Who knew the day care circuit in the city had such a seedy underbelly? Federal prosecutors have arrested eleven people, including seven New York City officials from three city agencies, for an $18 million day-care bribery ring [PDF]. The group allegedly "fraudulently obtained more than $18 million intended to help needy parents with public assistance for day care services" by bribing workers to bill the city for children who were not enrolled in the day care subsidy program. And of course, no bribery ring is complete without a sinister nickname. They called themselves "The Congregation." more ›

Little Flower Children and Family Services—a foster care agency serving the city and Long Island since 1927—is suing the city for rejecting their contract under a new award process. The agency claims moving over 1,400 children to new agencies is a difficult and traumatizing process, and could delay adoptions by up to 2.6 years. However, Mayor Bloomberg told the Post that Little Flower just wasn't run well. "When we have services that don't work we're going to move monies from those services or those organizations that either aren't patronized or aren't used well or aren't doing a good job, and we'll go to those that do." And he wonders why reporters think his English isn't good enough. more ›

More than 85 percent of Park Slope families pay their the domestic help under the table. According to the Brooklyn Paper and a Park Slope Parents study [PDF], 58 percent of parents who pay their nannies off the books say they think that nannies prefer it that way. But nanny Deborah Manwaring claims that's not necessarily the case: "I don't bring up taxes because they might fire me. With the economy the way it is, I don't want to be unemployed, so I have no choice." more ›

The parents of a 2-year-old girl have charged a Jersey City daycare center with reckless endangerment after their child got left behind during a field trip to MSG. "Our Little Rugratz" daycare took a group of children to see "Elmo Live" last Friday, but ended up losing track of little rugrat Emily Grogan. more ›

After an audit of funds meant for childcare programs for low-income parents, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli referred multiple daycare centers to district attorney offices in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx for possible prosecution. The audit determined that between 1999 and 2007, more state money was spent fraudulently than legally by recipients. more ›

A 29-year-old man who worked for a high-end Manhattan childcare service is on the run after cops were notified his home computer contained thousands of child pornography images. Fred Hardy worked for the Lipton Child Care Center on 55th St. and Park Ave. in Manhattan. When police arrived to question him about the trove of disgusting images on May 15th, his employers at Lipton said that he'd been fired that day. more ›