New York Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the launch of an initiative to expand and create high-quality child care centers across all State University of New York campuses for students and faculty. The initiative includes the distribution of $4.5 million in federal and state funding to support current centers, a program to train the next generation of child care professionals, and the development of a long-term plan to eliminate child care deserts across the SUNY System. In addition, the governor’s executive budget includes $10.8 million to support the creation of additional child care centers on SUNY campuses.
During the 2020-2021 academic year, SUNY served 1,200 student parents with more than 4,000 child care spots across the 46 SUNY campuses that have a child care center onsite. A total of 18 more centers are currently needed to fully cover all 64 of SUNY’s campuses statewide.
“Child care services are a critical part of our economic recovery, providing parents much-needed support as they pursue an education or join the workforce,” Governor Hochul said. “This funding is an important step toward my administration’s goal of eliminating child care deserts across SUNY campuses statewide and adequately investing in our state’s students, faculty, and working parents.”
State University of New York Interim Chancellor Deborah F. Stanley said, “More limited child care presents a major barrier for our student parents and older siblings who must choose child care over classes, and even for our faculty parents. With additional federal, state, and SUNY support, we can expand our resources on campus with high-quality care, and at the same time work to train more early child care professionals for SUNY and other centers across our state.”