E-mail sent to OCFS executives:

Hello,

As promised in our reform request e-mail sent on Thursday 11/30, we have gathered real-life experiences from providers of every modality across the entire state demonstrating the oppression and injustices of the current regulatory and enforcement process and intend to share them with you daily until our requests are satisfied.

During the height of COVID, childcare programs that remained open to support the essential working families despite health risks spent as much time as possible outdoors to keep everyone safe from the Coronavirus. The outdoor playground area, licensed and approved by OCFS, was mostly fenced other than a part that was sectioned off by large boulders.  A child was playing near the boulders and was able to slip between them, exiting the designated play area temporarily until being brought back by the provider. The provider immediately called the parents and told them what happened followed by a self-report to the licensor. The licensor directed the provider to self-report to CPS as well.  All parents with children in attendance were notified of the incident at pick up.  A couple of days later, licensing and CPS returned to perform an investigation resulting in a handful of violations and, ultimately, a forced closure of the childcare business despite following proper protocol for self-reporting an incident. 

This provider has an intense passion for the childcare profession, earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree, and had been operating a licensed childcare business for over 15 years without ever receiving a single violation previously.  Current and previous families, including the family of the child involved in the incident, rallied around the provider, defending the integrity of the program by contacting OCFS, the local mayor, politicians, and CPS.  The program was finally able to reopen after a 4-month closure, a fine, multiple trainings and classes, and after completing the fence around the perimeter of the playground area.

This provider lost her entire program without notice, leaving essential workers without childcare mid-pandemic, for following self-reporting protocol and being transparent and honest.  These devastating consequences and enforcement policies will deter providers from self-reporting future serious incidents for fear of punishment, which is not in the best interest of children and families.

-Group Family Childcare in The Catskills

Your urgent consideration and action is requested as a systemic reform is long overdue and there are elements of the current regulatory/enforcement process that infringe on our constitutional protections. We eagerly await your response.

NYS Childcare Providers