Coalition produces analysis on child care spending in New York

by Susan Arbetter

The child care sector in New York was in dire straits even before the COVID-19 pandemic, but after it hit, more than 3,500 providers had to shut their doors between January 2020 and July 2022, according to The Children’s Agenda.

Billions of dollars of stimulus funding was spent by the federal government to shore up the sector through the CARES Act and stabilization grant funding via ARPA.

While New York’s Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) is still in the process of distributing federal money to child care providers, to date, the agency has distributed over $1 billion.

“And we have another billion to distribute through various initiatives,” Nora Yates, acting deputy commissioner of OCFS’ Division of Child Care Services, told Capital Tonight.

A just-released analysis from OCFS and the Raising NY coalition, a cross-section of parent, early childhood, education, business and health organizations, including the Education Trust NY and The Children’s Agenda, shows how that money was spent.