Weeks away from the start of school, 3-K and pre-K programs are without funding

Two weeks away from the first day of school on Sept. 10, pre-K and 3-K providers are digging into their own pockets to be able to open their doors on time after New York City failed to deliver its typical advance payments.

Caryn Rich-Caverly, the educational director at Sips Kinder Facilities on Staten Island, said she has had to take out a high-interest American Express line of credit to pay staff, her facilities’ September mortgage payment and utilities. 

Christine Canto, director at There’s No Place Like Home Pre-School in Queens, said she is borrowing money from friends and family as well as emptying her own savings account, so that she can afford to pay her staff and not disrupt the lives of her students whose families depend on childcare.

“It’s not fair, it’s not right, that’s not who I am,” Canto said, when asked if she considered keeping her doors closed. “I’m in this business not for the money but because I care about children and families and I love what I do.” 

Providers of the city’s 3-K and pre-K programs, hosted in New York City Early Education Centers that contract with the city, are facing those difficult decisions because they have not received any of their usual funding from the Department of Education to start the school year, City Hall confirmed. Over 1,000 early childhood education centers depend on this funding to pay for teachers, snacks and supplies for their classrooms. 

The early education programs provide free 3-K and pre-K education overseen by Department of Education-certified teachers and typically receive an advance on their budget in August – approximately 30% – to open their doors in September, according to another director of an education center. 

But this year, according to emails obtained by City & State, program directors were told in June that due to their contract renewals not being processed yet, no funding would be coming in August. An operations analyst for the city’s Division of Early Childhood Education later confirmed to one provider in July that the delay in registering contracts could last “several months.” Providers were instructed to apply for an interest-free month-to-month bridge loan through the Returnable Grant Fund, according to another email that was sent by the Division of Early Childhood Education to program leaders. 

City officials announced in late July that Simone Hawkins, who leads the Division of Early Childhood Education, would be stepping down from her position. They did not say at the time why she is leaving or who would be replacing her. A spokesperson for the DOE did not respond to a question about whether her departure is related to the contract issue.

“These contract registration delays are both deeply concerning and nothing new,” said Nicole Brownstein, a spokesperson for the Department of Education. “In the immediate, New York City Public Schools is in the process of onboarding additional contracting capacity, prioritizing the registration of early childhood education contracts and ensuring every provider has the funding they need as they begin the school year, whether through a registered contract or interest-free loans.” Representatives for City Hall and the Department of Education did not provide an updated estimate of how long delays in payments could last.

Rich-Caverly said she applied for the bridge loan last month, but said she has not heard a response despite the Division of Early Childhood Education claiming the processing time should take 7-10 business days. 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has made universal childcare a key part of his agenda, announcing an ambitious pilot for free childcare for two-year-olds in his first month in office. This 2-K pilot is expected to be supported and integrated into the contracts with existing early childhood education programs. 

While already feeling the strain of rising costs, program leaders met with Mamdani in February to discuss their funding struggles. After their meeting, in an email from the Division of Early Childhood Education, they were told that a 2% increase had been approved for the fiscal year 2027 budget to accommodate the rising cost of living. But in addition to not receiving advance payments, 3-K and pre-K education centers will not be seeing the 2% bump they were promised until the contracts are registered.

“We’re working on a 2021 budget in 2026,” said Lori Reitzen Cangiolose, a program director for The Play Experience on Staten Island and founder of the 5-Borough NYCEEC Coalition, saying the rising costs of supplies and food have outgrown their funding level and that providers either have to make up the difference or make cuts. “Our personal savings should not be NYC’s emergency fund.”

Cangiolose was told last fall, during the previous mayoral administration, that there would be no new contract proposals for education centers that contract with the city, and that instead their current contracts would be extended. She argued that the education department should have gotten an earlier start at registering the contract renewals given that notice. In an email to Cangiolose sent by Emmy Liss this week, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education, Liss said that the large number of contracts was slowing down the registration process.

City Comptroller Mark Levine, whose office is in charge of registering all city contracts, said it is the education department’s negligence that caused this delay. “The DOE has known that these extensions would be needed for months, yet their late start in submitting them has put providers in an impossible situation just two weeks ahead of the year’s start,” a spokesperson for Levine’s office said. “Our office is still waiting for a large volume of these contracts, and we will continue to expeditiously review them no matter how late they come to us.” 

Slow payment of contracts is not new for New York City. Nonprofits have been complaining about it for years. Timeliness in payments to Early Childhood Education was even recognized by the City Council during budget hearings as something that needs to be improved.