Mayor Eric Adams announces a historic joint effort to strengthen early childhood education | Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
NEW YORK—New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Council have agreed to a historic partnership by investing $100 million in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Adopted Budget to strengthen early childhood education across the five boroughs. This will also address longstanding systemic issues and boost enrollment, connecting families with more Pre-K and 3-K seats.
With this new initiative, the total investment in the FY 2025 city budget for early childhood education is $3 billion, comprised of $2 billion for early childhood education programming for children aged 0 to five and approximately $1 billion for preschool special education.
According to the Adams administration, New York City Public Schools added more than 1,500 additional seats in high-demand areas of the city to support families for the 2024-2025 school year since the budget was voted in the last two months. Since May 2024, it has continued to drive down waitlists – reaching 100 percent of families who applied before the application deadline with first-round offers by mid-August.
“All families deserve to live in a city with a safe, nurturing, and affordable place to leave their children, while being given the opportunity to pursue their dreams,” said Mayor Adams. “Access to affordable child care is one of the largest drivers of economic mobility, especially for women. That’s why our administration has delivered an expanded and more equitable early childhood education program, and, with this plan, we are presenting our vision for how to strengthen it even further into the future.”
The mayor added that early childhood applications more than tripled from five years ago, which is a 350 percent increase in families receiving offers. “Our plan focuses on better-allocating resources to meet needs, conducting robust family outreach, supporting providers, and expanding access for students with disabilities and undocumented families. Every day, we will continue to build a city focused on supporting working-class people, that is safer, more prosperous, more affordable, and, most importantly, that invests in our children.”
Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said, “Improving and investing in our city’s early childhood education system has always been this Council’s priority.” The joint effort of the administration and the city council is “the fruit of more than a year and a half of labor to expand extended day options and special education seats, support this essential workforce, and make child care more accessible.”
The speaker hoped to continue the collaborative work “to fix the the inefficiencies in our early childhood education system to better serve families, particularly those in low-income areas that are currently under-enrolled.”
The Adams administration and the City Council have created a 10-point plan that will be executed by New York City Public Schools, the Mayor’s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education, and multiple city agencies in partnership with the Council to:
- Increasing 3-K Access for Families This School Year
- Expanding Family Outreach Strategy
- Increasing Preschool Special Education Classrooms
- Providing Free Extended Hours of Early Childhood Education for Children and Their Families
- Expanding Support for Undocumented Children Through Promise NYC
- Funding the Mayor’s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education
- Providing Deeper Support for Child Care and Early Childhood Education Providers and Programs
- Establishing the “Child Care Advisory Group”
- Convening Bi-Weekly Meetings Between the Adams Administration and the City Council
- Ensuring City Agencies Have the Staff and Resources to Support the Infrastructure of the City’s Early Childhood Education System
“By giving our children bright starts and a strong educational foundation, we ensure they are on track for bold futures,” said New York City Public Schools Chancellor David C. Banks. “I am thrilled to stand alongside Mayor Adams, Deputy Mayor Almanzar, and the City Council in enacting a new plan for early childhood education. Our children and families deserve this renewed commitment.”
–With Ricky Rillera/PDM
