Stock photo from Flickr, Creative Commons
Amy FeiereiselTens of thousands of NY families have lost child care assistance. Will the state budget fix that?
For over a year now, many families who are eligible for a state childcare subsidy haven’t been receiving it. That’s because demand for that program has far surpassed funding for it.
In the North Country, St. Lawrence, Clinton, Essex, Warren, and Herkimer counties have all run out of their childcare funding. That has big consequences for families and for childcare providers.
An answer could be in the state budget, but it’s more than a month late.
Families losing subsidies…and restructuring their lives
Destiny Harris is a parent of three young boys in Buffalo. She says the state’s Child Care Assistance Program (also known as CCAP) has allowed both her and her husband to keep working while raising their sons.
“We do have a two-parent household…it’s essential that both of us are able to work. Otherwise, we can’t afford our mortgage, food, you know, utilities, clothing, just basic necessities,” said Harris.
Each year, families have to recertify their assistance. But when Harris recently tried to do that, her family was ‘waitlisted.’
That’s because Erie County has run out of its state-allocated child care assistance funding. And that means Harris’s monthly childcare bill is about to jump exponentially, from about $650 dollars to $3200.
Harris said her family can’t afford that, so they’ve made the hard decision to pull one of their children out of care. But she said even the full cost for one child is more than her family can pay. “Because of this, I’m going to have to resort to probably draining myself and borrowing money, which is very scary.”
A statewide expansion with lagging funding, consequences for providers
This same scenario has been playing out for tens of thousands of families across New York since the spring of 2025. Right now, 35 counties, plus New York City, have run out of CCAP funding.
That’s after New York greatly expanded access to the program, making more low and middle-income families eligible for help. But funding hasn’t kept pace with the rapid expansion.
Now, as families lose subsidies, they’re having to make tough decisions, like taking kids out of care, reducing their hours at work, or even quitting their jobs.
Lindsay Murray is the owner of Lil Tykes Daycare in Bloomingdale, in Franklin County. She says several of her families have lost their subsidies. “My heart just goes out to the families, and I try to work with them the best I can,” she said.
Murray said one of those families is a single parent. “I have decreased my charges for that particular family because I don’t want them to quit their job.”
That’s not an unusual move, said Shanita Bowen with ECE on the Move, a group that represents over 600 home daycares in New York City.
As families lose their assistance, many childcare providers have continued to care for their children for free or at a highly reduced rate. “Parents are negotiating prices with providers…and more times than not, here in New York City, we’re seeing that providers are caring for the children for free.”
Bowen said that’s not just unsustainable for providers (who make one of the lowest hourly wages on average in New York); it chips away at the foundation of child care infrastructure, and could lead to many providers closing their doors.
More funding in the NYS budget?
Advocates like Bowen say that to fix this problem, the CCAP program needs to be fully funded by New York State.
Everyone is looking to the state budget for help, which is now more than a month late.
Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed an additional $1.2 billion dollars for child care assistance subsidies, a more than 40% increase.
While that wouldn’t eliminate waitlists, it would go a long way, says Pete Nabozny, policy director for The Children’s Agenda, a statewide advocacy group. “On the whole, for areas outside of New York City, it will allow counties to begin enrolling families off wait lists, and in many instances, closing the wait lists altogether.”
But there’s a caveat. Right now, money included in the annual budget wouldn’t be released for the coming fiscal year until October. That’s another five months away.
Advocates like Nabozny are pushing for that money to be released to counties as soon as the budget passes. “To allow the moment the budget passes, like, let’s get moving, let’s get serving families, let’s close these wait lists.”
As long as those waitlists persist, advocates say promises of universal childcare will be impossible to fulfill.