Good morning, and thank you, Chair Joseph and members of the committee, for holding this hearing. It is deeply unfortunate that we find ourselves here today due to this administration’s recent decision to close four childcare sites in Brooklyn, an action that disregards our families and communities. I want to be clear: this is a manufactured crisis caused by poor decision-making by the Mayor, the Department of Education (DOE), and the School Construction Authority (SCA).
Nuestros Niños, Grand Street Settlement, Friends of Crown Heights, and Fort Greene Council are pillars of their communities, providing essential childcare, vital support for parents, and jobs for local residents. As you know, it took hundreds of Brooklynites rallying on the steps of City Hall before the Mayor tasked the DOE and SCA with finding viable solutions to keep these centers open. Yet, here we are again, sounding the alarm because the administration has proposed temporary, inadequate fixes that fail to offer long-term stability for providers and families.
It is outrageous that we have even reached this point. On January 14, the DOE abruptly informed providers and elected officials that the City would not renew leases for four childcare sites—just hours before 3K/Pre-K applications opened—effectively removing these locations as options for families despite their active contracts. Only after significant community pushback did the DOE and SCA agree to a meeting, though not all affected sites were given this opportunity. The administration justified the closures based on three factors: seat utilization, leasing agreements, and community saturation. However, further investigation exposed misleading claims— Nuestros Niños, initially reported to have only four enrolled students, was in fact serving 96 children, the discrepancy due to registration system failures. Moreover, the DOE failed to engage providers in the decision-making process and ignored the broader impact of these closures, such as the loss of Nuestros Niños’ Family Early Childhood Network, which supports over 250 families.
On January 17, a coalition of City Council members, State Assembly members, and State Senators sent a letter to the Mayor demanding a full reversal of the closures, guaranteed placements for affected families, and greater transparency. The Mayor’s response was dismissive, and the DOE initially stood firm on its decision. Only after weeks of relentless organizing—including rallies with hundreds of parents, providers, and elected officials—did the Mayor finally commit to keeping the sites open, mere minutes before our February 6 demonstration at City Hall. Since then, providers have been offered last-minute, inconsistent solutions such as month-to-month leases or one-year extensions, with the administration demanding responses within 24 hours.
The situation at the Grand St. Settlement site further illustrates the moving goalpost the administration has imposed on these centers. Despite the existing site facing no issues with under-enrollment or community saturation, local advocates scrambled to identify alternative locations and even successfully negotiated with the landlord to reduce lease costs. Yet, when presented with this viable compromise, the administration refused, prioritizing landlord disputes over maintaining a state-of-the-art facility for families in the heart of the community.
Given the Mayor’s clear failure to meet the needs of Brooklyn families and DOE and SCA’s lackluster community engagement, we must hold this administration accountable for protecting our childcare providers and the valuable services and job opportunities they provide for our communities. To rectify this injustice and move forward, I am recommending the following actions:
- The City Council must pass Council Member Gutierrez’s Bill Intro 191 to require DCAS to give two years notice of lease expiration to tenants of City-leased properties.
- The DOE must adopt good-faith, transparent practices to ensure that decisions regarding childcare leases are well-informed, options are adequately explored, and elected officials and stakeholders are brought in early and fully so they may help solve for any challenges the centers are facing as they approach the end of their lease.
- The DOE must actively and thoroughly partner with these four Brooklyn sites to mitigate any recruitment challenges that have arisen from their attempted closures and exclusion from the application portal.
- The DOE must commit to seat reconfiguration (extended day vs. school day seats) in alignment with community needs so that expected enrollment rates are achievable.
- The DOE must aggressively begin a transparent RFP process in alignment with expiring leases. Right now, the discrepancy between the RFP’s projected timeline and these centers’ leases mean that a year from now we are going to be in a situation where a) these 1-year extensions are ending; b) the RFP is not ready so centers will need to be granted contract extensions; but c) if these centers no longer have locations, then when the RFP does come out they will not be able to participate.
- The SCA must proactively identify secure locations for new childcare centers to ensure an abundance of options should a bad landlord stand in the way of a good program’s continued operation out of their site.
Thank you again for holding this hearing today, and I look forward to working with the Council on implementing and advocating for these recommendations so that we can avoid this kind of unnecessary situation in the future, continue to provide needed services for our communities, and ultimately ensure that everyone who needs it across the city has access to free, high-quality childcare.