Council Member Ossé Questions ACS on Child Care Vouchers

Um before I go, um Councilmember O say asked if you could ask a question, um, because he had to run, so if you ask your question.

Thank you so much, Chairs.

Uh good morning, nice to see you.

Um there are members of my district who are concerned about the issue of non-mandated child care vouchers for working parents.

Uh these are vouchers for low-income families who do not qualify for benefits but do not earn enough to afford child care.

Because they were told the city has no more funding for these vouchers.

Parents and families in my district are concerned because these vouchers are crucial for them accessing child care.

I would like to know what are the administration's plans for funding these vouchers.

And if there is a funding gap, what would be the alternative for these families?

Well, first of all, I'll just acknowledge that child care is absolutely a critical priority for the Mamdani administration and for us.

I would hope so.

That would be crazy if you said otherwise, right?

I would actually like to turn it over to uh Deputy Commissioner Volcomore to be able to give some details about what the plans are.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um so you're right, and as Stephanie said, we understand the budget is being finalized as we speak, so we're eager to see what is in the state budget because it is state funding that supports those low-income vouchers.

Um it's true that currently we are not able to issue new vouchers, though we continue to recertify families that have vouchers.

So the vast majority of families using vouchers are able to hang on to them.

As soon as the budget um is finalized, we will analyze what that means for how we can move forward in terms of when we may be able to move the wait list that we are maintaining.

Families, depending on age, have a few options.

New York City public schools for children zero to five do have open seats, and of course, that depends on location and what families' preferences look like.

Um, and DYCD also has after-school programming, and we are regularly reaching out to families that are on our wait list to make sure that they are aware of those opportunities and can avail themselves of those.

Thank you.