Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958
Jennifer Chait (212) 788-8479
This proposed local law will extend the provisions of Local Law 45 of 1992 for an additional seven months, continuing to provide safeguards and service enhancements for children enrolled in family day care homes. The provisions of Local Law 45 give the Administration for Children's Services' Agency for Child Development (ACS/ACD) the ability to ensure that each family day care home is visited and inspected by a family day care sponsoring organization before a child is placed in that home. In addition, the law ensures that each guardian in a home where a child is placed will receive training from the family day care providers on how to keep the best interests of the child at hand.
While I support the intent of Intro. 319-A, and am prepared to sign the bill into law, I am disappointed that this proposed local law will only extend the provisions of Local Law 45 of 1992 for a mere seven months. Local Law 45 was enacted with a one-year sunset provision, since a portion of the funding for the inspections was provided by the State and subject to annual apportionment. Since the bill's passage in 1992, however, the funding has been approved on an annual basis, and hence the sunset provision has been extended by the City Council and signed by the Mayoralty in one year increments.
I fully support the provisions of the original bill by the City Council, and I support its extension because it will require family day care programs to fulfill specific mandates to protect the interests of our children. I am disappointed that the City Council failed to extend this important legislation for an additional full year, as has previously been the case.
By extending the family day care law for an arbitrary seven month period, the Council is creating an administrative burden on the agency, and may additionally present policy and fiscal concerns with regard to implementation of the day care service.
Having expressed these concerns, I will now turn to the bill's sponsor, and then to any other elected official wishing to speak.
For the reasons previously stated, I will now sign the bill.