{"id":341133,"date":"2026-09-08T21:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/341133\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T21:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:56:11","slug":"erica-phillips-named-to-lead-nyc-schools-early-childhood-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/341133\/","title":{"rendered":"Erica Phillips named to lead NYC schools early childhood office"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chancellor Kamar Samuels has tapped a former executive of a national home-based daycare association as his top aide for the New York City school system\u2019s early childhood office<\/a>, just a couple of days before the launch of free childcare for 2-year-olds, Samuels announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Erica Phillips, who most recently served as executive director of the National Association for Family Child Care<\/a>, will become the deputy chancellor of the Division of Early Childhood Education, according to a news release. She is a more than 20-year veteran of the industry and born to a family of childcare providers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the daughter and granddaughter of early educators and caregivers, early childhood education is deeply personal for me,\u201d Phillips said in a statement. \u201cA quality early childhood education is what everyone deserves, and what I am ready to help deliver as Deputy Chancellor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before her most recent position, Phillips was the president and served in other roles for eight years at All Our Kin, a nonprofit that trains and advocates for childcare workers in residential settings. Her experience with home-based providers could pay off as Mayor Mamdani looks to expand the city\u2019s free childcare to even younger children<\/a>, whose parents may prefer family daycares to larger childcare centers for their infants and toddlers.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s expansion will start this year with the first 2,000 seats of his signature 2-K program added in five local school districts, with plans to expand citywide over the next few years. The first day of school is Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"SchoolsSchools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, right, speaks at the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center in Manhattan on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, after Mayor Mamdani, left, appointed him to the position. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Phillips takes over the early childhood division from Simone Hawkins, a well-regarded education official who stepped down from Samuels\u2019 cabinet as Mamdani expanded the role of the Mayor\u2019s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education, which is run out of City Hall rather than the education department.<\/p>\n

Phillips\u2019 first day is Sept. 18, according to an email Samuels wrote to the division. The date leaves a nine-day gap between when Hawkins leaves and Phillips starts, during which the division will report to the office of the chancellor\u2019s first deputy, Danielle Giunta.<\/p>\n

Beyond helping to launch 2-K, Phillips will be tasked with fixing payment delays and restoring headcount<\/a>\u00a0in the division, starting with 200 new hires. The office suffered an exodus of hundreds of employees under former Mayor Eric Adams as he backed off plans to expand free preschool.<\/p>\n

\u201cChild care isn\u2019t a luxury,\u201d Samuels said in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s a critical part of our city\u2019s infrastructure and one of the most important investments we can make in our children, and I am proud to work alongside incoming Deputy Chancellor Erica Phillips to make this a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUniversal child care is not some distant aspiration. It is an urgent priority for this administration,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement. \u201cThat is what Erica will help us deliver as Deputy Chancellor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chancellor Kamar Samuels has tapped a former executive of a national home-based daycare association as his top aide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10883,104147,63760,44144,127953,41579,36610,9,56,63,37284,65,64,8229],"class_list":["post-341133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-2-k","tag-chancellor","tag-deputy-chancellor","tag-early-childhood-education","tag-erica-phillips","tag-kamar-samuels","tag-mayor-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-department-of-education","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nyc-public-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341133","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=341133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}