Say shift from day care to PS cuts slots

The New York Times
By Frank Lombardi
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006

A major shift in how the city funds after-school programs used by 5,700 grade-schoolers is causing havoc for many low-income parents, according to City Council members and other critics.

Hundreds and perhaps thousands of children are having their after-school care disrupted by the long-pending transition, which technically kicked in Monday, the critics contend.

"It's going to be a big problem," said Councilman Bill de Blasio (D-Park Slope), chairman of the General Welfare Committee. "There are hundreds of families who had after-school child care under the prior system who don't have it any more."

A statement issued by the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), which will now run the after-school programs, assured that children affected by the transition will be "given priority status to enroll" in the new program, called the Out of School Time initiative.

Previously, the affected children were attending after-school programs funded and controlled by the Administration for Children's Services.

The ACS after-school programs contracted with local nonprofit day care centers, who used unionized staffs to provide structured care for the children at their centers. The cost per child was estimated at about $4,000.

Under the new DYCD system, the after-school programs will be largely based in strategically located public schools and will use lower-salaried nonunion staffs. The cost per student has been estimated at about $2,000 a year.

The controversial changeover was first proposed during a budget crunch in 2003 to save $15 million a year in operating costs. But there were delays in implementing the changes.

The full impact of the transition from ACS to DYCD is now hitting home, according to officials of District Council 1707, Local 205, the union that represents the workers that had operated the ACS-funded system.

"This is a nightmare," said Sandy Socolar, senior policy analyst for DC 1707.

She contended that only 800 of the 5,700 children who previously attended the ACS-funded after-school programs have been assured placement in the DYCD system.

Many of the DYCD programs are run out of schools that aren't easily accessible to many of the children previously served by ACS, she and other critics said.

Councilwoman Letitia James (WFP-Fort Greene) said her district has been hard-hit by the switch. "I'm getting big-time complaints from parents in central Brooklyn," she said.