{"id":124068,"date":"2026-02-05T17:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124068\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:46:09","slug":"50000-families-apply-in-2-weeks-the-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124068\/","title":{"rendered":"50,000 Families Apply in 2 Weeks \u2013 The 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join our zero2eight Substack community for more discussion about the latest news in early care and education. Sign up now.<\/a><\/p>\n

New York City received more than 50,000 applications for its free preschool programs in just two weeks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Friday.<\/p>\n

That number is about half of the total applications the city received last year for its 3-K and prekindergarten programs \u2014 some 94,840. But families of 3- and 4-year-olds still have nearly a month to apply, and many families often wait until the end of the application window since applications are not accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.<\/p>\n

Applications remain open through Feb. 27.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery child deserves access to free, high quality childcare \u2013 and we\u2019re making sure families across the city know that now is the time to enroll in 3-k and pre-K,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Mamdani seems to be taking a page from Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s playbook, when the former mayor launched the city\u2019s massive free pre-K program a decade ago and made outreach a major focal point. De Blasio\u2019s administration mounted a door-to-door campaign <\/a>to get the word out, particularly in low-income neighborhoods where families were less familiar with the city\u2019s new offerings, and staffers called families of 4-year-olds across the city to encourage them to apply.<\/p>\n

Former Mayor Eric Adams, however, did not focus as much on outreach, complained City Council members, who fought for more funding to improve getting the word out about the programs<\/a> to families. Last year, about 1 in every 5 seats for the city\u2019s free child care programs for children ages 4 and under, or more than 27,000 of roughly 136,000 seats, went unfilled, according to city data.<\/a><\/p>\n

The new mayor has a vested interest in making sure application numbers are healthy<\/a>: Not only did he vow to strengthen the city\u2019s 3-K program and ensure that it\u2019s truly universal, showing the demand for the city\u2019s existing programs will help shore up support for his 2-Care program for the city\u2019s 2-year-olds.<\/p>\n

In her recent executive budget proposal, Gov. Kathy Hochul pledged to spend $73 million <\/a>to help New York City roll out its 2-Care program and committed to invest $500 million over two years in the program. The city is aiming to create 2,000 new child care seats for 2-year-olds in high-need areas of the city in the fall, then grow to 8,000 seats the following year, and reach all of the city\u2019s 2-year-olds by the end of Mamdani\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Mamdani visited a home-based child care provider in Manhattan\u2019s Chinatown as a way to show his commitment to the providers who operate out of home and often offer care that is culturally and linguistically responsive to families in their communities.<\/p>\n

The administration will likely have to rely heavily on home-based providers to scale up its 2-Care program, which will pose many logistical hurdles. That workforce is still reeling<\/a> from losing kids to 3-K and pre-K programs and the COVID pandemic. More recently, the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation efforts<\/a> have affected the immigrant-heavy workforce, advocates and providers have said.<\/p>\n

Emmy Liss, a former de Blasio administration staffer who is heading the mayor\u2019s Office of Child Care, acknowledged that not all home-based providers fared well in the rollout of the city\u2019s 3-K and pre-K programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to work closely in partnership with them in this next phase of work, because we cannot do this work without them,\u201d Liss previously told Chalkbeat.<\/a><\/p>\n

Families can apply to 3-K and pre-K online through myschools.nyc<\/a> or by calling 718-935-2009. City officials said any family that applies by the deadline will receive an offer.<\/p>\n

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Did you use this article in your work?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We\u2019d love to hear how The 74\u2019s reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers. Tell us how<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Join our zero2eight Substack community for more discussion about the latest news in early care and education. Sign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[54044,9,24,12,56,63,65,64,46114,44227],"class_list":{"0":"post-124068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-early-education","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-pre-k","17":"tag-preschool"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}