Audit Report On The Department Of Youth And Community Development’s Monitoring Of Criminal History And Child Abuse And Maltreatment Checks By Out-Of-School Time Programs

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

The Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) provides numerous youth and family programs across the City by entering into contracts with community-based organizations that provide these programs. One such program is the Out-of-School Time Program (OST), which offers academic skills and cultural enrichment programs, sports, recreation, community engagement, and leadership development to children and young people throughout the City.

OST offers three types of programs, each with different background check requirements: the OST School-Age Child Care (SACC) programs serving groups of seven or more children under the age of 13, the OST school-based programs operating at a Department of Education (DOE) site serving high school students (over the age of 13), and the OST high-school-oriented programs not operating at DOE sites as well as those operated by religious organizations that receive “No Permit Required” (NPR status) from New York State (NYS). This audit focused on DYCD’s monitoring of criminal history checks and child abuse and maltreatment clearances for employees hired at OST programs. The period covered by this audit was July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008 (Fiscal Year 2008).

Audit Findings and Conclusions

DYCD is not adequately monitoring the OST programs to ensure that State Central Register for Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR) clearances are obtained and criminal background checks are conducted. While DYCD and the OST Program Directors are not primarily responsible for the entire clearance process—they are not the approving authorities for the clearances—we believe that they must do more to improve the monitoring of criminal history and child abuse and maltreatment checks. DYCD claims that its Program Managers only periodically review a sample of employee files and check for SCR and criminal history clearances. In addition, DYCD’s contracts with OST providers do not include a requirement that programs follow up with DOHMH, or OCFS, on the status of SCR and criminal history clearances, and OST Program Directors who oversee the daily operation of the programs generally have no tracking system in place to do so.

During our site visits at the 15 sampled OST programs, we found that SCR clearance was not obtained, nor was an SCR application even completed, for one of the 98 sampled employees requiring them at the time of our site visit. There was no evidence that SCR clearances were obtained for another 10 (10 percent) employees as well, although there were SCR applications on file. Also, fingerprinting was not conducted, nor were criminal history checks completed, for 8 (7 percent) of the sampled 112 employees requiring them at the time of our visit. There was no evidence that criminal history clearances were obtained for another 3 (4 percent) employees as well, although they were fingerprinted. In addition, no criminal history clearances were obtained for 59 (62 percent) of the 95 employees working at school-based DOE sites prior to their starting employment, contrary to requirements of the Memorandum of Understanding between DYCD and DOE. In addition to the above, we are concerned that 122 of the 639 OST providers monitored by DYCD do not require that employees undergo any type of child abuse and criminal history clearances.

Audit Recommendation

We make ten recommendations, including that DYCD:

• Ensure that the OST providers that employ the individuals cited in this report for not being fingerprinted make certain that these persons are fingerprinted promptly and that the results are forwarded to DOHMH (for the SACC program) and DOE (for the programs operating at DOE sites) so that criminal history checks can be conducted.

• Ensure that OST providers immediately follow up on all individuals cited in this report for lacking either SCR or criminal history clearances to ensure that clearances are obtained in a timely manner.

• Require that Program Managers review all employee files and check for SCR and criminal history clearances during their site visits and when monitoring and reviewing OST contracts.

• Consult its legal department and explore the feasibility of requiring that NPR and community-based center facilities obtain the same level of SCR and criminal history clearances for its personnel as do the other OST programs.

DYCD Response

In their response, DYCD officials agreed with the audit’s ten recommendations.