March 11, 2026
NEW YORK — Over the past week, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani visited classrooms and child care centers across all five boroughs to mark major progress toward universal child care for New York City families. In the past week alone, Mayor Mamdani announced more than 1,000 new 3-K seats in neighborhoods with high demand and launched 2,000 free 2-K seats in four communities across the city.
Last week, Mayor Mamdani joined Governor Kathy Hochul to announce the four communities selected to receive the City’s first 2,000 2-K seats. Yesterday, Mayor Mamdani joined preschoolers on Staten Island to celebrate the expansion of 3-K, which will add more than 1,000 seats across 56 ZIP codes where additional capacity is needed – more than half of New York City’s school districts.
Both announcements deliver on the commitment Mayor Mamdani made just eight days into his administration, when he and Governor Hochul announced a historic investment in child care: $73 million to fund the first year of 2-K and $100 million to fix the broken 3-K system.
To keep New Yorkers informed, the Mayor visited child care centers in each of the initial 2-K communities, joined Gov. Hochul for a visit to a shelter-based child care center, released a video explainer on the 3-K expansion across social media, held two press conferences and appeared on several news outlets.
Emmy Liss, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Child Care, also spoke with Education Week and Fox5 about the new initiatives.
Video Here.