New York City to Add 10,000 Free 2-K Seats, Reaching Every Borough in 2027

New York City's free child care program for 2-year-olds will add 10,000 seats in fall 2027 and reach every borough, including every school district in the Bronx and all of Staten Island, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday.

The expansion will bring 2-K to 17 more of the city's 32 geographic school districts, for a total of 22, and will give more than 12,000 children access to the program, the mayor's office said. The city will also add capacity in the five districts where 2-K began this fall: District 6 in Manhattan, District 10 in the Bronx, Districts 18 and 23 in Brooklyn and District 27 in Queens. None of the first five districts was on Staten Island.

Mamdani and Hochul made the announcement at a Bronx trampoline park, where they joined families and child care providers.

"For far too many New York City families, the joy of welcoming a child comes with a terrifying set of questions: How will I afford child care? Will I need to give up my job? Will I be forced to leave the city I love? Today, for 10,000 more families, we have an answer," Mamdani said in the city's statement. At the news conference, he said the expansion will save parents more than $25,000 per child per year.

Hochul said that she and Mamdani had stood together last month for the first day of 2-K, when more than 2,000 children started in classrooms. "This is how we deliver real relief for working families, and make sure our kids get the best possible start in life," she said.

Outside the Bronx and Staten Island, the new seats will go to two Manhattan districts, six in Brooklyn and three in Queens, the city said. In Manhattan, District 4 covers East Harlem and Randall's Island, and District 5 covers Central Harlem, Manhattanville and West Harlem, Morningside Heights and Hamilton Heights.

In Brooklyn, the new districts take in Bedford-Stuyvesant (District 16); Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and East Flatbush (District 17); East New York, New Lots, Cypress Hills and Starrett City (District 19); Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton, Dyker Heights and Bath Beach (District 20); Coney Island, Sea Gate, Brighton Beach and Midwood (District 21); and Bushwick (District 32).

In Queens, District 24 includes Corona, Elmhurst, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Sunnyside and Woodside; District 28 includes Rego Park, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Jamaica and Richmond Hill; and District 29 includes Queens Village, Cambria Heights, Hollis, St. Albans, Laurelton and Rosedale.

The program launched this fall in five districts after Mamdani and Hochul announced it on the eighth day of his administration. Families submitted more than 5,700 applications for the first 2,000 seats, the city said. The state has committed $1.2 billion toward the city's free child care efforts.

2-K will continue to run through center-based programs and licensed family child care programs, with a full-day, full-year schedule as the default, the city said. Within the next week, it plans to release a survey for providers that already contract with New York City Public Schools and a request for information for new providers interested in offering 2-K. The fall 2027 application timeline for families will be announced in the coming weeks.

The announcement follows the city's Oct. 5 move to take more than 10,000 children off the waitlist for child care vouchers, a program for low-income families run by the Administration for Children's Services.

Emmy Liss, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education, said the city had "learned valuable lessons from parents and providers as we launched the first 2,000 seats this year."

One provider group asked for a longer commitment. Tara N. Gardner, executive director of the Day Care Council of New York, said in the city's release that "with funding identified for only two years, community-based providers need a long-term commitment so they can plan and grow, and families need to know these seats will be there for years to come."