Free 2-K is coming to every Bronx district and all of Staten Island next fall: see the full neighborhood list

Free child care for 2-year-olds is headed to every school district in the Bronx and to all of Staten Island next fall. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday named the districts that will share 10,000 new 2-K seats starting in fall 2027, taking the program to all five boroughs.

The expansion adds 17 of the city's 32 geographic school districts, bringing 2-K to 22 districts in total, and also adds seats in the five districts where it started this year, according to the Mayor's Office announcement. City Hall says more than 12,000 families will have access next fall. Parents can't apply yet: officials said the application timeline will be announced in the coming weeks.

Where 2-K is coming in fall 2027

Besides the entire Bronx and all of Staten Island, these districts are new to the program, per the city's list (also published by Gothamist):

Manhattan

• District 4: East Harlem; Randall's Island
• District 5: Central Harlem, East Harlem, Manhattanville/West Harlem, Morningside Heights, Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill

Brooklyn

• District 16: Bedford-Stuyvesant, including Stuyvesant Heights, plus parts of northern Crown Heights and Ocean Hill
• District 17: Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Wingate, Prospect Heights, Flatbush, East Flatbush and parts of Brownsville
• District 19: East New York, New Lots, Cypress Hills, City Line, Spring Creek, Starrett City and parts of Canarsie
• District 20: Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach and parts of Bensonhurst, Borough Park and Sunset Park
• District 21: Coney Island, Sea Gate, Brighton Beach, Gravesend, Homecrest, Midwood and parts of Bensonhurst
• District 32: Bushwick and parts of East Williamsburg and northern Bedford-Stuyvesant

Queens

• District 24: Corona, Elmhurst, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Glendale, Sunnyside, Woodside and parts of Jackson Heights and Long Island City
• District 28: Rego Park, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Briarwood, Jamaica, South Jamaica, Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park, Rochdale Village and Springfield Gardens
• District 29: Queens Village, Cambria Heights, Hollis, St. Albans, Laurelton, Rosedale and parts of Jamaica Estates and Bellerose

The five districts that launched 2-K in September keep it and get more seats: District 6 in Manhattan, District 10 in the Bronx, Districts 18 and 23 in Brooklyn and District 27 in Queens.

What families get

2-K runs through child care centers and licensed family child care programs, not public school classrooms. The default is full-day, full-year care, which amNY reports generally means 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., 260 days a year. City Hall has estimated a seat saves a family about $26,000 a year, amNY reported.

Demand for the first round was steep: families filed more than 5,700 applications for about 2,000 seats, and roughly 3,700 applicants landed on waitlists when offers went out in August, according to amNY. Staten Island was left out of year one, which drew criticism from borough officials; the mayor had said in March that the borough would be included in the next phase.

Who pays, and what could go wrong

The program is backed by a $1.2 billion state investment over two years. Gothamist notes that Hochul has not said how much the state will contribute after the second year; asked Monday, she said she would do "whatever it takes" to keep 2-K going and did not rule out a tax increase. The Day Care Council of New York, quoted in the city's release, said community-based providers need a long-term funding commitment beyond the two years identified so far.

Providers have also struggled with late contracts and payments during the first rollout. City & State spoke with a Staten Island program director who said she would have to either contract with the city for 2-K or close her private classroom for 2-year-olds, the part of her business where she sets prices. The city says New York City Public Schools will hire more than 200 staff to speed up contracting, and that within the next week it will send a survey to current providers and a request for information to new providers interested in offering 2-K.

For other child care options for children under 5, the city points families to nyc.gov/childcare.