New York state is planning to put billions more dollars into child care and after-school programs as part of the 2026 state budget.<\/p>\n
But what will it actually mean for families across New York City and the suburbs if it gets passed?<\/p>\n
Dr. DaMia Harris-Madden, the state’s commissioner at the Office of Children and Family Services, sat down exclusively with News 12’s senior reporter Tara Rosenblum to break it down. <\/p>\n
“This year’s budget of $4.5 billion will support multiple ways for child care. One of which is through our very popular Child Care Assistance Program to the tune of $3 billion,” she says.<\/p>\n
The plan also aims to expand access beyond New York City.<\/p>\n
Harris-Madden says new pilot programs are already in the works to test what Universal Child Care could look like in communities across the state.<\/p>\n
“So, you’ve probably heard about New York City and the 2-Care, but also in Dutchess, Broome and Monroe counties, we are investing in pilots to test how Universal Child Care can actually work,” she says. <\/p>\n
Data reviewed by the Turn To Tara team shows assistance has grown sharply in the past few years downstate.<\/p>\n
In New York City, the number of children receiving help has nearly tripled – jumping from about 39,000 in 2021 to more than 113,000 currently.<\/p>\n
On Long Island, the number has more than doubled, adding nearly 6,000 more children.<\/p>\n
In Westchester County, access jumped 237%.<\/p>\n
But even with that growth, many parents say affordable child care remains hard to find.<\/p>\n
“Relief is here. It is growing,” says Harris-Madden. “We are the path to universality. That is the ultimate goal.”<\/p>\n
The policy debate is also very personal for Harris-Madden.<\/p>\n
“Two decades ago, I had my first child, and I was set to return to work, and unfortunately, there was a tragedy where the caregiver was involved in a domestic violence dispute, and unfortunately she was shot, and that sent me into a downward spiral…and so I then took additional time off unpaid, and that placed me in, you know, a lower income bracket,” she says. <\/p>\n
She said the moment still shapes how she approaches the issue today.<\/p>\n
The state budget is still being negotiated in Albany.<\/p>\n
If approved, many of the child care expansions could begin rolling out next year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York state is planning to put billions more dollars into child care and after-school programs as part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[44097,98,100,99,7739,5287,66390,66388,66387,14732,3932,895,1984,9,24,63,66389,4281,33531,33532,44057],"class_list":{"0":"post-160877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-2-care","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-budget","13":"tag-child-care","14":"tag-child-care-assistance-program","15":"tag-damia-harris-madden","16":"tag-dr-damia-harris-madden","17":"tag-gov-hochul","18":"tag-gov-kathy-hochul","19":"tag-governor-kathy-hochul","20":"tag-hochul","21":"tag-new-york","22":"tag-new-york-city","23":"tag-nyc","24":"tag-office-of-children-and-family-services","25":"tag-state-budget","26":"tag-tara-rosenblum","27":"tag-turn-to-tara","28":"tag-universal-childcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160877","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=160877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}