NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- New York City is planning to expand its new program for two-year-olds, after seeing strong demand from parents.
The full-day program, called 2-K, launched this year with 2,000 seats in five school districts around the city, and more than 5,700 families applied for a spot.
Now, with backing from the state, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul announced they will add another 10,000 seats in fall 2027, according to a statement on Monday.
“We’re bringing 2-K to every borough and making New York City more affordable for working people,” Mamdani said in the statement.
Free universal childcare has been a key promise from both Mamdani and Hochul, but costs are high. A recent study estimated that expanding the New York City programs for three-year-olds and pre-kindergarten grades to run for full days year-round would cost about $735 million a year.
Mamdani has estimated that his universal childcare program for children age six weeks to five years would cost $6 billion to $7 billion a year when fully implemented.
Earlier this year, Hochul committed $1.2 billion over two years to support New York City’s early childcare and education programs. The state invested $73 million this year to launch the city’s 2-K program, and that funding was expected to increase to $425 million next year.
The new 2-K seats in fall 2027 will be added in every borough, bringing the program to 17 of the city’s 32 school districts, according to the statement. With the expansion, every Bronx school district and all of Staten Island will also have the program.
In Manhattan, new seats will be added to two school districts spanning from Randall’s Island and East Harlem to the west side including Morningside Heights and Hamilton Heights. Six Brooklyn school districts and three in Queens will get the program as well.
The 2-K programs typically runs for 10 hours a day, 260 days a year, according to Emmy Liss, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education.
“We’ve seen concerning trends in recent years where families with children under six are twice as likely to leave New York City as other households, and they often cite that the cost of childcare is what’s driving them out,” she said. “Programs like 2-K will make it more possible for families to stay in New York City.”
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