ALBANY — More than a dozen local and state officials worked through the day Friday to save an after-school program for 4-year-olds after the Albany JCC said the program was closing immediately.
On Thursday evening, parents and Albany school officials learned that Friday would be the last day that the JCC would provide after-school care to prekindergartners at Albany School of Humanities.
The school principal immediately began trying to find alternative providers. By Friday, state representatives and top school leaders were involved. It took most of the day, but shortly after 5 p.m., the Office of Children and Family Services gave the Albany JCC a 90-day extension to keep running its program.
“The Office of Children and Family Services works diligently to support the licensed child care and prekindergarten programs throughout New York state. Our team worked with JCC Albany and expeditiously resolved the outstanding issues. As such, their waiver was renewed and their doors will remain open on Monday,” OCFS said in a statement.
School and state leaders also said they did not understand why the Albany JCC allowed the situation to reach this point. They said the Albany JCC had made an error in its application for renewal of a common waiver, which allows providers to include prekindergartners in a program for school-aged children. The error was identified long before Thursday, officials said.
“Both the school and the district were blindsided by this development,” said schools spokesman Ron Lesko. “The JCC provided no information or communication to the school or the district prior to sending its email to ASH pre-K families on Thursday. The ASH principal learned about this for the first time on Thursday evening when parents started contacting her after receiving the information from the JCC. We are extremely disappointed in our partner’s handling of this matter, and deeply apologetic to all of the affected families.”
Ten families were to be impacted by the closure, according to the Albany JCC.
Albany JCC CEO David Posner declined to answer any questions from the Times Union.
In a written statement, sent prior to the waiver extension being granted, he said he had to close the prekindergartners program “due to the state’s final determination not to renew the required waiver that allowed us to operate such a program as part of a school-age program.”
Such waivers are becoming more common as more schools add pre-K. To get a waiver, a program must be staffed to the level required for prekindergarten children.
That means there must be one adult for every eight children, with a maximum of 21 children per group.
In a regular school-age program, one adult can supervise 10 children, to a maximum of 20 children per group.
Posner did not explain whether staffing was an issue.
The after-school program has been inspected repeatedly, including a recent surprise inspection that found no violations. The only violation the program had recently was for a fire hazard. Trash and combustibles were stored improperly, either in a furnace room or an area accessible to children. OCFS noted staff moved the trash and combustibles to an acceptable location.