Councilmember Nadeau made the following remarks today ahead of the Council vote on the Juvenile Curfew Amendment Act of 2026 (Bill 26-461) on Tuesday, April 21. Councilmember Nadeau voted no. The measure was approved on first reading by a vote of 8-5.

Other colleagues today have explained how this policy is not effective, harms our kids, and disproportionately impacts Black and brown kids. So I won’t repeat. We need to be serious about safety and not play politics with our communities and kids. As a mom of two kids, and one who has significant resources, even I struggle with parenting sometimes. But one thing I have learned, especially as my kids get older, is that kids need to be treated with respect, they need to be heard, and more than anything they need the adults responsible for them – and I consider that all of us – to be there for them when they are struggling, to help them make good choices for themselves and for those around them.

This bill doesn’t do any of that in my opinion. Instead, it doles out punishment and makes things worse – maybe not immediately. Because I know a lot of people think that we have to be tough and that we get results that way. But there is way too much evidence about the long term negative impacts on kids and communities with these types of policies for me to ignore it. And this may be my last year on the Council, but that makes it all the more important to me that I do not contribute to taking our city down the wrong path when it comes to our youth.

In 2016, I introduced the legislation that established the current Out-of-School-Time office that offers hundreds of after school and summer programs for kids K-12. Later I introduced legislation that would have expanded Out-of-School-Time programming to all DC Public School and Public Charter School students, with an emphasis on access for youth who are at-risk, low-income, and criminal justice-involved.

I’ve supported creation and expansion of violence interruption programs in my ward and District-wide, finding money in the budget to make sure those programs continue and expand.

We make choices in how we spend our money.

The Mayor has also made choices.

The Mayor’s proposed FY27 budget cuts over $6M from the Department of Behavioral Services, including school-based behavioral health; $35M from the Department of Human Services, including for family support services; and over $5M from the Dept of Parks and Recreation for site-based programming. Instead, her budget adds $6.5M to Youth Rehabilitation Services, including for secure detention of youth; and $90M for MPD.

She is now choosing, with her emergency declaration last week, to double down on what does not work – youth curfews – even as she takes away funding from the programs that we know do work.

And this legislation before us today does the same.

For months, we extended the emergency curfew legislation and each time we said we need to work on a comprehensive plan that includes the programs and initiatives I listed – and that we need a permanent piece of legislation that could get a hearing and vetting.

I have said ‘no’ to the emergency extensions but have always been open to a comprehensive solution. The bill before us today is not it.

I thank my colleagues for attempting some improvements on this bill by adding programming and checks on the curfews.

It’s not enough, though. What we have here is a rebranded version of the tough-on-crime laws of the past – a curfews-first approach that’s ineffective because it fails to support our youth. I can’t in good conscience vote for something that is tried and proven as bad policy.