City Council passes important childcare legislation

t the January 19^th City Council meeting, the councilmembers unanimously passed a package of legislation that will make it easier for parents to get information about conditions at childcare centers. The four bills require the City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to provide the City Council with quarterly reports on childcare and to make inspection reports of these centers available to everyone through its website and the City's 311 phone system. Childcare centers will also be required to post signs near their entrances telling parents how to access the reports on conditions at childcare centers.

These reforms were passed in honor of seven-month old Matthew Perilli, who died so tragically last summer when he was accidentally suffocated in an understaffed daycare center in Forest Hills, Queens. Matthew’s parents, Vincent and Maria Perilli were present at the City Council meeting, and many members, including Yvette Clarke and Tracy Boyland, thanked them for playing such an important role in making the legislation happen. On behalf of the entire council Speaker Gifford Miller commended them for their "extraordinary generosity of spirit in trying to turn an unspeakable loss that I'm sure all of us as parents and human beings shudder to even imagine, into something positive so that other parents won't ever have to go through this."

It was pointed out that the awful thing was, the Perellis had done everything they were supposed to do to ensure their son’s safety. They checked the records and they asked the right questions. But because the information they needed was not available, they weren’t able to find out that the provider they were using was operating an unlicensed daycare facility that had serious violations.

As Council Member Bill de Blasio, stated, "Tragically enough, if you're trying to find out about what car or what toaster oven to buy, until now it’s been a lot easier to get that information than to find out about childcare centers and whether they're safe." And he added that as a parent himself who’s had children in childcare, he knows how much a parent worries every day about their child’s safety.

Council Member Kendall Stewart, who enthusiastically voted in favor of the legislation, pointed to another important aspect of the situation that must be fixed before they can be sure the City’s children receive the care they deserve. He said that increasing oversight and making information available on the childcare centers is an excellent and necessary step forward. "But I am very concerned that no one is moving forward on the issue of taking care of the childcare workers who have been without a contract for so many years," he commented. "If we're not taking care of the people who are taking care of our children, we will continue to have problems." He urged his colleagues to take it to the next level and tackle this aspect of the problem as well.