Members of the City Council will introduce legislation on Thursday to make early child care free for all New Yorkers, dramatically expanding preschool programs that face an uncertain future in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
Brooklyn Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez did not yet have an estimate of the cost of the legislation. The bill would provide free child care for all New York City kids aged 6 weeks to 5 years old. She pledged to request a cost analysis once she introduces the bill. The city’s current early childhood education programs are estimated to cost over $1 billion this year, education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer told Gothamist last month.
“It's an investment in our economy. It's an investment in our community, in our city,” said Gutiérrez. “All we're saying is to make it easier for families, when they have a child, that they know where those daycares are, they know that they're going to be able to afford it, that they're going to have a guaranteed slot.”
The bill would require the education department to increase the number of seats in free child care programs for the city’s youngest learners. The Adams administration stalled expansion of 3-K, which provides care to 3-year-olds, last year, citing mismanagement of the program by the previous administration of former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Within four years of the bill’s passage, free child care would have to be available to all city kids, including undocumented children.
"We are grateful for federal stimulus dollars that allowed us to invest in critical programs as our city emerged from the pandemic, but we will need an all hands on deck approach to overcome looming fiscal challenges. We will continue to protect core services and work to strengthen the city’s social safety net while working with our state and federal partners to provide long-term fiscally sustainable solutions that are in the best interest of New York’s families," a City Hall spokesperson said. "We will review the legislation when it’s introduced."
Free pre-K was the de Blasio administration's signature policy, which he then expanded to include 3-K in 2018. But the Adams administration has been unclear about if it will follow through on de Blasio’s plans to expand seats for 3-year-olds.
“We know how vital this service is to families and to the growth of children. We should be doing more to expand it,” Gutiérrez said of the Adams administration’s decision not to increase the number of 3-K seats.
Schools Chancellor David Banks said last December that the city will not expand 3-K because some seats had gone unfilled. The problem was a “misalignment” of seats, Banks said, as some neighborhoods had too many seats while others didn’t have enough.
Banks has previously said the Adams administration is focused on increasing the “quality” of early childhood education seats over the quantity. The state comptroller projects a nearly $200 million deficit in 3-K and pre-K funding in 2025 when federal stimulus funding runs out.
When parents are unable to work due to child care, they lose out on pay and the city’s economy takes a hit, according to the mayor’s early childhood education plan released last year. Parents who work less to care for their children cost the city $2.2 billion in tax revenue, according to the plan.
The city’s management of its early childhood education program has come under criticism in recent months as providers have faced delays getting their invoices paid. Last month, the education department scrambled to pay $13 million worth of provider invoices that had been pending for more than 30 days.
The bureaucratic hurdles have left some providers concerned about rushing to expand the program.
“For a good bill to be really effective and realistic, it has to include the nuts and bolts of getting the funding into the hands of the small preschools, and/or the families,” said Sonja Neill-Turner, founder and executive director of Brooklyn Sandbox, a Park Slope preschool with 29 city-contracted seats. “The real concern will be how would we be allocated the funding, and how does the city track those dollars going out?”
