State awards Goshen preschool $50K during license revocation proceedings
The grant will help soundproof Inspire Kids’ gym as the school fights to keep its daycare license — and a former parent comes forward with allegations of an earlier supervision lapse.
A Goshen preschool is receiving $50,000 in state funding while fighting to keep its daycare license.
The grant, secured by Assemblyman Brian Maher, will help soundproof the gym at Inspire Kids, a preschool for children with special needs. The funding, however, comes as the state pursues license revocation proceedings following an incident in July when the facility says a child was left unsupervised for more than a minute.
News 12 first reported on the proceedings in September. After seeing that report, a former parent reached out with concerns about a similar incident involving her daughter four years earlier.
Raina Lewis, of Warwick, has twin daughters who are both on the autism spectrum. She says one of them was left unattended outside at Inspire Kids in the summer of 2022.
“When I saw your report about this occurring again at the same school, it just brought back that concern,” Lewis said. “I can’t believe it happened once, and now it happened again. That’s not OK.”
Lewis says she learned about the incident involving her child when Child Protective Services called her one evening after work to say her daughter had been left unattended and an investigation was underway. According to Lewis, her daughter managed to leave the playground by herself and make her way to the front of the school.
She says construction was underway near the parking lot at the time, making the situation particularly frightening.
“We’re talking preschoolers. These are teeny tiny little people,” Lewis said.
Documents Lewis provided to News 12 show Child Protective Services investigated an abuse or maltreatment report involving her daughter in 2022. A subsequent letter classified the report as “indicated,” meaning the agency found sufficient evidence to support the allegation.
Now, after learning about another supervision incident at the school, she says she feels compelled to speak out.
“I feel an obligation to say something because it did happen to my daughter and that happened again to someone else’s child,” Lewis said.
https://twitter.com/blaisegomez12/status/2119894640791077076
She believes a preschool serving children with developmental disabilities should have particularly strong safeguards to ensure every student is supervised.
“You have a school with children that have different disabilities going on, so they need to have a really good system to take care of them and make sure they’re all accounted for,” Lewis said.
Maher defended the state grant, saying Inspire provides vital services to families. He also said the two incidents four years apart don't indicate a recurring problem.
The New York State Office of Children and Family Services says the preschool’s license remains pending revocation, but the facility is permitted to operate while it works with the state to come into compliance.
Inspire says it is appealing the proceedings and does not expect to close. The organization says it remains committed to student safety and continuing to provide services to the families who depend on it.
