No More Money for Day Cares

Technically, there will be money, but in New York City the city controllers are cutting the budgets for day care centers.

Those reductions are part of a package of $62 million in cuts that will affect day care services to struggling working families across the five boroughs. Mr. Mattingly said some hard choices were necessary “to avoid a train wreck” to the city’s day care programs in this time of fiscal crisis.

The rest of the cuts will affect school-age children, who could be served by Department of Education programs, he said. By the start of the next school year, for example, Children’s Services will no longer pay for day care slots for 3,300 5-year-olds who could be served through kindergarten and after-school programs.

It will also stop co-financing slots for 4-year-olds who are enrolled in universal prekindergarten programs. Currently, child welfare funds go to provide enrichment in these classrooms.