WINDSOR TERRACE — Authorities are investigating a Windsor Terrace day care that closed without warning Friday and allegedly owes more than $100,000 to parents and workers.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office is looking into complaints that Ilene's Sunflower Day Care owes parents $94,000 and workers $14,000, a spokesman confirmed Thursday. Parents have also notified the Brooklyn District Attorney's office about the lost money.
Thirty families are now scrambling for new child care following the sudden shuttering of Ilene's Sunflower, which has served infants and toddlers for about 20 years at two facilities on Prospect Avenue and on Greenwood Avenue.
Owner Ilene Lieberman passed away Saturday after battling cancer, which means the license to operate her two day care facilities is now void, a spokeswoman with the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene said.
Parents say they were kept in the dark about the seriousness of Lieberman's illness, and that her adult children had stepped in recently to collect their payments, and in some cases, ask them to pre-pay fees for coming months.
On Friday, Lieberman's children called caregivers and told them to tell parents the day cares were closing for good after pick-up that night. The owner's kids also told employees "there was no money" to pay them for their last three weeks of work, said caregiver Monique Grant, who has worked at Sunflower for four years and makes $10.50 an hour.
The rate parents pay depends on how many hours their child is there, but one mom says she paid $1,850 a month for full-time care, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Lieberman's children did not respond to messages seeking comment.
"It was just despicable," said mom Elizabeth Stoltenberg of the sudden closure. "Any sympathy I have for someone who just lost their parent has been erased by the way they handled this, asking so many parents to pay in advance or cashing their checks as late as the 17th, when they knew things were shutting down, and then telling the workers you're not going to be paid."
Parents received an email Monday informing them of Lieberman's death and asking for patience and privacy. The note also reminded parents that Lieberman was the sole proprietor of the business, and that family members who had pitched in to help the day care recently "were not employees, officers or shareholders" — apparently a sign that Lieberman's family members "were trying to distance themselves from any wrongdoing," one mom said.
Parents said that while they could reluctantly reconcile themselves to losing their pre-paid fees — some had paid through May — they're outraged at how the day care left its workers high and dry. Families are now working with caregivers and a nonprofit, The Working World, to try to launch a worker-owned day care as quickly as possible to replace Ilene's Sunflower.
The Sunflower families have launched a website to try to get the attention of city officials and to collect donations for the workers.
The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which oversees day cares, has been less than helpful, parents charge, telling parents and caregivers they can only use the Sunflower facilities until Friday but that after that, DOHMH will fine caregivers $500 a day for providing care in an unlicensed facility, Grant and parents said.
Parents want DOHMH to grant an extension to keep Sunflower open until they get a new license, but DOHMH has said that's not possible, parents said.
A DOHMH spokeswoman said Tuesday that all day cares must have a licensed provider on site to ensure children’s safety, and that to reopen the day care, another person must apply for a new childcare license with the state. The agency will work to expedite the application for a new license, the spokeswoman said.
One mom said DOHMH sent a her a list of alternative day cares to try and that Ilene's Sunflower was at the top of the roster.
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Lieberman's day cares were well-known in Windsor Terrace for their warm and loving staff, but Lieberman had a track record of poor management. The Department of Labor sued her in 2015 after she threatened and harassed workers to try to get back $20,838 in unpaid overtime that she was ordered to pay them, court records show.
Parents said they were aware of the previous problems when they signed up for Sunflower, but that the day care came highly recommended by neighborhood families because of its committed staff. Since the closure, parents have discovered that at least one worker wasn't even being paid minimum wage and that caregivers were sometimes forced to use their own money to pay for food for the children because the kitchen wasn't properly stocked, families said.
Grant said she and the other workers tolerated the less-than ideal management because of their commitment to the children for whom they cared. Grant said employees were sometimes unable to cash their paychecks because there wasn't enough money in the business's account to cover them.
“We really like it because of the kids,” Grant said. “We’re really here for the kids — they’re the ones that make us come to work no matter how bad it got. ... We just want to find a spot where we can open back up ASAP, so we can get back our parents and get back our kids.”
