ABC Little Star Day Care Reopens With New Owner

After being shuttered for nearly three weeks, the embattled ABC Little Star Day Care reopened on Tuesday, January 20, with a new owner.

The once-popular Bensonhurst day care (located at 2345 85th Street) – which closed down earlier this month amid charges of fraud – was transferred to Mariam Demetrashvili and has been issued new licenses, according to Galina Boichuk, a teacher’s assistant at the facility.

On Facebook, ABC Little Star encouraged parents to re-enroll their tots, offering childcare services seven days a week:

Dear parents!!! we appreciate your patience and loyalty to us.WE have news, WE WILL BE OPEN 7 DAYS a WEEK!!!!!!! please, make requests for the weekends, so we should know, how many teachers to involve. thank you very much and enjoy your day!!!

Unfortunately, many parents had already made alternate childcare arrangements. Dimitriy Perelstein, whose 2.5-year-old attended ABC Little Star, told us his son had a very positive experience, but he was concerned by a lack of transparency and communication from the day care’s administrators.

“We were notified that the day care would be closed basically a day prior to last day of the year, and had to make urgent arrangements for the two weeks they were closed,” he said. “We ended up finding another day care which we like now.”

In September of last year, the ABC Little Star’s previous owner, Elena Kaplan, was arrested and indicted on multiple charges of forgery. Though the day care was allowed to remain open, she agreed to divest from the childcare center before January 1, 2015. Fraudulent documents seized from the location included two fake teaching degrees, a criminal background check, and certifications that teachers were trained in recognizing child abuse.

The case against Kaplan is still pending, and her next court date is in February.