NYC Children’s Services Officials Roll Out New Plan: “Rethinking
Child Care”
By Emily Sherwood, Ph.D.
Can Mayor Bloomberg
and the NYC Administration for Children’s
Services (ACS) follow through on their promise to reform the
city’s early child care system? Recently, the New School
University’s Milano Graduate School of Management and
Public Policy brought together officials from ACS as well as
a panel of child care advocates to discuss the specifics of
a much-heralded new plan, “Rethinking Child Care,” for
improving accessibility and continuity of the city’s
early child care services while ratcheting up their efficiency
and accountability.
Based on data that
show that high quality, early learning programs can and do
improve children’s chances for later
successes in school and in life, “Rethinking Child Care” is
rethinking big. John Mattingly, ACS Commissioner, kicked off
the Milano program by promising that “we’re going
to make some history in early childhood care.” His plan
hopes to coordinate a patchwork quilt of centers and home-based
providers that provide subsidized care to more than 135,000
NYC children under the age of six, and that are currently overseen
by three separate city agencies: ACS, the Human Resources Administration
(HRA), and the Department of Education (DOE).
Mattingly’s Deputy
Commissioner, Dr. Ajay Chaudry, a former Milano faculty member
and author of Putting Children First: How Low-Wage Mothers
Manage Child Care, filled in the details with a six-point
strategic plan worthy of any Fortune 500 company:
With data showing that the current system accommodates only
30 percent of the estimated 275,000 children from low-income
families in NYC and only seven percent of children under two
(and research shows that a huge portion of human development
occurs under the age of two), the ACS will shift services to
target the neediest families. The plan will eventually modify
contracts to reimburse providers based on actual enrollment
and enable programs to enroll voucher and private-pay families.
Because current red tape discourages families from seeking
services, the plan will simplify enrollment forms, streamline
eligibility and community-based enrollment, and redesign the
parent information system.
To improve and monitor the quality of care, ACS will develop
a single assessment mechanism while improving the oversight
of home-based care and performing background checks on informal
providers.
To improve facility expansion and management, the plan will
train and support sponsors to take responsibility for maintaining
and negotiating their own leases, while developing new facilities
in underserved areas.
To remedy the fragmented child care system, the ACS will coordinate
inter-agency data oversight and integrate its own child care
and Head Start functions.
To streamline services for low-income families, the City will
integrate the child care provided by HRA (to recipients of
public assistance engaged in work activities) within ACS.
Most panel and audience
members welcomed ACS’ program
overhaul as long-overdue. Several agency directors expressed
concern about the new requirement that providers attain 100
percent client enrollment in order to maximize systemic efficiency.
One provider stated her concern that this could force agencies
to serve only the most stable families. Dr. Chaudry defended
the requirement as a means for redistributing services from
underutilized programs to those with greatest need, and he
promised that ACD will offer technical assistance to help providers
improve their service utilization.
Some providers further
questioned whether the efficiencies included in ACS’ model, such as the 100 percent utilization
requirement, are actually budget cuts masking as program overhauls.
Panel member Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public
Policy at the National Women’s Law Center, noted that “the
picture in Washington is not very bright,” referring
to a House Ways and Means Committee spending bill that would
enact multi-billion dollar federal budget cuts in child care
programs over the next five years. “To raise money for
Hurricane Katrina victims, new funds must be offset by cuts
in other programs,” added Blank.
However, she urged
that it is all the more “essential
that states and communities lead the way” for the rest
of the country. “Keep telling the people in Washington
that you’re on the right track, because they’re
on the wrong one,” urged Blank.
In a telephone interview
with Sandy Socolar, Child Care Analyst for District Council
1707, AFSCME, Education Update has learned that there is
far deeper community concern about ACS’ proposed
realignment. For starters, the plan was a “complete surprise…developed
in-house….without community involvement,” according
to Socolar. Among the most egregious problems, the new 100
percent enrollment requirement “changes the fundamental
bedrock funding policy for day care centers.” If reimbursement
moves to a per child basis based on attendance, “boards
of directors won’t know if they have enough money to
pay their staff.”
A second major concern
is the new stipulation that agencies take on the direct leases
with their landlords. Because the city is entitled to terminate
its contract with an agency at any time, both landlords and
agency boards of directors would be hesitant to assume the
financial risk of a lease without NYC backing. But the real “elephant in the living room,” according
to Socolar, is ACS’ assertion that it will shift its
funding to underserved age groups.
“ACS will still have to provide voucher funding for
the school-aged children whom they plan to displace from currently
existing child care centers, which will not leave ACS with
the funds to support more infants and children. Furthermore,
infants and children can be well served at much less cost in
family day care homes,” asserts Socolar. Socolar promises
that the day care unions will “put together an improved
plan. We hope to point out misdirection and move it in the
right direction,” she concludes.#
