File #: Res 0714-2007    Version: * Name: Bloomberg Administration to place a moratorium on all subsidized child care center contract reductions and terminations in boroughs where the Administration for Children’s Services has not yet implemented the Community Based Enrollment program.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on General Welfare
On agenda: 2/28/2007
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling upon the Bloomberg Administration to place a moratorium on all subsidized child care center contract reductions and terminations in boroughs where the Administration for Children’s Services has not yet implemented the Community Based Enrollment program.
Sponsors: Bill De Blasio, Charles Barron, Gale A. Brewer, Inez E. Dickens, Lewis A. Fidler, Helen D. Foster, Vincent J. Gentile, Sara M. Gonzalez, Letitia James, Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., James Sanders, Jr., Kendall Stewart, Albert Vann
Council Member Sponsors: 13

Res. No. 714

 

Resolution calling upon the Bloomberg Administration to place a moratorium on all subsidized child care center contract reductions and terminations in boroughs where the Administration for Children’s Services has not yet implemented the Community Based Enrollment program.

 

By Council Members de Blasio, Barron, Brewer, Dickens, Fidler, Foster, Gentile, Gonzalez, James, Recchia Jr., Sanders Jr., Stewart and Vann

 

Whereas, Over 20,000 children attend subsidized child care centers in New York City each day; and

Whereas, Subsidized child care centers provide children with (i) a safe and stimulating learning environment, (ii) instruction from qualified professionals, and (iii) the early childhood education they need for a head start in school; and

Whereas, Convenient, reliable, and quality subsidized child care enables working families and families in the process of becoming self-sufficient to pursue work, education, and other responsibilities outside the home to support their families; and

Whereas, Mayor Bloomberg’s Commission for Economic Opportunity called for the expansion of child care services to working families and acknowledged the important role that child care plays both as (i) an enriching experience through which children develop school readiness skills, and (ii) a necessary support that working parents and parents entering the workforce rely on; and

Whereas, The Administration for Children’s Services (“ACS”) recently identified 13 under-enrolled subsidized child care centers in Brooklyn and is requiring the centers to significantly increase enrollment in a matter of weeks or else risk losing part or all of their ACS contract to provide subsidized child care; and

Whereas, Closing child care centers in neighborhoods where a need for subsidized child care exists would have serious consequences for the children and families who depend on these child care centers on a daily basis; and

Whereas, While many advocates and child care centers support ACS in its effort to ensure that as many eligible children as possible receive child care services and the City’s limited child care dollars do not fund empty slots, child care centers and advocates report that ACS is not addressing its own role in contributing to under-enrollment in Brooklyn; and

Whereas, ACS is requiring the 13 Brooklyn child care centers to immediately raise enrollments without offering these centers the supports and resources that have already been proven to increase child care enrollment in other boroughs; and

Whereas, In 2006 ACS piloted its Community Based Enrollment program in the Bronx, a program designed to increase and streamline enrollment by allowing centers to recruit and enroll families directly at the child care center; and

Whereas, As part of the Community Based Enrollment program, ACS (i) provided intensive support to the lowest-enrolled programs, and (ii) worked with local ACS child care offices in the Bronx to ensure that the offices were prepared to receive and instructed to prioritize applications from the under-enrolled centers; and

Whereas, ACS reports that Community Based Enrollment increased child care enrollment in the Bronx from 88% of contract capacity to 100% of contract capacity; and

Whereas, The successes experienced in the Bronx clearly demonstrate that the intensive support from ACS program experts and the priority status granted to applications for under-enrolled centers helped child care centers in the Bronx to significantly increase enrollment; and

Whereas, Many Brooklyn child care centers attribute some of their enrollment challenges to the significant delays and inefficiencies involved with the ACS enrollment process, and Community Based Enrollment would reduce such enrollment barriers for the 13 under-enrolled child care centers in Brooklyn; and

Whereas, ACS is not scheduled to launch Community Based Enrollment in Brooklyn until spring of 2007, yet ACS is requiring the 13 under-enrolled Brooklyn child care centers to immediately increase enrollments or face consequences as early as March 1st; now, therefore, be it

 Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the Bloomberg Administration to place a moratorium on all subsidized child care center contract reductions and terminations in boroughs where the Administration for Children’s Services has not yet implemented the Community Based Enrollment program.

 

 

 

 

 

FR
LS # 2598

2/21/07