Starting on Monday, April 11, anyone who is interested in opening a child care facility could apply for a state grant in hopes of opening more child care centers.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — For young children who are desperate to stay with their parents, going to day care can be a nightmare . However, little do they know, having numerous quality child care programs in their area will boost the local economy, according to State Senator John Mannion.
New York State is offering a one-time grant opportunity to open more child care programs. The state identified $100 million to build and expand child care capacity in areas with the least supply of child care centers.
The darker the colors in this state map of Central New York indicate a stronger need for more child care programs.
An area is identified as a child care “desert” if there are three or more children under the age of five for every available child care slot in local day care centers, family day care, or group family day care programs.
Many areas across Central New York qualify as childcare deserts, according to the state . This means that there are significantly fewer child care centers compared to the number of children who need them. This indicates that some children can’t get into child care programs and their parents have to stay home to care for them, even though they would like to have a job.
Syracuse is ranked number one in concentrated poverty and city leaders hope that fixing the lack of child care programs could be a step in the right direction.
“The importance of (this state funding) cannot be understated,” said Joshua King, of Childcare Solutions.
Owners of child care centers can apply for a grant at this state website. before May 19.
Transcript
SASHA BULL: Many areas across Central New York qualify as childcare deserts. This means that most centers are severely overwhelmed which is harming families, workers and the overall economy. N-C-C News reporter Ricky Lee has more details on how these childcare facilities can get help from the state.
RICKY LEE: New York state is offering a one time grant opportunity to open more child care programs. The state identified 100 million dollars to build and expand child care capacity in areas with the least supply. The funding will be split up with 70 million dollars going toward opening new childcare programs and 30 million dollars to expand existing childcare programs. Childcare Solutions Regional Business Advisor Joshua King explained how important this grant is for the community.
JOSHUA KING: We live in a community here in Syracuse that ranks number 1 in concentrated poverty and in order for our parents to get back to work, childcare is definitely something that we need to strengthen and really examine as a part of our infrastructure and these investments of a 100 million dollars will create equity in our community and create options and opportunities that are currently not here which for some families is why they have yet to return
LEE: An area is identified as a child care “desert” if there are three or more children under the age of five per available child care slot in local day care centers, family day care, or group family day care programs. This map shows the level of shortage of child care slots in the state and more than 60% of the state is considered a child care desert. Darker brown areas have higher estimated base Request for Application scores than lighter brown areas which indicates that there are stronger need for child care facilities. If we zoom into Central New York, we can see that there are more darker regions and if we zoom in more to our area, you can see that Syracuse is really in need for more childcare facilities. Anyone interested in applying must complete the O-C-F-S Child Day Care Orientation before applying for the grant opportunity and the application will close on May 19th.