FINDINGS Many parents with young children in New York City share similar child care challenges. Cost, limited access, and inflexibility are significant barriers. But not all parents have the same needs or vision for their children’s earliest years, with different preferences in terms of caregivers, schedules, and quali- ties. Some parents need support after the school day ends, others need care in the evenings or over- night, while some are seeking care only two or three days a week or would like a trusted relative to be paid to provide regular care. For many, current child care arrangements fall short of what they want or what they would ideally choose. These gaps are not evenly distributed across demographic lines — or the city itself. Parents use many types of child care — and care is a 24/7 issue. Today, 64 percent of NYC parents with children under six regularly use some form of nonparental child care. Parents who are currently employed are twice as likely as those who are not employed or retired to depend on someone else to care for their children. Among parents using nonparental care, 27 per- cent rely on care provided by a relative other than a parent, making it the most common arrangement, followed by child care centers at 22 percent (Figure 1). 10 Patterns of child care use also vary by race and ethnicity, income, and geography. Forty percent of His- panic parents rely on care provided by another relative. Use of relative care is also high among parents living in the Bronx (40 percent) and Staten Island (44 percent), while child care center use is higher among white parents (32 percent) and parents living in Brooklyn (30 percent). Parents with lower or more moderate incomes (less than 85 percent of the state median income (SMI)) are more likely to rely on care from another relative, while higher-income parents (above 85 percent SMI) are more likely to use child care centers.
10 The term “work” is used here to refer to formal employment or work for wages, as opposed to parents’ unpaid labor.
THE 2026 NEW YORK CITY PARENT SURVEY : WHAT CHILD CARE PARENTS WANT 9
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