Breaking Down the New Early Education and Care Bill in Massachusetts

On May 18, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Education favorably reported out a new bill — An Act to Expand Access to High-Quality, Affordable Early Education and Care (H.4795/S.2883) — aimed at addressing current access, affordability, and workforce challenges in the Massachusetts early education and care sector.

The bill represents an important step forward in ensuring that more families in the Commonwealth can access high-quality care and makes a critical commitment to early education and care providers and educators.

So, what exactly is in this new bill and how does it seek to tackle the child care crisis? Below, we’ve summarized our new fact sheet that breaks down the elements of the legislation:

The bill makes critical investments in stabilizing the Massachusetts early education and care sector and growing its capacity

●      Direct-to-provider grants: The bill makes permanent a highly successful, new approach to infusing public funds into the field of early education and care in the form of operations grants for providers. These grants can be put towards raising wages and making long-term investments in program quality.

●      Enrollment-based subsidies: It provides greater financial stability to early education and care programs participating in the Massachusetts subsidy system by mandating that child care subsidy reimbursement is to be based on quarterly enrollment rather than daily attendance of state-subsidized children.

●      Updates the state’s subsidy rate structure: The bill directs the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) to update the state’s subsidy rate structure to accurately reflect the true cost of providing high-quality early education and care to lower-income and other at-risk children.

The new legislation makes early education and care more affordable for more Massachusetts families

●      Raises the income eligibility threshold: Contingent upon state appropriation of funds, families with household incomes at or below 85% of the Massachusetts state median income (SMI) will be eligible for state subsidies. Families with incomes at or below 50% of the Massachusetts SMI would have first priority; second priority would be for families with incomes at or below 85% SMI. If additional funding is provided by the federal government, the bill authorizes increasing the subsidy income eligibility threshold in phases, up to a cap of 125% SMI.

The bill invests in the early education and care workforce and educator professional development

●      Support for educators: The bill establishes scholarship and loan forgiveness programs for early education and care educators.

●      Discounted tuition for children of staff: The bill allows programs to provide discounted tuition for the children of staff members.

●      Develops a career ladder: The legislation directs EEC to develop an early education and care career ladder, including recommendations for linking experience and skills to increased compensation; minimum salaries and compensation that match the salaries of public school teachers with similar experience and skills; and benefits for provider staff, including health insurance, retirement benefits, paid vacation, and other leave time.

The legislation calls for inquiry into how employers should contribute to enhanced access to early education and care

 ●      Employer child care benefit: The bill directs the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development to develop recommendations for how employers of a certain size could be required to provide a child care benefit.                                                            

Here at Neighborhood Villages, we’ll continue to work closely with the legislature to build momentum for an early education and care system that is affordable and accessible for all Massachusetts families. For more information about this legislation, see our fact sheet.