Mayor de Blasio’s frenzied push to expand pre-K programs has had dangerous consequences — hundreds of serious violations at unprepared centers since the start of the school year, including at least 78 for hazardous infractions that have still not been remedied, a Post review found.
The most alarming violations were cited at three centers that failed to report significant issues to the Department of Health — allegations of child abuse, the arrest of a staff member or an injury to a child — within 24 hours, as the oversight agency mandates.
And dozens of additional centers failed to conduct required security-clearance checks on their workers, according to DOH records, which show that at least 22 of the programs have not yet done so.
“We’re extremely upset,” said Sam Pirozzolo, vice president of the New York City Parents Union, an advocacy group for public-school kids. “We’re in fear for the safety of our children.”
Experts said de Blasio’s pre-K cheerleading could be behind the rash of violations, which include failure to provide “competent” oversight of kids, not properly maintaining fire extinguishers and not having metal guards on windows to prevent a child from falling.
“It was a rush to say, ‘Hey, look what I’ve accomplished,’ ” Pirozzolo said of de Blasio’s much-ballyhooed rollout of universal pre-K, a cornerstone of his mayoral campaign.
“Pre-Ks shouldn’t be allowed to open unless they pass these inspections,” Pirozzolo added.
Among the violators:
- Grow With Us in The Bronx was hit with a whopping 12 violations in a single day. The city’s Oct. 7 inspection uncovered improper staff ratios — a public-health hazard — along with eight violations that are considered serious enough to be labeled “critical.”
- The Children’s Aid Society, whose former CEO, Richard Buery, now serves as de Blasio’s deputy mayor in charge of the pre-K expansion, has several outstanding violations that haven’t been corrected since being issued weeks ago, on Oct. 9.
- Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union — de Blasio’s biggest booster during last year’s campaign — was also among the providers hit with violations. The union’s Creston Avenue site in The Bronx has an open public-health hazard dating back to Oct. 2 for not having the required staff-to-child ratio.
As of Friday, there were at least 43 Brooklyn pre-K sites that had uncorrected public-health hazards, while there were 17 such violations in Manhattan, 11 in The Bronx, 6 in Queens and 1 on Staten Island.
And there are still hundreds of centers among the roughly 1,100 community-run programs in the DOH database that haven’t even been inspected since the start of the school year.
The problems linger despite assurances by city officials this summer that public hazards would be immediately remedied — or else the centers would be shuttered.
“If we can’t address it, we close the site,” DOH Commissioner Mary Bassett said before the school year.
The Mayor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The DOH said it won’t leave a pre-K site until serious violations are fixed and kids are safe.
Additional reporting by Natalie Musumeci and Georgett Roberts
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