On May 2, 2023, the New York State legislature passed the state budget for fiscal year 2023-2024 (FY 2024). The final state budget for FY 2024 maintained the state’s $5 million funding for QUALITYstarsNY.
We thank New York State lawmakers for maintaining the state’s annual funding for QUALITYstarsNY, however, a sustained, increased investment in QUALITYstarsNY is needed in next year’s state budget so more families across the state can access high quality early childhood education.
Sustaining the Recent Growth of QUALITYstarsNY Requires Increased Investment for FY 2025
In 2021, the state allocated $35 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) to support the growth of QUALITYstarsNY over three years.
With this historic investment, QUALITYstarsNY will be able to more than double in size and serve 2,250 early childhood programs, but we cannot stop there. The new programs QUALITYstarsNY is currently expanding to support will continue to need its services in the years to come, as will many additional programs, in order to ensure families have increased access to high quality child care across the state. The gains and expansion that this unprecedented funding has provided need to be supported.
The $5 million annual funding that QUALITYstarsNY has been allocated in the NYS state budget since 2017 must be increased if the state is to safeguard program quality – especially as policies are implemented to expand access and affordability for families.
QUALITYstarsNY requests an increase in annual funding from $5 million to $20 million in the New York State budget next year to build a foundation for long-term growth and ensure more early childhood programs, and the families they serve, can benefit from the comprehensive services that QUALITYstarsNY provides to support program quality.
Help Educate Lawmakers about the Impact of QUALITYstarsNY
We encourage participants to continue to reach out to their state lawmakers to share why they are committed to creating high quality early care and education experiences and how their program, staff, and the children and families they serve have benefited from their partnership with QUALITYstarsNY.
We are so appreciative of our community of passionate educators and sincerely thank everyone who has helped spread the word about QUALITYstarsNY and its impact on their program!
If your agency is not permitted to reach out to lawmakers directly, we hope you’ll ask your families to spread the word about how their child is benefiting from your program’s partnership with QUALITYstarsNY.
Download QUALITYstarsNY’s Investing in the Quality of New York State’s Early Learning System handout to include with your letters or messages to state lawmakers.
QUALITYstarsNY Testifies at NYS Senate Children and Families Committee Hearing
On January 26, QUALITYstarsNY testified at the New York State Senate Committee on Children and Families public hearing on the state’s child care crisis. QUALITYstarsNY’s testimony was delivered by Dona Anderson, Executive Director of the New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute.
The testimony highlighted the impact of QUALITYstarsNY, its proven model of continuous quality improvement, and its role in safeguarding the quality of New York’s early childhood system. QUALITYstarsNY also spoke about its recent expansion and emphasized the importance of sustaining its growth—especially now, to safeguard program quality as the Governor and State lawmakers seek to implement policies to increase child care access and affordability.
