With just weeks until the start of school, families in southern Brooklyn are scrambling to find free after-school options, after the state unceremoniously pulled funding from multiple neighborhood programs.
Now, elected officials are sounding the alarm at least 1,300 students across about a dozen public schools may be left with no alternatives.
“We’ve received a deluge of panicked calls from parents and school administrators fearing the worst,” six area lawmakers — State Sens. Andrew Gounardes, Iwen Chu, Jessica Scarcella-Spanton and Simcha Felder, and City Council Members Justin Brannan and Alexa Avilés — said in a joint statement Thursday.
“Without state support, families could be on the hook for thousands of dollars in fees for after-school programs. For the many families who can’t afford that, losing access to after-school care could throw their routines and lives into chaos,” they continued.
According to the elected officials, the state’s Office of Children and Family Services had recently consolidated two funding programs into a streamlined initiative known as the New York State Learning and Enrichment After-School Program Supports, or “LEAPS” — forcing providers to reapply.
OCFS did not immediately return a request for comment.
At least two providers the lawmakers know of — NIA Community Services Network and the Federation of Italian American Organizations — didn’t score high enough on a request for proposals to beat the competition, leaving upward of 11 schools without access to the programs they’d partnered with for years, according to the statement.
The number of schools is likely even higher, with at least three more programs identified by a local education council.
“We just learned that we’re going to be losing our funding for after-school,” a Bensonhurst mom told Community Education Council 20 earlier this month.
“And for about eight years, I have applied for the after-school. I have four children, and they never got in. That’s how tight the seats are. It’s by a lottery. So what happened previously was teachers would have to walk my children home because I couldn’t go out to get them. That’s how important after-school is.”
“For anyone not to see that, and support our family and our children, I’m sorry, that’s so disappointing,” she said.
While OCFS has told elected officials there are other program slots available to students, the agency has yet to share with the public where this year’s sites are located — or whether southern Brooklyn families will have access to them at all.
“Families are leaving New York because child care is expensive and burdensome,” the southern Brooklyn lawmakers said. “If we want this city and state to be a place where families can actually thrive, we need to provide them with resources they can rely on, not leave them in the dark.”The Brooklynites’ woes date back to at least the start of this summer, when local programs learned they had been approved but would not receive public funds.
