NYC Needs Additional Funds to Maintain Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) Vouchers in State Fiscal Year 2026 and Beyond

A new Robin Hood-funded report produced by the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School studies a FY2026 state budget shortfall of around $900 million in New York City Administration of Children’s Services (ACS), the city agency responsible for administering child care vouchers. This funding shortfall would cause currently enrolled and newly applying low-income families to immediately lose access to child care.

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.