By Sydney Geoghan and Sumaiya Nasir | March 28, 2021
Photo Credit: Stock Images
Governor Kathy Hochul announced an initiative to expand and create child care centers across SUNY campuses for students and faculty.
The program includes $4.5 million of federal and state funds to continue to support current child care centers and programs to train future child care professionals. This money is part of Hochul’s larger executive budget comprised of $10.8 million. The goal is to create child care centers on campuses where child care is not already available.
"Child care services are a critical part of our economic recovery, providing parents much-needed support as they pursue an education or join the workforce,” said Governor Hochul in a press release on Mar. 11. "This funding is an important step toward my administration's goal of eliminating child care deserts across SUNY campuses statewide and adequately investing in our state's students, faculty, and working parents."
According to the press release, in the 2020-2021 academic year, SUNY offered more than 1,200 student parents with more than 4,000 child care spots across 46 campuses. Hochul plans to add 18 more child care spots to cover all of the 64 campuses statewide.
"More limited child care presents a major barrier for our student parents and older siblings who must choose child care over classes, and even for our faculty parents,” said SUNY Interim Chancellor Deborah Stanley. “With additional federal, state, and SUNY support, we can expand our resources on campus with high-quality care, and at the same time work to train more early child care professionals for SUNY and other centers across our state.”