Tara Gardner testifies on provider concerns and expansion conditions

Good afternoon, Chair Gutierrez.

I'm 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 graduate and former family child care parent, 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 five 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 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% describe recruiting staff as difficult or very difficult, and more than 80% cited issues with low compensation, longer days and year-round operations, 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 the expansion is supported by several core policy conditions.

Contracts and reimbursement levels must reflect the true cost of serving two-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 two-day programming,

and workforce investments must be sufficient to support the existing workforce and staff new classrooms.

And finally, programs must have adequate resources, 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.

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.