New York’s child care sector continues to face lingering challenges post-pandemic including child care deserts, low wages and high prices that are putting a financial strain on families statewide, according to a new report released by state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
From 2018 to 2023, New York’s average annual child care prices were higher than every other state except for Massachusetts, rising nearly 18% from $12,422 per child to $14,621, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
The high price tag is because the number of childcare providers have dropped over the past several years and wokers don't want to enter the childcare field due to the low pay, the comptroller said.
“The pandemic’s disruption of the state’s child care industry is far from over,” DiNapoli said. “Prices in New York are among the highest in the nation, while child care workers earn wages well below the state’s median, making it hard to attract and retain the workforce needed to provide services. An effective child care system is integral to the state’s economic future and must remain a priority for policymakers.”
State Senator Jabari Brisport, who's district covers portions of Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Bedford Stuyvesant and Brownsville, urged his colleagues to pass the Universal Child Care Act, which would provide funding for free child care, raise wages, increase state aid and create a new department to oversee the sector.
“New York’s got about 2,000 fewer child care providers now than we did in 2015, and the providers we do still have are struggling to retain staff and make ends meet," he said. "We have a solution ready to go that was carefully developed with input from over 1,000 parents and child care workers across the state."
The number of child care providers in New York was steadily declining before the pandemic. From 2015 to 2019, providers decreased by 1,489, or 7.4%, according to data from the state Office of Children and Family Services. The losses sped up during the pandemic, with a nearly equal decrease (7.3%) in just the two years between 2019 and 2021. From 2021 to 2023, the number of providers increased modestly by 1.7%, and grew by 3.6% in 2024. Even with these increases, the number of providers was still 9.6% below 2015 levels.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said she is pushing for the passage of the Child Care Workforce and Facilities Act, which would allocate $100 million in federal funding to train the child care workforce and build child care facilities, especially in child care deserts.
“Working parents deserve the peace of mind that their children are in good hands when they go to work, and children deserve to learn and play in child care centers with adequate resources to support them," she said.
DiNapoli said the state should remain focused on increasing the availability of child care, with an emphasis on areas with no providers, and prioritize reforming data collection to allow for more precise and timely assessment of availability by type of care provided and by locality. He also said the state should make efforts to increase the use of child care subsidies by eligible families, and help families search for providers.
