NYC Council, Unions, Parents, Early Childhood Education Providers, and Advocates Call on Mayor to Prioritize Early Childhood Education Investments in City Budget

 

Administration’s failure to agree on investments would leave thousands of preschool-aged children and families without access to needed childcare and legally required services

Days ahead of the impending June 30 city budget deadline, New York City Council leaders, unions representing education workers, parents of preschool children, and early childhood education providers and advocates rallied at City Hall to call on the Mayor to agree to restorations of cuts and investments in early childhood education programs. A lack of investment into the early childhood education system would leave thousands of families and children without access, including legally mandated special education services.

For the upcoming 2024-2025 school year, families have been placed on waitlists for their chosen programs with over 2,000 children still waiting for a seat after more than a month.

The livestream of the rally can be found here. Photos can be found here.

“New Yorkers are relying on the City to deliver a budget that prioritizes and funds early childhood education,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams. “The Council is fighting for equitable opportunity for working families, investments in our children’s education, and dignity for our providers. The reality is that not every child has a seat, and we must confront that with investments that fund and fix the system. Now is the time to strengthen 3-K, Pre-K, preschool special education and Promise NYC to make good on our promise to New Yorkers. Our children and families need us to get this right.”

At the end of the 2022-2023 school year, more than 1,100 children were still waiting for a seat in a preschool special education class, despite Mayor Adams’ December 2022 promise that every child would have a seat in their legally mandated class. 12,300 children also never received their preschool special education class or at least one of their mandated preschool special education services. Without additional funding in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget, hundreds of preschool children with disabilities who are legally entitled to a seat in preschool special education class would go without one. The Mayor’s Executive Budget funded less than a third of the Department of Education’s request provide legally mandated special education services for preschool children.

To assess the Department of Education’s management and performance of paying early childhood education providers, the Council analyzed of the DOE’s payments to 20 early childhood education providers operating in zip codes with the highest economic need through Q3 of the City’s Fiscal Year. These zip codes which consist overwhelmingly of Black and Latino residents include 10303, 10033, 11102, 11239 and 10475. The analysis found that only 3 providers had been paid up to 75% or three-quarters of their contracted amount.

In Fiscal Year 2023, the Council and Administration created Promise NYC, a program to provide access to childcare for undocumented children and their families through community-based organizations. In the current Fiscal Year, the program is funded at $16 million to support hundreds of children and families but no funding was allocated in the Mayor’s Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. The Council has called for a restoration and enhancement to the program to maintain the current level of access and provide additional seats.