San Francisco expanded an existing program this week launched by former mayor London Breed that now provides free or deeply discounted child care for two-thirds of SF children five and under, but due to lack of public awareness, most eligible families still don’t know it exists.

As SFist reported earlier this week, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced the city is expanding existing child care subsidies to include free child care for families with children five and under who are below 150% of the area median income (or $230,000 per year for a family of four), and families between 150% and 200% (less than $310,000 per year for a family of four) will qualify for a 50% reimbursement. Per an SFGov announcement, families can choose from a list of over 500 local childcare programs, saving them tens of thousands of dollars a year.

“Families are being forced to make impossible choices — delaying having children, sacrificing savings, or leaving the communities they call home,” said Lurie, per KQED. “I will not let that be the future of San Francisco.”

“And we’re not going to take four years to roll this out,” Lurie added, per Mission Local. “We’re going to be the first major city in the nation to actually get this done.”

Per Mission Local, Lurie’s statements appeared to be directed toward New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who recently announced that NYC is providing universal child care to all NYC 2-year-olds with plans to expand to offering free child care for all children under five.

Lurie’s jab about a four-year roll-out is also notable, considering the current expansion has been on the books for seven years, first spearheaded by former SF Mayor London Breed through a 2018 commercial real estate tax measure, or “Baby Prop C.” As the SF Examiner reported in November, the original intention of the childcare subsidy program was to eventually provide free childcare to all San Francisco children under five regardless of income.

Per Mission Local, the program was first delayed by a lawsuit until officially launching in 2021, initially providing families below 85% of the area median income with free childcare and households between 86% and 110% a 50% reimbursement. In 2024, Breed expanded eligibility during her final year in office, providing free child care to families under 110% of the area median income and a 50% reimbursement to households between 111% and 150%.

Despite Lurie taking credit for the latest expansion, the Examiner reported in its November article that reserve funds already earmarked for the current expansion had been sitting in the bank since the measure passed in 2018, amounting to nearly $500 million after accrued interest. Per the Examiner, local and state officials had been urging the city throughout 2025 to release the funds and expedite the expansion.

“Families earning 151-200% AMI receive no tuition credit whatsoever, despite being the explicit focus of the original 2018 ballot measure,” Yensing Sihapanya, chair of the San Francisco Child Care Planning and Advisory Council, told the Examiner in November. “There are families currently enrolled and paying full price in the 151-200% AMI range who could receive immediate financial relief through tuition-credit expansion.”

Norman Yee, former Board of Supervisors president and author of the Baby Prop C measure, had the same sentiment. “It’s bewildering to me why we are not serving 200% AMI,” Yee told the Examiner. “At this point there’s no excuse. We have to move quickly.”

Additionally, as KQED reports, the city has done little to raise awareness about the program since its launch in 2021. In 2024, only 200 families out of 29,000 eligible households enrolled, based on data from Wu Yee Children’s Services, the agency in charge of enrollment.

“That’s a comically low number,” SF Supervisor Stephen Sherill, who helped push for the current expansion, told KQED. “Does every pediatrician’s office know about this, and are they telling their patients? Does everyone who leaves the maternity ward in San Francisco get information about this?”

“When a family signs up online for a [child care] slot, are they informed of this subsidy?” Sherill continued, per KQED. “If not enough people take advantage, then what is the point of this program?”

Here’s an idea — the city could utilize some of the accrued interest from the $500 million in reserved funds for a full-fledged community awareness campaign.

Readers, now’s your chance to provide young parents with some unsolicited advice that they’ll actually appreciate.

Image: Daniel Lurie/X

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