NYC child care centers say city stalled payments before abrupt closures

Three Brooklyn child care centers facing unexpected closures next year say the city owes them millions of dollars in late payments, calling into question Mayor Eric Adams' justification for ending their leases.

Gothamist reported that five child care centers — four in Brooklyn and one in Queens — were told their city-owned leases would not be renewed last week, less than 24 hours before parents were set to register for the next school year. The abrupt move triggered chaos for hundreds of families and child care providers. And it gave an opening to Adams’ rivals in the Democratic primary, who have seized on his management of early childhood education and the persistent issue of late payments to the city’s nonprofit providers.

The city explained the impending closures by citing low enrollment, noting that the child care sites did not meet the required thresholds. But three of the centers said the city’s numbers were wrong — and that the city has made it increasingly difficult for them to function by withholding funds.

At the Fort Greene Council, staff are still trying to get more than $500,000 in reimbursements from the city since 2020. Staff at Nuestros Niños in Williamsburg said the city owes them nearly $1 million in payments dating back to June. And the Grand Street Settlement, whose Bushwick location is slated for closure, said the city is behind on more than $1 million in payments to its early childhood programs.

All three centers shared email correspondence with Gothamist that shows their staff going back and forth with Department of Education officials, repeatedly asking for guidance, submitting invoices and budget documents, and then resubmitting forms when their requests were rejected. Staff at the three sites were still pleading their cases to city officials as recently as last month, just weeks before the department informed them the leases would not be renewed.

The agency has said suspending the five leases represents significant savings for the city that can be reinvested into early childhood education programs. But the agency has neither responded to Gothamist’s repeated requests for details about how much the city is saving nor explained the reason for the delayed payments.

In a May 2023 email, Fort Greene Council Controller Naquan Taitt wrote in exasperation: “We have submitted $508,364.22 in invoices which have all been approved. However we have not received a dime to date.” He included a screenshot of the invoices, noting they had been approved over a year earlier. “We were told that payment was coming shortly acouple [sic] of times. but todate [sic] nothing. Please please please help!!”

The city’s debt to the Fort Greene Council predates Adams' tenure, which started in 2022. But the organization remained in payment purgatory throughout his administration. By late last year, Taitt was so desperate that he appealed to the mayor directly through the contact page on his public website.

“Hello Honorable Eric Adams and support team,” Taitt wrote in a letter dated Dec. 17, 2024. “I'm humbly inquiring on when we would be able to receive payment for the FY20 DOE contract #00447- Child Care Discretionary expenditures.”

He did not receive a reply.

Taitt said the site currently has 40 children enrolled, with five others awaiting approval from the education department. For next year, he said the center expected those numbers to increase to 61 of their 77 allotted spots, based on January recruitment alone. He also said he anticipated enrollment to keep rising if parents were able to register for the site.

“We just keep getting the runaround,” Taitt said.

On South Fourth Street in Williamsburg, a similarly desperate situation was playing out at Nuestros Niños, which is Spanish for “our children.” In emails from September through December of last year, accountant Shaquaya Givens repeatedly asked Department of Education operations analyst Sergio Mendoza when the site would be paid for outstanding invoices and contracts. The organization sent additional information Mendoza had requested, but he still said the city would not pay, according to the emails.

“I've submitted the payroll history for all instructional staff wages. I've also attached the inventory log to the Expenditure report. Is that not sufficient enough? Can you please advise what is acceptable to upload?” Givens wrote.

“It is enough, but we cannot pay unfortunately,” Mendoza replied. He said the best thing for the organization to do was to submit their budget request for the next fiscal year and make adjustments later.

By December, the situation became so dire that Nuestros Niños’ administrator Ingrid Matias Chungata emailed Tovah Gottesman, the deputy executive director for the Mayor’s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education.

“We have now exhausted our cash reserves and are facing not being able to meet our payroll next week,” Matias Chungata wrote on Dec. 18, 2024. “Without the necessary funds, we will not be able to meet our obligations, which include paying our employees during the holiday season.”

A month later, with the payments still outstanding, the city told the center it was scrapping the lease at their site.

Adams signaled he was open to reviewing the closures at a press conference earlier this week. But he said the city was paying $1 million in rent for the facility, and only four students appeared to be enrolled.

“That just doesn't add up,” Adams said on Tuesday, adding that if the city’s numbers were off, officials would speak with providers.

Matias Chungata shared her class rosters with Gothamist, which showed 96 students are attending Nuestros Niños’ early childhood education programs — 24 times more than the city’s figures. She said no one from the city had reached out to ask why their enrollment appeared so low.

“No one calls us,” Matias Chungata said. “We’re completely disconnected from the DOE. They have left us to fend for ourselves practically.”

Even the 109-year-old Grand Street Settlement has been forced to plead with the city for payments. In a letter to Deputy Chancellor Simone Hawkins last September, the organization’s CEO Robert Cordero listed seven different contracts where the city was behind on payments, for a total of slightly over $1.033 million.

“Grand Street Settlement is in jeopardy of missing our next payroll due to the severe cash crunch from delayed DOE receivables,” he wrote. He told Gothamist that those contracts represented only part of what the city owes, and that the total debt was over $3.5 million across programs.

The storied organization hosted Gov. Kathy Hochul at its Bushwick Child and Family Center this month for a photo op promoting her “affordability” agenda. A week later, the city told Grand Street Settlement the Bushwick center would be closed. The lease at the site does not fall under the state’s jurisdiction.

City education officials have acknowledged they could have done a better job communicating to the centers about the lease renewal decisions. They also have insisted they are committed to helping all families find seats at alternative sites.

“For the families that are affected by these closures, please know that these changes are not immediate, we have seats available at nearby programs, and we will work with them one-on-one to find the right placement for their children,” Chyann Tull, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, said in a statement last week.

Matias Chungata said she was still holding out hope her program would be spared. She held a rally outside her site on Friday morning with supporters, the unions that represent her workers, and elected officials, including Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso (who attended the facility as a child), Rep. Nydia Velázquez, and mayoral candidate and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie.

The Grand Street Settlement held a similar event with City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander at its Lower East Side site on Thursday.

Speaking directly to Adams, Cordero urged him to visit the sites slated for closure.

“ I personally invite you, Mayor Adams, to Grand Street Settlement so that you understand the impact of decisions that are made from folks in your administration that I'm not sure you fully agree with,” the CEO said. “There are ways to reverse this.”