Publicly funded early care and education is a lifeline for working parents in the city, allowing caregivers to pursue career opportunities and provide for their families, while children benefit from licensed and high-quality early education settings. Mayor de Blasio’s FY 22 Executive Budget proposes to expand 3-K for All by 16,500 seats with a goal of reaching universal access by the fall of 2023. But these investments and expansions in the sector fail to increase access to full-day, year-round programs. New York City must ensure that current publicly funded child care and any planned expansions, actually fit working parents’ needs and offer robust care options for full-day care, all year round.

CCC’s new factsheet underscores the lack of access working New Yorkers face in accessing full workday, year-round child care options:

• Only 15% of four-year-olds in the City’s Universal Pre-K program received full-day/year- round care in 2019.
• The city expanded Pre-K for three-year-olds in 2020 to include home-based providers, but almost all added seats were for school-day/school-year programs.
• In several NYC neighborhoods, less than 10% of Pre-K seats are full-day, year-round seats.