The Department of Education suddenly closed five daycare centers last month blaming poor enrollment — then had to reverse the decision in the face of massive backlash from parents and officials.
The city reached lease agreements to keep the city-funded centers in Brooklyn and Queens open for one more year, but the long-term future of the centers and their 300 children is still up in the air.
“While this temporary extension provides some relief, it does not address larger issues that led to the situation in the first place,” Chair Rita Joseph said at a City Council oversight hearing Thursday.
Angry parents and daycare administrators slammed the DOE as a “running joke” for the sudden closure and turnaround at Nuestros Niños in Williamsburg; All My Children in South Jamaica; the Grand Street Settlement’s Bushwick Family Center; Friends of Crown Heights and the Fort Greene Council.
“The DOE failed to conduct even the most basic investigation into how the database inaccurately reported low enrollment numbers,” mother Stephanie Garcia testified at the hearing. “Instead, they chose to ban over 150 families and 80 staff members leaving them to scramble for affordable care options and jobs.”
“It’s a running joke at this point. How can you trust an agency that is this disorganized to make the best decisions for our children?” Garcia said.
Nuestros Niños’ administrator Ingrid Matias Chungata cried at points during the hearing, describing the stress she has been under since the sudden closures.
“With less than 24 hours notice before families were sent to register their children for the next school year on the school portal, we were blindsided with the news that our lease would not be renewed,” Chungata said. No conversations, no due process, no regard for our children, family and staff.”
Simone Hawkins, deputy chancellor for early childhood education at New York City Public Schools, admitted DOE officials used previous years’ enrollment numbers to make the decision.
“We looked at the years prior and it did not reach our standard of full enrollment, which is 95%,” Hawkins said.
But she mostly blamed the potential closures on the rent being too high.
“Our decision was made primarily though on looking at any leases that are expiring already or are set to expire at times,” Hawkins said. “These five sites qualify for that based on their termination.
“It is the exception not the standard for these providers to be occupying city-owned space,” Hawkins added.
Hawkins said council members have reached out with ideas to relocate the centers in nearby vacant spaces.
During the hearing, Joseph also dug into why the city was millions of dollars late on payments to the childcare centers, as first reported by Gothamist.
Chungata said the center she runs burned through 52 years of savings to make up for the DOE’s slow payment disbursement process.
“It’s like we’re giving the city of New York a free loan,” Chungata said.
Hawkins blamed the late payments on a switchover to a new payment processing system.
“ We are looking right now to release a new system that we hope will improve not just our turnaround time on payments, but also allow providers to see where they are in the queue,” Hawkins said.
Joseph noted in her opening statements that she wanted to see more transparency from the DOE.
“The future of early childhood education should not be decided behind closed doors,” Joseph said.