Child care change at Howell

This fall, for the first time in 24 years, the Howell Road School’s early-morning and after-school programs will not be led by Lisa Blackman. The District 13 Board of Education, citing the advice of its attorney, voted at its May 28 meeting to bring in another vendor to run the program.

According to Blackman, who has been with the Enrichment After School Everyday program, known as EASE, since its inception, the reason for the change is that she does not have a child care provider license for school-age children, although she is in the process of obtaining one from the Nassau County branch of the New York Office of Child and Family Services. Blackman said she was first notified that the license was required on May 1 and immediately began the process to get one, but soon found out that it would take her between six months and a year.

When she notified district officials about the wait for her license, Blackman said, she was told that another provider would be taking over the program in the fall. The board selected SCOPE Education Services to run the before- and after-school program at Howell Road next year.

District officials would not cite the specific cause for ending Blackman’s contact, saying it was only for legal reasons, but did say that they took immediate action when they learned she did not have a license. According to the Office of Child and Family Services, any day care program serving three or more children for more than three hours a day on a regular basis must obtain a license or registration certificate. Blackman’s programs combined run for four and a half hours a day; 7:10 to 8:50 a.m., and 3:10 to 6 p.m.

SCOPE, which was founded in 1964, is chartered by the New York State Board of Regents and governed by a Board of Directors made up of school superintendents and college representatives. District 13 already uses SCOPE at its three other schools. “When the legal issues arose, we continued with SCOPE in order to keep it consistent in all four schools,” said Superintendent Dr. Adrienne Robb-Fund, “rather than going with another vendor that we did not know.”