Speaker Adrienne Adams, Council Members, Advocates Outline Solutions for the City’s Early Childhood Education System Together with Parents and Children

 

Speaker Adrienne Adams, alongside Council Members Rita Joseph, Shekar Krishnan, Kevin Riley, Althea Stevens, and Jennifer Gutiérrez, education advocates, providers, and parents and children, outlined a framework of solutions to improve the Department of Education’s administration of New York City’s early childhood education system. The changes are designed to better meet the needs of families, ensure provider stability, and bolster the community-based provider workforce.

“Early childhood education is one of the best investments we can make for our children, working families, and New York City’s economy,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams. “But the city’s 3-K and early childhood education systems are broken and beset by issues from the Department of Education’s administration of them that need to be urgently resolved. The City needs to correct course to address the gaps in our weakened system so we can provide stability for this critical sector. The Council is prepared and eager to work closely with the administration and all stakeholders to right the ship, because when our children and working families succeed, New York City succeeds.”

FRAMEWORK

Course Correction

1. Increase the number of extended-day, extended-year seat options to meet the needs of working families
   1. The Council’s Budget Response calls for the Administration to allocate an additional $15 million to convert 1,000 school day/school year 3-K seats into extended day/extended year seats. This funding would also include signing bonuses to help attract and retain the necessary staff.
2. Allow community-based providers to enroll families directly with them without the need to go through the Department of Education’s centralized process.
3. Put forth an expanded, coordinated outreach and marketing effort to expand enrollment and bring awareness to availability of early childhood education programs.

Sector Stability

1. Fast track all late payments for Fiscal Years ‘22 and 23 and ensure on-time payments for Fiscal Year ‘24.
2. Maintain DOE rapid response teams for future fiscal years.
3. Extend providers’ ability to batch and submit multiple months of invoices for payment.
4. Ensure proper staffing at city agencies including the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Department of Buildings, Administration for Children’s Services, Human Resources Administration and Fire Department to allow timely licensing, permitting, inspections, background checks and eligibility verification that providers need.

Workforce

1. Increase contract to allow community-based providers to offer compensation on par with their DOE counterparts.
   1. The Council calls on the Administration to provide $46 million in additional funding to enable these community-based providers to offer higher wages to their employees commensurate with early childhood educators employed by the DOE.
2. Hire additional staff at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to expedite the Comprehensive Background Check process to allow prospective employees to be cleared and hired.

“High-quality early childhood education can be a game changer for children’s education and must be available to the children who need it most. We appreciate Speaker Adams’ attention to strengthening early childhood education and look forward to working with the Council to ensure that the City has seats in the places where they are needed; that families, including those living in shelters and immigrant families, get information and support to enroll; and that preschoolers with disabilities get the services they have a right to receive,” said Kim Sweet, Executive Director, Advocates for Children of New York.

“New York City’s Early Care and Education system functions as a vital resource for children and families, promoting not only young child development and school readiness, but offering critical support to working parents,” said Jennifer March, executive director at CCC. “Sadly, despite great unmet need, thousands of publicly funded child care, 3-K and UPK seats remain open and parents face daunting barriers accessing programs that meet their needs, with limited options for full-day and year-round care and a cumbersome application and enrollment process. We thank the City Council for their leadership championing solutions to these challenges and building a more sustainable path to universal early care and education in New York City.”

“Settlement houses are pioneers in providing high quality early childhood education programming in New York City, and the last few years have underscored the need for bold action to support these programs. Now is the time to support NYC’s families with options that match their preferences, work hours, budgets, and neighborhoods; and to support the early childhood education workforce through every avenue possible, most crucially through salary parity between community-based organization and DOE staff. We thank Speaker Adams and the New York City Council for addressing this important issue and for fighting for children, families, and educators across the city,” said Susan Stamler, Executive Director, United Neighborhood Houses.