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In this newsletter:

• RAISE YOUR VOICE: Opportunities to Speak Up and Speak Out!
• UPCOMING: Day Without Child Care 2026
• March Event Recap
• Updated ESCCC Policy Priorities for April 2026
• NEW: Child Care Video from the Adirondack Birth to Three Alliance and Adirondack Community Foundation
• Monthly Drop In/Office Hours
• ESCCC in the News

Dear Empire State Campaign for Child Care members,

As we await the final budget, which was due April 1st, we continue to apply pressure to legislative leaders to make sustained and necessary investments in the child care sector. We remain unwavering in our guiding principles that every family - regardless of income, immigration status, zip code, or occupation - deserves access to universal child care and every member of the child care workforce deserves robust compensation, continuing education, and accessible job benefits.

Our efforts have not slowed and we have continued to organize, strategize, and energize our network of over 3,000 parents, providers, and advocates throughout this past month. Our elected legislative leaders cannot ignore our message: it is the state's responsibility to make child care for all a reality and the time to invest is NOW!

Read below for more details on the campaign's latest efforts.

Opportunities to Speak Up and Speak Out

The final budget has not been published yet which means there's still time! Here are just a few ways you can raise your voice:

🗣📢 Use the campaign's Child Care Toolkit, which outlines 5 different ways you can connect with your legislators and let them know the final budget must include additional funding for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) and a permanent workforce compensation fund.

🗣📢Send a letter to Governor Hochul and your elected legislators about the lack of workforce compensation funding in the proposed Executive and Assembly budgets (courtesy of our partners at the Alliance for Quality Education)

🗣📢 Use The Children's Agenda's "Kids Can't Wait" Toolkit to advocate for providers that provide Early Intervention (EI) services to children with developmental delays and disabilities. To learn more about Kids Can't Wait, visit this webpage.

🗣📢 Join our friends at the New York CAN End Child Poverty Coalition for WIC Wednesdays! Advocates are rallying supporters across the state to make their voices heard and urge New York State leaders to adequately fund WIC.

You can participate by:

📱Posting on social media and sharing with friends and colleagues.

Use our WIC Wednesday toolkit for sample content, images, and more!

☎️Making a call to leaders, urging them to fund WIC:

📞 Governor Kathy Hochul: 518-474-8390

📞 Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins: 518-455-2715

📞 Speaker Carl Heastie: 518-455-3791

Use this WIC Call-in Day Script to help guide your message.

Day Without Child Care 2026

Each year over 1,000 child care providers nationwide close their doors for Day Without Child Care, an annual strike for universal child care. The demands that continue to be unmet are a child care system that:


• Ensures quality care for every kid
• Doesn’t break the bank for their grown-ups
• Guarantees thriving wages for providers
• Fits the needs of different families
• Is built on racial and gender justice, and
• Brings our country’s childcare system into the 21st century

If you are participating in this year's Day Without Child Care on Monday, May 11th please tag us on social media @EmpireStateCCC!

March Event Recap

Members of our campaign had an action-packed end to March and kept the child care momentum going!

📅 On March 27th nearly 100 parents, providers, children, and advocates rallied outside of Speaker Heastie's Bronx office to demand permanent and sustained investments in the child care workforce - including at least $500 million in this year's budget. Funding for the workforce was notably absent from this year's Assembly's one-house budget proposal and no funding was included in last year's final budget.

You can view more coverage of the rally on The Action Lab New York's Instagram feed.

Photo Credit | The Action Lab New York

📅 On March 30th we joined the Alliance for Quality Education, the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy and members of the “Mom Squad” - a group of lawmakers who advocate for policies that serve the needs of children and families - to call for increased investments in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), as well as compensation for early childhood educators, in the final FY 2027 budget.

To date, 34 counties have closed enrollment or are carrying waitlists for CCAP. In New York City, over 17,000 children and families are unable to access the child care assistance they qualify for.

Lawmakers and advocates also called for the inclusion of at least $500 million for funding to stabilize the child care workforce, which earns less than 96% of all jobs in the state.

These investments are foundational to ensuring an equitable rollout of universal child care in New York that prioritizes low-income families, and recognizes that universal child care cannot be achieved without paying the workforce a thriving wage.

📅 On March 31st campaign leaders Dede Hill and Alicia Marks joined OCFS Deputy Commissioner Nora Yates and Assemblymember Jen Lunsford for a conversation on the current state of childcare affordability through a statewide lens as part of the 2026 Warren M. Anderson ’40 Legislative Series. Panelists discussed proposals, challenges, and promising trends for child care affordability amid state budget negotiations.

Updated Policy Priorities - April 2026

The campaign recently released its updated 2026 Policy Priorities. We are fervently committed to advocating for a high quality, culturally inclusive, and robustly funded child care system that meets the needs of all families - regardless of income, immigration status, or work schedule.

In New York’s 2026-2027 budget, we are calling on New York leaders to make significant, sustained, and strategic investments in child care.

New Child Care Video from the Adirondack Birth to Three Alliance and Adirondack Community Foundation

Barriers to child care access persist in every corner of the state and each community faces its own struggles including affordability challenges, limited access, and low staff retention. In places like the North Country, child care access is especially scarce and approximately 5 children are competing for each available child care slot.

We are grateful to our partners at the Adirondack Birth to Three Alliance and the Adirondack Community Foundation for their powerful video highlighting the importance of child care access and affordability in northern New York - not only for families, but for the local economy. As one resident stated, "our whole community feels the strain".

Monthly Drop-In/Office Hours

We welcome you to join us Friday, April 24th from 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM for our monthly virtual Zoom drop-in meeting and new member orientation. This is a great opportunity to ask any questions, refresh on our priorities, and learn more about the ongoing advocacy work the Empire State Campaign for Child Care is doing across New York State.

We encourage you to attend and all are welcome! (registration not required). A Zoom link will be shared Friday afternoon before the meeting.

Please email empirestatechildcare@scaany.org if you have any questions. 

ESCCC In the News

Members of the campaign have been speaking to reporters across the state about the opportunity we have in New York State to achieve our vision of universal child care. Check out some recent publications below:

• As New York Nears an Early Care Milestone, This Funder Collaborative Is Advancing the Cause - Inside Philanthropy (3/23/26)

Note: Link paywall removed using third-party AI service

• Stony Brook Celebrates the Women Who Are Shaping the Future – Stony Brook News (3/30/26)
• Child Care Voucher Applications Are Closed in 35 New York Counties and NYC - New York Focus (3/31/26)
• What else Hochul’s child care plan needs to be successful, according to stakeholders – Capitol Confidential (4/2/26)
• Advocates explain childcare waitlists in New York State - News10 ABC (4/8/26)
• City lawmakers, advocates press state for more money for child care vouchers - PoliticoPro (4/9/26)
• Janna Rodriguez: Why expanding child care on Long Island is so difficult - Long Island Herald (4/16/26)

For additional articles about child care and the Empire State Campaign for Child Care, please visit our media library.

The progress we have made would not have been possible without all of you.

Thank you for being part of this movement and for your continued commitment to building a stronger child care system for all New York families.

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