Hi John,

Thank you for everything you’ve done this year. Your voice, together with the leadership of strong legislators, helped enact the Presumptive Eligibility Bill (A.4099-A/S.4667-A) - a step forward, but one that was in the end watered down with Governor Hochul’s final signature. While this bill now makes it easier for some families to access child care, we still have a long way to go.

In the past few days, Governor Hochul vetoed two critical child care bills that would have made a real difference for working families:

• The Decoupling Bill (A.8878/S.8152) would have guaranteed stable, reliable child care for families with unpredictable work hours, like those in retail, hospitality, and gig work. 

• Ending the Minimum Earnings Requirement Bill (A.1303-A/S.4924-A) would have removed income barriers and opened access to child care for the state’s most vulnerable families.

By vetoing these bills, Governor Hochul failed to act in the best interests of working families. These weren’t just policy failures - they were a blow to Black, brown, immigrant, and low-income communities who need affordable, reliable child care to survive and thrive.

But we won’t give up. Join us on Child Care Advocacy Day on January 28 and help us continue the fight for the child care system New York’s families need. Sign up today!

Our fight to make New York a place where families can afford to stay continues. This upcoming year, we will to fight so that more families can access child care programs without giving up other necessities in their lives to be able to afford that. We will fight so that child care educators get paid a thriving wage for the service they provide. We will fight to make sure that children in need of special education services get them AND that the programs that provide them are compensated appropriately. For more information, click here.

In solidarity,