Early childhood programs serving families in the Adirondacks are severely underfunded, leaving thousands of children without access to childcare, home visiting and early intervention services despite more than $36 million in public spending each year, according to a 2024 report commissioned by the Adirondack Birth to Three Alliance and the Adirondack Community Foundation.
The report reveals that the true cost of providing quality services for children from birth to age 5 far exceeds current state, federal and local funding levels. Researchers estimate that building a system capable of meeting regional needs would require up to $217 million annually — nearly six times current investments.
“This is a broken system that relies on chronic underpayment of providers and leaves families without options,” the report states, citing staffing shortages, declining childcare capacity and wages that fall well below a living wage for the region.
A January 8 proposal by New York State Governor Kathy Hochul to expand childcare and Pre-K services across the state in the years ahead might ease some of these deficits if, that is, roughly $1.2 billion in new funding is approved by the legislature before the end of its 2026 session.
Hochul’s aides say that higher-than-anticipated personal income tax collections eliminated a projected $4.2 billion budget gap and have made the expansion of childcare programs and services possible.
“As far as they go, the Governor’s proposals make great strides in addressing the issue of the lack of affordable childcare,” said Lake George’s representative in the state Assembly, Matt Simpson. “I will be advocating for the inclusion of support for childcare in the Adirondacks. It’s critically needed.”
According to Jim Siplon, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corp. of Warren County (EDC), affordable, accessible childcare is a vital part of any effort to make the Adirondack Park “a sustainable place.”
“Childcare – like housing and public transportation – is critical if we are to build a workforce that can staff our existing economy; it’s also essential if that economy is to grow, in ways appropriate to the Adirondack Park,” said Siplon. “The lack of childcare is one of those structural issues keeping people on the sidelines of the workforce.”
Eighty percent of the Adirondack/North Country region is considered a “childcare desert” – an area where at least three children under the age of 5 compete for every available childcare slot, Kate Ryan, director of the Adirondack Birth to Three Alliance told us.
Among the reasons why she found the Governor’s proposals promising, even heartening, Ryan said, “is that there is now so much energy around childcare. Our region is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this unprecedented increase in funding.”
An outcome of the proposals, said Jim Siplon, “should be a less parched childcare desert.”
Local childcare services expected to expand
A proposed 50% increase in funding for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), the primary vector for subsidizing the high costs of childcare, when paired with other initiatives, “will ensure that New York’s children get all of the building blocks to a successful future,” said Meredith M. Chimento, executive director of the state-funded Early Care & Learning Council.
“An expansion of subsidies is critical for the delivery of childcare in the North Country,” said Chimento. “Every type of program will be able to enroll more children.”
According to the New York State Comptroller’s Office, the average price of childcare in New York is the second highest in the nation, in some counties, absorbing more than one-third of a median family’s income.
The $1.2 billion in new funding proposed by the Governor will offer access to childcare to more families in the Adirondack/North Country region, as well as in urban areas, said Kate Ryan.
“As these families receive greater and sustained financial support, providers will feel confident that they can raise their rates and charge fees that more closely approximate the true cost of care, which in turn will lead to greater financial stability for childcare providers,” said Ryan.
According to the Rockefeller Institute, the SUNY Albany-affiliated think tank, only 10 to 26 percent of New York families eligible for CCAP vouchers currently receive benefits.
In Warren County alone, more than half the families with pre-school children qualify for some form of childcare assistance. Only 5% of children eligible for benefits receive them, however.
The Early Care and Learning Council’s Meredith Chimento expects those numbers to start to grow.
Expanded Pre-K for 4-year-olds
In addition to increasing funding for CCAP, initiatives floated by Governor Hochul in January include: expanding universal Pre-K for 4-year-olds to every school district in New York State by the 2028-29 school year; zoning changes to increase childcare capacity, an Office of Child Care and Early Education and a pilot program, to be launched in four upstate counties in 2027, that will serve as many as 1,000 children aged 3 and younger.
“The emphasis in the press and among elected officials on the expansion of early childcare in New York City has overshadowed the push toward Universal Pre-K for all four-year-olds; that will affect every community, including those in upstate New York,” said Chimento.
According to the New York State Comptroller, many rural community-based providers and school districts currently lack the capacity to offer places to every family with four-year-olds in need of pre-K care.
“As a region, we are working toward maximizing the number of slots available to four-year-olds; pre-K for four-year olds is an important part of the Governor’s proposal, and we look forward to an increase in the number of slots available to these children,” said Kate Ryan.
Assembly and Senate on Board
According to the Lake George Mirror’s partners at New York Focus, childcare appears to be one of the least divisive aspects of the budget process. The Assembly and the Senate have both included all of Hochul’s main proposals in their one house budgets and have offered some modifications to the governor’s universal Pre-K plan.
