Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced Wednesday the addition of a new Office of Early Childhood to City Hall to serve as a connection point for families looking for early education and child care programs and services.
"This will be an office that pulls together all the strands of work happening across City Hall," Wu said during a press conference in East Boston.
While the Wu administration said they have identified a need for the new office, details are still being worked out.
Wu said the city is looking to hire a director of the new office "right away." It's unclear how much that new official will be paid, or what the office's budget will look like.
Wu, who campaigned on improving Boston Public Schools and addressing early child care, also released the results of the city's early education and care census.
The annual survey, which was first taken in 2019, is conducted to help city officials understand the needs and capacity of Boston's early education and care ecosystem.
This year's survey collected responses from 3,006 families, a relatively low number when compared to the U.S. Census American Community Survey, which estimates there are 28,000 Boston families with children aged up to 4.
According to the survey, since the COVID-19 pandemic, several child care centers have closed, waitlists have lengthened and hours of operation have changed, making child care arrangements even more difficult for families to secure.
It’s an issue that particularly impacts women. Slightly more than 80 percent of those caretakers who responded to the city-based survey are women and more than half of them indicated that being a caretaker is interfering with their ability to start working or take on more hours at their jobs.
The study also found that the average cost of Boston center-based childcare exceeds the Massachusetts state average, which is among the highest state average in the United States.
Guardians of those up to 2 years old reported paying an average of $2,237 per month for center-based care compared to $1,743 in Massachusetts overall.
For 3-5 year olds, guardians reported an average of $1,806 per month compared to $1,258 in Mass.
TeeAra Diaz, Boston Public Schools’ director of universal pre-K, said the program will expand this year to a total of 930 seats for 4-year-olds, which will be open for enrollment in April.
Boston Public Schools officials could not immediately say how many more seats that represents than the prior year, or which schools will have a share of the seats.
In Boston, the coveted spots offer parents who get them relief from high daycare costs.
