Families scrambling after NYC ends leases at 5 early child care centers

On Jan. 7, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed a new $110 million fund to build and upgrade child care facilities. She spoke at Grand Street Settlement’s Bushwick Child and Family Center in Brooklyn, where she thanked leadership and teachers for their “extraordinary work” giving “new chances to kids who grow up in a circumstance where life has been hard” through 3-K, pre-K and other programs.

Less than two weeks later, that location is now among five early childhood programs in Brooklyn and Queens that have been told that the education department will not be renewing their leases in city-controlled buildings. Education officials cite low enrollment and a glut of similar programs nearby. But Grand Street Settlement CEO Robert Cordero, who stood next to Hochul at the press conference, said the location is fully enrolled with 75 kids and has a waitlist.

“We’re going in the wrong direction,” said Cordero, who stood beside Hochul at the press conference. “We should have universal child care.”

At least four other early child care centers were notified that their leases will not be renewed, according to the City Council and the Brooklyn borough president’s office. The facilities offer an array of early childhood offerings, in some cases serving kids from birth, as well as 3-K, pre-K and kindergarten programs.

In Brooklyn, Nuestros Niños on South 4th Street in Williamsburg, Friends of Crown Heights on Prospect Place near Utica Avenue, and the Fort Greene Council on Fulton Street at Grand Avenue will not have their leases renewed.

All My Children Daycare and Nursery School in South Jamaica, Queens, faces the same predicament.

“I just found out and I went into panic mode,” said Sergio De Jesus, 32, whose 4-year-old son attends pre-K at Nuestros Niños. He works for the Brooklyn borough president’s office supporting the executive teams.

The leases for both Grand Street Settlement and Nuestros Niños’ expire on June 30. Neither is able to enroll new students at the moment. The city said it would help families find new programs for their kids.

“These cuts have left parents, who thought they could rely on the promise of universal 3-K, without adequate options — forcing many to pay tens of thousands of dollars for private care they hadn’t budgeted for,” said Rebecca Bailin, of New Yorkers United for Child Care.

The move comes as Mayor Eric Adams presented a preliminary budget that augured a repeat of last year’s fight over $112 million in funding for 3-K. Adams says that money was dependent on federal pandemic relief funding. Many city councilmembers and advocates say Adams must maintain the funding for all early childhood education programs if he’s serious about addressing affordability.

“​​The council is concerned that we’re gonna have déjà vu all over again in early childhood education,” said Councilmember Justin Brannan, who chairs the budget committee. “[Early childhood education] is once again gonna be a big budget battle…Early childhood education is not only proven to be effective and a game-changer not only for families but for the economy and it’s also super popular with voters. I don’t know why in an election year the mayor would play games with early childhood education.”

Nuestros Niños has been in the same location in Williamsburg for more than 50 years and currently serves 96 kids. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso attended programs there when he was growing up in the neighborhood.

Executive Director Ingrid Matias Chungata said she only learned the lease would not be renewed after alarmed parents and staff began inquiring about why the site had vanished from the education department’s MySchools app. Parents use the app to select schools and child care programs.

“It’s like a  slap in the face for the work that we have been doing for so long,” Chungata said.

The shuttering of the South Fourth Street site will disrupt services at Nuestros Niños’ other two locations in Brooklyn, according to Chungata. Food prep and at-home services for 288 children are suddenly facing huge logistical challenges.

“New York City Public Schools is committed to supporting all enrolled families during this transition to identify a nearby program. We have seats available at nearby programs, and our Division of Early Childhood Education and Office of Student Enrollment will work with impacted families one-on-one to find the right placement for their children,” education department spokesperson Chyann Tull said.

A report from the Fiscal Policy Institute last year found that households with young children make up 14% of the city’s population, but represent 30% of those moving out of the five boroughs.

Democrats have signaled that child care will be a central issue in this year’s primary for mayor, highlighting the issue as a key driver of the city’s affordability crisis. Adams’ rivals have seized on criticism that he was not committed to early child care education – particularly 3-K. Last summer about 2,500 parents received notices that no space was available for their kids in free 3-K programs they had selected, despite a pledge from Adams that everyone would get a seat who wanted one. The education department later said all parents had received offers, but the episode further eroded trust between City Hall and parent advocates.

Adams has said his administration had to make tough choices about early childhood education due to a lack of federal funding and the de Blasio administration’s poor management of the programs. He argued the program was run inefficiently, with a glut of seats in certain neighborhoods but too few seats to satisfy demand in others.

Cordero said the city justified not renewing Grand Street Settlement’s lease for the Bushwick location by citing low enrollment numbers. But Cordero said the city had it wrong, and that the facility is fully enrolled and has a waitlist.

He suspected the city was shedding real estate to save money. But the result, he feared, was “child care deserts within neighborhoods.”