RECAP of the January 2025 EEC Board Meeting: New Child Care Financial Assistance Rates, Introduction of the Early Educator Loan Repayment Program, and EEC’s Behavioral Health Initiatives

At Neighborhood Villages, we prioritize keeping up with the policy landscape in the early education and care field, both across the country and in Massachusetts. That includes tuning-in to the monthly meetings of the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care (“EEC Board”), to stay apprised of updates and to identify opportunities for how we can work with government and other stakeholders to improve our early education and care system.

The primary topics of this month’s Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) Board meeting were: (1) distribution of funding in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget to increase Child Care Financial Assistance rates, (2) implementation of a student loan repayment program for early childhood educators, and (3) an overview of EEC’s behavioral health initiatives in conjunction with cross-agency partnerships and efforts.  

For additional detail on any of the meeting topics, view the slides here or watch the recording on YouTube. 

Here’s what you need to know…

If You Are a Provider:

1. The Board voted in favor of EEC’s recommendation regarding how to distribute funding among regions and programs for the increase of reimbursement rates for providers participating in the Child Care Financial Assistance (CCFA) program. EEC senior staff reviewed the two options presented at the December 2024 Board meeting and proposed the following framework for adjustments to the current rate, which was ultimately passed by the Board.

• COLA adjustments. There will be an across-the-board increase in rates of 1.5% to center reimbursement rates to account for increased cost of living. For Family Child Care (FCC) providers, this increase will be 1%. 

• Targeted adjustments to closely align with the cost of care for providers. For centers, EEC targeted increases toward infant and toddler rates across all regions, with further increases of infant rates in four regions and further increases of toddler rates in three regions that are the furthest from the cost of care. In addition, the Northeast preschool rate was increased to recognize the cost of care relative to other regions. For FCCs, targeted increases for over-age-2 rates across all regions were made, with further increases of over-age-2 rates in the three regions that are the furthest from the cost of care including a greater increase in the Northeast region to recognize the cost of care relative to other regions. 

• Daily add-on rate. Retroactive increase of 50 cents per day for the entirety of Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) for programs providing comprehensive services (e.g., serving homeless children).

• Per the December Board meeting presentation, these increases will result in the following rates –

For Centers:

For FCCs* (*these rates are subject to negotiation with the union representing providers serving families with CCFA):

If You are an Early Childhood Educator:

1. Commissioner Amy Kershaw and EEC senior staff shared how staff working in ECE programs will have access to $7.5 million dollars in Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) funding for student loan repayment. The State Legislature’s FY25 – which runs from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025 – budget included $15 million for the education of the early education workforce, along with a provision for the Board of EEC to work together with the Board of Higher Education to implement an Early Childhood Educator Student Loan Repayment program. In the fall, the EEC Board supported the use of $7.5 million of the $15 million for early education and care scholarships; the remaining $7.5 million will be allocated for a loan forgiveness program. At its January meeting, the EEC Board voted to put EEC’s proposal for the program in front of the Board of Higher Education for its approval and to administer the program. A description of the proposal follows.

1. Eligibility. Staff working in early education, child care, and residential programs who received any undergraduate degree leading to an early childhood education credential are eligible to apply for loan repayment for those degrees. Staff must have earned their degree after July 1, 2013 at a public or private institution in MA. Those staff must also commit to work for at least one additional year in an EEC licensed or funded program following receipt of the award and must meet citizenship requirements. 

2. Program Details. Eligible staff can apply annually for up to $7,500, and preference will be given to those who have served for at least 5 years in an early education, child care, or residential program. Applicants must provide proof of active, full-time work status in an EEC licensed or funded program. Awards will be retroactive to July 1, 2024.  

3. Next Steps. Prior to its next Board meeting, the Department of Higher Education will estimate costs associated with administering the loan repayment program, and deduct those from the $7.5 million. The Board of Higher Education will then vote to move the program forward, the first step of which will be to create an online application. The application would then be opened and publicized to early childhood education staff.     

If You are a Parent/Guardian or Child Care Advocate:

1. Commissioner Amy Kershaw shared reflections on a recent briefing hosted by United Way at the State House, the focus of which was the impact of Shared Services on the business operations of Family Child Care (FCC) providers. Specifically, Dr. Kim Lucas – an EEC Board member – and Dr. Wendy Robeson recently evaluated the impact of programming supporting FCCs as businesses and entrepreneurs. At the Board meeting, Dr. Lucas shared the following preliminary results:

• FCCs feel confident and more prepared to step into their roles as businesses and provide high quality services. One indication of this greater confidence is that some FCC provider participants have reported being able to fill seats almost immediately and expand capacity by adding seats as a result of improved business practices. 

• There remains a digital divide – that is, there is an unequal distribution of access to and ability to use technology for business operations among FCCs. There is a need to support digital literacy and provide equitable resources across geographies and settings.

• Relationships that are local, trusting and linguistically supportive of FCCs are foundational to the successful impact of all of this work. Trainers who know the local context and could support FCCs providers in a culturally responsive manner were essential. 

• There is general excitement in Shared Services and a greater demand among FCCs to participate than there is capacity to serve them. 

2. Secretary Patrick Tutwiler introduced the impetus and goals for the Commonwealth’s ‘Early Education through Higher Education Mental Health Framework.’ The framework will be developed and funded through a mandate in the State Legislature’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget – a line item of $5 million. The Executive Office of Education (EOE) is leading this cross-agency effort and – together with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education – posted (in December 2024) a Request for Qualifications in order to identify a vendor to support the development of the framework. The goal of the framework is to inform a statewide strategy for mental and behavioral health supports in the public education and licensed early education and care systems.     

3. Commissioner Amy Kershaw introduced EEC’s Behavioral Health team, which provided an overview of its work, including its collaboration with the Office of the Child Advocate. EEC’s Behavioral Health team is led by Aimee Smith-Zeoli, who supervises three behavioral health support specialists that work across all of the regions in the Commonwealth. Ms. Smith-Zeoli provided the Board with context regarding the current challenges the field is facing related to behavioral health and social emotional learning as well as the value of supports in these areas, including EEC’s goals to:

• Help educators build a foundation of practices to support healthy social and emotional learning and development;

• Reduce the use of disciplinary tactics that remove children from activities or settings;

• Provide trainings and support around trauma-informed responses to behavior; and

• Support the wellness of early childhood educators. 

These goals are being supported through various initiatives. In addition to the relatively recent establishment of a larger team focused on Behavioral Health at EEC, the Department:

• Offers an Early Childhood Mental Health Grant;

• Grantees include: Behavioral Health Network/Collaborative (Western MA and the Berkshires); Empower, LGA (Canton, Westboro, Quincy and Foxboro); Community Health Link - Together for Kids (Central MA and Worcester); Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Lowell, Lawrence, and the North Shore); Justice Resource Institute (South Boston and the Cape and Islands); and Walker, Inc. (Boston)

• Provides training and communities of practice around the evidence-based Pyramid Model; 

• Runs a statewide Professional Development Academy for educators; and

• Offers related supports in collaboration with Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI) program administrators. 

Two new initiatives for 2025 include the planned creation of an Inclusion and Support Toolkit and the implementation of Trauma Informed and Responsive Training opportunities. The latter, in partnership with the Office of the Child Advocate and the Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma, will be through the STREET initiative (short for ‘Strategic Trauma Responsive Early Education Training’). Audrey Smolkin, Director of the Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma, presented to the Board about STREET, which will include a number of trainings targeting various roles in the early childhood space.    

The next EEC Board meeting will take place in Framingham on February 12, 2025.