The First Day Is Coming. The Money Isn't. Why NYC Preschools Are in Crisis

You Can’t Run Universal Pre-K on an IOU

The First Day Is Coming. The Money Isn't.

There is a certain kind of magic that happens in a small neighborhood preschool before the first day of school. Teachers are labeling cubbies, rearranging classroom furniture for the fifth time, cutting out tiny name tags, organizing supplies and convincing themselves that yes, we absolutely needed another set of plastic bins. Families are sending emails. Children are getting ready for their first big goodbye at the classroom door.

Everyone is preparing for September.

Except there is one fairly important thing some of New York City's community-based early childhood programs are still waiting for:

Their money.

And I don't mean money for some extravagant preschool wish list. I mean the funding that helps programs pay teachers, purchase supplies, cover rent and utilities, and actually open their doors to the children New York City has asked them to educate.

According to an August 25 City & State report, providers have not received their usual Department of Education funding to start the school year, something City Hall confirmed. More than 1,000 early-childhood education centers depend on this funding for expenses including teachers, snacks and classroom supplies. One program director told City & State that programs typically receive an advance of approximately 30% of their budgets in August. This year, providers were told that because their contract renewals had not yet been processed, that funding would not arrive as usual.

Let me translate that from government language into teacher language:

School is starting. Please be ready. The children are coming. The money? We're working on it.

That is not a small administrative inconvenience.

For a large institution with enormous reserves, perhaps a delayed payment can be absorbed for a while. Many small CBOs do not have that luxury. They still have payroll. They still have rent. They still have insurance, supplies, food and all the other expenses involved in opening a preschool.

And those bills don't care that someone's paperwork is still being processed.

When Directors Become the Bank

The reality of what delayed funding means is already showing.

City & State spoke with a Staten Island provider who said she took out a high-interest line of credit to cover staff, her September mortgage payment and utilities. A Queens provider said she was borrowing from friends and family and using her own savings so she could continue paying staff and avoid disrupting child care for families.

That is the part I cannot get past.

Since when did a preschool director's personal savings account become part of New York City's early-childhood funding system?

These directors aren't choosing to make some risky investment. They are trying to keep teachers paid and classrooms open while they wait for public funding for a public program.

That is exactly why the title of this piece matters.

Preschool directors should not have to bankroll New York City's Pre-K system.

The Bridge Loan Isn't the Bridge We Think It Is

Then comes the proposed safety net: the bridge loan.

The city's Returnable Grant Fund provides interest-free, service-fee-free loans to eligible human-service providers experiencing city contracting delays. That resource has value. It can give an organization temporary access to money while it waits for its contract and regular funding to catch up.

But let's talk about what applying for a bridge loan means in this particular situation.

The city has committed funding to a program. The funding is delayed. The program still has to open. Teachers still have to be paid. Children are still coming. Families are still depending on that school.

So the program may have to apply for temporary financing while it waits for the funding it was already expecting.

The preschool has to find a way to bridge the city's delay.

And applying for a bridge loan doesn't magically put money in the bank the next morning. The city's process requires an application, review and approval.

More importantly, City & State reported that one provider said she had applied for bridge funding a month earlier and still had not received a response, despite being told processing should take seven to ten business days.

So think about where that leaves a small CBO.

The usual funding hasn't arrived. A provider applies for the bridge loan. An answer may not have arrived yet. And the first day of school is still coming.

What exactly is the program supposed to do in the meantime?

A director cannot simply stop having expenses while waiting for an email. Teachers need to be paid. Classrooms need to be prepared. Buildings need to be maintained. Families are making work schedules around the expectation that their child's school will open.

The school is expected to function normally while its funding situation is anything but normal.

A bridge loan doesn't fix delayed funding. It helps a preschool survive delayed funding. There is a very big difference.

This Isn't Just About Money

This is where I think the conversation about CBOs sometimes loses its way.

We start talking about contracts, registration, advances and reimbursement. Before long, we're so buried in government terminology that we forget what is actually underneath all of it.

Schools. Teachers. Children. Families.

I say this as a teacher who believes deeply in these small programs.

CBOs and NYCEECs are sometimes discussed as though they are simply places where the city purchases a certain number of 3-K and Pre-K "seats."

But anyone who has actually worked inside one knows that a seat is not what makes a school.

Relationships do.

In a small neighborhood program, we know the families. We know the sibling who attended three years ago. We know Grandma at pickup.

We know our children, but just as importantly, we know their families.

These relationships aren't a cute bonus. They are part of what makes early-childhood education work.

That's why protecting CBOs isn't simply about protecting organizations.

It's about protecting communities.

What Funding Instability Looks Like in a Classroom

When funding becomes unstable, eventually the people become unstable too.

Teachers have bills. Assistant teachers have families. Directors have mortgages.

And believe me, teachers know how to stretch what we have. I have personally turned a cardboard box into an entire lesson plan and a pretty good one at that. But even we have our limits.

When programs are forced to operate with financial uncertainty, retaining experienced teachers becomes harder.

And when experienced teachers leave, children lose something that cannot simply be replaced by hiring another person and handing them the classroom keys.

That is why delayed funding isn't merely a financial story.

It is a classroom story.

We talk constantly in early childhood education about consistency. Three- and four-year-olds need predictable routines. They need familiar adults. They need to know the people and places they trust will still be there tomorrow.

Maybe our early-childhood funding system could take a lesson from the teachers working inside it.

Consistency matters.

We Need a Better Solution

I understand why bridge funding exists. An interest-free loan is certainly better than forcing a small provider toward expensive commercial debt.

But we need to stop confusing an emergency measure with an actual solution.

If an established CBO has an ongoing relationship with the city, children are enrolled, teachers have been hired and the city expects that school to open in September, there should be a way to provide meaningful advance funding before the school year begins even when the city's contract-processing timeline falls behind.

And when a city-caused contracting delay threatens a provider's ability to operate, I believe the city should create an automatic emergency advance mechanism so established programs are not forced to take on that financial burden themselves.

Put simply:

If the city is responsible for the delay, the preschool should not be responsible for financially surviving it.

This isn't some wild idea invented by an irritated preschool teacher.

New York City already recognizes the importance of advance funding. The city announced that contracted nonprofit providers would receive an estimated $5 billion-plus in advance payments during Fiscal Year 2026. The city also already operates the Returnable Grant Fund for eligible providers experiencing contracting delays.

So the concept isn't new.

Maybe the solution isn't another application for the preschool to fill out.

Maybe the solution is getting the preschool the money it was promised in the first place.

Accountability Has to Include Communication

There also needs to be accountability when contracts are late.

In July 2026, the NYC Comptroller's Office launched a Late Contracts Dashboard specifically to track contract-registration delays across city government. The Comptroller's Office says these delays can impose significant financial burdens on nonprofits, sometimes forcing providers to rely on private financing to manage cash flow, meet payroll and sustain operations.

This isn't just a preschool complaining about a late check.

Delayed city contracting is a larger, documented problem.

And communication has to be part of the solution.

If a contract is delayed, providers should know why. They should have a realistic timeline. If that timeline changes, they should receive an update.

A small school should not have to send email after email simply trying to figure out when the money it depends on is coming.

Silence is not a funding strategy.

Neither is "keep checking your email."

Don't Expand Before We Stabilize

I am not writing this because I oppose early-childhood expansion.

Quite the opposite.

I believe in expanding access to quality early education.

But we cannot keep talking about expansion without talking about stabilization.

Before we announce more seats, more programs and more initiatives, perhaps we should make sure the schools already educating New York City children can count on receiving their funding when they need it.

You cannot build the second floor while the people downstairs are holding up the ceiling.

Small CBOs should not have to prove their value every time there is another budget discussion or contracting problem.

They have already proven it.

They educate the city's children. They employ its teachers. They support working parents. They build relationships with families that sometimes last through multiple children and multiple years.

They are not asking the city for a favor.

They are asking to be paid reliably for the public service they have already agreed to provide.

Why I Am Speaking Up for CBOs

I want to be clear about why I am writing this.

I believe the small schools already doing this work deserve someone standing up for them.

Advocating for CBOs isn't about defending a business model.

It is about defending the classrooms, teachers, children and families that depend on these schools every single day.

There is plenty of room for serious conversations about how New York City should improve early-childhood education. We should discuss teacher salaries, benefits, quality, curriculum, enrollment and expansion.

But paying programs on time should not be one of the complicated parts.

That should be the easy part.

CBOs are not the backup plan for New York City's early-childhood system.

They are part of the system.

The Clock Is Ticking

And that brings us back to where some directors find themselves right now: only days away from opening their doors without their usual start-of-year funding, while at least one provider who spoke publicly was still waiting for an answer about bridge funding.

The classrooms still have to open.

The teachers still have to show up.

The children will still arrive at the door with backpacks that are almost as big as they are.

And the directors?

They are being asked to somehow make it all work.

Our teachers should be planning lessons. Our directors should be supporting families. Neither should be figuring out which loan application, savings account or credit card will keep a publicly funded preschool running while it waits for public funding.

I can make a lesson plan out of a cardboard box.

I cannot make payroll out of one.

These are the same small programs New York City depends on to care for and educate its youngest children. They should not be spending the final days before school wondering when their funding will arrive or how they will make payroll while they wait.

So before we talk about expanding early-childhood education, adding more seats or creating the next big initiative, we need to answer a much simpler question:

How can we ask these schools to take care of New York City's children when the system isn't taking care of the schools?

That is why I am speaking up for CBOs.

Small neighborhood schools should not have to quietly carry a financial crisis they did not create.

If the city is responsible for the delay, the preschool should not be responsible for financially surviving it.

The first day of school is coming whether the paperwork is ready or not.

These directors have waited long enough. The children are coming. The teachers are ready. Now the funding needs to be there, too.

Bibliography

City & State New York. “Weeks Away From the Start of School, 3-K and Pre-K Programs Are Without Funding.” August 25, 2026.

NYC Mayor's Office of Nonprofit Services. “Returnable Grant Fund.” City of New York.

NYC Mayor's Office of Contract Services. “Citywide Indicators Report.” City of New York.

Office of the New York City Comptroller. “Late Contracts Dashboard.” 2026.

Office of the New York City Comptroller. “Nonprofit, Nonpayment.” 2025.

City of New York, Mayor's Office. “Mayor Adams Announces Unprecedented $5+ Billion in Advance Payments to Be Made to City-Contracted Nonprofit Providers.” April 29, 2025