New York City Needs Additional Funds to Maintain Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) Vouchers in State Fiscal Year 2026 and Beyond
New York City Administration of Children’s Services (ACS) began publicly sounding the alarm in February 2025 that they are about to run out of Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) funds. Without more CCAP funding in this year’s state budget, ACS will be forced to turn away new applicants for child care assistance, and deny recertification to low-income families currently receiving assistance. Part of the reason for this budget shortfall is that families who receive cash assistance (known as Temporary Assistance (TA) in New York) will soon have work requirements reinstated (these were paused during the pandemic). ACS will be mandated to provide vouchers to TA-recipient families first. This report provides an independent analysis of the City’s estimated CCAP need and costs as a result of these and other changes. In order to prevent families from being kicked off of CCAP and other severe disruptions, we estimate the City will need an additional $823 to $907 million through Federal FY2026.