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Full-Day, Full-Year Care (NYC)
A free seat that ends at 2pm doesn’t work for parents who work full-time. We’re going to make every 3-K and Pre-K seat full-day and full-year.
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Free child care for every child, birth to five.
Too many families in New York bear the full cost of child care alone. Universal child care treats it the way we treat school: an essential public good, paid for together.
OngoingUpdated September 2026
The problem: child care is treated as an individual burden.
Too many families in New York currently bear the full cost of child care, paying $14 billion out of pocket for child care annually.
Families are being pushed to their breaking point, with parents forced out of the workforce and out of New York State.
There is no private market fix for this problem. Families cannot afford to pay more for child care, and child care providers cannot afford to run their businesses on what parents can pay.
- paid out of pocket by New York families for child care every year
- $14Bpaid out of pocket by New York families for child care every year
- a year to run universal child care statewide, at full scale
- $12.7Ba year to run universal child care statewide, at full scale
- of the total New York State budget — against $82B a year for K-12
- 6%of the total New York State budget — against $82B a year for K-12
- to scale up, reaching more children every year
- 5 yearsto scale up, reaching more children every year
The solution: invest in child care as an essential public good.
Free
Free for all New York families — just like K-12.
Birth to five
Available to all kids, from birth until kindergarten.
Full-day, full-year
Care that covers a full working day and doesn’t end during the summer months.
In every ZIP code
All seats within 15 minutes of your home — no more hour-long commutes.
Easy to apply, fairly staffed
A simple application with just your age and address.
Press or legislative staff: email us for the printable one-pager, the numbers behind it, and someone to quote.
Foundational report
UPC: A Five Year Roadmap for Universal Public Child Care
How we shift child care costs from individuals to the state — and build a quality child care system for every kid in New York.
Full report · 79 pages · PDF
Read the full reportPDF opens in a new tabThe full story
Our plan: a roadmap to fully universal free child care
A universal child care system would shift this cost from the individual to the state, making child care a public investment shared by all New Yorkers and paid for over time.
It would cost approximately $12.7 billion annually once the program reaches full scale — just 6% of the total New York State budget. By comparison, New York spends $82 billion on K-12 education every year.
The scale-up to full universal child care in New York would take 5 years, with growing access to additional children every year, while simultaneously investing in living wages for child care workers and making critical infrastructure investments to ensure child care capacity is ready for a universal program.
Build the movement.
Universal child care gets won one organized parent at a time. Add your name and we’ll put you to work.
We’ll tell you when there’s a budget vote, a rally, or major updates.
Other campaigns
Live now
Statewide 3-K
96% of 3-year-olds outside NYC can’t get free child care. First we passed a statewide Pre-K guarantee — now we’re pushing for 3-K.
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Ongoing
Permanent Funding for 2-K
Parents won the first 2-K seats in New York’s history. Now we’re fighting to fund them for good.
See where it stands