Childcare

Scrambling, Unsatisfied, and Unsupported: Parents in the South Bronx face numerous challenges to accessing high-quality child care. Across New York City, access to high-quality, affordable child care is a persistent challenge for families. It is a particular challenge in the South Bronx, a vibrant, diverse area home to many families of color and immigrant families. The South Bronx is also a child care desert—an area where child care programs are scarce and residents face considerable barriers to meeting their families’ needs due to decades of structural racism and economic inequities. As New York City continues to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic, a poll conducted this summer by The Education Trust–New York found that New Yorkers overwhelmingly want the next mayor to provide economic relief to working parents and help support our youngest New Yorkers to stay developmentally on track. The poll findings made clear that families are under a tremendous amount of stress while experiencing incredible economic instability.