ACS To Slash $60 Million From Child Care Funds
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In an effort to cut $60 million from its budget, the city’s Administration for Children Services said Thursday that it will slash needed funding to some child care centers. NY1’s Molly Kroon filed the following report.City Council members are up in arms over proposed cuts by the city's Administration for Children Services which would slash funding to some child care centers.
ACS Commissioner John Mattingly acknowledged before the council Thursday that the cuts are painful but necessary.
"Failure on our part to take action is likely to push the system to a point where we would be forced to shut the doors of child care centers throughout the city," said Mattingly. "The choice that we have to make is difficult, but we are out of alternatives."
Critics in the council feared that the cuts will include cutting some centers.
"This new proposal threatens the existence of numerous child care facilities around the city, as simple as that," said Brooklyn Councilman Bill de Blasio.
The city plans to reduce aid to 21 centers that have at least 15 vacancies. If the centers close, the agency said it will have to find alternative care for the children.
Brooklyn’s Cooper Park Child Care Center falls under the city's criteria for cuts, and its director Charlotte Striggles said the center plays an important part of the community, where many families are low-income.
"To close this center and deny these parents, grandparents, foster parents the opportunity to better themselves by way of a job or better training because they don’t have child care would be a terrible mistake," said Striggles.
ACS will also stop funding care for four- and five-year-olds, meaning that many kids may have to be transported to other locations after the school day ends until their parents can pick them up after work.
"Most parents are very much concerned about their five-year-old or six-year-old being transferred to an [Out of School Time] site which might by off-site," said Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia James.
The agency also is not going to fill more than 100 vacancies in child protective supervisor positions, but said it will not affect the department's ability to keep children safe.
As the state slashes funding, Mattingly said his agency needs to cut more than $60 million from its budget.
The city will release the list of affected centers next week.