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“Investing in quality afterschool services now is not only fundamental to supporting the next generation of New Yorkers. It is critical to building a stronger economy, enabling more parents—particularly mothers—to participate fully in the workforce.”
New York City is at a critical juncture. As we look toward a pivotal mayoral election, city leaders have a profound opportunity to build better, safer and more affordable communities across the five boroughs.
One of our best tools to shape the future of our city is investing in accessible, affordable high-quality afterschool services. These programs are critical to both supporting the healthy development of young people and ensuring families can participate in the job market. In New York City, however, many afterschool programs are out of reach for families, operating with limited capacity, long waitlists, and inconsistent quality. Today, 80 percent of families can’t afford afterschool services, according to an analysis by the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York.
Programs like New York City’s Comprehensive Afterschool System (COMPASS) for students through fifth grade and School’s Out New York City (SONYC) for sixth-through-eighth grade students are particularly scarce and unevenly distributed. This has led to countless school-aged children being unsupervised and at risk after school from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Thankfully, Mayor Eric Adams recently announced a $331 million commitment to create a total of 20,000 new afterschool slots by Fiscal Year 2028 as part of his vision to build an afterschool system that is accessible to all.
The investment is a critical step in the right direction and presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a truly universal afterschool system—one that will help prevent learning loss, reduce community violence and crime and enable families to continue to work and put food on the table. We commend the administration for having such a forward-looking policy that can help make a universal afterschool system finally a reality.
Unfortunately, the proposed investments overlook one key piece of the puzzle. Afterschool programs are experiencing a staffing crisis. At a time when demand for afterschool programs from families is high, there is not enough capacity to care for children because of a lack of funding from the city. Across the city, providers are forced to operate in the red just to meet the needs of their communities. As a result, children and youth suffer.
Advocates have called for higher reimbursement rates for years, but the mayor’s proposal unfortunately does not address the issue of insufficient rates until 2027. That is too late. Children, youth and families are in desperate need of quality services now. To cover the true costs of operating the critical afterschool programs New York’s families rely on, New York City must increase rates for COMPASS and SONYC in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
In this moment when the mayor has rightly focused on making New York City more affordable, it’s critical that the administration focus on the urgent investments needed to sustain one of the basic supports the city provides working families. Increasing the base rates of afterschool programs would help ensure that we are building and expanding capacity upon a stable foundation.
Investing in quality afterschool services now is not only fundamental to supporting the next generation of New Yorkers. It is critical to building a stronger economy, enabling more parents—particularly mothers—to participate fully in the workforce.
Regardless of the outcome of the mayoral election, a clear vision for how to move the city toward a universal afterschool system requires investments now to ensure stable and sustainable growth. Let’s not miss this opportunity to build a quality system that meets the needs of children, youth and working families.
Our city’s future depends on it.
Raysa S. Rodriguez is the executive director of Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York.* Ben Thomases is the executive director of Queens Community House.
*Citizens’ Committee for Children is among City Limits’ funders.
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