{"id":151315,"date":"2026-03-03T18:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T18:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/151315\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T18:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T18:07:11","slug":"free-child-care-for-2-year-olds-is-coming-to-these-nyc-areas-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/151315\/","title":{"rendered":"Free child care for 2-year-olds is coming to these NYC areas first"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) \u2013 The first families to test out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/deadline-apply-free-child-care-181512373.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:free, universal 2-K in New York City;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">free, universal 2-K in New York City<\/a> will come from just four districts across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Just 2,000 seats will be available in the next year for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/nyc-searching-universal-2-k-220316304.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:New Yorkers turning 2 in 2026;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Yorkers turning 2 in 2026<\/a>, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\/news\/local-news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:More Local News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"> More Local News <\/a><\/p>\n<p>These are the first areas that will have free 2-K seats:<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">School District 6:\u00a0Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights and Inwood<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">School District 10:\u00a0Fordham, Belmont, Norwood, Morris Heights, Van Cortlandt Village and Kingsbridge<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">School Districts 18 and 23:\u00a0Canarsie, Remsen Village, Brownsville and Ocean Hill<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">School District 27:\u00a0Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Howard Beach, Woodhaven and Rockaways<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Applications are expected to open in early summer. Anyone living in these communities can apply, regardless of immigration status or income.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The first four areas were chosen based on economic need, demand, access gaps and programmatic readiness, according to Mamdani.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Another 12,000 seats are expected to become available in the next year, and a seat for every 2-year-old in New York will be available within four years, Mamdani said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/hochul-mamdani-launch-free-child-120010633.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Gov. Kathy Hochul has agreed to pay for the program;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gov. Kathy Hochul has agreed to pay for the program<\/a> for the first two years. It\u2019s left some wondering how the city will afford it after that money runs dry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter who has covered New York City since 2023 after reporting in Los Angeles for years. She joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of her work <a href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\/author\/emily-rahhal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">here <\/a>and follow her on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RahhalEmily\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. <\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) \u2013 The first families to test out free, universal 2-K in New York City&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2988,9,24,56,63,65,64,2958,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-151315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-morris-heights","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-washington-heights","16":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151315","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=151315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}