New York State Child Care Alignment Table

Pay Justice for Child Care

Sunday, Sept 28
9:00 AM – 4:45 PM
First convening of NYCAT

Providers, unions, policy experts, and government share one room to build a wage-scale proposal, a revenue plan, and a legislative framework — and to leave with named commitments carrying the work into a campaign launching mid-November.

01Consensus on a wage scale and credentialing path, open questions included
02Named commitments from every stakeholder group to carry work forward
03New relationships built deliberately across sector, setting, and region
04Campaign platform drafted and ready to refine for a mid-November launch
The day at a glance
9:30Welcome & who's here
10:15Our story of now
10:45Break
11:00Electeds lightning round
11:45Round robin tables
1:00Lunch
1:45Organizing roundtable
2:45Two-track workshop
4:15Offers & commitments
4:45Closing
I Align 9:00 AM – 10:45 AM

Get everyone in the room, name the power assembled, and ground the day in the history that brought us here.

9:00

Registration & breakfast

9:30

Welcome remarks

Why we're here — the power of our bases converging, a short-lived political opening, and the launch of a wage justice campaign. Electeds are brought in early so the legislative framework matches our timeline, not the other way around.

9:45

Who's at the table: our collective power

Roll call and pep talk — who's here, who isn't (the enemy), and what our coming together makes possible. We name the scale of the need early: the wage scale, budget numbers, and precedent from other states go up on the wall now, before the day's discussion begins.

10:15

Our story of now: paths to this moment

Small groups build a shared timeline of how we got here, then walk through it together with a spotlight on wins already in the room.

  • 1970s ECE organizing
  • 1990s child care folded into welfare-to-work
  • 2000s union organizing momentum
  • 2010s NY Pre-K & UPK
  • Reframing child care as a public good — providers as teachers, owed just pay
10:45

Break

II Build 11:00 AM – 2:45 PM

Test the proposal against the room, hear from the electeds who can move it, and build the partnerships that carry it statewide.

11:00

Dialogue & lightning round with elected officials

Roughly ten state and NYC electeds say, specifically, what they're doing to champion wage justice — reacting live to a visual of the legislative framework's components, and ideally declaring interest in co-sponsoring a set of bills together.

11:45

Round robin: stories of care, wage scale, revenue, workforce pipeline

Groups of six rotate through facilitated tables, mixed across geography and stakeholder group.

Wage scale — scenario-test the numbers, talk credentialing Messaging — campaign framing basics Revenue — cost estimate at a CUNY-aligned scale, IONY & other bills 4th topic — TBD
1:00

Lunch

1:45

Organizing roundtable: alignment to action

How do we build a statewide, cross-setting thriving wage — and what partnerships does that take? What can we learn from New Mexico? Panelists surface outreach tactics, escalation, and partnership lessons that feed straight into the afternoon workshop.

DC37UFTCSEA New Mexico peer (TBD)ECEOTM Upstate non-union organizer
III Decide 2:45 PM – 4:45 PM

Split into the work that actually needs doing, then bring it back into the room as commitments people are accountable to.

2:45

Two-track workshop: policy priorities & campaign preparation

Track 1 — Committee building

Providers, union staff, and base-building orgs already part of or headed toward a POP Campaign Committee. At least one NYC group and one outside-NYC group.

  • How do we grow this geographic group?
  • What does leadership in this committee mean?
  • 2–3 shared milestone actions — launch, lobby day, coordinated statewide action?

Track 2 — Policy deep dive

Policy advocates, electeds, funders, and union leaders sit with the hardest open questions.

  • Transitioning a patchwork of rates and contracts to one thriving-wage system over 2–3 years
  • What bargaining coordination a legislated wage scale requires of unions
  • Milestones for this legislative season and the next round of bargaining
4:15

Offers & commitments

Each track reports back: committee commitments and 2–3 calendared statewide activities from Track 1; Year 1 and Year 2 campaign milestones from Track 2 — with a facilitator pulling out how progress gets tracked going forward.

4:45

Closing remarks

Facilitators: Moira · UFT · CSEA · Tony · CANY (likely Ravo) · TAL NYCAT — Pay Justice for Child Care · Sept 28