Child Care Program Background checks
Committee on Health | Committee on Oversight & Investigations | Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education · April 22, 2026 · 2hrs 6m
Source: https://hearinghearings.nyc/hearings/committee-on-health-child-care-program-background-checks/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc

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(00:06:45) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=405s

With the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education and joined with the Committee on Oversight and Investigations. If you would like to testify, you must fill out a testimony slip with one of the sergeants-at-arms in the back of the room. You may also submit testimony at testimony@council.nyc.gov. At this time, please silence all electronic devices and no one may approach the dais. Chairs, we are ready to begin.

(00:07:08) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=428s

Thank you. Good afternoon. I am CM Lynn Schulman, chair of the New York City Council's Committee on Health. I want to thank everyone for being here at today's oversight hearing on child care program background checks. Before we begin, I would like to recognize the following Council members who are here: my co-chair, CM Gutierrez, CM Wong, CM Carr, and that is it for now.

The background check process for employees at child care facilities is extensive and thorough, as it should be. We trust these facilities to care for and protect some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers, and it is our duty as a City to ensure they are safe in their care. Currently, each prospective employee at a child care facility must submit themselves to a state criminal history check, an FBI criminal history check, a state child abuse and maltreatment registry screening, a state sex offender registry check and a national sex offender registry check. While such rigorous screenings are necessary, this process can create backlogs and confusion over which agency is responsible for each part of the process. If our City's goal is universal child care, then we must ensure that the administration of that care, including the background check process, is as streamlined as possible and that new facilities and employees do not get held up in red tape. We must also ensure the relevant City agencies have the necessary bandwidth to complete these background checks and screenings in a timely manner.

Unfortunately, it appears that DOH has struggled to keep up since the implementation of these comprehensive background checks. In 2019, the backlog stretched into the tens of thousands, and in 2023, 83% of child care providers reported staffing vacancies. These backlogs have tangible, costly, and sometimes disastrous consequences. For example, the Lightbridge Academy in Greenpoint, Brooklyn had space to serve up to 170 children and their families. They had to close in August 2023 due to a lack of cleared staff. At that time, prospective staff had been waiting nearly five months for clearance. This is not how City government should operate.

I look forward to hearing from the administration about any progress made on this issue since our last oversight hearing on this topic in 2023, as we work towards solutions that ensure the safety of our children and that each child and their family has access to the child care services they deserve. We will also be hearing the following legislation. There are a number of items so just be patient. The first two bills, Int 0015-2026 by Majority Leader Shaun Abreu and Int 0135-2026 by CM Tiffany Cabán, directly address child care inspections, emergency closures and the background check backlog.

Majority Leader Abreu's bill, Int 0015-2026, would prohibit DOH from requiring a prospective child care provider, employee, or volunteer to complete a background check if they have already done so in the past five years and were employed by a child care provider in the City for more than 180 consecutive days in that time span. The background check process is robust enough that we should not bog providers down double-checking our work. This bill will free up DOH to conduct background checks on those who really require one.

CM Cabán's bill, Int 0135-2026, tackles a related issue, ensuring that the City is adequately protecting the welfare of our City's children. It would require DOH, upon issuing an order to close a child care center due to it being operated in such a manner that it may give rise to an imminent health hazard, to provide a copy of the closing order to parents or other persons who arrive at the child care center and to post a copy on the child care center's door. It would also require DOH to post a summary of child care service inspection reports no later than 24 hours following an inspection. Parents deserve to be informed when the safety of their children may be at risk. This bill would enhance transparency and ensure no parent is left in the dark.

We will also be hearing Int 0831-2026 by CM Frank Morano, which would enhance the amount of leave an employee in New York City is entitled to should they donate bone marrow or undergo a medical procedure to make a living organ donation.

Finally, we will be hearing three resolutions, all sponsored by myself. The first, Res 0427-2026, calls on the New York State Assembly to pass and the Governor to sign the New York Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act. The bill has already passed in the state senate. As we all know, the price for many generic prescription drugs like insulin is far too high. This state bill would direct the state commissioner of health to create partnerships, such as with nonprofit drug manufacturers, to increase competition, lower prices and address shortages, making drugs more affordable.

The next two resolutions are on the topic of vaccines. Preconsidered resolution T2026-1612 calls on the state assembly to pass A.3839 and for the Governor to sign S.5852 and A.3839. S.5852 has already passed in the state senate. This bill would require insurers to reimburse the total direct and indirect practice expenses associated with vaccinations. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, vaccines are the second highest expense for many pediatric practices behind only payroll. We must ensure that these vital health care providers are not burdened for providing such crucial services, especially at a time where vaccine rates are already declining.

Res 0425-2026 calls on the state assembly to pass and the Governor to sign three pieces of legislation which require vaccines to be regulated, recommended, administered and insured based on the recommendations of nationally and internationally recognized healthcare organizations, not just the Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, the CDC's independent board of vaccine experts. All three bills have passed the state senate. The recent court decision which temporarily blocked the CDC's new vaccine schedule and found that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not follow federal legal procedures when replacing the members of the ACIP was a win for public health. But we must reinforce our state's commitment to promoting evidence-based vaccine schedules. New York's vaccine regulations and requirements can no longer be tied to the CDC's recommendations. These state bills must pass.

And by the way, I saw that the government is actually withholding a report that came out showing the efficacy of the COVID vaccine. That just happened, I think, yesterday or today. I look forward to discussing the legislation with the administration. I now want to acknowledge we have been joined by CM Epstein, CM Ung and online by CM Morano. I now turn it over to Chair Gutierrez to deliver her opening remarks.

(00:14:09) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=849s

Thank you, Chair Schulman. It is a delight to co-chair a hearing with you, especially on a topic that you have covered multiple times and that you are such a great advocate for. Good afternoon, everyone. I am CM Gutierrez, chair of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education. We are excited to join the Committee on Health and Committee on Oversight and Investigations and their chairs, Chair Schulman and Chair Krishnan, for today's oversight hearing on child care program background checks.

Just last week, many of you were here. Thank you again. Just last week, I co-chaired a hearing on the immediate and critical need for early education teachers. But even if the 5,000 or so qualified New Yorkers showed up today ready to work — that is roughly how many we will need each year to fill the demand — we need to make sure our system is ready to process them and approve them as fast as possible. Background checks are a critical safety requirement in most jobs, but especially when it comes to safeguarding young children. Yet the current process has felt burdensome rather than an important step in safety. State, federal and City requirements are layered on top of one another in ways that are not always well coordinated. Agencies seem to not always be coordinating, resulting in duplicative processes and delays. We should be leveraging technology to better align these systems, reduce redundancy and create a more streamlined and transparent path to compliance.

Let us use a real example. An education director completed fingerprinting in January 2024 as a director at a site in East Harlem and had receipts to prove it. Yet when she was submitted for a new position in September of 2024 in my district, those records could not be located or used. There was no communication until October and only after repeated follow-ups from their team and my office. When she was told that the fingerprints had been lost, she immediately redid the fingerprints, resetting the clock entirely. What should have taken weeks stretched into months with unclear handoffs between agencies and no defined timeline or accountability. Ultimately, the delay was so prolonged that the candidate left the job altogether. End of November, still not cleared, further delaying the center's reopening and impacting dozens of families.

Providers at another location were told an application was out of compliance with Article 47 from the state rules because those rules had changed. There was no formal rule change or guidance explaining the shift. My office also got conflicting information from both the City and the state on this rule change. This point of clarity took months to clear up.

Under federal law, any staff member who works in one of the City's 10,800 licensed or registered child care programs must complete a comprehensive background check every five years. The comprehensive background check process includes two federal checks of the FBI fingerprint and sex offender registries and three state checks of the criminal history, sex offender and child abuse registries, as well as three more interstate checks of the same state registries in any state where a provider lived during the previous five years. All of these checks are meant to screen out people with a history of crimes like child abuse, assault or endangerment. But these comprehensive checks can lead to long wait times, and child care providers have often noted that these background checks are more lengthy than the requirements for being hired at a DOE school, which are just two fingerprinting checks.

Nonetheless, it is important for the City to work efficiently to take into account the different legal requirements for background checks and make sure child care providers do not suffer because of the policy choices. We applaud the changes DOH has recently implemented to reduce wait times for providers, like automating the processing system and creating an online portal. However, even though DOH has reported that the average wait time for a check was 36 days, providers have testified to the subcommittee that background checks can take more than three months. We heard from them last week. If the City is looking to implement a universal child care system, it will mean hiring a lot more child care workers over the next several years. So today, we will pull apart how to speed up this critical process.

I also want to acknowledge the Department of Investigation, who could not join us today. While their role may be, in their words, minimal in this process, it is consequential. This committee looks forward to further conversations with them to improve processes. Thank you to the members of the subcommittee who have joined us. I would like to thank the subcommittee staff, Julia Gold, Smith Pinkham, Katie Selena, Grace Amato, Andrew Ling Lewis and Margaret Barnsley, as well as my own staff, Ana Lair, Frank Hulka and Lala for their work on today's hearing. Thank you, Chair Schulman. I turn it back to you.

(00:18:34) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=1114s

Thank you. Before we go on, I want to acknowledge we have been joined online by CM Ariola and in person by CM Lee, CM Williams, CM Riley and CM Joseph.

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CM Morano, do you want to give brief opening remarks about your legislation? We have quorum in for one of the committees.

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CM Morano just stepped away. He will be back in about two minutes.

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We have to move on, so we will get to him in a little bit. I will now turn it over to committee counsel to administer the oath to members of the administration.

(00:19:49) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=1189s

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez, Chair Schulman, members of the committees on health and oversight and investigations, and the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education, and all other Council members. My name is Emmy Liss, and I am the executive director of the mayor's office of child care and early childhood education. I am joined today by members of my team and colleagues from the New York City Health Department. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to testify before you today.

Child care is an essential component of the Mamdani administration's agenda. We believe that every child under five should have access to free, high-quality care delivered in a range of culturally competent care settings with educators who are properly trained and respected. On just day eight of this administration, the mayor stood with the governor as she committed over $1.2 billion in new funding to expand access to child care. With this new funding, the City is expanding and strengthening the 3K program to ensure every family has access to an option close to home. We are also launching 2K, the City's first universal child care program for 2-year-olds. 2K will serve about 2,000 children this fall, about 12,000 children in fall 2027 and every 2-year-old that wants to participate by the end of the mayor's first term.

When families entrust their children to the care and supervision of a child care provider, nothing is more important than their health and safety. Parents need the confidence that when their child is in someone else's care, they will be supported, nurtured and cared for. Every day, the New York City Health Department works tirelessly to ensure that the physical spaces they are cared for in are developmentally appropriate and safe and to verify that all the staff who engage with children, no matter their role, are properly vetted and background checked. As we continue to expand access to care in the City, we are committed to doing so in a manner that ensures all programs meet a rigorous and high bar for health and safety. We are also committed to continuously improving our City processes to make it easier for child care providers to open, operate and sustain their businesses.

That is why we launched the child care permitting portal last month so that providers can now apply for a permit online and easily upload their documents and materials rather than sending dozens of individual emails or visiting staff in person. In just a few moments, after I finish testimony, I will pass to my colleague Erin Yarborough, chief digital strategist in the mayor's office of child care and early childhood education, to briefly walk through the permitting portal.

When it comes to staff background checks, we will never waver in our commitment to ensuring that any adult who works in a child care setting is vetted and cleared to be there. At the same time, we recognize that there is always opportunity to strengthen our City processes to ensure they more effectively meet provider need. The mayor's office of child care and early childhood education will play an important role as we move forward to ensure that all of the City agencies working in child care are coordinated and aligned and that all agencies have the resources they need to meet our administration's ambitious goals. We already work closely with the health department and will continue to do so to ensure they are properly staffed and supported to oversee the health and safety of all of our child care programs.

Thank you for the time to testify today. I will now pass to my colleague Erin to walk through the permitting portal and then to Deputy Commissioner Greniff, who can speak more to the day-to-day details of the health department's work and the administration's position on the legislation being considered today.

(00:23:10) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=1390s

Can you hear me? Good afternoon, Council members. Again, my name is Arin Yarro, the chief digital strategist here at the Mayor's Office of Childcare, and I am delighted to walk you through the childcare permitting portal. We have, I believe, if we can bring up the screen here, you also have the good old handouts. We wanted to give you an actual visual of what the providers will see. The providers were very instrumental in designing this. We got our requirements from the Department of Health but we also included the providers in that requirements process because they are one of the users of this portal. Providers also joined us for what we call user acceptance testing to make sure it really was going to meet their needs and give them business value, because that is our goal here: to give the providers and the DOH workers business value.

So you will see this is the landing page. This is what you will see. You can see it on myc.gov, but also providers, when they make their initial payment for a preliminary group daycare center, will receive an email with an invitation coming right into this portal to continue with their digital application process. This is what they will see. We can go to the next slide or the next page.

This is what they will see once they log in. We understand how many government systems there are and they all have their own login and their own things. We do not like that either. This is the same login they use to make their payments for childcare. We really wanted to make it easier for providers, especially smaller providers who may not have the IT staff to keep track of all of their various passwords, to use the exact same credentials that will bring them right in to this landing page. You can see one thing right there: action needed. One piece of critical feedback we got from the providers is that it is a long application process. There are many steps and it is not always clear, because I think hitherto there were fillable PDFs and a lot of email. What are the next steps? Putting myself in a provider's mindset: I am applying for a group daycare. What are the next steps?

What we really tried to do in this portal is every time there is an action needed from the provider, we highlight it for them. So you can go in and see immediately, "I need to upload my certificate of occupancy," or "I need to upload my staff credentials." There is also very much an email communication component. Whenever we make a status update on this portal, we email the providers with that status update. So you can always log in and see the current status of your application and what the next steps are. We are also emailing them automatically. Go to the next slide.

This is, I think, one of the breakthroughs: we took a complicated process and broke it down into milestones. This is by provider request. They just want to know what the steps are and what they need to do for each step. So you will see here there is site viability inspection, architectural review, NYC Buildings and Fire Department approvals, and program details. We broke it into milestones. Some of these milestones are concurrent, so we do not like to block them if they can work on other things. For example, if they are getting their certificate of occupancy, they may also be able to work on uploading their staff credentials. We try to be very fluid there. This is very much by provider request. They wanted to come in and see what the steps are, where they are in the process, and what they need to do. You will see an example here: one action needed step rejected by caseworker. We are trying to be very good with communication, because that is what we...

(00:26:41) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=1601s

Heard from DOH workers who are very dedicated to this process, as well as providers, is communication is the hard part, right? When you have a long application process, what do I do next? I need to be very clear about next steps. So we really tried to highlight things. If maybe a document was rejected because it was out of date, we immediately highlight that for the vendor. We alert them. We bring comments over from the DOH worker working on that case so that you have it all in one place and you can move forward. If we can go to the next slide. That is a little blurry. There was better. Again, milestones are broken into steps. So this is, you know, we just break it down step by step, milestone by milestone. So this is a further example of this. Green is the happy path. It has been completed. If something is pending DOHMH approval, maybe the provider has submitted some paperwork or an architectural document and DOH is reviewing it, then that will be apparent here as well in the portal.

Okay. Yeah. That is okay. Scheduling. Another pain point we heard from providers. You have to schedule inspections. You have to schedule early childhood education supervisor meetings. There are a lot of meetings. We have all tried to schedule meetings in this room. We all know how fun that can be when there are a lot of people. It is emails back and forth. When are you available? No, I am not. Oh, wait. I have to move it. So this was a huge pain point. What we did is we have online real-time inspections. If I am a provider, I am logging in right now. You will see this screenshot here. DOHMH workers, in this case the inspector, have already put their availability in. I, as a provider, can just click which ones work for me. So I do not have to sort of second guess. That goes directly to DOHMH and then they will receive, once it is approved and confirmed, a confirmation. Providers reacted very positively to this particular feature and so did DOH, because scheduling takes two. If we can go to the next slide.

Upload document. There are a lot of documents involved in an application, as I am preaching to the choir. Architectural documents, staffing documents, government documents, tax documents, a lot. Hitherto, those have been delivered sometimes by email, sometimes by snail mail, sometimes by SharePoint download. This is a better way to do it. So the portal will tell the provider exactly what documents are needed. You upload them directly into the portal. Those go directly to DOH and there is always a receipt, so the provider can look through and see exactly what documents have been submitted and the current status of those documents, whether they have been accepted by DOHMH, returned by DOHMH or in process of review by DOHMH. If you go to the next slide please.

Chat. We heard from DOH workers and providers that email can get really out of hand, because in some cases it is multiple staff of the providers working on an application and it is almost always multiple staff at DOH working on an application. If you send an email to one person, maybe they are out of office, maybe that is not the person you meant to email. Maybe you emailed the inspector instead of the early childhood education consultant. So we are bringing them into a chat feature. We are encouraging the use of chat. Basically, the entire communication realm, everyone in the application that is assigned to this application at DOHMH, has access to the chat. So you do not have to worry about, oh, did I send it to the wrong person? You sent it to DOHMH. Everyone who is assigned to your particular application has access to the chat. So what we have here is one complete record of all the communication for every application that goes in. This is much better than scrolling through emails trying to figure out who you sent it to and whether you included the right person. So this is a feature also requested by and very much anticipated by the providers.

We go to the background check. There we go. So as you have already known, and there will be more testimony about the background check system, providers can go in, they go online, they enter the staff that they need cleared and there are various processes. There was not, until this provider portal, a place where a provider can go and see everyone they have submitted for a background check. Not just one by one. Everyone associated with this particular application, from your education director to your food service worker, everyone there. I want to know what the current background check status is. So you can see that here. We created a background check dashboard. This is updated in almost real time, like every five minutes or so, with the background check system, so that providers can go and actually manage, not just one by one, what the clearance is, but see all in one place everyone submitted and what their current background check status is. This is also something requested by providers that we have been able to deliver.

Next slide, just back to the beginning. So that is a very brief overview. I will say a few points. This portal is integrated with other important city systems. There is this thing called CCATs, which you may be familiar with. That is the system of record of DOHMH. This is not replacing CCATs. CCATs remains the system of record. What this is is a front portal for the providers and in many cases the workers to work with, but it is integrated with CCATs. We do not want, as much as possible, providers having to worry about which system to put it in, and the same with workers. We do not want workers to put this in system one and this in system two. So it is integrated with the CCATs system, but it is important to note that it is not replacing CCATs and CCATs remains the system of record. Same with the background check, as you saw it was integrated with the background check system but it is not replacing it. From the user perspective, we want to make it as seamless as possible. So what we like to do is, instead of having four separate systems you have to log into each one, have the systems talk to each other and have all the information in one place. That is what we tried to deliver here. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Before we get to the deputy commissioner, I just want to commend you for putting this together so quickly for us to see. It is very impressive and we appreciate it. I know you are new in this role, but we appreciate everything you are trying to do to make this process easier for our kids. So with that, I am going to ask the commissioner.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Schulman, Chair Krishnan, Chair Gutierrez, and members of the committees on health, oversight and investigations, and the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education. I am Karen Schiff, deputy commissioner for environmental health at the New York City Health Department. On behalf of Commissioner Martin, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on our work to promote safe, quality child care. The health department is charged with protecting and promoting the health of all New Yorkers. One of our critical responsibilities is oversight of child care programs. The department regulates child care centers, programs that serve children under age six in standalone commercial locations, and school-based child care programs, which serve children ages 3 to 5 in a school with upper grades. New York State regulates home-based child care, which serves children 6 weeks to 12 years old in a residential setting, and school-aged child care, which operates in non-residential settings to care for children in school ages 5 to 13, after school and during school breaks. The health department holds a contract with New York State to conduct some aspects of the licensing and background check processes and to inspect.

Safe, quality child care sets children up for a lifetime of positive health outcomes, and New York City has some of the strongest and most protective health and safety requirements in the country. Mayor Mamdani has been clear that maintaining New York City's high health and safety standards is a key component of the City's universal child care plan. Every provider who applies to open a child care center in New York City undergoes a rigorous vetting process. Once the program is operating, the health department conducts unannounced inspections to promote compliance with health and safety mandates. We make inspection results available on our website, Childcare Connect, and provide recent inspection history and other information on a performance summary card posted at the program entrance.

The department's work on background clearances is the subject of today's oversight inquiry and of Int 0015-2026. Since 2019, the health department conducts a comprehensive background clearance for anyone working in a child care program who may have contact with children. Federal law requires us to process the clearance application within 45 days. I am pleased to report that after years of extensive backlogs, our median processing time is now below the 45-day mandate. We continue to upgrade our technology to improve efficiency and anticipate further improvements in our turnaround time. Some applications take longer than 45 days, including for reasons outside of the department's control, such as when we must request clearance information from another state and do not receive a timely response.

Turning to Int 0015-2026, it would prohibit the health department from repeating a background check except where the law requires it. The department already conducts a renewed background check only when required by law and would like to discuss with the Council the concerns this Bill aims to address. Int 0135-2026 would require the department to post summary inspection reports on our website within 24 hours, post closure orders at the entrance to the child care program, and provide the closure order to parents or caregivers. The department already posts summary inspection reports on our Childcare Connect website. Our inspection system uploads these reports overnight and they appear the next day. Regarding closure, the vast majority of the City's child care providers offer safe and loving environments for children. There are times, however, when we identify programs operating unsafely. In those cases, we require the program to close, correct the deficiencies, and update their protocols. We know this closure can create a hardship for families and we do not take this step lightly. As part of the closure process, we require the provider to post the closure order at the program entrance and distribute closure information to families. We would like to work with the Council regarding the best way for the department to provide closure information directly to families. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am happy to take questions.

Okay. Thank you very much. A couple of things before we get to questions. One, we have been joined by CMs Felder and Brewer. I also want to turn it over to co-chair Chair Krishnan, who is the chair of the oversight and investigations committee, for his opening remarks.

Good afternoon. Thank you so much, Chair Schulman and Chair Gutierrez. It is an honor to partner with you all for today's hearing on a critically important issue for our city. I am CM Shekar Krishnan, chair of the Council's Committee on Oversight & Investigations, which provides oversight of the City's Department of Investigation, or DOI. I would like to thank health committee chair Schulman and Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education chair Gutierrez for co-chairing today's important hearing on child care program background checks. Thanks as well to the representatives of the administration, advocates, and members of the public for attending today's oversight hearing.

As a parent of two young children, I know how important our City's child care providers are for working families. In fact, before I was in the Council, as a parent of two much smaller children, I myself had to work with neighborhood parents to try to keep a daycare center open in our neighborhood that was closing down by Elmhurst Hospital. I learned through that experience, before doing this work, just how difficult the child care background approval process is, because all the parents and I were trying to work together to both keep the daycare center open and also try to find alternative placements for the child care staff who were there and who were beloved. But one of the challenges that we saw was how long the background check process can be and how that impacts their ability to secure jobs afterwards too, in the event of a child care center closure, which should never be happening, but that is what it is.

Our child care providers are critical to the function of this city, allowing parents to go to work knowing there are people taking care of their children like their own. But this trust only comes after rigorous background checks and screenings of these workers. Our trust in child care workers is trust in the city agencies that make the system run. We count on our city agencies to vet the providers who look after our children all day, to be thorough, fast and efficient. I am proud that with a new City Hall, child care has become a priority. As we see an increase in child care seats, we need to make sure we have adequate staffing and support to fill those seats. Too many child care providers report costly fees, more expensive than getting your driver's license, and extensive delays in the processing of their staff's background checks, limiting their ability to provide families with essential care and in some cases being forced to close daycares, as I personally learned about eight years ago.

Today we will learn what our city agencies are doing to make the fingerprinting process more efficient. Are agencies prepared to take the task of expanding child care seriously, creating a pathway for affordable and fast fingerprinting and background checks for child care workers? We are demanding that our city agencies take the crisis of child care seriously, as I know they do, ensuring fast and thorough services. The devil is always in the details. We cannot let red tape get in the way of this urgent need for affordable child care. We must do all we can to support working families, keep daycares open and thriving, and end the steep fees for child care workers to do their jobs.

Before we begin, I would like to thank the staff from my office and the Committee on Oversight & Investigations for their work prepping for today's hearing. Senior Legislative Counsel Nicole Kat, policy analyst Erica Cohen, policy analyst Alex Yablon, chief of staff Chanel Martinez, legislative and budget director Hunter Deminagrassia, and communications director Victoria Operman. I will now turn it back to Chair Schulman and look forward to a very informative hearing today. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Krishnan. I am now going to ask CM Morano to make a brief statement on his legislation.

Thank you, Chair Schulman. I appreciate your leadership chairing this hearing and your passion for health issues in general, not just chairing this committee but literally your entire career in government. I want to thank the committee and the chair and the speaker for your willingness to hear Int 0831-2026 today. This Bill is a new version of a bill that some folks in the administration and in the labor movement had raised a couple of objections with, with respect to collective bargaining. I think this version of the Bill is largely clear of any of those pitfalls.

In general, the Bill is about something very simple but very important: removing a barrier for people who are willing to save someone else's life. Right now, there are thousands of people, including many New Yorkers, waiting for organ transplants. Many of them are on dialysis, sometimes for years, hoping for a second chance, hoping for more time with their families. At the same time, there are people willing to step up to donate a kidney, part of their liver or bone marrow, but they hesitate for one very practical reason. They cannot afford to take time off from work. That is the problem we are trying to solve.

Int 0831-2026 ensures that workers across New York City have job-protected time off if they choose to become a living organ or bone marrow donor, up to 20 days for organ donation and five days for bone marrow, which is what the health guidelines recommend. Just as importantly, it establishes a pathway for the City to provide wage replacement so that people are not financially penalized for doing something extraordinary. Because in plain English, this is what it comes down to. If you are willing to go through surgery to save someone's life, you should not have to worry about losing your paycheck.

This Bill recognizes something fundamental: that the biggest barrier to organ donation is often not willingness. It is reality. It is time off work. It is recovery. It is making rent. It is supporting your family. This legislation is about removing that barrier so more people can step up. The issue is very personal for me because for years, first on the radio and now as a council member, I have heard from people waiting for transplants, people stuck on dialysis, people hoping for that call that could change everything. I have also seen what happens when that call comes. A close friend of mine received a liver transplant about a decade ago. That transplant gave him 10 more years of life, 10 more years with his family, 10 more years with his friends. Time that meant just everything. That is what organ donation does. It gives people time. It gives families memories that they otherwise would not have.

This Bill has evolved through the legislative process and I appreciate the input from the administration, from my colleagues and from the labor stakeholders. I think the version before you today reflects a thoughtful citywide approach that expands protections to workers beyond the city workforce while addressing the concerns that were raised with respect to collective bargaining. It sets a baseline right to leave, it protects workers from retaliation and it ensures that this benefit cannot simply be waived away without something comparable in place. At the end of the day, it is not a partisan issue. It is not an ideological issue. It is a human issue. It is about whether we as a city are going to stand behind people who are willing to do something selfless and sometimes something life-saving. It is about making sure that doing the right thing does not come with a financial penalty. I urge my colleagues and the public to support Int 0831-2026. I thank the committee sincerely for its consideration of this Bill today. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, CM Morano. We will now move to the Q&A portion of this hearing. Before we do that, I just want to thank the health committee staff, Josh Newman, Elizabeth Arts and Chris Pepe, who is not here today, the committee counsel, and my staff counsel, my chief of staff Jonathan Buchet, Kevin Mleier my legislative and budget director, and my communications director Sammy Neu. So I want to start off with DOH. How has the background check process at DOH changed since we last had a hearing on this topic in 2023, and can you walk me through the process step by step?

Yes, thank you, chair. When we met in 2023, I believe we had only recently launched our online portal and it has really been a dramatic change since then. So many of the stories that you have all told in your opening comments, I think we have moved beyond a lot of those issues. Since that time, we now have a staff of 60 who work solely on background clearances, in addition to other staff who have other roles but who spend some of their time on background clearances. Most importantly, we have an online portal so that providers can enter their background clearances into this portal rather than sending us applications by email. During that period when we were first given this federal mandate in 2019, we were taking in applications by email and literally our computer systems were crashing under the weight of those. We launched that system in May 2023 and things have dramatically improved.

So the process is that a person who will be working with children in child care does two things. They enter their information into our portal, which, like the provider portal that Aaron demonstrated, was designed with input from providers and user testing with providers at the time that we launched a couple of years ago. You also go to get your fingerprints taken. Another change that was made a couple of years ago is rather than having to go to DOI to get fingerprints, the City entered into a partnership with a private fingerprint provider which has offices all over the region. They have long hours. They are open on the weekend. So that was a big convenience for people to be able to get those fingerprints taken. Once those fingerprints have been cleared, that person is then able to begin working at the program under the...

(00:48:16) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=2896s

supervision of a fully cleared person. So they do not have to wait until the entire process has been completed. They can get started working. Meantime, we go through all of the other clearances. You cited those in your opening comments, like the portal that Aaron demonstrated. Providers and the applicant have an identification number they can type in to check the status of the process. Once those clearances come through, we send a letter to them and to the provider and they can begin working without that supervision.

How much of a backlog exists now?

So our median processing time right now is about 30 days. There is some seasonality to the application, so there are kind of peaks to that. We have had a median processing time as low as 20 days and we are sort of on the downward slope right now. So we think that processing time will get back to that 20-day mark. There are applications that are above 45 days. Our system does not allow us to easily tease out what applications are pending with us solely because of our work as opposed to us waiting on an outside state to give us information back. So at any given time we have got about 500 applications that are beyond the 45-day mark. But those are for a variety of reasons. Some are with us. We are still continuing to make improvements in our turnaround times as I said, but many of them are because we are waiting for results from out of state. For a person who has worked out of state in the prior five years, we need to check those other state clearance information. Sometimes it takes us longer to get information back from the state central registry than other times, so that can cause a longer time period for processing. There are times when the applicant has made typos in the application and so that is something we need to have them correct. We just recently, maybe just a couple of weeks ago, did an upgrade to the system to have people re-enter certain information, which is a common thing that you see in applications. So that will cut down on typos.

So those are some of the reasons, but at any given time that is about how many we have that are beyond the 45-day mark.

Do you have plans in terms of lowering those 500? I mean, 500 is a lot.

So we are continuing to make upgrades to the portal. In all of the new releases there are upgrades that we make that will improve our efficiency. As I said, some of those are outside of our control and some of those things we are not able to change, but we are always looking to see where there are places where we can speed up some of those processing times. I will say that when there is a situation where a program is dependent on that clearance in order to operate — say they have an education director that is a key staff person that you need to be able to operate — if they are waiting for that clearance, we will handhold that application and do everything we can to get that through the system faster. So we do maintain constant contact with providers and we try to move those through as fast as possible. Some of it is outside of our control.

Okay. And that portal is separate from the portal that we just saw. So they are two separate portals.

It is. And you saw where Aaron pointed out one of the screenshots where there is integration, but they are separate.

Okay. And the integration — I know it is new so we will keep an eye on it in terms of it working and maybe enhancing the integration and all of that. Okay. Does DOH process background checks on behalf of OCFS for state regulated providers?

So our contract with OCFS, the Office of Children and Family Services, does include us processing parts of the background clearance for the state regulated providers.

Okay. How many background check applications across all child care program types are currently pending at DOH?

So I can share the city side information. We are happy to talk to OCFS to see if they will share the data for the state regulated programs. At any given time, we get about 3,000 applications a month. Some months are busier. So in September, for example, we took in 4,200 applications. Right now our median processing time is about 30 days. Sometimes it is 20 days. So it is a dynamic number, but you can get a sense of what our docket is at any given time.

Is there someone that can be spoken to by a provider if they have a problem or there is a glitch, like an ombudsman type person?

Yes. So there are two ways that providers can be in touch with us. The providers have contacts at our borough offices and they are in pretty regular contact with the borough offices, but we also have an email inbox that is monitored by several people and where we actively respond to inquiries. Providers have that information, and we also started maybe a year or two ago sending out not only regular emails to providers with new information but also a monthly roundup of all of the information that has gone out that month. We have gotten really good feedback about that. So that is another place where they are constantly hearing from us and getting that contact information. Those phone numbers of course always live on our website so if they do not have that they know to go there.

Is that something that can be added to your portal? Okay, that would be great. Okay, thank you. What are the primary drivers of delays in background check processing — staffing, fingerprinting, bottlenecks, inter-agency coordination? I mean, you sort of mentioned it, but yeah.

For the most part, for a sort of a healthy application, those clearances are very straightforward and they are processed quickly. Every application is handled on its own, and one of the things I did not mention is that sometimes we do get a report back from one of these agency checks where there is something concerning that we need to look into. So that is another reason that an application may take longer if we have to do an additional assessment to see if that person can work in child care.

So what are the things — what is maybe the number one kind of driver of a backlog, or does it just vary?

I think it really varies. I do not know that there is one or another, and I would hesitate to call it a backlog. A person who has worked out of state in the prior five years and we are doing our due diligence and complying with the law to check that out-of-state history and we are waiting for that state to report back — I would not call that a backlog. I think all of you have said in your opening remarks that the work that we are doing here is so very important, right, for the providers, for the families. It is not something where we do not feel a tremendous burden to get these done as quickly as possible. We know how critically important it is for the person who will begin work and for the provider who needs that child care professional in the classroom. But also for the family, to make sure that we are not cutting corners.

Okay. In March, Mayor Mamdani announced the expansion of 2K, including the first 2,000 seats coming online this fall and the addition of a thousand 3K seats. Is the agency prepared and equipped to process the background checks for the additional providers needed to meet this expanded capacity citywide? And what specific steps have been taken to ensure readiness?

Oh, okay. Great. There we go. I am happy to start with this. So for the expansion of 3K capacity and the launch of 2K this fall, given the relatively quick turnaround time between now and September, the city is planning to work with existing child care providers. So any of the providers who are offering 3K or 2K services this fall already have a license or permit and very likely already have staff in place in those classrooms. We anticipate there will be some new hiring to support 2K and 3K as there always is in the lead-up to the first day of school, but we do not expect a huge rush. We are continuing to monitor what the staffing patterns will look like with our partners at New York City Public Schools and with the health department to make sure that we are prepared. And then certainly as we prepare for the fall of 2027 when we will be bringing many more 2K seats online, we will be planning ahead with the Department of Health and New York City Public Schools to ensure that there is sufficient staff capacity for onboarding those providers.

Okay. Thank you. How many background checks does DOH process every year for early childhood educators?

So I can provide the city side numbers, and that is the numbers I gave you before — that 3,000 on a typical month. Some months are bigger. September was 4,200.

Oh, you mentioned that earlier. Okay. To what extent are background check delays contributing to delays in opening new child care slots or programs?

So I am not aware that they are contributing to delays. Any particular program that is experiencing a delay that they think is related to the background clearance should certainly be in touch with our office. As I noted, the education director who is a key person to be able to open is somebody whose application we handle in our borough office and really handhold, because we know that that is the key to being able to open. But if you are hearing from a provider in your community, please do reach out to us.

Okay. If DOH receives a question about an issue that is handled by OCFS, how do you refer that person to OCFS? Is there a clear line of communication for the public to both of you regarding the background check processing?

So for the most part we can take those questions. Most of the kinds of questions that come in from providers who are doing a background check on what we would call the state side, we can answer those questions. If it is something that we cannot answer, we will contact OCFS and make sure that that answer gets back to the provider.

Has DOH quantified how many providers are unable to begin operations due to pending background checks? And does DOH prioritize the background check of directors so that the business can open?

As we just discussed, yes, we do.

Okay. According to the background check requirements under federal law, a person who has passed the first two fingerprinting checks can work with children if they are never left alone with them. How many people are in this provisional status right now?

So really, anyone who submits the clearance application and completes those fingerprints and they come back without any concerns can begin work so long as they are under the supervision of a fully cleared person. I do not have that number, but that is something that we are able to provide so that people can at least get started working.

Okay. If you could just get us the number at some point that would be great. Once a person has completed a background check for one employer but chooses to change jobs still within the child care field, does that person need to undergo a background check again with the new employer?

So a person who has been fully CBC cleared — so comprehensive background check cleared — and that clearance has been within the past five years and there has not been a break in service of 180 days, if they want to change employers, then what they need to do is let us know in the portal that they are changing locations and then they are good to go. We will move their fingerprints over to this new employer — this is sort of on the back end, this is invisible to the child care professional. We will attach the fingerprint to their new employer. There are a couple of the clearances that we will repeat, but that is invisible to the provider and to the applicant themselves. They can begin working as soon as they just let us know.

Okay. How does DOH work with DOE to see whether an educator has already passed the two clearances necessary for working with DOE and with DOHMH?

So this is another thing that we have done a lot of work on, probably since the last time we met, which is that we do now have access to the DOE system. So we are able to — someone who has those fingerprints completed for DOE, we are able to essentially use those in our system. I know we had DOE here for another hearing and they mentioned that and they seem to be able to work really well together from what I could gather.

How does DOH track and report processing timelines internally and are there established benchmarks or service level targets?

We do have internal metrics to measure our turnaround times. Certainly our primary goal is never to exceed that federal mandate for the work that is in our control. So that 45-day mandate for the work that we are doing ourselves, and otherwise our goal is to get that processing time down as quickly as we can.

Are there disparities in approval timelines between home-based providers, which are regulated through OCFS, and center-based providers, which are regulated through DOH?

So we are happy to pass on the question to OCFS to get the processing time information from them. And then I want to know what is driving the differences if there are differences.

Okay. At the Council's last hearing on this issue in 2023, DOH testified that the agency was onboarding 40 new staff members to process background check applications. How many staff? You said there are about 60, right? To address background checks. Okay. And do you have any vacancies in the unit right now?

We have just normal attrition. So nothing that is staff shortages. And as you heard, we are working very closely together to make sure that as the city expands providers, we will likewise expand.

So given the recent announcement of the 2K and 3K expansion, does DOH need additional funding for additional staff to process the background checks?

So we do not need funding now. And as you know from our budget hearing, we did get resources just even anticipating some of the initial expansion that you just heard about. But we are working very closely together to make sure that as the city's provider capacity expands, our capacity will expand alongside that.

Okay, great. We have our executive budget hearing coming up so anticipate some questions. What are the costs associated with conducting a background check excluding fingerprinting? And who is responsible for covering these costs?

Do you mean the health department's costs to administer the program? Is that...

What are the costs associated with conducting a background check? What I am asking is who is responsible — the agency, the provider, the individual undergoing the background check? Are there costs?

You mean to pay for the fingerprinting?

Well, excluding the fingerprinting — excluding the fingerprint — is there anything, or is there not?

I do not think there is a cost to submit the background clearance.

Okay. Is DOH open to increasing transparency for providers around the status of the background check for themselves or their employees?

Well, we already — by creating a portal such as the mayor's office of child care has done for the new permits. So we do have a portal that we launched in May — I think it was May 22nd, it was a big day so I remember the date — 2023. Applicants are given an application number and so they are able to type that in and check the status of the application, and we also do email them.

When a potential early childhood educator fails a background check, how is this communicated to them and how is it communicated to the potential employer?

So a letter does go out. There are obviously confidentiality issues here. So different information goes to the applicant and the provider in some cases. But there is a letter that goes out including information about next steps for the applicant if they want to, for example, appeal that decision or give us more information.

For those potential early childhood educators who do not speak English as a first language, do you offer translation services for those undergoing the background check process?

So our background check portal is able to be translated. There is language accessibility there, and for people who have questions who want to contact either their borough office or speak to the central office, we can always use language line and our staff are trained to do that.

Do you know how many languages are served by language line?

It is 200. It is many. 200.

Okay. No, that is great. Now I am going to ask CM Gutiérrez for questions on her end. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Chair Schulman. I do have a number of questions. But I just had some follow-up questions for you, Deputy Commissioner. Thank you so much for answering everything. Let me just make sure I have my notes. Can you just clarify the 30-day timeline? Is that from the fingerprint process with DOI, or is that only once you get notified? What is the when does the clock start that you are timing for the 30 days?

So that median time will be from when somebody submits the application to us. Whether they have already gone and gotten their fingerprints — I do not know. You could do it either way. You can come to us. You could start entering after you have already gotten the fingerprints.

Sure. Okay. That is helpful. So you referenced some of the areas that the agency has improved on. What kind of a delay does a typo put in? What is the level of strain that a typo creates? Because on my end I am like, a typo takes seconds. Is a typo like I put the wrong initial here, I put a period where it was not supposed to go? Because it seems like a significant enough error where it is creating a delay. But what is the turnaround on that?

So it is an example of the kind of thing where if we get what we would call a healthy application, we can handle that much more quickly. If you have reversed numbers in your social security number, that is going to delay things. All these checks are dependent on that social security number. We do not know that there has been a typo in your social security number. And 45 days is not a lot of time. So any of these couple-of-day issues can extend the timeline.

And then — back on the typo — it is not necessarily like spelling errors, it is like technical errors?

So a date of birth, for example — if you reverse your date of birth, the date and the month, then we do not have the correct date of birth and that is something we may not discover. As I said, we just a couple of weeks ago did a new release where we have you enter that twice. That is a way to reduce those kinds of errors. I do not know yet how helpful that is because we just released it. But that is the sort of thing — as we gain more and more experience we can see what are the kinds of things that are tripping people up that we can fix with technology and just eliminate those.

Okay. I think I have some more, but I think that is it just based on your responses. Thank you so much. I had some questions for the mayor's office and certainly want to hear from you, Erin. Thank you for walking us through this. I think it looks really good. Also, I do not know if you have gotten any credit for just the layout of it. I think sometimes it is hard to put together these new sites and expect everyone to just jump in and fully understand it, but I think the layout is really, really easy, really straightforward, and I really appreciate that you were able to work with providers to

(01:10:46) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=4246s

Put this together. Just based on this though, can you clarify: are these for new applicants, or new applicants and existing applicants?

Currently, it is for new — what we call new applicants — for group daycare. We do have plans to expand it to renewals. We are in fact talking with DOH right now to get those business rules and we plan to — I think that will be our next big release because I know there is a huge demand for renewals and amendments as well. Currently, right now it is just prelims, new applicants.

Okay. And is there anything that folks should know — this is really wonky — but about uploading documents? Because I think oftentimes I will use the example of 311: you cannot necessarily upload a document or a picture if the resolution is too low. If I am someone who is interested in opening up a group daycare and I do not know this, how easy is it for them to upload documents or pictures that they need? What is that communication with them while they are already here so that we do not lose them?

Right. So in the screenshot there we actually give some instructions — we accept these kinds of files, PDF is one, JPEG is another. A lot of people just take pictures of their documents and as long as you can read it, that can count. So we try to give them that, and we try to give them a document size limit that is fairly large. There is a contact support option if you are having trouble uploading a document, so that will go to a help desk who can try to support them. But usually we try to tell them up front. We are finding, at least when we spoke to providers, it is going to happen, Council Member, obviously, but it is the same sort of requirements that they are kind of used to at this point when they are uploading documents at their bank or any other place. It is often the same requirements, but you are right, it can be a point of failure.

And is the idea that once these new providers are utilizing this site they will continue to use this site going forward?

Yeah, we really are trying to design it so it is not just a one-and-done. We hope those providers can stay in business and grow and prosper, so they are going to renew. We are going to have renewals ready by then.

So every center-based provider at some point will have to transition to using this site.

That is correct.

Okay.

I am sorry — center-based. Yeah.

What did I say?

Home-based.

You said home-based. Center-based. My bad.

No, no, we have to clarify. Home-based is state, and we would love to automate the state system.

No, no, no. I want to be clear. I do not want to confuse anyone. Thank you.

Great. Okay. And besides this new site, is MyCity only going to be used for this, to the best of our knowledge?

So MyCity has both a parent-facing portal and a provider-facing portal. The parent-facing portal for MyCity is how families are able to apply and recertify for child care vouchers. The provider-facing side is where the provider portal lives. So both of those functions continue to be maintained.

Okay. Just for the purpose of child care at this point. Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you. And are there other ways that your team is working with DOH to identify efficiencies or greater transparency in the background check process?

So we collaborate very closely with DOH and with the deputy commissioner's team. We meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to discuss and troubleshoot things that we are hearing from providers, things that we are observing in our regular work, and we are constantly looking at how we can make all of the City's processes easier for child care providers to navigate.

Okay. I also want to be careful about using the word "backlog" because I know that originally that was a word — I think it is great that we are no longer there. But I do think that just based on last week's hearing, and I am sure some of the folks today would agree, I think that 45 days sounds fast and is oftentimes not the experience of people that we are hearing from, right? No one is reaching out to say, "Hey, I got cleared in 45 days, great job, DOH." They are reaching out because they are like, "We have been waiting for three months."

So what are the areas where — and this is obviously never to jeopardize safety — do you need a bigger staff? What are some of the things that we need to be thinking about in this budget and the out-year budgets as well? Because I am a little taken aback by the amount of people that we have at DOHMH to be able to do this work, considering how much larger we want to get. I am also aware that you do not have 3,000 people every month necessarily — it kind of ebbs and flows — but what are some of the things that you are thinking about to prepare? What do you need more of?

So first I would say, if you are hearing from a constituent provider that something is taking that long, the story that you told, they should reach out to our office or you should reach out to our office, because that is something we want to troubleshoot. The 45 days is the federal maximum — that is our ultimate target — but we are aiming to turn these around much more quickly. Right now, as I said, our median turnaround time is 30 days. When we are at a period where we have a more stable, lower level of intake, our median processing time was 20 days. Our goal is to do this as quickly as possible while, as you just said, not sacrificing the care and attention that we give to these applications.

As we are growing, as the City will grow, we will grow. We are working, as Emmy and I have both said, very closely together to understand the ratio of child care programs — and it is a complicated formula because it is not just the number of providers, but the size of those providers, the number of staff, and what that will mean on our side for us to grow accordingly. I think we both feel confident that we are going to get that, because this is only going to succeed if we are able to process these applications in a timely way.

Can you share whether, once an application is submitted, there is an actual human reviewing these applications first? Is there some kind of tool that you all are using at some point in the process?

So there are multiple databases that need to be checked, and then if something comes back where there is some sort of flag in that person's background, there is a unit that does a health and safety assessment to see if that person needs conditions on employment or cannot be employed in child care.

But that initial review — is it always a unit? I am just trying to see if you all use any kind of AI tools to even just skim through an application. I want to be clear, because sometimes the feedback that I get is, "We did submit this, it is in there, and now it is taking us forever to get in contact with our assigned borough person." I have heard that feedback many times, Deputy Commissioner.

In my past life as a former chair of technology, I often learned that sometimes there is just an AI tool being used to assess applications, and those are when flags are sent, and sometimes that creates longer times because you need to find a person to look through it and connect with that applicant. So that is what I am asking: is it always staff people that are looking at this?

It is staff people who are looking through these. To give you an example, they are looking through them in a proactive way. So if we see an application, we will typically get a fingerprint result in a week or two, but if we see that we have not gotten that fingerprint result, we are not sitting around waiting. We are reaching out to our colleagues at DOI and we work very closely with them as well, troubleshooting together what has happened with that fingerprint result. Sometimes we find out that the fingerprint was not taken in a very clear way and it was not able to be processed, or there has been a delay in the payment for that fingerprint, and so those are things we can troubleshoot. It is people — that is why we have a staff of 60 people devoted just to this work.

Great. I just want to make sure that there are people looking at that stuff because there are some details that could get lost. Thank you. Emmy, is the administration — and I am sorry if you covered this already — but is the administration considering making background check clearances portable by individual educator?

So as Karen outlined, if an educator has been working in child care without any break in their employment and has gone through a comprehensive background check within the last five years, then that staff member is able to move between child care settings quickly with no delay. What they need to do with those five years and 180 days is just let us know that they are moving, and then they can start at the new location.

And is this fairly new?

This is within about the last year.

Okay.

We were able to...

Because I did not hear that in the past, but I just want to make sure you corrected...

As you were telling your story — I think it was 2024, this is after 2024 — so we did hear a lot from providers that that was a burden and we were able to work with New York State to make sure that we were able to do that. We let providers know. We got great feedback about that. The process is on our website. This is how we are really constantly talking to providers, hearing where the problems are and making improvements where we can, so long as the law allows it.

Absolutely. And I am asking these questions not to rehash necessarily, but really just to put us on a path of: this is an error that we saw, we addressed it, and this is how we are moving forward. Thank you.

Is the mayor's office of child care working with the state on building efficiencies into the state-level system needed to run background checks?

We have not talked in detail with the state about their background check process for home-based providers, though we are committed on our end to making it easier for home-based providers to navigate these processes. As we continue in our very regular engagement with providers, we are asking them about pain points they experience in opening and operating their businesses, and we will, as we hear specific examples, share those with the state and with our partners. We have a very open dialogue with the state broadly about regulation and ways in which we can make it easier for providers to operate.

And what about the same with federal-level clearances? Any communication with the federal government?

We have not, since the start of this administration, been in touch with the federal government about this issue.

Background check processes differ for early childhood educators based on the location of the early childhood education programs, with DOE, DOH and the state's OCFS having oversight roles for various location types. How is the mayor's office of child care coordinating with all agencies involved in the background check processes?

We coordinate very closely with the Department of Health. We are in very regular touch with OCFS just broadly about their regulation of child care providers and ways in which we can continue to work together. Our goal is to be in community, talking regularly with providers about the pain points they experience and then using our position in government...

I am sorry to cut you off. Are the providers directly communicating with you, like here are the names of the four people?

No, not at that level. I would say some of the examples of system improvements that you are hearing — some of the things that went into the permitting portal — are the result of providers coming to us and saying, "Hey, we are getting stuck with X. We can log into the portal and see our individual status, but I want to be able to see the status across my staff." That is why now in the permitting portal, providers can log in and see all of their pending background checks. So we are using the feedback we get from providers. Certainly if there are points of escalation that come into our office, we follow up right away with the responsible agency. As we hear from providers about the challenges they face and where we hear those as repeated trends, that is how we are looking to innovate and continue improving our systems.

How big is the office now? How many staff members?

We are in the process of growing. I think there are seven of us now.

Okay. All right. That is great.

There were six the last time you asked me.

I just like to be updated, but I think that is great. I have a couple more questions just on the portal. Okay. Do you have a sense of what the average time to process a child care permit was before the launch and now? Has it improved? Are you able to even share that? I know it just launched, but when you launched it, were you like, "We would love to shave two weeks off the process"? What were some of the goals that you all had before launching this?

Right. So I think the deputy commissioner has shared some median pre-portal launch figures. We are using that as a baseline. We did not have a set goal like "I am going to shave off five days" or "I am going to shave off ten days." We obviously hope it happens more quickly. It is too soon, right? Because we would need a greater data set of completed applications just to measure it against. I know we were talking earlier about background checks — I am using a slightly different metric, like the application median. But we do intend to measure it and our goal is to get better. Have we set a target of ten days less? Not yet. I think we need more data to set that, but essentially we are hoping it shows a substantial improvement.

Yeah. I think if I could add to that: we both want to make the process faster, but also frankly just easier. This is a process that providers — and I know you have heard from them as well — have found to be frustrating in the past. They are sending emails. Even just the example Aaron gave about trying to schedule an inspection: if we can make this process less frustrating, less burdensome for providers, if they can schedule their inspection with one easy click instead of 15 emails, yes, we hope that makes the process faster and we hope it makes their interactions with government feel easier and more sustainable for them to open and operate and continue to expand their business.

Have you all — can you share how many applications have come in since the launch?

43.

Okay. And has there been any — I do not know — is anybody emailing about technical issues or anything?

We have actually been pretty well... we are monitoring. We have something called a war room once we launch — I know it is not the best metaphor, but just a high level of user support because we just want to make sure. It has actually been fairly positive. We had some people who put a different address in one application and it is coming out in another. We had one where they put in an address that is actually different than the address that comes up on their GPS, and so we are resolving that, but we were able to resolve that fairly quickly.

We are also holding — because I think provider feedback is so key here — what we call office hours, and those will be scheduled soon. We are working very closely with Karen at DOHMH to invite providers to just show up and give us their feedback. There is plenty of feedback and user support in the application itself, including that chat feature, which I should mention is not an AI chat feature. That goes straight to real DOHMH staff.

It is important to emphasize.

Yes, I think you are right. I should have emphasized it. So thank you, Council Member. So far we have not seen any red flags of this being bad. But we are also interested not just in "this does not work," but what is working, and maybe we can double down on some of those things as well.

Are there — I guess for the 43 that have submitted — are they getting like a survey? I am just curious how you are... the office hours idea, I think that is great. What is the experience of the folks that have been applying? Do you have a sense of that, or are you just waiting for an email complaint?

That is a good point. I do not have a sense of how they are doing. DOHMH might, because they are working with them directly.

I am surprised this administration loves a survey.

I do not know.

It is true. I mean, you can always rate the application, but that only gives you something like a star rating, whereas what I would like is more actionable feedback about what is working and what is not.

I would just be curious, because I think you have made concerted efforts to work with providers to create this, and I think that is really revolutionary in the way that the City launches these kinds of things. So it would be really great to see, like, "Hey, you helped us build this — what was your experience?"

And you are some of our earliest users, so please give us...

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And how are you all thinking about training? What does training look like? You said this is going to be rolling out to expand to include existing center-based providers. Do you feel like there needs to be expanded support for those providers to be able to utilize this site?

It could be...

Because that is a lot more.

It is a lot. It is a lot. And not all providers are as technically savvy. We try to make it so you do not have to be technically savvy, but some providers are.

So training — we have a very good training manual that is available online for the providers, along with official communications.

It is a long application process.

I am a provider. I have no time for that.

Okay, fair enough.

We are holding training sessions.

Okay. And this is why I asked if there were any issues. I am not trying to create a problem if it does not exist — that is great.

I listen intently. I have not heard any... Deputy Commissioner, have you heard any issues from your staff?

I have not.

Okay. You would not tell me anyway.

I would.

Okay. All right. My last question is: how has the mayor's office of child care been marketing this provider portal to those who speak languages other than English? How are you all getting out there?

So the way that providers access this portal — as Erin said, they first have to make their initial payment to the Department of Health on the Department of Health's website and then they have the portal emailed to them. So there is really no way for them to access the portal before they have initiated their permit process. But we are always looking to do more outreach to providers. We will continue thinking about how we get the word out, especially as we want to see more child care providers open in parts of the City where we have child care deserts today.

Yeah, I would love to just collaborate with you all on that.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

I am going to ask Chair Krishnan for any questions he may have.

Thank you so much, Chair Schulman. Just a few...

(01:30:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5400s

Questions from me. One was how many locations of IdentoGO are in New York City? How does DOI communicate with DOH for updates? Does DOH reach out to IdentoGO directly about issues?

(01:30:18) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5418s

I do not know the number of IdentoGO locations. We are in regular touch with DOI. There is a standard email that will come through routinely providing results. And then there is also just regular staff contact troubleshooting issues and so on.

(01:30:40) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5440s

Okay. We have also asked DOI for more information to understand their role in the process. What does DOH do when it receives information from DOI about arrests of someone who was already cleared?

(01:30:53) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5453s

DOI does share that information with us. Part of why we maintain the records of where people are working is in case we do get information about arrests — we need to be able to identify where that worker is. So the first thing we do is reach out to that program. Frequently that person is no longer employed at that program. But if they are still working in child care, we will then do an assessment of what the arrest was about, similar to the kind of assessment we would do on the front end when someone has first applied to work in child care. It really depends on what that arrest is for. So we will do that assessment to determine whether that means that they can no longer be working in that program.

(01:31:37) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5497s

And on to Int 0015-2026, the Bill that is one of the bills being heard today. Does DOH require a subsequent background check for an educator every time they change employment?

(01:31:50) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5510s

We do not. When a person — and I think we went over this — a person who is within that five-year period, the background clearance has to be renewed every five years and has not had a break in service of 180 days, and they are changing employers, they just need to let us know. For the reasons we just discussed about arrest, they need to let us know. We will then move their fingerprints over from the prior location in our system. It is all invisible to the child care professional. So as soon as they let us know, they can go work at that new location. In terms of Int 0015-2026, we believe that we are in compliance. We are not conducting repeat background clearances except where the law requires us to do that.

(01:32:42) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5562s

I see. And so that has always been the policy, right? Or is that a recent change?

(01:32:45) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5565s

There have been some recent changes in what we call portability. So it may be that this Bill was designed during that earlier period. We are not really sure. We would appreciate the opportunity to discuss that.

(01:32:58) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5578s

Sure. So is DOH in support of this Bill or not?

(01:33:03) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5583s

We do not have any concerns with the Bill. We would like to better understand what the concern is that the Bill is trying to address. As we read it, it says comply with the law, which is what we think we do. Got it. Okay. Thank you.

(01:33:14) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5594s

Thank you, Chair Schulman and Chair Gutierrez.

(01:33:17) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5597s

Okay. I am going to turn it over to CM Brewer.

(01:33:21) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5601s

Thank you very much. On the technology — I mean, a hundred years ago, which is how long I have been around — it was always hard to get some of the providers to be able to access technology. Internet was too slow, did not exist, it was expensive to have a fast connection, et cetera. So is that all addressed now from any of the centers that you are working with? Because, you know, as was said earlier, just getting access in your home — for me, just recently, it cost $1,000 to upgrade a system. That is not inexpensive. So I just want to know, is the technology and hardware there to support what you are trying to do?

(01:34:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5640s

It is. We did a lot of extensive performance testing — like how fast it is in various environments. I should have pointed out that the portal that I showed you is mobile responsive on your cell phone.

(01:34:12) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5652s

So you can — you know, it is a lot to do on your cell phone, but it is possible. A lot of providers did tell us that sometimes it is just a laptop or a tablet. So we did a lot of testing on tablet. It works very well on tablets and we have not heard any extensive issues. If you do not have wireless, you are going to need an internet connection. But we have done extensive testing and so far... you need a fast connection though.

(01:34:35) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5675s

You need a connection that is...

(01:34:37) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5677s

Well, you need a fast connection for the best

(01:34:39) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5679s

experience. Obviously the faster the connection the better. If it takes another three to four seconds to upload a document that is not optimal, but hopefully it is not preventing the providers from moving on to the next step.

(01:34:47) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5687s

Okay. And then the next question is just because I have gotten complaints. Obviously, in general, we are trying to get as many young people to be part of the city system, part of the nonprofit system, et cetera. So some of the centers, as I understand it — I have private centers on the Upper West Side — they are now paying you the fee, whatever it is, to be in compliance, because they had private students only in the past. So they want to be part of your system because then they feel that they can serve better and survive. So is that also

(01:35:23) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5723s

that would be a brand new center basically. Is that something that you are

(01:35:28) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5728s

including or not?

(01:35:31) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5731s

Child care providers do not need a separate permit or license to partner with New York City public schools as a contracted 3K or pre-K provider. If they are permitted and licensed in good standing — if they have an active permit with the Department of Health — they do not need a new permit to work with the City.

(01:35:48) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5748s

Okay. But are they likely to get students? Because already many

(01:35:52) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5752s

students, understandably, because they charge, you know, the usual — I do not know, $6,000 up to $30,000 in the past. So now, of course, they want to become a New York City provider. I thought they had to go through some steps to do that. Yes, they do have to go through some steps. Absolutely. It is not related to the permitting process.

(01:36:11) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5771s

Correct. Not to the health process, but to the DOE process.

(01:36:14) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5774s

Exactly. Yes. So if the Department of Health has already certified that this is a healthy, safe environment for children, they do not need to go through that again. In order to be awarded a city contract with New York City public schools, they do have to go through an application process in order to demonstrate that they are able to meet the requirements to offer pre-K, 3K and housing.

(01:36:36) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5796s

Okay. All right. And then the other question about the health front — in the past, again, how often do your inspectors visit? Is it annual? Is it complaint-based? In the past, people would freak out when they appeared. I assume that may not happen now. So how does that work for any center, not just the new ones?

(01:37:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5820s

We conduct an annual inspection of every child care program. I did want to just note that the inspections that Aaron showed on the portal that are scheduled — those are preliminary site viability inspections. Our routine operational inspections are unannounced. They are at least annual and we will conduct a follow-up inspection if needed to check on something that we have observed. We also have a complaint-based response.

(01:37:26) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5846s

Okay. And that has not changed over the years. You would be looking at everything from the furniture to the quality of health in general.

(01:37:34) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5854s

That is right.

(01:37:35) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5855s

Okay. The final question I have is — I know you have some applications — how many young people do you think are going to be in the City of New York? What are your demographic projections for the future? Are you looking at those to see if we are going to meet the need?

(01:37:54) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5874s

Obviously there is an unfortunate situation with migrants being displaced. So I just want to think — what are your numbers? And I guess you also include Promise NYC in all of this too, right? As we are planning for the future launch of 2K and as we continue to make sure that our 3K and pre-K system is meeting family need, we are looking across all of the city agencies that collect data on birth, migration, neighborhood patterns and how folks move between places to make sure that we are supporting a robust child care system. In parts of the city where we know we do not have enough licensed child care today, we will work with prospective providers to support them as they go through these permitting processes so we can build more capacity.

(01:38:40) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5920s

We will continue to work with existing providers, for example, to adjust capacity — whether that be switching some of their classes for three-year-olds to two-year-olds in the future — just to make sure that we are matching family demand as demographics shift. And does Promise NYC factor into all of this?

(01:38:58) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5938s

Promise NYC is a separate program managed by ACS. But

(01:39:04) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5944s

so you are not part of that at all.

(01:39:06) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5946s

We work closely with them and it is part of the broader child care ecosystem. When we think about all of the city's child care programs, we look at all of the different resources for families — whether that is the city's 3K, pre-K and soon-to-be 2K programs, the child care voucher program administered by ACS and HRA, Promise NYC and then

(01:39:24) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5964s

other small programs. But again, back to the bigger demographics — obviously 2030 has not happened yet. The Census will give us more information. There are the community surveys in between. The City Planning Commission does them. But do you have any sense of where you are going in the next five or six years with this younger population? Because we hear the bad news that there are fewer young people. That is very bad news. So I am just

(01:39:48) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=5988s

wondering, are you hearing that? Are you planning for that, or is that not relevant? While we certainly hope that our city's investments in child care will help reverse some of the out-migration of families, we are working closely with City Planning, with demographers at the Department of Health and others, to look at those trends year-over-year to inform our planning.

(01:40:10) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6010s

Are you telling the suburbanites to come back?

(01:40:12) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6012s

We would be happy to have them.

(01:40:14) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6014s

Well, I am serious about some kind of indication of doing that. I think we will

(01:40:20) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6020s

be monitoring how our different investments in child care, as part of the mayor's broader affordability agenda, both keep families here and attract families here. In all seriousness, we know that we have lost families in recent years, both because the birth rate in the city has declined and because families with children under six are twice as likely to leave. We know that is driven largely by child care costs as well as housing costs. We are hopeful that as this administration's affordability agenda is implemented, we will see families stay. We hear stories from families all the time who want a second child but are waiting until their first child is eligible for 3K so they only have to pay for one daycare bill. We hope that the city, by easing the cost burden for families, will allow them to make the decisions that are best for them and not feel quite so constrained.

(01:41:09) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6069s

All right. Thank you. Did not quite answer the question, but close enough. Thank you. Okay.

(01:41:15) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6075s

All right. Thank you. Anybody else? Jen. No.

(01:41:22) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6082s

Thank you very much for coming and testifying. Again, thank you for putting together the PowerPoint — on short notice. Really appreciate all the work that you are doing. We will follow back up and we will keep watching. Thank you so much.

(01:41:41) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6101s

Thank you. Thank you guys.

(01:41:43) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6103s

Okay, now we are going to do public testimony.

(01:41:55) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6115s

Read a whole script.

(01:41:57) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6117s

What?

(01:41:58) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6118s

You have to read a whole script now.

(01:41:59) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s95htCcRQUc&t=6119s

I have to read. Yes, I have to read.