Stringer: DOE Slow to Submit UPK Contracts for Review (Updated)

Eight days away from the first day of school in New York City, the implementation of Mayor Bill de Blasio's prized universal prekindergarten program is already off to a rocky start.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer revealed that his office has received only 141 of the estimated 500 to 570 universal pre-K contracts, preventing it from conducting a thorough review and registration of the contracts before the school year begins.

"My responsibility is to register what is estimated to be between 500 and 570 UPK contracts," Stringer said in a phone interview with City & State. "I am very concerned with only eight days remaining before the first day of school, we have only received 141 of these contracts. I can tell you that through our review process, we've identified some serious issues with the contracts and we cannot sacrifice safety in the name of expediency because we're dealing with children and we want to make sure they're in the safest environments possible.” 

Stringer did not go into much detail about the safety concerns his office uncovered, other than one instance in which a vendor had a former employee who was charged with conspiracy to commit child pornography, as well as a vendor that had six violations issued for failing to have required personnel screened with the New York State Central Register of Child Abuse and Mistreatment. Stringer declined to name the vendors. Many contracts the comptroller's office received to date have other errors such as missing permits, inconsistent counts of students on multiple documents and vendors not listed on the charities' website failing to have up to date filing requirements.

In the child pornography case, an investigation found the agency properly vetted the employee, who was swiftly terminated, and new protections were put in place afterward, according to the de Blasio administration. In the other case, the violations were corrected in April.

A year ago, a majority of the new pre-K contracts were not registered by the start of school. The comptroller's office has also already approved another 128 pre-K contracts through the Administration for Children's Services, which were not mentioned by the comptroller. 

 “We scrutinize every pre-K center the same way a parent would, because we’re parents, too," de Blasio said in a statement. "From the FDNY to the Health Department to the Department of Education to the Department of Investigations, the authorities New Yorkers trust to keep them safe have been readying programs for months. Parents can rest assured: these high-quality programs will be ready, they will be safe, and they will meet the very highest standards. We will, of course, make sure the Comptroller has the documents he needs to register contracts in a timely way. But make no mistake, we are moving forward aggressively to launch our programs this September and will not allow administrative paperwork to stand in the way of educating thousands of children.”

Stringer cautioned that the early findings of his office did not necessarily reflect a lack of due diligence on the part of the de Blasio administration in vetting prospective pre-K vendors, but rather that his office simply does a more extensive review, adding that having another set of eyes "is critical to the process."

Stringer said he has communicated these issues to the mayor, who has been "resolving these issues with us," and that he was mostly disappointed that the Department of Education has lagged in submitting the contracts to the comptroller's office with the beginning of the school year so close. 

"My frustration is more with the bureaucracy of the Department of Education," Stringer said. "They have not risen to the challenge, and I think it is totally unacceptable that we're in this situation eight days before school's starting."

This post has been updated with comments from Mayor Bill de Blasio.