NYC child care is now more accessible and affordable through an expanded voucher program, Mayor Eric Adams said during an announcement detailing his Mayor’s Management Report (MMR) on Monday.
Through $100 million in new funding allocated this year for early childhood education, the Adams administration reported adding more pre-k and 3-k seats and making applying for child care easier through a one-stop-shop portal called MyCity, where parents can apply for and track their applications for subsidized child care.
As a result, the MMR, which assesses city agency performance and covers Adams’ first full fiscal year July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, shows that average center-based child-care voucher enrollment increased significantly, along with other youth services, including the Summer Youth Employment Program and Summer Rising.
Child-care voucher applications continued to roll in during 2024, showing a spike in families who signed up for the program via the MyCity portal, which launched last year, according to the mayor’s report.
A breakdown of the numbers shows an increased number of children enrolled in child care with a low-income voucher from less than 8,000 in June 2022 to more than 43,000 as of July 2024.
“Every working parent deserves a safe, nurturing, and affordable place to leave their children, and under this administration, that is exactly what we are delivering,” Adams said.
Slashing co-pays for child care
The mayor also said he made a notable slash in annual co-payments for child care.
“I am proud that since launching our ‘Blueprint for Child Care and Early Childhood Education’ in 2022, we have brought down the annual co-payment for child care from $1,500 to just $220, and in June and July, almost 98 percent of voucher applications received eligibility determinations within 30 days,” Adams said. “Every day, we are working to make this a safer, more affordable city.”
Since the city’s budget was voted on two months ago, NYC Public Schools added more than 1,500 additional 3-k seats in high-demand areas for the 2024-2025 school year. Last month, the mayor also said NYC Public Schools drove down waiting lists for seats, reaching 100 percent of families who applied before the application deadline with first-round offers by mid-August.
Vouchers do ‘little to solve the ultimate crisis’: advocates
Despite the accomplishments touted in the MMR, parents and advocates say more must be done to improve the city’s child-care system.
Rebecca Bailin is the executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, an organization of parents and would-be parents who advocate for universal child care. She said the voucher program is merely a Band-Aid over larger affordability and child-care accessibility problems in the city.
“A voucher does little to solve the ultimate child-care and affordability crisis in New York City,” Bailin said. “And it means little to parents who were offered untenable 3-K seats far away from home, or had to shell out thousands of dollars in non-refundable private daycare deposits.”
She added that the child-care system requires “systemic change” to serve all families throughout the city.
“That’s why New Yorkers United for Child Care is fighting for free, universal, childcare for every family, in every neighborhood,” Bailin added.
