Public Employee Press

Layoff plan “devastating” for child protection

Budget cuts and contracting out proposed for the Administration for Children’s Services would cause a wave of layoffs, mainly in programs that prevent child abuse. While the mayor planned to issue his Executive Budget in late April, after this PEP went to press, his preliminary budget cut over $52 million from ACS.

In March, the city announced that over 600 layoffs in ACS would take place in June, with almost 500 of them in titles represented by DC 37. Cuts are scheduled to take place throughout the agency, with 357 to hit members of Social Service Employees Union Local 371 and 71 aimed at Clerical-Administrative Local 1549 members.

Targeted for severe slashes are vital programs that give families strength, knowledge and support to help them avoid child abuse, including day care, Head Start, homemaking assistance and family services, as well as critical support services within the agency, such as the legal department.

The flourishing Richmond Hill Family Center in Queens is slated for closure. Innovative and tremendously successful initiatives would be decimated, including the Teen Age Services Act program for teen mothers and the Investigative Consultants (the ex-police personnel the agency brought in as a resource in the aftermath of Nixmary Brown’s death). TASA is scheduled to lose more than half of its staff.

Cuts keep coming

On April 8, Mayor Bloomberg announced an additional 4 percent cut to the ACS budget, about $29 million. “We anticipate that we will be notified of additional cuts,” said Assistant Director Moira Dolan of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept.

“These cuts will be devastating for the children, their families and the employees,” said Local 371 President Faye Moore. “They will put children at risk. The cuts in day care strike a blow not only at the workers but at the children and their families, who depend on day care to keep their jobs.”

“ACS is an important agency, and the clerical workers at ACS are important,” said Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez. “They’re on the front line doing crucial work. They process the paperwork that makes the process move. They help save children’s lives.”

SSEU Local 371 member Cecelia Hawkins is a Parent Coordinator for Child Care Head Start at ACS. “This is a federal program, so there are mandates and they are rigid,” she said. “Layoffs here would be devastating. Children would be shortchanged at a very young age. Their role ahead in life will be more difficult and that’s a tragedy.”

— Jane LaTour