Simone Hawkins returns to the Education Department as deputy chancellor for early childhood

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A top official who oversaw payments to preschool providers amid a crush of delays is returning to become deputy chancellor of early childhood education, officials announced Friday.

Simone Hawkins, who abruptly left her post as chief executive for operations in the early childhood division in 2022, will now oversee the city’s publicly funded preschool programs and subsidized programs for infants and toddlers that currently serve about 140,000 children.

Her appointment by Chancellor David Banks comes just weeks after the departure of Kara Ahmed , the previous deputy chancellor, whose two-and-a-half year tenure was marked by upheaval.

Hawkins’ “expertise in early childhood education and her ability to implement complex, large-scale operations make her just the right person to take the helm at this critically important time,” Banks said in a statement.

The new deputy chancellor will assume an early childhood division that has experienced a bumpy staffing shakeup , payment delays , a controversial curriculum mandate , and a longstanding failure to provide preschool seats to children with disabilities who have a legal right to them.

The division has also been at the center of a major budget fight between Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council over how much funding the city should allocate for 3-K, the city’s free public preschool program for 3-year-olds.

The program has expanded under Adams’ watch, but the mayor has also followed through with $150 million in cuts for the program’s budget this year . He contends that the city has been paying for empty seats , though advocates have pushed for more aggressive outreach efforts. Not all families who applied on time for a seat this fall have been offered a spot .

Local lawmakers, including those who have sharply criticized the Education Department’s approach to early childhood programs in recent years, praised Hawkins. Rita Joseph, who helms the City Council’s education committee, said Haskins appointment “presents a significant opportunity to address and solve the challenges facing our youngest learners and their families.”

And Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn council member who has often sparred with department officials about cuts to preschool programs, wrote in a text message that Hawkins “is a smart, experienced and capable leader and I am hopeful she can right the ship of our troubled early childhood education system.”

Hawkins’ most recent role was with the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as a deputy commissioner and chief equity officer. For now, it appears she will split the time between the departments of health and education.

Her first day as deputy chancellor is slated to be July 29, according to a press release, though Chalkbeat obtained an internal message to health department staff that indicates she will continue to work part time for that agency through August. An Education Department spokesperson did not say how much time she would devote to her deputy chancellor role during the transition or what her salary will be.

Her stint at the Education Department’s early childhood division in 2022 lasted less than a year. The department was struggling at the time to pay preschool providers on time, which hobbled some programs and forced others to close. In her role as executive director for operations, Hawkins oversaw the payment process.

Top officials said they inherited a flawed payment system from the prior administration, though other department staff suggested that Ahmed drove out longtime staffers with deep knowledge of how the systems work, exacerbating the issue.

Two days after testifying in front of the City Council about payment problems, Hawkins resigned her post , only about eight months after taking the role. Department officials said at the time her resignation was for “personal reasons” and had been in the works for “several weeks.”

Hawkins’ early childhood experience stretches back at least a decade. Beginning in 2014, she worked as a deputy budget and operations director in the early childhood division of the Children’s Aid Society, an agency that operates preschool seats among other school-based services. More recently, she was the chief financial and administrative officer at Covenant House, an organization that serves homeless youth.

She also previously served in government, including as an assistant commissioner in the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which oversees child care providers, and as a budget analyst for the city’s office of management and budget.

Early childhood advocates largely praised Hawkins’ appointment.

“She is someone who is well respected and liked by the provider community,” said Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, a nonprofit that works with low-income families. “Deputy Chancellor Hawkins brings a wealth of experience in the field of early childhood education and a long history of partnering collaboratively and working through operational challenges.”

Gregory Brender, chief policy and innovation officer at the Day Care Council, which represents early childhood providers, noted that Hawkins will immediately have a full plate. Early childhood organizations are “facing significant challenges from understaffing to budget cuts,” he wrote in an email. “We look forward to working with [Hawkins] in her new role.”

Amy Zimmer contributed reporting.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org .