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“Families of young children with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities…are being turned away from program after program. Not because providers don’t want to serve them, but because the system makes it financially unsustainable to do so.”
New York is building something historic—and getting it wrong for the children who need it most.
After years of advocacy, the city has made real commitments toward universal child care, a system meant to ensure that every family, regardless of income, can access quality early education and care. But there is a critical flaw at the center of this expansion: children with disabilities are being left out, pushed out, and priced out—and the nonprofit providers fighting to serve them are being driven to the edge.
This is not a gap in intention. It is a failure of policy.
Providers on the ground are seeing the same pattern over and over: families of young children with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities—many with documented needs through an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)—are being turned away from program after program. Not because providers don’t want to serve them, but because the system makes it financially unsustainable to do so.
Children with disabilities are eligible for an enhanced reimbursement rate to account for the additional staffing, training, and support required. That rate is essential. Serving children with complex needs costs more, and providers are willing to do that work when systems are aligned.
But the enhanced rate is not automatic.
Programs wait months for approval for each child. In one documented case, we waited 219 days. During that time, providers are paid at the standard rate—far below the actual cost of care. Then, due to a technical limitation in a system that is decades old, once the enhanced rate is approved, providers must return all payments received and wait for reimbursement at the new rate. No clear timelines. No communication beyond “application received.”
The cascading effect is predictable and devastating:
- Programs absorb months of financial loss with no end date in sight
- Cash flow becomes unstable
- Payroll becomes uncertain
- Providers face an impossible choice: absorb the risk or turn families away
Most programs cannot afford to say yes to instability. So, they say no to families.
The result is a quiet but devastating form of exclusion. More than 80 percent of the children we serve have already been asked to leave at least one early childhood program because their needs could not be met—many pushed out of multiple settings before finding one willing to try.
The scale of this failure is documented. According to Citizens’ Committee for Children’s newly released Keeping Track of New York City’s Children, nearly 32,000 New York City preschoolers had an IEP last school year—and 45 percent never received at least one mandated service. The preschool IEP population grew 19 percent since 2021; unmet need grew 48 percent.
We are not building a universal system. We are scaling an inequitable one.
City and state leaders have a narrow window to act—and three concrete steps to take. First, eligibility for the enhanced voucher rate must be automatic for any child with an IEP or IFSP already on file. The need has already been documented through a formal evaluation process. There is no justification for a separate approval system that delays access and destabilizes providers.
Second, reimbursement rates must reflect the true cost of care. Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi and Senator Patricia Fahy have introduced legislation that takes an important step towards rightsizing costs by doubling the enhanced Child Care Assistance Program rate for programs serving children with special needs. This is not an expansion of benefits. It is a necessary correction to bring funding in line with reality. Albany should pass it, and the governor should sign it.
Third, the state must modernize the infrastructure to administer payments. No provider should be forced to return funds and wait months for reimbursement because of outdated technology. These are not administrative inconveniences. They are barriers to access that cost children their place in care.
New York has the momentum, the legislation, and the moral obligation to build a child care system that works for every child—from infancy through adolescence, regardless of ability or zip code.
“Universal” cannot be aspirational language. It must be operational reality.
Right now, for children with disabilities in New York, it is not.
Raysa S. Rodriguez is executive director of Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York.* Jill Moses is executive director of Inspired Community Project in the Bronx.
*Citizens Committee for Children is among City Limits’ funders.