With weeks left until the end of the legislative session in Albany, it’s time to make our voices heard to advance our priorities for meaningful change. Together we can support the campaigns of our PowHerNY Partners and advance key bills that address crucial issues affecting women and marginalized communities. Below are some of the PowHerNY Priorities.

Together, we have the power to shape policies that reflect our values and uplift women in New York State. Take action today by writing to your senators, signing petitions, and making your voices heard. Our collective advocacy will pave the way for a more just and inclusive future.

Kyra’s Law

PowHerNY Partners: New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Bills:  (A3346A (Hevesi) / S3170A (Skoufis)
Status: In Committees
Learn More: Kyra’s Law (kyraschampions.org), Kyra’s Law (nyscadv.org)
Take Action Here 

Kyra’s Law will address the tragic reality that children can be the target of an abusive parent, especially during separations and divorce proceedings. Accusers of domestic violence, usually women, need to be believed and children must be protected.

Kyra’s Law (A3346 (Hevesi) / S3170A (Skoufis) requires the court to consider a child’s health and safety when making a decision regarding child custody and visitation; directs the court to review certain information as it relates to allegations of child abuse, domestic violence and child safety. This bill seeks to address the systemic weaknesses in the current law regarding child custody and visitation and the failures of the court system to keep New York’s children safe from dangerous abusers.

Background: Kyra Franchetti was 28-months-old when she was shot to death in her sleep by her father during an unsupervised, court-approved visit, despite warnings and eyewitness accounts of threatening, abusive, and concerning behavior.  Kyra is one of 23 children to be murdered by their parent while going through a divorce, separation, or child custody case in New York since 2016.

Today, in divorce/family court, peer-reviewed research studies confirm our divorce/family court system gets most custody cases involving abuse dangerously wrong. Kyra’s Law will help prevent children from being sexually, physically and emotionally abused, or murdered, at the hands of their own parent.

Among other requirements, “This bill would require Family and Supreme courts to conduct a review of any findings or allegations of child abuse, domestic violence, heightened danger, and risk of lethality prior to issuing a permanent, initial temporary or successive temporary order of custody or visitation. Such review would include assessing allegations that one party committed or threatened to commit, an act of domestic violence; a history of domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, child sexual abuse or incidents involving harm or risk of harm to the child; police reports, including domestic incident reports; and other factors finding or alleging heightened danger or risk of lethality for the child.”

Solutions Not Suspensions Act 

PowHer Partners: Girls for Gender Equity, Sister for Sister International, YWCA, NYCLU, Citizens Action, Alliance for Quality Education, Make the Road
Bill(s): A5691(Solanges) / S1040 (Jackson)
Status: In Committee
Factsheet:  SNS_one-pager_white-background.pdf (ftnys.org)
Take Action: https://action.aclu.org/send-message/support-solutions-not-suspensions

The Solutions Not Suspensions Act would address the disproportionate impact of disciplinary methods on young women of color, mitigating long-term consequences that hinder their educational, career opportunities and economic future.

The Solutions Not Suspensions Act – A5197 (Nolan) / S7198 (Jackson) encourages the use of positive and age-appropriate disciplinary strategies, eliminates suspensions for minor infractions, ensures that students receive instruction when they are removed from school, and limit unnecessary contacts between law enforcement and students.

Background: The Judge Judith S. Kaye Solutions Not Suspensions Act promotes the use of positive, developmentally-appropriate school discipline strategies, eliminates the use of out-of-school suspensions for subjective or self-defense behaviors (like defiance, an infraction that uniquely impacts girls of color), significantly limits suspensions for students in kindergarten to third grade, and ensures students receive instruction when removed from school.

PowHerNY Partner Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) found that “racial disparities are stark. When measuring the rate of suspension for student groups compared to a comparison group of white students, for all regions together, Indigenous students were 1.7x more likely, Black students were 2.9x more likely, and Latinx students were 1.4x more likely as white students to be suspended during the 2018-2019 school year….Black students represented 11% of all students enrolled and 24% of all suspensions, and students with disabilities represented 15% of all students enrolled and 28% of all suspensions.”

Comprehensive Sexuality Education

PowHer Partners: NYSCASA, GGE, Repro Coalition
Bill(s): A6616 (Brock) / S2584-A (Nolan)
Status: In Committee
Factsheet: https://www.nyscasa.org/policy/comp-sex-ed/
Take Action: https://p2a.co/ifd1gD1

The Comprehensive Sexuality Education bill equips girls and young women with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their bodies, relationships, and health, as well as creates a safer learning environment that prioritizes gender equity in the classroom.

The Comprehensive Sexuality Education bills – S2584A (Brock) / A6616 (Nolan) require medically accurate instruction for students in grades K-12 which addresses age and developmentally appropriate physical, mental, emotional and social dimensions of human sexuality and reflect the national sexuality education standards.

This legislation would amend the education law to require each public and charter school in New York State to provide students in grades kindergarten through twelve with comprehensive sexuality education.

Survivors and advocates have worked to identify practices that have been proven to prevent gender based violence. One of the most effective tools in preventing sexual harassment is the use of sexual health education. The hypothesis contends that students are made more vulnerable when they are not given the vocabulary to handle situations involving consent. If students are not taught that they must ask for consent before hugging a friend, and that they need consent every time, not just once, then they are at a disadvantage to both understand the consequences of their actions and advocate for themselves.

Hospital Transparency

PowHer Partners: NYCLU, Citizens Action, Empire State Campaign for Child Care, Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts, National Institute for Reproductive Health, ACOG, District II
Bill(s):  (A733-A (Rozic) / S1003-A (Hinchey)
Status: Passed Senate
Factsheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OpjN9DRKTYVHcHc-R2J95WEOwVDz7qKd/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107086766597961665056&r pof=true&sd=true
Take Action: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf1HmqZWhRfxjSNSAzND4wS2r73t_Sc9g8_EKdyQoW4p0zHtg/viewform

The Hospital Transparency bill will provide patients with  access to vital information about reproductive healthcare, such as abortion, miscarriage, family planning, and gender-affirming care, services which are not provided at all hospitals in NY.

The Hospital Transparency A733-A (Rozic) / S1003-A (Hinchey) bill prevents individuals from being turned away from a hospital when they need health care. This bill will help ensure that people are aware of whether they can obtain care – particularly types of care that are often time-sensitive and stigmatized, like gender-affirming care, miscarriage management, abortion, treatment of ectopic pregnancies, and end-of-life care – at their local hospital before they are in an emergency situation, and it will lay the groundwork to eliminate care deserts in the state. 

“This law will give New York the tools to identify regions in the state where particular types of care are unavailable and to understand the impacts of such gaps on communities and individuals statewide. Moreover, it will offer prospective patients the tools they need to determine whether the hospital, or hospitals, in their area provides the care they seek prior to admission. It will require the Department of Health to collect a list of policy-based exclusions from each general hospital and to publish that information, in a standardized and readily understandable form, on its websites.”

One Fair Wage 

PowHer Partners: One Fair Wage
Bill(s): S5567 (Jackson) / A1710 (Gonzalez-Rojas)
Status: In Committee
Factsheet: OFW_FactSheet_NYS_2.pdf (onefairwage.site)
Take Action: Sign-On Letter and/or Contact Your Legislators 

The One Fair Wage bill uplifts women in the workforce by eliminating the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers in the restaurant industry, ensuring fair wages and addressing the pervasive issues of sexual harassment and economic vulnerability.

The One Fair Wage bills – S5567 (Jackson) / A1710 (Gonzalez-Rojas) will phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers and enable tip sharing with the back of the house. 

This bill puts tipped workers in food service on a path to receive the full minimum wage by 2028. It also updates New York law to allow tip sharing with those who work in “back of house” roles, such as cooks and dishwashers, and those who do not receive tips. 

The subminimum wage for tipped workers is 66 percent of the overall minimum wage and ranges from $8.35-10.40 an hour in the state of New York. A direct legacy of slavery, the subminimum wage impacts a workforce of nearly 330,000 tipped workers that is 58 percent women and 49 percent people of color, and an overall restaurant industry of over 625,000 workers in New York. While some tipped workers in New York received One Fair Wage at the end of 2019 (nail salon workers and car wash workers among others), restaurant workers, who constitute the majority of tipped workers, were left out. This majority-female workforce continue to suffer higher rates of sexual harassment and economic hardship as a result.

Childcare

PowHer Partners: Alliance for Quality Education, Empire State Campaign for Child Care, Schuyler Center
Bill(s): A2019 (Clark) / S3070 (Ramos)
Status: In Committee
Factsheet: https://www.empirestatechildcare.org/staffing-shortages-and-the-child-care-crisis.html
Take Action: https://scaany.org/take-action/

The Childcare bills ensure that every child care program receives the full rate to keep up with inflation and minimum wage, making quality child care more accessible for mother’s whose job opportunities significantly increase when they have access to reliable and affordable childcare.

A2019 (Clark) / S3070 (Ramos) implements automatic market rate increases for child care assistance such that assistance will be equal to one hundred percent of the applicable market-related payment rate established by the department.

Parents cannot afford the true cost of high quality child care. Yet right now, New York ties the rates child care programs are paid by the state to the tuition charged to families – even though federal guidance states that we do not have to. This proposal will ensure that every child care program receives the full rate each time it is raised, helping them keep up with inflation and the minimum wage. 

Decouple Subsidy Payment from Hours Worked

PowHer Partners: Alliance for Quality Education, Empire State Campaign for Child Care, Schuyler Center
Bill(s): A4986 (Hevesi) / S5327 (Brisport)
Factsheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PzNfI37ygsWxYYlgBryAAGzVrAdcNijPwR9WGMNU4gA/edit
Take Action: https://scaany.org/take-action/
Status: In Committee

A4986 (Hevesi) / S5327 (Brisport) provides that a caregiver shall be eligible for assistance for full-time child care under the child care block grant regardless of the hours the parent actually works.

This proposal corrects last year’s legislation, which offers enhanced early education opportunities for children, provides stable reliable child care for families, and more stability for providers, by allowing parents who work part-time or fluctuating hours access to full-time child care assistance. 

In her State of the State address, Governor Hochul correctly stated that New York State has built a burdensome child care system that places too many barriers between families and the child care they need. While her Executive Budget proposal took strong steps to address some of these barriers, significant strides are still needed to achieve a truly supportive system of universal child care that meets the needs of all of our families and child care educators.

This bill is an incremental steps on the path to universal child care – a thriving system that is free to all families, provides high quality early education to New York’s children, and compensates child care educators with the dignified wages and benefits they deserve.

EMPIRE Act

PowHer Partners: EmPIRE Act Coalition
Bill(s): S541-A (Hoylman-Sigal) / A1893-A (Joyner)
Status: In Committee
Factsheet & Take Action: https://www.nyclu.org/en/legislation/legislative-memo-empire-worker-protection-act-0

The Empowering People in Rights Enforcement (EMPIRE) Worker Protection Act ensures that the rights of vulnerable – often women – workers are protected by allowing them to organize and hold employers accountable to state labor laws under organizational representation without fear of social or monetary repercussions.

These bills empower affected workers to file claims on behalf of the state against an employer for specified violations of State labor law. The Act also allows labor organizations, and labor organizations deputized by the states to file claims on behalf of impacted workers in order to protect the public interest.

Together, PowHerNY has worked to pass some of the strongest labor laws, including equal pay and paid family, but stronger enforcement is needed. The EMPIRE Act would change that by allowing workers to file claims in court on behalf of the overburdened NYS Department of Labor (DOL). 

The EmPIRE Worker Protection Act creates a mechanism – similar to the long established qui tam court action – that allows workers and labor organizations to file claims against their employers in court and on behalf of the State. It also allows workers to designate representative labor and nonprofit workers’ rights organizations to file claims, meaning vulnerable workers will be able to rely on trusted organizations to represent them in the same way that the Commissioner of Labor would. EmPIRE also encourages robust private enforcement of state labor law, by awarding private actors who enforce civil penalties a share of financial recovery. Private plaintiffs would be awarded forty percent of all civil penalties where DOL did not intervene. The remaining sixty percent of penalties would be distributed to DOL to fund public enforcement efforts. This incentivizes private actors to play an active role in labor law enforcement on their own behalf, and, in so doing, generate revenue for the State. It is estimated that EmPIRE would generate nearly $18 million annually for DOL. 

Reproductive Freedom & Equity Grant Program 

Bill(s): S348B (Cleare) / A361A (Gonzalez-Rojas)
Status: Passed Senate, In Assembly Committee
Take Action: Contact Your Representative