Over sixty community members gathered at the Innovative Daycare Corp, in Freeport, on Monday for “From Playroom to Podium: A Rally for Child Care Justice,” a vibrant two-hour event calling for equity, funding and recognition for child care providers.
The rally was part of the national Day Without Child Care movement, founded in 2021 by a coalition of early-childhood educators under the umbrella of Community Change, a progressive community-organizing group whose members include IDC’s founder, Janna Rodriguez.
“We’re here today not just to rally,” Rodriguez told the crowd, “but to remind this country what holds it together, and it’s called care, children and community.”
Rodriguez, a longtime advocate, educator and small-business owner, was central to organizing the only Long Island-based action for the day. The rally featured a lineup of speakers that included elected officials, parents, high school interns and even young children who are enrolled at the day care facility.
Freeport
Mayor Robert Kennedy attended, and presented Rodriguez with a citation recognizing her contributions, while Nassau County
Legislator Debra Mulé and Melissa Figueroa, deputy director of the county Office of Hispanic Affairs, made remarks.
“If we don’t have good child care, everything else grinds to a halt,” Mulé said.
“Child care professionals make it possible,” Figueroa said. “Parents can go to work every day — that directly affects our economy. We’re in full support of the day care workers across the county. You are essential workers, and we want you to know that we extend our deepest appreciation.”
Representatives from the offices of County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Legislator Seth Koslow shared messages of support.
Congressman Tom Suozzi also offered his support in a statement, and organizations including Community Change Action and Home Grown had representatives on-site.
Rodriguez, who is studying for a master’s degree in early childhood education at Brooklyn College and working toward a National Association for Family Child Care accreditation for her facility – which if realized would make the IDC the first daycare on Long Island to achieve the distinction – used the rally to spotlight the sector’s core challenges: low wages, underfunded infrastructure, and lack of respect for early-childhood education as a legitimate field.
“The average early-childhood educator makes $7.25 an hour in this country,” she told the crowd. “For a family that does not have child-care assistance, they’re paying $25,000 to $30,000 a year for full-time care.
“This system is not built for people like me to succeed,” Rodriguez added. “And yet we show up every single day for our children, for our families and for our community. What we need now is for the system to show up for us.”
She emphasized the urgency of sustaining and expanding funding at both the federal and state levels — and especially preserving and expanding federal support through Child Care and Development Block Grants. She warned that any cuts would further destabilize an already fragile system, called on New York state to match federal contributions and highlighted pay equity as one of the rally’s top demands.
While officials and providers discussed policy, the heart of the rally was the children. Dozens took part in face painting, crafts and games while others — like Haylie Boissard Hernandez and Mia Salome, both 6 — stepped up to the microphone to share their thoughts. Interns and parents also offered testimonials, describing how access to care shaped their lives.
As she closed the rally, Rodriguez delivered a direct appeal to the federal government. “I’m asking President Trump and his administration to prioritize children, to prioritize investment in our community background,” she said. “We need to support our workforce. We need to support our families. And most importantly, we need to uplift our children.”
One of the final speakers was little Haylie, who offered her message in full, unfiltered sincerity. “(The daycare) is important,” she said, “because you take care of people, you take care of babies, you take care of little childs, you give them food where they can grow, like a sun or a flower.”
Rodriguez explained that early-childhood education continues to be undervalued and misunderstood. Too often, she said, child care providers are viewed as babysitters rather than educators, despite overwhelming evidence that early development is critical to lifelong learning. She emphasized that child care should be treated as essential infrastructure — not as a charitable service.
She was also clear about her bipartisan message.
“I just want to really make it super clear that we should not be politicizing child care,” she said. “And we should not be utilizing it as a talking point, because the fact of the matter is, this is a lifeline for many families, and when you take it away, or you just disrupt it, you’re disrupting an entire ecosystem that really feeds a lot of other individuals and a lot of families.”
