Photo Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
Mayor Adams released “Accessible, Equitable, High-quality, Affordable: A Blueprint for Child Care & Early Childhood Education in New York City,” on Tuesday.
By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday released “Accessible, Equitable, High-quality, Affordable: A Blueprint for Child Care & Early Childhood Education in New York City,” outlining essential steps to provide high-quality, equitable, and accessible child care for thousands of New York City families. From increasing outreach for families in temporary housing to expanding opportunities for early childhood professionals to cutting red tape for background checks, this interagency effort will move away from making critical decisions in silos to investing in holistic programming to support New York City’s youngest. By expanding access to care for the city’s 500,000 children under five years old, supporting parents, and reversing the economic impact for parents of color, the blueprint aims to support working families and allow parents to get back to work which will simultaneously add to the economic pulse of this city.
Over the next four years, the Adams administration will make an additional $800 million in investments, combined with existing spending on child care — representing a total of approximately $2 billion allocated to child care spending. The plan outlines steps the administration will take to:
- Offer an accessible child care experience rooted in equity to New York City families and increase enrollment across the city,
- Prioritize 17 high-needs neighborhoods across New York City targeted to increase engagement with families and drive an increase in enrollment through the New York City Administration of Children Services (ACS),
- Create a tangible career training and professional development pipeline through The City University of New York (CUNY); and
- Take bold steps to include undocumented families, who have long been excluded from these opportunities, in new funding to create and expand child care benefits and make certain that all New York families receive the support needed to provide for their families.
Under the blueprint, the administration will cut red tape and alleviate the frustrations of the application process for families by launching a new application portal designed specifically for child care, allowing families to navigate this process easier. Through the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the administration will streamline the background check process to work for a child care provider, reducing administrative burden and clearing the agency’s backlog. DOHMH will also hire an additional 40 staff members to expedite results and make it significantly easier for providers to make new seats available, all while maintaining thorough checks on all staff and employees.
According to the administration, the current inaccessibility of child care threatens household financial stability, especially for women-led and low-income families in New York City. Research has shown that the most impactful poverty-fighting investment the nation can make starts in infancy, providing returns to society that far outweigh the costs. Currently, though, more than half — 52 percent — of New York City families with children under age four cannot afford child care and, since the start of the pandemic, one in four parents have had to turn down a job, change jobs, or take leave due to child care needs. Currently, there is only one available child care slot for every five infants in New York City.
