{"id":247495,"date":"2026-05-29T10:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/247495\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T10:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:16:09","slug":"brooklyn-day-care-owner-fined-by-nyc-for-child-safety-concerns-tried-to-operate-in-nj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/247495\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn day care owner fined by NYC for child safety concerns tried to operate in NJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

The owner of a Brooklyn daycare that shuttered this year<\/a> amid child abuse allegations tried to open a new space in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

It’s the second time that Shareece Dukes, who ran the Eva Cr\u00e8che Child Care Center in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, tried to relaunch her business in a new jurisdiction after previous problems prompted closures<\/a>, records show. In the most recent case, New Jersey officials suspended her registration after Gothamist inquired about it.<\/p>\n

Dukes is still facing financial penalties by New York City health officials after videos surfaced of Eva Cr\u00e8che workers mishandling children, including forcibly grabbing and dragging toddlers<\/a> earlier this year. The city\u2019s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings held a hearing in early May on the summonses but Dukes didn\u2019t show and could face as much as $10,000 in fines.<\/p>\n

Dukes\u2019 attorney George Gilmer declined to comment.<\/p>\n

In April, Dukes registered a new daycare out of her home in Monroe Township, New Jersey, to care for five children, records show. New Jersey doesn\u2019t require providers who care for up to five children in their home to get a license to operate. They can, however, voluntarily register their programs if they want to enroll children whose care is subsidized by childcare vouchers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Officials with New Jersey\u2019s Department of Children and Families, which licenses providers and approved Dukes\u2019 registration, told Gothamist her registration was suspended pending an investigation after Gothamist asked whether the state was aware of Dukes\u2019 prior history in New York. City health officials said they also reached out to the state once parents informed them of the new facility this month.<\/p>\n

Jason Butkowski, a spokesperson with the New Jersey agency, said Dukes cleared the required background check but did not disclose any previous out-of-state childcare businesses. He said no children were enrolled in her program.<\/p>\n

In March, New York City\u2019s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which licenses childcare centers in the city, issued a series of summonses against Dukes and her Executive Director Gigi Freeman. The summonses allege they failed to \u201cact reasonably or take any necessary precautions to protect a human life\u201d in several instances where children were forcibly handled.<\/p>\n

Freeman didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

According to a copy of the summons viewed by Gothamist, staff members dragged a child by their sweater, forcibly picked up a child by the shoulders and dropped them, and held a child continuously upside down while taking them to another room. In another instance, a worker also forcibly picked up a child by the back of their onesie, shoved them into a crib and threw a bottle into the crib, the summons said.<\/p>\n

William Fowler, a spokesperson for the city\u2019s health department, said the agency worked together with impacted parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of childcare programs in New York City provide safe and loving environments for children, but if we find a program operating in a way that puts children at risk, we step in and hold them accountable. Following an investigation into Eva Cr\u00e8che, and with the help of impacted parents, we did just that,\u201d Fowler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to ensure this provider does not open another childcare center in New York City and work with our partners in other jurisdictions to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebecca Gerstein, 37, whose daughter attended Eva Cr\u00e8che, said parents found out about Dukes\u2019 new location in New Jersey, named Adorn Childcare, earlier this month and began reaching out to local officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe shouldn’t be allowed to work with children. I think she’s shown no accountability, no lessons learned,\u201d Gerstein said of Dukes. \u201cI do not believe that she is showing signs of someone who has learned from this and will do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dukes\u2019 New Jersey registration, which was listed online earlier this month, is no longer available. Her website advertising her new home program is also not working and a Google posting for the business said it is permanently closed.<\/p>\n

Before Dukes ran Eva Cr\u00e8che, she had another home-based location in Crown Heights called Inspiring Minds that was licensed by New York state, Gothamist previously reported<\/a>. That facility was ordered closed for failing to allow health inspectors inside and having more children than allowed.<\/p>\n

Dukes then obtained a city license and opened Eva Cr\u00e8che in 2021. She voluntarily closed the center in January after a whistleblower employee began texting parents videos of their children allegedly being abused. Parents and a former worker also said the space had three times the number of children that was allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThis is going to be a very long game of Whack-A-Mole because she is going to just keep trying to do this, and we’re going to keep trying to stop her,\u201d Gerstein said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The owner of a Brooklyn daycare that shuttered this year amid child abuse allegations tried to open a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-247495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}