Testimony: Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Oversight (FY15)
On February 11, 2015, Judith Sandalow, executive director of Children’s Law Center, testified at the Committee on Health and Human Services’ performance oversight hearing for the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. She remarked on the many progresses the District made in recent years, as well as drawing the Committee’s attention to the fact that there are still more families who would benefit community supports than there are receiving them.
Ms. Sandalow highlighted a few of the ways that the new Deputy Mayor, Brenda Donald, can play an important role in supporting children and families. She advocated the need for a single office within the Executive branch to address the critical needs of the District’s most vulnerable children. She argued that this office is needed to prevent vulnerable children from slipping through the cracks because individual DC agencies are narrowly focused on their own specific missions, and only serve the children who fit neatly into the target population of an agency.