Mayor Mamdani announces next phase of 2-K in NYC

Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News on Oct 19, 2026

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NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani is announcing an expansion of free childcare for 2-year-olds Monday with an additional 10,000 seats, bringing the “2-K” program to a majority of all New York City school districts in 2027, including all of Staten Island and the Bronx.

Mamdani, with a boost of $425 million in state money set aside in January by Gov. Kathy Hochul , is adding the additional seats across 17 school districts to 2-K for the next school year, according to city officials. All in with the expansion, there will be more than 12,000 children enrolled in the program, a roughly sixfold increase in capacity over the first year pilot.

The goal is to make the program universal across New York City by the end of the mayor’s first term in 2029. Roughly 86,700 2-year-olds live in New York City, including 16,400 in the first-year school districts, according to a recent independent analysis of the program by Citizens’ Committee for Children.

“From Co-op City in the Bronx to Staten Island’s South Shore, we’re bringing 2-K to every borough and making New York City more affordable for working people,” Mamdani said in a statement.

After Staten Island was snubbed in this year’s pilot program, all of the “Forgotten Borough” will receive seats in the expansion next fall. Unlike the rest of the boroughs, Staten Island is home to just one school district.

This phase of the rollout will also bring 2-K to the remaining five school districts in the Bronx, after just one Bronx school district was part of the pilot. Mamdani and Hochul are scheduled to make the announcement Monday morning at a Bronx trampoline park.

The other new school districts to get seats are Manhattan’s Districts 4 and 5 in Harlem and Morningside Heights; Brooklyn’s Districts 16 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, 17 in Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Flatbush, 19 in East New York, 20 in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, 21 in Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Gravesend and Midwood, and 32 in Bushwick and East Williamsburg; and Queens’ Districts 24 in Corona, 28 in Forest Hills and Jamaica, and 29 in Queens Village and St. Albans.

The five school districts that received the first 2,000 seats of 2-K this year, but did not receive enough seats to meet parent demand, are also getting more capacity next school year, the mayor’s spokespeople said.

“This is how we deliver real relief for working families, and make sure our kids get the best possible start in life,” Hochul said in a statement.

Like the pilot, all 2-K programs next school year will open in daycare centers and private homes, and run on full-day and full-year schedules. More information about the fall 2027 application timeline is expected in the coming weeks, according to a news release.

The Mamdani administration also plans to survey current daycare contractors, and request proposals from independent childcare providers, to gauge interest in offering 2-K “within the next week.”

2-K opened this year with nearly three applications for every seat. Emmy Liss, Mamdani’s childcare czar, at a recent City Council hearing estimated that “hundreds” of families who did not apply to 2-K by the deadline have since added themselves to waitlists that are open year-round.

The first 2-K school districts were Manhattan’s District 6 in Washington Heights and Inwood; the Bronx’s District 10 in Fordham, Norwood and Kingsbridge; Brooklyn’s Districts 18 and 23 in Canarsie, Ocean Hill and Brownsville; and Queens’ District 27 in the Rockaways, Ozone Park and Howard Beach.

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