NY Leaders Announce Free Child Care for NYC 2-Year-Olds

New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a plan Thursday to provide free child care for 2-year-olds in the city, marking an early step toward expanding affordable options for families statewide. The initiative, unveiled at a news conference in Brooklyn, commits state funding to cover the program's first two years and aims to make nearly 100,000 additional children eligible for subsidized care.

The proposal focuses initially on free child care for children under 2 in high-need areas of New York City, selected by city officials, with a full rollout across the city planned by the fourth year. It builds on the city's existing universal prekindergarten program for 3- and 4-year-olds, known as 3-K and pre-K, by expanding access to 3-year-olds and pursuing universal pre-K statewide by the start of the 2028-2029 school year. Officials described the effort as a partnership to address the rising costs of child care, which have strained working families amid a nationwide shortage of options.

"This is the day that everything changes," Hochul said at the event, held at a child care center in a YMCA. "The era of empty promises ends with the two of us,...