{"id":891640,"date":"2026-02-11T05:17:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/hochul-and-mamdani-announce-plan-to-launch-free-nyc-child-care-plan\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T05:17:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:17:32","slug":"hochul-and-mamdani-announce-plan-to-launch-free-nyc-child-care-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/hochul-and-mamdani-announce-plan-to-launch-free-nyc-child-care-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul and Mamdani announce plan to launch free NYC child care plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<p>\n                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1767910957000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\"><br \/>\n                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template><br \/>\n                    <span data-date>\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n                <\/bsp-timestamp>\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>    <bsp-page-actions><\/p>\n<p>    <\/bsp-page-actions><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York City parents would have access to free child care for their 2-year-olds under a plan unveiled Thursday by <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/kathy-hochul\">Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a><\/span> and <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/zohran-mamdani-mayor-nyc-3ba51d0ff1f3ff7c06534f6c1e3ea0a3\">Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a><\/span>, the first step for the mayor in delivering on a signature campaign promise.<\/p>\n<p>The two Democrats announced the proposal at a celebratory event in Brooklyn a week after Mamdani was sworn in \u2013 marking an early political victory for Mamdani, who has faced questions over whether he will have the state support needed to enact his ambitious affordability-focused agenda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo those who think that the promises of a campaign cannot survive once confronted with the realities of government, today is your answer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hochul, a moderate who is up for reelection this year, has been aligned with the city\u2019s new progressive mayor on his free child care plan, though questions remain on precisely how the program will take shape and what it might cost over the long term. <\/p>\n<p>The proposed program will begin slowly, focusing first on \u201chigh-need areas\u201d selected by the city, then expanding gradually over years until it becomes available across the city. The mayor expects it to cover around 2,000 children this fall, though he said it was not yet clear where the first seats would open up. <\/p>\n<p>The governor said she is committing to funding the first two years of the city\u2019s free child care program for 2-year-olds, describing it as an expansion of the city\u2019s existing pre-K and 3-K programs. <\/p>\n<p>She said the initial round of funding would come from the state\u2019s existing revenues, rather than having to raise taxes, a step the governor has opposed. Still, Hochul said it was difficult to forecast costs in future years when the program would be more widely available. <\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Hochul rolled out a sweeping, longer-term proposal to expand access to universal pre-K statewide, with the goal of having the program available throughout New York by the start of the 2028-2029 school year. <\/p>\n<p>The governor said she anticipates investing $1.7 billion in the near term for the programs she announced Thursday, bringing her proposed child care and pre-K spending to $4.5 billion for the coming fiscal year. <\/p>\n<p>She will include the plans in her annual state of the state address next week and in her executive budget proposal, which will be subject to debate and negotiations with the state\u2019s legislative leaders over the next few months.<\/p>\n<p>While Hochul has supported the mayor\u2019s child care plan, she hasn\u2019t publicly backed his entire agenda. After the event, as Hochul and Mamdani spoke to reporters about the proposal, the governor sidestepped a question about Mamdani\u2019s proposal to eliminate fares for city buses, saying \u201cWell, we\u2019re focused on this today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca Bailin, executive director for the advocacy group New Yorkers United for Child Care, called the announcement a \u201chistoric moment,\u201d adding: \u201cBy bringing together the Governor and Mayor around a shared commitment to child care, tens of thousands of families could finally get the relief they desperately need.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/hochul-mamdani-free-child-care-a4f06b6cd4ac26122daf736067f6c7e9\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] \u00a0 NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York City parents would have access to free child care for their 2-year-olds under a plan unveiled Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani , the first step for the mayor in delivering on a signature campaign promise. The two<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":891641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88905,146733],"tags":[148086,146732],"class_list":{"0":"post-891640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hochul","8":"category-mamdani","9":"tag-hochul","10":"tag-mamdani"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}