Office of Children and Family Services

Use of Funds to Create and Preserve Child Care Slots in New York City

The Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) awards grants to operators of child care centers. We audited certain of the grants awarded in New York City and found that, on balance, they were not accomplishing their intended purpose of creating and preserving long-term child care center slots. For example, in one sample of grants, the grantees failed to create 724 of the 1,545 new slots called for by their grants and failed to preserve 330 of the 1,888 slots that should have been preserved. In another sample, the grantees failed to preserve 394 of their 916 slots. We recommended that OCFS recover more than $800,000 of the grant funds that were not used as intended.

We also determined that many of the grantees were using grant funds inappropriately, and in some instances, fraudulently. For example, some grantees were altering and fabricating documents to create the appearance of legitimate expenses, and some were using grant funds for personal purposes unrelated to child care. We identified a total of nearly $1.6 million in inappropriate grant expenditures. We recommended that OCFS recover these funds.

For a complete copy of Report 2006-S-33 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.