Infant's Death Prompts Bill Helping NYC Parents Choose Day Care Center

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Some New York City council members want to arm parents with more information before choosing a day care center.

Councilman Jimmy Vacca plans to introduce a measure requiring the city to publish the names and addresses of day care centers that have been shut down or given cease and desist orders because they were unlicensed.

"Picking a day care center is a really important decision for your youngster, yet you cannot find out what places in the past have been closed down -- and many places are closed down due to lack of licensing or registration," Vacca told 1010 WINS. "I want to empower parents with knowledge before they register their child."

The push follows the death of an infant at an unlicensed Manhattan day care facility over the summer.

Currently, centers licensed by the city and state are listed online, but there's no database of centers that are found to be running illegally.

"Right now, we have no transparency when it comes to parents knowing what day care centers have been closed down and where they've been closed down," Vacca said. "My bill would tell people very specifically that a center has had issues in the past, and that a center does not have proper permits and have been closed down, and I want that level of transparency."

Vacca said the data will also help officials identify and investigate trends of day care centers closing in a particular community.