{"id":98967,"date":"2026-01-13T18:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/98967\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:08:07","slug":"hochul-state-of-the-state-plan-to-deliver-child-care-for-nyc-2-year-olds-may-fall-short-of-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/98967\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul State of the State plan to deliver child care for NYC 2-year-olds may fall short of need"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Hochul on Tuesday was set to release plans to expand New York City\u2019s highly-anticipated child care initiative for 2-year-olds<\/a> to over 30,000 children at full implementation \u2014 thousands of slots short of what advocates say is needed for Mayor Mamdani to fulfill his campaign promise of a truly universal program.<\/p>\n

The plan \u2014 previewed last week and detailed in the governor\u2019s State of the State<\/a> book, which was independently obtained by the Daily News ahead of its scheduled release in the afternoon \u2014 is to reach all interested parents of 2-year-old children within four years of 2-Care\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n

But how many tots will take advantage of the program, and whether the state will provide enough funding for all of them, remain open questions.<\/p>\n

Hochul has offered assurances she would follow through for New York families<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe era of empty promises ends with the two of us,\u201d the governor said during a press conference on the child care proposal in Flatbush last Thursday, standing next to Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Both the governor\u2019s office and City Hall appear to be aligned on the preliminary estimate. Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the mayor, cautioned that their figure of 34,000 slots was only an approximation: \u201cIt\u2019s also dependent upon future data.\u201d The state has not yet budgeted for the last years of the expansion or identified a long-term strategy to keep the dollars flowing.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, advocates have estimated that 2-Care requires 55,000 slots<\/a> citywide to be considered universal. The projection from New Yorkers United for Child Care and the United Neighborhood Houses is based on an assumption that 60% of all families with 2-year-olds will sign up for the new program. (Target rates in 3-K and pre-K are 70% and 80%, respectively.)<\/p>\n

Rebecca Bailin, executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, said she had no reason to think the Mamdani administration would not meet the demand, no matter what it ends up being<\/a>, based on the mayor\u2019s actions so far and his key hires in the child care space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have confidence that as the program rolls out, the city will make sure that there\u2019s enough funding to cover the seats needed,\u201d Bailin said. \u201cTime will tell, and we\u2019ll absolutely push the administration to make sure that\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roughly 39,400 and 51,700 students signed up for 3-K and pre-K at the start of this school year, according to preliminary local education data. Given its enrollment of even younger kids, 2-Care is expected to enroll fewer children than existing universal child care programs.<\/p>\n

The child care plan is one of several Hochul commitments baked into her State of the State that stand to benefit Mamdani\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul announces an investment as the next step to deliver affordable, universal child care for children under five years of age across New York State on Jan. 8, 2026, in Brooklyn. (Susan Watts\/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)<\/p>\n

While running for mayor, Mamdani made it one of his central campaign promises to freeze rent for the city\u2019s roughly 2 million stabilized tenants<\/a>. He also pledged to take steps to protect and expand the city\u2019s stabilized housing stock \u2014 a theme Hochul is hitting on in her plan.<\/p>\n

In this year\u2019s State of the State is a pledge to overhaul the state\u2019s J-51 tax incentive, first enacted in the 1950s, which created the city\u2019s modern rent stabilization system.<\/p>\n

Hochul officials wrote in the book that the current J-51 structure includes \u201cadministrative challenges\u201d that hamper capital repairs from being done on stabilized housing. To confront those challenges, the governor said she will push the Legislature to enact unspecified \u201cchanges\u201d to the tax incentive that would ensure \u201ckey elements of New York\u2019s housing stock remain safe, sustainable, and affordable\u201d for working-class families.<\/p>\n

Also in her plan is a pledge to beef up enforcement actions against derelict landlords of stabilized apartments.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Hochul proposes to enact \u201caggravated criminal penalties for landlords\u201d who systematically harass tenants by refusing to make repairs in an effort to drive them to vacate their apartments. Though such harassment is already illegal, the governor\u2019s book says it can be difficult to take actions against landlords who engage in it across multiple properties, a loophole she says warrants the increased penalty regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn doing so, the governor will strengthen protections for rent-regulated tenants and reinforce the clear message that forcing families out of their homes is a crime,\u201d officials wrote in the book.<\/p>\n

The third major policy promise Mamdani made on the campaign trail was to make the city\u2019s public buses free to ride. Hochul\u2019s plan, though, mentions nothing about striving to make that a reality this year. Hochul has been openly skeptical of the concept of eliminating fare on the buses<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Hochul on Tuesday was set to release plans to expand New York City\u2019s highly-anticipated child care initiative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,267,9,24,264,11,10,49,51,50,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-98967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-county","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98967","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=98967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}