Westchester Child Care Businesses fed up with County

ALBANY, NY (10/29/2017) (readMedia)-- Due to a recent system error, Westchester County notified all providers contracted with the county that they were overpaid. The County is seeking reimbursement from small child care businesses ranging in amounts from $10,000 to $50,000 without providing a detailed accounting to these small business owners so they can assess the accuracy of the County's claim. The lack of detail coming from officials leaves them wondering what were they paid for and how can they be sure that the bill received from the county is correct. Complicating matters and sowing the distrust is their recent experience with a previous system error that had them underpaid and the County refused to pay retroactively for services delivered.

WHO: Child Care Providers, CSEA/VOICE Local 100A, Parents, Westchester families

WHAT: Providers are committed to delivering quality child care to Westchester Counties many working parents. In the last few years, they have not been able to rely on the county to work with them to improve access to affordable child care in Westchester. Many work long hours, including evening and weekends. Working families, including those with non-traditional and changing work schedules, know they can count on them to nurture and teach their children and to support them as they strive to balance work and parenting. CSEA/VOICE Local 100A successfully partnered with the Office of Children and Family Services and DSS agencies across the state to make the child care subsidy system work better in several counties. This leaves providers wondering why not Westchester? Providers maintain they need to work together to solve problems for working families in Westchester County.

WHEN: Monday October 30, 2017 at 11:00AM Eastern Time (US & Canada)

WHERE: Blessed Beginnings Childcare, Inc.

107 East 5th Street

Mount Vernon, New York 10553

NOTES: The Westchester-Putnam County Chapter of CSEA/VOICE Local 100A represents nearly 500 child care providers within the Southern Region of CSEA. CSEA/VOICE Local 100A, brings together more than 6,000 home-based licensed child care providers in 57counties across New York (outside NYC). By supporting quality, affordable early learning and care in New York and greater investment in our children, our work and our communities, we work to keep parents earning and children learning. For more information visit www.voicecsea.org.

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