Statements from the Board of County Commissioner Meeting

May 27, 2025

Full Meeting recording HERE

Ann Rebeck

Good Evening I am Ann Rebeck, the Lead Coordinator for the People's Alliance. As you know in early March you received a budget request letter from PA. The PA members collectively vote on the budget priorities and the items in this letter were selected via that vote.

Since 1993 the PA Education Action Team has fought for full funding for traditional public schools. That remains true here in 2025. We thank the County Manager for considering the 10 million dollar increase, we respectfully ask that you honor the DPS request for 16 million. We recognize the challenges of the budget this year but remain steadfast that the fiscal needs of our schools should be a priority. 

In the last year and half the PA Child and Family Policy team formed and grew. In our budget letter we asked for the County to fund the newly formed 501(c)3 Carolina Parent Defenders in the amount of $250,000. We believe that this initial grant to the CPD from the Board of Commissioners will help stabilize and reunify families in Durham County. Thank you to each of the County Commissioners for expressing your willingness to meet and discuss this opportunity with team members. I think we collectively believe that we can do better in Durham to keep families together.  In the next few weeks we look forward to holding actual meetings with Commissioners who have expressed interest but so far have not been able to talk with the team. We are also grateful to members of the DSS board for meeting and communicating with the Team about the request. You will hear from some of those team members tonight and hope you will take seriously the PA's request for funding of Carolina Parent Defenders.

Sydney Schildnecht

I’m Sydney Schildnecht, resident and social worker with Durham Public Schools. I’m also here with the People’s Alliance Child and Family Coalition. Respectfully, tonight I need you all to be partners to the children and families I work with by fully funding both the DPS budget, and the holistic early defense pilot program designed to prevent and mitigate unnecessary removal of children from their families and community context when involved with Child Protective Services.

As a social worker with DPS, I am paid on the teacher pay scale. However, we were excluded from this year’s Master’s pay after the Board failed to account for us due to their refusal to include worker voices through Meet & Confer. After months of organizing, the Board approved our pay for next school year, if y’all pass this budget. Not at 5% Master’s pay increase, which is a pay cut to the teachers receiving it this year, but in full.

Here’s the tension of social work. I believe I deserve to be paid respectfully for my degree and skills. I know my working conditions can mitigate burnout and that when I’m not burnt out, I do my best work with our most vulnerable students.

I hold this, as someone with macro social work training, as I work with families who are being evicted, while there are no available eviction prevention funds, and no plans to expand these in the budget. As I direct parents to Entry Point, where they’re placed on a months-long waitlist, with no plans to increase shelter capacity.

I’ve seen an increase of 20 unhoused students in my elementary school this year. This is up 50%, and only includes those identified.

When families are evicted and unable to find shelter, they’re vulnerable to DSS CPS involvement due to the department’s interpretation of “neglect.” After separation, it’s near impossible to find and maintain affordable housing here. That’s why tonight, I also ask you fund Carolina Parent Defenders through their pilot. Doing so moves funds upstream to prevent traumatic separation due to inhumane policies that penalize families for system failures. Early defense keeps families together, protecting them from the harms of stigmatization due to poverty imposed by failing systems. Be on my families’ and students’ teams. Fund the DPS budget and the Carolina Parent Defenders. Thank you.

Maya Bracy 

My name is Maya Bracy, and I am a Durham resident, developmental psychology researcher, intern serving Durham Public Schools, and member of the People’s Alliance and the Child and Family Coalition. I am here today to urge you to invest in a holistic early defense pilot program that supports families involved in Durham’s child welfare system.

In Durham, over 95% of maltreatment cases involve “neglect,” which often identifies symptoms of poverty, rather than a lack of care. When children are removed from their homes by the Department of Social Services, it’s then that they’re confronted with a sudden shift in their access to care. They’re removed from their attachment figures, care routines, and sense of safety. This ruptures critical developmental processes, including brain development and emotional regulation. It puts children at greater risk for developing long-term challenges with depression, PTSD, and forming healthy relationships. 

And the impact doesn’t stop with the child. Family separation is a traumatic event for parents, changing their lives and fracturing the trust and support they receive from their communities. Families are left alone to navigate complex emotional and legal experiences with few resources or social support to help them repair and reunify with their children. But by investing in a holistic early defense program like Carolina Parent Defenders, Durham County could help prevent unnecessary separation and trauma for the children and families of Durham.  

There is already evidence that programs like this work. In Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and New Jersey, early legal intervention and holistic services have kept hundreds of children out of foster care by supporting families, not separating them. These models prevent trauma, improve outcomes, and cost less than our current system. 

So, I ask that you allocate $250,000 dollars of the budget to holistic legal representation and early defense for families involved in Durham’s child welfare system and invest in an intervention that protects child development and promotes healthy outcomes for our entire community.