State Sen. Zellnor Myrie held a press conference outside an Astoria daycare center Wednesday morning to advocate for extending the pilot program offering free extended hours for New York City preschoolers.
Diki Daycare Center, located at 30-81 Steinway St., is one of the 64 pre-K and 3-K programs currently enrolled in the city’s pilot program, which allows parents to drop children off at daycare centers at 7 a.m. and pick them up at 5 p.m.
Diki Daycare said it was recently informed that the pilot program will be ending in June.
Myrie, a candidate in the upcoming mayoral election, called on the Adams Administration to restore the program in the FY 2026 budget, describing Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed baseline child care funding as “not enough.”
Adams has announced $167 million in the FY 2026 budget to support young children and their families, including annual funding for a citywide 3-K expansion and for pre-K students with disabilities.
“For the first time ever, we’re baselining nearly $170 million annually to support critical programs like pre-K special education and expand citywide 3-K, and ensuring this funding becomes a permanent part of our city’s budget so that the programs can and will be maintained for years to come,” Adams said in a statement announcing the funding.
Myrie, however, said the baseline funding represents “the bare minimum” and called for the pilot program to be restored.
“That’s the minimum,” Myrie said. “What we are talking about today is a pilot program that has made a world of difference for parents who are working hard every day, hard to put food on the table.”
Myrie accused the Adams Administration of being “irresponsible” by cutting the program, stating that working parents need access to free childcare until after 5 p.m.
“This is the difference between staying in the city, and not being able to stay in the city. It’s common sense,” Myrie said.
He added that there are many controversial topics in politics today but said restoring and expanding the extended hours pilot program should not be one of them, describing the issue as “straightforward.”
If elected mayor, Myrie has pledged to restore the program and expand it citywide, offering free pre-K and 3-K childcare until 6 p.m.
Amanda LaPergola-Bernhard, whose three-year-old daughter is enrolled in Diki Daycare, said the extended hours provided huge financial relief and allowed both her and her husband to work full time in New York City. However, she said it would be difficult to live in the city without access to extended childcare.
“We have no choice but to work full time because New York City is expensive, but it is a city that we love,” LaPergola-Bernhard said. “It is a city that we moved to to be a part of for various reasons… but we can’t do that if we can’t have affordable daycare.”
LaPergola-Bernhard said she believed the extended hours pilot program was “untouchable” and that “nothing” would come in the way of the program.
“And why should it? Why take away something so foundational, why not take care of the smallest members of our community?” she said.
She said she was “outraged” when she learned that the program was not being extended, adding that she would have little choice but to leave the city if the program is not included in the budget.
“New York City is such a special place to be. But if things become too expensive for us, I don’t see what our choice is. I love the city. It would break my heart to take my family out of it. But if the current budget proposal goes through and 3-K and pre-K extended care is cut, I don’t see what our choices are.”
Tatiana McBrown, executive director of Diki Daycare, said removing the program would be “so challenging” for local families.
“Living in New York is expensive, very expensive,” McBrown said Wednesday. “Once we sent out that messages to the families, they were devastated.
“We received so many phone calls. We received emails. They were just upset.”
A City Hall spokesperson said in response the Mayor remains committed to investing in children and families and pointed to the $167 million in baseline funding to “preserve critical early childhood education programming for our city’s most vulnerable children.”
The spokesperson added that there is still time to add funding for the extended hours program for the FY 2026 budget, stating that the pilot program was only added later in last year’s budget process.
“As the mayor says, when it comes to the budget, ‘we always land the plane.’ The funding for this pilot program was added later in the budget process last year, and it is still early in this year’s budget process,” a City Hall spokesperson said.
