RECAP of the November 2024 EEC Board Meeting: Budget Priorities, Literacy Launch, and Findings from Two Research Analyses on Early Childhood Education

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) a presentation by Dr. Jeffrey Liebman on his findings from an economic analysis on early education and care, (2) a discussion and vote on the EEC Board’s budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, (3) an update and explanation of the Literacy Launch initiative, and (4) a presentation by researchers conducting cost modeling for EEC. 

For additional detail on any of the meeting topics, see the slide presentation or watch the recording on YouTube. 

Here’s what you need to know…

If You Are a Provider:

1. Staff provided an overview of EEC’s early literacy priorities as well as the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s Literacy Launch initiative and how PreK is integrated within it. EEC has three early literacy priorities:

• Emphasis on developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically sustaining, play-based, and evidence-based early language and literacy practices (birth to five); 

• Integrating attention to early language and literacy content in key agency initiatives (including  EEC’s credential and quality work); and

• Collaboration with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) on joint initiatives. This priority includes language and literacy in Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI) districts, as well as coordination with the Partnership for Reading Success — Massachusetts (PRISM) grant program. The PRISM grant program falls under the umbrella of the Literacy Launch initiative.

Currently in its first year, Literacy Launch focuses on reading success for children from age three through third grade, and was funded by the Massachusetts State Legislature at $20 million for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25). The funding is being used for:

• Development of a statewide system of professional development (PD) for early literacy, 

• Supporting educator preparation programs that exist in higher education with respect to how these programs prepare teacher candidates for early literacy, including through supports for faculty and administrators, and

• Targeted PRISM grants, to enhance early literacy from PreK to the third grade.

DESE (in partnership with EEC) will offer a number of targeted, competitive grants under the PRISM umbrella. PRISM I, administered by DESE, is currently being implemented for FY25. Grantees will receive financial and technical support from both agencies (EEC & DESE). The PRISM grant is designed for Massachusetts school districts to apply for in order to support their PreK to grade 3 programs; the first year of the grant is a planning year. (The first application period closed on October 1, 2024.) Priority PRISM grantees will be characterized by one or more of the following: their location in a small community; below-average levels of reading proficiency among third-graders; recent substantial increase in enrollment of children from other countries; a dual-language program; or a school district designated as chronically underperforming. In the first year: 

• PRISM districts will work with a PRISM leadership coach and leadership from EEC’s Coordinated Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) team and will identify at least two community-based PreK partners; 

• PRISM leadership teams will be formed and include community-based PreK partners; 

• Each district will have a literacy systems scan and an early literacy multi-tiered system of support plan and will include public school PreKs and community-based PreK programs. 

In future years, years 2-5, community-based programs will be part of all relevant initiatives – receiving resources and support for high-quality instructional materials, like curriculum, PD on implementing curriculum, and evidence-based culturally and linguistically sustaining early literacy practices. They will work to align instruction and assessment across the communities, purchase PreK screeners, and get coaching from PRISM leadership to meet local goals. Educators and leaders will have stipends and substitutes to fully participate in PD opportunities. 

If You Are a Provider or Educator:

1. Professor Jeffrey Liebman, Director of the Rappaport Institute and Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Social Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, shared the findings from his research, recently published in the paper entitled, “An Economic Analysis of the Child Care and Early Education Market in Massachusetts.” Following context-setting regarding the the economic rationale for public investment in early education and the current state of early education and care in Massachusetts, Professor Liebman offered four ways to make affordable, high-quality early education and care available to all:

• Raise quality

• Generate additional child care slots

• Make it possible for families who currently cannot afford formal child care to afford it

• Reduce costs for families currently paying for child care

Professor Liebman then offered four sequential steps to achieve the goals outlined: 

• Wage increases to stabilize the workforce, increase quality, and enable recruitment of the staff necessary for expansion in slots;

• Investments in quality (training and certifications);

• Investments to increase slots; and

• Increase number of demand-side subsidies following the addition of new capacity

2. The Board heard from EEC about its proposed FY26 budget priorities. The Board will ultimately submit its priorities to the Secretary of Education, to inform the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s budget proposal, which will be released in January. The priorities build on the agency’s strategic objectives, which are noted in CAPS below, with their associated initiatives and projects. 

Members of the Board had a robust discussion, including a recommendation to prioritize  the proposed initiatives. One Board member suggested focusing on family access needs through prioritization of Child Care Financial Assistance (CCFA) and CPPI. Another Board member wondered whether there were numerical targets associated with the priorities, for example, in terms of CCFA expansion, or aligned with EEC’s key performance indicators (KPIs). Ultimately, the Board voted to approve the memo to the Secretary outlining the priorities, as amended by the Chair, to reflect the conversation at the Board meeting on November 13, 2024.

3. EEC collaborators from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) provided an abridged presentation of their cost research and cost modeling for early education and care in Massachusetts. Following federal approval earlier this year to use an alternative cost-based methodology to inform CCFA rates in moving forward, EEC partnered with AIR to update and refine cost models – financial templates that allow one to calculate costs given different inputs, conditions, and program characteristics – to inform future changes to CCFA rates and other investments. AIR recently completed the first phase of its work, culminating in an update to the 2022 EEC cost model that includes estimates of per-child costs for each region, program type, and age group across the Commonwealth. Findings from the first phase include:

• The cost of care per child for center-based programs increased between 14% and 26% between 2022 and 2024, depending on the region and age group served.

• Increased costs can be attributed in large part to: increases (up to 9%) in wages; increases in food prices by nearly $1,000 per child annually; and increases in facilities costs of up to 29%, driven largely by rental rates.

• The cost of care per child for Family Child Care (FCC) programs increased between 12% and 19% between 2022 and 2024, depending on the region and age group served.

• The percent change in per child costs from 2022 to 2024 did not vary significantly across regions.

The subsequent phase of work – to be completed in June 2025 – will involve refining the models, increasing focus on school-aged care, and exploring cost inputs for informal care settings.

4. The application deadline for EEC’s Early Childhood Educators Scholarship, administered through a partnership with the Department of Higher Education (DHE), has been extended to January 15, 2025.  Interested educators may view a recording of a recent information session here.

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

1. The Board heard public comment from four early education and child care center directors, as well as a representative of the Massachusetts Association for the Education of Young Children (MAEYC). While comments ranged in focus, the following themes emerged: 

• Teachers who are also parents of young children in early childhood education programs are implicated in a detrimental cycle of not being able to afford to place their child in care without a voucher, and therefore not being able to return to work, and thereby limiting the program’s capacity due to under-staffing. 

• Program directors – who support educators who are supporting children and families – are themselves under-supported and suffering as a result.

• Smaller centers are uniquely able to meet diverse needs of children and families, but are unable to access many of the financial resources available to programs of larger sizes. 

The next EEC Board meeting will take place in Lowell on December 18th.