New York City recently announced a historic effort to make quality child care more affordable and accessible for families in the area.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams and the leadership of the New York City Council on Thursday announced that they were rolling out a 10-point plan for childhood education after it received $100 million in new funding as part of the FY25 Adopted Budget.
The funding now increases the total investment in the plan to $3 billion. Specifically, $2 billion will be allocated for childhood education programming for children ages zero to five while $1 billion will be used for preschool special education initiatives.
Pre-K and 3-K Seats for Applicants
The new investment will allow the city to increase the number of 3-K seats to 53,000. This, in turn, now allows city officials to offer 100% of children who applied for 3-K or Pre-K in the city's public school system a seat for the 2024 to 2025 academic school year. The offer will only cover those who were able to submit an application before the deadline, per a press release from the Office of the Mayor.
Still, it will mark the first time in New York City's history that all families who applied for an early childhood seat were given a spot for the upcoming academic year.
Read also: Early Childhood Education: How Parents Can Support Kid's Learning to Build a Strong Foundation
Prior to the announcement of the 10-point plan, hundreds of applications were denied due to budget cuts enforced earlier this year, which happened as the city tried to balance the budget due to a migrant crisis, according to ABC 7.
Other Strategies in the City's 10-Point Plan
In addition to providing seats to all early childhood applicants, the plan will also expand outreach programs to communities with under-enrollment and provide hands-on enrollment support to families within those areas.
Furthermore, NYC will launch a pilot program that provides families in communities with the highest economic need index and little to no extended day program access to free additional hours of early childhood education in their own communities.
The plan also covers undocumented children and families who are not eligible for state- and federally-subsidized childcare initiatives. The initiative will be overseen by four community-based organizations that aim to grant access to affordable child care to immigrant families across the city's five boroughs.
