New York City parents receiving childcare vouchers who work part time or irregular hours could lose part of their subsidy in the coming months.
State officials are cracking down on a long-standing rule that parents can only use vouchers for the hours they work — a rule that New York City hasn’t followed, up to now.
Childcare providers and advocates say they worry that limiting vouchers in this way could disrupt the gains made toward a more affordable childcare system under the Mamdani administration.
They say part-time workers can work overnight or weekend hours, and it can be hard to get childcare coverage for only those times. Providers, on the other hand, struggle to create a roster out of kids whose parents work odd part-time hours. If the state cracks down, struggling day care businesses will close because they’ll get less money in subsidies, advocates say. At the same time, working parents could be stripped of childcare that lets them take last-minute shifts or rest after working overnight jobs.
“Let's say you get called at 7 a.m. to come to work even though you were off, technically. Now you can't. You have to say, ‘I can't because I have my kids,’” said Ayan Wilson, a provider in the Bronx who serves a majority of families using vouchers.
The Child Care Assistance Program is mostly funded by the state but the city’s Administration for Children Services determines eligibility for the vouchers. Families qualify based on income and pay no more than $15 a week for either childcare or after-school programs for children up to 13 years old. But unlike the rest of the state, the city reimburses providers for the full day if a parent requests it, regardless of their work schedule.
Now, under direction from the state, city officials are notifying childcare providers they’ll have to limit the hours the voucher covers — paying many of them less and leaving families to cover the rest of the hours out of pocket, if they can afford it. More than 100,000 New York City families receive state vouchers and more than 26,000 are on a waitlist for one.
It’s not clear why the state is suddenly making the city enforce an old rule, especially as Gov. Kathy Hochul campaigns for re-election on affordability.
When asked, Hochul’s office said the governor is committed to achieving universal childcare and has doubled the number of families enrolled in the voucher program since taking office. A spokesperson said the state was working closely with the city to ensure compliance with all regulations.
“I can't understate just how problematic and disruptive a policy this would be if implemented, and we need Gov. Hochul to be our hero and to fix this,” City Councilmember Lincoln Restler said. He said the state could issue the city a waiver to prevent setting the city back from its childcare expansion goals.
”If this policy were implemented, many parents would be limited to a day or two a week in childcare, if they don't work neat 9-to-5 jobs. Who does that help? Who benefits from that? No one,” Restler said.
Childcare advocates are also calling on state lawmakers to eliminate the state requirement altogether through a bill proposed by Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi. Hevesi said the legislation, which Hochul twice vetoed over financial concerns, would “fix the gap in the system” and help providers who “operate on a knife’s edge.”
The vouchers also use federal grant dollars, but federal guidelines don’t require vouchers be tied to parents’ work hours.
While New York City is not complying with the rule, across the rest of the state, providers have long complained the requirement makes it difficult to operate, and they often have to turn families away.
“[Providers] have to have every seat full, all day, every day, just to make ends meet,” said Dede Hill, vice president of policy at the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy. “It's really difficult to accommodate one family where the parent works Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday, and then find another family that only needs care on the alternate days.”
State officials say the city makes voucher payments in a different system than the rest of the state and that makes it difficult to verify payments. Part of the push, officials said, is to get the whole state on the same payment system.
In a letter sent to providers in December, the city’s Administration for Children Services wrote that the city had advocated for legislation that would eliminate the requirement but didn’t succeed. The agency said it was working on a “thoughtful, incremental plan.”
ACS didn’t respond to a request for comment on when vouchers would be limited.
Childcare policy experts say New Yorkers are often patching together multiple jobs that can be seasonal, temporary or inconsistent and taking away reliable care would only worsen their economic stability. In some cases, parents work overnight or on weekends but since there aren’t many childcare programs that offer those hours they often use the vouchers during the weekdays to sleep, catch up on errands or medical appointments or pick up additional jobs.
“We're seeing more and more people working in jobs that have unusual schedules,” said Gregory Brender, chief policy officer for the Day Care Council of New York, which advocates for providers. ”A lot of parents of young children need care because they might be working nights and essentially need care during the day for sleep.”
The changes could also be detrimental for children’s development, advocates say.
“Under this rule, [parents] have to come and collect their child in the middle of nap time, and that's terribly disruptive. Or right in the middle of story time when they're fully engaged,” Hill said.
A report by the New School found childcare providers who run programs out of their homes make an average of $6 an hour. Many said they’re already finding it difficult to fill their programs because the city isn’t issuing any new vouchers. Increased investment from the city and Hochul hasn't been enough to meet demand — the waitlist includes more than 26,000 families.
Hochul is adding another $2.2 billion for childcare vouchers statewide, including an additional $350 million for the city.
Danielle Demeuse, director of policy for the Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, a child advocacy group, said limiting vouchers in the city could potentially free up more money to start moving families off the waitlist “but at what cost?”
“ It would be a result of taking away resources from families and the care that they actually need,” she said.
UPDATE: The headline has been changed to clarify that part-time workers could lose part of their childcare subsidy as the state increases its enforcement of the voucher rule.
