Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Council Member Stevens questions ACS Commissioner on child care voucher funding and demographics
0:39:20
·
3 min
Council Member Althea Stevens engages in a Q&A session with ACS Commissioner Jess Dannhauser about child care voucher funding and demographics. They discuss additional funding in the executive plan, federal and state contributions, and the distribution of vouchers across New York City boroughs.
- The executive plan includes additional city funds for child care vouchers: $5 million in FY 2025 and $39.5 million in FY 2026.
- ACS added $104 million combined between January and executive plans for FY 2026 to cover increased rates and mandated vouchers.
- Commissioner Dannhauser provides a breakdown of voucher distribution by borough, with Brooklyn having the highest number at 42,000.
Althea Stevens
0:39:20
The executive plan includes additional 5,000,000 in city funds in fiscal twenty twenty five and 39,500,000.0 in fiscal twenty twenty six related to child care vouchers.
0:39:30
What is the additional funding for and how was this funding amount determined?
Jess Dannhauser
0:39:35
So so far for fiscal twenty six we've added $104,000,000 combined between the January and the executive plans.
0:39:44
In part this is to cover the rates that the, remember the state increased the rates in the fall, so that was a significant increase.
0:39:54
And to make sure that the 25% that we must pay on the mandated vouchers, that there's a CTL component in the mandated, that that is covered as well.
Althea Stevens
0:40:07
The executive plan included an additional 348,900,000.0 in state and federal funding in fiscal twenty twenty five only for childcare vouchers.
0:40:16
How was this amount determined and why was this additional funding required?
Jess Dannhauser
0:40:21
This is this is us actually claiming federal dollars and being able to move them into the budget through our monthly claims at the state level.
Althea Stevens
0:40:31
Does any of this funding addresses the ACS child care funding gap?
Jess Dannhauser
0:40:35
I'm sorry, chair, say that again.
Althea Stevens
0:40:36
Does any of that funding address the ACS child care funding
Rita C. Joseph
0:40:41
gaps?
Jess Dannhauser
0:40:41
It it'll let for for fiscal year twenty five, it allows us to continue to for a while enroll and now continue to recertify families.
Althea Stevens
0:40:51
Child care vouchers are utilized by a wide range of families all across the city, is the priority for city council that all communities are eligible for the program are available to access.
0:41:03
Can you provide a demographic breakdown of voucher participants?
0:41:07
Sure.
0:41:08
And can you provide a broad breakdown for how vouchers are distributed?
Jess Dannhauser
0:41:11
Yes, we can provide both.
0:41:13
Think I know we can't approach the days but we might just give you the instead of going through every CD we'll give you the Stephanie will bring it up.
0:41:22
For borough base, Brooklyn is 42,000.
0:41:27
I actually think we should give a different one.
0:41:28
This one has my notes on it.
0:41:30
For Brooklyn Forty Two Thousand, Bronx Fourteen Thousand, Manhattan Two Thousand Eight Hundred, Queens Eight Thousand, Staten Island Two Thousand, for a total of about 69,000.
0:41:46
One thing that has been important in our rollout of this plan is that we identified 17 priority community districts that were typically underserved.
0:41:55
And so even with this tremendous increase overall, we have outpaced the growth in those 17 community districts.
0:42:03
So we've been able to have this more equitably distributed geographically.
0:42:07
We have ways to go on that, but there are communities where at the beginning of this had less than 60 children enrolled and now have nearly 2,000 children enrolled.
Althea Stevens
0:42:19
What did that outreach look like?
Jess Dannhauser
0:42:21
It was a combination of things.
0:42:23
We had city city council members who were supportive of that.
0:42:26
We worked with the Robin Hood Foundation to help us to outreach through community based programs.
0:42:33
We made sure that we were educating the public.
0:42:36
My City was created to make it easier for people to apply and not have to just bring their documents downtown, so that was something that provided greater equity as well.