City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is calling for more investment in early childhood education to stop New York City’s exodus of working- and middle-class residents, who are leaving because they can’t pay for childcare.
During her State of the City address on Wednesday, Adams said more than 80% of families can’t afford full-time care for their kids. Her comments came the same day as a Siena College poll found that 48% more New Yorkers are spending more money every month on childcare than they were two years ago.
Childcare experts say that although many parents are starting to think about vacation and childcare plans for the summer, now is the best time to enroll their toddlers in Head Start, a decades-old federal program that has long offered relief for those squeezed out of market-rate prices.
The Head Start program began in 1965 and offers children up to the age of 5 and low-income pregnant people free childcare if they meet certain eligibility requirements.
Roughly 34,000 children and pregnant people are in the Head Start program in New York, including 5,800 kids who are enrolled across 95 Head Start programs administered by the city’s Department of Education.
The program aims to provide year-round care meant to prepare children for kindergarten, but also works with parents to better engage with their kids, said Tanya Krien, vice president of early childhood education at the Child Center of NY.
“When they leave our doors and Head Start, when they go to the public school, if they have a concern, how do they address that concern? Who do they go to? What are the important pieces of information to be able to give? We really work very strongly on building advocates in our families,” Krien said.
Here’s what you need to know to apply for the program:
What kind of programming does Head Start offer?
Early Head Start is offered to children from birth up to 3 years old. Meanwhile, Head Start is offered to children 3 to 5 years old. Programs are typically based…
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