City Accused Of Skipping Inspections At Hundreds Of Pre-K Centers

NEW YORK — Hundreds of child care centers used for the city's pre-kindergarten program went without at least one mandatory inspection from the city Health Department in recent years, a new city comptroller's audit shows.

The Health Department is required to perform two annual inspections to make sure so-called group child care centers are following the city health code, the comptroller's office says. Some 531 of the 1,035 centers used for pre-kindergarten missed one or both of them, according to the auditaudit Comptroller Scott Stringer released Thursday.

Many of the 73 that didn't get either inspection had been slapped with violations in the preceding year, the audit says.

"Skipping inspections at hundreds of child care centers is unacceptable," Stringer, a Democrat, said in a statement. "As a parent of young children, I find this audit extremely disturbing."

But the Health Department contests the findings, saying the audit did not account for the other types of inspections it performs each year.

The department says it actually inspected 99 percent of the relevant centers in the 2017 fiscal year. Additionally, both the City Charter and the health code only require one annual inspection, according to the department.

City Hall slammed Stringer for doubting the city's pre-kindergarten program.

"Every New York City pre-K site is safe. Just days before the launch of Pre-K for All in 2014, Comptroller Stringer called the program dangerous and unready," Marcy Miranda, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, said in a statement. "He was wrong then, and he remains wrong today."

The annual inspections the comptroller's audit examined are known as "initial" inspections. Each year centers are required to get one inspection focusing on staffing and curriculum and another examining physical conditions.

Some 312 of the centers auditors reviewed did not get the curriculum inspection in the 2017 fiscal year, the comptroller's office says, while another 146 missed the physical check-up.

Another 73 didn't get either one, the audit found — 53 of which had racked up a whopping 324 violations in the prior year. Those included 41 "public health hazards" requiring immediate attention and 114 "critical" violations, the comptroller's office says.

The Health Department argues the audit ignored the other kinds of inspections it performs, known as "compliance" and "monitoring" inspections. All three types deal with "core health and safety conditions," the department said in its written response to the audit.

All of the 73 centers that auditors pointed out for missing initial inspections actually received some kind of inspection in the 2017 fiscal or calendar year, the department says.

But Stringer's office contends the initial inspections are "more comprehensive" than the other two varieties.

The Health Department "refuses to acknowledge the problem and fix it," Stringer said. "When it comes to protecting our city’s children, we cannot allow any agency to deny the facts."

(Lead image: City Comptroller Scott Stringer is seen in February 2017. Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for V-Day)