NYC Council Releases New Framework for Advancing City’s Childcare System to Provide Universal Coverage for Families

Council calls for new RFP, additional state funding, and prioritizing equity for families and workers, services for students with disabilities and access to full-day, full-year seats

City Hall, NY - Today, the New York Council released The Road Ahead: Shaping NYC's Next Child Care RFP, an outline for making New York City's early childhood education system (ECE) universally available for the over 100,000 children from birth to five years old. The framework identifies key priorities and reforms for the next mayoral administration to advance in the next request for proposal (RFP) to establish a high-quality, inclusive, and accessible ECE system. It proposes solutions to address several areas that have hampered progress and the City's ability to meet the needs of families, including stagnant state funding, inflexible enrollment and seat offerings, inadequate services for preschool children with disabilities, and workforce pay disparities. The Council's call for a new RFP comes as the City's existing contracts are set to expire at the end of the Fiscal Year 2026.

"Building a more accessible, equitable, and responsive early childhood education system that provides universal childcare for our city's working families has been a top priority for this Council," said Speaker Adrienne Adams. "We have stood with childcare providers seeking pay parity, secured over $150 million for full day, full year and preschool special education seats, and fought for the funding needed to expand free childcare for infants and toddlers. All this progress has been achieved despite the current contracts and system's deficiencies that fail to account for the full needs of working families. Next year offers a pivotal opportunity for the next mayor to correct shortcomings and set the system on a pathway towards providing universal childcare that works for all children, parents, and providers."

"Over the past few years, I have witnessed the transformative power of early childhood education on our young people but at the same time, heard how its shortcomings have failed educators, parents and students," said Council Member Rita Joseph, chair of Committee on Education. "While much progress has been made to remedy the system's ongoing challenges with seat availability, provision of mandated services, workforce pay and delayed payments, we are far from where we need to be. The promise of universal childcare that delivers for working families, children with disabilities and providers is achievable but only if we do the necessary work and invest in building a sustainable and equitable system."

This newly released vision builds upon the Council's prior work to improve ECE and resolve its ongoing challenges that have left families underserved. From Fiscal Year 2023-2026, the Council secured nearly a billion dollars to maintain capacity in 3-K, expand preschool special education, reinstate outreach and marketing resources, add additional extended day, extended year seats, and increase access to infant and toddler care. Over the past four years, the Council also held multiple oversight hearings and worked closely with the Administration to resolve outstanding payment and contract issues following consistent grievances from providers regarding late payments.

To set the foundation for a universal and accessible childcare system, the Council is calling for the mayoral administration to develop a new RFP and prioritize the following reforms and solutions:

Core Priorities

Major Increase in State Funding

• The State's contribution to a portion of the costs for pre-K has remained virtually flat since Fiscal Year 2019, despite rising costs. To provide the city's families with expanded access to affordable early childhood education, the state budget must commit far greater funding support, whether through budget and/or tax policy changes enacted by the governor and state legislature.

Family Share: Affordable, Inclusive, and Family-Centered Full-Day Care

• Currently, many parents who are offered school-day/school-year seats must piece together full-time, workday coverage at their own expense. Higher-income families often arrange care and pay for it privately, while lower-income families scramble or go without it.
• To build a system that truly works for all families, the City's next childcare RFP should explore a blended family share model that:
  • Preserves free access to DOE's core 0-2, 3-K, and pre-K offerings during school-day/school-year hours;
  • Implements income-based sliding-scale contributions for extended hours and year-round care, regardless of whether the seat is in a school, center, or home-based setting, to help ensure free access for families who need it most and continued access to affordable, dependable care for all;
  • Families who can afford to make modest contributions would continue to receive affordable care while helping to support a more stable and inclusive system, given expected instability in federal funding. Their contributions would help ensure low-income families can access extended day/year seats without cost;

Build toward a Universal, Flexible, Mixed-Delivery System

• To ensure the system can adapt to the changing needs of families, it must also provide flexibility in seat allocation and seat conversion. This would allow providers to adjust the mix of infant/toddler, 3-K, and pre-K seats based on real-time community demand, enrollment trends, and local demographics, ensuring resources are consistently aligned with where they are most needed. The lack of this flexibility has led to vacant seats despite demand amongst families remaining unmet.

Center Racial, Socioeconomic, and Geographic Equity

• As the City expands extended day, extended year programming across all age groups, it should prioritize adding new seats in low-income communities. The allocation process should be guided by clear, data-driven criteria that incorporate race, income, and housing instability.

Expand Family Choice and Enrollment Flexibility

• The RFP should create a dual enrollment system that allows families to register either directly through DOE or with trusted community-based organizations (CBOs), ensuring accessibility, transparency, and agency in the process.

Include and Support Children with Disabilities

• ECE cannot be universal if children with disabilities are excluded from programs or do not receive the services or supports they need. The next RFP should ensure that there are enough preschool special education classes available and that every setting is fully equipped for inclusive practices and services to serve children with developmental delays and disabilities, including extended day options for children who need special education classes during the school day.

Invest in the Workforce

• The future of the ECE system depends on an equitably paid and stable workforce. The next RFP must provide pay and benefit parity between DOE and CBO workers, increase reimbursement rates for home-based providers, and implement strategies to address workforce shortages and retain bilingual staff.

Administrative and Operational Reforms

Align and Simplify Agency Processes

• The next RFP should prioritize coordination across all agencies involved in monitoring, inspections, and licensing for childcare providers.

Fix Payment Systems

• Late payments threaten the ability of providers to maintain stability and pay staff, jeopardizing their ability to care for children. The RFP should standardize and simplify invoice submission, contract registration, and amendment processes, and support hiring needed staff to prevent delays.

Ensure Transparency and Accountability

• The City should publish public data on vacancies, payments, and provider performance and implement clear feedback and dispute processes.

Fund Equitable and Culturally Responsive Outreach

• The RFP should fund a citywide multilingual outreach and engagement campaign that reaches specific neighborhoods and populations, including families with limited English proficiency and residents of shelters, to ensure that all families - particularly those in under-enrolled communities - are aware of and can access available programs.

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