Disappointed with budget, child care advocates look to the future

Child care advocates say they are disappointed by what was included in the final state budget and say it doesn’t address the depth of the crisis here in New York.

Meanwhile, they’re looking ahead thanks in part to a much-anticipated report from New York’s Child Care Availability Task Force, released last month, which offers recommendations that align with many priorities defended by defenders. Some are already supported by legislation, and one major recommendation was already vetoed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last year.

Eduardo Hernandez, organizer for the Alliance for Quality Education, told Spectrum News 1 that with the report in hand, he was encouraged to see a permanent funding line to support child care staff in top of the list of recommendations.

“They are stuck and have to make a decision between properly caring for their children and going to work,” he said of the parents. “No one questions the investment that the state makes in public education, from kindergarten through high school, that comes from our tax dollars and that is something we all do willingly.”

Another priority highlighted in the report is a policy that would decouple child care support from parents’ work hours. A decoupling bill that passed last session but was vetoed by the governor on fiscal grounds was not included in the final state budget.

“Right now, people are limited to when they can access child care through state subsidies. They have a certain amount of time, half an hour before they start work and half an hour afterwards,” he said.

Advocates like Gregory Brender of the Daycare Council of New York say the current rule, along with the availability of after-hours child care, excludes parents from the gig economy and those who work other jobs with irregular hours.

“People don’t have 9-to-5 schedules anymore,” he said. “So expecting their children to only be able to attend daycare if they work those specific hours excludes a lot of working parents.”

Assembly member Sarah Clark says another of her priorities, also highlighted in the report, is a study to implement an estimate that would establish the “true cost” of child care.

“We need to do the study, we need to understand the true cost of child care in our state, stop working on old market rates that don’t truly reflect what we need to do to invest in this system, invest in our workforce, invest in our suppliers,” she said.

Dede Hill, policy director at the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, insists there is still time to act on legislative items this session.

“While we are truly disappointed that the report was not released ahead of the budget to inform the budget negotiations as it was intended to do, we are pleased to have the report now and hope it will inform these negotiations. weeks of (session),” she said.