Live now · Albany budget season
Statewide 3-K
Free 3-K for every 3-year-old in New York — not just the districts that could afford to pilot it.
Sign the petition →Campaign · Live now
Care that ends at 2pm isn’t care for a parent who works until 6.
New York City just funded free care for two-year-olds — a real win. But a seat that closes at 2pm doesn’t work for a nurse, a home health aide, or anyone on a shift. We’re fighting to fund those seats for a full working day, so “free child care” means care you can actually use.
Live now · City Council budget hearingsUpdated July 2026
The gap, in three numbers
- already won for free 2-K seats in NYC
- $500Malready won for free 2-K seats in NYC
- when most funded seats currently end
- 2pmwhen most funded seats currently end
- when a working parent’s day actually ends
- 6pm+when a working parent’s day actually ends
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№ 01 / The problem
A funded seat you can’t use isn’t a seat.
The 2-K win opened thousands of free seats for two-year-olds across the city. But most of them run a school day — roughly 8am to 2pm — and stop there. For a parent whose shift ends at 6, that four-hour gap is the whole problem all over again: you still need paid care, you still can’t find it, and now it costs more per hour because it’s part-time.
The families who most need free care are the ones a 2pm pickup shuts out first — shift workers, single parents, anyone without a relative who can cover the afternoon. A benefit that only works for families with flexible jobs isn’t universal. It’s just the same waitlist with a new name.
4 hrs
the daily gap between a 2pm seat and a working parent’s day
“I got the seat. I cried. Then I read the hours and realized I still couldn’t use it — I’m at work until six.”
№ 02 / What we’re asking for
Fund the full day.
Three things, in the city budget, this session. Not a study, not a pilot — funding attached to the seats that already exist.
- 01 / 03
Extended-day funding for every funded 2-K seat
Money to keep existing free seats open until at least 6pm, so the seat a family already won covers a working day.
- 02 / 03
Priority for shift and overnight workers
Enrollment rules that stop pushing out the families whose hours don’t fit a 2pm pickup — the ones the current design fails first.
- 03 / 03
A per-seat cost the city commits to, in writing
A published extended-day rate in the budget, so this can’t quietly shrink back to a school-day program next year.
№ 03 / Who has to say yes
This is a budget vote, and we know exactly whose.
Full-day funding lives in the city budget, so the people who decide it are countable. Here’s who they are, what they control, and where the fight is — positions illustrative until each office is on record.
- Undecided
The Mayor’s Office
Sets the Executive Budget the extended-day line has to land in.
Backed 2-K publicly; hasn’t committed to funding the hours. This is the one to move.
- Supports
City Council Speaker
Decides what the Council fights for in budget negotiations.
On record that a 2pm seat “isn’t child care.” Our closest ally at the table.
- Undecided
Finance Committee Chair
Where the extended-day rate gets a number or gets cut.
Wants the per-seat cost pinned down first — exactly what demand 03 gives them.
For press & legislators
The one-pager.
The problem, the ask, and who has to say yes — on a single page you can forward or print. Built for a staffer on deadline.
Download the one-pager (PDF) ↓PDF · 1 page · updated July 2026
Need a quote, a bio, or the data behind these numbers? press@nyuc.org
№ 04 / Where it stands
The record, as it happens.
- Jan 20262-K funded
$500M won for free care for two-year-olds — the seats this campaign is now fighting to make usable.
- Jun 202612,000 names delivered
We handed the petition to the Council with 12,184 signatures and testimony from parents shut out by the 2pm cutoff.
- Jul 2026Budget hearings — live now· Live now
Extended-day funding is on the table in City Council hearings. This is the window where it gets a number or gets dropped.
- Sep 2026Adopted budget· Ahead
The line either survives into the adopted budget or it doesn’t. Every name added now is one more at that table.
Add your name
Make the room bigger.
The Council counts names before a budget vote. Yours goes on the list we hand them — and if you tick the box to help organize, that’s how most of our leaders started.
We’ll email you when there’s a vote or a hearing worth showing up to — two emails a month, unsubscribe anytime.
The other fights
Three more on the table.
The long fight · Ongoing
Universal Child Care
The whole point. Free child care for every New York family, birth through school age.
Read the plan →Won in NYC · Now making it permanent statewide
2-K
We won it. Now it needs permanent funding in the state budget so it can’t be cut back.
See where it stands →