Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Thursday that most of the free child care seats New York City will roll out for 2-year-olds this fall will run the full working day and operate year round.
The announcement will be a major relief for working parents who have long struggled to juggle work with the city’s existing preschool programs, which largely end by 3 p.m. and aren’t open over the summer.
“ Holding down a 9-to-5 and managing pick-up and drop-off at a traditional 3 p.m. time can be unmanageable,” Mamdani said at a press conference in Brownsville, one of the five school districts that will receive the first batch of 2-K seats in September.
“We see parents who are forced to either miss important work obligations, reduce work hours or shell out for secondary child care,” he added.
Mamdani said a majority of the 2-K programs will operate for 10 hours a day, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and run for 260 days a year. The traditional school year runs 180 days.
"Parents have been clear from the start: Universal child care has to be full day to work for families," said Rebecca Bailin, executive director of the advocacy group New Yorkers United for Child Care. "Programs that end before the workday does force parents — especially mothers — to choose between their careers and their kids."
While some of the city’s 3-K and pre-K programs offer extended hours, parents have to pay extra for it and then figure out summer programs or patch together other care during breaks. City officials said most 2-K programs will run for 10-hour days, but families can opt for fewer hours. They also said providers who prefer operating programs that run for the school year and end earlier in the day will be able to offer those reduced hours.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has committed $1.2 billion to fund the first two years of 2-K, which will expand to 12,000 seats next year. Mamdani said the $73 million for the first year of the program will be enough to pay for programs to run for a full day and year round.
Emmy Liss, who heads the Mayor’s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education, said the city is partnering with new child care providers, including those who care for kids in their home and are often already operating for 10 hours a day.
“This is really an opportunity to bring them into our system and lift them up as part of the expansion,” she said.
Home-based providers say they were largely left out of the city’s 3-K and pre-K launch. The city has committed to including them in their expansion plans.
The city is also urging parents with young children to fill out a survey by April 13 to help shape the future of universal child care.
