The newly-adopted state budget includes $20 million for Monroe County to develop a pilot program to expand child care availability and access.
The program will be developed in partnership with the state. County Executive Adam Bello said recently that the project is in beginning stages, and initial work has focused on determining the actual availability of child care in Monroe County.
“We started the process of looking at that, so you can, you can hit the issue from a couple different ways with the ultimate goal of expanding that availability for ... zero through three,” Bello said during an appearance with Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The county is working with the Child Care Council of Rochester to survey providers licensed through New York state, Bello said. They’re asking about things like the number of available child care slots that are unfilled and, for providers who don’t have enough staff, how many slots would be available if they could fill open positions. They’re also asking providers about their capacity to expand.
Monroe was of three counties chosen to develop the trial projects — the other two are also each receiving $20 million. At a recent stop at Monroe Community College’s downtown Rochester campus, Hochul said she hopes this initiative could inform work happening across the state.
“The road to universal child care is going to start right here in Monroe County,” she said.
