Mamdani needs home-based childcare providers for 2-K. Can he get them to sign up?

“Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox. Melissa Reed is the type of childcare provider that Mayor Zohran Mamdani will rely on in his ambitious effort to offer free care to 2-year-olds. Reed runs a daycare out of her home in Brownsville, Brooklyn — one of four high-needs neighborhoods Mamdani is prioritizing to participate in the inaugural year of “2-K,” set to launch in September with 2,000 seats. Home-based providers like Reed were largely left out of the city’s free childcare programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, but Mamdani has pledged a more inclusive approach for 2-K. And the city can ill-afford to exclude family childcare providers from 2-K, since the youngest kids are more likely to be enrolled in home-based programs. Reed has open seats and is interested in joining 2-K. She isn’t eligible, however, because of a little-known bureaucratic requirement that could hamper the city’s efforts to bring home-based providers on board. How Mamdani’s administration navigates the challenge of recruiting providers like Reed could shape how effectively it stands up the ambitious 2-K program . In order to contract with the city’s Education Department, home-based childcare operators must be part of a “Family Child Care Network” — a city-funded entity that serves as a middleman between the Education Department and home-based daycare operators. The networks, which are often run by larger childcare providers, handle payment disbursement and enrollment, monitor programs to ensure they meet safety and educational standards, and offer additional support like social workers and professional development. Currently, only about 20% of the city’s roughly 6,500 home-based daycare operators are part of a network, according to a recent report from The New School . Some providers want to join a network, but can’t find a spot because many are at capacity, several network operators said. Others, including Reed, are deeply skeptical of joining a network. They’re worried about incurring additional costs, giving up some of their independence, and operating under new restrictions that could make their programs less appealing to families. “I don’t really have a lot of faith or trust in the networks,” Reed said. The distrust among some providers is so profound that they’ve taken to calling themselves “never-networkers,” said Tammie Miller, the chapter leader at the United Federation of Teachers representing home-based providers. While getting 2,000 seats online by the fall may be manageable, meeting Mamdani’s pledge to add 10,000 2-K seats next year and have seats for all of the city’s 2-year-olds by the end of his first term could become “practically impossible” without adjusting the network requirement, Miller said. “It’s also leaving experienced providers on the sidelines who are more than capable of serving this population, who serve it already,” she said. Networks help Education Department monitor an unwieldy system Providers and experts said the concept of the network dates back decades, but took its current form in 2019 when the Education Department assumed control of all of the city’s contracted childcare programs for kids ages 0-5 . In programs like 3-K that rely on scores of individual private childcare providers to contract with the city, the Education Department doesn’t have the manpower to train, oversee, and support that many small programs itself, experts and former officials said. The networks allow the city Education Department to outsource that work. Proponents of the system say it offers clear advantages for the city, for providers, and for families. “If you’re in a network, you’re getting visits once a month from your coach, you get one visit a month from a health and safety monitor … somebody is coming to that home at least once a week,” said Emilie Gay, a veteran childcare provider and executive director of the Program Support Family Child Care Network, which oversees roughly 150 providers in Brooklyn and Queens. “If I was a parent, I would want my child in a network program, because I know there are going to be other eyes on that program,” Gay added. (Non-network providers are also subject to inspections from the city Health Department and the state’s Office of Children and Family Services.) Some providers said that in a good network, the added support and access to city-funded programs can be worth the added rules and responsibilities. “Networks do help in the sense of … if I need anything, I can pick up the phone and they’re there to help me,” said Dianne Mejías, a home-based provider in South Jamaica, Queens, who is part of the Parent Support network and is hoping to get some of the initial 2,000 2-K seats this fall. But for some providers, who have operated independently for years and already feel pushed to the brink, the idea of giving up some control over their program to an outside entity feels unthinkable. “This has been 17 years of blood, sweat, and tears built into this, and now it feels like I have to give that up to join a 3-K or a 2-K program,” said Lashanda Fraser, a home-based daycare operator in Queens. In addition to the added oversight, some providers say joining a network brings new expenses in a business where margins are already thin. On average, home-based childcare operators are paid just $6 an hour, the recent New School report found. Providers said networks often require them to take out insurance policies, which can cost close to $20,000 a year with no additional financial support, and to close on days they’re in network-mandated training, causing them to potentially lose income. Adding to some providers’ fears is a 2024 incident where, according to city officials, the Education Department issued payments to the Highbridge Advisory Council Family Services, a Bronx childcare network, but the network stopped paying providers and subsequently shut down , leaving some still fighting to get paid. Lara Kyriakou, the policy director at All Our Kin, an organization that supports home-based providers, said there’s “a lot of variability” in providers’ experiences depending on the network. Miller, from the teachers union, said she thinks there’s room for the city to be creative about tweaking the network system to make it more appealing for providers. She suggested tapping organizations like hers to run point on providing support. She said the city could also give providers a greater role in shaping networks so they function more like cooperatives, rather than top-down bureaucracies. Spokespersons for the Education Department and City Hall did not respond to questions about how the city is working with non-network providers, whether officials are considering any changes to the network model, or how many providers have joined networks recently. Another looming issue: Will city contracts pay enough? Joining a network isn’t the only question looming for home-based providers weighing whether they want to participate in the city’s 2-K program. Some worry the program won’t pay enough to cover their basic costs. Home-based operators have historically received far less funding through city contracts than larger centers doing the same work. The average extended-day contract for home-based providers last year paid roughly $17,000 per child, compared to more than $27,000 per child for the average center-based contract, according to city data compiled in the New School report . Providers and network operators said they haven’t gotten a clear answer yet on how much the city will pay for 2-K contracts this year, though many welcomed the recent announcement that the default 2-K contract will run 10 hours a day, 12 months a year — rather than the shorter schedule of six hours and 20 minutes, September to June, that’s most common for 3-K and prekindergarten. “The fact that the parents are able to get care and not have to pay for it, that’s amazing,” said Mejías, the Queens provider who has asked for 2-K seats this fall. “But how is that going to affect us?” Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org

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