$100M city-private deal will help boost quality child care

Finding quality child care in the city could become a lot easier, especially in spots where it’s hard to come by, thanks to a $100 million charity-aided cash infusion.

A collaboration between the Robin Hood Foundation and the Adams’ administration, will fund professional development and salary bumps for child care workers, add more seats in “child care deserts,” and help the city build a single, streamlined application portal parents can use to apply to multiple programs.

Robin Hood CEO Richard Buery (photo), who led the city’s efforts to launch universal Pre-K under former Mayor de Blasio, said the new venture — $50 million of will come from the city, with the remaining matched by Robin Hood, attempts to address two major gaps in the city’s child care landscape.

The first big challenge is that many families still struggle to access child care, either because it’s unaffordable or because affordable programs are too difficult to identify and apply to, Buery said.

“Our system is relatively disjointed, and it can be hard to find providers and navigate eligibility,” he said. “For busy working parents, the application makes all the difference.”

The program is also meant to help address what Buery described as a dearth of quality child care programs, particularly for the youngest kids.

He envisions using some of the money to fund professional development for child care workers to boost their knowledge of the science of child development and give the pay raises.

“This workforce has one of the most important job in the world, but we don’t treat them like professionals,” Buery said.

The initiative could also allow additional hours for child care programs during nights and weekends for parents with long work hours in areas of the city with few child care options.

Adams, who said expanding child care options for the youngest kids is one of his priorities, said the partnership will “position New York as a leader in the sector” and “take major steps toward a new, more equitable city for all.”