RECAP of the June EEC Board Meeting: The Plan for C3 Grants and Updates on Reform of Residential Regulations
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) an update on the status of the fiscal year 2025 (FY25) budget, (2) updates regarding EEC’s plan for the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) program for the upcoming year, (3) updates to residential regulatory reform, and (4) the Commonwealth’s newest Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) State Plan. Here’s what you need to know…
If You Are a Provider:
EEC’s Board did not meet in May, in large part to allow EEC staff to focus on procurement of new contracts with providers serving low-income and special populations through the the Child Care Financial Assistance (CCFA) program through contracted slots (for more on this, see NV’s April Board recap). In response to its Request for Proposals, EEC received 180 bids for contracted slots – 100 for those serving income-eligible children and 80 for those serving priority populations. EEC is in the process of scoring the applications and looks forward to those contracts being in place in time to begin this fall.
EEC reported that it now has a contract with 509 SEIU, which negotiates rates on behalf of Family Child Care (FCC) providers participating in CCFA. After a year of discussions, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed in early June and is effective, retroactively, from July 1, 2023, until 2026 (it is a 3-year contract). As a result, EEC can move forward with rate increases for FCCs, which will be retroactive to last year (7/1/23) and should all be implemented by end of this fiscal year.
EEC has made permanent a policy of giving providers serving children with CCFA additional paid closure days. For the last several years, EEC has approved a one-time closure for providers between Christmas and New Year’s. EEC has decided to make that closure option permanent, but more flexibly. Now, providers have 12 holidays, 5 professional development days, and 10 approved closure days. Dates for closure days can be at a program’s discretion and EEC is actively working on getting policy guidance out to the field on this.
EEC recently received approval from the federal Office of Child Care (OCC) to use an alternative methodology to set rates of reimbursement for providers participating in CCFA (a departure from using solely the Market Survey). EEC will use a cost-informed approach and has awarded a contract to American Institutes for Research (AIR) to support its work to update and refine the cost model in order to set rates moving forward.
EEC shared its current plan for the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grants program for fiscal year 2025. At the Board meeting, EEC shared its proposal for modifying the C3 grants program. The approach includes an interim plan for the next three months and a separate, longer-term plan that contemplates a new funding formula to be implemented in the fall.
The interim plan, for July through September, is to:
○ Keep grant funding flowing to programs who are currently receiving it, according to the funding tiers and approach used for May and June of the current fiscal year.
○ Begin admitting new programs to participate in C3 in July, with quarterly opportunities for new programs to join thereafter.
EEC’s longer-term proposal for the new formula includes the following adjustments:
Differentiate per-child base rates used to distribute funding to account for ages of children served (for centers), size (for FCCs), and hours of operation.
For programs with enrollment below 85% of licensed capacity, per slot payments would be prorated by actual enrollment; however, EEC will likely not use the same percentage enrolled threshold for FCCs and center-based programs.
Replace Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) with the Child Opportunity Index (COI) as the place-based metric used as a factor in the equity adjustment.
Lower the CEO compensation ratio threshold from 1:40 (lowest paid educator wage to CEO compensation) to 1:30.
Set fixed payments based on fall program data and hold payments constant for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Open C3 to new providers quarterly, rather than monthly (if the projected obligation to new programs exceeds available funds, EEC would close access).
While EEC’s longer-term proposal for C3 moving forward sustains universal eligibility, it also uses a tiered funding structure to provide differential funding to those providers supporting low-income families through CCFA. The proposed tiers are as follows:
● Tier 1: Head Start programs and those programs with 25% or more children receiving CCFA.
● Tier 2: This tier encompasses multiple eligibility criteria:
○ Programs with 1-25% children receiving CCFA; OR
○ Programs that provide a meaningful percentage of non-CCFA scholarships for their educators or need-based financial assistance for families; OR
○ Programs located in the lowest-resourced communities for children (using COI).
● Tier 3: Programs that do not meet criteria for Tiers 1 or 2.
● EEC plans to allow for flexibility in fund allocation between tiers, to recognize changes over time, such as shifts in CCFA enrollment.
If You are a Parent/Guardian or Child Care Advocate:
Secretary Tutwiler announced that a team composed of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Neighborhood Villages was selected to support the work of the Governor’s Task Force on Ensuring Affordable, High-Quality Child Care, established through Executive Order 625. The team’s role is to support the work of the Inter-Agency Task Force and to help drive it forward to fulfill its mandate. The Secretary also previewed an announcement of in-person and virtual listening sessions for the public to provide the Task Force with input.
EEC announced the awarding of additional grants for the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI). An additional $1.7M will add about 259 PreK seats for children in Gateway Cities and rural communities. Also, Chickopee and Taunton Public Schools were each awarded planning grants.
EEC has developed a Research Agenda and has hired a research assistant and data analyst to support its Director of Research and team. EEC is also building partnerships with the local higher education community in order to support its Research Agenda. A new partnership with Boston University’s Wheelock Education Policy Center has provided EEC with a Fellow to work on workforce development. A partnership with Harvard’s Partnering in Education Research (PIER) Fellowship has led to the support of a dedicated research Fellow working on CCFA and its impact on access for families. Finally, a Fellow from the Harvard Strategic Data Project will support EEC for 3 years. The EEC Board voted to accept philanthropic funding for this Fellow and to establish a trust for this purpose.
EEC shared the process for creating and the highlights of the contents of its FY25-27 Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) State Plan with the Board, which voted to approve EEC’s process to finalize the State Plan and to submit it to the Administration for Children and Families by the end of June of this year. In exchange for receiving federal funds for child care, the federal Office of Child Care requires EEC to meet certain requirements and report on activities, progress, spending, and programming in ten areas, ranging from child care affordability to programs integrity and accountability. EEC drafted its plan and sought feedback on it over the previous several months, including through a public hearing in May.
EEC reported on its progress toward compliance with new regulations put forth in the 2024 CCDF FInal Rule. The new regulations contained in the Final Rule went into effect on April 30, 2024. MA must be in compliance with the rule or request a waiver by November 30, 2024 for an extension of up to two years in order to come into compliance. Among the requirements of the rule, Massachusetts is already in compliance with many; however, it will need to request waivers for the following elements: Co-pays must be capped at 7% of family income and providers must be paid prospectively. Other new requirements will require policy changes. EEC intends to put together a working group of stakeholders to create a plan for putting needed changes in place.
EEC’s team provided an overview of its Residential Programs and a framework for regulatory revisions, which were last comprehensively addressed in 1995. The goal of the revision process is to review and revise residential regulations so that they might enhance safe, supportive, unbiased environments for the youth served in group care and temporary shelter programs.
If You Are an Educator:
EEC’s Early Childhood Educators Scholarship for pursuing higher education degrees is now open. EEC has held informational sessions about this opportunity, which has been expanded to make additional staff eligible (including residential workers) and additional majors acceptable for enrolled students, and has simplified the eligibility verification process.