Applications are now open for the first year of “2-K,” New York City’s free child care program for 2-year-olds. Mayor Mamdani and Gov. Hochul announced the application kickoff Tuesday at a news conference with students from Sheldon R. Weaver Child Care Center in the Rockaways, one of the neighborhoods where 2-K will launch next school year.
Here’s what you need to know:
Who’s eligible for the first year of 2-K?
2-K is open to children born in 2024, including those with disabilities or who don’t speak English at home.
The program will launch this fall in five school districts: Manhattan’s Washington Heights and Inwood (District 6), northwest Bronx (District 10), Brooklyn’s Canarsie and East Flatbush (District 18) and Ocean Hill and Brownsville (District 23), and Queens’ Ozone Park and the Rockaways (District 27). 2-K is coming to Staten Island in 2027.
Children must be 2 years old to enroll by the first day of school, though programs can make “pending offers” to families whose kids turn 2 during the school year to start at a later date.
How many seats are available?
This fall, 2-K will launch with 2,000 seats, with a $73 million investment from Hochul. Another 10,000 seats will open before the 2027-28 school year, when state funding will grow to $425 million.
The first seats are opening across more than 550 sites that contract with the city to provide 2-K, including early education centers and home-based programs run by licensed providers.
How do I apply?
Parents can apply online by creating an account on MySchools, on the phone by calling (718) 935-2009 with interpretation services in 200 languages, or in person by visiting one of nine Family Welcome Centers. Families can rank up to 12 programs in order of preference.
Applications are open until Friday, June 26. The admissions cycle is not first come, first served.
How will the city get the word out?
While Mamdani is unlikely to have a problem filling the small number of seats in the program’s first year, he pledged not to rest on his laurels. The city’s first social-media native mayor is getting creative with outreach efforts, from a “2K for 2-K” run on Sunday in Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan, to a 2-K jingle contest with Cardi B and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
“We want to reach parents wherever they are,” Mamdani said. “It is not enough for government to pat itself on the back and say we have a good program, people should find out about it. We have to do the work.”
The mayor also plans to tap his new Office of Mass Engagement, which looks to bring the movement that helped elect him into the fold of city government to push his policy agenda.
“We will be in churches. We are partnering with community-based organizations. Where there are resource fairs, block parties, tenant association gatherings: We will be there,” said Emmy Liss, Mamdani’s child care czar. “We will be doing phone calls and door-knocking proactively, specifically targeting places where we have high-need families who we know are not going to just see it online and apply.”
In total, Mamdani has proposed spending $5 million each year on child care family engagement efforts, plus philanthropic dollars through the mayor’s Child Care Action Fund to support some outreach activity.
When will offers be released?
Offers will be released on Tuesday, Aug. 4 — slightly more than a month before the first day of school.
