“There is light at the end of the voucher tunnel,” he said at a press conference in the Bronx. “For the first time in 15 months, New York City is taking children off the voucher waitlist and this is only the beginning. We will continue to do so on a rolling basis.”

Hochul spent months quietly working with Mamdani on a plan to expand free child care, which the pair unveiled in January.

When asked by POLITICO why it took so long to take the families off the waitlist, Mamdani said the city received its state budget allocation this summer and needed to review it in its entirety. He added that the city also wanted to see how many families who were offered vouchers were actually using them and how many families who were already receiving care had left the program.

The governor announced Monday that 13,000 more families are enrolled in the Child Care Assistance Program, with a total of roughly 183,000 children now enrolled. Some 43 counties have expanded access to child care through the program, including in New York City and in 26 other counties that cleared waitlists or previously closed enrollment, she said.

“I’ll never stop working to make life more affordable for New Yorkers — and that’s why I took action to expand childcare access and help even more families save thousands of dollars per year,” she said in a statement.

The Administration for Children’s Services, which administers the vouchers, will invite families with children on the waitlist to apply for a voucher over the next few weeks, according to the Mamdani administration.

Monday’s announcement comes after the city announced in August that it would make child care free for more than 20,000 low-income families who receive subsidies.

Some families have been languishing on the waitlist since last spring. But vouchers announced Monday will likely be insufficient to meet demand, with roughly 25,000 families on the waitlist. There are more than 29,000 families on the waitlist, Mamdani told reporters Monday.

Tensions peaked last year when then-Mayor Eric Adams and Hochul fought over who should pay for a funding shortfall. The state ended up paying half the cost and required the city to match that amount.

Some lawmakers and advocates pointed to the absence of relief for child care workers who remain underpaid, and noted that other families are still on child care voucher waitlists.

“We need to keep investing until there are no waitlists, no gaps in coverage, and no families left behind,” Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas said in a statement. “Universal child care must be the destination, not a promise for someday, but the standard we build toward now.”

Hochul has been facing renewed calls to institute universal child care statewide, as well as universal 3K.

She allocated funding for the first two years of the city’s inaugural free child care program for 2-year-olds, but it’s unclear how the state will pay for future years. Payment delays also plagued the start of 2K this fall.

“Mayor Mamdani has rightly called for taxing the ultra-wealthy to pay more so we can invest in our New York,” said Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, co-executive director of the education nonprofit Alliance for Quality Education. “We stand by that call, and are ready to fight alongside families and providers for the well-funded, truly universal child care system New Yorkers need.”