Public Employee Press

New state budget preserves Queens child-care program

In the New York State budget adopted in April, $3 million was allotted to continue the Queens Child Care Project. The funds mean that the voucher program, which provides day care subsidies for low-income families, will still be available.

“In particular, we want to thank Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly member William Scarborough,” said Assistant Director Moira Dolan of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept.

For parents like Queens Library Guild Local 1321 member Lawanna Dean, the mother of children aged 3, 6, and 11, the voucher program is crucial.

“If I didn’t have the voucher program, I probably wouldn’t be able to work,” she said. A Customer Service Specialist at the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center in Queens, Dean expressed immense relief at the news of the funding. “If it didn’t get renewed, I don’t know what I would have done,” she said. Her 3-year-old is enrolled in the Our Kids Place Child Care Center, and the other two children are enrolled in afterschool care.

The subsidy voucher may also be used for eligible summer day camp expenses for children under 13, and must be used with a provider who has an official tax identification number. For more information, parents should call 212-929-4608 and ask for the Queens Project, said Dolan.