NYC Publicly Funded Child Care: Can Project Full Enrollment Work?

By Freddie HamiltonChild Care Business Connections
Over the last few months I have gotten mixed messages as I talked to people about the future of child care programs that have contracts with the Administration for Children’s Services. On April 10th there was a hearing held by Council member Bill deBlasio, Chairperson of the General Welfare committee. At issue is ACS’s intention to implement Project Full Enrollment. Although there have been rumblings and rumors in the child care community for many months now, a few days ago the ACS Press Office assured me that there are no imminent moves planned against child care centers. Regardless, since 2004 the child care community has lost 17 centers and 1,100 slots from the system. Now many centers are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Many of the centers have a laundry list of problems including facilities in disrepair; staff vacancies or staff that don’t meet licensing qualifications; inept or disinterested sponsoring boards, difficulty in negotiating market rate leases and a lack of sufficient funds. However it seems that at present ACS is closely focused on the high vacancy rate among child care centers. I have heard, from talking with center directors, that some centers are more than 50% below their licensed capacity and a small number of centers that are licensed to accommodate large numbers of children are down to as few as 12 to 15 children. Since we know that there are thousands of low income children needing child care it’s important for us to understand what’s causing low enrollment. As ACS moves to change the way in which it funds programs; in essence implementing its plan to pay centers only for the children that are enrolled and attending, centers will not be able to survive unless they are fully enrolled. Even with full enrollment centers will need ACS to provide substantial indirect cost in the per child payment.

Losing these important resources for parents and children is unthinkable and we can’t allow this to happen. It is already difficult for subsidy eligible working parents to access child care. Despite their many issues these centers offer safe, structured and developmentally appropriate learning environments for a huge number of children in our city, primarily for families already facing work and family related stresses. While the current economic environment may force some consolidation of programs, NYC should remain committed to maintaining the current level of subsidized child care slots; as they are allotted to each community. Of course as tax payers we cannot support maintaining programs that are not striving to maximize the use of the funds and resources allotted to them.

Without pointing fingers, the Administration for Children’s Service (ACS), the unions involved, local 1707 and CSA, and the child care centers themselves should come together to fix these problems. The truth is that until recently the Agency for Child Development, before it was placed under the auspices of the Administration for Children’s Services, had a very paternalistic relationship with child care programs.
Subsidy eligible children were certified by ACD and assigned to centers in their neighborhoods. Child care programs were not required to actively recruit children or market their programs. In addition, many of the business aspects for the administration and management of the programs were handled centrally by ACD.
Now, under the auspices of ACS the child care programs are being required, in a relatively short time, to change how they understand their new relationship to ACS and their responsibilities in operating their programs. It is important for ACS to acknowledge its role in creating the culture that it now needs to change. Although ACS has now placed the responsibility for recruitment and enrollment on the centers, so far they have not added funding for more staff, and training for programs to assume these new responsibilities.

Another major challenge here is to help child care program administrators change their perception of their responsibilities in administering and managing their programs. New job descriptions and skill-sets are necessary for program managers in order to help them come to grips with the business aspects of operating their centers. They then need training and technical assistance in meeting these new requirements.

The unions that represent staff and administrators should focus on working together with ACS to help their members gain the necessary orientation and skills that they will need to run successful and quality child care programs. Of course we also need the help of our legislators. NYC Council members need to stay informed about what’s happening to centers in their district. Councilmember Leticia James, 35th Council District, has been very focused on this issue and has helped a number of centers in her district develop various strategies to address the new challenges. We cannot afford to lose all the important gains we have made in providing quality, safe and affordable child care to New York City’s families.