For most of our ACS school-age children, the DYCD OST programs will not be an option.

Our 133 ACS centers providing quality year-round out-of-school-time care for 5,700 young school-age children from 283 public schools and parochial schools all over the city.

But DYCD is replacing them with only 73 OST Year-Round centers. And only 32 of those centers serve any of the schools that our ACS children go to.

Only 22 of those DYCD centers have been given added slots, so they are the only centers that would have room to take in any of our children if our school-age classrooms get shut down this fall.

So just 700 of our 5,700 school-age children will have a DYCD OST Year-Round center to go to if ACS closes our school-age classrooms September 8th.

But this is not a done deal . . .

Under State law, if ACS closes our school-age classroom, the children are still eligible for subsidized child care, and their parents are entitled to ACS voucher funding to pay for child care of their choice. The City is presenting this as their only option but there is still time to fight to keep our school-age programs open.

Cutting off good, safe child care for 5,000 young school-age children this September is simply unacceptable. The City Council needs to tell the Mayor to renew our ACS contracts for school-age child care. It will cost no more than funding our classrooms with vouchers.

The Mayor promised the City Council there would be no cut in school-age child care . . .

Two years ago, Mayor Bloomberg asked the City Council to approve his plan to save money by transferring the funding for school-age centers from ACS to DYCD. The City Council agreed to it only after getting his written commitment that there would be no cut in year-round child care services for working parents.

We urge the Council to hold the Mayor to his promise and restore the funding to our ACS school-age child care classrooms.

For further information,
Contact: Neal Tepel or Michael Green at 212-219-0022.