Day-Care Closings Protested;

Union, Parents Question Rationale
Day-Care Closings Protested


Niquan Riley does not understand why, with millions of dollars pouring into the city's education and child-care coffers, the city is shutting her son's day-care center.

The Chief-Leader/Eric Weiss FORCED TO SCRAMBLE: Irma Cupid fears the closing of the day-care center for her two small children will cause her major inconveniences despite the assurances of Administration for Children's Services officials. Riley's 5-year-old son, Nakai Walker, will have to find a new place to go by Feb. 23 when the Irving Place Day Care Center, located on the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Clinton Hill, locks its doors. Irving Place is one of 14 day-care centers in Brooklyn considered "under-enrolled" and therefore at risk for downsizing or closing.

'What Are They Thinking?'

"They take care and pay attention to my son [at Irving Place]," said Ms. Riley, as she picketed the Administration of Child Services' Manhattan offices Jan. 31. "He is a special needs kid. I can't imagine what ACS is thinking making him switch in the middle of the school year."

Parents and day-care staff say that there is sufficient need in the neighborhood to fully enroll the centers, but that bureaucratic bungling is standing in the way. But ACS officials say that if the Brooklyn centers cannot enroll more kids, they need to shift the available slots to locations where there is a greater apparent need.

"We are focused on maximizing space in all of our facilities so that the maximum number of children can get child care," said Sharman Stein, the chief spokeswoman for ACS. "We have long lists of eligible families waiting for subsidized childcare."

Irving Place officials say that they are just shy of full enrollment, with 53 children enrolled in a facility they say can accommodate 55. The center reduced its prior capacity of 75 children by adding a classroom for 2-year-olds who must be cared for in smaller groups.

ACS Using Old Number

"Their contractual capacity is 75," insisted ACS spokeswoman Sheila Stainback. "They did not receive permission to change that." Officials say that the agency works with all day-care centers to increase their enrollments before making the decision to close them. Ms. Stein said legal issues prevented her from specifically discussing the situation at Irving Place, but that she was sure significant effort was made to allow the center to stay open.

"For too many years we have been paying for slots whether the centers had children or not," she said. "We give centers several months to achieve full enrollment."

The director of Irving Place, Beverly Johnson, says the center recognized that there was a greater need in the neighborhood for day care for younger children and made the necessary adaptations beginning in September.

"The center is now considered at capacity based on the modality change requested by our board of the ACS to the Department of Health," said Ms. Johnson, who is also the facility's sponsoring board chairwoman.

Serve Poorest Sectors

District Council 1707, which represents the day-care workers, stressed that the targeted Brooklyn centers were in high-need neighborhoods. According to an ACS report, the 14 centers are in zip codes where 40 percent of the children are from families whose income is below the poverty line and 60 to 75 percent of families are below 200 percent of the poverty line. City residents are eligible for subsidized child care if they are under 225 percent to 275 percent of the poverty line, depending upon family size. Union officials contend that many families don't know that they're eligible for the child-care services and that better outreach is needed.

In addition, these officials say the city should recognize that many Brooklyn children are now in kindergarten until 3 p.m. and only need after-school care, while an increasing number of families need all-day care for their 2-year-olds.

"There is absolutely no justification for closing down Irving Place," said Sandy Socolar, a senior policy analyst for DC 1707. "They made the changes the residents needed."

The union also says that a newly implemented state regulation mandating that single parents who request subsidized child care seek a court-ordered child support settlement is causing many single mothers to forgo the child care. The vast majority of children in ACS centers come from single-parent households.

Counting on Governor

The union contends that Governor Spitzer is likely to rescind the rule and that no centers should be closed until after that happens, since some centers report 30 to 40 percent of applicants don't apply for child care once they are told of the court requirement.

Regardless of the policy debates, parents say the push for consolidation by ACS is not in the best interests of their children. "We put time and effort into finding good day care," said Irma Cupid, the mother of 3-year-old Liana and 2-year-old Calese, who go to Irving Place. "When the center was opening at 8 a.m., I was always late for work, so Ms. Johnson changed the opening time to 7 a.m. for me. I don't know if I'll find another place like this."

Ms. Stein said a list of other day-care options has been distributed to the parents, and that none of them will be put on a waiting list unless they apply to a location that already is filled. "Our main intention is to give parents as much choice as possible," she said. Currently, the workers at Irving Place are slated to be laid off.

A source not with ACS said that the agency was looking at mechanisms that could be put in place to provide assistance to the workers in finding jobs.

Fear Loss of Quality

But Irving Place parents say they fear the other options won't be as good. They say some of the locations are too far away and that others are not ACS-staffed centers and therefore do not have the same standards.

Niferteriah Jones said her 4-year-old daughter's health deteriorated when she put her in private in-house day care. "When we know the staff is employed by ACS, then we know there are guidelines," said Ms. Jones. "ACS knows there's a need, so why are they cutting services?"