Day-Care Centers Feel Pinch;

Pressured to Stay Near Capacity
Day-Care Centers Feel Pinch


Cheryl Boyd is a palpable presence in the streets of Brownsville.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James NEEDS FUNDING TO KEEP HER FUNDING: Mattie Davis-Greene, the director of the Billy Martin Child Development Center, would like to get her center closer to capacity by opening a new classroom for infants, but can't convince the city to install a mandated sprinkler system. 'I have parents who need it and I have the classroom,' she said, 'but I need the funding to do it.'

Three days out of every week, the director of the Amboy Street Day Care Center can be found talking with parents in the local library, at Brookdale Hospital and at community board meetings about openings for subsidized child care at her center. Last spring, she set up a booth with a giant picture of Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie outside the post office and filled her pre-kindergarten class.

Good Fortune Costs Her

But the center's viability is at issue because as of last week she was still 10 children under her capacity of 55 after several kids who had been living in the nearby New Horizon homeless shelter found more-permanent housing in other neighborhoods.

"I can make it to full enrollment," she said, "but it's a constantly fluctuating process."

Last week the Bloomberg administration announced that it was planning to cut the budgets for city day-care centers if they did not maintain full enrollment throughout the year, arguing that the centers, which average 85-percent enrollment, needed an incentive to keep their numbers up. The city said it spends about $40 million per year on unfilled slots, while in some parts of the city children sit on waiting lists.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang MORE CLOSINGS?: Administration for Children Services Commissioner John B. Mattingly said that he expected some city day-care centers would be forced to downsize or close after a new funding scheme is implemented. 'This system has got to get to the point where the centers feel responsible for their enrollment,' he said.

Administration for Children's Services Commissioner John B. Mattingly said that he expected that some centers would be forced to downsize or close.

But center directors say that the under-enrollment is often caused by issues outside of their control.

In addition to serving children in transitional housing, Ms. Boyd said her job is complicated by the fact that it takes about three weeks after she hands in a parent's paperwork to the ACS field office before their eligibility is certified. "When parents come in and they need day care," she said, "a lot of times they can't wait three weeks; they find somewhere else."

Getting Creative

Other directors have gotten creative trying to reduce the waiting period. "We take our person beef patties," said North Bronx National Council of Negro Women Child Development Center Director Audrey Eadie. "If you don't grease the wheels, it could take forever," said Ms. Eadie, who noted that the staff at the ACS resource center that serves her area had been cut. She said she usually gets eligibility decisions in about two weeks.

Ms. Eadie's center is currently at full capacity, but she said she was at 87 percent last September, as two classes of kindergartners moved on to public school and she scrambled to fill the slots.

School, Welfare Factors

Many directors say the fluctuations are seasonal, with September being the lowest ebb. The city is planning to determine eligibility based on the average over the entire year.

The centers also serve parents on public assistance, and directors say that the strict guidelines for maintaining benefits can cause that population to fluctuate unexpectedly.

"If they miss their classes or work assignments, that's it, they get pulled," said Mattie Davis-Greene, the director of the Billy Martin Child Development Center in Clinton Hill. "It happens all the time."

Foresees Closing

Ms. Davis-Greene is expecting her center, located on the ground floor of the Lafayette Gardens public housing complex, to be downsized. She currently has 55 children enrolled, with a capacity of 75.

The local public school has begun to stay open for after-school care until 6 p.m., which has drained school-age children away from the center, in part because parents do not have to go through an eligibility process to attend the public-school programs.

"If they would give us even a part-time budget line," she said, "I could have a part-time Teacher's Aide who spends the rest of her time doing recruitment."

The 35-year veteran of the day-care system has been trying to open a classroom serving six- to 18-month-olds, based on numerous requests she has received from parents. She has an open room but it has no sprinkler system, which is required by law. She put in a work order to the Housing Authority, but has been told there is no money for the upgrade, and ACS will not pay for the improvement.

Bake Sales and Raffles

Elaine Short, the director of Lucille Ross Day Care Center in Far Rockaway, is at 90 percent capacity, but says even a 10 percent cut in her budget would be damaging. She has been holding bake sales and raffles - convincing a friendly vendor to donate a television - to raise money so she can place advertisements in local newspapers. But she argued that ACS should allocate funds to allow for a more comprehensive outreach campaign.

Commissioner Mattingly was cool to the idea. "Wanting to be compensated for making sure their center is filled, I think, is not appropriate," he said at a Feb. 12 press briefing. "I don't think we should continue with the process of allowing it to be a shared responsibility, because then no one is responsible."

Center directors argue that they need more resources and that the accountability for recruitment is coming on top of a task added by ACS two years ago - administering eligibility intakes. Parents can now apply at a center directly, instead of going to a field office, which can be a significant distance away. Center staff, however, now has to perform the intake, which can take between 15 and 30 minutes per parent, and then physically take the paperwork to the field office themselves.

"They are cutting their staff while sending the responsibility to us," said Cynthia Sanders, the director at the National Sorority Phi Delta Kappa Early Childhood Education Center in Jamaica, Queens.

On the Web

ACS is planning to roll out a new on-line enrollment and attendance system that it hopes will streamline the eligibility process. It will be piloted at 17 programs in Brooklyn and then spread citywide beginning in September. Officials hope the new funding plan will save about $4 million next year and they plan to use $2 million of that to provide technical assistance to the centers.

The change to the funding system has met with significant opposition from the unions that represent center workers and the non-profits that manage the centers.

District Council 1707 Executive Director Raglan George Jr. called for a moratorium on any changes until after employees are trained on recruitment and the new computerized enrollment system.

"You need to phase in this type of a system," said Daycare Council of New York Executive Director Andrea Anthony, who runs the membership organization for child-care providers including the ACS-funded day-care centers. "Try it the first year and evaluate what worked and what didn't. Don't just yank the money out of the system."

Council Worries

Several City Council members also expressed misgivings about the changes and the possibility that more centers could close, in light of the fact that 17 have shut since 2004.

"The first question is, what can we do to fill capacity?" said General Welfare Council Committee Chair Bill de Blasio. "They're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Hopefully we'll find a way to change the plan through the budget process."