NYC Child Care Voucher Enrollment Suspended Amid Hochul/Adams Budget Feud

New York City families are facing a freeze in child care vouchers applications due to a funding dispute between Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul regarding who should shoulder the cost of the multi-million dollar program.

On Monday, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro revealed that the city will no longer accept new applications for child care subsidies from income-eligible families. Those who do apply will now be placed on a waitlist, with no timeline for when spots might open.

For now, only new applicants are affected by the enrollment freeze. However, families who need to reverify their eligibility for continued assistance may soon find themselves at risk of being removed from the program. Those who qualify automatically through other public assistance programs will not be affected.

“Today, the state has essentially forced us to have to begin putting eligible applications on a waiting list,” Mastro told the press gathered at City Hall. “To be clear, this is a step we did not want to have to take.”

City officials had been relying on state assistance to cover a significant funding gap in the Child Care Assistance Program. However, the finalized state budget only allocated $350 million for this purpose; far less than what City Hall hoped for. To access that amount, the city is required to contribute matching funds, an obligation it has not yet fulfilled.

Despite the budget deal already being announced in Albany, the Adams administration has held off on committing the city’s share of the money and continues to press the state for more support. The budget process in the state capital is already well overdue.

“There is still time. The state budget is not final,” Mastro emphasized.

In defense of the budgetary approach, Hochul’s office cited an imbalance in contributions between the state and the city. The state currently supplies around 94% of the program’s $1 billion budget.

“This status quo is unsustainable, and if we are serious about providing comprehensive, affordable child care for working families, then these costs must be a shared responsibility between the city and the state,” Avery Cohen, a spokeswoman for the governor told the Daily News. “The governor has a clear solution that will allow the city to avoid pausing [the program.]”

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan voiced strong opposition to the reintroduction of a waitlist for child care vouchers.

“Just days after proclaiming to have the ‘best budget ever,’ Randy Mastro and the mayor seem willing to give up on New York City’s working families in the face of adversity,” read a statement. “With the state budget outstanding, there can be no excuses to provide the funding necessary to supporting the thousands of families whose access to child care is at risk.”

The core problem stems from the fact that the funding for subsidized child care hasn’t increased at the same pace as the rapid growth in voucher distribution.

The Administration for Children’s Services previously warned that without additional funding, an estimated 4,000 to 7,000 children could lose access to vouchers each month. That’s largely due to increasing reimbursement rates and a growing number of parents on public assistance, who are given priority, returning to the workforce. City officials have not provided a timeline for when those currently enrolled may start to lose their benefits.