Audit Report On The Administration For Children’s Services’ Monitoring Of The Screening Of Personnel By Contracted Child Care Centers

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This audit was conducted to determine whether the New York City (City) Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) effectively monitors its EarlyLearn NYC contracted child care centers’ screening of personnel.  ACS is responsible for protecting the safety and promoting the well-being of children and their families.  To meet this mandate, ACS’ responsibilities include investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect, overseeing foster care services, and coordinating affordable child care and early education services for over 100,000 children.  Child care centers provide essential services for many City families, including education, recreation, and a safe and structured environment for children while their parents work.

As part of its effort to provide affordable child care and early education services, ACS makes seats available in its EarlyLearn NYC program for approximately 30,000 children whose families meet income-eligibility requirements.  In that program, ACS contracts with and oversees privately-operated child care centers licensed by the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH).  According to a dataset provided by ACS, there were 144 contractors operating a total of 367 EarlyLearn NYC child care centers throughout the 5 boroughs as of August 22, 2017.

ACS’ standard EarlyLearn NYC contract requires that all contractors comply with City statutes and regulations, including Article 47 of the New York City Health Code.  By virtue of the contract and the applicable law, EarlyLearn NYC contractors are required to, among other things, verify the qualifications and references of prospective teaching personnel and complete criminal and child abuse and maltreatment screenings prior to the start dates of those and any other prospective personnel who would have the potential for unsupervised contact with children.

Under New York City Administrative Code §21-119, employees and volunteers who provide child care services under contract with the City must be fingerprinted and screened for criminal convictions and pending criminal actions by the City Department of Investigation (DOI).  New York City Administrative Code §21-119 further states that all child care programs that are subject to licensing by DOHMH must submit clearance requests for their personnel to the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR).  The ACS Division of Early Care and Education (ECE) is responsible for monitoring EarlyLearn NYC child care centers to ensure compliance with their contracts and with the applicable statutes and regulations.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

ACS needs to improve the agency’s monitoring of its contractors’ personnel screening efforts to better ensure that the individuals working in the EarlyLearn NYC child care centers have obtained the necessary clearances, received the required child abuse and maltreatment awareness training, and met the standards for the positions to which they have been assigned.  ACS also needs to strengthen its system for tracking and reviewing the personnel-related documentation its contractors are required to submit on a monthly basis.  Further, ACS needs to enhance the accuracy and completeness of its site visit reports and the effectiveness of its follow-up efforts to ensure that its contractors promptly address the deficiencies identified during the site visits.  In addition, ACS needs to develop written policies and procedures to better guide its monitoring efforts in this area as well as its contractors’ personnel screening and documentation efforts.  Effective personnel screening is essential to ensure that the children at child care centers are being taught and cared for by qualified individuals with appropriate background clearances.

Audit Recommendations

To address these issues, the audit makes a total of 13 recommendations, including the following:

• ACS should develop formal guidelines for its contracted child care centers to follow concerning the qualifications for teacher’s aides and substitutes.
• ACS should develop mechanisms, such as checklists, to more effectively track and organize its contractors’ submissions of documentation concerning vacancies and new hires to ensure that it is aware of all new hires and that the new hires fulfill the requirements for their new positions.
• ACS should ensure that it reviews the contractor’s screening of all new hires (and of a sample of all other staff) during its site visits.
• ACS should enhance its monitoring of site visits to ensure that the information required to be contained in the site visit reports is accurate and complete.
• ACS should ensure that non-compliance issues noted during its site visits are followed up on and resolved in a timely manner and that its files adequately document the resolution of these issues.
• ACS should supplement the guidance provided by the contract by developing written policies and procedures for the EarlyLearn NYC contractors to follow in relation to the screening and hiring of personnel and the submission of related documents to ACS.
• ACS should improve the guidance it provides to its own staff by developing written policies and procedures to clarify their responsibility regarding their review of the contractors’ monthly staff vacancy and new hire reports (along with the attached supporting documentation) and how this information, along with previous site visit reports, should be used to plan and conduct subsequent site visits.

Agency Response

In its written response, ACS generally agreed with the audit’s 13 recommendations and stated that it has already begun to implement them by taking additional steps to ensure that its contracted child care centers are following personnel screening protocols.  Specifically, ACS stated that it has issued additional formal guidance to the centers, scheduled meetings with the centers to make sure that they understand their obligations, and created additional layers of management review to ensure that screening protocols are followed.  The full text of ACS’ response is included as an addendum to this report, with the exception of an email address that we redacted at the request of ACS.