Baby, it’s cold outside for these babies.
State officials are refusing to allow a group of beloved Windsor Terrace childcarers to continue providing babysitting services to more than 30 families stranded by the sudden closure of their local daycare last month, despite the pleas of parents and local pols.
“For families left out in the cold, this is now an emergency situation,” said Kensington resident Scott MacMillan, whose 1-year-old daughter Isabella attended the now shuttered Ilene’s Sunflower.
The company lost its license on Jan. 20 after its owner passed away, and the state gave the carers until Jan. 27 to shut up shop at the two centers — located on Prospect Avenue between Reeve Place and Greenwood Avenue and Greenwood Avenue between E. Third and E. Fourth streets — after which time any unsanctioned child-caring would result in $500 fines from the city, according to MacMillan.
Assemblyman Robert Carroll (D–Kensington) hosted an emergency meeting on Jan. 26, where parents say state Office of Children and Family Services honcho Patricia Lewis told them she would do everything in her power to extend the grace period, MacMillan says.
But when parents called Lewis the following evening to see how things were progressing, MacMillan says they were informed that state lawyers had rejected their appeal.
The state agency claims Lewis’s comments must have been misconstrued, as the attorneys had already told her it wouldn’t be possible.
Either way, the moms and dads are now scrambling, missing days of work desperately seeking new situations for their young ones, MacMillan says.
“We’re scattered to the winds,” said MacMillan, who has now written a letter to Gov. Cuomo asking him to intervene.
Three former Sunflower staffers are still trying care for the tots, with parents paying them in cash, but they’re only legally able to look after two children at a time without additional licenses, according to MacMillan.
The carers, meanwhile, have been forced to deal with a crisis of their own. Last Friday, the landlord at the Prospect Avenue location — where two of the caregivers also live — suddenly installed new locks at around midnight, forcing them out of their homes over the weekend, said Monique Grant, one of the workers.
The lockout was resolved by Sunday, after Councilman Brad Lander (D–Windsor Terrace) reached out to the 72nd Precinct, and officers there found the landlord was in the wrong for ignoring proper eviction proceedings.
On top of all that, the carers say they are still owed $14,000 in wages from the now-deceased day-care owner, and parents claim they are out roughly $94,000 in deposits.
Both parties have received no indication from the owner’s family that any refunds would be forth coming, according to Grant.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has launched an investigation into the missing money, however, and the parents launched an online fund-raiser to recompense the nannies, which has already earned them more than $10,000.
“We’re very thankful to the parents and their associates who contributed to that fund,” Grant said.
For now, the Sunflower staff are making the best of a bad situation by arranging daily get-togethers at playgrounds, libraries, and other public places, where the kids have a brief chance to see their friends and cherished carers, one mom said.
“They were all thrilled to see each other,” said Celia Petty. “This is just another example of how committed these workers are to the welfare of our children.”
Cuomo’s office and the landlord of the Prospect Avenue property did not return requests for comment.
