Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Monday that New York City will expand free child care for 2-year-olds to Staten Island and across the Bronx as the city moves to add 10,000 seats next school year.<\/p>\n
Mr. Mamdani ran for mayor on the idea of providing universal child care as a way to help families afford to stay in the city. It is his signature policy and will be the most expensive and difficult to carry out among his broader affordability proposals<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 2-K program started this school year with 2,000 seats<\/a> in four largely working class areas of the city. A major expansion could test the managerial competence of Mr. Mamdani\u2019s administration, which has struggled to address payment delays for child care providers.<\/p>\n Mr. Mamdani on Monday visited a trampoline park in the Bronx with Gov. Kathy Hochul to highlight the neighborhoods where the new seats will be offered. More than half of the city\u2019s 32 school districts are represented in the expansion, which includes all of Staten Island and the Bronx.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom Co-op City in the Bronx to Staten Island\u2019s South Shore, we\u2019re bringing 2-K to every borough and making New York City more affordable for working people,\u201d Mr. Mamdani said in a statement.<\/p>\n Wealthier neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn will not add 2-K seats next year. Mr. Mamdani has said that every 2-year-old in the city will have a spot by 2029<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ms. Hochul has said that the state will pay for the first two years of the program. But it is not clear how the city will pay for future years when it could eventually cost $9 billion annually<\/a>. Mr. Mamdani wants to raise personal income taxes on millionaires to pay for the program; Ms. Hochul has resisted the idea.<\/p>\n Ms. Hochul told reporters on Monday that the state was committed to continue paying for 2-K if she wins another term next month: \u201cUniversal means universal.\u201d<\/p>\n When she was asked about raising taxes next year, Ms. Hochul did not rule it out. She said that the first two years of the child care program were covered by existing revenues.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to make sure that this program endures, and we\u2019ll do whatever it takes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ahead of the first day of school this year, many early childhood centers were alarmed that they had not received funding<\/a>. The administration rushed to register contracts, extend loans and deliver basic school supplies.<\/p>\n Beyond the 2-K program, child care providers have also raised concerns that more than 25,000 low-income families have been stuck on wait lists to receive vouchers to help pay for child care. Mr. Mamdani recently announced that officials would move more than 10,000 children<\/a> off the wait list.<\/p>\n Many families were excited to receive 2-K offers<\/a> that would help them save more than $20,000 per year on child care. Other families were disappointed that they did not receive offers or declined them over concerns about quality or convenience.<\/p>\n The city already offers free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. Officials have sought to put the right number of seats in neighborhoods to match the demand. But that forecasting can be challenging. Some families prefer a preschool near work, while others are skeptical of enrolling in a city-run program at all.<\/p>\n Sean Geoghan, a father of two young children in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, one of the first areas to receive 2-K seats, said he hoped to enroll his 4-month-old daughter in the program when she is 2. He said he was happy that most programs are full day and full year, instead of following the public school schedule.<\/p>\n \u201cIf child care ends before the work day ends, that simply does not work for our family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr. Geoghan is on parental leave with his daughter and plans to send her to a home day care that costs about $2,400 per month. He said that his wife is Dominican and they are raising their children to be bilingual.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d prefer to be in a home day care where they can be exposed to as much Spanish as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The 2-K expansion mirrors the phased rollout of the 3-K program, which added additional school districts each year until it covered the entire city. That approach \u2014 rather than targeting smaller neighborhoods citywide with high economic hardship or high demand \u2014 helped create a surplus of vacant seats in some areas.<\/p>\n