Assemblyman William Colton (D—Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Dyker Heights) is outraged that, despite an overall increase of more than $15 million in state funding allocated to such programs, long-established and successful afterschool programs at numerous local schools have not received essential state money, threatening the assistance they provide to neighborhood families, many of whom may not be able to afford to pay for alternatives.

The issue – which arose because the state’s Office of Children & Family Services streamlined two different funding sources into a single one, the New York State Learning and Enrichment After-School Program Supports (LEAPS) -- impacts afterschool programs offered by the Federation of Italian American Organizations (FIAO) and the NIA Community Services Network, which currently serve some 1,300 students. Without the funding, which they have received for a number of years, the organizations must cut back or eliminate their free programs, which families have for years relied upon for safe and educational afterschool opportunities.

Now, working families are struggling to find alternative options that they can afford.

“This is frankly unacceptable,” said Assemblyman Colton. “Many hard-working families in southwestern Brooklyn are now facing incredible difficulties because of this bureaucratic nightmare. Without free afterschool available for their children, what are they going to do? I have written to OCFS demanding that they fix what they have broken, and do it as soon as possible, so these families are not inconvenienced any more than they already have been.”

In the letter to Dr. DaMia Harris-Madden, commissioner of OCFS, the assemblyman wrote, “It was most perplexing to me as there is no reason for this problem to even occur. Included in the Fiscal Year 2024-2025 State Budget was $103.2 million in funding for afterschool programs throughout the state…. Any reduction or scrapping of afterschool programs places a terrible burden on working families and single parents in my district. Moreover, many of my constituents are 1^st or 2^nd generation immigrants, including Asians and Hispanics. They rely on every program that the public school has to offer to ensure their children have every opportunity for a brighter future. In addition to reducing the opportunities for children, afterschool program cuts leave working and single parents with no alternative regarding childcare during the workday.”

Among the afterschool programs impacted are those at I.S. 228, 228 Avenue S; P.S. 95, 345 Van Sicklen Street; P.S. 177, 346 Avenue P; P.S. 212, 87 Bay 49^th Street; and P.S. 216, 350 Avenue X. Another five schools in southwestern Brooklyn and one in Queens have also been identified as being impacted, and other schools with programs run by other providers may also be affected.