Governor Hochul Unveils New Initiatives to Support Children and Families Across New York

Governor Kathy Hochul today unveiled new initiatives to support children and families across New York as a part of her 2024 State of the State address. The Governor’s proposal will expand access to high quality health care for New York’s children and ensure that no child in need misses out on critical health care services. Governor Hochul is also building on her continued commitment to increasing child care access by expanding a grant program for child care providers, incentivizing high quality services at child care centers, and supporting the expansion of family child care networks. Governor Hochul will also launch a $50 million anti-poverty effort to lift up upstate communities that have been left behind for far too long.

“As New York’s first mom Governor, I know firsthand how challenging it can be to raise a family,” Governor Hochul said. “In response to the concerns I’ve heard from moms, dads and families across New York, we are taking major steps to reduce the financial burdens families too often face, while ensuring our kids have access to the critical care they need, and increasing access to child care and other vital resources for families across the state.”

Expanding Health Care Access for Children and Families

Governor Hochul is proposing several steps to expand access to high quality care for New York’s children. The Governor’s initiatives include:

• Submitting a request to the federal government to provide continuous Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage for any eligible child up to 6 years old to ensure that no child in need misses out on critical health care services due to a lapse in health insurance coverage.
• Increasing reimbursement rates for providers serving children through New York’s Patient-Centered Medical Home model to expand access to primary care for children.
• Increasing funding for school-based health centers and providing additional support for providers participating in the State’s Early Intervention program for children and toddlers with disabilities.
• Creating a new and streamlined designation process for Children and Family Treatment and Support Services to make it easier for more providers to provide these critical mental health services for children.
• Providing grant funding to community-based organizations that are making investments in improving the quality of life for children with special needs.
• Expanding the efforts of the New York State Children’s Asthma Initiative to train the health care workforce in delivering multidisciplinary care across multiple settings and better help children manage asthma.
• Amending the Reproductive Health Act to affirm minors’ right to receive contraceptive services and confidentially receive reproductive health care services.

Expanding and Enhancing Child Care

Governor Hochul is building on her continued commitment to increasing child care access to support kids and families by:

• Investing underutilized federal pandemic funds to continue providing grants to child care programs and support their workforce.
• Piloting staffed Family Child Care Networks (FCCNs) in regions around the state, with a focus on supporting and growing the capacity of family and group family child care providers to expand business and operational support for family child care programs, the majority of which are staffed by women.
• Proposing an initiative to increase the differential payment rate for high quality providers that are accredited by a nationally recognized child care organization, participate in New York’s Quality Rating & Improvement System, or have completed training and are an active participant in the OCFS Non-Patient Epinephrine Auto-Injector Initiative.
• Doubling the amount of Infant Toddler Mental Health Consultants statewide to support child care providers in the development of young minds, using a preventive approach to support the provider and improve the program environment.

Supporting New York Families

At the Governor’s direction, New York State has opted into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program for Children (Summer EBT), which will result in more than $200 million in federal benefits for an estimated 2 million children in New York State. For many families with children eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, the summer months can bring the added pressure of higher grocery needs and costs. Expanding the state’s summer meals program will help reduce hunger and food insecurity among New York families.

Additionally, New York will provide funding to local social services departments to support hiring of staff to provide families with specialized wrap-around services and case management as well as in-depth clinical assessments, crisis intervention, and referrals to mental health providers or other appropriate services or treatment, as needed. Local departments of social services play an important role in connecting New York families to public benefits, and this will provide greater support to families and help address any larger challenges they may be facing.

Bolstering Anti-Poverty Efforts Upstate

Governor Hochul will invest $50 million to support selected anti-poverty initiatives targeted in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. Nine of the top ten New York State zip codes with the highest child poverty rates are Upstate. More than half of children in these zip codes are in families living below the federal poverty line, and these cities rank among those with the highest child poverty rates nationwide. This new initiative will support locally-driven efforts to address the immediate needs of children and families