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City Council oversight hearing: DOHMH reports median childcare background-check time ~30 days as portal aims to reduce delays
Summary
At a joint New York City Council oversight hearing, DOHMH officials and the mayor’s office defended recent technology and staffing changes that they say have cut median background-check times to about 30 days, while providers and advocates urged faster out-of-state processing, greater portability and clearer portal guidance.
The New York City Council’s committees on Health, Oversight and Investigations, and the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education held a joint oversight hearing on childcare background checks and permitting, hearing testimony from the mayor’s office and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) and public testimony from providers and advocates.
Council Member Lynn Shulman, chair of the Council’s Committee on Health, opened the hearing by outlining the stakes: layered federal, state and city background checks can create long delays, she said, and cited a 2023 staffing-vacancy survey and a case where a Greenpoint center closed after staff waited “nearly 5 months” for clearance. The committee took up proposed legislation including Intro 15 (by Majority Leader Sean Abreu) to limit repeat checks for people cleared within five years and Intro 135 (by Council Member Tiffany Caban) to require DOHMH to post closure orders and inspection summaries promptly.
Emmy Liss, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Childcare and Early Childhood Education, described the administration’s broader…
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