Operations Grants are Critical to Sustaining and Growing the Early Ed Sector in Massachusetts

In 2021, using federal ARPA dollars and supplemental state funds, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) launched the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) Stabilization Grant Program, which provided operations grants directly to licensed early education and care centers, Family Child Care providers (FCC), and out-of-school-time programs. This grant program had a nearly instantaneous positive impact, helping to prevent program closures and promote badly needed investments in teacher salaries.

Over the last year and a half, the C3 grant program has supported more than 7,100 early education and care programs across the Commonwealth – including 4,500 family child care (FCC) providers and 2,600 center-based providers. These direct-to-provider operations grants have been highly effective: data from more than 6,000 grant recipients demonstrate the foundational role that operations grants have played – and will continue to play – in sustaining Massachusetts’ early education and care sector.

That’s why Neighborhood Villages is advocating for policymakers to make these grants a permanent vehicle for funding the early education and care sector.

Current Landscape of the Massachusetts Early Education and Care Sector

 In Massachusetts, the early education and care sector continues to face serious challenges with respect to access to care. Though the sector has stabilized, many programs are still at risk of closure, especially those in higherSocial Vulnerability Index (SVI) communities:

●      751 providers (more than 12% of all providers in MA), inclusive of 556 Family Child Care (FCC) providers, reported that they would have to close if operations grants ceased.

●      38% of providers who report that they would have to close without continued operations funding are in communities with the highest SVI.

Moreover, programs remain unable to enroll at their full licensed capacity, resulting in families having reduced access to care. If early education programs were enrolling at full capacity, the system could be serving between 10,000-15,000 more children in Massachusetts than it currently is. 

Providers’ inability to enroll at full capacity is primarily due to workforce staffing shortages. Low wages have contributed to a mass exodus of talent from the field of early education and care: nearly 1/3 of educator positions in Massachusetts have turned over in the past year, with the majority of those leaving their positions departing the sector entirely.

Beyond Stabilization, C3 Grants Are Vital for Sustaining Massachusetts’ EEC Sector

Operations grants have helped address major fault lines in a highly volatile sector. Making these grants a permanent vehicle for funding early education and care in Massachusetts is vital to the sector’s ability to (a) protect against regression and (b) embark on a path towards improving access, increasing teacher compensation, and growing system capacity by:

 ●      Promoting equity in access and quality of care. Operations grants have helped protect against program closures, especially in higher SVI communities. They have also ensured that programs serving lower income children and/or operating in lower income communities receive enhanced funding levels. Providers serving children with child care subsidies (at any point during the grant period) have received 64% of all C3 grant funds.                          

●      Enhancing providers’ ability to increase educator compensation. As a result of receiving grants funds, 83% of center-based providers and 41% of FCC providers allocated grant funds to staff compensation, a much-needed investment in a workforce that is paid very low wages.

●      Preventing escalation of tuition prices shouldered by families. With the help of C3 funds, more than 25% of all providers were able to defer planned tuition increases. Notably, 1 in 8 providers report that, if the operations grant program is continued at comparable funding levels, they would consider reducing tuition.

Conversely, if operations grants were to cease:

●      751 providers (> 12% of all providers in Massachusetts), inclusive of 556 FCC providers, report that they would have to close.

●      More than 50% of all programs would have to reduce teacher compensation. Further, 65% percent of child care programs reported that they would have to defer planned compensation improvements.

●      Salary stagnation and/or reduction can be expected to exacerbate workforce challenges, leading to staffing shortages that undermine provider ability to enroll at full capacity.

●      61% of providers would have to increase tuition rates for families.  

Operations Grants are a Win for Everyone

Direct-to-provider operations grants were designed for stabilization but have proved to be highly impactful and essential to the field’s long-term viability. Both early education and care providers and the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) have made clear that operations grants must – in concert with child care subsidies – be the future of child care financing if Massachusetts aims to achieve goals concerning workforce compensation, family access and affordability, and quality of care.

The success of the C3 grant program suggests that direct-to-program operations funding is a financing vehicle that, should it be made permanent and adequately funded, would help to achieve: expanded access for families, particularly for lower-income communities; enhanced parent affordability; and increased workforce compensation across the sector. A win all around.

Register here for our panel event on Feb. 9, “Operations Grants: Critical Funding for Early Education and Care in Massachusetts,” which will include remarks from Massachusetts Education Committee Chairs Rep. Alice Peisch and Sen. Jason Lewis, provider voices, and a presentation by Neighborhood Villages and Strategies for Children.

To learn more, read our C3 brief and fact sheet.