Freeport childcare advocate joins push for $1.2B in workforce funding

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Janna Rodriguez, owner of Innovative Daycare Corp. in Freeport, joined hundreds rallying in Albany for Advocacy Day on Tuesday, urging lawmakers to address the pressing needs of New York’s childcare system.

The rally, led by the Empire State Campaign for Child Care and held in the New York State Capitol Building, draws childcare providers, parents and advocates to the state capital each year to make their case.

This year’s top priority is to secure $1.2 billion in workforce compensation to support childcare providers and ensure that families can access affordable, quality care.

Rodriguez, a lifelong Freeport resident, runs Innovative Daycare, at 67 Centre St., a bilingual home-based childcare facility serving 16 children ages six weeks to 12 years.

“Ninety-five percent of our families use the child care assistance plan that New York state provides to be able to support our families, especially those that are most in need,” she said.

For years, families were unable to qualify for the assistance plan due to restrictive income limits. Rodriguez explained that until October of 2023 a mother with one child could not earn more than $30,000 a year to qualify — an amount far below the cost of living on Long Island.

“Now for a family of two, you can make up to $53,000, so it’s a huge difference,” Rodriguez said. “There were many families, many moms that had two jobs that wouldn’t qualify because they literally made, you know, just $5,000 more a year.”

She emphasized that much work still needs to be done to make childcare more accessible. “We need to focus on long-term investments and not putting Band-Aids on top of the crisis that we have,” she added.

As a regional lead for Nassau County in the Empire State Campaign for Child Care, Rodriguez has been at the forefront of lobbying efforts to address the childcare crisis.

“Most of the staff are making minimum wage, because that’s the most that we can afford to provide with all of the costs that come with owning a small business,” she said, sharing that her three employees and three paid interns are currently compensated $16.50 an hour.

Childcare centers like Innovative Daycare face significant challenges, including rising costs and a workforce shortage.

Maria Ahrens, owner of Paper Planes Early Learning Center in Mount Sinai, said,

“Childcare was built on a system that the workforce was paid minimum wage. But that doesn’t work because the expectations of the work are far too high. It’s not a minimum wage job.”

Ahrens pointed out that many childcare centers struggle with cash flow because state assistance payments often arrive months late, making it difficult to cover payroll and other expenses.

“We’re still getting paid for November in January,” she said. “It’s hard to sustain a business that way.”

She also cited escalating insurance premiums as contributing to the high overhead, premiums which are rising in part because of understaffing — and which make it more difficult to pay and attract staff.

Empire State Campaign for Child Care’s demands include increasing wages for childcare workers, making the child care assistance plan accessible to all eligible families, and addressing barriers that prevent immigrant and low-income families from accessing care.

Shoshana Hershkowitz, campaign manager for the Empire State Campaign, stressed the importance of universal childcare and the need for sustained public investment.

“We’re proposing state dollars for a permanent Workforce Compensation Fund with using state dollars,” Hershkowitz said. “Up to this point, the last couple years, the governor has used Covid funds to do one-time bonuses, but they’ve been like no more than $3,000, usually between one and three, which is not enough to really address this issue.

“We’re proposing what they did in D.C., which is roughly $12,000 per year per child care worker,” she added. “So this year, that would be a $1.2 billion ask.”

Rodriguez pointed out the emotional and developmental impact on children who lack access to quality early education.

Gov. Kathy Hochul recently proposed a $110 million childcare initiative, a positive step, but advocates like Rodriguez believe more is needed. For Rodriguez and her peers, Advocacy Day is about ensuring a future where no child or family is left behind.

“There’s just so much going on, and at the core of that is this sense of putting our children last when they should be put first,” Rodriguez said. “And so I continue to advocate on behalf of that. I continue to advocate on behalf of universal child care, because that’s really what we should have in this country.”