Brooklyn families rally to keep early child care centers from closing
Four centers - Nuestros Niños, Grand Street Settlement, Friends of Crown Heights and Fort Greene Council - are slated to shut down in June, according to city officials.
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Hundreds of Brooklyn families are fighting to keep four early child care centers from closing.
Four centers - Nuestros Niños, Grand Street Settlement, Friends of Crown Heights and Fort Greene Council - are slated to shut down in June, according to city officials.
A source familiar with the decision said enrollment numbers played a role.
“I wouldn’t be able to pay for childcare if it wasn’t for this place,” one parent said.
At Nuestros Niños, executive director Ingrid Matias Chungata said the required annual headcount is more than 100 students, but this year, they have 96 enrolled.
“We were left in the dark. Not one phone call from the Department of Education,” Matias Chungata said.
The center directors argue the city is relying on pandemic-era enrollment data, which doesn’t reflect normal capacity.
Grand Street Settlement, for example, has operated at 90% capacity or higher for the past three years.
Workers at the centers believed they were on stable footing, especially after the governor recently visited one of the locations to propose a $110 million investment in building similar facilities.
“I have never seen anything like this in my career,” said Grand Street Settlement CEO Robert Cordero. “The governor held up our center as a model, and less than two weeks later, the mayoral administration told us our lease wouldn’t be renewed.”
Both Nuestros Niños and Grand Street say their landlords are ready to sign new leases. Advocates are urging the city to reconsider its decision or for the state to intervene.
“We shouldn’t have to call the state to bail out the mayor again,” said Brooklyn Borough President Anthony Reynoso. “The mayor needs to do what’s right and keep these centers open.”
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
