City set to approve contract for pre-K background checks
Eliza Shapiro
The city Department of Education is set to approve a $95,000 contract for an investigative firm to conduct background checks on pre-K providers after recent reports found hundreds of community-based pre-K centers have health and building code violations.
The D.O.E.'s Panel for Educational Policy (P.E.P.) will vote on the contract with Lemire LLC, the investigations company, at a contract meeting Tuesday evening. The contract is set to run for six months and is subject to final—and likely—approval at Wednesday's P.E.P. meeting.
Lemire is run by Katherine Lemire, a special counsel to former police commissioner Ray Kelly.
The company will run about 200 background checks for community-based pre-K centers (C.B.O.s), according to city officials. There are nearly 1,000 C.B.O.s set to offer pre-K instruction this September.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/07/8548876/city-set-approve-contract-pre-k-background-checks
