A Generation on the Brink — The Human Cost of Failing to Fund Child Care in New York
It’s 6:45 a.m. in a small apartment in Queens. A mother is hurriedly dressing her two children while warming up instant oatmeal and scanning her phone for any update from her day care provider. Her shift starts at 8:00 a.m., and she can’t be late—not again. But the message finally comes: “We’re full today, we can’t take more kids.” She breathes in hard, picks up the phone, and calls her manager with the same desperate excuse she’s had to use far too often: “My child care fell through.”
This is not just one mother’s story. It’s a story playing out across New York in real time, and it is about to get much worse. In recent years, the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) was a beacon of hope. The state made critical strides—expanding eligibility, removing bureaucratic barriers, and opening doors for more families to access quality, subsidized care. Enrollment soared, and parents began to rebuild their lives with a sense of stability. Some went back to school. Others returned to work. Many finally exhaled, knowing their children were safe, cared for, and learning.
But today, that hope is hanging by a thread.
Governor Hochul, the Senate, and the Assembly have each failed to allocate enough funding in their 2025-26 budget proposals to meet the surging demand for child care assistance. The very families who were finally beginning to believe in a better future now stand to lose everything they’ve gained. If this funding gap is not closed, thousands of New York families will be plunged back into crisis. Not because they didn’t work hard. Not because they didn’t follow the rules. But because the state turned its back when they needed it most.
Let’s be clear: this is not just a policy failure. It is a moral one.
Imagine being forced to choose between your job and your child’s safety. Imagine having to leave your toddler with a neighbor you barely know, or worse—leaving them alone—because you can’t afford child care and have no one else to call. This is not theoretical. This is what families will face without an immediate, bold correction to the state’s budget.
We are not asking for miracles. We are asking for commitment. We are asking the Governor and the legislature to step up—now—before the ink dries on a budget that betrays New York’s working families.
We need at least $500 million in additional funding for the Childcare Assistance Program and $500 million for workforce support in the 2025-26 budget. Not as a gesture, but as a lifeline. This investment would begin to fill the funding gap and keep thousands of families from losing access to care. But it cannot stop there. Hochul’s new proposed New York Coalition for Child Care must be empowered to identify and secure a permanent, sustainable funding stream so that we are never again caught in this cycle of crisis.
Child care is not a luxury. It is infrastructure. It is economic stability. It is racial and gender justice. And it is the difference between survival and collapse for countless families in this state.
New York has long prided itself on being a progressive leader, a place where families can thrive. But values aren’t defined by press releases or campaign promises. They are defined by budgets. And right now, our budget tells families—especially working mothers, Black and Brown families, and low-income parents—that their struggle is invisible.
We still have time to change course. We still have time to fund our values.
If we don’t, history will not remember the justifications and excuses. It will remember the broken promises. And our children will pay the price.
State Senator Jessica Ramos and Gladys Jones, Co-Founder of Early Childhood Educators on the Move
