Free 2-K classrooms to open in NYC as greater Riverdale families navigate childcare costs

As families across greater Riverdale prepare for another school year, some of the area’s youngest students are preparing to step into the city’s first publicly-funded classrooms for 2-year-olds.

New York City’s first 2-K program will begin Sept. 10 with roughly 2,000 free seats, part of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push toward universal child care. Around 5,700 families applied, the city said, leaving some parents preparing for their children to enter the new program while others make different arrangements.

The city opened applications June 2 across five school districts, including School District 10, which spans much of greater Riverdale, for all families regardless of income level.

Emmy Liss, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education, said officials entered the first application period without knowing exactly how families would respond.

“We weren’t quite sure what to expect,” Liss said. “We know that families want and need free childcare, and this is proof.”

When demand at a particular program exceeded available seats, priority was given to children with siblings there, those already enrolled with the provider and families living within the district, she said. More than 80 percent of families who received an offer were matched with one of their top three choices, Liss said, while more than half received their first choice.

For Skyview resident Julie Raphael, an attorney and mother of two, receiving a seat for her younger son could ease some of the pressure childcare has placed on her family.

“The cost of childcare is way too high,” Raphael said. “There’s days I’m like, oh wait, my childcare canceled on me, I can’t work. I’ve had to not go to court appearances because I lost childcare for a day.”

Raphael said she received a free seat for her 20-month-old son at a program in the Spuyten Duyvil area. However, because he does not turn 2 until Nov. 17, he cannot begin 2-K until then.

Until that point, Raphael hopes to enroll him in a paid program at the same center. The program costs about $1,700 for three days a week, she said. Her son has developmental delays and is not yet walking, which creates another complication, because Raphael said the center cannot accept him before age 2 unless he is walking.

Once he turns 2, Raphael said, he can enter the center’s 2-K classroom regardless of whether he has reached that milestone. Her experience navigating special education services for her older son, who has autism, has made finding the right setting particularly important. It could also provide the dependable care that she’s found difficult to maintain while working full time, Raphael added.

Other parents will enter September without a 2-K seat.

Jill Deutsch, a central Riverdale mother of two, applied for the program after seeing Riverdale Temple Nursery School, which her older son attends, listed as an option. The school ultimately did not participate in the city-funded program with its director noting questions about pay rates and other details still remained by the time applications opened, and Deutsch will instead send her 2-year-old daughter to its private program.

“It obviously would be so nice because childcare is very expensive,” Deutsch said. “Anywhere you can have a little bit of help would be, you know, greatly appreciated.”

Families without offers still have a chance to receive a seat. Liss said applicants were automatically placed on waitlists for programs they ranked higher than the one they were offered. Those who received no offer were placed on the waitlists of each program they selected and can add themselves to additional lists.

Families have until Aug. 28 to accept their existing offers. As spaces open, providers can make new offers from their waitlists, and the city is still confirming some additional seats before the first day of school.

The roughly 2,000 seats represent the capacity the city can fund this year through $73 million allocated by the state, Liss said. Some additional seats are still being confirmed, but the larger expansion will come next fall, when the administration plans to grow 2-K to about 12,000 seats citywide.

For Deutsch, broader availability would provide relief that extends beyond the families entering classrooms this fall.

“My hope is that down the road it will become universal for everybody,” Deutsch said. “It would help out, I think, a lot of people.”