ORLEANS COUNTY, N.Y. – The state is telling families their child care help is over because there’s no more money. The stress is incredible for parents like Amber Miller, a mother of two.
“It really is,” Miller said struggling to talk.
Our investigation found the letters the state is sending to local parents. The letter from the Office of Children and Family Services tells them their child care benefit is “discontinued due to lack of funds.”
Amber Miller has two children in child care. She expects to get the state letter saying her benefit is over sometime after Christmas. She says she would lose everything including the job she’s had for 12 years.
Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “Why do you think you would lose all of that if you lose this benefit?”
Amber Miller, mother of two: “Because I would go from paying $4 a week for daycare to $500 a week for daycare. Which means if I did that and my kids still went to daycare I would have $200 to live off of for the month.”
Half a dozen families have pulled their children from Christine Robinson’s daycare in Albion after they got the letter and their benefit was cut.
Christine Robinson, daycare owner: “Yes, I’ve lost several now already.”
Berkeley Brean: “How many?”
Robinson: “At least six.”
Six children equals a revenue loss to Robinson’s child care business of somewhere between $60,000 and $115,000 a year.
Berkeley Brean: “So you think the letter is coming.”
Amber Miller: “Uh huh.”
Berkeley Brean: “And you dread that.”
Amber Miller: “I think about it every day.”
Here is the list of the 12 counties in New York where the money has run out: Essex, Franklin, Genesee, Herkimer, Lewis, NYC, Onondaga, Orleans, Rockland, Warren, Washington and Wyoming.
Most are rural.
Three are local: Wyoming, Genesee and Orleans.
Berkeley Brean: “What happened to the money here?”
Holli Nenni, Commissioner, Orleans County Dept. of Social Services: “The money was decreased periodically over the past several years.”
Holli Nenni is the commissioner of Social Services in Orleans County. The money comes from the state and Nenni says she’s complained about it.
Berkeley Brean: “And what kind of answer do you get from the state on that?”
Holli Nenni: “We just get silence that that’s all we’re going to get.”
In 2021-22, the state gave Orleans County $762,999 for the child care benefit. The following year was $666,332. In 2023-24, the amount dropped to $534,065. For 2024-25, the state increased the funding to $715,275 but that is still $47,000 less than 2021-22.
There are other factors. Families used to have to pay 10 to 35% of their income to the childcare. The state benefit paid the difference. After COVID, the state reduced that to 1%. The state raised eligibility. Now a family of two with a household income of $80,000 is eligible and at 1%, that family pays just $800 a year, or $15 a week. The benefit pays the rest. The state also requires the counties to pay for up to 80 absences a year.
“It is 80 days worth of daycare per year that we’re paying for children that aren’t really there,” Nenni said.
Berkeley Brean: “And that’s contributed to depleting the money?”
Holli Nenni: “Correct.”
Berkeley Brean: “If you could change anything to help these families maintain this benefit, what would you change?”
Nenni: “Actually people we’ve talked to have said they wished they hadn’t lowered the family share to 1% because they would have been willing to pay more out of their pocket in order to keep their daycare.”
Berkeley Brean: “Would you be willing to pay a little bit more for this benefit?”
Miller: “Yes! I did before. I did. And they re-evaluate things and made it possible for pretty much anybody to qualify and now the money is not there and for the people that actually really need it there’s no options for them.”
So parents like Amber get moved onto a waiting list and they stay there until there is enough money to pay for a daycare benefit for 12 straight months. The parents who are the most financially stressed do get bumped up to the top of the list.
The state letters are from the Office of Children and Family Services. We contacted them on Monday.
As of 4:30 Wednesday, OCFS has not shared a statement.
We checked in with every local county in our area. Monroe County and Livingston County say they have enough money right now but Ontario County says it’s “cautiously watching the numbers.”
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The post News10NBC Investigates: ‘I would lose everything’: Orleans County mother fears losing child care benefit as state funding runs out in 12 counties appeared first on WHEC.com.
