This is the moment for NYS leaders to invest in making child care accessible to all low income New York families while paying the child care workforce a thriving wage.
There are signals that New York is poised to make a significant $3 billion investment in child care in the 2022-23 New York State Budget.
Such an investment will transform the child care system; change the lives of many low-income New York families; diminish the workforce challenges facing businesses by getting parents, particularly women, back to work; strengthen the state’s economy; and stabilize the reeling child care sector.
All of this is possible if the final budget truly includes $3 billion, and if the funds are wisely invested in transformation.
Many New York families are currently left out of and unable to access subsidized child care due to insufficient public funding, onerous rules, and a lack of vision. Those left out include:
Parents who are self-employed or work in non-traditional jobs. To gain access to subsidized child care, a family must be able to prove their income through paystubs, bank statements, and other traditional means. If parents work for cash, or are self-employed without well-kept records, or hold gig-economy jobs, they often cannot qualify.
Parents who work fluctuating hours. These families may secure assistance, but are often unable to find a provider able to accommodate a shifting schedule. At present, a child can attend subsidized care only during the exact hours the parent is working. The moment a parent’s shift ends, the parent must pick up the child, whether the child is napping, eating lunch, or engaged in an educational activity. This is bad for young children for whom stable schedules and trusted caregivers are key to their well-being, and impossible for most providers, often operating with economic margins so razor thin that they must have every seat consistently filled to stay afloat financially.
Disproportionately represented among these families are the parents of the 35% of New York children in immigrant families. While nearly all of these children are technically eligible for subsidized child care, if their parents cannot prove their work status, or cannot find a provider who can accommodate fluctuating or extended hours, the child’s eligibility is in name only.
The estimated 30,000 young children with immigration status that renders them ineligible for subsidized child care. Many of these parents are the essential workers that kept New York running during the darkest days of the pandemic, at great personal risk.
Others families who are left out: families where a parent or caregiver is unemployed, disabled, or attending school. We must not leave these families behind.
The solution is clear: Make child care available to all children, just like public school, beginning this year with all low-income families.
This is also the year for New York to start paying the child care workforce a thriving wage; a wage that reflects the immeasurable value of their work.
The child care workforce is the essential workforce behind the workforce, the first teachers of our children. And yet, these care providers – nearly entirely women, largely women of color – are paid so little they live in poverty at twice the rate of New York workers in general.
Without a significant and sustained wage hike for the child care workforce, expanded access to child care subsidies will mean nothing because there will not be enough providers to meet demand.
We are hearing that New York leaders are reluctant to knock down barriers to equitable child care access because it would be administratively difficult. While true, it is shocking that our leaders would let administrative obstacles stand in the way of a historic transformation of our child care system.
If ever there was a moment for New York State to lead with courage and vision, this is it.
On July 28, 2021, The Alliance for Early Success announced five states chosen as recipients of Child Care NEXT grants, a major initiative to support in-state coalitions ready to mount long-term campaigns to achieve transformative change to their state’s child care systems. New York is one of those states and Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy is proud to be one of the lead organizations, along with our partners, Alliance for Quality Education and The Children’s Agenda.
“Child care is in desperate need of a demonstration that moves beyond tinkering around the edges and shows the powerful ripple effect that a bold change can have in economic vitality and family well-being. And states are where those kinds of creative policy solutions are born and proven.” —Helene Stebbins, Executive Director, Alliance for Early Success
What is Child Care NEXT: Child Care NEXT seeks to transform child care policies and systems in states so that children, families, providers, and educators are served both effectively and equitably. It is organized by the Alliance—a 50-state early childhood policy advocacy nonprofit, and guided by a steering committee of 15 national policy and grassroots organizations. The goal of Child Care NEXT is to demonstrate how major structural change in state Early Care and Education (ECE) policy can make fundamental differences for children, families, and the economic vitality of their communities and states.
Like Schuyler Center, Child Care NEXT believes fundamental social change requires building and sustaining political power, organizing, and advocacy capacity at all levels—from neighborhoods and communities to the state capitol, and everywhere in between.
What this means for New York child care: After an extensive application and review process, five states were chosen because of their readiness to successfully pursue an ambitious agenda, and their capacity to bring to life all of the Child Care NEXT Core Principles which are
building and sustaining political power, organizing, and advocacy capacity at all levels;
transforming child care policies and systems in states so that they serve all children, families, providers, and educators effectively;
ensuring those who are most impacted by child care policies and programs have a meaningful role in shaping the solution and campaign; and
centering racial equity in the work.
The state teams chosen have built strong foundations for operationalizing these core principles and showed recent advocacy, policy, and revenue efforts in early care and education that demonstrate a commitment to robust changes in their states’ child care systems.
What this means for Schuyler Center going forward: The five selected states will receive deep, ongoing support to develop and implement campaigns that achieve transformative state child care policy, support which we are grateful for as we continue to fight for policies that strengthen New York’s children and families.
As part of the cohort, we are prepared to demonstrate to the rest of the nation how strategic, equitable, and system-wide change in child care can dramatically improve the lives of children, families and communities.
It has been Schuyler Center’s mission to represent a diverse population of children and families from traditionally marginalized communities in New York, and to provide compelling proof points for bold change in a range of economic, political, and regional contexts. We have been, and continue to be ready to mount long-term campaigns to achieve substantial and sustainable change in New York State’s child care policies.
We are thrilled to be a part of this movement.
See what Child Care Next had to say about the New York Team Leaders Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, Alliance for Quality Education, and The Children’s Agenda:
“The New York team is experienced, diverse, and geographically dispersed. It includes advocacy organizations from across the state, as well as family child care and center-based early education providers who are in the field every day serving the children and families in their communities. This team grew out of work that began in 2017 with the creation of the Empire State Campaign for Childcare (ESCCC). They started designing their North Star two years ago, and through their participation and influence on the Governor’s Child Care Availability Task Force, ensured their vision is reflected in the final recommendations.
The New York team plans to implement the recommendations set forth in this comprehensive, ambitious, and practical plan, which aims to equitably expand access to high-quality child care to all New York families that need it, and to provide child care educators with compensation and support reflective of the extraordinary value of their work.”
Greetings, friends. We miss you. We miss seeing you in our office and yours, at meetings, in the Capitol, on the street. We hope you and your loved ones are well. And we look forward to being together again.
The work of shaping public policy is critical, now more than ever, and there are many ways you can help.
Join us in advancing legislation to cut child poverty and improve equity. Child poverty reduction legislation has been introduced in the NYS Senate and Assembly. The bill seeks to cut child poverty in half by 2030, with a focus on racial equity, and would require the State’s budget director to consider the child poverty ramifications of policies. Senator Jessica Ramos from Queens introduced S. 9012 and Assemblymember Harry Bronson from Rochester introduced A. 11063. We are working with both to urge additional legislators to sign on as co-sponsors of the bills and to sign on to a pledge to consider all policies through a child poverty and equity lens. We are leading this work from the outside, together with a strong and motivated group of partners including The Children’s Agenda, American Academy of Pediatrics-NYS, Children’s Defense Fund-NY, Westchester Children’s Association, Citizens’ Committee for Children, Prevent Child Abuse NY, the Education Trust-NY, and Robin Hood. In some ways, this initiative is the umbrella over much of our other work. The legislation and pledge ask New York State policymakers to comprehend and assess the child poverty and racial equity implications of decisions they make. Our colleagues at The Children’s Agenda coordinated a press event (in person, socially distanced, outdoors) in Rochester about the legislation in late October and we’re working with bill sponsor, Senator Ramos, to plan a mid-November event in Queens.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, children in New York were more likely to live in poverty than children in 31 other states, with 19% experiencing poverty in 2019. The United Hospital fund estimates over 300,000 New York children are being driven into, or to the brink of, poverty due to rising unemployment related to COVID-19. Structural and systemic racism have contributed to rates of child poverty among New York children of color that exceed 30%. Many children who experience poverty face significant challenges—poor health, academic obstacles, and lower earnings—for the rest of their lives.
We were encouraged by the Governor’s remarks over the summer, calling on the federal government to end child poverty and we know New York can lead the way by setting this policy goal of a 50% reduction by 2030. Reducing child poverty will protect the health and well-being of all New Yorkers, grow our economy, and lead to long term savings for New York’s budget. This promise from our policymakers cannot come soon enough.
Let our policymakers know child care matters. Millions of working parents across New York are confronting balancing job responsibilities with caring for and supporting the education of their school-age children who are receiving care and instruction remotely or in a hybrid manner. At the same time, parents are struggling to secure or maintain access to safe, quality child care for their infants, toddlers, and pre-school-aged children. We’re continuing to work with allies across New York to call attention to our crumbling child care infrastructure and the things policymakers can to do shore it up. You can get more information in our Back to School Checklist for Fall 2020. And then call your Member of Congress and let them know what we need. We are also awaiting recommendations from Governor’s Child Care Availability Task Force, hopeful that they will be bold and comprehensive, and that Governor Cuomo will act on them this year, without delay.
These are just a few of the things we’re working on. Rest assured, we are still bringing our voice to child welfare, maternal mental health, oral health, Medicaid, and tax policy. And we need you—every single person—to join us.
Public schools are starting instruction this month, leaving millions of working parents across New York confronting the question of how they will balance job responsibilities with caring for and supporting the education of their school-aged children who are receiving instruction remotely on a full or part-time basis. At the same time, parents are struggling to secure or maintain access to safe, quality child care for their infants, toddlers, and pre-school-aged children. Schools cannot successfully reopen without public infrastructure to make sure families have access to affordable and flexible child care and afterschool care. Paid family leave that is responsive to the likelihood of sudden short, or long-term school or child care closures is also needed.
On July 22, 2020, the Empire State Campaign for Child Care (co-facilitated by the Schuyler Center), and NYS Assemblymembers Michaelle C. Solages and Ellen C. Jaffee co-hosted a roundtable on the urgent need to pass the Child Care Is Essential Act, and a federal investment of $50 billion to stabilize child care. The roundtable was attended by more than 250 New Yorkers and featured remarks by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, NY Lieutenant Kathy Governor Hochul, U.S. Representatives Grace Meng and Adriano Espaillat, as well as numerous NYS legislative leaders, parents and child care providers. Schuyler Center’spress release details the event. Arecording on YouTube is also available to watch below.
The message conveyed by all participants of the roundtable: New York parents cannot return to work without access to affordable, safe, high quality child care. New York child care providers cannot care without the necessary financial and other support to follow stringent safety protocols, including operating at significantly reduced capacity. The Child Care is Essential Act would enable child care providers to:
continue operating, or to reopen, at reduced capacity to allow for social distancing
to cover the additional costs associated with keeping facilities and materials disinfected
to allow providers to make necessary infrastructure improvements, like partitioning rooms to create smaller, more contained classrooms
to provide essential workers quality, safe, free, or low-cost child care
and to ensure that child care is available to other workers as states begin to reopen
These funds could also be used by child care programs that need to scale up in a safe way to accommodate more school age children who may be attending in-person classes on a staggered basis to allow for social distancing in schools. CLASP has released a Fact Sheet detailing why it will cost an estimated $9.6 billion in public funding each month to sustain the fragile child care industry, and ensure that parents can access safe, affordable child care during the recovery. Accordingly, this $50 billion is the minimum needed to get working families back, and children back to school.
In addition, after the Child Care is Essential Act passed the House of Representatives on July 29, 2020, Schuyler Center and our partners pivoted our attention to urging members of NYS Congressional delegation to ensure the next federal COVID relief package includes at least $50 billion for child care.
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