Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The New York City Council Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education, chaired by Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez, held an oversight hearing on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, at 1:00 PM at 250 Broadway – 8th Floor – Hearing Room 1 to examine the implementation and expansion of the 2K program, which provides free child care for two-year-olds. The hearing featured testimony from the Mayor's Office of Childcare and Early Childhood Education, New York City Public Schools (NYCPS), and multiple panels of public witnesses. The program, launched in Fall 2026 with 2,000 seats across five school districts, saves enrolled families up to $26,000 per year per child. Over 5,700 applications were received for the initial 2,000 seats, with 59% of families receiving their top choice, 82% receiving one of their top three choices, and 99% receiving an offer to a program on their application. The hearing focused on lessons from year one, plans to expand to 12,000 seats by Fall 2027 and universal access by 2029, and long-standing systemic challenges including pay inequities, contract and payment delays, and inclusion of home-based providers.
Over 15 public witnesses testified in person and via Zoom, representing parent advocacy groups, community-based organizations, family child care networks, and early childhood educators. Key themes included:
Hello, good afternoon. Welcome to today's New York City Council Heron for the Committee on Early Childhood Education. At this time, please silence all phones. If you wish to speak in today's hearing, please fill out on a parent's card with one of the sergeants. Moving forward, no one is still projected. Chair, you may begin. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Councilmember Jennifer Gutierrez, Chair of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood Education, and welcome to today's hearing on 2K in New York City. Earlier this year, Governor Kathy Hochel and Mayor Zoran Mamdani announced a plan to deliver free child care for two-year-olds in New York City through a program called 2K. Within a few short months, the Mayor's Office of Child Care along with the Department of Education started to make good on that promise, with 2,000 of our littlest learners having started 2K just a few weeks ago. This is an amazing achievement as this program is saving New York City families enrolled in the program up to $26,000 per year per child in child care costs. When 2K applications opened this spring, over 5,700 families applied. That overwhelming demand tells a clear and urgent truth. New Yorkers need affordable child care and they need it now. Unfortunately, we can't achieve a universal 2K program overnight. And there are longstanding issues with our current early childhood education system that need addressing. For starters, the inequities in early childhood educator salaries have persisted for far too long. Since the very first hearing of the subcommittee, and at every hearing since, I've heard from early childhood education providers about the pay inequities between educators and community-based programs compared to those in New York City public schools, or about the right the challenges of rising costs of operating their business while salary raises have to take a back seat. These inequities need to be addressed as we look towards creating a stable and sustainable universal child care system. Early childhood educators are the heart of the early childhood education system and deserve to receive dignified wages for the important work that they do. Early childhood education providers also need on time reliable payments from the city for a contracted work. Payment delays are unacceptable. Our payment systems need to be transparent, easy to navigate, and accessible. Providers shouldn't have to take out a loan to sustain their business month to month. Finally, as we think about expanding 2K, we must also think about expanding pathways for home-based providers to participate in the program. Too many home-based providers are left out of the current DOE system as only those associated with family child care networks can participate in providing DOE contracted care. As the education system ages down, the city needs to be more inclusive of home-based providers. So today we we'd like to look at what lessons the administration has learned so far from implementing 2K for this first school year and how the administration is planning to address long-standing issues in the early childhood education system. I want to thank members of the early childhood education subcommittee who joined. We've been joined by council members Kayla Santuoso. I should have started with Council Member Simkenfelder. He was here right before. Council members. I'm sorry. Councilmember Gail Brewer. Oh I'll make it up. I'll make it up. Council members Gal Brewer and Education Chair, uh, Councilmember Eric Dinowitz. I would also like to thank the staff of the early childhood education subcommittee, Julia Goldsmith Pinkham, Katie Salina, Grace Amato, Andrew Lane Lawless, and Margaret Barnsley, as well as my own staff, Frank Hulka and Helica Colon and uh uh Madeline who just joined this week. Um, and finally, thank you to everyone who has signed up to testify. We look forward to hearing from you. Okay. I would like to remind everyone who wishes to testify in person today that you must fill out a witness slip, which you can find on the desk at the sergeant at arms near the entrance of the room. Please fill out the sleep slip, even if you have already registered in advance that you will be testifying in person today. If you wish to testify on any of the legislation, please indicate on the witness slip whether you are here to testify in favor of or in opposition to the ledge. I also want to point out that we will not be voting on any legislation today to allow as many people as possible to testify. Testimony will be limited to two minutes per person, whether you are testifying in person or on Zoom. I'm also going to ask my colleagues to keep their questions and comments to five minutes. Please note that witnesses who are here in person will testify before those who are signed in to the Zoom webinar.