A message from Kathy Halas, Executive Director
The 22-23 NYS budget is a good step toward what we need for child care in New York, making care more affordable and delivering some additional compensation to the grossly underpaid child care workforce.
Here are the highlights, with details, especially around the timing, still pending:
- Income eligibility for the Low Income Child Care Subsidy goes from 200% FPL to 300% as of 8/1/22. A family of 4 can now earn up to $83,250 and be eligible, up from $53,000.
- Parent co-pays are capped at 10% of income over FPL for families with incomes under 300% FPL.
- Parents enrolled in higher education are now eligible for child care subsidy without having to meet a work requirement.
- The market rate, the basis of provider reimbursement, will rise from the 69th to the 80th percentile.
- $343 million is invested in a stabilization fund, 75% of which must go to the workforce in the form of wage increases, bonuses, tuition reimbursement, retirement/health benefits, etc.
- $125 million increase for PreK slots, including $25 million in a competitive grant for new slots at the $10,000 per child level.
We thank our entire Westchester State Delegation for its support, especially Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, for making child care a priority and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, for leading the charge on PreK.
To all of you reading this message, especially those of you working in child care, none of this would have happened without your speaking up on our child care crisis, your participation in our letter-writing campaigns, call-ins and virtual advocacy events. On behalf of the Child Care Council Board of Directors, and our entire staff team, we thank you.
But we're not done, far from it
We're going to keep working, building on the progress this year, until we get to a truly universal system of child care in NY!
#fundchildcare #NYSUniversalchildcare #UniversalPreK
