Supporting State Child Care Efforts with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds: New York

For 2009 and 2010, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is providing New York with an additional $96,785,640 for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), including $12,634,883 for improving the quality of child care, of which $4,633,721 is targeted for activities to improve the quality of care for infants and toddlers.

Implementing technology systems for child care assistance programs:
•    New York is using $5 million to support an automated child care time and attendance payment system in all counties, outside of New York City, for automated time and attendance tracking, accurate payment calculations, eligibility determination, and ongoing management of the child care assistance system.¹

Implementing a quality rating and improvement system:
•    New York is using $1.2 million over two years to field test QUALITYstarsNY, the state’s new quality rating and improvement system.²

Providing grants to child care programs for equipment, supplies and materials:
•    New York is using $3 million to establish a grant program to help regulated family child care providers increase the quality of the environment in which they provide their services.³ 

Supporting infant/toddler resource centers:
•    New York is using $3.1 million to enhance the funding currently provided to seven regional infant/toddler resource centers, specifically to augment staff capacity in order to reach more infant/toddler programs and providers.⁴

¹Email from Janice Molnar, Deputy Commissioner, Division of Child Care Services, New York State Office of Children and Family Services, to Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst, National Women’s Law Center, Jan. 22, 2010.
²Email from Carol Saginaw, Executive Director, Early Care and Learning Council, to Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public Policy, National Women’s Law Center, Aug. 21, 2009; email from Janice Molnar, Deputy Commissioner, Division of Child Care Services, New York State Office of Children and Family Services, to Karen Schulman, Jan. 22, 2010.
³Email from Janice Molnar, Deputy Commissioner, Division of Child Care Services, New York State Office of Children and Family Services, to Karen Schulman, Jan. 22, 2010.
⁴Email from Janice Molnar, Deputy Commissioner, Division of Child Care Services, New York State Office of Children and Family Services, to Karen Schulman, Jan. 22, 2010.