Research on the national expansion of universal pre-K programs found that when public child-care programs for older kids move into a neighborhood, providers serving younger children tend to shift to serving the older, more profitable kids, intensifying care shortages for the youngest. Nabozny said that researchers closely watching the rollout…

Child advocacy organizations such as The Children’s Agenda said the increased pre-K access will provide more young learners with a chance to build foundational skills, including reading, identifying colors and simple math. “About 90% of a child’s brain develops before they even enter the formal school system at age 5.…

We get a status update on accessibility issues with New York’s child care subsidies and consider what needs to be done to realize the state’s statutory goals to cut child poverty. Our guest is Pete Nabozny, a member of the state’s Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council and deputy executive director…

A statewide program that provides therapeutic and support services for infants and toddlers with development disabilities is struggling to keep up. Advocates for those early intervention services say children are spending months or longer on waitlists and that's an indication of systemic problems, including workforce shortages. A pending study facilitated…

As New York moves toward universal prekindergarten for 4-year-olds, the debate over what comes next is increasingly turning to 3K and how the state can eventually provide free child care for every 3-year-old. The final state budget that Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers approved earlier this year included a plan…

"Every young child in our community deserves safe, nurturing, and reliable child care. Parents in our community should never be forced to leave the workforce because they cannot afford child care or cannot find a trusted provider near their home or work. Rochester’s economy will flourish when our children, families,…

New York has taken another step toward creating a universal child care system, with Monroe County at the forefront. Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed $20 million in state funding for the Monroe County Child Care Pilot Program, a three-year program that has a target of expanding coverage for an additional…

Thanks to the grant, one hun­dred work­ers at Mount Kisco Child Care Cen­ter, Lois Bronz Chil­dren’s Cen­ter in White Plains, and Eliz­a­beth Mas­cia Child Care Cen­ter in Tar­ry­town will re­ceive a $2-per-hour salary in­crease, up to $350 per month, for three years. Ac­cord­ing to the Rochester-based or­ga­ni­za­tion Chil­dren’s Agenda, child­care…

High childcare costs have afflicted Americans for years, so New York State is introducing new funding for childcare. Children's Agenda policy director Pete Nabozny joined ARC Rochester on Thursday to tell us more.

The waitlist for New York City’s enormously popular childcare voucher program for low-income families has ballooned to 25,000 kids and isn’t likely to shrink, according to officials and experts — even as its budget keeps growing. Officials from the city’s Administration of Children’s Services, which administers the state and federally…

We believe every child in New York who needs Early Intervention services should receive them. We encourage Governor Hochul and NYS legislators to make the investments necessary to ensure these therapies are available to every child. The Assembly and Senate have called for increased EI funding in their one-house budget…

New York’s Early Intervention Program is a powerful force for good in our state. As pediatricians, we know the crucial role of Early Intervention – the program, not just the idea – for children at risk for developmental delay or with complex medical needs. When a child isn’t sitting up,…

For over a year now, many families who are eligible for a state childcare subsidy haven’t been receiving it. That’s because demand for that program has far surpassed funding for it. In the North Country, St. Lawrence, Clinton, Essex, Warren, and Herkimer counties have all run out of their childcare…

Childcare providers around the state said the governor’s proposal is historic, but fails to properly address the workforce shortage and waitlist backlogs. They’re urging legislative leaders not to accept Hochul’s plan as-is and instead to include an extra $500 million for the workforce to ensure the system doesn't collapse under…

Early Intervention services are a mandated federal service that New York State is failing to provide for one of our most vulnerable groups, disabled children. New York comes in 48th in terms of service provision in our country. The failure to provide these services is careless and unjust. While I…

Education advocates are pushing for more state funding for 3-year-old prekindergarten programs in Rochester and across New York. Local advocates hosted a press conference Wednesday at the Rochester Early Childhood Education Center to highlight the importance of funding for 3-year-old PreK. Rochester’s decades-long prekindergarten evaluation study found that attending prekindergarten…

NEW YORK — New York City lawmakers and advocates are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to boost funding for child care vouchers to shrink a rapidly growing waitlist of thousands of families — or risk undermining efforts to expand access to child care. Hochul’s executive budget proposal earlier this year…

More than half of New York counties have stopped enrolling eligible families in the state’s child care voucher program as of mid-March amid a funding crisis that has persisted for over a year, new data shows. Thirty-five counties and New York City have had to close applications for the program,…

New York State’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) allows eligible families to receive low-cost child care so parents can work or pursue an education while their children receive care in a safe and nurturing environment. Our dashboard shows the most recent data on enrollment status and closures.

Families in rural areas of New York say it is increasingly difficult to find child care. According to a report from the Children's Agenda, seven rural counties in Western New York shows can be characterized as child care deserts, where there are more than three children under the age of…

Gov. Kathy Hochul made a visit to The B.C. Center at SUNY Broome Feb. 4 to visit the children enrolled in the program and to highlight Broome County's unique position as one of three upstate counties selected for a pilot program boosting universal childcare. The new state pilot partnership will…

Governor Hochul’s proposal to ensure free child care for all represents to The Children’s Agenda the culmination of years of work and hope. The organization’s CEO, Larry Marx, talked with Adam Chodak about how it would work, key parts still missing from the plan and why he sees the move…

A group of New York lawmakers and child care advocates are pushing to prioritize better pay for the child care workforce in this year’s state spending plan to complement the significant investments Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed in her executive budget. Hochul’s plan includes funding for 2-care and more money for…

Nearly 16,000 New York City kids and their families are languishing on a ballooning waitlist for child care vouchers as the city runs out of cash to meet demand for the program, city numbers show. The child care crisis is taking center stage as Mayor Zohran Mamdani vows to expand…

Hundreds of parents, providers and advocates are heading to the state capitol in Albany on Tuesday to rally for universal child care. They're calling on the state legislature to enact universal child care this year. They say Hochul's proposal in the state budget is a win they've been working toward…

Larry Marx, CEO of the Children's Agenda, said they need the federal government to recognize that childcare is a public good. "It's essential to the American way of life as public education and transportation. 90% of brain development happens before children reach kindergarten and children rely on safe and supportive…

Parents are cutting back on child care as costs stretch budgets. Research shows 1 in 5 families face child care hardships because of the expense, with single mothers most affected.

Broome County will play a major role in Gov. Kathy Hochul's $4.5 billion push to deliver statewide universal childcare. Broome County is one of just three New York state counties that have been selected as launching pads for the initiative through a new pilot program. On Jan. 14 Hochul announced…

Governor Kathy Hochul is making child care a priority in the upcoming state budget. It comes with new proposals to expand pre-K programs and assist more New Yorkers with child care assistance.

Advocates in New York State are celebrating an announcement today by Governor Kathy Hochul. Her administration is investing in statewide universal pre-K and additional programs to help families.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday will unveil a plan to vastly expand free or affordable child care for New Yorkers across the state over the next several years. In doing so, Ms. Hochul is partnering with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and putting him on a path toward realizing one of the…

The Trump administration is freezing $10 billion in child care subsidies to five Democrat-led states, including New York. Pete Nabozny, Director of Policy, talks about the local impact.

Voters across New York — both Democrats and Republicans — want the state to invest more in affordable child care, a new poll found. It’s the latest sign of growing political pressure on Gov. Kathy Hochul to push for the popular but expensive program ahead of a tough reelection race…

Policymakers of all stripes in New York are talking about increasing access to child care, but there isn’t a consensus on how to get there. We explore some possible next steps to take in 2026 with Pete Nabozny, director of policy for The Children’s Agenda.

The Greece Central School District is facing a growing need for support services for students with disabilities. Some of the youngest students who qualified for early intervention as infants or toddlers did not end up receiving those services and are entering prekindergarten at a deficit, said Stacey Brindisi, executive director…

Advocates with the Empire State Campaign for Child Care, who have long lobbied the state to set out on a realistic path to a universal system seized on the energy and attention, unveiled on Monday a proposal for initiating next steps that they hope Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers…

The Empire State Campaign for Child Care has proposed a roadmap to universal child care that includes two major funding bridges, each worth $75 million.

Monroe County receives the third largest allocation from the state’s Child Care Block Grant fund, but The Children’s Agenda says the county risks closing enrollment for the program next year unless more funding is set aside to keep it running. Several parents shared their thoughts on Wednesday at a Monroe…

Parents and advocates from The Children's Agenda argue that the county has historically excelled in enrolling families in its child care assistance program and fully utilizing state and federal funds, outperforming most other counties in the state. The program supports lower-income households by covering child care costs. However, advocates warn…

Chief Program Officer Brigit Hurley provides an update on the state’s effort to deliver early intervention services in a timely fashion, including cuts to funding by the Hochul administration that prompted a lawsuit by service providers.

New York State is being sued for failing to fully support early intervention services for children. The lawsuit is new, but the issue is not. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers has been saying for years that the state is falling short in this area.

Early intervention service providers are suing the state Department of Health for “woefully inadequate” reimbursement rates that they claim violate state law. Agencies for Children’s Therapy Services, an advocacy group that represents providers, and two of its member agencies filed the lawsuit Tuesday in federal court, requesting the state increase…

As Governor Kathy Hochul publicly touts her support for universal child care, her office told New York Focus that it has privately convened a coalition to help find a way to pay for it. That comes as news to many of the lawmakers, unions, advocacy organizations, and provider groups most…

When a young child is found to have a developmental delay or disability, intervention to help them at an early age can change the course of their life. That’s because the most active stage of brain development happens in the first few years of a child’s life, when more than…

New York’s early intervention providers haven’t seen a substantive raise in three decades — and vulnerable young children are losing out.

More than a third of New York counties, home to over half of the state’s population, have stopped enrolling eligible parents in the state’s child care voucher program, new data shows. At least 21 counties were not accepting applicants for the vouchers as of early July due to lack of…

New York State’s Early Intervention Program is ranked last in the nation for the timely delivery of services, like physical and speech therapy, to young children with developmental delays. Right now, only half of the children who qualify for therapy are actually getting it, and that's having an impact on…

Pete Nabozny, Director of Policy for The Children’s Agenda, discusses possible paths to funding a universal child care system in New York.

In New York, low and even middle income families can get help paying for licensed childcare for their children. It’s called CCAP, or the Child Care Assistance Program. Expanding that program by making more families eligible has been a huge part of Gov. Kathy Hochul's policy agenda, and it's received…

Pete Nabozny, Director of Policy for The Children’s Agenda, discusses the expected impacts of the State's budget on child poverty.

The Adams administration’s improbable hope that New York state would allocate more funding for child care vouchers was dashed Friday as Gov. Hochul signed the budget into law — leaving the essential program in limbo. City Hall had been counting on the state to provide hundreds of millions of dollars…

The state budget approved by legislators this week gives $350 million in additional funding to help New York City continue providing child care vouchers to low-income families — if the city throws in the same amount of its own money. There’s another major caveat buried in the fine print: The…

Mayor Adams’ latest budget plan does not include millions of dollars in funding needed to keep thousands of the city’s families on child care vouchers, putting a critical program for working families at risk of being significantly chopped down in scale. Adams had been counting on the state to pony…

Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislative leaders struck a tentative $254 billion budget deal earlier this week that includes $400 million for the Child Care Assistance Program. The program provides subsidized child care and after-school to more than 80,000 New York City families and more across the state — but…

New York’s child care assistance program, the primary way the state provides child care assistance, has been thrown a life preserver in the form of a $400 million infusion that forced Gov. Kathy Hochul to dial back one of her signature budget proposals — inflation rebate checks for many New…

The Child Care Assistance Program is the primary way the state provides families with child care subsidies is in trouble, and there is hope that the state budget will provide a lifeline.

Without significant funding increases for child care in the New York State 2025-26 budget, thousands of working families could lose or be waitlisted for child care services across the state.

Brigit Hurley, Chief Program Officer for The Children’s Agenda, discusses the state of Early Intervention in New York and what advocates are determined to see accomplished in this year's budget.

Gov. Kathy Hochul calls herself New York’s “first mom governor.” She has promised that “your family is my fight.” But she has a track record of failing to follow through for thousands of our most vulnerable children: babies and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities.

More than 10 upstate counties will close key child care assistance programs by June, the result of a funding shortfall that advocates have said is up to New York leaders to backfill in the state budget. Experts said that the state-administered Child Care Assistance Program, which uses a mix of…

As state budget negations resume Tuesday, advocates are hoping for more funding for the state Early Intervention Program. It provides services like physical and occupational therapy and speech pathology to children up to the age of 3 who need a little extra support. The Children’s Agenda is leading a campaign…

Families and advocates want the state to fund a study to assess what can help fix a clearly broken system. They also want at least a 5% pay increase for the therapists who continue to chip away at those waiting lists. “Everyone seems to say they don’t have enough money…

In their 2025 budget plans released Monday, the state Assembly and Senate proposed hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending to help parents afford child care and to provide a wage boost to workers in the industry. The proposals would still invest less than what advocates and New York…

More than 80 parents, advocates and providers left the Rochester area Tuesday to embark on a trip to Albany to advocate for change. It's part of The Children's Agenda's "Kids Can't Wait" campaign.

The Children’s Agenda called on Governor Kathy Hochul to increase compensation and benefits for the early childcare education workforce. They said the policies would help support the people and organizations that care for children within the community, and in turn, create more childcare opportunities for working parents.

The Children’s Agenda called on Governor Kathy Hochul to increase compensation and benefits for the early childcare education workforce. They said the policies would help support the people and organizations that care for children within the community, and in turn, create more childcare opportunities for working parents.

Pete Nabozny, director of policy for The Children’s Agenda and a member of the state’s Child Poverty Reduction Advisory Council, weighs in on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed expansion of the state’s child tax credit and new funding for child care facility construction.

By almost any measure, New York State's early intervention (EI) service model is in crisis. According to the Children's Agenda, providers are being severely underpaid, which is contributing to a shortage — and as a result, wait times are so long that some kids are aging out before ever receiving…

On January 1, 2025, New York State submitted paperwork to instate a long awaited 5% rate increase for Early Intervention, the federally mandated program that provides therapy to babies and toddlers with developmental delays. That increase was hard-won and passed in the 2024-25 NYS Budget last April. It was the…

By almost any measure, New York State's early intervention (EI) service model is in crisis. According to the Children's Agenda, providers are being severely underpaid, which is contributing to a shortage — and as a result, wait times are so long that some kids are aging out before ever receiving…

Advocates for early childhood services are calling for an overhaul of how New York state funds early intervention ahead of Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address next week. Early intervention programs include speech therapy, physical therapy and other support services for children from birth to three years old,…

A new law gives New York counties the option to treat families as "presumptively eligible" when they file applications for child care assistance. It's intended to eliminate delays between when families apply and when they are deemed eligible and can receive the benefits.

During a public hearing on the budget last week, a representative from The Children's Agenda, which advocates for children and families, called on the county to address staffing levels at the Department of Human Services.

Monroe County families approved to receive state childcare subsidies shouldn’t have to reapply every year for what already is an underutilized program, advocates say. The program currently limits eligibility to one year before families have to reapply. But New York state has given counties the option to extend that eligibility…

While families in New York struggle to afford childcare, childcare providers struggle with low wages. Though the state offers subsidies and temporary wage boosts, the sector remains in crisis, with middle-income and working-class families frequently left out.

While immigration concerns and reproductive rights are among the top issues on voters' minds as they head to the polls, experts say the outcome of the election could have a significant impact on child care policy when the current federal tax credit expires next year.

State lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul honed in on the backlog of early intervention needs in this year’s budget, but not much progress has been made solving this critical problem.

The presidential campaign has included discussions on family, on having children, on who has kids and who doesn't, and why.

As Gov. Kathy Hochul works her way through the pile of bills that were passed this session, she’ll be deciding whether or not to sign three pieces of legislation that hope to chip away at issues with child care in New York.

New York announced a new measure to help hundreds of thousands of New York families access child care subsidies: an online portal.

Bipartisan elected officials are calling on the governor to sign key pieces of legislation to help alleviate the burden of New York’s ongoing child care crisis.

Grassroots advocates and state lawmakers are urging Governor Kathy Hochul to sign bills meant to make childcare more accessible for more families.

New York can grow the number of childcare slots and eliminate daycare deserts across much of upstate New York.

The Children’s Agenda CEO Larry Marx discusses child care and early intervention policies addressed by state lawmakers in the 2024 legislative session.

We highlight New York’s ongoing failure to provide adequate access to Early Intervention services for toddlers with Brigit Hurley, Chief Program Officer for The Children’s Agenda.

“The way that we price child care actually has nothing to do with what the cost of it is,” said Lauren Melodia, deputy director of economic and fiscal policies at the New School's Center for New York City Affairs. “Parents can't afford the market rate and providers also can't afford to…

A report due from the Child Care Availability Task Force at the end of 2023 hasn’t been produced and the Hochul administration has no official timeline for when the work of the task force will be published.

The State Legislature is seeking to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to keep child care centers open in a crisis that is straining many families and their budgets, and also is a drag on the state’s labor market. A shortage of qualified child care workers, many of whom have left for…

Childcare across New York may see some changes this fall, as $24 billion in federal funding is set to expire.

“Not being able to receive the proper services, as a parent is frustrating,” said Lynn Mordenga, parent advocate “and you’re just left in agony because you were promised a right to be able to have therapy for your child, because it’s a federal right.”

70 parents, advocates and providers from across New York went to Albany to urge state officials to increase rates for the Early Intervention program by 11%.

School is almost out, leaving some families wondering what they can do for summer childcare and what resources are available for them.

All child care programs are required to provide reasonable accommodations, but only a handful have services for children with special needs.

The Empire State Campaign for Child Care say the final state budget must invest $1 billion to increase wages for the child care workforce

Pete Nabozny, Policy Director at the Rochester-based advocacy organization The Children’s Agenda, said he roughly estimates the bill would cost the state around $40 million, based on the “generous assumption” that a quarter of parents currently receiving part-time care would switch to full-time.

State lawmakers announced a renewed commitment to boosting Early Intervention programming for children.

A coalition of state legislators is calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to raise reimbursement rates for the therapists and teachers providing services to children with developmental delays through the state’s Early Intervention program.

Our nation doesn’t work without quality, affordable child care. More importantly, it helps our children thrive.