Adams takes ride down slide as he announces NYC is expanding free after-school program — as issue becomes central in mayoral race

Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday he wants to make New York City more affordable for families by expanding a free after-school program — an issue that’s grown as a hot topic in the mayoral race.

Adams said he plans to send 20,000 more kindergarten through fifth grade students to the after-school initiative over the next three years, earmarking $331 million for it in his upcoming executive budget.

It means Hizzoner’s spending plan for the 2026 fiscal year — which he dubbed the “Best Budget Ever” and is expected to unveil Thursday — will bring the total spending on after-care to $755 million.

“To make New York City the best place to raise a family, we need to make sure our young people and families have opportunities to thrive, and that is why we are launching a big, bold vision to achieve universal after-school for free for all students who want it,” Adams said from PS 20, the Anna Silver School, in Lower Manhattan.

The initiative — run by the city Department of Youth and Community Development Programs — will be fully rolled out by the fall of 2027, with seats going to students in kindergarten through eight grade and to neighborhoods with “greater need” first, the mayor said.

“When we do analysis of where after-school programs are — and where (there are) opportunities for doing extracurriculars after school — there are clearly communities where they don’t exist,” Adams said at the new conference — where he zoomed down a slide alongside Deputy Mayor Ana Almanzar.

The issue of affordable childcare has become central in the mayor’s race with nearly all of the candidates linking lack of affordable childcare to the city’s affordability crisis.

State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who is running in the crowded June 24 Democratic primary, ripped Adams’ announcement as a “copycat” plan.

The lefty mayoral hopeful claimed universal free after-school for city students was his idea first.

”This isn’t even a good dupe,” Myrie said in a statement.

His proposal also calls for free 3-K for all students until 6 p.m. at public schools. 

Democratic Socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani wants the city to offer free childcare for every New Yorker from 6 weeks to 5 years old, according to his campaign website.

A plan posted to Andrew Cuomo’s campaign website said the former governor wants to expand a preexisting universal 3-K program, broaden eligibility requirements for childcare subsidies and incentivize employer-sponsored childcare.