Abigail Leonard of Children's Aid supports Resolution 650

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 nine 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 eight 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 learners.

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.

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.