{"id":40304,"date":"2026-05-02T16:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/?p=40304"},"modified":"2026-05-02T16:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:05:10","slug":"mayor-mamdani-opens-applications-for-the-little-apple-new-york-citys-first-free-child-care-pilot-program-for-municipal-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/40304","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Mamdani opens applications for \u201cThe Little Apple,\u201d New York City’s first free child care pilot program for Municipal workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWYORK: New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) Commissioner Yume Kitasei announced that applications are now open for \u201cThe Little Apple,\u201d the City\u2019s first free, full-day, full-year, on-site child care pilot program for City workers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani and Commissioner Kitasei also announced imagine early learning centers\u00a0as the program\u2019s operator. Imagine Early Learning Centers has more than two decades of experience in early childhood education, is 100% employee-owned and currently serves more than 600 children across 12 child care centers in the New York metropolitan area.<\/p>\n

The Little Apple\u2019s pilot location will serve approximately 40 children ages 6 weeks to 3 years and operate out of the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building.<\/p>\n

Last month, Mayor Mamdani expanded the child care program eligibility to include all City workers based at the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street in addition to all DCAS employees regardless of work location. The Municipal Building, one of the largest government office buildings in the world, houses more than 2,000 employees across a dozen municipal agencies.<\/p>\n

The program will operate on the ground floor of the building\u2019s North Tower and provide year-round care Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The $10 million renovation is underway to construct a 4,000-square-foot child care facility, with completion expected this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dedicated public servants who keep this city running deserve high-quality, free child care that meets the needs of their busy schedules \u2014 that is exactly what \u2018The Little Apple\u2019 will do,\u201d said\u00a0Mayor Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope this center will serve as a model for City government at its best, where a strong start for New York\u2019s Cutest is a guarantee and not a luxury. We\u2019re calling on all DCAS and 1 Centre employees to apply today \u2014 kids from 6 weeks to 3 years are eligible!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the launch of the application period and selection of the vendor to operate The Little Apple, we are taking monumental steps forward and transforming what child care looks like in a modern workforce,\u201d said\u00a0DCAS Commissioner Yume Kitasei.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to work with Imagine Early Learning Centers to open the doors to the city\u2019s first The Little Apple site this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine is honored to be partnering with DCAS and the Mamdani administration to bring our best-in-class early childhood care and education to New York City employees at no cost,\u201d said\u00a0Laura Tulchin, CEO of Imagine Early Learning Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the country’s only 100% employee-owned child care company, we know that a strong child care program like this will benefit all of New York\u2019s families, children and workers. We believe deeply in this program and are proud to be a part of such an important step for our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday’s announcement is a huge first step to deliver free child care for municipal employees,\u201d said\u00a0New York City Comptroller Mark Levine. \u201cThis will be a game-changing service for parents, who won’t have to choose between devoting their career to civil service and saving on child care expenses. I look forward to seeing The Little Apple open this Fall, and to the positive ripple effects free and affordable child care will have on our workforce, local economy and government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pleased DCAS is opening applications for the city\u2019s first free municipal child care program, a real step forward in advancing Mayor Mamdani\u2019s free child care policies citywide,\u201d said\u00a0Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful to Commissioner Kitasei for her leadership, and for her commitment to lowering child care costs for our city’s public servants. I look forward to seeing DCAS further expand the city\u2019s child care program borough-wide.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEWYORK: New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) Commissioner Yume Kitasei announced that applications are now open for \u201cThe Little Apple,\u201d the City\u2019s first free, full-day, full-year, on-site child care pilot program for City workers. Mayor Mamdani and Commissioner Kitasei also announced imagine early learning centers\u00a0as the program\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1469,31,1378],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-york","category-news","category-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40305,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40304\/revisions\/40305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}