Advocates for Children of New York
Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, Esq. is a Director at Advocates for Children of New York, specializing in Immigrant Students' Rights. Rita has also worked as a Staff Attorney in the same field. Rita has experience as an Associate Lawyer at Clifford Chance US LLP, a Consultant at UNDP, and in public health roles at UNRWA and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Rita holds a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, an MPH in Population and Family Health with a focus on Forced Migration from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. Rita also served as a Head Paralegal at Federal Defenders of New York, Inc.
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Advocates for Children of New York
For more than 50 years, Advocates for Children of New York has played an important and unique role in New York's public education community. We focus on the children and youth who are most likely to experience failure or discrimination in school because of poverty, race, disability, language barriers, homelessness, or involvement in the foster care or juvenile justice systems. No other city-wide organization works in the trenches, providing these vulnerable students and their families with the one-on-one guidance and advocacy they need, while at the same time, pressing for systemic reforms that benefit all students, even those who are most challenging to educate. Our efforts on the individual and policy levels inform and strengthen each other, increasing our effectiveness for the communities we serve.