The New York state Child Care Availability Task Force released its latest report Friday highlighting progress and initiatives that it says has enhanced child care services in the state.

The report comes after the state budget recently passed by the New York Legislature that continues the ongoing four-year $7 billion investment to expand access to affordable child care and invest the child care workforce.

“Since the release of the Child Care Availability Task Force’s original report in May 2021, New York State has made strong progress in increasing equitable access to affordable child care by raising the child care eligibility limit to the federal maximum as well as investing $7 billion into supporting children and families,” the new task force report said. “However, the work is far from over. If New York State is to move towards universal child care, a strong framework and short-term changes are needed to develop and implement a statewide, universal system.”

Highlighted in the report are the state’s moves to

• Double the funding for the Child Care Assistance Program, which subsidizes the cost of child care for eligible families.
• Increase income eligibility for child care assistance from 200% of federal poverty level to the federal maximum, 85% of the state median income – $99,250 for a family of four
• Cap co-pays for families receiving child care assistance at 1% of family income above the poverty level
• Increase the maximum subsidy available to provide additional access to families and higher reimbursement to providers
• Provide enhanced rates to high quality providers, providers serving homeless families, and providers that serve families during non-traditional work hours
• Provide more than $100 million in funding for the new LEAPS after-school grant program
• Provide $280 million in underutilized federal pandemic funds allocated to the Workforce Retention Grant program, which will provide recruitment funding and bonus payments to nearly 14,000 child care providers statewide
• Provide $5 million to pilot staffed Family Child Care Networks in various regions to offer technical support and coaching to home-based child care providers, who are mostly women of color and make up the largest component of the state’s child care workforce

“This historic investment conveys a strong message that childcare supports for our families are of top priority. We look forward to continuing to work on innovative and collaborative strategies that propel New York State towards a truly equitable, universal child care system,” state Office of Children and Family Services Acting Commissioner Dr. DaMia Harris-Madden said in a statement.