Albany, NY – Senator Samra Brouk and Assemblymember Sarah Clark’s Child Care Capacity Expansion Bill (A.10025/S.9728) passed the Assembly and Senate this session, sending it to the Governor’s desk for consideration. New York State has a child care shortage and we need common sense solutions to increase access for working families. By standardizing age classifications across group family day care homes, family day care homes, and child care centers, we will create additional child care slots, allowing more child care providers to safely care for more children, and improve access to care for residents.

Currently, the Office of Children and Families (OCFS) regulations classify an infant as 18 months of age and under, which applies to day care centers. For group family day care homes and family day care homes, however, a child is considered an infant at 24 months of age and under. This legislation would bring consistency to the regulations and lower the age of an "infant" to 18 months of age and under for group family day care homes and family day care homes, allowing one caregiver for every two children under 18 months of age in those spaces. This change would 1) align group family day care homes and family day care homes with day care centers and 2) enable providers to safely care for more children, creating additional childcare slots and allowing for expanded access to childcare for families across the state.

This bill offers critical support for families with young children, employers, and the local economy. The supply of childcare is not large enough to meet the needs of families, care is too expensive for many families to afford out-of-pocket, and the child care workforce is underpaid.

According to The Children’s Agenda, Monroe County has 39,828 children under the age of 5, and 76 percent of families with children under age 6 have all adults in the workforce.

Said Assemblymember Sarah Clark, “Ensuring that our childcare system works for all families, children, and providers remains one of my top priorities. I have championed this bill for years because expanding access to affordable, reliable child care is essential not only for working families, but for the strength of our entire economy. This bill takes a smart and practical approach to addressing New York’s child care shortage by cutting through unnecessary inconsistencies in regulations while maintaining safe standards of care. For too long, family and group family child care providers, many of whom are small business owners, have been forced to operate under rules that limited their ability to serve families in need. By creating greater consistency across the system, this bill will help open new child care slots, support providers who are struggling to keep their doors open, and give more parents the peace of mind that comes with knowing their children are in safe, dependable, high-quality care while they are at work.

Thank you to Senator Brouk, CSEA Voice and the many providers and families from Rochester and around the state who have joined us on a commonsense approach to our child care crisis.”

Said Senator Samra Brouk, “Child care and housing are often the largest monthly expenses for families. By making these commonsense changes to standardize some of the age regulations impacting group family day care homes and family day care homes, we will open additional infant childcare slots. These efforts, coupled with recent state investments in child care center operators and the child care workforce, will provide peace of mind for parents searching for child care and contribute to the economic stability of families and communities.”

Said Mary E. Sullivan, President, Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA),

“Home-based providers are an essential part of our childcare system. In rural communities and urban neighborhoods, they are often the only licensed and affordable option available to families. This legislation expands access to high-quality home-based childcare while upholding the safety standards families expect and children deserve. We thank Senator Brouk and Assemblywoman Clark for championing this measure and supporting the providers who serve New York families every day.”