Council Member Restler Questions Funding for Additional Vouchers
Council Member Lincoln Restler asks if the historic state budget investment provides funding for additional child care vouchers in FY27 to help move families off the waitlist.
No, we don't have a way to quantify that, but I can say that there are about 6,000 children that are enrolled in CCBG funded New York City public school seats.
There may be children in other New York City public school seats, meaning other meaning funded by other funding streams, and we don't have currently the ability to do a data match with DYCD.
So without without a data match, we know that there's tens of thousands of children who are in desperate need of support, and while we know this is a major commitment for Catherine Governor Hochel and Mayor Mamdani, um we're in the lurch, we're left, these families are left in the lurch.
So just to understand, it certainly seems that there is with the historic investment in the state budget, there are resources available for this fiscal year to pay for additional vouchers without concern about future years.
Can you confirm that's accurate?
As you know, the budget is either being signed or signed potentially while we're checking out.
We all know what those numbers are, and we've known them for five months.
The mayor and the governor did an announcement on like this fifth day in January, and the numbers have not moved.
So just to affirm a simple question, for this fiscal year coming up, FY27, do we have funding for additional vouchers?
Not for future years.
I understand there's a major liability there.
Well, well, I do want to say that I haven't seen the I haven't had a chance to look at the final bills.
So I'll take your word for it, but the language is complex, and we do need to look at that, and we would be remiss if we didn't to ensure that it is exactly the same as the executive budget.
However, we are always looking at where we are on spending and enrollments across the three agencies that use this funding.
HRA, ACS, as you know, and New York City public schools.
And so now that the state budget is final, we will need to look at and analyze how and when we will be able to move the wait list.
I can't confirm today what that time window looks like.