Chair Lee Highlights Child Care Vouchers and Promise NYC
Chair Linda Lee continues her opening statement, calling on the administration to address the 25,000-child waitlist for child care vouchers and expressing support for the baselining of the Promise NYC program.
Further, in our response, we called on the administration to continue to invest in child care vouchers by baseline the Promise NYC program.
In our preliminary budget hearing, we encourage the administration to explore ways to end the waiting list practice for child care vouchers, which now stands at approximately 25,000 children.
While we were pleased to see the Promise New York City baselined and some additional funding added for child care vouchers, I hope to see progress made in reducing the voucher wait list and ensuring these families are able to receive the vital child care services that they need, whether through ACS or other agencies.
I look forward to hearing from our new commissioner on how ACS plans to address the urgent challenge of providing child care and continue to equitably serve families amid citywide savings requirements.
My questions today will largely focus on areas in which ACS was able to realize savings, the agency's process and methodology in identifying these savings, and updates on the nearly 200 million dollars in state funding designated for at-risk youth.