Chloe Learey is the executive director of Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development in Brattleboro and serves as the steering committee chair of the Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance, as the vice chair of the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital board of directors, and as a member of the board of directors of the Vermont Community Loan Fund.
BRATTLEBORO-The passage of Act 76 in the 2023 Legislative session signaled a significant new public investment in child care in Vermont. This was a response to growing recognition that child care is an essential piece of a two-generation economic development strategy and that the system in our state was struggling to provide sufficient capacity due to a lack of resources.
Early educators have historically been among the lowest-paid professionals, and the cost burden of child care borne by families made it challenging to increase wages. Families could not afford child care, and teachers could not afford to work.
It was a problem that the market alone could not fix.
A robust early-care-and-learning system supports everyone in the community by making a thriving economy possible: People can go to work, children can develop the social-emotional skills needed to be ready for learning, and child care businesses contribute to the local economy by employing teachers and purchasing goods and services.
It is a win-win investment.
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Two cornerstones of the bill are to increase access to quality care and provide financial stability to child care programs.
A primary mechanism for accomplishing both is through the Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP), which is essentially financial aid for child care. Increased rates help providers cover the actual cost of child care, and increased eligibility allows more families to access the program. This strategy directly addresses the need to increase resources in the system without placing the burden solely on families.
The financial assistance rate increased by 35% on Jan. 1, 2024, having a significant impact on revenue for programs. Vermont Biz reported that the first quarter of 2024 saw more child care programs opening than closing for the first time since 2018, and over 1,000 new slots have been added since Act 76 began rolling out.
This growth indicates that the child care business is promising enough for existing programs to expand and for new programs to open. From an individual business perspective, this resonates.
The increased revenue through CCFAP has allowed us to maintain the wage increases we implemented during the pandemic to retain staff. We opened a new classroom in August 2024, and we are fully staffed for the first time in years. So far, this fiscal year, our child care business is not losing money - also for the first time in years.
Increased rates have worked to provide financial stability to child care programs.
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Are more families able to afford and access child care due to the increased rates and expanded eligibility in child care financial aid?
As of Oct. 6, 2024, the income limit for families to be eligible for some assistance increased from 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL) to 575% FPL. That same month, the eligibility specialists in our region processed the highest number of applications since mid-2023.
On an individual business level, many families enrolled in our program experienced a positive impact because of this expansion. For example, one family saw monthly tuition costs decrease almost 90%.
Families who want to work no longer must grapple with whether it would be more affordable to participate in the workforce or stay home with children.
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Act 76 is funded through a payroll tax, and we contribute to it as a business. Understanding that child care is an essential part of economic infrastructure makes this an easy contribution.
Yes, our child care program benefits directly, but so does our whole community. A healthy child care system means that firefighters and nurses can go to work, that manufacturers can rely on employees to show up, that consumers can access goods from stores that can remain open, and that teachers can expect children with the strong social-emotional foundation needed for elementary school and beyond.
There is more data to gather and analyze, but so far, Act 76 appears to be working as intended.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
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