Brooklyn Borough President

BROOKLYN CHILDREN STILL WAITING EVEN WITH OPEN DAYCARE SLOTS

A recent report by New York City Comptroller William Thompson highlights that 830 city-funded Brooklyn daycare slots are open, even though Brooklyn has almost 6700 children on waiting lists - the largest of any borough. Brooklyn has a total current capacity of almost 15,000 slots. Comptroller Thompson estimates that empty daycare slots are costing the City $17.3 million annually.

“This is very disturbing news. Even during these very difficult times, we must ensure that the City is doing everything it can to take care of those most vulnerable,” Borough President Markowitz said. “Not only are Brooklyn parents being shortchanged, and potentially deprived of the ability to work, but this is also costing the City millions at a time when every single dollar must be spent as efficiently and effectively as possible.”

The City fully funds 344 daycare centers operated by sponsors who have contracts with the Agency for Child Development (ACD) to provide care exclusively to publicly subsidized, low-income children. Roughly 32,000 ACD children receive care through these centers, according to the Administration for Children’s Services. City contracts provide a budget to the center based on the number of children the center has the capacity to serve.

The Borough President is calling on the City to investigate the causes for underenrollment of Brooklyn daycare centers. Also, he wants to make sure that ACD has adequate staffing to carry out its duties. The Borough President also believes the City must put systems into place to streamline government operations in order to eliminate unnecessary levels of bureaucracy, so that eligibility paper work will be processed efficiently and tracking systems improved.