put tax dollars back in the pockets of taxpayers. However, I’m hopeful that in this time of plenty for the City, dollars will help our city’s most vulnerable: children and seniors. I agree with the Mayor that our schools, as he put it, still have “a long way to go.” Unfortunately, the administration’s proposals in other areas, the latest education reform is confusing. As the proposals for the new educational structure become reality, I hope some stability will finally be realized. Instead of constantly changing the organizational chart, I hope the proposed reform of the reforms will translate into a better learning environment for the City’s children. It is not yet clear to me how constantly changing organizational structure makes the schools better. To read my statement, click here.
APS: A Disaster Waiting to Happen
Earlier this month, I released a report that exposed the City’s Adult Protective Services agency’s failure to provide adequate care to the mentally and physically impaired clients in its care.We found that APS workers struggle to handle extremely high caseloads – as many as 81 cases for a single worker – leaving little time to care for individual clients. APS workers also report a lack of training and administrative support to fulfill their duties. As a result, many vulnerable New Yorkers are left without the services they need and deserve. In one instance, nearly $130,000 was taken from a 65-year-old client before APS finally responded to complaints filed by the client’s bank and a community-based organization. In another instance, a 95-year-old client suffering from dementia set fire to her apartment while her social worker tried to get assistance from APS.APS is a disaster waiting to happen. They must hire additional workers to reduce caseloads and provide increased training to better prepare staff for fieldwork. Following my report, APS announced it is seeking funds for more caseworkers.
ACS Oversight Needed to Protect Children
I recently testified at a City Council oversight hearing on child welfare and the increased demands on New York City’s Family Courts. The hearing coincided with the one-year anniversary of the death of young Nixzmary Brown. The seven-year-old was killed by her parents while they were under investigation by the Administration for Children’s Services.
Since her tragic death, we’ve seen an increase in the number of cases of suspected child abuse and neglect reported to the State Central Registry. As a result, ACS attorneys have extremely high caseloads. A report I published in September found that ACS attorneys often go into Family Court inadequately prepared, potentially exposing battered children to further abuse. Additionally, an astonishingly high 22.6 percent of ACS attorneys leave the agency each year and ACS fails to hire and train replacements in a timely manner.
By the time the replacements are prepared to handle a caseload, many of the more seasoned attorneys have left, creating a never-ending shortage that forces an individual attorney to juggle anywhere from 50 to 150 cases.
The problems we’re seeing with ACS attorneys underscore the need to take a closer look at the entire child welfare system, including Family Court. The increase in cases further burdens Family Court judges who already have large dockets. We’ve been informed that judges are struggling to keep up with an influx of new cases. It’s a recipe for disaster that can only further endanger children.
That’s why I propose creating an independent Office of the Child Advocate, similar to offices in other states, with subpoena power to investigate child fatalities and allegations of abuse. In addition to monitoring the entire system – ACS, entities that contract with ACS, and Family Court – the Child Advocate would have access to confidential child welfare records and casework notes and the ability to hold public hearings. At least eight states, including New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island have a similar office to the one I’ve proposed. A recent New York Times editorial endorsed my proposal.
ACS cannot accomplish the changes necessary to repair the child welfare system by itself. We must create an independent office with oversight of the entire system to meet the mandate to ensure a safe environment for all children.
Betsy Gotbaum This Week
January 4, 2007
The start of the new year is a good time to reflect on the accomplishments of the previous 12 months and to look ahead to building on those successes in tackling the challenges of 2007.
Fighting for Better Schools
With a 50 percent dropout rate and 200,000 disconnected New York City youth who are neither in school nor employed, we must provide students with an alternative path to living-wage jobs and gainful careers. That’s why I recently called on the Department of Education to expand state-certified Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs and why I’ll be working with department officials and education advocates to help expand CTE offerings, which give students the chance to earn technical certification and gain hands-on experience in growth industries, such as health care. I will also continue my ongoing efforts to revamp special education. I will launch an initiative that will pair parents, navigating the special education bureaucracy for the first time, with parents who know how to get children the services to which they are entitled. The more experienced parents will provide support. As always, I will investigate problems in special education and continue to pressure the Administration to repair the system.I will also continue my fight against the DOE’s misguided cell phone ban that has parents worried about their children’s safety commuting to and from school. I’m looking forward to the day when common sense finally prevails on this issue.
Protecting our Most Vulnerable Children
After a series of heart-wrenching tragedies and failings of the child welfare system, I called for an independent, public review of the Administration for Children’s Services, the City’s troubled child welfare agency. Among the problems identified over the course of a tragic year, my office found that overworked child welfare attorneys often go into Family Court inadequately prepared, potentially exposing battered children to further abuse. To address these concerns, I called on ACS to regularly recruit and train new attorneys and hire skilled paralegals and support staff to ease attorneys’ workloads, among other recommendations. Early this year, I will be hosting a forum to discuss reforms ACS has enacted since the beating death of seven-year-old Nixzmary Brown in January 2006. I will also monitor child fatality rates and demand necessary reforms as needed.
No Shortcuts to Safety
Last year, I made simple recommendations that will ensure the safety of new buildings being constructed in the City. For one, the Department of Buildings needs to institute a policy of mandatory follow-up inspections when agency inspectors do not gain access to a construction site. The DOB must also curb abuse of the self-certification process by contractors, architects and developers. This will happen if inspectors go to sites to determine the accuracy of the self-certifications. More stringent penalties for false self-certifications must be imposed to discourage the practice. Because preservation of existing housing is important to maintain New York’s housing stock, my office examined the problems caused by household mold. Despite the serious health risks and structural damage often cause by mold, and the significant rise in the number of mold complaints, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) has failed to provide relief to tenants with mold problems.HPD must act. I’ll make sure it does.
Improving Access to City Services
Last year, I launched the Public Advocacy Project, which for the first time in the City’s history will systematically engage civic leaders and New York City residents in improving government’s understanding of city service problems.
The project will get input from civic leaders and residents via focus groups, surveys and flash-polls conducted by the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, which will also survey 3,500 residents’ satisfaction with the quality of City services. I will use the results and call upon the experience of civic leaders to identify root causes of problems and propose solutions. Eventually this project will allow the City to better deliver services to New Yorkers.
|
