New York’s child poverty rate has consistently been one of the worst in the nation for years now. Currently, the state ranks 41st in the US, with 18% of children living in poverty.
In many upstate cities like Syracuse, Binghamton, and Rochester, the number of children living in poverty is upwards of 40%.
While advocates are hopeful that recent policy changes will start to make a difference, they worry that federal cuts could negate those gains.
In 2021, the state legislature passed the Child Poverty Reduction Act. Its goal was to cut New York’s child poverty rate in half by 2031, and it established a statewide council to oversee that work.
Unfortunately, little progress has been made towards that goal since 2021.
"So we're now about halfway towards that goal, and we really haven't seen the rate of child poverty reduce yet," said Kari Siddiqui, the Associate Director of Policy for the Schuyler Center and the coordinator of the New York Can End Child Poverty Coalition. "However, we have made some pretty significant investments."
The big policy change is the state expanding the New York child tax credit. Those changes start to take effect this year. Starting on January 1, 2026, the child tax credit increased from $330 to $1,000 per child under the age of 4. Next year, the amount will increase for children aged 4 to 17.
"And so this is a really significant investment and is estimated to reduce child poverty by about 9% to 10%," said Siddiqui. "Despite that, though, we still have a really long way to go to reach that goal [of halving the child poverty rate in New York]."
Another marker that child poverty advocates pay close attention to is food insecurity rates.
Siddiqui says that’s a clear indicator of financial strain for families, and it paints a grim picture at the moment. "One in five children around New York State experience food insecurity, which means that they did not have adequate access to food sometimes or often."
There is some potential relief coming from the childcare front. If New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul get their way, New York is on the verge of embarking on an ambitious child care expansion. That could bring relief to some low-income families, as childcare is typically the top expense for young families behind housing.
But those policies will take time to put into place, and Siddiqui has concerns about how federal cuts could make things worse in the state before they get better.
For example, cuts to the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.
"H.R.1, the federal bill, made some really significant changes to SNAP, which will result in more families and children experiencing food insecurity, almost certainly," said Siddiqui.
Those changes are expected to remove a significant number of people from benefit rolls this spring, due to work requirements and changed exemptions.
Last fall, the federal government also announced it was discontinuing the USDA’s annual food security report, calling it "redundant, costly, and extraneous." Siddiqui says that report has long been a critical tracking tool.
"And this is worrisome, as it is a loss of our ability to measure the problem, which then results in making it a lot more difficult for us to address those problems," she said.
Governor Hochul has signaled in her recent budget proposal that the state does intend to fill some of the gaps left behind by federal cuts. Siddiqui says the issue of child poverty will need that help if New York has any hope of reducing its rate by 2031.