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Credible child abuse cases at Big Apple-regulated daycares have skyrocketed as Mayor Zohran Mamdani ramps up expansion of tot care slots — but no one knows why, new statistics show.
There were 564 reported cases of child abuse during the last fiscal year, a bone-chilling 24.4% of which were found to be substantiated, according to statistics provided in the annual Mayor’s Management Report released in September.
That’s nearly double the 13.1% deemed credible during the 2024 fiscal year — which also had 7% fewer reported cases of neglect and abuse, the Administration for Children’s Services reported.
Even more concerning is that the ACS is not sure what is causing the surge.
“ACS is working with child protection leadership to understand factors that may be leading to a higher indication rate in investigations of alleged abuse and/or neglect that occur in child care programs,” the agency said.
Councilman Frank Morano, who sits on the governmental operations committee, suggested the council hold a hearing “right away and work to get some answers” on the documented increase in child abuse.
“The child-care numbers are especially hard to ignore. Reports went up 7%, but the share that were actually substantiated nearly doubled,” said Morano (R-Staten Island).
“That tells me this isn’t just a story about more people making reports. ACS itself says it is trying to figure out why the substantiation rate jumped so dramatically. Parents deserve that answer quickly.”
The MMR covers the last six months of former Mayor Eric Adams’s term and the first six months of Mamdani’s tenure, which began this year.
The data follows several disturbing accounts of sexual abuse that have been made public — including the February arrest of a pervy Brooklyn day care teacher who investigators said molested four girls over the course of nearly two years.
Devonte Brown, 30, is accused of intimately touching the kids – two 5-year-olds and a 6- and 9-year-old – he was entrusted to care for at The Learning Factory in Bushwick.
The month earlier, the Eva Crèche Day Care center in Prospect Lefferts Gardens was shut down by the city after parents reportedly saw videos of the caretakers physically mistreating the kids — in one instance grabbing and tossing a child.
ACS responds to allegations of child abuse and neglect reported to the New York State Central Register. Child protective specialists at ACS respond to about 50,000 allegations of child abuse and neglect each year.
Some 11,000 providers care for 475,000 children in facilities inspected by the city Health Department, including licensed childcare centers, home-based programs, afterschool care and school-based childcare programs.
The Health Department said it maintains some of the strictest protective health and safety childcare standards in the country — requiring teachers to meet strong education and experience qualifications and undergo rigorous background checks.
Every provider who applies to open a childcare center undergoes a rigorous inspection process by the Health Department before being allowed to open.
Routine inspections continue after childcare centers are up and running, the agency said.
“The vast majority of childcare providers in New York City provide safe and loving environments for children, but if we find a program operating in a way that puts children at risk, we step in and hold them accountable,” a department spokesperson said.
“We conduct rigorous background checks on staff, respond to all health and safety complaints and refer cases of alleged child abuse or neglect to the proper authorities so that childcare centers remain safe places for children.”
The troubling increase comes as the mayor moves to dramatically expand child care for pre-school tots in 2-K and 3-K programs.
One of Mamdani’s central campaign planks during the 2025 mayoral race was promising free child care for kids under age 5 citywide.
But as the Post reported last month, the number of city schoolchildren enrolled in the 3-K program slipped to 43,678 in fiscal year 2026, down from 44,729 in the prior fiscal year, according to the MMR.
Enrollment in the 3-K program fell short of the administration’s own target of 45,454.
Meanwhile, enrollment in the city’s free pre-K program for fiscal 2026 was 55,042 — lower than last year’s 56,950 and considerably less than the administration’s target of 59,250.
Last week, Mamdani and ACS announced that the city will deliver free child care to more than 10,000 children by moving them off the child care voucher waitlist, thanks to a $1.2 billion state commitment from Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The program covers low-income children ages 6 weeks to 13 years, and through age 19 for children with special needs.