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The Business Council of New York State, Inc. supports S.5811-A (Kaplan) / A.8393 (Lavine) which would allow temporary childcare employment agencies to access the Statewide Central Register for Child Abuse and Maltreatment in order to approve temporary staff to be eligible for employment at childcare facilities in New York.
As universal Pre-K has expanded across the state, childcare centers have struggled to remain open with the high cost of doing business and providing care for infants and toddlers. Many across the state are closing and those struggling to stay open face difficulties finding the necessary talent to staff their businesses.
Temporary staffing agencies have sought to serve workforce challenges in a variety of industries and present one solution to staffing in childcare facilities as well. This legislation is necessary to allow these agencies access to the Statewide Central Register for Child Abuse and Maltreatment so temporary staff can be fully fingerprinted and background checked for employment in childcare facilities. In doing so, this bill also provides the opportunity of securing full-time employment for the temporary staff, should the centers seek to keep the best talent from the staffing agency, something that often happens. It also gives childcare centers the benefit of having on-call staff available in times of temporary shortages without the need to carry additional on-call staff which provides centers with a modest operational cost-savings.
This simple amendment to state law allows more New Yorkers access to employment opportunities while serving the growing need for childcare options for working parents. The only comprehensive statewide assessment of lost revenue and wages due to lack of childcare was done in the state of Louisiana, which has a population of 4.66 million – less than a quarter of New York’s population1, and the results show a $1.1 billion loss for Louisiana’s economy and almost $84 million in lost tax revenue for Louisiana’s economy due to childcare issues.2 Needless to say, should this comprehensive assessment be done in New York, we would find the negative impact on the State’s economy due to lack of childcare to be astounding.
The Business Council supports programs that ensure New York has the qualified workforce needed to further grow our economy. As such, the Business Council supports S.5811-A (Kaplan) / A.8393 (Lavine), which would allow temporary childcare employment agencies to access the Statewide Central Register for Child Abuse and Maltreatment in order to approve temporary staff to be eligible for employment at childcare facilities in New York.
2. Davis, B., PhD, Bustamante, A., PhD, Bronfin, M., JD, & Crandal Rahim, M., PhD. (2017, May). Losing Ground: How Child Care Impacts Louisiana’s Workforce Productivity and the State Economy. Retrieved from www.policyinstitutela.org