The Child Care Facilitated Enrollment Project
The Child Care Facilitated Enrollment Project (FEP) is funded by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), was developed by the New York Union Child Care Coalition (a committee of the NYC Central Labor Council and the NY State AFL-CIO) and, is administered by the Consortium for Worker Education.
The Child Care Facilitated Enrollment Project was developed in 2002 as a demonstration project for working parents to increase access to child care subsidies and quality care in New York City for children up to 13 years of age up to 275 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, (e.g. under $60,638 for a family of four). Since 2002, over 52 million dollars has been allocated to serve families in the Bronx, Brooklyn, lower Manhattan and most recently Queens.
The goals of the project are to:
- Improve working families’ access to child care assistance by exploring ways to make it easier for families to apply, e.g. simplifying the application, offering evening enrollment hours and allowing applications to be mailed, faxed or e-mailed.
- Expand access for subsidized care to moderate income families particularly those families who are generally less likely to receive child care assistance in comparison to lower-income families.
- Help parents to afford licensed, quality child care and after school programs.
The Facilitated Enrollment Project has been successful in piloting efforts to streamline enrollment and re-certification for child care subsidies and creating a more user-friendly system for families by facilitating collaboration between unions, non-profit organizations, and the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). The project has made significant strides in addressing the child care needs of a large segment of working families that was previously underserved. To date the Child Care Facilitated Enrollment Project has served almost 2,300 families reflecting 3,800 children. The project currently serves over 1,500 children and is at enrollment capacity.
For more information, please contact Tarmo Kirsimae, Director, Child Care Administration at 212-558-2284.
