NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — As his reelection campaign gets underway, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Tuesday that he is expanding access to the city’s after-school program, a step toward his future “after-school for all” plan which would provide a free slot for any K-8 student.
“We need to make sure young people and families have opportunities to thrive,” Adams said during the announcement at P.S. 20 Anna Silver School on the Lower East Side. “And that includes providing after school programs they can attend with that New York favorite four-letter word: free for all students.”
The plan begins with an immediate investment of $21 million in his upcoming Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget, adding 5,000 after-school seats to serve kids K-5 this fall. This kicks off Adams’ proposed $331 million investment into the plan over the next three years, which will increase the K-5 seats by 20,000 and bring the reach of the after-school program to 184,000.
“One hundred eighty-four thousand K-8 students who won’t be at home playing on their devices, looking at TV, not being motivated or inspired, but being inspired among their peers, their teachers, their educators, and all those who want to see them developed,” he said.
Adams also committed to launching a commission charged with developing the long-term universal after-school program he has dubbed “after-school for all.”
“Parents shouldn't have to choose between picking up their child or working a job to put food on the table,” he said.
With childcare costs soaring, after-school childcare plans have become a major talking point for mayoral hopefuls running in the Democratic primary and hoping to defeat Adams, who is making an independent bid.
Opponent State Sen. Zellnor Myrie has proposed adding 110,000 seats to after-school programs 3K through high school, and criticized the mayor’s plan for following his, yet not closely enough.
“They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but this isn’t even a good dupe,” Myrie wrote on social media.