Mark Levine’s office is almost done registering those delayed early childhood education contracts

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine’s office said they’ve been working overtime to process early childhood education contracts after critical payment delays to providers before the start of this school year that were first reported by City & State.  

Evening and weekend shifts helped Levine’s office register over 1,144 of the 1,191 early childhood education contracts submitted by the city Department of Education from July 1 through the end of October, according to a release shared with City & State.

“Small providers who already operate with little financial cushion were forced to start the year under immense strain,” Levine said in a statement, referring to the “logjam” the city experienced earlier this year in getting advance payments to providers.

Levine’s office is responsible for registering all city contracts, including the over 1,500 contracts for 2-K, 3-K and pre-K providers at privately owned education centers across the city. The comptroller’s approval is the last step before funds are released to these providers. 

Per the City Charter, the comptroller’s office is mandated to register contracts in 30 days, but given the time crunch, the office processed the surge of late contracts in an average of five days. 

In a press release, Levine’s office said 80% of childhood education contracts were submitted to them after Aug. 28. City & State first reported the funding delay might impact some programs’ abilities to open on the first day of school on Aug. 25. Before that date, the comptroller’s office had received only 120 applications from the Department of Education, according to a spokesperson. 

But the comptroller’s office is not done yet. They anticipate approximately 1,550 early childhood education contracts this fiscal year.

“There’s many more pre-K and 3-K contracts that are still in the pipeline,” Nora Moran, director of policy and advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses, told City & State.

Providers are first expected to submit their contract renewals to the Division of Early Childhood Education’s contracts department, which is responsible for processing it before sending it to the comptroller’s office. But the division told providers in June that the contract renewals would not be processed in time for them to receive their advanced payments to open on the first day of school.

“As we continue to work with the administration to expedite outstanding contracts, I look forward to discussing measures to solve the problem that occurred here and ensure a more consistent submission schedule ahead of the start of the fiscal year,” Levine said in a statement.

On Aug. 31, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a $43 million investment to restore capacity to the division as well as plans to establish procurement and contracting reforms that create clear timelines for every stage of the contracting process. 

But with some providers still waiting on their contract renewals, there are concerns about how delays are addressed.

Olena Knyzhnyk-Olson, an education director at Let’s Play and Learn in Gowanus, said she felt like her payment concerns weren’t taken seriously until she went to the media. 

“It’s kind of disheartening because you have to speak up,” said Knyzhnyk-Olson. “My job as an educational director turned into this press secretary position, like constantly reminding them, ‘Hey, we need money. We need to get paid. We have kids here. They're coming every day.’”

Knyzhnyk-Olson took out a $60,000 line of credit with Chase to support her staff until her funding came through. Her contract was approved on Sept. 14, and payment was received on Sept. 23, which she called “lighting speed,” compared to prior years. 

Knyzhnyk-Olson, who has both 3-K and pre-K classes, said in her first year contracting with the Department of Education in 2023, her contract was not registered by the time school started, so she contacted ABC7. “I was in so much debt, but once the news segment aired, we got the money the same day. Not a coincidence.”