Child care for thousands of NYC families at risk due to state budget shortfall

Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News on Mar 27, 2025

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NEW YORK — Tens of thousands of New York families are at risk of losing access to child care within the next year because of a shortfall in the state budget — a prospect lawmakers and advocates are scrambling to avert.

Between 4,000 and 7,000 children each month could be kicked off the Child Care Assistance Program when their parents go to re-certify, according to the city’s Administration for Children’s Services. It’s a problem they blame on funding not keeping pace with an uptake in vouchers.

But few legislators knew of the looming fiscal cliff until it was almost too late. Now, they’re running against the clock to secure additional dollars for the program, which has been a lifeline for families struggling to afford the cost of living in New York City. A new report by The New School’s Center for New York City Affairs estimated the city would need at least an additional $823 million to prevent severe disruptions.

“It’s hard to find words to describe how detrimental it is,” Queens mom Mansie Meikle, who uses the vouchers to pay for afterschool at a daycare, said at a Thursday press conference. For years, she struggled to find child care, which limited her ability to work and provide for her family.

“It’s right back at square one. I fought three years to get out of that cycle of not having child care. And to just think of being back in that place, it’s really, really not a good feeling at all.”

Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens), chair of the children and families committee, told the Daily News he got a call from ACS Commissioner Jess Dannhauser a couple of weeks ago “with no time for us to react or do anything” before releasing their budget priorities.

“This will be at the top of the list for the Assembly,” Hevesi said.

The assemblyman suggested the cost of inaction would be too much for families: “Can they go to work? Can they sustain their lifestyle as they did the year before? Or are they going to become one of the many families that have to leave New York?”

Gov. Hochuls office did not immediately say if the program was a budget priority for Hochul with a final plan due April 1.

Following the pandemic, an increase in child care funding allowed ACS to expand the voucher program significantly. In 2022, there were about 7,400 children enrolled with a low-income voucher. Today, there are close to 63,000 children receiving assistance, which is available to families that earn less than 85% of the state’s median income (or $108,000 or a family of four).

“This has been a priority,” Dannhauser, the ACS commissioner, said at a City Council hearing last week. “[Mayor Adams’ budget office] has supported us in creating a budget gap, so that we can continue this service while we work with the state. The state has been very supportive of us growing child care. We are trying to direct-dial be very clear about the implications.”

Top children’s services officials told The News they always knew they might come up against the bounds of the block grant — but a couple of factors pushed them to the brink.

One is that the state sets the amount of the subsidy, or how much ACS reimburses child care providers. In the fall, that amount was increased with no new funding attached, and now each subsidy is about 20% more expensive.

Another is that pandemic-era policy changes are expiring. Parents receiving cash assistance, who are first in line for child care vouchers, are being required to go back to work. ACS predicts that will drive up the need for care among families on cash assistance — from 20,000 to 60,000 children over the next year.

The proposed state budget does not include cuts. But it does not account for the increasing cost of maintaining the program, either. Left on the sidelines will be low-income families not on cash assistance, whose child care vouchers are just keeping them afloat.

“Flat funding to a program where costs have risen by definition means fewer families will be served,” Dede Hill, policy director at the Schuyler Center, said at the press conference. “Flat funding when enrollment is steadily growing due to expanded eligibility, expanded outreach, expanded need — this means families will be turned away.”

“There’s still time. The state budget negotiations are still going. It is essential that New York state leaders act to ensure that they do not pull the rug out from under families.”

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