Creates the New York state child care facilities finance agency; provides for functions, powers, duties thereof

1 Co-sponsor

• Ruben Diaz

BILL NUMBER:S3527

Title of bill

An act to create the New York state child care facilities finance agency and providing for its functions, powers and duties

Purpose

The purpose of this legislation is to increase the availability of day care by providing a constant funding source from which business and not-far-profit entities can access.

Summary of provisions

This legislation creates the New York state Child Care Facilities Finance Agency as a single purpose agency to act in concert with New York state Housing Finance Agency to devote its entire energy and resources (bond proceeds) for the construction of child care facilities. Such bond financing shall be provided to any entity or organization deemed appropriate by the agency.

Justification

This legislation goes to the heart of the accessibility problems associated with day care in our society. The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 10.2 million children under 6 years old had mothers who worked in 1988, up 2.5 million since 1980. It is estimated that licensed day care can only accommodate 25% of these children. This means that nationally 7.7 million children under age 6 go unserved or receive unlicensed care. This figure reflects the national trend. The State currently has 125,111 licensed day care slots, with an estimated need placed at over 1 million. Furthermore, the State will have to provide day care for an additional 70,000 children under the federal welfare reform act (JOBS) over the next two years. It is apparent that more resources must be used to expand accessibility, or we are just kidding ourselves. We face many problems associated with day care overall affordability, limited transportation for school age children, inadequate pay for day care workers, low reimbursement rates for family day care providers. The list goes on, but if the child has nowhere to go, the rest does not matter. We need an all-out assault to develop the day care infrastructure in this State so that parents can parent better, employees can function better, employers can produce better and the State can be in a better position to compete in the global economy.

Legislative history

04/07/09 REFERRED TO CHILDREN AND FAMILIES 01/06/10 REFERRED TO CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.