Our organization has undergone necessary and important changes this year. Our goal is to provide more in-depth care for the people and communities we serve. We want our staff to spend intentional time on providing the best services we can offer; this has been possible due to our restructuring of positions and creating a space where our staff can thrive.

Under the new leadership of Executive Director Himali Pandya, alongside Director of Operations Karen Walsh, Director of Programs Rebecca Shaffer, and Director of Professional Development Wendy Cooper, our organization has embraced a new model of shared leadership. By distributing responsibilities across their areas of expertise, the team can each focus on the work most critical to advancing our mission.

Each leadership team member has a team of individuals who work together to keep our agency on track with our mission, our goals and keeping up with the needs of our community.

The Operations Team is led by Karen Walsh, Director of Operations. This team is imperative to keep the office running on a day-to-day basis through advocacy, advertising, bookkeeping and essential clerical support.

Our Professional Development Team is led by Wendy Cooper- Director of Professional Development. This team creates room for growth for our staff and for our programs by providing trainings, technical assistance, and personalized work with the child care educators in Dutchess and Putnam Counties.

Our Programs team is led by Rebecca Shaffer, Director of Programs. This team ensures that our programs and services are provided at high quality for our community and early childhood educators.

Our Resource Coordinators team is led by Mara Goulette- Program and Resource Supervisor. This new position has created a system where all provider information is being kept updated by the people who know the programs the best. This new system allows programs to get more in-depth assistance from our staff and allows our referrals to be more satisfactory for the families and parents in our community.

These changes are new, but we already see an increase in the quality of the services we provide. We thank you for your understanding and patience as we continue to make changes to better our ability to serve you.

Leaving your child at a child care program can be hard and scary. Here are some important facts for you to ease your mind:

Child care staff are required to have a state background check and take annual trainings to fulfill health and safety requirements. At least one staff member must have CPR and First Aid Training.

A regulated child care program is required to meet the state’s basic requirement for health and safety. This includes both in-home child care programs and day care centers.

Beyond the basics, here is a list of indicators of a higher quality child care program:

When choosing a child care program, keep these ideas in mind while you tour. While you are there ask for informational materials such as the parent handbook or the parent provider agreement. Look over these materials while making your decision.

If you need assistance with finding child care, call our referral line for a personalized list of programs that will fit your needs at 845-473-4141 ext. 216.

What’s really going on with the pilot in Dutchess County?

As part of a $4.5 billion statewide initiative to expand access to child care, Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed a Child Care Expansion Pilot that will take place in Broome, Dutchess and Monroe Counties. In this plan, each county would receive $20 million for the pilot from the state with the counties including 10% in funding. The goal of this is to expand child care in these communities. The budget has not been approved and we are advocating for legislators to approve it. We want to explain what this means for you and for your programs.

The lack of affordable child care is detrimental to the economy, the workforce and the community. This initiative will provide $60 million in state funding, allowing parents and families to get access to free child care in these counties. This is a pilot program, meaning this is a way to test universal child care in New York on a smaller scale. The goals of this program are to get more children in your doors, open more child care programs and give parents and guardians the ability to afford care.

If this budget is approved, this program will begin in 2027. This pilot is meant to build on the already existing efforts to create affordable child care which will lead to fewer programs closing due to low enrollment.

This is all quite exciting and we urge legislators to approve the budget. However, the budget proposed by the governor does not include workforce retention. Child care workers are underpaid, undervalued and underappreciated and we are fighting for that to change.

We advocate for workforce retention, explaining that these ideas are positive but that we need to include the workforce in these plans. The Senate has included the Child Care Worker Retention Grant Program in their one-house budget, however this was not included by the assembly or the governor. We have reached out to our local assembly members requesting they include this in the budget this year.

Champions of Child Care is coming up on May 7, 2026. We are excited to celebrate the early childhood educators in our counties for their dedication to the children in their care. Make sure you get your tickets so you can join us at Villa Borghese for our Garden Gala.

Get your tickets by midnight tonight, April 17th!