Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Early Childhood Education (ECE) site leases and enrollment levels
2:56:49
ยท
6 min
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about Early Childhood Education (ECE) site leases and enrollment levels. DOE officials provide information on enrollment standards, lease renewal decisions, and communication with providers:
- 773 out of 2,017 sites (38%) meet the 95% enrollment threshold
- The DOE clarifies that being below 95% enrollment does not automatically put a site at risk of closure
- Lease renewal decisions are based on multiple factors, not just enrollment numbers
- The DOE acknowledges the need for better communication with providers about enrollment levels and lease decisions.
- Monthly meetings have been set up with providers to improve engagement and address concerns.
- The department emphasizes its efforts to be more responsive to requests for technical assistance from providers.
Rita Joseph
2:56:49
So I'm gonna talk about early childhood site leases, my favorite topic.
2:57:00
One of many.
2:57:09
So how many ECE sites have 95% or greater enrollment, and how many sites are not at 95% and may be in the same situation as the five sites that were almost closed last month?
Jeff Klein
2:57:23
Sure.
2:57:23
Just one moment, chair.
Daniel Weisberg
2:57:29
While Jeff, chair, while Jeff is, getting the data up so we can respond to your questions specifically, just wanna clarify and reassure.
2:57:40
You know, it's not that if you're at less than 95% of your 92% enrollment, you're somehow in a risk of having your contract pulled.
2:57:49
That that's not the case at all.
2:57:51
The these five sites that were an issue had specific conditions around their leases.
2:57:58
In some cases, lease was ending.
2:58:01
In some cases, the landlord was asking for a lot.
2:58:07
So enrollment certainly was a part of it.
2:58:09
And we do, as we said earlier, have a 95% standard in terms of that's what we consider to be fully enrolled.
2:58:16
But we don't want to send any impression.
2:58:18
I want to make sure our communication is clear on that.
2:58:21
Doesn't mean that you're at risk of some negative action being taken just because you're below 95%.
2:58:28
Whether you are in a lease side, and most of our CBOs, as you know, are not in sites that we lease.
2:58:34
They're in their own properties that they lease or otherwise have access to.
2:58:39
So I just wanna give that a high level before Jeff dove into the specifics.
Jeff Klein
2:58:43
Yeah, that's right.
2:58:44
An important point about those particular five sites was they were in communities that could absorb impacted children.
2:58:51
So that was something that was looked at for those as well.
2:58:54
But those discussions were largely driven by upcoming lease expirations.
2:58:58
But as to your question about how many are at the 95% enrollment threshold, seven seventy three sites out of our twenty seventeen, that's 38%.
2:59:12
And Dan mentioned that our standard for full is 95% citywide, but just note that that is less than the federal standard of 97% that's held by the Office of Head Start.
Rita Joseph
2:59:22
So to clarify, I'm at 90% I'm on provider, you're not gonna come and shut me down?
Jeff Klein
2:59:27
No ma'am, no we will not.
2:59:31
And we also don't want to characterize a program at 90% as low enrollment.
2:59:37
It's under the standard of full but we wouldn't characterize that as low.
Rita Joseph
2:59:41
So I think maybe the language has to change in that messaging, right?
2:59:45
So the general public doesn't see it or hear it that way unless you come here and we ask you for that, right?
Jeff Klein
2:59:50
We've definitely seen the need to communicate enrollment and enrollment levels better with that situation with the five leases.
2:59:57
Yes,
Rita Joseph
2:59:58
thank you.
2:59:58
Thank you for that.
2:59:59
How many sites have not been renewed due to low enrollment numbers?
Jeff Klein
3:00:07
So we haven't only driven decisions about lease renewals by enrollment numbers as I mentioned.
3:00:14
There are several factors that will go into whether we should decide to renew these city assets.
3:00:21
In many cases they were asking for ten, fifteen or twenty year leases, which far outlast our contracts for service provisions, and what we have secured funding for.
3:00:32
So we have to make those decisions in accordance with community need, what we have secured funding for.
3:00:39
And we are not merely looking to not renew a lease because of enrollment.
3:00:45
So that has not historically been done.
3:00:48
I think in the five cases that we've been talking about, we've mentioned their enrollment levels mainly because we wanted to demonstrate that the children at those sites could be placed elsewhere in the community, right, that we had community capacity to absorb those children and that for the past three fiscal years, some of those sites were significantly under enrolled.
Rita Joseph
3:01:12
The community was saying that that wasn't the case, that the numbers were right and you guys were wrong.
3:01:22
So that's what led to that and it was a miscommunication.
3:01:25
So I hope that this communication is working.
3:01:29
Yeah,
Jeff Klein
3:01:32
so we rely on the system of record that really determines how we can reimburse programs and in one particular case, we saw that there were only four children in that system of record.
3:01:45
It is the program's responsibility to maintain these accurate records because we have 1,500 contracts with CBOs and our site support staff are there to coach pedagogy, they're not there to audit enrollment records.
3:02:01
So we really rely on programs to partner with us in making sure these figures are accurate.
3:02:10
And really in the end, they need those figures to be accurate so they can be properly reimbursed.
Rita Joseph
3:02:15
And that was one of the questions I asked, do you provide technical support?
3:02:19
Do you provide customer service?
3:02:21
Which a lot of providers I've always heard from was they can email you days in and days out and no one responds, no one pick up their calls.
3:02:29
So again, and I think we agreed in the last hearing that communication will be much, much better to providers.
3:02:36
So we're providing a service to our communities and they have to in turn have information as well.
Jeff Klein
3:02:41
And add, Chair, that we have since dealing with these five sites set up monthly meetings with them with our enrollment team, our eligibility team, our finance team, our policy team, And we're meeting with them ahead of that to ensure that the agenda meets the moment.
3:02:56
That we are discussing things that are truly pertinent to them.
3:02:59
And we're really trying to improve that kind of engagement across the board.
3:03:02
I will say since DC Hawkins assumed her role, we have really made an effort to be responsive.
3:03:10
We don't let requests that come in for technical assistance go unresponded to.
3:03:18
But if there are any cases that you know of, we'd love to hear about it because we we have taken, you know, really, really immense efforts to ensure that that does not happen.
Rita Joseph
3:03:27
Oh, don't have to tell me twice.