ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Daystar Kids, a Rochester-based organization that serves medically fragile children under the age of 5, is getting a $3 million state grant is help fund a major expansion.

Reina Ramos’ baby girl was born at 25 weeks. It hasn’t been an easy road. “She has oxygen, a g-tube and she just got diagnosed with cerebral palsy,” Ramos says.

Ramos never thought a center like Daystar would be an option. “I was very worried, I was telling my husband that I’m like, I’m going to have to stop working and take care of her ’cause nobody is going to take her with a g-tube,” Ramos recalls. But Daystar did.

Daystar Kids also took little Leo Mastin as a student too. He suffered a lack of oxygen during birth.

“It went 25-plus minutes with chest compressions before they were able to revive him, and it was not a great start to say the least,” his dad Richie explains.

After months in the hospital, Leo was allowed to come home but his parents needed to work to support him and his brother and sister.

“When we came to Daystar, it was an unbelievable change; it is very difficult to put into words what the place means to my family,” Mastin says.

Daystar is a day program for kids under the age of 5 with complex medical issues. “Children at their very essence, no matter if they have a feeding tube, tracheotomy, take 10 medications a day … they want and desire the same opportunities to learn, thrive and shine as everyone else,” says Kim Condon, CEO of Daystar Kids. Special education teachers, nurses and therapists cater to the children’s needs and help to give parents the break they may need to work, run errands or just breathe without worry.

“This is the only place in the state like this, and I think you’ve built a model that can be replicated across the state, the need is great,” Dr. John McDonald, the commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, said on Friday while announcing the $3 million grant.

Daystar is not expanding everywhere, just yet. But it is expanding locally, into a building double the size that will accommodate double the number of children. Currently, there are 60 enrolled students; once the expansion is complete, it will be able to accommodate 130.

The hope is that the new building will be up and running by January of 2026.

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