Council hearing spotlights abrupt notices, lease and payment disputes after DOE moves to end five child‑care leases

A City Council Committee on Education hearing on Feb. 14, 2025, brought providers, parents, union leaders and New York City Public Schools officials together to examine the department’s decision not to renew leases for five community early‑childhood centers and the fallout for families, workers and neighborhood services.

Chair Rita Joseph, chair of the Committee on Education, opened the session by saying the closures were announced a day after Mayor Adams released his FY 2026 preliminary budget and that the five centers — located in South Jamaica, Bedford‑Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Bushwick and South Williamsburg — serve nearly 300 children. "The future of early childhood education and early childcare should not be determined behind closed doors," Chair Joseph said.

The providers and parents who testified described being blindsided by the department’s notice, which many said arrived less than 24 hours before the city’s enrollment portal opened, leaving families scrambling for options. Ingrid Matias Chungara, executive director of Nuestros Ninos, said the Williamsburg center has served the neighborhood for more than five decades and that the site serves about 96 children. "No conversations, no due process, no regard for the impact on our children, family and staff," Chungara said, recounting how the program learned of the nonrenewal through the enrollment portal.

Parents and providers also described severe cash‑flow problems tied to…