As a parent of two children in Brooklyn public schools, Bill and his wife Chirlane know the anxiety all parents face about keeping their children safe and ensuring they have access to affordable child care and quality public schools. As a former Brooklyn School Board member and the Chair of the Council's General Welfare Committee since 2002, no one has fought harder than Bill de Blasio to protect New York City's children. On the School Board Bill led the effort to turn around an unsafe and troubled Brooklyn high school, while in the council he forced needed reforms to New York's broken child welfare system in the wake of the Nixmary Brown tragedy. He has brought millions of dollars to Brooklyn schools and worked tirelessly to expand and improve childcare options for Brooklyn families. PREVENTING CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT        As the Chair of the City Council's General Welfare Committee, Bill has taken on tough fights to protect New York City's children. In the wake of the death of Nixzmary Brown in early 2006, Bill worked tirelessly to reform New York City's overburdened and underfunded child welfare agency. Through aggressive oversight, Bill worked to institute reforms that will hopefully ensure that the Administration for Children's Services is prepared to protect our city's most vulnerable children. As Borough President, Bill will continue to fight to ensure preventive services programs are fully funded, and that the City's child welfare system is up to the challenge of keeping all of Brooklyn's children safe. Preventing Abuse Before it Starts: Bill is a strong believer in the role of preventive services in helping families stay together and address problems before they begin. Following the tragic death of Nixzmary Brown, Bill worked to secure $4.2 million (plus $7.8 million in State matching funds) annually for the Child Safety Initiative. The Child Safety Initiative lowers preventive services caseloads, to allow for more thorough and individualized care for children and families. Holding ACS Accountable: In the City Council Bill led more than a dozen oversight hearings to hold our city's child welfare system accountable on a variety of issues including ACS' support for youth aging out of foster care, the City's efforts to assist undocumented foster children to obtain legal status, New York City's overburdened Family Court system, and coordination between ACS and other city agencies such as the NYPD, DOE, DHS. To ensure ongoing accountability, Bill wrote and passed legislation, Intro 15-A, that requires ACS to provide agency performance data to the Council and the public on a quarterly basis. EXPANDING QUALITY CHILD CARE        As chair of the General Welfare Committee, Bill has worked to improve and expand child care options in Brooklyn. As a parent, Bill knows that high quality affordable child care is an essential part of keeping Brooklyn affordable for working families. As Borough President, Bill will continue to advocate for expanded child care for working families and will utilize the city's land use review process to help create more child care facilities in new development throughout Brooklyn. Since taking office in 2002, Bill has won approximately $84 million in additional child care resources for 15,000 more child care seats. In 2007, Bill led fellow Council Members and concerned parents in saving Brooklyn's child care centers, after ACS had threatened to close or downsize 13 centers. Bill stepped in and successfully fought to save all 13 of the threatened Brooklyn centers. For the past two years, Bill has sponsored a program called Providers Choice, which helps home-based child care providers in lower income neighborhoods to purchase necessary supplies (such as learning tools, arts and crafts, and safety supplies) they could not otherwise afford. The program reached nearly 4,000 Brooklyn children in 2007, and will reach thousands more in 2008. "Working Parents for a Working New York," a 2008 Council budget initiative sponsored by Bill, will fund a study to analyze the effects that employer-provided child care subsidies have on productivity and morale in the workplace. The Council's investment of $875,000 will alleviate the high cost of child-care for a sample of City employees, and will help bolster the case for employer-provided childcare throughout New York City. PROTECTING FAMILIES IN NEED        As Chair of the General Welfare Committee, Bill has fought to cut through the red tape that separates many of our city's most vulnerable families from vital city support and public services. Sheltering Survivors of Domestic Violence: In Bill's first year on the City Council he wrote and passed Intro 120-A, which protects a domestic violence survivor's right to shelter. Intro 120-A ensures that the City cannot deny emergency shelter and services to victims of domestic violence based on lack of documentary evidence of the incidence of domestic violence, such as a police report or order of protection. Increasing Food Stamp Enrollment: More than 1 in 7 New Yorkers live in households that cannot afford sufficient food. Many families who are eligible for food stamps simply cannot get the time off of work to apply. After pushing for four years, Bill succeeded in convincing city officials to launch a pilot program to make food stamps applications available online. In 2005, Bill passed legislation that requires the city to accept food stamps applications via fax. Fighting for Children and Families: Bill has been a vocal opponent of New York City's policy denying temporary overnight shelter to some homeless families who have previously been turned down for long-term shelter. Currently Bill is monitoring the policy to ensure that no family is forced to return to an unsafe living situation or out onto the street. SAFER, BETTER SCHOOLS FOR BROOKLYN        A public school parent and former School Board member, Bill was elected to School Board 15 in 1999. On the Board Bill supported innovative reforms. District 15 was the first in New York City to cap first grade class size at 20 students and was a pioneer in establishing Universal Pre-Kindergarten. As Borough President, Bill will fight to continue to reduce class size, expand Universal Pre-Kindergarten, invest in upgrading outdated school facilities and work to keep all of our schools safe. Fighting for School Funding: On the City Council Bill has directed millions of dollars toward public schools in Brooklyn. In this year's budget, Bill helped local schools upgrade their computer technology, construct and repair playgrounds, and renovate school facilities such as science labs and libraries. Finding Solutions for Struggling Schools: Bill has dedicated himself to improving the quality and safety of Brooklyn schools. The former John Jay High School, located on 7th Avenue in Brooklyn, had for years been one of Brooklyn's most troubled schools. Bill teamed up with community and education leaders to turn it into three smaller, more specialized schools: the Secondary Schools for Law, Journalism, and Research. All three of the schools, which opened in 2004, now boast significantly higher attendance and graduation rates, as well as improved safety and morale. Bill continues to support the trio of schools with funding for enhanced programming and building improvements. Helping Parents Keep Their Kids Safe: As a parent of two children in public school, Bill knows what it's like to worry about their safety. That's why in 2007 Bill voted to override the Mayor's veto of legislation that would allow students to carry cell phones to school. Bill believes families deserve the peace of mind of knowing they can reach their children in an emergency. Bill was also an outspoken opponent of the city's elimination of school bus routes and worked with P.S. 230 parents to get the Windsor Terrace Tenth Avenue bus stop reinstated. After the Daily News uncovered dangerous conditions on city school buses Bill began drafting legislation to force the City to crack down on such incidents and he is cosponsoring legislation that would require the city to equip every school bus with a video camera.