Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani announced on May 18 that New York City will add 2,000 new 3-K seats for families across all five boroughs, doubling an earlier expansion plan and spreading the new capacity across 56 ZIP codes. The move is the latest in a rapid series of early childhood announcements from the new administration, which has framed universal child care as a central affordability promise since taking office in January.

According to the mayor’s office, a majority of the new seats will sit with community-based child care providers, deepening the city’s partnership with those organizations. The city said it will launch what it called an “equitable waitlist process” that allows families to express interest in newly added sites while prioritizing family choice, sibling preference and proximity to programs. Alongside the seat expansion, the administration announced the opening of a previously vacant early childhood education center at 129 Van Brunt St. in Brooklyn’s Columbia Waterfront neighborhood, which it said will add 63 new 3-K and pre-K seats after the building was left vacant under the previous administration.

“On day eight of this administration, we made a promise to New Yorkers: we would fix the 3-K system and build a city where every family can count on affordable, high-quality child care. Today, we’re delivering on that promise,” Mamdani said in the announcement. “Over the past few months, we have opened nine previously vacant child care centers, added thousands of 3-K seats where families need them most and started rebuilding trust with working families across this city. And we’re just getting started.” New York City Public Schools officials, quoted in the same release, said they were excited to continue expanding 3-K so more children across the five boroughs could benefit from the programs.