Chair Stevens questions SAC licensing for new Compass providers

How's the agency assessing providers who do not have school age child care licenses?

Because that's another question, especially for the new providers that's coming in that's going to be in these places.

One of the things I was showing out about when the RFP came out was just like, are we giving additional supports to DOHMH?

Because they are a huge part in this process that we kind of forget about.

And so I'm trying to understand, especially with these new programs coming in, how do we expect to get all these people cleared?

Because even if you were cleared at another site, you got to do the process over.

And with the SAC requirements, I'm really concerned about folks being able to start and being able to get up and going by, what is it, September?

August?

What is it?

September.

September.

Yep.

So thank you, Chair.

That's a great question.

At the start of the RFP planning process, we've been in full engagement with the OHMH and New York City Public Schools because there's a whole coordinated process that happens behind the scenes outside of the application process, which includes inspections, the facilities itself.

So we wanted to really focus on the more trouble spots areas and then on the application side, work with those new and existing CBOs to ensure that they are fully understanding the process itself, that we have support and technical assistance that we can provide on our end as well.

What's been great is that there's only a small subset of these programs starting the fall that actually require a new license itself.

So how many right now we're looking behind the scenes outside of the application process, which includes inspections, the facilities itself.

Looking at just over 200.

So that's a share.

Again, it's awful.

So we wanted to really focus on the more trouble spots areas and then on the application side, work with those new and existing CBOs to ensure that they are fully understanding the process itself, that we have support and technical assistance that we can provide on our end as well.

You said 200 like it was like 10.

But let's be clear.

200 out of the total 900 plus programs we have.

We've done this in the past when we did the Sonic expansion.

And I was there, and it was not smooth.

What's been great is that there's only a small subset of these programs starting the fall that actually require a new license itself.

It was not smooth.

Smoother.

I was there.

It was not smooth, and it was a mess.

And you're 100% correct on that.

And what's been great since then is that there actually is an online portal, right?

So how many right now we're looking?

We had to go from paper-based to online since then.

So there's been a lot of progress since then.

And there's a lot of hiccups in there, too.

You know I know the process.

And that is the process of what we do here at DYCD to make sure that we can make those troublesome spots as comfortable as possible, right?

I think this is an opportunity for us to really think about these processes across multiple agencies and how we're tracking them and ensuring that we are escalating.

As we speak right now, we have these teams coordinating and meeting to discuss where additional supports are going to be needed, really coordinating with public schools and identifying the classrooms so the OHMH can go out and do the inspections in a quick manner and engaging with CBOs that still need support in that process.

Is there a contingency plan if they are not able to get their SAC license and up and running?

Yes, there will be plans in place.

So you have that plan already?

Okay, so you'll share that with me?

Yes.