Lawmakers Hear Urgent Calls to Fund Childcare Workforce, Expand LEAPS

State officials, childcare providers and advocates told the joint legislative human services budget hearing that the governor's executive proposals include important new investments but fall short of what is needed to stabilize and expand the state's childcare system.

Speakers said the key gaps are workforce pay and capacity: providers cannot open classrooms without enough qualified staff and many family and center programs operate on thin margins. Assemblyman Hevesy and other legislators pressed officials about payment rates and the fate of hundreds of applicants who scored well in the LEAPS (Learning, Education and Afterschool Partnerships) competition but were not funded.

Department of Children and Family Services Commissioner Demia Harris Madden described the executive budget’s childcare items during opening testimony, including the capital grant program (which she said funded 5,500 seats last year and would be doubled), a substitute pool pilot and a new New York Coalition for Childcare. She also highlighted expansions to the childcare assistance program and market rate adjustments that have increased provider payments.

Providers and child-care advocates said the reform and consolidation represented by LEAPS was necessary, but the rollout left many quality programs without awards. They told legislators that roughly one-third of eligible applications scored high enough to be funded but could not be awarded because appropriations were exhausted. Providers urged adding roughly $155 million to cover applications that passed scoring but were left unfunded and another $25 million to restore support for older children and teens who lost access during the LEAPS transition.

Multiple witnesses called for a permanent workforce compensation fund to be created and seeded in this budget year. They said short-term bonuses and small cost-of-living increases are helpful but will not keep long-term staff in the field or attract new entrants. Several speakers backed a $3 million substitute-pool pilot (to be administered by Child Care Resource & Referral agencies) coupled with a statewide digital platform for matching substitutes to jobs, training and background checks.

Advocates also asked lawmakers to preserve and expand capital grants targeted at family and home-based providers, who said start-up costs — from code compliance to heating repairs — keep potential new providers from opening. Many providers described the typical family-home start-up path: inspections, water tests, fencing, small construction and months without income while licensing and training are completed.

Lawmakers asked detailed questions about how the LEAPS awards were scored, why some programs with passing scores were not funded and what would be required to stabilize family-based care. Commissioners and advocates repeatedly urged the legislature to pair any expansion of access with a durable revenue stream to support workforce wages.

If the legislature does not increase funding for workforce compensation and the most obvious capacity gaps, witnesses warned, the state risks program closures, reduced seat supply and a return of child care deserts that suppress parents’ employment and local economic growth.

Ending: Advocates urged lawmakers to treat childcare as infrastructure — combining capital, operating and workforce funding — so that New York can sustain the tens of thousands of additional seats and the better pay needed to keep them open. Immediate supplemental funding to cover LEAPS applicants left unfunded and a durable workforce compensation mechanism were the two priorities repeated most often.