The state will start distributing $2 billion in funds to expand and enhance childcare in the Empire State, on the heels of passing a state budget earlier this year that doubled state support for the youngest New Yorkers, Governor Kathy Hochul announced Friday.
Hochul made the announcement on May 20 at the Hebrew Educational Society in Canarsie, a neighborhood where much of the population lives in a “childcare desert.”
“We can no longer turn our eyes away from what has really just shown up so vividly,” said the governor. “The crisis that families, particularly moms, are going through.”
The distribution, the first phase of a four-year, $7 billion childcare investment, will see the state raise its eligibility threshold for childcare subsidies from 200% of the federal poverty line to 300%, or an $83,250 income for a family of four, which the governor claims would allow 400,000 additional kids to access high-quality childcare.
