(WNY News Now) – In a bid to alleviate the child care burden for working families, Governor Kathy Hochul launches a statewide Business Navigator toolkit, offering employers resources to provide affordable and accessible child care for their employees.
Governor Kathy Hochul has announced the launch of a Business Navigator Child Care toolkit designed to support employers who want to assist their employees with securing quality, affordable child care services for their children. The toolkit was developed by the Early Care & Learning Council using $1 million in funding allocated by the Governor in last year’s state budget. The Governor announced the initiative in last year’s State of the State address. This initiative is part of Governor Hochul’s historic $7 billion investment to expand and improve child care accessibility and affordability for working families.
By equipping employers with a single source of up-to-date information on child care, the Business Navigator toolkit will help connect more working families in New York to supportive resources so that they are not forced to make difficult decisions when it comes to either advancing their careers, or safely caring for their children. More than 800,000 children in New York under the age of six have working parents, underscoring the critical importance of safe and nurturing child care environments both for children’s development and parents’ ability to work.
A Business Navigator toolkit has been established in each of New York State’s ten Regional Economic Development Council regions. The toolkit – The Business Navigator: Employer’s Guide to Child Care Solutions in New York State – was created to serve as a statewide employer child care guidebook and offer concrete steps that business leaders, business owners and human resources teams can use to develop a child care strategy that meets the needs of their employees with young children.
“As New York’s first mom governor, I know what it’s like to be a working professional with young children at home to care for,” Governor Hochul said. “For countless New Yorkers, it’s a daily challenge that’s been overlooked by businesses and workforce leaders for too long. Today, we’re investing in expanding access to child care and improving affordability for families by providing the right tools in our toolkit for our employers and businesses to utilize.”
The 56-page toolkit is being introduced at workshops for businesses in each of the 10 economic development regions with support from local Child Care Resource Centers. The first workshop was held today in the Capital Region at the Landing Hotel at Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady. This was held in partnership with Brightside Up, the Capital Region Chamber and the Center for Economic Growth. The remaining nine workshops will be held at various dates and locations statewide in January and February.
The toolkit includes information for businesses to determine the child care needs of employees; resources on finding child care that can be shared with employees; descriptions of federal and state tax incentives available to businesses; and examples of child care benefits that businesses may consider offering their employees – including creating on-site child care or contracting for child care for employees’ children.
For a digital copy of the Business Navigator toolkit, including additional resources, please visit the Early Care & Learning Council website. For more information on child care services and assistance in New York State, please visit the Child Care Services page on the OCFS website. Employers who wish to attend one of the upcoming in-person toolkit workshops may register at the Business Navigator Toolkit Regional Live Launch.
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