A panel developing a plan to shore up Connecticut’s child care system issued its report last week, which included recommendations to create 28,000 new subsidized child care spaces and boost rates for providers working under state-funded programs.
The Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Care was created back in March by an executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont, who tasked the group with creating a five-year strategic plan to improve access and affordability of child care in the state.
On Friday, the panel released that plan, which called for $603 million in incremental investments over a five-year period, including an increase of $148 million beginning in fiscal year 2025.
The group expects those investments to help create nearly 30,000 new affordable child care spaces and fund rate increases for some 55,000 child care slots funded by the state under the Care 4 Kids program.
In an introduction to the report, state Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye said the group’s members had engaged in social justice work aimed at righting inequities.
“I believe every baby born in Connecticut and every young child who moves here with their families deserves a high-quality early childhood education,” Bye said. “The inequities for child care educators and for parents are grounded in gender and racial inequities. When we improve the early childhood system, we help to address these inequities.”
The funding recommendations follow the expiration of around $300 million in federal COVID funding, which the Lamont administration dedicated to shoring up the state’s child care system in the years since the pandemic.
“COVID relief funds have expired, and Connecticut’s early childhood education system is in acute need of further support,” the report read. “Additional state, federal, local, and other investments will be necessary to address inequities and ensure the state’s competitiveness in the region.”
Meanwhile, a survey of Connecticut child care providers conducted by the CT Early Childhood Alliance between October and November found around a quarter of providers not generating enough revenue to sustain their businesses and widespread staffing vacancies, which most providers attributed to low compensation rates.
On Tuesday, Merrill Gay, the group’s executive director, called the Blue Ribbon Panel’s recommendations a great start that correctly diagnosed staffing difficulties as the primary challenge facing child care providers.
The plan’s rate increases for state-funded providers would provide needed support for those programs, which Gay said make up roughly 15% of Connecticut’s child care workforce. However, other providers require assistance as well, he said.
“For the other 85% of the workforce, the only way that they’re going to get a raise is if tuition goes up,” Gay said.
Meanwhile, the plan calls for expanding eligibility for subsidized spots from 60% of the state’s median income to 100%, an expansion it expects will enable 24,000 additional slots.
Gay expected much of that broadened eligibility to be utilized by parents who are currently priced out of the child care market altogether and rely on selective shifts and help from family members in order to be able to work and ensure their children are cared for. It was unlikely to make child care more affordable for parents who are already struggling to pay for the services, he said.
“If we want to make sure that we have enough kids coming up the pike to support the economy going forward, we need to make it easier for families to raise children here,” he said. “Right now we expect parents at the time of their lowest net worth and really when they’re just starting their careers, to be paying this enormous cost.”
In the report, Bye said the plan was an imperfect roadmap that would evolve over the next five years. It’s unclear how much of the panel’s recommendations will be funded by state policymakers.
On Monday, Bye said the administration was working with Connecticut’s congressional delegation to support a bill that would bring about $106 million a year to the state in additional federal child care funding.
“It’s going to be a combination [of state and federal investments],” Bye said. “We’re also asking businesses to step forward and be part of the solution as well.”
