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A Leader for New York’s Children:
Child Care & Child Support Enforcement

Governor Pataki is a leader when it comes to protecting and caring for New York’s children. Under Governor Pataki’s leadership, there have been dramatic increases in the affordability and availability of childcare.

• Under the Governor's leadership, New York has invested nearly $4.7 billion in childcare.
  
  
• The number of childcare subsidies available has increased by 155% since the Governor took office.
  
  
• Governor Pataki signed "Alysa's Law'", requiring day care centers to erect fences around pools and other potential drowning hazards. The law is named after 2-year-old Alysa Orzolick who drowned in water collected on a swimming pool cover at her North Tonawanda day care center in 2000 and applies to facilities as small as a home day care center serving as few as three children for more than three hours a day.
  
  
• On September 2, 2002, Governor Pataki announced the Amber Alert system that rapidly circulates information across the state regarding newly reported missing children. Amber Alert utilizes multiple resources including messages through the Emergency Alert System, highway message signs, pictures disseminated to toll booth clerks, and the use of New York State Lottery message boards to help keep New York's children safe and free from harm.

• Also, under Governor Pataki, New York has made unprecedented progress in strengthening its child support programs.
  
  
• Annual child support collections are expected to exceed $1.3 billion in 2002, placing New York within the top five states nationally.