New Yorkers Struggle with Child Care Costs Across the Five Boroughs
The cost of child care has drastically increased over the years.
Families across the five boroughs are struggling when it comes to finding quality, affordable child care.
Amid President Donald Trump’s move to freeze federal spending, which will likely affect government-funded childcare programs, just a few weeks ago, families and public officials gathered at City Hall to push for universal child care.
What Child Care Really Costs
The average private daycare for infants up to 12 months can cost anywhere between $15,000 to $20,000, according to Illumine. Meanwhile, while rates slightly drop as the child gets older, the cost still weighs on parents, with some feeling the financial burden.
“I started calculating what my childcare costs would be for two kids for the year, and it came out to be $59,000. I’m not talking about fancy pants programs. This is your regular, local daycare and preschool that was within walking distance of our apartment,” parent Stephanie Park of Brooklyn told our sister publication, AM New York. “That is money that our household should be using to pay student loans, to be putting towards a down payment on an apartment, or to be putting into our kids’ college.”
Parents and public officials alike advocated for their needs, stating they want the city to fund Universal 2-Care, offer free child care for children as young as two daily between 8 am to 6 pm, and also want the program to make such childcare accessible within a 15-minute walking distance of a household.
“A city with a $100 billion budget can do this, and this will unleash economic activity because every parent who can then go back to work will generate income and tax revenue for the city,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “In other parts of the world where this has been done, it has paid for itself. New York has to do this. We need this now.”
According to the New York City Comptroller, in 2024, the average cost of child care for infants and toddlers in family-based care was $18,200, an increase of 79 percent since 2019. The average cost of center-based care was $26,000, an increase of 43 percent since 2019. In comparison, NYC-area inflation over the same period was 20 percent – and the growth in average hourly earnings was only 13 percent.
Universal Child Care
Universal child care was introduced to the city in 1998, through the Universal Pre-K Program. However, due to the overwhelming amount of children and limited spots in the system, not every family gets to take advantage of the program. According to the comptroller, as of September 2024, only 29 percent or approximately 31,600 out of a total of 108,000 infants and toddlers potentially eligible on the basis of income, received subsidized child care.
“Child care is both unaffordable and inaccessible for the vast majority of New Yorkers,” Councilmember Julie Menin, told NY1 news. “As a mother of four, this is a deeply personal issue to me.”
In 2022, the City Council voted unanimously on universal childcare, setting the city on track to be the first in the country to offer universal childcare. It consisted of five bills that advocated for families at the federal poverty level.
In the same year, New York City Mayor Eric Adams advocated for childcare and released a blueprint for his approach.
“As a child, my mother had to work three jobs and still find a way to take care of me and my siblings. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, almost 375,000 parents were forced to quit or downshift their jobs because they had no other way to take care of their children,” said Mayor Adams in a press release. “Now, my administration is working to make sure no parent has to make that hard choice between child care and putting food on their table again.”
“Our new blueprint is a historic investment in the future of our children, the future of working families, and the future of our city,” he continued. “We’re going to increase access to child care for more than 41,000 children across New York City. It used to take a village to raise a child, but these days, it takes a city — New York City.”
Universal child care is expected to go into effect over time.
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