Some New York City parents with 2-year-olds will save thousands of dollars this fall.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is officially rolling out one of his key affordability initiatives aimed at parents: Beginning in September, four communities will get 2,000 free 2-K seats — an initiative that will expand across the city throughout the rest of Mamdani’s tenure.
The communities set to receive the first tranche of 2-K seats span the city; they were chosen based on criteria that considered childcare demand and economic need. Those areas are uptown Manhattan’s school district 6, the Bronx’s school district 10, Brooklyn’s districts 18 and 23, and Queens’s district 27.
“Raising a child takes a village — and it takes a city government willing to step up and tackle the child care crisis head-on,” Mamdani said in a press release. The city will start working with childcare centers in the coming days, per a press release, and will offer rolling enrollment throughout the fall as kids turn 2.
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The seats come as part of an early win for Mamdani’s affordability agenda, for which one challenge is cooperation with the state on taxes and funding the city’s budget. Eight days into his term, Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced they would partner to roll out the “2-Care” initiative, building on the city’s universal pre-K and 3K offerings. Hochul announced that she would pour around $73 million into the initiative for its first year, with a total investment of around $1.2 billion as the program grows.
The program is set to include the initial rollout of seats this fall and expand to 12,000 kids across all five boroughs by 2027. Lawmakers hope to expand the program to all families across the city who are interested by its fourth year.
“Earlier this year, Mayor Mamdani and I stood together to announce the state’s historic investment in New York City’s 2-K program, delivering free child care for two-year-olds across the City,” Hochul said in a press release. “This is how we make New York the best place to start a family and build a future — and we’re just getting started.”
High costs are a real strain on the city’s parents, with childcare costs reaching up to $26,000 for some. It’s especially difficult for younger families: a 2024 report from the Fiscal Policy Institute found that New York families with kids under six are twice as likely to leave the city as families without younger kids, with childcare costs and a need for more space as drivers of this migration. Even the city’s CEOs — many of whom were not so keen on Mamdani’s policies — have come around on more affordable childcare. Childcare costs nationally have outpaced inflation, and, in New York City, care costs for younger children have run upwards of $20,000.
“Launching free 2-K in these four neighborhoods is just the beginning of our work to put money back in New Yorkers’ pockets, strengthen our entire economy and help more families build their lives here,” Mamdani said.
