New York City to fast track payments to early childhood education programs
NEW YORK - New York City has announced a plan to finally pay a lot of money it owes for its pre-school programs.
As CBS2's Natalie Duddridge reports, for months, child care providers have been complaining they aren't getting paid.
Sasha Maslouski runs a home day care, working as contractor with the Department of Education's publicly funded 3-K and 4-K program, which is basically free pre-school for 3- and 4-year-olds. But two months into the school year, payments are still behind.
"I know people now in November waiting still to get paid for September," she said. "I was able to function September and October from my own savings. I was able to pay my staff, I was able to pay rent."
Thursday, the schools chancellor announced a rapid-response plan to fix the problem.
"We are going to pay the providers, all providers, at least 75 percent of their contract ... No matter how low your enrollment dipped," Schools Chancellor David Banks said.
"We are very relieved that the city is honoring this commitment," said Gregory Brender, chief policy and innovation officer at the Day Care Council of New York.
Educators blame COVID for creating a child care crisis.
"The pandemic did greatly destabilize the early childhood education system," Brender said. "You had programs that transitioned from being in-person to being remote, you had loss of enrollment, change of enrollment as people's circumstances changed."
Banks also says his team inherited challenges from the previous administration, which created the 130,000 seat 3-K and 4-K program that he says grew too quickly, as 40,000 seats are still empty.
Yet in some neighborhoods with limited child care, there are long waitlists. It's also stressful for parents who say it's hard to find a program that meets their needs.
"Very important. Without it, a lot of parents can't work," one parent said.
The schools chancellor says the problem is pre-k programs are unequally distributed around the city; that's the next project the DOE is tackling -- making sure every child has a seat.