Good afternoon and welcome to today's hearing on the subcommittee for early childhood development.

At this time, I'd like to remind everyone to silence all electronic devices.

Also at this point going forward, no one is to approach the dais with Pete.

No one is to approach the Dais.

If you would like to sign up for in-person testimony, please see one of the Sergeant at Arms.

Thank you.

Chair, we're ready to begin.

Thank you.

And good afternoon, everyone.

I'm Councilmember Jennifer Gutierrez, Chair of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education.

And welcome to today's hearing.

Double special welcome to the incoming DC for our hearing today, supporting multilanguage learners and early childhood education programs.

New York City is widely recognized as the most linguistically diverse city in the world.

Shout out to Queens.

In New York State, the proportion of multilingual young children is higher than the national average of 32%, with approximately 45% of young children ages zero to five in New York identifying as multilanguage learners.

Access to multilingual early childhood education serves as a critical cornerstone for both cognitive development and social equity.

Nurturing children's home languages develops their positive sense of self and cultural identity.

It also maintains strong ties with family and community and supports young children's social, behavioral, and emotional regulation.

Research shows a clear relationship between the age of exposure to a language and a child's success in learning that language.

Yet, a 2025 study of New York City's pre-kindergarten program found that there are not nearly enough designated bilingual pre-K programs available to support the growing number of multilanguage learners.

Last year, President Trump issued an executive order designating English as the official language of the U.S.

And about a month ago, his administration released a notice of proposed rulemaking proposing an English-only instruction requirement in all head start programs.

Boo.

With the persistent federal attacks on multilingual services, now is the time for the city to step up its commitment to all of its residents in providing these services, including to our youngest learners.

So

today we'll ask the administration how you are supporting supporting, how are you supporting multilingual early childhood education students across our city?

Are you planning to expand multilingual supports as the early childhood education system grows?

How are you informing multilingual families about their early childhood education options?

We will also hear Rezo 650, sponsored by myself, opposing the federal, the opposing the federally proposed rule change titled Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs and calling on the federal government to prioritize protecting and growing access to high quality education for young children.

I

want to thank the members of early childhood education or subcommittee who've joined us today, Councilmember Rita Joseph and Councilmember Simkefelder, an online council member.

Did you call council

member?

Sorry, erase it from your minds.

And council member Kayla Santuoso, shout out to Brooklyn.

We're all here today.

Thank you, Simca.

Thank you.

And additionally, I want to thank the staff of our committee, Julia Goldsmith Pinkham, Katie Salina, Grace Amato, and Julene Lawless and Margaret Barnsley, as well as my own staff, Frank Hulka, uh Angelica Cologne, and our ongoing fella LL for their work on today's hearing.

And finally, thank you to everyone who's signed up to testify.

We look forward to uh hearing from you.

I

would like to do in this part.

Yes.

Okay.

I would sorry.

Um I want to remind everyone who wishes to testify in person today that you must fill out a witness slip, which you can find on the desk of the sergeant at arms near the entrance of the room.

Please fill out the sleep, the slip, even if you've already registered in advance that you will be testifying in person today.

If you wish to testify on any of the please indicate on the witness slip whether you are here to testify in favor of or in opposition.

I also want to point out that we will not be voting on any legislation today to allow as many people as possible to testify.

Testimony will be limited to two minutes per person, whether you are testifying in person or on Zoom.

I'm also going to ask my colleagues uh

to

limit their questions and comments to five minutes.

Please note that witnesses who are here in person will testify before those who are signed into the Zoom webinar.

And I'll now turn it over to our early childhood education subcommittee council to administer the oath.

We are supposed

to

hello, good afternoon.

Um, in accordance with the rules of the council, I'll administer the affirmation to the witnesses from the mayoral administration.