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Pilot program offering free extended hours for NYC preschoolers may run out of money
By
Karen Yi
Published Apr 14, 2025
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By
Karen Yi
Published Apr 14, 2025
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A New York City pilot program that offers free extended hours of care for preschoolers may run out of money this year.
The city’s universal preschool program for 3- and 4-year-olds covers care for about six hours but last year piloted longer days at 64 preschools, as part of a program meant to better accommodate working parents and lower the costs of child care.
The program, announced in a budget deal last year, was meant to alleviate New York City's crushing affordability crisis as well as an exodus of young families out of the city, partly due to rising child care costs.
But Mayor Eric Adams’ preliminary budget doesn’t include funding to continue or expand the program, and child care providers this week began notifying parents that the free extended hours would end in June.
“It feels a bit like a betrayal,” said Amanda LaPergola, who has a 3-year-old and will lose the free extended hours at her Astoria day care next year.
“It seems like this was a promise that was made to us," she said. "We had no reason to believe that this promise would be broken, and now it has been broken and we're feeling very angry, feeling really let down.”
City officials said about 3,400 seats were converted into extended-day seats at child care centers in areas with high economic need.
“As Mayor Adams says, when it comes to the budget, 'we always land the plane.' The funding for this pilot program was added later in the budget process last year. It is still early in this year’s budget process, and the Adams administration remains committed to investing in children and families,” Adams spokesperson Zachary Nosanchuk said in a statement.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and the Council are pushing the mayor to restore $197 million in cuts to 3-K and pre-K, including $25 million for the pilot program.
“If the city says they care about families and want to make New York City the best place in America to have a family then it’s frankly baffling that he has completely left out any funding in his budget proposal,” said Rebecca Bailin, founder and executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care.
“Parents are sick and tired of being pawns in the mayor’s budget dance. Thousands of families of young kids are counting on these full-day seats and free, accessible, quality full day care is what will keep families in New York,” she said.
Jaqi Cohen said her child care provider Diki Daycare notified her that it was ending free extended hours of care at the end of June. The program allowed parents to drop off their children earlier, at 7 a.m. rather than 8 a.m., and pick them up at 5 p.m. rather than 2 p.m.
“ It blows my mind that the mayor isn't rushing to fund day care. This is such a slam dunk,” Cohen said. “This is something that every single family that has young children in New York City would benefit from and would applaud the city for doing.”
Not all centers offer longer hours and if they do, parents have to pay for it. While some low-income families qualify for free extended day care that is covered by federal grants, many working families earn too much to be eligible.
Affordable child care has also become a vulnerability for Adams in the mayoral race, his opponents say. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who is proposing universal after school that would offer free care until 6 p.m., said the pilot “was a potential harbinger of good things to come in this city.”
“You hear about 3-K as a universal thing, right? So I just had to make it to 3 years old and then I don't have to pay for child care but then when you are part of the system, you learn, actually that's not true, that you have to pay for this extended coverage regardless,” said Cohen, who is also a member of New Yorkers United for Child Care.
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new york city
education
economy
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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