Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education

Hello, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Welcome to today's New York City Council hearing for the Committee on Early Childhood Education. At this time, please silence all phones. If you wish to speak in today's hearing, please fill out an appearance card with one of the sergeants. Moving forward, no one is to approach the dais. Chair, you may begin.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Councilmember Jennifer Gutierrez, Chair of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education, and welcome to today's hearing on 2K in New York City. Earlier this year, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zoran Ramdani announced a plan to deliver free free childcare for 2-year-olds in New York City through a program called 2K. Within a few short months, the Mayor's Office of Childcare, along with the Department of Education, started to make good on that promise, with 2,000 of our littlest learners having started 2K just a few weeks ago.

This is an amazing achievement, as this program is saving New York City families enrolled in the program up to $26,000 per year per child in childcare costs. When 2K applications opened this spring, over 5,700 families applied. That overwhelming demand tells a clear and urgent truth: New Yorkers need affordable childcare, and they need it now. Unfortunately, we can't achieve a universal $2K program overnight, and there are longstanding issues with our current early childhood education system that need addressing.

For starters, the inequities in early childhood educator salaries have persisted for far too long. Since the very first hearing of the subcommittee, and at every hearing I've heard from early childhood education providers about the pay inequities between educators in community-based programs compared to those in New York City public schools, or about the challenges of rising costs of operating their business while salary raises have to take a back seat.

These inequities need to be addressed as we look towards creating a stable and sustainable universal childcare system. Early childhood educators are the heart of the early childhood education system. system and deserve to receive dignified wages for the important work that they do. Early childhood education providers also need on-time, reliable payments from the city for contracted work. Payment delays are unacceptable.

Our payment systems need to be transparent, easy to navigate, and accessible. Providers shouldn't have to take out a loan to sustain their business month to month. Finally, as we think about expanding 2K, we must also think about expanding pathways for home-based providers to participate in the program. Too many home-based providers are left out of the current DOE system as only those associated with family child care networks can participate in providing DOE-contracted care.

As the education system ages down, the city needs to be more inclusive of home-based providers. So today we'd like to look at what lessons the administration has learned so far from implementing 2K for this first school year and how the administration is planning to address longstanding issues in the early childhood education system. I want to thank members of the Early Childhood Education Subcommittee who've joined.

We've been joined by Councilmembers Kayla Santuoso— I should have started with Councilmember Simcha Felder, he was here right before— Councilmembers, I'm sorry, Councilmember Gail Brewer. Oh, I'll make it up, I'll make it up. Councilmembers Gail Brewer and Education Chair Councilmember Eric Dinowitz. I would also like to thank the staff of the Early Childhood Education Subcommittee, Julia Goldsmith-Pinkham, Katie Salina, Grace Amato, Andrew Lane Lawless, and Margaret Barnsley, as well as my own staff, Frank Hulka and Angelica Colon and Madeline, who just joined this week.

And finally, thank you to everyone who has signed up to testify. We look forward to hearing from you.

Okay. I would like to remind everyone who wishes to testify in person today that you must fill out a witness slip, which you can find on the desk at the sergeant-at-arms near the entrance of the room. Please fill out the slip even if you have already registered in advance that you will be testifying in person today. If you wish to testify on any of the legislation, please indicate on the witness slip whether you are here to testify in favor of or in opposition to the legislation.

I also want to point out that we will not be voting on any legislation today. To allow as many people as possible to testify, testimony will be limited to 2 minutes per person, whether you are testifying in person or on Zoom. I'm also going to ask my colleagues to keep their questions and comments to 5 minutes. Please note that witnesses who are here in person will testify before those who are signed into the Zoom webinar.

I will now turn it over to subcommittee counsel to administer the oath. Good morning. In accordance with the rules of the council, I will administer the affirmation to the witnesses from the mayoral administration. I will call on you each individually for a response. Please raise your right hands. Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee and to respond honestly to councilmember questions?

Yes. Thank you. You may begin.

Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez, Education Chair Dinowitz, members of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education, and other councilmembers. My name is Emmy Liss, and I am the executive director of the Mayor's Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education. I'm joined today by my colleagues from New York City Public Schools. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to testify about the city's new 2K program, a critical component of our vision for universal childcare.

Mayor Mamdani ran for office on a vision of universal childcare, a city in which every child under 5 has access to free, full-day, high-quality early care and education in a range of culturally competent settings with caregivers and educators who are trained, respected, and fairly compensated. On just day 8 of this administration, the Mayor stood with the Governor as she committed over $1.2 billion to New York City to put us on a path to universal childcare.

Within that $1.2 billion commitment was the funding to launch 2K, the city's first universal early care and education program for 2-year-olds. The Governor committed $73 million for the program for the first year, with a goal of serving at least 2,000 children this fall, and $425 million for the second year, with a goal of expanding by 10,000 seats to serve a total of 12,000 children in fall 2027.

The Mayor and Governor have made the shared commitment that we will reach every 2-year-old in New York City that wants to participate by the end of the Mayor's first term in the fall of 2029. We are committed to delivering 2K to all New Yorkers because of the tremendous benefit it will bring to children, families, educators, and our city.

Children experience 90% of brain development before age 5, and a majority of it in their first few years of life. Providing more children with high-quality early learning opportunities will set them up for a lifetime of academic and social-emotional success. Parents currently spend an average of $26,000 for full-time childcare for a 2-year-old, though many families pay even more.

For parents, this can make it impossible to stay at a job they love and need to provide for their family because the math simply does not work. For many, this leads to debt, tough trade-offs, or ultimately the decision to leave New York City. Free 2K will make it easier for families to stay and raise their children here.

Because 2K will be offered in partnership with community-based child care programs and home-based providers, the program will bring resources to the work our educators and caregivers are already doing. We have an opportunity, if we roll this program out in the right way, to support early childhood programs and educators as we do. Ultimately, we believe 2K will bring significant economic return to our city, with more parents able to join the workforce, more families able to use their hard-earned resources in our local economy, and more households with children able to stay in the city.

Despite the good return on investment, we are not doing this just for economic reasons, but more so because we believe that childcare is and should be treated as a public good, and 2K is our first step toward delivering on that vision. We made the decision to expand 2K geographically so that when we bring 2K to a new area, we can work to meet full demand from the outset.

This aligns to our value that care should be universal. In selecting where to place the first 2,000 seats for fall 2026, we looked at a multitude of factors, including economic need among families and areas where lower-income families had less access to free or subsidized care already. We also considered licensed child care provider capacity. Given the short timeline for implementation, we wanted to ensure that whichever neighborhoods we selected would have the capacity to serve interested children.

Lastly, we considered geography to spread 2K across as many boroughs as possible. The areas we selected for 2K for fall 2026 included District— School District 6 in Manhattan, which includes Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights, and Inwood; School District 10 in the Bronx, which includes Fordham, Belmont, Norwood, Morris Heights, Van Cortlandt Village, and Kingsbridge; Districts 18 and 23 in Brooklyn, which includes Canarsie, Remsen Village, Brownsville, and Ocean Hill; and District 27 in Queens, which includes Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Howard Beach, and the Rockaways.

While we have not finalized yet where 2K will be offered in fall 2027, we have committed that the 10,000-seat expansion will include School District 31, which encompasses all of Staten Island. After the first 5 districts were announced in March, the team at New York City Public Schools worked tirelessly to bring early care and education providers into the 2K program.

2K is offered in community-based child care centers and licensed family child care programs. There is no 2K in public school buildings. The 2K sites are inclusive of providers who already contracted with the City to offer 3K and Pre-K services, as well as new providers who applied to a request for information and were awarded new contracts to offer 2K.

The default model for 2K is full-day, full-year, recognizing that working families need full-time child care that maps to the their schedules. We also recognize that not all families have the same schedules or care needs, and so there are some 2K programs that operate on a school day in your calendar. Families were able to apply for the first 2,000 2K seats in June, and we mounted an all-of-government effort to ensure that families knew about 2K, knew how to apply, and had the support to do so if needed.

The City and community partners were on the ground in communities providing application assistance to families. We advertised in local and ethnic media, leveraged social and new media, posted ads in multiple languages on LinkNYC terminals, and in high-traffic small businesses. We hosted a 2K jingle contest with celebrity judges Cardi B and Lin-Manuel Miranda to bring attention to the program, and we ran a 2K for 2K race in Inwood.

We are grateful to the many councilmembers who partnered with us on events and helped spread the word to their communities. In total, we received more than 5,700 applications for the first 2,000 2K seats. This overwhelming demand demonstrates why we need to move with urgency to continue expanding access to care. In August, we made just over 2,000 2K offers to families who had applied.

The majority of families who received a 2K offer were given an offer to one of their top choices. 99% of families received an offer to a program choice that they had listed on their application, and among applicants who received offers, 82% received an offer to their— one of their top 3 choices, and 59% received an offer to their top choice.

Families who did not receive an offer were automatically placed on waitlists for any programs they applied to and were also encouraged to explore other program options and add themselves to those waitlists as well. Since August, we have also seen hundreds of additional families who did not originally apply to 2K add themselves to program waitlists. On September 10th, the whole city was watching as our first 2,002-year-olds walked into their classrooms and programs, to begin a year of learning, play, and growth.

There is much to learn from this first cohort of 2K children and providers. We know that we will take valuable lessons from year 1 and apply them as we continue to expand and strengthen the program. I will now turn it to my colleague and partner, Deputy Chancellor for Early Childhood Education Erica Phillips, who will speak to how 2K is working on the ground and what's next.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez and Education Chair Dinowitz. and the members of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today about New York City Public Schools' implementation of 2K and our work to expand access to high-quality, affordable early care and education for children and families across New York City. Early childhood education is deeply personal to me.

I'm the daughter and granddaughter of early educators and caregivers, and I've spent more than 20 years working to expand opportunities for young children support families, and strengthen early childhood systems. Before joining New York City Public Schools, I served as the executive director of the National Association for Family Child Care, and before that, I spent 8 years at All Our Kin working closely with family child care educators here in New York City.

I bring those experiences with me to New York City Public Schools, along with a belief that has guided my work throughout my career: expanding access and ensuring quality must go hand in hand. Families need affordable care they can count on. Children deserve environments tailored to the ways that they learn and develop, and our educators and providers need strong support systems behind them.

My focus is on building on the work already underway, enhancing the systems and partnerships that will continue to support the growth of 2K while improving our early childhood system more broadly. 2K expands access to affordable child care while providing young children with nurturing, engaging environments during a critical period of their development. For families, it means greater access to high-quality, affordable care that supports their 2-year-old's learning and development while giving families care that they rely on. 2-year-olds learn through play, exploration, relationships, and routines that support their development.

They build language through books, songs, and conversations. They develop early problem-solving skills through hands-on experiences and learn to communicate their needs, build relationships with other children, and become increasingly independent. Learning happens throughout the day, including through everyday interactions and routines that help children feel secure, build confidence, and develop strong relationships with the adults who care for them.

New York City's mixed delivery system is central to how we are approaching the expansion of 2K. It allows us to build on the capacity and expertise that already exists across community-based organizations and family child care programs while offering families meaningful choices in how and where their children receive care. Family child care is a significant part of our 2K strategy, with approximately 60% of 2K seats offered in home-based settings through our family child care networks.

For 2-year-olds in particular, family child care can offer continuity, close and consistent relationships with caregivers, mixed-age experience, and care that is responsive to the needs of both children and families. I have spent much of my career working with family child care educators in New York City and nationally, and I know both the value they bring to an early childhood system and what it takes to support them well.

Our family child care networks play an important role in that work, connecting providers with instructional support, coaching, family services, and operational assistance while preserving the strengths of home-based care. As we plan for the continued growth of 2K, we want to build on the strengths of our mixed delivery system and ensure that family child care and our community-based organizations remain a meaningful part of that growth.

That means continuing to engage with providers, and with family child care networks as partners while ensuring that the additional supporting efforts we engage in reflect the realities of delivering high-quality care in home-based settings. Launching 2K on an accelerated timeline required significant coordination across New York City Public Schools, city agencies, and our provider partners. In the months leading up to the start of the school year, teams worked closely with programs, in respect to our site and our program readiness, enrollment, contracting, budgets, and other operational requirements involved in bringing new 2K seats online.

We also know that contracting and payment delays created real challenges for some providers as they prepared to begin services. The City took steps to help programs manage those immediate pressures while contracts and payments move forward, including providing access to interest-free bridge financing through the returnable grant fund. Teams across New York City Public Schools and city government have continued to work to address outstanding contracting and payment issues.

We have made significant progress and we will continue to prioritize those efforts until all 2K contracts have been registered— until all contracts have been registered. We are also focused on supporting strong and consistent implementation across the mixed delivery system. Our teams are in close contact with our programs and our family child care networks, providing ongoing support and responding quickly when financial, operational, or programmatic needs arise.

That close engagement allows us to identify challenges early, connect programs to the support that they need, and coordinate across New York City public schools and city agencies when issues require a broader response. As we support implementation this year, we are also preparing for the next phase of 2K. The program launched this fall with 2,000 seats across 5 school districts and will grow to serve 12,000 children across all 5 boroughs in fall of 2027.

Expansion at this scale requires the capacity and infrastructure to support it. That means improving how we enroll and connect families to programs, how we support providers, and educators and how we manage critical operational functions such as contracting, procurement, and payments. Some of this work is specific to 2K, but much of this is about strengthening the systems that support early childhood programs more broadly.

To support that work, New York City Public Schools is hiring an additional 200 employees across early childhood and other agency offices. Many of the systems our programs depend on go beyond the division, and building this capacity will allow us to deepen our coordination, address longstanding operational challenges, and better support a growing early childhood system. As we prepare for continued expansion, we need to make sure the systems behind 2K grow stronger along with the program.

We are not only preparing to serve more children, we are building the capacity to connect families to those opportunities and support quality consistently across a much larger system. That work is closely connected to provider sustainability. Our ability to expand 2K depends on a strong network of community-based organizations and family child care programs that can continue to deliver high-quality care for children and families.

The challenges with contracting and payments this year reinforce the importance of improving systems that providers rely on. Timely and predictable funding is critical, but so are clear communication, early planning, consistent guidance, and operational processes that providers can navigate effectively. We know there is work to do in these areas, and these efforts will be an important part of enhancing our early childhood system as we continue to grow.

Partnerships with providers will be critical as we move forward. They bring deep knowledge of the children and families they serve and have firsthand experience with how our policies and processes operate in practice. I have begun visiting programs and speaking directly with providers, and that engagement will be an important part of my work as we continue to strengthen our early childhood system.

As we expand, we also need to be thoughtful about where new capacity is needed and how it fits within the early childhood landscape. Already serving families across the city. Continued growth should broaden access for families while strengthening a strong and sustainable provider network that will undergird the early childhood system as a whole. The launch of TK2K represents a significant expansion of early care and education in New York City, and it's an important step towards the city's broader vision for universal child care.

As we grow from 2,000 seats this year to 12,000 next fall, our responsibility is to ensure that expansion is matched by the quality, capacity, trusting relationships, and infrastructure needed to support it. For families, that means access to high-quality, affordable care that they can count on. For providers, it means stronger and more reliable systems that allow them to focus on serving children and families.

And for New York City Public Schools, it means continuing to strengthen how we support a large and diverse early childhood system while maintaining a clear focus on quality and children's needs. As we continue this work, I am excited about what 2K can mean for New York City's children and families, and I am deeply committed to ensuring that we build the systems and partnerships needed to deliver on that promise.

I look forward to working with our providers, families, city partners, and the council as we prepare for the next phase of expansion. Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I look forward to answering your questions.

Thank you both. Good to see you all both. We— a few of us were celebrating on the mayor's announcement of the child care voucher waitlist, so exciting stuff. Thank you for your testimony. I want to just start by kind of setting the scene For, you know, a few months ago when you all started with the application process, you mentioned 5,700— you all received 5,700 applications.

Can you— were these— how many of these applications came after the main round? So all 5,700 applications were received in the month of June when applications were open, and that is the pool of families from whom we made offers in August. We have seen hundreds of families in addition to those 5,700 add themselves to waitlists since June, and we will have a rolling waitlist process for 2K.

So families, as seats become available during the year, we know that with our youngest kids there can often be mobility as families are making other changes in their lives. We will continue to fill 2K seats if they become available. And you've all continued to also receive applications from families even if they're not from the designated neighborhoods? Correct.

So among the 5,700 applications, we received them from every corner of the city. The families who live in the 5 districts had priority for the program, but the overwhelming interest we saw to us was really just representative again of how significant the demand is for a program like this and why we're committed to expanding with such urgency.

Can you share what was the distribution of applications Did you see a distribution of applications by neighbourhood, including applications after the main round? We don't have the distribution of applications by neighbourhood today. Happy to share that data with council in the future. But again, we did see applications from every part of the city. Okay. Did you find any correlation between 2K applications and the amount of 3K applications submitted in the same school district?

I think we're still looking at some of those patterns, and certainly what we see from year 1 will inform how we think about what demand might look like in year 2. In general, we see, you know, when we look across all of our early childhood programs, our highest application rates are among 4-year-olds for pre-K, followed by 3K, followed by 2K, which generally maps to what we understand about families' preferences for formal childcare.

We also know that this was just the first year of 2K, and so there's more work to do in future years to continue building awareness. That's something we saw with the historic rollout of 3K was that over time applications grew as more and more families both learned about the program and Thank you. How many students are currently enrolled in 2K seats for 2026-2027?

So at this moment, we have over 2,000 children in our 2K program. We will release preliminary 2K enrollment data alongside our broader enrollment reporting in November when we release 3K through 12 enrollment data. And can you share how many 2K students you expect to be enrolled by the end of the calendar year? Because I know Kids turn 2 throughout the year, so maybe they're not all enrolled, but do you have a sense of how many will be— how many you anticipate to be enrolled by the end of the year?

Our goal has always been to serve at least 2,000 children this year, and again, we'll have the data available by the end of the year. For children who are not yet 2, I will note that families who applied and received an offer to 2K were able to do so as long as their child was turning 2 in 2026.

For center-based care, families have to wait until their child's second birthday to start. That's because of the health code. They have to be 24 months to be in that classroom. So those children were given a delayed start date. So if your birthday was November 15th, you can start services immediately thereafter. Children can start services in family child care settings— As long as it's— In a 2K seat prior to 2.

So for children with So for example, for 4th quarter birthdays who received an offer to a family child care setting, they could begin even prior to their 2nd birthday. How many emergent multilingual children are enrolled in 2K? That's not data we have yet, again, as we don't yet have enrollment data finalized. But that will be among the many things we look at to understand who is participating in 2K.

And I think you may have shared this at our hearing last week, but what can you just Can you remind us what are the languages available for instruction at the 2K sites? So we do not have any formal, you know, dual language 2K programs. That said, we know that particularly among our home-based providers, there are many educators serving in 2K programs who serve a language other than English, particularly thinking about neighborhoods like Washington Heights.

We know there are many Spanish-speaking 2K providers and in other communities. reflecting the languages that families in those communities speak. And so that's something during the process when families were exploring programs, they were able to connect with providers and understand what their options might be. Thank you. Curious on the priority taken for families. You mentioned obviously kids that lived in those, the 5 districts had a priority.

Was there any other level of priority if they had siblings that already attended the the center or the space, any other? Yes. So among the children who applied to 2K, you know, similar to our other enrollment processes, families could list many applications on their program. And then with it at— for each individual program, families are sorted into priority groups based on whether they are a continuing student in that program.

So if they had been attending daycare at that site previously, if they have an older sibling enrolled into the program, and if they live in the district. And so we worked through those different priority structures, and all of that was made publicly available to families so that they could understand whether they fit into one of those priority categories for a specific program.

Thank you. Do you have data? It's just 2 questions. Just curious, in the same way that we ask about, you know, parents' first choice, can you share what percent of families received their first choice of a 2K seat? So 59% of families received their first choice first, their top number one choice. 83% received one of their top 3 choices, and 99% of families received a program that was somewhere on their application.

Okay, okay. How many 2K seats are extended day and how many are school day? The majority of our 2K seats are extended day and year. We will have those final numbers when we have our enrollment figures.

Okay. I am going to ask a few more questions, and then I know we have a number of colleagues that have some questions, so then I'll come back. I wanted to ask a little bit about the budget. So let me just— okay. Can you share what the total budget for 2K in FY27, not including the smaller, the Birth to 2 program?

The total budget for FY27 is $73 million. That's the total, and that was— that's the exact amount that's been allocated for the current 2K program? Yes, it is. For just FY27 or FY27 and '28? That is— that $73 million is for this fiscal year, also obviously maps to this school year. That is the funding we received from the state to support the year 1 2K launch.

Year 1, okay. We are projecting that 2K for the 2027-2028 school year, fiscal year '28, that budget will grow to $425 million, which has similarly been committed to by the governor. And that is a proposed expansion of seats are included? Yes, the $425 million will allow us to serve 12,000 children next year, so our 2,000 2K seats that we will have continuity on and an additional 10,000 seats that we plan to expand to next year.

Okay. Does NYCPS— do you all anticipate needing additional funding for this current fiscal year to fulfill the 2K program? We anticipate that we will fully expend all of the funds for the budget and the $73 million for the current year. Okay. So there's no anticipated increase in the November plan? For this year? No, not at this time.

Okay. Can you quickly, and then I'll pass it to my colleagues, can you share a little bit about how you all determine the cost for each provider, essentially, like how you were able to dole out those dollars? Yes, absolutely. So every provider receives essentially a cost per child times the number of children who are in their program.

And the 2K funding structure, those cost per child amounts, were developed based on an analysis of program operating costs, our existing early childhood program models, staffing requirements, program hours, facility costs, and administrative costs. We also looked at how 2K compares to 3K and pre-K in terms of sort of the structural funding cost. So for example, a 2K classroom is smaller in terms of the number of children than a 3K or pre-K classroom in order to maintain healthy and safe ratios.

And so therefore the cost per child is higher because your fixed costs of staff and facilities are the same. We offered this year a sort of flat rate to providers. There are 4 of them. There is a rate for center-based providers offering an extended day and year, a rate for center-based providers offering a school day and year program, a rate for family childcare providers offering an extended day, and the 4th is a rate for family childcare providers offering a school day and year program.

Okay. We also did allow providers who may have demonstrably higher rent or significant other fixed costs that exceed that flat rate to, with evidence, bring that to New York City Public Schools. Overall, this funding structure is really intended to support providers, strengthen the early childhood program across the city, and allow us to expand in a sustainable way.

Thank you. And the flat rates, it sounds like they're broken up into kind of 4 categories, and then depending on like the cost of rent, for example. Are those based on— are the flat rates based on kind of what is that determining factor besides the per student? Is there anything really— is it a different flat rate for a provider in Inwood who's doing extended day in her home versus someone in the Bronx?

The extended— there is no variation by geography, but the extended day and year rate is higher than the school day and year rate, reflecting that those programs offer 10 hours a day, 260 days a year. Versus our school day and year programs are 180 days, 6 hours and 20 minutes. Okay. And then the kind of how were those rates communicated to the providers, I guess?

Do they feel like this is fair compensation? What can you share about those, like that amount? Yeah. So at the time that providers, so for existing providers who already contracted with the city for 3K and pre-K, they were able to express interest in offering 2K through a survey where they demonstrated that they had the capacity to add 2-year-olds to their program.

New providers who did not previously contract with the city completed a request for information and went through multiple phases to demonstrate their readiness to offer 2K. And then at the time that the city was ready to move forward with providers, they communicated the number of seats that that provider would be awarded based on their capacity and demand in their area, and then the rate that the city was offering for those seats.

And then the team at New York City Public Schools has worked with providers to complete their detailed budgets, make sure that they have costs allocated in all the right places. And that's an area where the team continues to work closely with providers and make sure that they have what they need to be able to invoice for services over the course of the year.

And before I pass it over to Councilmember Brewer, can you share what the flat rate for home-based for extended day and school days are? I don't have the rates right in front of me, but we will get those to you. Okay. All right. I look forward to that.

All right. Next up is Councilmember Gale Brewer, followed by Councilmember Riley. Councilmember Santos-Suazo. Thank you very much. First of all, Ms. Phillips, thank you because you answer emails. I was very impressed. I don't know you, but all of a sudden I said, she answers emails at all hours of the day and night. I like that. I went recently to something in East Harlem.

I happened to just pop in. I'm known for showing up everywhere, and I do. I didn't know what the hell the event was. It says something about childcare. It was phenomenal. It was Robin Hood paying for unbelievable development for providers. So my question is, are some of these individuals who are providing part of that program— that program is phenomenal.

So I just was wondering that, because my question is, what are your goals for the development of this program? You've got early language, you've got literacy, you've got school readiness. And so how are you going to know if you're achieving these goals? Obviously with training like that, it would help a lot. So I'm wondering about the training for the teachers and Robin Hood in particular.

Thank you for that question and for witnessing that. Yes, we are working on a lot of different professional development for our teachers and for our staff, you know, within the division, for our educational leaders as we are expanding into 2K. Caring for infants and toddlers is a skill set that we want to make sure that all of our educators have.

So we've worked with Robin Hood. We have a new partnership with Bank Street, which might have been that event that you went— They were there also. Right, that you went to. And so they're providing professional development on the social-emotional learning of toddlers And making sure that our instructional coaches are working directly with our educators. In terms of the assessment and how we're looking at this, we are using an authentic assessment tool called Teaching Strategies GOLD, and we will be using that to assess what— how that classroom is being ran and the type of experience experiences that the young children are receiving.

So the ones who are working now with the 2-year-olds in those districts, they already as teachers have had some kind of training that would mirror what I saw, or not yet? Like, would they pick maybe because they had the training? Absolutely, absolutely, yes. So there are qualifications, including experience working with young children, for all of the staff.

And we know that there are a lot more opportunities and places where we can provide support, particularly around working with children. who might have developmental delays, supporting family engagement. So it's a bit of both. Okay. And then one more question would be, the chair asked about it also, but when you're in 2K, can you get into the same program with 3K?

How does that work? And then, you know, will the next round out have public school spaces or will it still continue to be the nonprofit? So children who are attending 2K, if that program also offers 3K, then yes, they would receive a continuing student priority to stay at that program for next year. Do we know how many have that as opposed to have to reapply somewhere else?

We don't know yet. We don't, you know, we have not yet confirmed all of the different programming and seats that everyone will be offering for next year, but certainly that's something we will look at. Continuity of care is an important value we know for families, for providers, and we will be looking at that as we work with programs to confirm capacity for next year.

Our intention for the long foreseeable future is that 2K will be offered only in community-based settings and family child care homes. We are not looking to place 2K in public schools. And one more question. What are those 200 people going to do, the ones you mentioned? It's a great question. So for the additional staff, that includes many of our field staff who are working directly with the child care program.

Have they started or they're going to? Yes, some have started. So we have hired additional staff in are continuing to actively recruit and hire for those. But we have our instructional coaches, our social workers, our inclusion specialists. Additionally, on the contracting and payment side, we are bringing in additional analysts so that we can facilitate these payments going through in a faster manner.

Last question. The $425,000, does that include just state money, or next year do you need city money? You mentioned this year Just state? The $425 million is just the state money, and that is the funding for us to operationalize the program. So that is the per-child cost to run the program. The costs that the city has incurred and will continue to support are, for example, the 228 staff who we are bringing on.

Those were funded through the preliminary and executive budget last year. So the city is making investments to make sure we have the infrastructure to support the program. And then the program itself is fully funded by those state dollars. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Great. Next we have Councilmember— did I skip some? Oh no, Councilmember Riley and then Santuoso and then Councilmember Joseph. Thank you, Chair. Um, thank you so much for testifying. And as a dad, I'm really, really excited about this program. Um, I think within our office we get a lot of families that are looking for child care providers.

Child care is causing a lot of, you know, Unintentional consequences for families who are trying to take care of their families and stick in affordable New York. So with that being said, I just want to ask questions. You mentioned 200 additional employees to support the expansion. Can you name how many of those positions are specifically dedicated to the 2K program, and how many are dedicated to contracting, procurement, or even providing payments?

Great. The breakdown, so we're looking at across all of those places. We have more positions that are on the instructional side, so the instructional coaches, the social workers, and the inclusion specialists. And it's a relatively smaller proportion, but still a significant investment in our operations. Do we currently have enough qualified family child care providers and community-based organizations to support an expansion from 2,000 to 12,000?

So we are working with our family child care networks and working with them to figure out what providers are in their network, what their ability is to expand to care for more children. So those are active conversations we're having, and as we have more details in terms of where the seats will be needed, what the family need is.

But we do feel confident that in the community there are, you know, providers and seats that we're able to accommodate the expansion. Okay. Proposing going from 2,000 seats to 12,000 seats in fall 2027, what gives you the confidence that the systems that are currently experiencing contracting and payment challenges will be able to successfully handle a sixfold increase in enrollment?

So I'm happy to start and then I'll pass to my colleague. But I, you know, I think some of the payment and contracting delays that we saw this year, you know, as the Mayor has said publicly, are unacceptable and do not represent the way that we as a city believe that we should be working hand in hand with our providers.

So our focus over the last couple months has been both to ensure that every provider had what they needed, that we were working quickly to register contracts and issue interest-free loans for providers who needed funding in the interim. And at the same time, we are building new systems, rebuilding the sort of human capital and systems infrastructure to support this growth.

So the administration has committed to significant procurement reform, increased transparency for providers, and increased timeliness in the processing. And then many of the staff that Deputy Chancellor Phillips has referenced to our coming on board will allow us to ensure more timely contracting and payment actions. And so with all of that and the administration's laser focus on expanding, but expanding in a way that supports providers, we do feel confident about reaching the 12,000 seats.

Okay. And lastly, transitioning from in-home care to in-school care can be a little bit challenging for parents. attest, my son just went to pre-K, and it was really a challenge to get him from not being attached to his mother every time she's dropping him off. So can you just explain the thought process in not having 2K inside of a traditional school setting, just on the record?

So when we look at where families with 2-year-olds often choose to send their children for care, where we, where we see the environments that educators are trained and ready to welcome toddlers. Those are our community-based centers and our family childcare programs. Those are spaces that environmentally are right for 2-year-olds, where we have educators who have been working with toddlers for years and years and have gone through the training and experience to be able to serve them well.

And so we've really focused on expanding 2K in those settings because that is where toddlers in New York City are cared for today. What we are doing essentially is saying rather than families pay out of pocket for that care, the city is stepping in to cover the cost of care, but we want to honor the expertise in those early childhood settings.

Okay. She said the state is covering it now. I would just add on that as we're approaching the end of the year, we will be very intentional with having either pre-K or kindergarten information sessions so that families are able to get exposure to what the new program is. We're working very closely with our school-based colleagues to really support the transition.

Yeah, and I think that's a great idea, just having some form of a blueprint for a parent that after their child has been in the home care provider system, transition them into a traditional school setting will be extremely helpful. Great work. I'm looking forward to this expansion. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. 2K's number one fan right here, Councilmember Riley.

Okay. Thank you for your questions.

Next up we have Councilmember Santos-Suazo, Councilmember Joseph, and Councilmember Felder. Councilmember Santos-Suazo, 2K's future number one fan, hopefully. Thank you both for your testimony and for your work. I hope I have quick questions. First, for future 2K seats, so starting next year and beyond, is the plan still full day, full year? Our plan is to continue with full-day, full-year as the default model, but with the option for providers based on their community need to opt into a school-day and year program if that better fits their community.

And I'm sorry if you said this and I didn't write it down. What percentage was full-day, full-year and what percentage was school? The majority are full-day, full-year. We'll have those final figures when we release them. Okay. You did say that. I'm sorry about that. Is the plan to make it available to all 2-year-olds in the years after next year, or how many— rather, how many anticipate How many 2-year-olds do you anticipate?

Not this coming, next year. Yes. So we, we've stated the 12,000 for next year and with the goal of by 2029 having access for all 2-year-olds. We're in the process of setting the specific targets. Okay. When will you announce the neighborhoods for next year? Very soon. We are working towards finalizing that information because we know that families and providers are eager to be able plan, and we will, of course, brief the council subcommittee before that information is public.

That wasn't a selfish question, by the way. She won't be eligible until the following year, so it's, you know, I'm just saying it's not just me. You mentioned that there was a waitlist, I believe, and so how are you going to roll the waitlist into next year's applications? What's the plan there? So families who applied to 2K were added to the waitlist under a few different circumstances, and they are program-specific waitlists similar to 3K and Pre-K.

So if you're a family who applied to 2K and you got your 4th choice on your application, you were automatically placed on the waitlist for your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices. I see. If you applied to 2K and you did not get an offer at all, unfortunately, you were automatically placed on the waitlist for every program you applied to.

And additionally, families who've subsequently sort of expressed interest in 2K can do so by adding themselves to program waitlists. Those waitlists will remain open year-round. So as a program has a vacancy, they go to that waitlist and they can call through families in the order they are on the waitlist to offer them a spot on the spot.

For next year, the children who were eligible for 2K this year will all be eligible for 3K next year. And 3K as a fully universal program we can accommodate all children who apply. So all of those families will be able to get a 3K seat next year. Okay. I'm curious about the size of the providers that were contracted this year.

So do you have data around how many are single-location providers versus a larger provider that might have multiple locations? I don't know that we have that data yet available, but we do have a really diverse mix of providers. We have as you heard, many, many home-based providers who may be serving just a couple of 2K children alongside their other mixed-age enrollments.

And then we have single-site providers, independent organizations who are serving a classroom or 2 of 2K. And then we do have larger providers who have multiple locations across the city who are serving 2K children in the locations inside the districts. Okay. And so do you have the data around how many were existing Sorry, had existing contracts with the city versus brand new providers via the 2K program?

The majority of providers were previously working with the city to offer 3K and pre-K. We did see a smaller number of providers who opted through the RFI to newly contract with the city. Okay. I would love to see data as far as how many seats were in multiple network, multiple providers, home-based, center-based, et cetera, as a breakdown when possible.

But I know you said November for that, right? Yes, that's when we'll have preliminary enrollment data to share. Okay. Can you speak to the decision this year to not include Staten Island? We were obviously limited with only 2,000 seats to where we could go, and when selecting districts, our goal was to be able to serve as many children as possible in each of those districts so that we could really fully meet demand.

With Staten Island being one school district for the entire borough, And with our relatively limited timeline to roll out 2K this year, we, you know, wanted to make sure that we had sufficient provider readiness and felt we needed more time to be able to roll out to Staten Island in a way where we could really serve all families.

We also saw this year that we had continued unmet 3K demand on Staten Island, and that had been a real persistent challenge for families in certain parts of the island. So in addition to our 2K expansion for this fall, we also added more than 2,000 new 3K seats across certain priority zip codes, which included significant parts of Staten Island.

And with that investment in capacity, we feel more ready to bring 2K to Staten Island next year.

Chair, could I just have one more question and then I will get out of your hair? Okay. I guess when we're talking about additional staff, and I don't know if you share this perspective, but it does feel like some of the payments and the permitting get held up in agencies that are not DOE, for instance within DOH.

And so I'm wondering if there's a plan moving forward to not only boost the capacity of DOE in order to do these payments and to administer these contracts effectively, but also in the organizations that are part of the permitting process, DOH specifically. Yes, so a big part of the function of my office, the Mayor's Office of Child Care, is to make sure that we are coordinating across all of the different agencies that touch child care so that we can ensure a more seamless experience for providers.

So a big part of our focus this year has been on just enhancing that coordination, making processes easier for providers, including with the launch of our permitting portal earlier this year, which we had the chance to demo for the subcommittee. We did assess staffing needs at the Department of Health and made sure they had sufficient capacity to inspect sites. to complete background checks for staff.

We had a relatively small number of programs coming into 2K that had new permits this year. Right. Just because given the short timeline, we primarily focused on bringing in providers who were already permitted to serve 2-year-olds. As we expand further, we do anticipate, you know, bringing programs in that are opening for the first time or doing some sort of permit amendment to add 2K capacity.

And so we will be closely monitoring the Department of Health's capacity as well as our other agency partners. Yeah, I only say it because I had 2— they weren't 2K programs, obviously, they were preschools, but I had 2 preschools that were completely held up by DOH with re-permitting, re-inspection issues that ultimately they couldn't get their payments because they weren't cleared from DOH.

And I felt that the DOE was doing what they could have, but DOH was really lagging behind. And as we talk about an expansion, I just feel like that is probably going to happen over and over again if it's not Yes, and I think for, for us it is both a matter of ensuring the agencies have sufficient capacity and ensuring that the agencies are properly coordinating, which is work that we have been doing over the past couple months and will start even earlier next year ahead of the launch of school, given that we will have many new seats coming online.

Understood. Thank you both. Thanks for your work. Thank you, Councilmember.

Next we have Councilmember Joseph, followed by Councilmember Felder. Thank you, Chair. Thank you both for your testimony. I have a couple of questions around workforce. ECE workforce must double for universal childcare. How is the administration approaching workforce development and expansion? So first, we must recognize there is no universal childcare without the childcare workforce, and this has to be an area of focus for us as we grow access to care in the city.

So we will be taking, you know, a multi-pronged approach, looking at ways to bring new people into the early childhood field, working with our partners in higher education to make it easier for folks who want to be in early childhood to get the necessary training and credentials, and then supporting our incumbent educators who may be interested in going back to school or gaining the skills and credentials to move from an assistant teacher to a lead teacher or just to be able to build their practice.

Last week, the administration announced, along with CUNY, an expansion of early childhood apprenticeship programs, which is one of many strategies we will need to take in order to grow the workforce. So now we're going to talk about the real thing, right? What are the plans to address pay inequities between home-based CBOs and DOE educators, right? We want to expand the workforce.

That's beautiful. We want to sustain that workforce. That's great. But how do you keep folks working in this city when we talk about affordability? Yeah, absolutely. And we know this is a big priority for us. We know that wage equity is something we must address in the early childhood sector in order to support our early childhood educators and ensure they can raise their families and live and thrive here in the city.

We have seen these inequities in place for many, many decades. So this is not a new problem, but it is a problem we know we must address. head-on. I know we've discussed with you as a subcommittee, and it's something we will be actively working to address. And we want to be a partner in that work, right? We want to be a partner in how do we stabilize that workforce and allow folks to work here.

My next question, I know Chair touched on it, how are you coordinating with students who are special needs in the 2K? Because, you know, an early intervention, because that falls on you. Wherever the gap of service doesn't happen, it falls on you. So where, where are we? How many providers do you have in related services? And how are parents letting— are you letting parents know?

And if a child does not come in with their IFSPs, are you also helping parents get them? That's a, that's a great question. As we prepared for the expansion of 2K, that was a place where the team spent a considerable amount of time because It is different for 2-year-olds than it is how we support 3-year-olds and their families.

So every training, every program received training in how to provide resources and referrals to families who might be experiencing some questions or some wanting to look at their child's development. So we made sure that we worked with EI at the Department of Health. That's another partnership that we have to have with them to— To make sure that all of our programs understood what that process would be and how they can support a child who might be receiving early intervention services or who might be a candidate for that.

We have inclusion specialists who are certified special education teachers who go out to all of the programs and are available to push in to provide any consultation to teachers and programs who want support with families. In terms of sort of the specific information, that is confidential between the family and DOHMH and their providers of intervention and early intervention services.

However, you know, we are letting them know that our team is there to provide support if they have any families who are saying that they need that. So far, I mean, the year is very early, we have not received any specific requests for specific children, but it was, you know, training and information that we really front-loaded as we, we went into the year.

And parents know that this is available to them because the EI system is not seamless. There's usually— when we pass them off from EI, there's a dark hole. Sometimes our children with special needs get lost in that. We saw that when I first came into office. We had almost 12,000 students at home that did not have a seat.

So we need to clear that backlog and that waitlist for students to— is there a system in place for school-based when you do HILS, you know, the HILS form when you go into regular public school? Is that available to providers as well also to capture that language that Chair was talking about? So we do do family surveys where we are asking for their home language and other information that the program would need in order to best meet the needs of their children.

And that is information that we'll be collecting as we go through our enrollment process. And you'll be able to capture that data and share it with the committee. Chair, I have— Go for it. Go for it? Thank you. What role is CUNY's early childhood and teacher education program playing in the workforce? Are there credential pathways, tuition support, apprenticeship for current assistants who want to become lead teachers?

You talked about that briefly, but what does that partnership really look like? As I'm the chair of the higher education I have not seen none of you come before me and ask, how can we partner with the council to make this happen? Yeah, we are in very active conversation with many parts of CUNY, with the CUNY Professional Development Institute, with individual campuses who have early childhood programs, and looking at different models they already offer, looking at how we can make those more affordable.

We know that fees can often be an issue for prospective students. We are looking at ways we can offer coursework at different times of day, in different languages, in ways that better meet the needs of the prospective and current early childhood workforce. We have already made a commitment to expand apprenticeships, and we will continue to look at that.

So I think this is something where in the next coming months, over the course of this next budget season, you will hear more from us. But we did put $2 million, $2.5 million into that pot to make sure that that this is happening. So we'd love to further do that. Are CUNY students, student parents, outreach in the 2K?

Because sometimes childcare is a barrier why some moms don't go back to college or higher education. Yes, and the city does partner with many of the CUNY childcare programs to offer 3K, pre-K, and now 2K. So that is a population that we absolutely work with when we were doing outreach in the month of June when applications were open.

We did work with CUNY to get the word out to their students about the availability of 2K in the community. Thank you. And 2K for students in shelters and students in foster care, talk to me about that. So those are areas where we, again, during our outreach in the month of June when applications were open, partnered with our agency partners who work closely with children in shelter and children in foster care to make sure that they knew about 2K.

This is an area where we can always do more. And so it is going to be a focus for us as we continue to expand, building out those partnerships with shelter providers and others so that these children are finding their way to 2K programs. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair. Councilmember Felder, you are up next.

Thank you. It is going to be quick. So I just— I don't have a question for you here, but I wanted to second Councilmember Brewer's statement about sending you emails and getting responses. So any questions that I have, that's wonderful. And I just wanted to say that the last time that I can remember that there was any form of communication, it doesn't mean that we get what we want, all the time, but that somebody's going to answer, even if somebody says no.

That's also appreciated. The last time that I can remember was during the Bloomberg administration. And that was the story. I mean, we just couldn't get an answer. So I'm delighted and really appreciate it very, very much. And I mean, we shouldn't have to appreciate getting an answer, but it's really a wonderful change, and I look forward to continue getting an answer.

Yeah. Thank you. And we thank you for your partnership as well.

Also, I just want to make sure I recognize on the record Councilmember Joseph. I called on her, but I didn't recognize her. My apologies. A little backwards today. Okay. Can I just— D.C., can I just ask for you to clarify on the students living in temporary housing? I'm not sure. I know that Councilmember Joseph had raised that question.

Do you have a sense of how many of the children that are enrolled in the 2K program are in temporary housing right now? Similarly, that will be data that we will be able to share when we share our enrollment numbers with the other grades. Okay, and then I guess, are you all thinking about transportation challenges for any of these families?

Is there a thought or a conversation around OmniCards to folks in 2K? Obviously yes, but 3K and pre-K as well for access? So if a child has an IEP or has a special reason for transportation, then we are working very closely with our Transportation Division to make sure that the, the child and the family are getting the resources that they need.

I know that they've— we've been prioritizing the communities, families who are unhoused, and making sure that they are receiving the support that they need from a transportation perspective. There, um, thank you. And is there information available for families about their ability to access the transportation team, how readily available and how easy is that for families who are for the first time going through the MySchools process and who have this need but not really sure how to navigate or where to put this information?

We do try to make sure that that information is available and in multiple languages that families speak. Additionally, we are having— we're in communication with the programs to make sure that they also can answer the questions Because they are often the first point of contact that a family will go to. So that's, you know, the information is available and, you know, we're especially as this expansion is happening, looking for ways that we can make sure that that information is even clearer.

Thank you. Back on the provider designation, were there any providers that were initially offered a contract or, you know, a next step in the process and for whatever reason just rescinded, or is every single provider kind of in that first round currently contracted? There are some providers who initially expressed interest in 2K and then subsequently decided not to participate, often because of their own planning for the year and whether they had, you know, changed their minds essentially about whether offering 2K was the right thing for them this year.

I will acknowledge it was a really short turnaround time given that we announced 2K in January began working with providers in the spring. And so for some providers, that was just too quickly— too quick a turnaround time to be able to be ready to offer 2K this fall. And we hope to come back to many of those folks in the future.

Thank you. Okay. During the initial round of offers, just offers, not enrollment to families for 2K, I believe DOE sent out a little over 2,100 offers to families. Can— oh, is there— it is the council's understanding that beyond the 2,000 and some odd offers that were sent out in the first round, there are additional 2K seats for the current school year.

Can you all speak to those additional 2K seats? So there were 2,018 offers made on offer day, and we have continued to add 2K seats, particularly among family child care providers who were still in the process of affiliating with a network and so had not yet come in by the time the application launched. We will have those final seat count numbers as part of the enrollment reporting later this fall.

Okay. And so those additional seats, because I think for the longest time we've been hearing, when the application process started, we were hearing 2K seats for 2K, right? These are additional seats. The $73 million that we discussed at the top, Those cover those additional seats. There were no additional dollars needed for these additional seats? So there were no additional dollars needed, but the slight nuance is that we, in addition to the seats that we added for 2K, we had previously existing capacity for toddlers in some of these communities, seats that had been means tested, that had been paid for by the Child Care Block Grant, or seats that had been previously funded by our Head Start grant and had been converted to the city transitional dollars.

As part of expanding 2K, we looked at the existing 2-year-old capacity that the city already had contracted in these districts and converted those from having been means tested to now being fully free as well. And so that is how we have ended up with just above 2,000 seats. The 2,000 that we had committed to is what we were able to create newly with the $73 million.

Okay. So the budget was still— Yeah. No budget change. Okay.

I had a question about how providers were able to enroll in the system. I know in earlier iterations of childcare programs, providers were able to enroll on-site. Can you all speak to the decision for a centralized enrollment process for, or application process for 2K? So the centralized application process, which we've had in place for 3K and pre-K for many, many years, is something that we value because it allows families to apply to all their programs in one place as opposed families having to go navigate multiple different processes.

It's also a mechanism for providers to be able to access perhaps a larger pool of students because families who may not have known about them are able to find them through the application process. Given that that is the system we have in place for 3K and pre-K, we built the 2K application on top of that into the same MySchools interface.

We are continuing to look at how families, particularly for their youngest children, interact with this system and how it works for providers and where There may be, you know, systemic challenges we need to address in the future, knowing that families are used to different kinds of processes for a 2-year-old versus a kindergartner. So it's something we'll continue to look at to make sure that families and providers are supported through the process.

But we do believe that a centralized enrollment system, you know, when— is a mechanism for us to be able to meet the maximum amount of family need and to support all providers. to find and access enrollments. I've heard from a lot of providers and some parents who— parents who like being able to walk in and apply on-site.

And I know that there's debate on what constitutes applying on-site using the site. I think we're clear that when providers are saying that, they mean that they have the ability to do the application process and select. But there has been a good amount of advocacy for on-site enrollment. Is that something that you are all like looking at for the continued expansion of 2K and universal.

I think there's a lot of merit for a lot of these providers to be able to register and to do the application process for folks onsite. As you said, obviously families, if they walk into a program, the program can absolutely help them complete the application. We see that as a really strong way for families to be able to get the support they need.

To your question about onsite enrollment, I think there are many, many sort of points during this year where we'll be gathering feedback from providers and families about how 2K is working for them. And we wanna make sure that family and provider input certainly informs our future decision-making. So we'll continue to gather that feedback about how the enrollment process is and is not working.

Were there any known challenges in the enrollment selection, like in the enrollment process that you heard from I think, you know, we continue to see families who express interest in 2K after the application process is closed, which is where our waitlists come in. We made a different decision for 2K than, than for our older grades as it pertains to waitlists.

So for 3K, Pre-K, and kindergarten, the waitlist process is only open in September. For 2K, we are keeping waitlists open year-round to support the fact that enrollment looks different for 2K. And I think that's a really important point. Okay. And then I just wanted to ask a data question on the additional 2K seats because you mentioned that some had to be transitioned because of the block grants, for example.

Do you have those numbers of how many of the additional seats were from some of these programs? I think we will have the final seat count numbers when we have the enrollment data ready to report. Okay. So just to be clear, I'm asking for the additional seats, how many of them were from formerly means-tested seats now converted to universal?

Yes. And that's data we'll be able to provide once we have the final enrollment counts. Okay.

Next, I want to ask— this is kind of a big one and we spent some time on it in the past. And I think a little bit of it, a little bit of it Councilmember Santoso had raised. The concern that I have had and shared with the city expanding a program, and right now the 2K, 2,000 seats, as I am clear, are both home-based and center-based, but only for network providers, right?

So that is, I'm Jennifer and I am my own provider in my home, but I am a part of Kayla's network, right? That is exclusively how the system is working today. We have a good population of providers who are running their own business that I think, based on feedback, have had mixed feedback— mixed experiences with networks. Either they've called networks up themselves saying they're interested and networks have said, we cannot take on a new provider, or they've made the determination that it just doesn't work for their model.

Some networks charge them, right? And then some providers Like the flexibility. And I truly don't think that we can get to a universal system, or let alone a 2K expansion system, if we're not including those providers. They are in boroughs like in Brooklyn and Queens. We depend on those. In areas where there are legitimate deserts, we depend on these providers.

How are you all looking at these providers, these individual businesses, and including them in this 2K process, in the universal process? I just don't think that there is a universal successful system without these providers. Right. So I, you know, the first thing is the importance of family child care to the system and that we have to bring on our family child care providers along with us.

And I do just want to take a step back and, you know, share the importance of the networks as they were envisioned, as they were designed they are supposed to be a support system for family child care providers to provide a community support with working with children, you know, in mixed age, some of the administrative support pieces.

And, you know, we know that the networks have different services, different ways and consistency of how they're working with providers. One thing I will say, they should not be charging providers for affiliating in order to participate in the early childhood programs. We are really pushing— It does happen though. We are really pushing to ramp up our support for the family child care networks and opening up lines of communication directly with the family child care providers who have a lot of feedback to help us understand What options will work?

How can we look at our system? How do we continue to really, you know, support this idea of networks as a benefit? But we also do know that we need to see where there are areas for flexibility. So we'll continue to talk with both the networks and providers as we are planning for the expansion. Have you heard from any networks that you are all contracted with about a surge in interest from providers wanting to be a part of the network?

And kind of what has their capacity been to start that process? Yes, yes, we have. And so they want to work with us to figure out, you know, what expansion will look like. And we're having ongoing conversations with them about that. I think this is a place where they're asking for additional support, additional guidance in what type of— what expansion would look like and how they could bring in additional providers who have expressed interests.

So that's a place where we think that we can provide support as we're continuing to expand. How do you have a sense of how many networks are contracted right now with 2, 3, and pre-K? With how many networks we have right now? So we have over 40 networks that we are working with right now across all of the 2K, 3K, and pre-K.

That includes Staten Island? That does include Staten Island, yes. I'm just— what kind of support— I know you're in like the preliminary, right? But what kind of support, let's say for the pre-K expansion or 3K expansion, what kind of support existed for networks and what are you all looking at for 2K? So the support I would say in, you know, 2 buckets.

We are providing professional development to the educational directors of the family child care networks. And so, you know, their usage of the creative curriculum and other— the curriculum pathways program to make sure that they understand what programs are available and how to best coach and support family child care providers. In addition to that, we are also providing clarification around policies, connection to resources for the networks who are then sharing this with their providers.

I mean, they have access to a translation hotline that the network or through the network the provider is able to access. And our team is working with them around their budgets and what flexibility there is to make sure that if there are additional resources that they need, that we have those. I also think there's just a community that other network directors are, you know, we're able to support so that they're learning from each other as well as our team is providing that support.

And is the idea or the hope in this kind of continued rollout is that more provider, home-based providers, for example, will be a part of the network or that there will just be more networks online? Our hope is that more providers are a part of the networks. I think some of those details in terms of how many networks and, you know, how many providers per networks are things that we are going to be projecting out once we have more clarity on what— where the expansion is going to be and what the need is.

Okay. Well, I'm— I look forward to this continued conversation. I think it's something that's very important. We've heard from a number of advocates, and so we want to make sure that we're kind of collaborating on this and making sure that we're including them.

My next series of questions Sorry. Can you— I think you shared at the top the kind of the consideration for the 5 districts. I'm clear on the Staten Island, although I may re-ask the question, but can you give us a little bit more on how you all calculated need or priority in these 5 school districts? We looked at economic need based on the Economic Need Index, which is the measure that New York Public Schools uses to look at a kind of composite measure of child poverty in each area.

We also looked at where communities did and did not already have access to free or subsidized care for toddlers, recognizing that in some communities families did already have some access and in others the gap was much more significant. And those were the only— That was how we looked at economic need as a factor, and then we also looked closely at provider readiness because, again, given the short timeline for expansion, we wanted to go to communities where we felt there would be sufficient already licensed childcare capacity to meet demand.

It was not a perfect science. I think there were many ways we could have gone about this, but we needed to start somewhere with the goal of then obviously expanding as quickly as we can to more and more communities. Thank you. And can you share— Would you be able to share how many seats were offered in each district?

I'm just trying to figure out how you all made that difficult decision considering there were 5,700 applicants of how many seats would be allotted to these particular school districts. Yep. The seat allotment by district was based on our anticipation of demand in each of those districts, looking at the number of 2-year-olds, just how many kids were born in 2024, and other data we have on the number of 2-year-olds.

We also looked at historic application and enrollment patterns in 3K and pre-K in each of the communities, and then again looked at provider capacity. So it was not an even split between the 5 districts. These districts are of a very different sort of physical and population scale from each other. District 23 is significantly smaller, for example, than the other 4 districts that we expanded to, just physically.

So the number of seats by district was based on that assessment of anticipated demand and capacity. And then for this next, the 2027-2028 school year, how are you— again, what are the steps you are taking now for 2K expansion into Staten Island? So on Staten Island, we prioritized for school year 2026-27 bringing more capacity online for 3K, which has allowed us to bring additional providers into the contracted system.

Similar to what the team did this past year to expand, we will both look to existing contracted providers who already work with the city as well as new providers to bring them into the program. And particularly, we'll be working with our family child care networks to bring family child care providers on Staten Island into the program. Okay.

Thank you.

And then for just a question on networks, how are networks funded? There is no cost. I guess I don't understand. We provide the funding for the networks for both their administrative costs as well as the childcare costs. So that's baked into the funding. Oh, so that's what you mean when you were saying they should charge? Right. They're not charging the providers.

They should not be charging the providers to participate. Okay. Okay. Enough. Okay. Got it. Can I— I think Councilmember Brewer had raised this question with the— how do I say this— the amount of 2K seats per provider having an established 3K or pre-K seat, right? I think you all said that those were the qualifications essentially that you looked at. for 2K designations, that they were kind of an existing contract already with the city and that maybe some of them already had a 3K or a 0 to 2?

It was a mix. We brought— so the 2K, the folks who are offering 2K this fall, that includes providers who already were working with the city to serve 3K or pre-K. It also includes providers who contracted with the city for the first time. Okay, and I'm certainly encouraged, and as a parent, I'm excited that so many of these 2K seats have extended day or extended year option, non-means, I think that's amazing.

Do you all know if there will be an available 3K seat extended day, extended year for that family in that same program? So, currently, while our default model for 2K is extended day and year, our 3K and pre-K program is still, for the majority of seats, those seats are aligned to the school school calendar. We do have some extended day and year seats in 3K.

We know this is something that many families are looking for, and, and we'll see something we'll continue to look at as we grow the program. I think it's really hard to give somebody something and then take it away next year. And I think for families, um, it is almost impossible to make work arrangements, um, to pick up your child at 2:15, or, you know what I mean, or kind of what to do with the summer.

I know Councilmember Riley and I spoke about this a lot, where there's not a lot of early childhood education programs for the summer. We were both bringing our kids to work often. And so I think it's a challenge. I would really love to understand a little bit deeper how you all are looking at that, or the conversations with the providers, or the conversations with the parents, many who have a 2K seat extended day.

And it's going to be a rude awakening when they learn at the end of the school— at the beginning of the next school year that they're going to have to pick their kid up in the middle of the day. So I would love to continue that conversation. Yeah, can I— I'll pass it over to Councilmember Joseph so I can get my notes together for questions.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I noticed that you partnered with NORC at the University of Chicago on the parent survey. Was CUNY ever considered for this research? And will CUNY be involved since the workforce you're building will be coming from CUNY? Is CUNY being considered for that survey? So the particular survey that you're referencing was actually done by external partners.

So that survey was funded by Robin Hood with a grant to New America, who then partnered with NORC at the University of Chicago to administer that survey. So we are very excited for the forthcoming release of the data from that survey, which will give us for the first time, really clear information about families' childcare needs and preferences.

But that survey was fielded and funded outside of the city. As we think about our future research agenda and the important questions we need to look at around the workforce, around 2K more broadly, we will look to a wide variety of research partners, and we work very closely with many folks at CUNY as we are thinking about those questions.

Thank you. As you continue to capture data to kind of move this system along, I hear a lot of expansion, but are we looking at the system as a whole to assess, to see where you have your gaps, where we've made mistakes? How do we correct it before we expand? Expansion is great. I know parents need this seat, but as an agency, how are you assessing?

Do I have enough educators, enough providers, enough related services? enough of everything to meet the needs of this moment? Are you looking at the system as a whole and evaluating? As an educator, that's what I did. You have to assess and then policy funding will come into play. Talk to me about what are you thinking? Yeah, absolutely.

I think as a city we are trying to balance, balance a few competing factors. From the family perspective, as you said, we cannot do this fast enough. Families are struggling mightily. And we know that the lack of affordable childcare is driving families out of the city and driving them to make impossible choices every day. And so from a family affordability point of view, you know, we cannot go fast enough.

But we know that we have real challenges in the system today. We know that we need as a city to do more to support our early childhood providers and educators. We need to address longstanding gaps in wages and pay and some of the systems issues that you and the other council members have brought up today. So our goal is to do both in parallel.

We are looking closely at systems. We are, as the Deputy Chancellor referenced, really trying to spend more time talking with providers and making sure we're bringing them into these conversations sooner so that way their perspective is informing the ways in which we go about this expansion. And in terms of vacancies, would you be able to send us a breakdown as to where the vacancies exist so we know.

Do you mean in terms of— To support your ECE division. At one point, it was a skeleton at one point until we built it up. And then where are we now and what's the plan to scale it up so we are not— providers are not calling my office to say, I'm not getting paid, I'm going to close the doors, my staff, I missed payroll.

And that's something that's been going on for 4 years. So we have to figure out How do we fix that? Absolutely. That is something that we can share. We're working actively to hire additional staff and address many of the payment issues, as well as making sure that they feel supported in the field working with children. What is the turnaround time when someone applies for a position, and how long does it take for them to get it?

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Chair. Oh, did I cut you off? I'm sorry, girl. Well, I will say I will follow up on that. We are moving as quickly as possible through our hiring processes, and so I will follow up with an answer on that one.

More questions? Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry about that. I wanted to ask on— you mentioned in one of your responses high You mentioned high-quality programming. How can you define high-quality 2K programming, and what are kind of the standards and indicators you are looking at across school-based, center-based, and family child care networks? So when we think about quality for our youngest learners, we are approaching that in a really holistic manner.

The first is thinking about that the environment and the educators who are working with young children. So what support, what qualifications, what experience do they have helps to inform their relationships, their developing secure attachment, and strong emotional— social-emotional development of the child. And so that's one of the first things that we're looking at. Additionally, we do have a robust plan where we are coupling the teaching strategies Gold Authentic Assessments, which aligns with the curriculum that we're using in our 2K programs.

Finally, with our Ages and Stages Developmental Questionnaire to make sure that we are identifying any delays and referring, you know, children for supports as soon as we're able to connect with the families and the children. So it's a really holistic approach to thinking about quality. And, you know, we can report out on, as the year progresses, what we're learning from our 2K sites and how the classrooms as well as, you know, our division is using that to strengthen our support.

Was there any PD for any of the 2K providers in this pilot? Absolutely, yes, yes, that we've— And that was included— was the cost for that included in the $70,000? Yes. So the professional development that our team is providing, that there is some that is included in our budget. In addition, Robin Hood has also worked directly with some of their partners in order to supplement the training that— and coaching that we're providing.

Okay.

So I know I had asked earlier about the contract rates. I do have some of the numbers that were shared in the executive plan, I think. I just want to understand, so for the FCCs, and you can— I don't know if you have these numbers in front of you, Emmy, but for 2K school day, FCC's contract rate was $19,000, a little over $19,000, and for 2K extended day was a little over $29,000.

Do these numbers also include the payment that the FCCNs would be receiving from the DOE? Yes. And the way the rates work for a family child care network is a portion of the rate, the vast majority of it, is for the provider. They cannot alter that rate. That is the standard rate for the provider. And then a smaller portion on a per child basis is what funds the network costs.

Okay. And does that percentage change? That's not a flat percentage for the network, or it is? It is, yeah. So every network— Yes. And we can get those numbers, the exact percentage for you. Okay. Wonderful. And I'm so sorry. I think Councilmember Joseph may have asked this. Can you just reshare the vacancy rate in the early childhood So there are 228 positions that we are currently hiring for.

We can share the specific vacancy rate as a follow-up to the council. Okay. And this— I'm going to ask this and we'll maybe have to follow up, but for Contracts and Procurement Division, are there vacancies? They were a part of the 228 positions. So we are working across the agency to bring in additional staff who are needed.

So the contracting is a place where we can share some detail on that too. Okay. And then just quickly on the— I think the response, the city's response to the contract registration, I want to give you your flowers. I think everyone took it seriously. Everyone was urgent. Everyone wanted to get these contracts registered and payments made. Thank you all.

And I think Councilmember Joseph also mentioned, like, this is an unfortunate issue that also happened 4 years ago, and I'm pretty sure it happened before. So we want to avoid that. Of the staff that was moved from other agencies into the department for the purpose of contract registration, are they still working on contract registration at this point?

The staff who temporarily came over to support the New York City Public Schools team The team have all returned to their home agencies, though within New York City Public Schools, a large number of staff remain focused wholly on making sure that all early childhood provider contracts are registered and that all providers receive their contract advances as soon as those contracts do register.

Okay. And then for the vacancy rate, DC 228, that includes ECE and contracts and procurement. How— what is the Is there a certain amount from the 228 that will be dedicated to contracts and procurement? Yes, we have identified that, and that's things in follow-up. I can get you the specific numbers. Okay. And what is the headcount currently for your division?

The current headcount for my division, I will— we will get that number. Okay. And Emmy, how's the mayor's office? How are we looking? What's headcount over there like? We have a team of 12, and we are fully staffed with 2 people starting in the next month. Okay. All right. Excellent. Okay. And then I just wanted to expand a little bit more on the pipeline.

I think there's been a lot of exciting investments from— significantly from the administration, and more recently, a smaller investment from the council. Can you explain a little bit more kind of what the expectation is on the additional dollars for CUNY's apprenticeship, for example? Like, kind of, it's a 2, 3-year program, I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, but kind of what are we looking like in 4 years?

What do we think that the investment to this apprenticeship will provide online? So the expansion of the apprenticeship program will provide more educators, and we can get those exact figures for you, That alone will not build the workforce out to what we know we need in order to expand childcare. So it's one of multiple levers we know we need to pull.

This is an area we are focused on and excited to brief you and the subcommittee in coming weeks about some of the initiatives and plans we have for the future that we hope to continue to invest in.

Okay. And how soon— obviously some of that money was allocated in the June passing of the budget, how soon are those dollars going to work for this program? The apprenticeship program, those dollars are getting to work right away in expanding the number of apprentices. The New York City Talent, formerly known as the Office of Talent and Workforce Development, is partnering with CUNY PDI to expand the number of apprentices that are at CUNY and working within CUNY programs.

And then they also work closely with the Kennedy Children's Center Which is a program that supports primarily children with developmental delays and disabilities, and they have been the host of early childhood apprenticeships. That program is growing as well. Okay, okay. And is there anything else that you all are doing just with regards to recruitment, or the city is doing, or any of the other agencies kind of really focusing on early childhood education?

And obviously there's a whole teacher shortage, but kind of what are some of those What are some of those examples? So we are broadly working on a workforce recruitment strategy, part of this overall workforce development strategy. Again, look forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks. There is work that has been underway for many years at New York City Public Schools through the Teacher Recruitment Unit to support early childhood educators specifically, both in placing them in school-based programs but also in our community-based organizations.

So they do hiring fairs, they collect resumes, they share those with providers to help support job placement. Thank you. And then for the current 2K providers, I guess, what is the cadence of communication with them? Kind of what are they— I know it's very early on, but are you checking in on them? How is it going for these?

providers? And I just want to plug, Councilmember Riley said he would love to do a site visit if, if allowed, um, to one of these 2K sites. Absolutely, absolutely. We didn't— we'd invite anybody on a site visit. So yes, we are in regular communication with our 2K providers. They have received, in the, in the 2 weeks, um, since the school has started, they've received visits from our team.

Um, we've had our social workers and our instructional coordinators or inclusion specialists at every one of our 2K sites to check on them and see how they're doing, what else they need. I have been to many of— not many, but I've been to several 2K sites since I've joined, and they are excited to be able to welcome families in this way.

It's really a game changer for families. And, you know, there's feedback in ways that we can partner with them in a better way. And so we're collecting all of that feedback and we'll continue to do that. Thank you. Related to Early Head Start and means-tested infant and toddler seats, how many city-funded formerly Early Head Start seats are there currently and what is the breakdown by age?

That is data we can get back to you with the former, the now what are called City Transitional Contracts. Okay. And do these seats still have any eligibility requirements? For the City Transitional seats, we prioritize families who are low income, but they are not— there's not a specific restriction. Okay. And is there any long-term plan for these transitional seats given the launch and the upcoming expansion of 2K?

So we were thrilled earlier this year to be able to provide the funding to ensure continuity for these seats. We know that many of these providers are longstanding, really, really strong providers in their communities who have been serving particularly our lowest-income families for many years. And so we want to make sure we continue to find ways to create continuity for their services.

Okay, great.

And then I just have one more question if no one else has. I just wanted to ask, I know that we've had testimony from providers, from network providers, individual providers, and then some of the, I guess, larger franchise-modeled providers. There's concern for kind of, you know, their level of resource and infrastructure, but I think they also have expressed interest in wanting to be a part of this program.

I know one of the 2 case sites is one of these programs uptown. How are you all thinking about early on the balance of, you know, what you've said, Emmy, is we we need these home-based providers, right? Majority of who are not a part of a franchise, but how are you all thinking about the universal piece? So similar to the folks that are not in a network, but some of these larger networks, how are you all thinking about kind of the equity piece, where they currently are, where I think they'd want to expand?

What can you share with me about how you guys are thinking about it? You know, I think with a mixed delivery system like we have, one of the really important values for us is that we have a really diverse mix of providers because that both represents the diversity of our early childhood educators in New York City and it also meets families' really diverse preferences.

We know that families are interested in really different types of settings for all sorts of reasons and we want to value that. So as we continue to expand We will look at both the providers who already work with the city, who already offer 3K and pre-K, to bring them into the 2K program so we can have that continuity for families.

And then we will create opportunities for new providers to come in as well. In order to deliver universal 2K and ultimately universal childcare, we need everyone. And so we want to create on-ramps for all of our providers to participate. Thank you. And I encourage providers and parents to come and testify because I'm I'm also hopeful that a lot of their feedback will be taken in as you all think about the next RFP.

And I think that there's kind of a lot riding on this design. Can you share anything about just initially at this stage kind of what you all have been hearing as far as like these are pressure points for providers as we— again, not asking you to share anything, but like— What are some of the, what's some of the feedback that you're hearing from providers on like, we would really love to see this in the next RFP?

Absolutely. So as you know, we will be doing a lot of engagement because it is important for the continuity of the birth to 5 system for us to do another RFP. And so some of the things that we have heard are some of the conversation we've had about compensation and making sure that rates are reflecting the costs that providers are sharing with us.

Additionally, there are questions about how we can be flexible as we think about continuity of care in the mix of seats and ages that are needed. How can we be responsive? How can we build in responsiveness to families' needs as those might change over, over the years? You know, we're also looking at flexibility. We talked about the family child care piece of it, and so that's another place where we've received feedback and we'll be looking at that.

Overall, our goal is to be planning ahead, to be in conversation with providers, with families, so that as we do think about what the next phase of this system looks like, we can have, you know, the conversations that that we need to have in order to build a stronger system. And I also wanted to share that I have the number on the current headcount.

So as of October 4th, we had 590 positions or staff. Do you have a sense of— so the 590 plus the 228, is that— was that an existing total from administrations before, or is that an increase? So no, that is not an increase, and all of the 228 positions are not all for our division. That's across NYCPS.

Oh, okay. And so no, it is— we are still rebuilding, and it's hard to have an apples-to-apples comparison because The division over time has had different responsibilities and scopes of area. So this is an initial investment. And, you know, we're looking forward to being able to bring in these additional staff in order to have things move smoother and support the providers and children.

And so is the 590 number that you just shared, is that ECE or that's the entire— That is ECE. Oh, okay. Okay. And would you be able to share maybe later if they're like kind of what the vacancy rate is for ECE? Yes. Okay. Okay. I think we did it for now. Great. I also wanted to make sure that we're being mindful of people's time.

I believe there's a baby here, so I want to make sure that she gets to testify. Thank you all so much for your answers. I look forward to the remaining answers and certainly the November report, and then of course the visit. Give me one second. I'm supposed to say something, right? Yeah. The sergeants are going to move the tables.

So if you could just excuse me. We're just going to give the sergeants a second to move tables. Thank you all. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

I now open the hearing for public testimony. I remind members of the public that this is a government proceeding and that decorum shall be observed at all times. As such, members of the public shall remain silent at all times. The witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify. No video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table.

Further, members of the public may not present audio or video recordings as testimony but may submit transcripts of such recordings to the sergeant-at-arms for inclusion in the hearing— inclusion in the hearing record. If you wish to speak at today's hearing, please fill out an apprenticeship slip with the sergeant-at-arms and wait to be recognized. When recognized, you will have 2 minutes to speak on today's oversight topic and/or legislation.

If you've written a statement or additional written testimony you wish to submit for the record, please provide a copy of that testimony to the sergeant-at-arms. You may also email written testimony to testimony@council.nyc.gov. Thank you. Within 72 hours of this hearing, audio and video recordings will not be accepted. I'm going to call up the first panel. Is it this or this?

All right. Okay. It's call up. I'd like to call up if I can read it, if I can see Allison Liu, Kaylee Ayak from New York United for Children, Nora Moran, UNH. Karen Rogel, Tara Gardner, and Robert Cordero. And can we have you— can we have mom start? Okay, thank you. Whenever you're ready.

Good afternoon. My name is Kaylee Iyar, and I am a parent leader with New Yorkers United for Child Care. My family and I live in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, and joining me here today is my 3-month-old daughter as of today, Prema. Hi. I've lived in New York for 18 years, and I work as a theater and audio producer. I'm currently on parental leave until December.

And once my leave is over, my partner, who works nights as a general manager at a restaurant, and I are going to put together a patchwork of solutions so that we only have to pay for 2 days a week of daycare. And even for those 2 days a week, we anticipate spending more than $12,000 a year on childcare. 5 days a week, we looked into it, would cost at least $36,000 a year in our neighborhood, which is unaffordable for my family.

So 3 days a week, my partner will be taking care of Prema while I'm at work 9 to 5, and then I'll get home and he'll go to work and I'll be solo parenting at night. Like many New Yorkers, we're getting creative to figure out how to make it work, but the solution means we won't spend any time together, the 3 of us as a family.

And I'm anxious about that and the toll it will take on us. But we have been telling ourselves that we just have to do it and figure it out for a year and a half before hopefully 2K is expanded as promised, and then we can have more flexibility with our schedules and our careers. Having free universal 2K for Prema would allow us to take a breath.

It will mean being able to save up for her future education and extracurricular activities. And maybe even dream to save up for a down payment. When I found out that I was pregnant, basically around this time last year, we were so excited, but also worry set in about how to make the math work for our finances. And when we heard Mayor Mumdani announce that 2K free childcare for all of New York City's 2-year-olds was starting, we were able to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

The tens of thousands of dollars that we would have spent on childcare can now go towards building our future. As many people have mentioned, the demand for 2K shows how much New York City families are desperate for this. I am proud to be one of the thousands of parents across New York who've been organizing and speaking up about the cost of childcare over the past few years.

But we need to make sure that 2K stays and expands and that all the childcare workers caring for our 2-year-olds There is no reason that New York families should be struggling and oftentimes going into debt to pay for childcare, while meanwhile the childcare workers are also struggling to afford to live here. I am committed to creating a society for my daughter that prioritizes care and education, where our taxes go towards services that benefit working families and the general public.

It's my hope that the program becomes so ubiquitous and successful that it will be successful that when my daughter and her friends grow up, they can't imagine a New York where great quality universal childcare isn't a fact of life, just like public schools or public libraries. Mm-hmm. The cost of childcare is a nationwide crisis, but New York City has so often been a beacon of courage and innovation for the rest of the country, and I hope we can continue to be an example and lead the way on this issue, starting with expanding 2K for All.

Thank you. you for your time. Thank you, Kaylee, and shout out to the best baby. Thank you for being here.

Um, good afternoon. My name is Allison Liu, and I am a senior organizer for New Yorkers United for Child Care and a Brooklyn mom to a 5-year-old who is a proud grad of universal 3K and pre-K. Yay! Yay! New Yorkers United for Child Care organizes parents and would-be parents across the city to fight for free universal childcare from birth to 5, full day, full year, in every neighborhood.

Watching the landscape of childcare evolve in New York City over the last few years has been absolutely amazing. 2 years ago, I and other parents were fighting to protect 3K and pre-K from cuts. Now New York City has become a pioneering city offering free universal childcare from the age of 2 upwards. I'm so grateful to the members of the City Council, Mayor Momdani, and Governor Hochul for partnering with us to make New York City a place where families with young kids can thrive.

While we have made big strides in providing access to free childcare for parents across the city, childcare costs are still a crisis for too many New Yorkers. Folks with kids under the age of 3, that's when it's hardest for families to find and afford care. Full-time care for a 2-year-old in the city runs an average of $26,000 a year, which is a rent or a mortgage.

A report from the Citizens Committee for Children earlier this year estimated that 90% of New York families with young kids can't afford care, and without— which is an increase from just 2 years ago. The New York City Comptroller has also estimated that a family needs to make $334,000 a year to afford childcare for just one kid, putting the cost of this essential service out of reach for most families in New York.

Thank you. York. As an organizer, I talk with parents who are struggling with steep childcare costs every day. Free universal childcare for 2-year-olds has been nothing short of life-changing for the parents we're in touch with. I'll share just one story of the many I've heard. Before 2K, one of our Bushwick parent leaders, Nancy Keith, didn't think she could afford to have a second child because of the high cost of childcare.

After 2K was announced, she and her family were so elated She is now almost 30 weeks pregnant with her second child. Her dream family is coming true for her. My family also wants to have another kid here in New York City, but we don't know if we can afford it. Before my son turned 3 and got 3K, we had to go into debt to pay for his care.

At one point, we decided to forego our own health insurance to pay for his childcare because we weren't able to take on the additional debt. Thank you. No parent should make a choice— should have to make a choice like this. Sorry. Um, we were able to get out of debt and pay for health insurance when my son entered 3K.

When we learned that we got the free seat we wanted, it was almost a physical relief that we felt lift off of our shoulders. I want everyone to feel that relief earlier than year 3. Thank you. The memory of that time— oh, sorry. No, you can wrap it up. I'm sorry. Um, the memory of that time has stayed with me If we knew we could count on free 2K, it would make it easier for us to consider a second child, but we don't know if 2K will be here in a few years.

It breaks my heart to tell my son that I don't know if he'll get the— thank you— the baby brother or sister that he's been asking for. Every week I hear from families who are making tough decisions just like me in order to raise kids here. The questions we all ask sound like, can I afford to pay rent and childcare bills this month?

Will I be able to afford care for my toddler and my senior parents? Sorry. Um, will I ever be able to pay down my credit card debt if my kids' summer care costs $3,000 a month? Many of these families are leaving the city because they just can't make the childcare costs math work anymore. Families need to know they can depend on 2K.

I would also like to add that families know that our child care workers are absolutely essential, and we want our care workers to be paid a living wage. Let's make sure we can make this happen for all New York families as soon as we can while also taking care of our workers. Thank you. Thank you.

Great. Hi, my name is Nora Moran. I'm the Director of Policy and Advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses. Our members are New York City settlement houses who serve over 8,000 children in early childhood programs each year and have been providing childcare services for almost a century in this city. Our written testimony is a lot more detailed, but wanted to say a couple things.

You know, overall, I think the 2K expansion has been desperately needed. We hear time and time again just how crushing childcare costs are for families, right? Aging down to 2-year-olds is also really positive for settlement houses who strive to create that continuity of care. They want to make sure that if they're serving a child at 3, they can work with them at age 4, age 5.

And so 2K is going to let them do that. It's also— I just want to say extremely positive that the default for this program is a full day, full year. We hear time and time again about how parents that's 6 hours and 20 minutes. Our members can sometimes struggle to fill those seats because that's not the hours of care that families need, and it's not in our members' mission to charge families for care.

They're nonprofits. That's, that's not what they do. And we also know that we can't waste this moment as an opportunity to reform the system for 2K, but also for 3K and pre-K. That infrastructure is really closely linked, and when we're fixing things for 2K, we're going to improve the whole system, and that's good for everybody. So some specifics about what that reform looks like.

We all know these things. It's not surprising, right? Pay parity, specifically for those center-based providers with their DOE, New York City Public School counterparts, as well as significantly increased wages for family child care providers, taking into account their longevity and, you know, work experience. CUNY PDI is a great pay scale to start getting us toward that. We want the city and the state to start embracing and adopting and funding that, right?

Second is informing staffing at New York City public schools. We know that the contracting and payment delays happen because there's not enough staff on the city's end to process that. That's going to make or break this program's success. Reimbursing for the true cost of care. UNH recently released a report that showed that about— there's about a $12,000 gap between what we think program should be funded, what it actually is.

The next RFP is going to be a key chance to reform that. And finally, making sure we're striving toward quality. It was great to hear about how professional development is being taken into account. 2-year-old is different than a 3-year-old is different than a 4-year-old, and making sure that we're providing the coaching and training for staff to serve 2-year-olds in the most developmentally appropriate way.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nora. Thank you, Councilmember Gutierrez and subcommittee. Committee for the opportunity to testify today. As the city builds 2K, we need to think beyond the number of seats that are created. We also need to ask, do families know these opportunities exist? Do they understand what 2K can offer their child? And can they successfully navigate the process to access it?

My name is Karen Rogel, and I'm the director of community programs at Literacy, Inc. and Community, or LINC. And LINC is the backbone organization for Cities First Readers, New York City's only council-funded early literacy initiative. CFR brings together 18 community-based organizations working with children and families from birth through age 5 across all 5 boroughs. Our strength is our reach.

Our partners have deep relationships in different communities, speak different languages, and connect with families in places they already know and trust, such as libraries, health settings, community organizations and family programs, and neighborhood events. Those relationships allow us to do more than hand a parent a flyer or direct them to a website. We can help families understand what 2K is, what their child can gain from early learning, and how to enroll.

So this is especially important for families who are new to New York City, speak languages other than English, or may routinely connect with traditional city outreach. So CFR is not asking the city to create another enrollment system. We are asking the city to leverage an infrastructure that already exists. We already have relationships, we have community presence, and we have the trust.

As 2K expands, we encourage the city to invest not only in seats but in community infrastructure that connects the families to them. Mm-hmm. Because success should not be measured only by how many seats we create, but whether families know about them, understand their value, and can access them. So CFR and our A-Team partners are ready to help you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Karen. Excellent. Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for this opportunity to testify on 2K implementation. My name is Robert Cordero. I'm the Chief Executive Officer of Grand Street Settlement, a 110-year-old community-based nonprofit serving over 20,000 children, families, older adults, and communities. We currently serve 1,461 preschoolers across the Lower East Side, Brooklyn, and the Bronx with 14— with 50-plus family child care providers in our network.

Grant Street supports the city's goal of expanding access to affordable child care through 2K, but as we move from vision to implementation, we need to make sure that we are building a sustainable child care system, not simply adding seats. Every child care seat requires a qualified educator, adequate operating funding, appropriate space, and a provider with the capacity and community relationships to deliver high-quality care.

Grand Street has 3 clear recommendations today. First, invest in the workforce, as you've been discussing. That means competitive wages, compensation parity, retention, tuition-free education, apprenticeships, fellowships, and career pathways that help build the early childhood workforce New York City will need. Second, fund the true cost of care and pay providers on time. Providers cannot sustainably expand while managing inadequate reimbursement, delayed payments, and operating costs that continue to rise.

Third, build 2K through New York City's existing community-based early childhood system. Qualified community-based organizations and family child care providers should be central to the expansion, along with the capital and facilities investments necessary to create new capacity without destabilizing the existing system. We have full detailed recommendations for the council record. Thank you, and I want to personally thank Councilmember Brewer for coming to Ballet Hispanico.

She saw my children perform without knowing it. She was across the room. I saw them. And thank you for investing in another great organization.

Thank you. Now everybody knows that all you have to do is invite Gail Brewer. If it's in Manhattan, she will make it. I said if it's in Manhattan, she'll make it. I wasn't making empty promises. Tara. Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez and members of the subcommittee, and thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding the expansion of 2K in New York City this afternoon.

I am Tara Gardner, a proud Head Start I'm a Head Start graduate and former family child care parent. Woo! And I'm the executive director of the Daycare Council of New York. And we represent nearly 140 nonprofit organizations and 42 providers in Queens through our family child care network. They collectively operate publicly funded child care and early childhood education programs throughout the 5 boroughs for more than 13,000 children.

Our members have decades of experience educating New York City's youngest children, supporting working families, and responding to the needs of the neighborhoods they serve. We are committed to expanding access to high-quality early childhood education, especially for families contending with significant needs. As the city expands the 2K program, we must ensure that organizations operating these seats have the funding, workforce, contracts, and program models necessary to sustain them.

Community-based organizations are ready to partner— to be partners in the expansion, and in our 2026 earlier this year conversations with providers, 87% expressed interest in participating in 2K. At the same time, they have repeatedly cautioned that the existing system has to be stabilized. In our provider discussions, organizations raised meaningful concerns about their ability to staff their programs and receive on-time payments.

Those concerns reflect conditions providers are already experiencing. 74% described recruiting staff as difficult or very difficult, and more than 80% cited issues with low compensation, longer days, and year-round operations. options and competition from public schools. For 2K to grow successfully, the city must learn from seasoned program operators as it designs the next phase of implementation. And that means ensuring that 2K— that the expansion is supported by several core policy conditions.

Contracts and reimbursement levels must reflect the true cost of serving 2-year-olds. Contracts, advances, and payments must be remitted early enough for providers to hire staff, prepare classrooms, and make necessary investments before children arrive. Expansion must make use of existing provider capacity, including currently under-enrolled sites and available classrooms that accommodate 2-day programming, and workforce investments must be sufficient to support the existing workforce and staff new classrooms.

And finally, programs must have adequate resources services, staffing, and supports to serve children with disabilities and developmental needs. Daycare Council looks forward to working with the council, the administration, New York City Public Schools, ACS, anybody— Yeah. And providers across the city to ensure that 2K evolves into a program that provides meaningful access for families while creating sustainable infrastructure for the organizations and educators responsible for delivering it.

And thank you for the opportunity to testify. Thank you.

I have a couple questions, but because I do want baby Prima to just be safe and be home, I wanted to ask you, Kaylee, thank you so much for your beautiful testimony. And I think there are many New Yorkers who dream of having enough resources to put a down payment, for example. The provider that you mentioned where you're doing the math maybe 2 days a week, can you share, is this Is this a center-based or home-based or kind of an informal care situation?

Center-based. Center-based. Okay. And is the 2-day because that is what works for your finances? Exactly, yeah. We looked into 5-day and it was unaffordable. Okay. And Allison, you've been organizing. You've been up in Albany as well. What are New Yorkers United for Child Care, how are you all thinking about A non-election year for the state budget and fighting for universal child care?

Kind of what are those conversations you're having with parents? With parents? Well, they're so excited and so optimistic because of how much we've been able to do over the past few years. I mean, when we first got started, we— my family didn't know if we were going to get a 3K seat. We thought it was going to get cut.

And now we're looking at expansion to younger kids. And, you know, the hope that it's bringing to families is, it's amazing. And truly it has been life-changing for folks. So they're really excited to do more, not just like for themselves. Like all of, some of our parents are getting, like their kids are getting older, but they want their neighbors to stay and their families to stay, especially folks who like are, you know, born and raised here in New York.

They don't know if they can stay here because of the cost. Mm-hmm.

Thank you. And then I wanted to ask the— specifically the networks, UNH, Grand Street Settlement, and of course the Daycare Council, can you share what are conversations that you've had with your team internally about the growth of this program, Aging Down even, but particularly 2K? Obviously, you heard some of the numbers, anticipated numbers for the next year.

I think upwards of 10,000 2-year-olds. How are we coaching? Like, what do you all feel the level of support that maybe the agency, the administration said that they provide? How are you all thinking about or working to like include more providers? What have those conversations been looking like? All right. So just as a— from a provider perspective, we're ready.

You know, the biggest impediments, you know, for especially settlement houses and groups that have been doing this for a long time since the inception of the Head Start program and even before that for many of us is bureaucratic issues. You know, delays right now. We had Emmy visit. She's still— yeah, Emmy visited one of our early Head Start sites.

They're always still here. I got to give them credit. They always stick around. Yeah, you stuck around. They always do. The 1-year-olds are in the classrooms, right? You saw an empty classroom this summer, and that's Early Head Start, you know, and we use a combination of federal Direct Head Start funding with city, what they call the— whatever they call it now, the transitional money that was, right?

And so I think there are many providers with capacity, and the impediments for us have been DOH or an FDNY inspection or those of us that are in NYCHA facilities like we are, for example. The much easier for us, honestly, are in private facilities where we have a landlord, we negotiate a deal, and we can build it out directly to code and get through things much more quickly.

But I think partnerships with the big agencies like NYCHA, like the Department of Building, to be able to really, really streamline this in an interagency way would be so beneficial to providers large and small. It is much, much worse for our home-based family child care providers. They're trying to navigate the bureaucracy. It's easier when they partner with a larger— not that we're better, but a larger with a lot more experience at navigating the bureaucracy and those resources to do that.

So I think that that's a problem that's solvable. That's a bureaucracy problem. Honestly, we've seen a dramatic improvement for us. We were not part of the first round of 2K because it just wasn't in the neighborhoods that we were in yet, but we're ready. Right. And, you know, other than that, we've seen a dramatic improvement, honestly, with this administration and this version of the City Council in payment and procurement. process.

It ain't perfect for everybody, but it was— it's been a nightmare in the past 2 administrations at different times for us. So there is a focus on that that proves that this is a solvable problem that finally has the political will to do that. But from our perspective, anything to streamline the bureaucracy, to let us get these children in their seats.

Parents are desperate to get their kids in. We have space, we have capacity, and we still have other issues we have to address like the workforce pipeline, but that's my plea from the community-based perspective. Thank you. Just one thing I would add to that. It's a little hard to answer the question without knowing the target neighborhoods for the next expansion.

I think once we know that, our providers, you know, we have some that certainly do have some center-based capacity, have a lot of interest in affiliating new providers in their family child care network, but we don't know where the target areas are going to be. So once we have that, I think there's going to be a lot more preparation that will just be able to happen on the provider end to start some of that, right?

Does build-out need to happen for certain spaces, things like that?

That's helpful. And I'll add specifically as it relates to network staff, the compensation issue isn't just with teachers in classrooms. It's across— the network staff is underpaid as well. And when you— excuse me— speak to quality, being able to support providers in their homes, the quality of the staff that you can attract and retain is really, really important.

Someone, I think— Amy Liss and Deputy Chancellor Phillips mentioned earlier Building in flexibility to contracting is also really important. Like, as communities change over the life of a contract, changing contract— contracted seats where providers are is really, really important to the success of an extended-term grant as well— contract as well. Thank you. And then, Karen, my last question is for you.

You also always come and testify, and obviously I'm a big fan of Cities First Readers, the Speaker is, the council is. What is an ideal relationship for you representing LINC, of course, but what is the ideal kind of relationship with the department as we continue to expand into 2K and then universal? Like I mentioned in my testimony, our biggest power is in reach.

And because of the A-Team partners, we reach these families and they're trusted relationships. relationships. So given the opportunity to possibly help with enrollment, to let them know, to provide information, I always say families just don't know what they don't know. And we do have a lot of immigrant families we support who are asking partners or asking us, what is 2K?

What is it about? Do I really need to do it? Yeah. So us being able to provide this information in hospital settings, in libraries and programs, we can support the system with their enrollment. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. And just for— actually, anybody can answer it, but has anyone been in contact with any of the 2K providers that are in the pilot and kind of any feedback that they've shared about the rates that they've been receiving, any of that stuff?

Maybe you, Tara. Take your time. We have a few providers in both our membership and our network who appreciate the increased funding. that comes with the pilot. And for our network, it's been great for our providers. We're probably at— I think the other day was 94% capacity, in large part because of conversion to 2K seats. And that they are extended to extended year by default is the best part, I think, for families.

Excellent. All right. Well, thank you all so much. Oh, sorry, Gail, go ahead. Just very quick. First of all, the New York Post, you should administration should take your comments, bottle it, and send it to the New York Post because I read it every morning and they don't like the mayor. But if they hear you, they might change their mind.

Is the Post here? No. That would have been so helpful. I read it. My question is just the training of the staff. I asked it earlier. I assume that all of this is— the goal is better outcomes come high school and elementary school and so on. So the training of the staff goes with that. But in addition, again, some of you do this, some of you don't.

What is the— I'd like to have any— the city's doing some outcomes. Are you doing any outcomes? How do we keep measuring to show how important early childhood is? Is anybody doing that, or is that something that's just done by the city? And how does that compute with training for the teachers? Well, we're fortunate. The New York Post is going to love what you said.

Yeah, no. Maybe I'll get a little bit more critical now. No. Well, we're a Robin Hood grantee. We're just fortunate. So Robin Hood funds evaluation and impact. So we've been a longtime grantee. So we actually have a system built where all of our early childhood enrolled families, all 1,461 of them, we follow them from the beginning all the way through.

We have Early Head Start, so we're working with pregnant women that can enroll their children, and we should probably talk about Head Start with you, with Mom here, but there are ways to do this. I don't know if it's throughout the whole city. So I think the point is, that's really something that I'm glad that the city's looking at partnering with Robin Hood and CUNY, but there has to be a way with this new initiative of universal childcare expansion to measure it from baseline because many of us were not measuring things back when the War on Poverty started and 61 years ago when we got Head Start.

We were just serving children that were in families in dire need, but the programs that have been measured like Head Start have incredible outcomes, and I hope that the city does that. It's really up to the government to, to do that in partnership with the providers. Because it brings funding too if you show them. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay. This concludes this panel. And I'm just going to call up the next panel. Thank you all so much for your testimony. I have Lara Kriyaku, my apologies, from All Our Kin, Amy Lee, Sarah Wilner, Joy Farina Fosket, Albania Jimenez, and Betty Baez Melo.

You want to start, Albania? Go for it. Thank you. Hello. Thank you, Chair Gutierrez, and the members of the subcommittee. My name is Albania Jiménez. I'm the chief of advocacy and community mobilization at Literacy in Community, or LINC. For 30 years, LINC has worked with families and educators during the years when the foundations for literacy are first built.

Thank you. We are incredibly excited about 2K, but today I want to ask the council to look beyond one measure of success, the number of seats we create. A seat gives a family access. What happens in that seat determines its impact. 2-year-olds are building language, relationships, curiosity, and foundations they will eventually need to read. Every conversation, song, story, and back-and-forth interaction with a trusted adult helps build those foundations.

So as 2K expands, early literacy should be part of how New York City defines quality. That requires investing in the adults around— surrounding each child. Educators and family child care providers need ongoing professional learning and coaching in child development and early literacy. Not just one-time training, and families need to be part of that strategy. Parents are children's first teachers.

What happens in 2K should connect with what happens at home with practical multilingual support that gives families the tools to continue learning through the day. Finally, NYCPS should leverage community organizations like CUSP That already have expertise and trusted relationships with families to help provide these supports. Universal child care can make our city more affordable. Universal literacy can make opportunity more equitable.

2K gives us the chance to advance both. Council should ensure that we measure not only how many 2K seats we create, but the quality and opportunity we create within them. Let's get this right from the beginning. Thank you. Just gold star for enthusiasm. Thank you, Albania. Thank you.

Betty? Thank you for the chance to talk about 2K and the opportunity for the city to build a truly inclusive and accessible program that meets the needs of all children and families. My name is Betty Baez Melo. I'm an attorney and the director of early childhood education at Advocacy for children of New York. We want to congratulate the city and New York City Public Schools on the launch of 2K this September.

We know how meaningful the opportunity is for the 2,000 toddlers and families who are benefiting from the program this year. As 2K expands in the coming years, it's critical that the city create an inclusive program that meets the needs of all toddlers. So we're focusing our limited time today on the inclusion of children with disabilities, as in prior expansions of early childhood education, we've seen them left behind.

And a program cannot be universal unless it meets the needs of children with disabilities. For children ages 3 to 5, New York City Public Schools offers not just 3K and pre-K general education classes, but also more specialized settings with smaller class ratios, more individualized attention, and instruction provided by special education teacher. However, such models do not exist for 2-year-olds.

While many children with disabilities can be supported in their 2K program with the help of existing program staff and coordination with early intervention, it is important to note that EI is only for a fraction of the day and does not ensure that children get the support and accommodations they need to participate in the full-day 2K program. Therefore, while coordination with EI is critical, the city must also consider resources, supports, and program models needed to serve children with more significant disabilities and intensive needs who require specialized care.

We're pleased that the city has made clear that children with disabilities are welcome in all 2K programs and appreciate the work that the city has done so far. As it expands 2K, we encourage it to build on this work and take the following steps: monitor and strengthen current efforts to serve children with disabilities, including processes for requesting evaluations, approving— for requesting and approving accommodations, sorry, and supports, as well as coordination with EI.

Set aside dedicated resources, including for accommodations and supports not covered by early intervention, identify specialists or additional staff who need to be hired to ensure programs can serve children with disabilities. If I may just do more. Leverage the expertise of CBOs that already serve children with disabilities by, for example, encouraging center-based EI and preschool special education programs to apply for 2K— to apply for 2K or contracting with them to support existing providers, and ensure that families are properly matched with programs and sites that are physically accessible for them.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'll be happy to answer questions. Thanks, Betty.

Laura? Hello. Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez, members of the esteemed committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. And in my written testimony, we'll have more details on policy recommendations, including the importance of payment rates that reflect the true cost of care and the dire need for health insurance and retirement benefits for all family child care educators.

I'm Lara Kiriakou, the Senior Director of Policy at All Our Kin, a national organization that provides educational mentorship, professional development, and systems building expertise to family child care educators and stakeholders. In New York City, we offer bilingual services of licensing coaching, business training, and educational coaching. And I would also like to thank Councilmember Brewer for attending our graduation earlier this summer.

That was the event that you mentioned earlier today that was graciously funded by the Robin Hood Foundation. Families who prefer family child care programs often speak of feeling as though their child has a home away from home and deeply value the long-term bonds and connections that educators develop with children and their families, often across multiple generations. We're encouraged by the historic commitments from Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul to expand access and capacity, including this week's announcement of additional funding for 10,000 children from the waitlist.

As the city continues to roll out the 2K program, it is critical to ensure that family child care educators are included in the solutions. Educators continue to have a lot of questions about the 2K implementation and uncertainty if they have the opportunity to participate and whether they will be able to afford to run their program if they are unable to offer 2K seats.

At the moment, only about 20% of all family child care programs are part of a DOE network. Of the approximately 80% of family child care educators who are independent, many cite the desire to control their own enrollment as a key motivator for this decision. Others also cite concerns about contract transparency, inconsistency across networks, and payment delays as further reasons to remain independent.

City leaders have expressed a commitment to a more inclusive system, and we look forward to continuing to work with them closely to support equitable engagement of these educators. If I could just say one more sentence. Everyone has an extra 60 seconds apparently. Please keep going. I just wanted to also highlight that child development research tells us that continuity of care is incredibly important for children, especially the youngest children.

And rather than separate programs by single ages, funding streams must be prepared to support children's care in one setting throughout the early years of life. This allows children the opportunity to benefit from consistent and responsive responsive relationships with early caregivers, which is one of the key markers of a high-quality learning environment. For parents who prefer family child care, they often speak of the close connections with educators that they and their children develop.

And without a continuum of care built into funding models, the system risks undermining one of the most unique and valued qualities of family child care. We greatly appreciate today's opportunity and remain available to ask any— to provide any other additional additional information. Thank you. I'm glad. I'm glad you took your time. That was an excellent closing point.

My daughter's providers are my family now, I tell them. Yes. That's wonderful. Thank you.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez and distinguished council members. Thank you for the opportunity for speaking today. I am here on behalf of PEC, People's Early Childhood Coalition, and we're an advocacy group composed of teachers, instructional coordinators, academia, social workers, and policymakers working across boundaries to really confront the inequitable policies and help transform local early childhood system.

My name is Joy Farina Fosket. I have been an educator for over 20 years. I am currently an advisor for a CBO, so I work with CBOs, with 14 of them. I'm also a professor for secondary education, and I want to just say thank you for the opportunity opportunity, and I really just want to highlight 5 key points that PEC would love to bring to your attention and reiterate the urgency of getting your support on it.

We believe in expanding the access to high-quality early childhood education, as it seems like everyone here does. We believe families having greater access and the need. Our point here is expansion has to include the stability of the CBOs, which I have also heard quite a bit today, and the educators who are already doing that work. CBOs are not a small part of this system.

And when CBOs are financially unstable, this isn't simply a provider problem, it's a system problem. And that kind of goes to the first point of contracting and payments, which again, we have heard quite a bit today, and we ask the City Council to really look beyond solving just maybe this year's crisis and to put in a— or fix the structure that creates this crisis in the first place.

We're asking providers to open the doors, hire qualified teachers, meet payroll, maintain classrooms, comply with health and safety regulations, purchase supplies— I can go on and on— without the funds to do so. So, ensuring that they have the funds before we continue to expand, and having a system in place is critical. The second point was pay parity or wage equity, as we've all discussed.

That is critical, and I would ask as we expand that or embrace that, not to lose the quality with the workers' workforce as well. And then enrollment creates another vulnerability. that the enrollment numbers is what the CBOs are paid on. So there can be half-filled classrooms, so they're not getting their full funding. So that creates another problem.

So stabilizing contracts and payment, establishing true pay parity, creating a sustainable enrollment model where we used to have in the past, and then building the next RFP and— around sustainability from the beginning. And that is another consistent theme I've heard today was from the beginning. And all of this can only be done with trust and transparency. So I am going to end on the importance of trust and transparency because there has been— because of the way it was rolled out, and understandably so, it was quick, it was robust, and was needed.

We need to rebuild trust and transparency together so we can unify. So sometimes we have to slow down to speed up. speed up, and I'll leave it on that. So thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez and members of the council. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak today. My name is Sarah Wilner, and I'm the executive director of Early Starters USA. At Early Starters, we work closely with families who live in housing instability the majority of whom are new New Yorkers who have recently arrived to New York City.

We provide early childhood safe spaces and programming for these families who up until recently have had very little access to any sort of early childhood programming. We believe that it is the right of every child to have access to quality early childhood programming, and we are very encouraged and hopeful by the city's commitment to expand 2K. I do want to make sure that there are 3 points that are— that I'd like to highlight.

First, reaching families through trusted community relationships, as we've all spoken about. Multilingual families and families experiencing housing instability may need additional support to learn about programs and navigate enrollment. Community organizations working with these families can help the city reach them. As we spoke about last week in last week's discussion on multilingual learners, We highlighted the need for access to information and support in different languages, as well as trained staff on culturally appropriate and trauma-informed care.

Second, building the workforce. As many of the council members and panelists have spoken about, many people that we work in our communities have the interest, the language skills, and lived experience to become excellent early childhood educators. But I think that they do need a bridge before entering college or an apprenticeship. especially with the multitude of barriers that they're facing daily.

We have a pre-apprenticeship partnership with Bank Street College of Education. We have 33 mothers who've already graduated the program on emotionally responsive practice and early childhood development. 5 of those are now pursuing their CDA through CUNY SPS and PDI. And we ourselves have hired 19 mothers from the participating group to facilitate our programs. Another 22 women have now just enrolled. in our third cohort.

That's not right. Thanks. I'm almost done. Another 2 women have now enrolled in our third cohort and are excited to be part of the future workforce. Third, ensuring the expansion means quality and not just more seats. 2-year-olds need developmentally appropriate relationship-based programs with educators who understand early childhood, who understand their culture, their language, their individual needs. And we would be glad to share what we have learned from creating responsive trauma-informed early childhood spaces for very young children and families living in housing instability.

Thank you very much. Thank you all.

Laura, I had one question. Also, if you have— for those who have not submitted their testimony, if you can just share when you can the written testimony with the committee. You raise a really good point about the providers who Just maybe have a bad taste in their mouth regarding on-time payments and flexibility. Based on what you heard today from the admin, where do you think providers— do you think that based on the commitment to on-time payments and, you know, a kind of ongoing conversation around wage, where do you think some of these providers will land in the next cycle?

Where do you think— do you think their opinion will change about wanting to be a part of a network, or do they want to remain independent and, you know, kind of figure out the best way to be included in this program? Thank you for the question. I think that especially in this year with our new administration, Emmy, and I'm sure now that D.C.

Phillips is here, there will continue to be a lot of community engagement, and so there's been a lot of efforts to attend educator meetings in the evenings, on the weekends. I've seen them, you know, speaking at any and all events. Mm-hmm. And so I do think that if that can continue and if additional information can be shared transparently and in a timely manner, I think that will help.

I do think there are— will continue to be some educators who will say, this is my business, I started this from the ground up, And I fear that I will lose control of my business or some sort of my agency if I participate with a network. And so I think there will always be educators who are not open to that possibility.

But I do think that many have appreciated the engagement so far. And I think there is still tremendous ability to continue the conversation and the dialogue.

Yeah, thank you. And Betty, I have one question for you. Thank you so much for your advocacy. on behalf of families with special needs. I know at the last hearing you kind of shared where some of those gaps remained. Based on what you heard today on kind of the proposed expansion to 10,000 seats for 2K, for example, is there like an urgent list of program or support where you feel this is absolutely necessary?

I mean, expanding from 2,000 to 10,000 is a lot, is a lot, a lot, lot. It's no longer a pilot. Um, kind of what is your list of urgent, urgent focus on for families with special needs considering this vast expansion? Yeah, so I think to highlight from, from the ones I listed in the testimony would be ensuring that there is a process for providers to be able— when the provider itself cannot meet the needs of a child with a disability, and again, many will be able to support the students with disabilities in their program, but for children with more significant needs, really being able to have, for the provider and the parent, a mechanism to be able to request accommodations, to request additional supports, and to consider whether some of those models that we have for 3K and pre-K might be necessary for 2-year-olds as well, where there may be a more specialized setting, perhaps a smaller class ratio— Okay.

For children with disabilities with experienced staff. or located in programs that have historically served children with disabilities, be that early intervention centers or programs that run preschool special education classes. I love that. Again, this is really focusing on children with the most significant needs. Sure. And for parents of 2-year-olds potentially, how do they need to be prompted to engage in these conversations with their provider?

I know that I think with what I'm most familiar with in 3K and pre-K, obviously, and they've said this, it's different. It could be very different. What are some of those prompts that providers can be on the lookout or that we can just share with parents today about if their 2-year-old is involved, is enrolled in a program, or just in general, kind of what are some of those like questions that we can pose so they can start those conversations with their providers?

Yeah, so some children may come in already having been are already participating in early intervention, and so those families already have been working with developmental providers and service providers in EI, and it's having those providers be able to come serve their child in 2K. But for many families, this is going to be their first time having their child in any type of educational setting or program.

Yeah, that's my concern. And so that's when developmental screenings become really important, and those conversations with families on understanding that children develop differently, understanding where their child is in their stage of development, and that there are additional resources and supports that can help their child meet specific milestones. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you all so much for your testimony.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

I want to call up the next panel. Stephanie Crane, Sejal Koththai. I deeply apologize for mispronouncing that. Sojal, Perry Stein, Stamo Karalazaridis, Camila Farooqi, and then Amy Lee we did not have from the last panel, if Amy Lee is still here. And I very quickly, as I see her escaping the room, I want to acknowledge Simone Hawkins, our former Deputy Chancellor, Thank you for being here.

Bye, darling. Stephanie Crane, Sojal, Sohal Kotai, Perry Stein, Stamo Karalazarides— my apologies— Camila Faruki, and Amy Lee, if we don't have you still. Wonderful. Oh, only 3 made it. Only 3 survived. Thank you all. You can start whenever you're ready. Just— oh, just push the button. Yeah, thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair. Um, today I'll be reading from my testimony, but before I do that, I do want to thank Emmy and D.C. Philip because I am also getting those email responses back at sometimes midnight. So it's a— Send it to the post right now. I love that. That's great. That's beautiful. Very helpful, and we appreciate it.

That's wonderful. So my name is Kamila Farooqi. I'm founder of Manhattan Schoolhouse. We serve about 200 children in Upper East Side and Chelsea area for 3K and UPK. We have— we are a small women-owned program, and we have been raising the standards of early childhood education in New York City for 15 years. I came to this work as a working mother who struggled to find childcare for my own son.

We used patchwork as both my partner and I were full-time workers. I believe in universal childcare with everything I have. I support the expansion to 2K. I'm here today because the providers expected to deliver that expansion are being pushed to the edge of survival, and the committee needs to hear what that looks like from the ground. 2K will stand on— stand or fall on community-based programs.

We are the providers who are providing about 60% of the 3K and UPK. And the 2K expansion cannot succeed without CBOs. Some of the issues, they have been repeated over and over again today. And just like early— we, the early childhood educators, know that repetition creates deep learning and understanding, I will repeat them again. Payment delays. This fall, we nearly couldn't open because of those.

Then pay parity. We train the teachers and we lose them to DOE. Just this summer, we lost about 5 teachers now counting to DOE because of pay parity. Thank you. Frozen rates and the rising cost of childcare. Hiring is impossible in this market, and that goes for teachers, assistant teachers, floaters, and administrators. Regulations written are far from what the ground reality in the classrooms are.

So here's what we think— we recommend to have a successful expansion of 2K. Register contracts before the fiscal year begins with advance payments to providers handed by July, not August, and never September. Pay parity in salary and benefits for CBO educators doing the same work as their DOE counterparts. Annual cost of living adjustments. Timely invoice payments. Smart regulations, not more regulations.

And coordination among DOE, DOH, and ACS so providers are not to— are not the go-betweens between these agencies. Real incentives for providers to open 2K classrooms. Because without them, small and minority-owned women providers will not take these risks. A permanent seat at the table for CBOs.

And there are 2 things that did not come up today that I would like to mention. One is, as we talk about staffing for 2K, 3K, and UPK, we are being hollowed out for infant/toddler programs. Because many of the institutions and all, they are really focused on 2K up, but not really infant/toddler. And that's the struggle we have.

If you're really talking about universal childcare, universal childcare starts from birth. So we have to really think about that. That's true. Secondly, I will also mention one thing. Some of the regulations, I'll give you one example. A director here in New York City needs to have master's with certification, whereas just around the corner in Westchester, that's not the requirement.

So why would many of our professionals are moving out of the city to get these jobs?

So thank you. And once again, thank you. And can you, can you, can you just email that testimony when you have a chance? I've already done that and I will do it again. Okay, wonderful. No, no, no, only one time. Thank you. Next. Good afternoon, Chairperson Gutierrez and members of the Early Childhood Subcommittee. I'm Stamo Karolazouridis, First Vice President of CSA.

Thank you to the council for holding this meeting, and thank you to Mayor Mamdani and Chancellor Samuels for recognizing the financial pressure facing early childhood centers and taking action. The investment in additional staffing, faster contracting, and emergency bridge loans represents meaningful support. We look forward to working together with all the stakeholders to ensure providers receive the funds they need.

These problems predate this administration, but as we expand early childhood education, we must change the conditions that keep producing these problems. As CSAs testified in March, every new classroom adds contracting, budgeting, and payment responsibilities. The city must ensure its administrative capacity grows alongside the programs it promises families. Providers need contracts completed before services begin. Timely advanced payments, clear reimbursement schedules, and reliable contact who can resolve problems before payroll is threatened.

Emergency loans can help centers through a crisis. However, our goal as a system must be one that centers no longer in the need of emergency financing to perform work the city has already agreed to fund. We also need contracts that reflect the actual cost of operating these programs, which include annual cost adjustments and project centers from destabilizing revenue losses when enrollment fluctuates modestly.

Rent and staffing obligations do not disappear because a few seats are temporarily unfilled. Finally, reliable funding must support support a stable workforce. Director and assistant director pay parity remains essential. These leaders supervise instruction, mentor educators, manage compliance, and keep programs functioning through constant change. Expansion depends on retaining their experience. Again, we commend the administration's recent action. Let's build on it so that timely payments, sustainable funding, and supported leadership become the foundation of the universal child care system in New York City.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Gutierrez and members of the subcommittee, for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Sejal Kathari. I am a pediatrician and the program director of Upper Manhattan Early Childhood Connect, UMEC, which is a division of Literacy and community. So a lot of literacy in the community here today. For families, the years before kindergarten bring many questions.

Is my child meeting their developmental milestones? Where can I find support? How does early intervention even work? How do I navigate 2K or pre-K or 3K? Families shouldn't need to become experts in New York City early childhood education systems to get the support that their children need. Yet our city's early childhood landscape can be difficult to parse, particularly for families who are new to New York, speak a language other than English, or are unfamiliar with any of these processes.

For many immigrant families, fear and uncertainty surrounding public institutions creates an additional barrier. UMUC builds a bridge caregivers can cross to get started. Our early childhood ambassadors help families build comfort and understanding in key areas of healthy development, ages 0 to 5, from milestones and early learning resources to EI, CPSE, child care, and 2K to kindergarten readiness.

Ambassadors create a partnership with caregivers. Hand in hand, they make referrals, break down options, assist with complex paperwork, and encourage families to self-advocate and ask key questions. As the city expands 2K, this kind of support needs to be part of the investment. Families do not experience EI, child care, and 2K as separate programs. They experience it all as one journey, their child's journey.

Our systems are obligated to foster that journey. We urge the city to invest in 2K seats and the trusted family engagement that keeps families— that helps families find opportunities, access them effectively, and connect to the library of available services in New York City. Success should be measured not only by how many seats we create, but by whether families can reach these seats and all of their benefits.

Thank you. Thank you all so much for your testimony. Thank you.

Now we're going to move on to our online panelists. We have Lori— Lori Cangiulosi, Zoe Spirazza, and Adrian Bond. Oh, my apologies. I want to call up first Lori Cangiolose. My apologies, Lori, in advance. I'm there. I think it's an admin thing. Let's give it— Okay, yeah, we can wait. Lori, can you hear me? We can always come back.

Okay, we can come back to Lorick. Is Zoe Speranza available on Zoom? You can unmute yourself. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Are you Zoe? Wonderful. Yes, yes, I'm Zoe. Thank you so much. Um, if you'll give me just one moment. Sorry, Zoe, please. Oh, can you hear me? I can totally hear you. Do you want to be off camera?

That's allowed. Yes. Well, I'm gonna actually gonna pull over right now. Okay. Um, thank you. Yeah, no, I don't. You aren't complicit in my illegal right now. I don't even know. Okay.

So, good afternoon, Chair and members of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education. I'm Dr. Zoe B. Sparraza, and I am the Education Director at Kitty Academy of Williamsburg, a CBO. Serving children and families in Brooklyn, I'm also a lifelong educator. I hold a doctorate in education and leadership, and perhaps most importantly to the testimony I'm going to give today, I'm the mother of a two-year-old who's here in the back seat and expecting our second child currently.

The wife of an elementary school teacher. Apparently, my childcare hack was. To get my master's in early childhood and my certification in birth through 2nd grade, both DOHMH requirements, as we mentioned earlier, and then demanding free care as part of my compensation. I'm here to ask the city to make a commitment that is long overdue and to advocate for my staff pay equity and meaningful salary increases for all educators teaching New York City's youngest children, including 2K, 3K, and pre-K educators working in CBOs.

Our early childhood education is in crisis. As an education director, I see the consequences firsthand. We are expected to recruit and retain highly qualified, educated, experienced teachers to do extraordinarily important work, yet we are asking those teachers to accept compensation that does not reflect their education, credentials, responsibilities, or value. We are competing for educators in a city where qualified teachers have other opportunities, opportunities that often provide significantly better compensation, clearer salary progression, benefits, and greater long-term financial stability.

This is not simply a staffing problem. It is a quality problem, an equity problem, and ultimately a problem for New York City's children. A teacher should not become less valuable because she walks into a CBO classroom instead of a district school classroom. A degree does not become less valuable. A teaching certification does not become less valuable. Years of experience do not become less valuable.

And most importantly, the children sitting in that classroom do not become less deserving of an exceptional teacher. As an administrator and a mother, I refuse to accept the idea that the solution is simply to lower our expectations. We should not be expected to diminish the quality of care and education we provide because we cannot afford to compete for highly qualified teachers.

We should not lower hiring standards. We should not normalize constant turnover. We should not ask programs to somehow do more with less while simultaneously holding them accountable for increasingly rigorous educational outcomes. And we should certainly not accept a system where our youngest and most vulnerable children who cannot advocate for themselves experience the consequences of decisions made about how much the adults educating them are worth.

Our teachers deserve a real salary scale comparable to other New York City educators. I'm a big believer in you get what you pay for. New York City made an extraordinary commitment when it decided that early childhood education should be made available to its children, but access alone cannot be the finish line. Universal education must also mean high-quality education, and quality requires an investment in the people doing the teaching.

And it cannot expect CBOs to solve a workforce crisis that they did not create and cannot financially solve alone. We absolutely cannot accept less for our children. The city owes that to its educators. The city owes that to its families. And most of all, the city owes that to its children. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Thank you. Thanks a lot today. Thank you, Zoe, and best of luck. And if you've— when you're not mobile, email the testimony if you haven't already. Will do. Thank you so much. Thank you. That was a beautiful testimony.

Okay, Lori is back. Lori Congiolosi, my apologies. You can unmute yourself. Thank you. There you are. Hey, Lori. As soon as I started to talk, it shut down. I'm like, oh my God. Go for it.

Good afternoon, Chair and members of the Committee on Early Childhood. My name is Lori Cangelosi. I am the director of the Playgroup Experience, a NYSE in Staten Island, and founder of the Five Borough NYSE Coalition. I know you have heard this over and over and over again. NYSE teachers educate the same children, meet the same standards, and provide the same publicly funded education as their DO counterparts without the same compensation, benefits, or protections.

We know the problem is real, the struggle is real, and quite frankly, we are tired of constantly repeating ourselves. So today, I don't want to just talk about the problem. I want to talk about a solution. NYSE educators should not have to come back every few years and renegotiate our worth. Create a NYSE compensation structure tied to comparable DOE salary scales, recognize education and years of experience, include our assistant teachers, fund comparable benefits and retirement security, and when DOE compensation increases, NYSE funding should increase with it.

Directors want to pay our educators what they deserve, but we cannot pay— we cannot pay money the city has not funded. And this is not just about teachers, it's about children. When we lose teachers, young children lose familiar faces, trusted relationships, and consistency. And as we discussed expanding to 2K, we cannot expand on an unequal system. Stop making NYCEA educators repeatedly prove that equal work deserves equal value.

Reform before expansion. You cannot build a stronger early childhood system on an unequal foundation. Fix the foundation and then let's build. Thank you. Thank you, Lori.

And our last panelist, Adrienne Bond. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. Council. Deputy Chancellor Emmy and Speaker Gutierrez, we thank you for this time and for you to listen to us. I speak among so many. We— it's like repetitive in what we're saying, but I speak for them when I say I lived everything that everyone spoke about. We are the— by the way, my name is Adrian Vaughn.

I'm the executive director of Quick Start Daycare Center. We're located in Queens, and we lived through everything of what everyone spoke about today. We were that center that struggled to barely open up, to use our supplies came from schools that were closing. We were holding on by a thread. We worked through the entire summer with no funding.

We had to wait, and we stuck it out with the help of Emmy. I've sent her several emails, and I thank God that she listened and she assisted, and we were able to open up and we serve Over— we, by the way, we have 2K, 3K, and UPK. So we have all 3 grades here, and it is just so unfair that we have the pay delays.

We have a problem with funding. We struggle with pay parity, but yet our staff, we show up, we service these families, we service children. We are providing a service, and we should not be looked down upon, but yet we should be a part of building. This foundation up. We don't want to struggle every day. We, we're happy to service the kids, to educate the kids, and we have a building full of certified educators.

Even our assistant teachers are college level. And we struggle. It's like we're begging DOE all the time for help with funding, and we shouldn't have to when we're supplying quality care for these children and parents. We just ask for a full partnership. We can't build if we don't all work together in unison. And that covers our— from the salaries to the supplying the everyday necessities to running the buildings, choosing— I heard someone say every month, do I pay my staff or do I pay for the building itself?

Everything that it takes to function and run daily. It's just, it's a lot. And we— I really hope to see positive change. I really hope our Deputy Chancellor is coming in to help us. I would love— we welcome anyone to come in and see what we offer and what we do on a daily, and then you'll understand why we— when they say the struggle is real, it really is, because we are doing all of our part.

Our ICs come out and tell us we're doing such a great job, but why is it such a fight to manage every month paying our staff and paying the household bills to continue functioning? Something needs to be done. About the funding, about the invoices being paid in a timely manner, about our always working with us better and more clearly all across the board.

Something needs to be done in order for us to keep functioning. I thank you all, and I look forward to an improvement. I see it. I know it. It's gonna come, but we need it sooner versus later.

Yes, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Bond. Thank you for your testimony, and you're 100% right. And I do feel, um, they are committed to figuring this out. No one wants to close their doors, turn staff away. That's, I'm sure, your worst-case scenario. Thank you so much. Thank you. Do I have to say anything else about— All right.

Thank you all so much for the administration for staying once again. You got a lot of praise today about your responsiveness. And hopefully we will carry on this discussion, see many of you all at our 3rd hearing of the month, the last week of October. And thank you everyone to testify. Thanks to the team here. That concludes today's hearing.

Thank you.