Res. No. 1415

Resolution calling upon the Administration for Children’s Services to achieve stated goals herein including the creation of (i) a written procedure to be followed before closing centers; (ii) a searchable database for locating centers on the website; (iii) a centralized city waiting list; (iv) a system for reevaluating enrollment and capacity numbers; and (v) a report detailing monthly attendance and enrollment figures citywide for subsidized childcare for the last two calendar years and to report such achievements to the Council by July 1, 2008 before implementing Project Full Enrollment Initiative.

By Council Members de Blasio, Brewer, Eugene, Fidler, James, Koppell, Lappin, Liu, Mark-Viverito, Nelson, Palma, Sanders Jr., Vann, Weprin, Yassky, Foster and Katz

Whereas, The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) intends to implement Project Full Enrollment (PFE) in September of 2008 in some subsidized childcare centers throughout the city; and

Whereas, Announced on February 4, 2008 with an effective date of September 2008, PFE will change the reimbursement structure to ACS funded child care centers throughout the city from a budgeted system to a system based on monthly enrollment and attendance, according to ACS materials published on the issue; and

Whereas, ACS claims that it paid out $40 million in vacant slots during Fiscal Year 2007 and that the PFE initiative will allow the agency to save and incentivize enrollment; and

Whereas, The Committee on General Welfare at the Council held a hearing on April 10, 2008 to examine ACS’s efforts to preserve child care centers throughout New York City and ACS left many important policy issues and concerns to the discretion of the Full Enrollment Task Force and has since failed to provide more substantive answers on the most important issues concerning the PFE initiative; and

Whereas, While ACS has charged the Full Enrollment Task Force with the responsibility of establishing specific policy and procedures for key functions of the PFE initiative, it is imperative that ACS examine and act on certain goals by July 1, 2008 and provide this information to the Council before moving forward with PFE; and

Whereas, As Commissioner Mattingly has in Council testimony stated that some centers will close under the PFE initiative, the Council, therefore, requires a written protocol outlining all steps that will be taken by ACS and the centers to prevent a center from closing, and stating how much time a center has to complete certain steps to prevent closure; and

Whereas, This protocol should be publicly posted and used for any center that is in danger of closing; and  

Whereas, To facilitate transparency and ease of access to information for parents, ACS should create a searchable regularly updated database on its website that allows the public to use a zip code or street address as the search option to locate centers with available slots in their respective communities which should also include current vacancies in each center; and

Whereas, ACS should also keep a centralized city-wide child care waiting list of verified eligible parents to ease the eligibility and enrollment delays common to parents and center directors when slots open up, which will facilitate filling empty slots; and

Whereas, Multiple discrepancies between ACS’s numbers and center numbers of children enrolled is a long standing problem that the Comptroller’s office investigated and documented in April of 2003 in a report “Slots for Tots” and that various advocates and center directors have indicated is a key problem with the PFE initiative; and

Whereas, Before implementing PFE, ACS should properly vet the pilot initiatives and data systems that are to work in tandem with this initiative particularly as they relate to ACS’s information on center enrollment and capacity; and

Whereas, ACS should provide data to the Council on the last two calendar years regarding enrollment and attendance to provide information regarding the upward and downward enrollment levels at centers throughout the year; and

Whereas, Calendar year information will provide the Council with general information on the trends of enrollment and attendance at centers and give ACS the opportunity to create an admissions campaign before or during months when child care centers will typically experience low enrollment numbers; and

Whereas, The sustainability of child care in the city of New York is critical to maintaining a healthy city and the goals outlined herein for ACS to meet are reasonable expectations for ensuring that we sustain and support childcare; now, therefore be it

Resolved, that the Council of the City of New York calls upon the Administration for Children’s Services to achieve stated goals herein including the creation of (i) a written procedure to be followed before closing centers; (ii) a searchable database for locating centers on the website; (iii) a centralized city waiting list; (iv) a system for reevaluating enrollment and capacity numbers; and (v) a report detailing monthly attendance and enrollment figures citywide for subsidized childcare for the last two calendar years and to report such achievements to the Council by July 1, 2008 before implementing Project Full Enrollment Initiative.

MBT

LS 5393

5/9/08

4:18 PM