 Oh boy. Good morning. Good morning. Yes. Yes. Clap it up. Mayor Sheena Wright and I want to welcome you to Union Settlement for this very, very special day. Union Settlement was founded in 1895 and has been an amazing resource and haven for East Harlem, providing mental health care, EITC services, and countless other programs, including early childhood education programming. So thank you, Union Settlement. Right here, Union Settlement, with its over 350 employees, work with scores of volunteers to make our social safety net really complete and making sure that it's a springboard for progress for everyone. So it is only fitting that we release our blueprint for early childhood education and child care here in the space. We are really excited. It really does take a village to raise a child and it takes a village to create a comprehensive early childhood education and child care program. And I really want to start off by thanking all of the people and organizations that made this possible. All of the advocates who are here with us today and pushed for resources in this legislative session, including the campaign for children, C4C members, the Chinese American Planning Council, so many others. We started this work in the transition for the Adams Administration. Our Economic and Workforce Development Committee led by Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer, our Human Services Committee led by Deputy Mayor Anne Williams Isom, our Education Committee led by our Chancellor Banks, as well as scores of volunteers worked to put this together. Our Agency Commissioners, we have eight agencies that worked collaboratively. The Robin Hood Foundation came in with a major philanthropic investment. Bloomberg Philanthropies has helped to support our work with delivery associates. Thank you so much. And the CUNY Professional Development Institute, Sherry Cleary, I want to give you a shout out. Where's Sherry? There she is. I also want to shout out experts Barbara Carlson and Jocelyn Rodriguez. Where are they? Absolutely. Shout out, Shanna Middleton and Sharif Solomon from the Administration. You will hear from our mayor and other leaders as we talk more about this plan, but really, really a team effort. Everyone who's are in these seats contributed in some way and we are very grateful and we know that this is the first big step of many more. Without further ado, I want to introduce our mayor who charged us with this important investment in step and body of work. Many months ago, Mayor Eric Adams. Thank you, Shanna. Thank you. We're at my own posse. You know, let's be clear. America runs on childcare. America runs on childcare and it doesn't matter if it's mothers or grandmothers who are providing some type of childcare for their grandchildren or children, the neighbor next door or a childcare center. This country in this city wouldn't function without childcare and we're clear on that and the more qualitative the product is, the more opportunities we are going to give children. We have been zero focus on this from the Chancellor to all of the deputy mayors to our partners to the men and women who are behind us are providing childcare services to children. So no parents leaves home without the keys cell phone and making sure their child is given the proper setting so that they can have a healthy start and not only their day, but the entire life. But here's a fact and it is astonishing as we started to dig into this 375,000 parents quit or downshifted their jobs because they had no other way to take care of their children. And when you do an analysis of that, you'll see that this is a historical problem. You know, mom did three jobs to take care of her six children and that problem has continued throughout the generations. And it's just time to do better. All the research shows that quality childcare is essential for every child from day one. Our children need to build blocks of education, healthy food and active play. Everything we continue to zero in as an administration, education, healthy food and active play. They go together so that our children can build the towers of the future that we want them to have. And so today, we're going to make of those building blocks available to everyone. I'm really excited about this announcement and what we fought long and how hard for our childcare and early childcare education blueprint is a historic investment in the future of our Children, the future of working families and most importantly, the future of our city. It makes sure that children have a safe place to grow, learn and socialize. Socialization is crucial for our children as they develop the skills of how to interact with different cultures, different families and different lifestyles. Parents don't have to choose between TV as a babysitter and earning a living. This has been a choice that they have to make year after year after year. And we are saying no to that. And that Children childcare providers receive the support they need to provide high quality, affordable services. This is essential for our Children is essential for families. And it's essential for our city as we continue to grow our economy. We often think is disconnected childcare in the growth of the economy, but it's not. It all goes together and is part of the system that we are doing in this administration. And the responsibility of care unpaid or paid falls mostly on women. We know that we have to be honest about that and we have to acknowledge that when we remove childcare, we're removing women from the workforce and the opportunity to continue to have the independence and growth that they deserve. So we're going to tackle our childcare needs head on. We're going to meet it head on and make sure that we provide services and support to those who need our help the most. We're going to increase access to childcare for more than 41,000 Children across the city. We would create additional childcare and early childcare education seats. We will serve 6000 Children in DOE contract contracted programs. You know, the Chancellor is happy to hear that. He's a big believer in this and creates 17,000 more seats through tax abatements. We will measure our success, not in seats, but how many Children we place in seats. Previously, we went around bolstering the number of seats we had and many of those seats were empty. We're not playing that game. We're not going to play the game of giving the appearance that we have a fully fed childcare system. But when you dig into the crevices, you realize we're counting seats and not Children seats don't become cities. Children become cities. So we are we're focused on Children and we're going to energize our providers. You cannot recruit from within the sterilized environment of a beautiful space. We have to get into the community, speak with our healthcare providers, speak with our pediatricians, speak with our tenant leaders, association leaders, our clergy, everyone must be focused on recruiting Children to be in a safe space in their development. And that is how we're going to accomplish this task. In the next two years, we are clearing wait lists and providing childcare vouchers for 18,000 over 18,000 Children, including those 17 high needs neighborhood and a word that we say often. For the first time, we need to do a list of all of our first times. You know, for the first time in this city's history, we will be providing vouchers for 600 undocumented Children because a child's future should not be based on documentation. It should be based on the destination of the of allowing him to or her to be ready for the future. New York is always strapped for time. So we got it. We know the city is too bureaucratic. We know that we leave too many resources on the table. Because by the time you fill out all the forms you sent from agency to agency, you're just grunted, this gruntedness that settles in, and we want to fight that hard. So we will be we will streamline the application process for seats so that parents don't have to run from one department to another and fill our confusing forms over and over again. We're stopping that with streamlining. We're going to make technology work for us so that we can work for our families. We want to make sure that we are attracting talented individuals to the field of childcare. So we are partnered with CUNY to provide career development and professional training for up to 7400 additional providers. And we're hiring additional staff to eliminate unnecessary delays in background checks. All the time is taking to do a background check. We want to really alleviate that long wait, and we're going to continue to conduct thorough and rigorous background checks on our providers. So we're not going to take away the quality of the product. We're just going to make sure we do a better job in getting it done. Finally, we are creating a new office of childcare and early education at City Hall to coordinate all of our efforts in establishing advisory council. No symphony plays well without a maestro. That maestro would be at City Hall to make sure we're all playing on the same tune and not off note and off key to protect our children. This office will cut across multiple city agencies and create more streamlined processes for everyone. This blueprint is not a one in done. It's not about a fancy cover. It's about covering all of our bases. It's not about just staying what we're going to do now on an announcement. It's about continuous follow up. We will continue to revisit and revise based on parents and providers feedback. This administration is not afraid to pivot and shift if we see something that's not working. We're not going to stay just because we announced something. We're going to continue to know if it's not producing the product that we want. We are unafraid about pivoting and shifting to get the product that New York is deserved. And so as Deputy Mayor Rice states, it takes a village to raise a child. But let me modernize that. It takes a city to raise a child. And this is a city of raising children. Not just any city. This is New York City. This is a place from we're going to get in nothing done to a place we're going to get stuff done. New York GSD get stuff done. Congratulations team. Thank you so much, Mayor Adams. We are really thrilled that two of our key leaders who really are going to be the tip of the spear of getting it done and executing and implementing are here today. Deputy Chancellor Cara Ahmed, who leads the early childhood education division of the New York City public schools, as well as our commissioner for the administration for children services, Dan House are here. He'll speak in a minute. As the Mayor said that this is a really important first step. I also want to point out that 96% of the people who run child care programs are women of color. They are black, brown and Asian. So this is going to have a tremendous impact on that community as well, which is critically important. And that we are really going to be targeting these vouchers to people that also are unhoused currently and in other high need communities. So with that, I want to turn it over to Commissioner Dan Houser. Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor Wright, you, Deputy Mayor Williams Isom, Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer brought us all together with a clear purpose to get this done. And we are so thrilled to be here today. Hi, I'm Jess Dan Houser. I'm the commissioner at the Administration for Children Services. I'm so pleased to be here at Union Settlement. This will also be a site of our family enrichment center soon here in East Harlem. So we are thrilled to be here to partner with them around child care, around all the access we are providing to families at ACS. It's an honor to be with Mayor Adams, with Deputy Mayor Wright, Chancellor Banks and all of you to officially release the city's new child care blueprint. This plan will resonate with all parents. I remember as a new parent how relieved we were to find child care for our daughter. And then I could continue my career in public service and my wife could go to seminary to pursue her dream and her call to be an Episcopal priest. Even more importantly, it meant our baby was safe and it expanded the community we could rely on to help our daughter learn and grow. This plan is also about equity, though, for parents who haven't gotten this. Parents who are striving to pursue their dreams while struggling to make ends meet. They deserve the same. The peace of mind that their child is safe, the opportunity to pursue life's goals and the community, the city of support we all need in raising children. And this blueprint will provide thousands more parents with exactly that. I'm proud that ACS will play such a critical role in expanding access to affordable child care across the city in collaboration with the mayor's team and our city agency partners. We're currently in the process of reaching out to the parents of every child on the voucher wait list. And then providing child care assistance for those who are eligible. Beginning today, including right here in East Harlem, we'll also target eligible families in 17 high needs communities across the city. These neighborhoods experience high poverty, high unemployment, and for years have had limited access to child care. And thanks to Mayor Adams and the city council for the first time, ACS will provide child care assistance to undocumented children through city funded vouchers. All together, ACS will be issuing over 18,000 more child care vouchers. At the same time, ACS has lowered the federally required family fee to child care to the lowest level permitted by federal law. And we successfully advocated to the state to increase the maximum rate we can pay our providers. These efforts will make childcare more affordable and give providers financial stability and more adequate resources to serve our children well. This much needed blueprint is a game changer for children and families all across New York City. Thank you Mayor Adams for your commitment to make New York City a better place to be a child and to be a parent. Thank you. Thank you Commissioner Dan Hauser. And our final scheduled speaker is the most important one quite frankly, one of our parents. I would love to introduce Siobhan Sharad, who is a parent of a child right here in the center. And this is what it's all about. We want to make sure that our community, our family, gets into the services they need and deserve. Hi. So my name is Siobhan as they've already mentioned. And I am the mother of two, my daughter being journey rain who attends union settlement, four years old. My daughter has been going to union settlement for now for two years. And it was important for her to be here because I suffered a brain injury in 2014, which rendered me disabled and unable to work where I worked with disengaged youth for 20 plus years. So understanding childcare and adulthood and that transition is very important because I've done it all my life. Because of childcare, I did not make the choice. I had to make the choice between her going to school or me being home. And that's not something that parents want to have to decide. We want to be able to send our children to school and understand that they're safe and they're going to get educated. And they're also going to be in an environment where they are able to prosper. With today's announcement, parents get a little bit more of a peace of mind because of that. But the real winners are children. Our children get to come and be with adults that care about them. And especially within our set, like some of the things that were said, the positions that are opening is amazing because it's very, very limited. And we don't always get to see the outcome of great educators and great child providers and those that care about our children. So as she prepares for kindergarten, it's a little bittersweet, but she's on to the next level. And she leaves here knowing I leave. She leaves here with me knowing that she's now prepared because of the staff here. Thank you, ma'am, for being a champion for working families and understanding the value of childcare. I don't even know how it's possible. Let's talk about children without having our Chancellor speak. Come on, say a few words, Chancellor. Good morning, everyone. I just think it's critically important that we recognize that early childhood education is essential for everything that we're trying to do at New York City public schools. If we don't establish the foundation on that birth to five continuum, we will continue to fight an uphill battle. And so many of the issues and the challenges that we see in our schools today are result of us not getting it right from the very beginning. Sherry Cleary, I want to thank you because you were one of the first people when I became Chancellor, before I became Chancellor, that everybody told me, if you want to learn deeply about what's happening in early childhood education, there's no better person that you can learn it from than Sherry Cleary. So I want to thank you for helping me to put our New York City public schools in a better place. And it was Sherry, in fact, who was the one who made the recommendation of the person who went on to become our deputy Chancellor for early childhood education, who I didn't know, but Sherry was the one who said it is the best person that you can pick. Stand up again, please. Dr. Kara Ahmed, who is leading this work for us. And I appreciate you and I appreciate your leadership. And I know how hard you are working and fighting. We say this all the time. Bright starts will help to produce bold futures. And we've got to get it right. And all the work that is happening here that the mayor has entrusted his team to lead and Deputy Mayor Wright and so many others to drive this work on behalf of our youngest children. We get it right with them. We give everybody else the best chance to be most successful. Thank you, Michael. Two questions on topic about this. What what do you guys have in place for kind of quality control? You know, with with daycare early childhood centers, there's a broad range. I mean, some places in my experience, the kids are just sitting in front of TV. Some places the kids are learning their ABCs. What what kind of how are you going to keep an eye on standards and make sure the right things are going on at these places? So, you know, I have been communicating with the Deputy Mayor and the Department of Education. This is a big issue for me. And we are going to come up with some clear standards of what we expect. We're also doing a real analysis of where seats are located. What this team is doing is extremely impressive around how do we start with a standard of expectation? And you can always add on, you know, mom, you always say, listen, when I ask you to do something to mean potatoes, you got to do you want to put gravy? That's fine. So if centers want to do extra stuff, they can. But we're going to ensure that there's a minimum expectation that we want for our children. And you're going to see that with some of the systems that we are rolling out. And how we're going to monitor that expectation. Now, you've been at many of my press conference, I said it over and over again, got to inspect what you expect or is all suspect. So we're going to be inspecting on the ground and make sure we do those spot checks to get those qualities that we're looking for. How are you? You should get the every press conference award. That all about Congress. Only time Michael comes is when he's up to something. On the campaign trail, you put out the you care plan for universal childcare. How come this doesn't get you to universal childcare? We're gonna get there. We're gonna keep moving forward. People thought it was impossible for us to drop down a dollar amount. This is a huge victory from Albany to get to the dollars that we are, I believe is $10 a week of what we're doing with immigrant children. So we're going to continue to evolve. You know, it's really challenging for many people to fully comprehend that I've only been mad for six months. But you're seeing just a clear movement of a plan as we're peeling back another layer peeling back another later layer. So our goal is universal. We think every parent that wants a seat for their child. We need to get it, but we continue to add on these numbers. And you know, we're going to continue to focus. We want Albany to help. We want some of the federal dollars. We want to re look at some of the things we're doing head start because I learned from talking to the Chancellor's team. We have all of these different buckets. And you know, you may think that everyone could apply for any bucket. No, immigrant children are not qualified for head start. So we have to create our own ways of doing this. And that's what we're doing on or off. Okay, I noticed there there's some aspects of it and don't comment this, but I think the minimum floor ceiling on wages at things have to be there has to be legislation on the state level. I noticed some of the legislation has already passed and in place, but what needs to be implemented as far as a kind of legal perspective to achieve the goals that you've laid out in the plan? Thank you. The really importantly, the state raised the maximum from 100% of the federal public line to 300%. So now family of four making about $83,000 a year can qualify. So it's a huge win. What we're asking the state to also consider is to eliminate the minimum wage floor, which is very surprised. It was surprising to me to learn as I became ACS commissioner. And if you don't make minimum wage, you don't qualify for childcare. So our gig workers, folks who work in lots of different parts of the economy don't qualify even though they are struggling to make ends meet the most. And so we're calling on the state to engage with us on that important issue. Do you want people to be eligible under as far as like wages from like who's that? Who qualifies for the plan? We think 300% of the federal poverty line is the right place to be that family of four around $83,000. So we're really thrilled about that. Again, we're also dropping costs for families. So for a family who's making less than the federal poverty line, they're going to pay $1 a week. If you make over 100% of the federal poverty line, it'll be 1% of your income beyond the 100%. So that drops it from what was around 10%. So this will make it a lot more affordable for families. On topic, so off topic, so we're going to excuse you. I don't want to deal with this. This is your combat. The subway saxophonist who was arrested a few days ago. Yes, I know you said that police have a job to do in the subway. Is there any discretion for someone who's been there for years and B seems to spread happiness. It was folks lamenting that this guy was just there to be a positive influence on the subway ecosystem. How did it result in that video that we saw? The homeless people living in encampments, they have been there for years. People not paying their fare. They have been doing it for years of people disrupting and littering have been there for years. That's the problem. We have a subway system that is out of control and the mandate was Eric. We need to bring back control. So a passenger called and said this person is taking up space on the platform, which can be very dangerous, by the way. So the police went and stated, sir, you can't take up this much space. You have to get this organized because if you do people can be hurt. He just regarded them. They asked him three times. Totally disregarded them. They said, you know what? We're not going to take action. We're going to call our soldier. The sergeant came. Sir, we just need you to do it within the transit rules. He disregarded them. So now I need to ask us. We can't have it both ways. We can't say we want order in our subway system. And then when police officers take action, we said, well, we don't want that type of order. No, I'm not sending my police officers mixed messages. Be polite, be kind, give people an opportunity to correct the condition. But if they refuse to do so, take appropriate action. Now, if you look at the video, the police weren't yelling. He was yelling. He was yelling. He was screaming. He was creating disorder. He went to the pre to the district. He was issue summons. He was giving back his items and he went on his way. So I'm saying to New Yorkers that are on the subway system. That is not the place for disorder. That is not the place to do whatever you want as a passenger. Transit has rules. Let's follow the rules. And my officers and your officers are going to do it in a professional courteous manner. So I'm proud of those officers. They weren't abusive. They didn't yell at the person. They took a long time to get to the point that now we have to take action. That is how you do proper policing. Questions on the former mayor, Rudy Giuliani. First, do you plan to ask the DA to less ins charges against the guy who tapped his back, slapped his back whenever we're calling it? I looked at the video and someone needs to remind former mayor Giuliani that forcibly reporting a crime is a crime. And from what he stated about being punched in the head, felt like a bullet, you know, what he stated, there was a lot of creativity. And I think the district attorney, he has the wrong person that he's investigating. To falsely reported crime is a crime. If that video wasn't there, then this person would have been charged with punching the former mayor. He would have been charged with all of these offenses that did not materialize. I saw that video. And I'm sure all of you who saw the video, you have to ask yourself. He stated if he didn't feel so heroic or whatever, he would have fallen to the ground. That was a lot of creativity there. Forcibly reporting a crime is a crime. That aspect, I mean, you think there's absolutely no merit to this? Is that what you're getting? When you look at the video, the guy basically walked by and pedaling him out on the back. I don't know if he said congratulations. I don't know what he said to him. But it was clear that he was not punched in the head. It was clear that it didn't feel like a bullet. It was clear that he wasn't about to fall to the ground. So it was clear that he had a lot of creativity and sensationalism that caused this person to be arrested. Forcibly reporting a crime is a crime. Well, I'm having a conversation with the police commissioner about do we feel that was a forcibly reported crime? Because you can't... See, here's my fear. If you don't have a video and someone of prominence making allegations against you, you should not have to wait for a video to determine you did nothing wrong. He's a former mayor. I think he's irresponsible for a former mayor. And when I heard the report that he was punched in the head and other things, when I heard that, I said, you know, why was someone to sort the former man? Now, what if we didn't have the video? This person would have been accused with a serious crime when all he did was pat the guy on the back. You know, you can't do sensationalism to carry out your own agenda. And you can't use the police to carry out your own agenda. Okay. Monkey pox vaccine. There's a lot of distress about the limited supply the city has. Appointments got booked up immediately. Is there anything you can do to get the CDC get the federal government to bring more vaccine? Do you know if there's any more supply on the way? Yeah, they gave us a thousand. Soon as they gave us a thousand, we issued out a thousand. And so we're now trying to get more here in the city to, you know, give them out. As soon as they give it to us, we're going to give them out. We have a good seamless system in place, but we gave out everyone that they issued us. And it was actually waiting lines, waiting lists to get more. So we want to get more and we're speaking with the CDC to actually do so. Okay. Thank you.