(The Center Square) — New York City will provide free child care for 2-year-olds following an agreement between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, announced Thursday.
Hochul said her administration has committed $1.7 billion to fund the first two years of the program, beginning with “high-needs areas” before expanding to the rest of the city. She said the initiative, which will be included in her state of the state address next week, is part of larger efforts to make child care subsidized statewide.
“There’s one thing that every family in New York can agree on, the cost of childcare is simply too high,” Hochul, a Democrat, said in remarks Thursday. “Today, I’m proud to partner with Mayor Mamdani and leaders across our state to make this a reality, turning that foundation into a concrete roadmap that will transform the lives of working parents and kids across our state.”
For Mamdani, Hochul’s support for the initiative helps him fulfill a key campaign promise for universal child care in the city. He praised the governor for working with his new administration to put the plans in motion.
“This victory represents much more than a triumph of city and state government working in partnership — it is proof that when New Yorkers come together, we can transform the way the government serves working families,” Mamndani said Thursday.
Under the plan, free child care for 2-year-olds would be offered in “high-need areas” within the city in the first year of implementation. The state will fund the program for the first two years, and after that the Legislature would be required to provide funding to keep it going. Hochul also pledged to strengthen the city’s existing 3-K program, which has been criticized for a lack of programs in some communities.
Overall, the lack of child care options in New York is costing working families, some of whom are spending 20% to 40% of their annual income on programs.
The average cost of child care is $15,394 a year in New York, the sixth-most expensive state in the nation, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute.
A typical family in New York would have to spend 39.8% of its income on child care for an infant and a 4-year-old, according to the report. Child care costs in New York City are even higher.
Many child care providers are financially strained in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and advocates say low compensation and the rising costs of caring for children are putting some providers out of business. Meanwhile, early education providers struggle to retain workers in an industry where the pay is traditionally low, and health risks are elevated.
Last year, Hochul clashed with fellow Democrats and child care advocates over a proposal floated by lawmakers during budget negotiations, which called for spending $5 billion for a universal child care system for all New York families, regardless of income or immigration status.
The new pre-kindergarten initiative comes as the Trump administration moves to freeze $3 billion in federal child care dollars slated for New York in response to concerns about fraud in public benefits programs.
