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This is the fifth story from Health on the Margins, Radio Catskill’s limited investigative series exploring the region’s fragile healthcare systems.
Monticello resident Deborah Ocasio is a mother of two children, Jacob and Serenity. She has loved watching her children’s personalities bloom as they grow older. “I can see who they really are. I love getting to know them,” she said.
Becoming a parent was so much more of a surprise than Ocasio had expected.
After leaving an abusive partner, she had to find a job and child care quickly, she says. Ocasio was approved for Sullivan County’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which helps low-income families pay for child care – and it gave Ocasio a sense of stability.
That all changed two months ago. In December 2025, she stopped receiving child care assistance after Sullivan County paused its child care assistance program last summer. Since then, Ocasio says she’s been on “a complete spending freeze.”
“I worry about if I’ll have enough gas to get to work. I’ve delayed buying groceries,” said Ocasio. “I’ve also just been more tense, and I think less present for my children.”
More than 96,000 families across New York state received child care assistance in November 2025 to help pay for the high costs of child care. That’s significantly more families than the program served two years ago.
In 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul significantly expanded eligibility for the state’s child care assistance program. While New York invested more funding in the program, it wasn’t enough to keep up with the boost in demand.
In July 2025, Sullivan County paused its child care assistance program for new applicants and recertifications due to a lack of funding. It’s one of 34 counties across New York that have closed applications for their programs.
Sullivan County Health & Human Services Commissioner John Liddle said the expanded eligibility puts an enormous strain on smaller districts like Sullivan County. The county’s program has since grown from serving about 150 children in 2023 to 650 children in 2025, with expenses more than tripling from $146,000 to $462,000 per month.
Radio Catskill reached out to New York’s Office of Children and Family Services, which manages CCAP, but the agency did not respond to our questions in time for publication.
Hochul made expanding child care a major focus of this year’s State of the State. Despite President Trump’s threats to federal social services funding, she also launched child care pilots in Broome County, Dutchess County, and Monroe County.
But in counties where child care assistance has been frozen for months, families and provider say they feel a mix of hope and skepticism for what’s ahead.
READ: Sullivan County Leaders React After Judge Blocks Freeze on Child Care and Social Services Funding
Families and daycare providers juggle limited slots, rising costs
At Twin Bridge Daycare in Liberty, there are clouds and grey bunnies painted on the walls of their baby room.
The baby room is the most expensive of the three rooms Twin Bridge offers at $320 per week. The toddler room is $300 per week, and the pre-school room is $280 per week. The daycare’s daily rate is $40.
Tricia Gerwer, director of Twin Bridge Daycare, says her rates reflect the market rate for day care centers in Sullivan County. Neighboring Ulster and Orange counties have higher market rates at $385 per week for infants.
New York has some of the most exorbitant child care costs in the country, with families shelling out on average $21,826 annually for infant daycare.
Nicole Newick, owner and director of Valley Daycare in Mongaup Valley, said there are already limited infant slots in Sullivan County to meet demand. Large swaths of Sullivan, Orange, and Ulster counties are considered child care deserts, meaning there aren’t enough daycare slots to serve the number of children in an area.
Valley Daycare’s wait list averages about 30 to 40 children. “Parents get on the waitlist when they’re pregnant, and we end up calling when their child’s [a] toddler because our turnover rate is so low,” said Newick.
She says Sullivan County’s CCAP pause “completely limits who can access quality child care in [the] county.”
Daycares are also grappling with rising costs to run a daycare, like violation fines and increased utility bills. Tricia Gerwer of Twin Bridge Daycare says their electric costs have doubled, and their insurance costs tripled from $4,000 to $12,000 in the last few years. “ People are like, ‘Oh, child care is so expensive,’ but there’s all these behind the scenes stuff happening,” she said.
Candace Rivela, whose daughter attends Valley Daycare, was approved for child care assistance in 2025. The program helped her continue working as a single parent, she says, but with the program halted in Sullivan County, Rivela’s daughter will only be covered until this May.
Rivela has started to consider how to move forward. “I’ve just had conversations with my parents about what [they are] willing to do. I’ve also started to think about some financial planning, how can I reorganize my savings… to swing this cost. It is very expensive.”
Hochul’s budget sparks hope and skepticism
As Hochul moves forward on her plans for statewide universal child care, some parents remain skeptical.
Rose Chateau, a Narrowsburg resident, said Hochul’s plans don’t help her and her daughter, Dinah, right now. Her child care assistance case with Sullivan County ended on January 21, 2026.
“Four years from now, who knows if the people elected are still gonna be there if this is actually gonna come true,” said Chateau. “By the time that happens, [Dinah] is already gonna be in school.”
But Sullivan County Health & Human Services Commissioner Liddle said he’s hopeful from what he saw in Hochul’s 2027 executive budget. He said it gives the county hope the program could reopen in 2026, though it’s too early to say when. “We were pleased by what we saw in the budget,” said Liddle.
Still, Liddle says counties needs more money and agency to prioritize families most in need. “Right now we have to deny everybody [because] we can’t really set an income priority, but if we can set an income priority, then we can let folks back into the program.”
For now, parents like Ocasio remain in limbo until the program reopens. She said she’s even considered leaving Sullivan County to somewhere she has more support.
“That’s the choice I feel like I’m faced with because I just don’t have any room to move around here and I have to prioritize my kids’ safety,” said Ocasio. “If I can’t do it here, then I have to figure out where I can go to make sure my kids are put first.”
Image: Exterior of the Valley Daycare entrance in Mongaup Valley, N.Y. (Photo Credit: Kimberly Izar)