Child care has come to the front of public discourse, as many parents struggle to find services for their children, as many jobs return to in-person work following the de-escalation of the pandemic.

The city of Syracuse is trying to make sure your child has a place to go, with Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh declaring Monday "Expand Child Care Day."

It's a move to help bring awareness to a new state grant program to improve child care programs. 

Starting next week, child care providers can start applying for $100 million in grants.

Those grants will help new child care providers get on their feet and assist with funding for training and other services so they can provide care in places where there is none.

"A lot of times people think of child care as babysitting, with the teenager to let you go on date night or something, but these are really early educators that are providing high quality care in safe environments for the children and that's critical," said Child Care Solutions Executive Director Lori Schakow. 

These grants will be working with a recently announced Onondaga County plan to drop the family co-pay for child care to 1% above the poverty rate.