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Clarkstown Maintains Daycare Facility Needs To Be Licensed By New York State Office of Children & Family Services
By Tina Traster
Two hours after Clarkstown officials held a press conference on Wednesday to announce the closure of what they say is an illegally operating and unlicensed daycare center in New City, an attorney representing the daycare operator has said the town’s allegations are “founded on wrong assumptions about a religious daycare.”
Rockland County Child Protective Services and the Clarkstown police shuttered the recently opened daycare center at 86 Maple Avenue/96 Maple Avenue in New City after the building and fire inspectors uncovered a raft of code violations. Town Supervisor George Hoehmann described the conditions as “egregious,” saying the daycare operator Morah Chany put the lives of 70 children “at severe risk.”
Hoehmann said the facility had “nightmarish conditions” with reports of infants sleeping in an unfinished basement. He also said the facility is not licensed by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.
The Supervisor said the town is pursuing “civil, criminal, and administrative remedies,” adding that circumstances like these will not be tolerated.
A lawsuit was filed in Rockland County Supreme Court late Tuesday against Congregation Morah Chany (the daycare center operator), 86 Maple NC LLC and 96 Maple NC LLC (the property owner) and Aron Altman (the sole member of the LLC building owner). According to the lawsuit, Congregation Morah Chany submitted a petition with the Town Clerk for a Special Permit for a child day care center to operate out of 86 Maple Avenue in New City for 54 students and nine staff members. However, they did not follow up on the application, and Hoehmann said they were never issued a Special Permit.
The complaint charges that during an inspection on July 7, both buildings (86 and 96 Maple Avenue) were being utilized as a child day care center for 69 children with 21 adult staff members. The town is seeking a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to enjoin the continued use of the two buildings as a day care center, saying the town will be irreparably harmed and the public endangered without court intervention.
During the inspections, officials also found evidence that a windowless basement in an adjacent building was part of the childcare operation, and that the playground was obstructed by a dumpster and other impediments for emergency vehicles.
The court complaint details three broken exit doors, improper wiring and use of extension cords, locked gates in the play area, and the storage of flammable liquids and propane cylinders in the basement where children nap.
Clarkstown officials are also charging that cribs were found in the basement of a vaping shop located at 96 Maple, adjacent to the main daycare facility.
In a letter filed late Wednesday by Richard Mahon or Catania, Mahon & Rider, of Newburgh, to Justice Larry Schwartz, the attorney representing the defendants said his client is not operating a “commercial daycare center.” Instead, Mahon says that the House of Worship was issued a Certificate of Occupancy to conduct religious services, religious education, and daycare outreach ministries (like any other Christian Church or Jewish Congregation).
Mahon wrote to the judge that the facility “is not a commercial daycare center” and that it “wrongly assumed that it needed to apply as a daycare center to the Town in order to provide daycare as a religious organization.” Mahon says the application was not completed because “it was not necessary.”
He says the “Town’s entire Complaint is founded on wrong assumptions about a religious daycare.” Mahon also said, “A New York childcare license is not required for a religious daycare center if the organization running the center is a religious entity such as a Jewish congregation or a church or mosque.” He says, “Daycares within religious schools are treated differently under the State daycare regulations.”
Mahon writes that according to New York State regulations, child care services “do not include programs providing care for children operated solely for the purpose of religious education, sports, recreation, classes, or lessons.” However, the New York State regulations refer only to programs for school-age children.
In response, Hoehmann says, “the Office of Children and Family Services requires licensure and we are deferring to them.” Hoehmann also says that the letter does not address the occupancy issues and the numerous building, fire code and safety violations.
Mahon has asked the Court for the opportunity to be heard and to submit papers in opposition to the Clarkstown’s request for an ex parte temporary restraining order.
