Westchester Families Task Force Meeting - Youth Phone Delay & Childcare Wage - July 9, 2026
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Westchester Families Task Force Meeting
The Families Task Force of the Westchester County Board of Legislators met on Thursday, July 9, 2026, at 10:00 AM in the Committee Room of the Michaelian Office Building, White Plains. Co-Chair Legislator Nancy Barr presided; Co-Chair Kathy Halas participated remotely. The meeting featured two presentations: a youth-led initiative to delay smartphone use among children, and a childcare wage enhancement pilot funded by The New York Community Trust. Discussions emphasized the impacts of technology on youth, the challenges of childcare affordability and workforce stability, and the need for collaborative, multi-sector solutions.
Discussion Items
'Delay the Scroll': Youth-Led Smartphone Delay Program
- Rye High School students Fiona, Alexandra, and Sadie presented their peer-to-peer program aimed at encouraging younger children (primarily 4th and 5th graders) to postpone smartphone and social media use. The presentation includes personal anecdotes, interactive questions, and factual information about negative effects on sleep, focus, and mental health. They noted that blue light from phones can delay falling asleep by up to 90 minutes per night.
- The students framed the program as educational, not fear-based, and emphasized offering alternatives such as phone-free devices (e.g., Gabb phones, watches) and offline activities. They have presented to about 25 students and parents at the Rye Free Reading Room and to 120 students at Milton Elementary School, with plans to present to approximately 200 sixth graders in the fall about responsible Chromebook use.
- They highlighted challenges in engaging young men, noting that girls are often more affected by social media while boys are more influenced by video games. They also stressed the important role of parents' own screen habits and safety concerns that drive parents to give children phones.
- Task force members praised the presentation, with several suggesting it should go national. Legislator Jewell Williams Johnson proposed connecting the students with youth bureaus and other service providers to expand its reach. Frank Williams, Director of the Plains Youth Bureau, committed to follow up to disseminate the presentation throughout the region.
Childcare Wage Enhancement Initiative
- Laura Rossi (Vice President, Westchester Office, The New York Community Trust), Lauren Perkins (Program Director), Nupur Chaudhury Goldson (Program Director), and Dawn Meyerski (Executive Director, Mount Kisco Child Care Center) presented a three-year pilot program using philanthropic funds to provide wage supplements of up to $350 per month (approximately $2 per hour) to early childhood educators in participating centers.
- The initiative includes a rigorous evaluation component by an independent data firm, tracking workforce stability, staff retention, financial stability, and operational capacity. The goal is to build a case for sustainable private-public funding models and inform policy.
- Laura Rossi explained that the model draws on research from other states, notably the Iowa Child Care Solutions Fund, which uses a 2-to-1 state match for private contributions to raise wages and eliminate waitlists. The Washington, D.C. model was also referenced. The Westchester pilot builds on prior Trust investments and listening sessions with providers.
- The Trust also supports home-based family childcare providers through an ecosystem of business development assistance, recognizing that these providers represent about half of the county's childcare sector.
- Dawn Meyerski shared that staff reacted with joy to the wage increase, helping to boost morale and respect for the profession. However, she expressed concern about the sustainability after the three-year pilot ends and whether funds can be maintained.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken; the meeting was informational.
- The task force will continue its subcommittee work on childcare, exploring public-private partnerships and legislative solutions.
- Frank Williams will contact the Rye High students to arrange future presentations through youth bureaus and youth service providers.
- The task force acknowledged the need for better coordination between state agencies (e.g., OCFS and State Education) and school districts to address unintended consequences of UPK expansion, including the loss of community-based childcare slots and developmental appropriateness concerns.
- The pilot program will continue for three years, with evaluation results to inform future policy recommendations.
Meeting Transcript
This meeting is being recorded and summarized. Good morning. It is 10 11 on Thursday, July 9th. This is the Family's Task Force. I'm Nancy Barr. I co-chair this with Kathy Hallis, who's on the screen. Fortunately, she couldn't be here in person today. She usually is, which is a very important job taking care of grandchildren today. So we'll give her a pass. And we usually do go around and people can introduce themselves, you know, all the people who look here, but that does take a little bit of time. So I think what we'll do just in the interest of time is if people who are remote can sort of put their put their name and and uh where they're from, and um if you want your contact information in case somebody else wants to get in touch with you, um that would be great. And then people here around the table will uh most of whom will be many of whom will be presenting today. So they'll be getting into this, but we'll just go quickly around to uh the folks, the other folks. So uh starting David. Oh my David West is a county. Erica Pierce, Westchester County Legislator District 2. Roland Branco, executive director at New Person. Nancy Westwell, uh coalition coordinator and youth advantage of Newport Chaggerie Goldson, uh program director in the Westchester office of the New York Community Trust. Lauren Perkins, I'm also a program director in the Westchester Office of the New York Community Trust. I'm the executive director of Mount Key School Childcare Center and co-president of the Westchester Early Childhood Directors Association. Brancing Schwarz, Vice Chair of the Board of Lois Brown's Children's Center, and the daughter of Lois Brown. Oh nice. Laura Rossi, Vice President, New York Community Trust, Westchester Office. Joan Lloyd Shepherd, CEO and President, Lois Brown's Children's Center. Uh Jewel Williams Johnson, legislator for the eighth district. Um Theo the Marino, student at Rye High School. Sadie Phil, student of my high school. Alexandra DeMayo, student at Rye High School. Thank you all for coming. We, as I say, we have two a really um important and excellent presentations today, and I'm really excited to get started. Um, and there's actually even sort of um, you know, there is sort of a relationship here because um our first group of of speakers, the students from Rye High School are going to be talking about the impact of um cell phones and social media um youth. And um, and they've done a wonderful presentation um for younger students, and they're gonna talk about that today and share with us their thoughts and also what they're currently working on. And that's a program that we're very interested in here at the Families Task Force because um we've you know been working on this uh disconnect to reconnect um initiative, which um we've spoken a lot about, and this really fits right into that because it's about you know disconnecting from screens, not just for you know, but for for people in your age group, which obviously you know that's important, but also for the very young children, children you know that we'll be talking about later on today. Um when we talk about child care, and um, so it is it is relevant, and um and also frankly for adults, we all sort of need to it's it's it's very addictive. We all have our phones handy and uh it's sometimes hard to break break away from it. So um without further ado, oh, and I do want to mention that we also have uh remote today, um, legislator Shanade Williams. Thank you for joining us. And uh I will mention if everyone else uh they all introduced themselves in the chat. Okay, fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so without further ado, I'm gonna turn it over to you ladies to talk about delay the school. Thank you so much. So for some more context, about like three months ago, me and Sadie and Alex and a few other students at Right High School, we gave a presentation to around 25 students and parents at the Rye Free Reading Room. Um, this presentation that we're gonna be walking you through today, on basically trying to convince students on why they may want to consider delaying getting a phone and waiting until they're a little bit older. And we had a lot of success with the presentation with lots of parents and students telling us that it really affected them because hearing this presentation, especially from older high schoolers is something that the younger kids can really look up to. And after that, we actually went to Milton Elementary School and we gave a second presentation to around 120 more students, and it was very successful there too. So we're here today to kind of show you guys the presentation and show the techniques we use in the presentation that help the students realize that you know social media can be a little bit dangerous, having a phone at a young age can be a little bit scary, and kind of how we convince them to delay getting a phone and why we think that's really important. So we're just gonna be walking through the presentation. It's called growing up with iPhones, takeaways from our experience.
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