NYC’s free 2-K child care opens 2,000 seats, with 12,000 planned for fall 2027

Just over 2,000 two-year-olds are now enrolled in 2-K, New York City’s free child care program for toddlers, and the program will grow to 12,000 children next fall, City officials told the City Council on Oct. 7, according to a review of the hearing video by NYC Politics.

The officials testified at an oversight hearing of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education, chaired by Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, who represents District 34. No legislation was voted on.

More than 5,700 families applied for the first seats, which opened Sept. 10 in five school districts. Gutiérrez said the program saves enrolled families up to $26,000 a year per child.

The program is set to grow sixfold in a year, paid for with $425 million in state money. Members said the systems behind it are not ready: payments to providers ran late, community-based educators earn less than public school teachers, and most home-based providers are shut out.

“Providers shouldn’t have to take out a loan to sustain their business month to month.”

Emily List, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education, said this year’s delays “do not represent the way that we as a City believed that we should be working hand in hand with our providers.” She said the administration has committed to procurement reform and more staff.

What do families get?

2-K is free and offered only in community-based child care centers and licensed family child care homes, not in public school buildings, List said.

The default is full day, full year: 10 hours a day, 260 days a year. Some programs follow the school calendar instead, at six hours and 20 minutes a day for 180 days.

About 60% of seats are in home-based family child care programs, said NYC Public Schools’ deputy chancellor for early childhood education.

Of families who got offers, 59% got their first choice and more than 80% got one of their top three, List said. Families without a seat were put on wait lists, which stay open all year. Children in centers must be 24 months old to start, under the health code.

Where are the seats?

The first seats are in School District 6 in Manhattan, including Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights and Inwood, and District 10 in the Bronx, including Fordham, Belmont, Norwood and Kingsbridge.

In Brooklyn, they are in Districts 18 and 23, including Remsen Village, Brownsville and Ocean Hill. In Queens, they are in District 27, including Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Howard Beach and the Rockaways.

List said the City chose areas with high economic need, few free or subsidized options and enough licensed providers. The 10,000 new seats next fall will include District 31, which covers all of Staten Island.

Council Member Kayla Santosuosso asked why Staten Island was left out this year. List said 2,000 seats on a short timeline were not enough to meet demand across a borough that is one school district.

Next year’s neighborhoods will be announced “Very soon,” List said, and the subcommittee will be briefed first.

What it costs

The state committed $73 million for this school year and $425 million for 2027-28, List said. Both are part of a more than $1.2 billion state commitment toward universal child care.

Providers are paid a flat rate per child. Gutiérrez cited rates of a little over $19,000 per child for a school-day seat and a little over $29,000 for an extended-day seat.

Asked by Council Member Gale Brewer whether the expansion needs City money, List said the program itself is fully paid for by the state. The City is funding 228 new positions at NYC Public Schools to support it.

What members pressed on

The deputy chancellor said late contracts and payments “created real challenges for some providers as they prepared to begin services.” She said providers were offered interest-free bridge loans.

Council Member Kevin Riley asked what gives officials confidence that a system with those problems can handle “a six-fold increase in enrollment.” List said new staff and procurement reform would speed up payments.

Only home-based providers in family child care networks can join 2-K. “I just don’t think that there is a universal, successful system without these providers,” Gutiérrez said of independent providers.

Lara Kyriakou of All Our Kin, which supports home-based educators, said “only about 20% of all family child care programs are part of a network.” The deputy chancellor said networks “should not be charging providers for affiliating.”

Council Member Rita Joseph said the “workforce must double for universal child care.” List said “wage equity is something we must address in the early childhood sector.”

Joseph also asked whether the City was checking for gaps across the whole system. “How do we correct it before we expand?” she said. List said the City must fix the system and expand at once, because “the lack of affordable child care is driving families out of the City.”

List said most 3-K seats follow the school calendar, so 2-K families could lose full-day care next year. Gutiérrez said it is hard to give families something and then “take it away next year.” She said, “It’s going to be a rude awakening.”

Camilla Farooqi, founder of Manhattan School House, said, “This fall, we nearly couldn’t open,” because of payment delays. An attorney for Advocates for Children of New York said children with disabilities have been left out of past expansions: “we’ve seen them left behind.”

A parent leader with New Yorkers United for Child Care, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, said two days a week of day care will cost her family more than $12,000 a year.

What happens next?

List agreed to share the rates, applications by neighborhood and preliminary enrollment data, which officials said would come in November. The deputy chancellor agreed to share vacancy figures and invited members to visit 2-K sites.

Families can add their names to 2-K wait lists at any time during the year, List said.

The mayor and governor have committed to reach every 2-year-old who wants a seat by fall 2029, List said. Getting there will take every kind of provider, she said: “We need everyone.”