Last Friday, July 19th, the state announced a new measure to help hundreds of thousands of New York families access child care subsidies: an online portal, at ny.gov/childcare.

That’s to help families access New York’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which represents some of the most generous child care subsidies in the nation, and which have been greatly expanded over the last four years.

In the portal, families can check their eligibility and know within 10 minutes whether they qualify for help. They can apply online, instead of in person with a paper form.

Governor Kathy Hochul says for the families who sign up for CCAP, it makes child care affordable.

“For a family of four, making $108,000 or less, that family will pay no more than $15 a week,” said Hochul at a press conference last Friday.

Compare $15 per week to the market cost of childcare, which costs between $200 and $400 per week, per child. CCAP can save families “thousands and thousands of dollars every year,” said Hochul.

Money left on the table instead of in the pockets of eligible families

The CCAP program represents enormous savings for many New York families.

Most families in rural areas, like the North Country, are eligible, but relatively few actually use the assistance.

According to the state, only about 100,000 families are enrolled in the program, a fraction of the families that qualify.

Cathy Brodeur is director of the Jefferson-Lewis Childcare Project, and has previously said that “there are a lot of people right now that have their kids enrolled in care that don’t realize they could be getting help with paying for child care. It is an amazing commitment by the state… but it won’t go anywhere if people don’t sign up for it.”

Since 2020, the state has committed around $7 billion to rebuild and bolster child care in the state. In the last state budget, $1.8 billion were allocated towards child care.

A bad process holds up a good idea

Awareness is one issue keeping families from CCAP funds. Another is the literal act of applying for the assistance.

In the past, it’s been run county by county. In many places you have to request an application, make an appointment with social services, and fill out a paper application before you even know if you’re eligible.

It’s a barrier for the parents that need it most.

“You can apply for Medicare online; you can update your driver’s license at the DMV; you can do all sorts of things online in New York State, but you can’t apply for help affording the cost of care,” said Pete Nabozny, the policy director for the Children’s Agenda, an advocacy group in New York. NCPR spoke with him in 2022 about child care subsidy money being left on the table by a convoluted process.

“There’s all this energy – let’s extend eligibility. Let’s make the rules better, and yet the state systems for actually administering those programs are horribly antiquated,” said Nabozny.

The state hopes the new portal will change that.

Gov. Hochul says she hopes the portal will at least double the number of families using New York’s child care assistance in the next year.

“Working parents don’t have the time to navigate the bureaucracy, go to in-person appointments, fill out endless forms. They have families to take care of! For them, we need to make finding and using these resources much more simple.”

Part of a larger effort and a national problem

The portal joins a host of other state efforts to bolster child care: things like expanding the state child tax credit, and the employer-sponsored child care program, which helps companies develop their own child care centers.

It’s also set against a backdrop of some enormous structural problems: providers closing, chronic understaffing in child care centers because of low pay, and New York’s famously complex maze of bureaucracy, red tape, and regulation, felt both by child care providers and families.

Gov. Hochul made the announcement about the new portal at Victory Child Care in Albany County, a child care center which has 125 slots, and a waiting list of 400.

US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a longtime advocate for more federal aid in child care, spoke alongside Hochul last week. She says the state, and the nation, has to figure these problems out.

“This is the cost of our economy. If you don’t have affordable daycare, she can’t be at work. If she’s not at work, she’s not paying taxes; she’s not paying into her social security,” Gillibrand said.

The hope is that the new portal will be one step towards getting money meant to support New York families where it’s supposed to go.

Listen to the story at North County Public Radio.

Learn more about what’s happening with child care in New York.