The Administration for Children’s Services will slash the budgets of city-funded day-care centers that aren’t at full capacity in an effort make them more accountable for their own enrollment practices, according to a new plan announced yesterday.
The city currently pays a center $13,000 for each child, with the centers using the leftover funds to cover salaries, buy computers and make other improvements to the facilities.
ACS Commissioner John Mattingly said the city’s 347 child-care centers are currently at 85 percent capacity. A review conducted last November determined there were 4,370 empty slots, which Mattingly said amounts to the city spending an extra $56 million.
Under the new plan, city-run centers – which currently provide day care to 20,000 children – with any empty seats would not get the full sum they are currently allotted.
Instead, ACS will use the extra funds to train staffers at the various centers on better ways to recruit kids and other enrollment procedures.
“The system has to get to the point where the centers feel responsible for their own enrollment,” Mattingly said.
Over the next few months, ACS will conduct a review of all city-subsidized day-care centers to determine current levels of availability.
Mattingly said that during the 2007 fiscal year – which ran from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007 – there were 3,040 unfilled spots.
During that time, the city gave day-care centers $40 million, Mattingly said.
DC 1707, a union that represents many day-care workers, said as many as 6,000 members could lose their jobs as a result of what he said was an effort by the city to “shortchange” the centers.
“The city is trying to shut down these day-care centers one by one,” said G.L. Tyler, the union’s political director.
Tyler said the ACS is ultimately to blame for any empty slots because the agency approves which kids are accepted into each center.
He said as a result of a “bottleneck” at ACS, many kids are not getting the day-care service they applied for because of a long waiting list.
But Mattingly said he did not know how many children are on that list and added that each day-care center keeps its own records, not ACS.
Under-enrollment has been a problem in the past.
The agency has acknowledged there are often barriers to enrollment and addressed the issue last year with the implementation of the “Full Enrollment Initiative.” Its goal was to streamline the enrollment process and expand options for families applying for day care.
ACS, which also oversees the city’s programs of child protection, foster care and adoption, has also worked on ways to simplify enrollment and recertification procedures and determine families’ eligibility on-site.
But yesterday’s announcement caused some panic among parents who feared their center would close now that the city would be spending less.
“I think it’s horrible,” said Elsie Nieves-Ruiz, 42, whose 3-year-old son Timothy attends a day-care center on the Lower East Side. “Day care is very expensive.”