Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids Campaign Responds to the Fiscal Year 2026 State Budget Agreement
May 14, 2025
New York – The Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids Campaign (HMHK) released the following statement in response to Fiscal Year 2026 State Budget Agreement:
“The Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids Campaign is dismayed that the Fiscal Year 2026 State Budget fails to include funding to address the severe waitlist crisis facing children, adolescents, and families seeking mental health and Substance Use Disorder Services in our state.
The HMHK Campaign has fought for the inclusion of $200 million in the state budget to help combat unbearably long waitlists, address widespread access barriers, and increase capacity within the system. Though both the Assembly and the Senate One House bill included funding for children’s outpatient services, the adopted budget fails to fund these essential services. Moreover, the Budget agreement provides a 2.6% cost of living adjustment for the human services sector (including behavioral health providers), which falls far short of the 7.8% COLA advocates were seeking. Collectively, this budget does little to secure the Governor’s promise to address the youth mental health crisis.
Parents are tired of seeing their children forced into emergency rooms or intensive inpatient treatment because outpatient and community-based services were nowhere to be found. Young people are tired of waiting for care that just isn’t there. We envision a future where no child is on a waitlist to receive behavioral health services, and where every child receives the care they need when they need it. This future starts by investing in upstream, preventive services now. As we look ahead, the HMHK Campaign will continue to fight for the investments children, adolescents, and families need to thrive.”
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ABOUT
The Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids Campaign is a statewide coalition of youth, parents, providers, and advocates that has joined together to create the public and political will necessary to ensure that all children and adolescents in New York receive the high-quality behavioral health (mental health and substance use disorder) services they need.