Childcare worker Marci then helps her daughter, Mila, 4, put away toys to get ready for circle time at Little Learners Academy in Smithfield, RI. A state program for child care workers subsidizes Mila’s tuition. A handful of other states have similar programs, which advocates say have beneficial ripple effects on the state’s economy. (Photo by Elaine S. Povich/Stateline)
SMITHFIELD, RI – Childcare worker Marci Then, 32, watched two 4-year-olds in her care wrestle over a toy board in a model kitchen set. “Do we share?” she asked softly. They both let go.
Then works at the Little Learners Academy childcare center near Providence, Rhode Island. Her daughter, Mila, 4, is enrolled there, so Then can keep an eye on her, along with a dozen other 4-year-olds. Mila calls her mother ‘Miss Marci’ at school, but ‘Mom’ at home.
Typically, Mila is in another room with another staff member at the center, where she adheres to rules that do not allow parents and caregivers to babysit their own children in a licensed environment. But today Mila is with her mother for a while to show a reporter around.
Mila proudly squeaks how old she is and then helps put away toys so that the children can gather quietly for circle time.
Then she said that without help, she wouldn’t have been able to afford the $315 a week that allowed Mila to attend Little Learners. But she is taking advantage of a one-year state pilot program that allows the use of federal funds to pay for care for the children of preschool workers.
“It changed my life,” says Then, a single mother who is also responsible for a disabled young adult she adopted. Without it, “I would have to rearrange my life.”
In 2022, Kentucky lawmakers amended the Employer Child Care Assistance Program to specifically include child care workers at all income levels who work at least 20 hours per week. Other states, including Rhode Island, have since launched programs modeled after those in Kentucky. The Kentucky program was set to end on September 30, but Stephanie French, spokesperson for the state’s Health and Family Services Cabinet, wrote in an email that the state will use a combination of federal and state funding to continue the program .
At least a half-dozen states, including Iowa, now have similar programs or are considering legislation to start them, according to EdSurge, a news site that covers education issues.
Supporters, including Republicans and Democrats, see retaining child care workers as a benefit not only to workers and centers facing labor shortages, but also to state economies. For many people, the lack of affordable childcare is an obstacle to getting started.
Charlene Barbieri, founder and owner of four Little Learners Academy locations in Rhode Island, said in an interview that it is difficult to hire and retain qualified staff. The child care subsidy program helps, she said.
“As we know, early learning is very expensive here, right?” Barbieri said. “So any additional programs, monetary or otherwise, are exceptionally helpful.
“We had a lot of teachers come to us and say that if this program wasn’t in place, we couldn’t afford to send our children to daycare and still help our families by bringing in extra income,” she said.
Rhode Island lawmakers this spring added the child care subsidy to the 2025 budget, moving the program out of the “pilot” category. Democratic Gov. Dan McKee is expected to sign the budget this week.
“It’s a good program and we’ve seen great results with it,” Rhode Island House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi, a Democrat, said in an interview. “We have a labor shortage across the entire spectrum of our labor market. So pass on [caregivers] free childcare, they can go back to work and care for other children, allowing more people to enter the labor market.”
Other states besides Iowa that have launched or are considering programs include Arizona, Colorado, Indiana and Nebraska, according to EdSurge.
The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, a research center at the University of California, Berkeley, estimated that if every state followed Kentucky’s lead, about 234,000 workers with children under the age of six could benefit.
“We see it as a no-brainer,” said Anna Powell, senior research and policy associate at the center, who co-authored a report on the program. “The educators are parents – why shouldn’t they be at the front of the line? Every time an educator stays in the field, it benefits many parents.”
Budget challenges
In some states, however, budget issues pose a challenge for lawmakers seeking to make their pilot program permanent.
Arizona had a one-year Education Workforce Scholarship program that helped child care workers and public school teachers pay for their own children’s child care, but that program was funded with federal pandemic dollars and will end June 30. It is unlikely to be extended due to state budget shortfalls.
Child care workers currently receiving this assistance should instead apply for assistance through the state’s comprehensive child care assistance program. That program, administered by the Arizona Department of Economic Security, is based on income levels, Tasya Peterson, spokesperson for the department, wrote in an email to Stateline.
Barbie Prinster, executive director of the Arizona Early Childhood Education Association, a nonprofit that represents child care centers, said 3,541 children were approved for care subsidies under the Early Education program this year, about three-quarters of whom come from families with a childcare worker. . The rest come from teacher families.
She predicted that hundreds of workers would have to quit if the subsidy is not extended.
“I think providers will hire more mothers with young children because of this grant,” she said.
In Nebraska, Senator John Fredrickson, a Democrat and father of a five-year-old son, introduced a bill this session that would have provided free child care to employees of state-licensed child care programs, whether in home care or in centers, who work at least 20 hours per week to work.
He estimated that the potential subsidy, which he based on Kentucky’s idea, could have brought in 2,175 parent providers. If each worker cared for eight children, 16,000 children would receive care, and at least as many parents would be working, he estimated.
Fredrickson said the initial budget for the bill was about $20 million, which turned out to be a heavy burden, so he cut it in half to $10 million. But even that proved too much, he said, and the attempt failed. He wants to resubmit his bill next year.
Republican Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on May 1 approved a bill extending a pilot child care subsidy program for caregivers and early childhood educators regardless of income for two years at a cost of $10.2 million, with utilizing the state’s Childcare Development Fund.
The Iowa Legislature passed House File 2958 with near-unanimous support. It extends the pilot program for child care workers in Iowa through June 30, 2025.
Colorado agreed to continue a program for child care providers with children ages 6 weeks to 13 years, giving them full child care benefits regardless of the worker’s income.
And Indiana agreed to study the issue of compensation for child care and preschool teachers.
‘Good for Rhode Island’
Sitting together in a hearing room near the Rhode Island House chamber earlier this month, Democratic state Reps. Mary Ann Shallcross Smith and Grace Diaz said they understand the issue of child care firsthand. Both are mothers, although their children are now adults, and both are experienced childcare center owners.
Shallcross Smith remembers putting up flyers at the local drugstore advertising her home care services. She now owns 15 centers. When the issue of paying childcare workers for their own children’s school fees came up this year, she was all in favor of it and took her arguments to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Shekarchi.
“No. 1, it’s good for Rhode Island,” she said, adding that it’s also good for business.
Diaz, a mother of five, said she also spoke with the speaker. But perhaps the biggest driver to get the program into the state budget, she recalled, was the day they brought a bunch of little kids from various child care settings to the Capitol to be a living example of the need.
“When they saw the little kids at the State House, they all wanted to have their picture taken,” Diaz said.
Back at the Little Learners playground, healthcare worker Kayla Champagne, 39, of Lincoln, Rhode Island, smiled at her 3-year-old son, Jaxson, who was peeking over the top of a jungle gym. Champagne, who has three other children ages 18, 14 and 8, is relieved to take advantage of a program that will help her pay for Jaxson’s care.
She used to work at another daycare, but could only afford to send Jaxson there a few days a week, she said. At Little Learners, employees helped her apply for the state grant.
“That’s one of the reasons I left my other daycare to come here,” she said. “Now I can work full-time while having four children.”
Rhode Island Current reporter Nancy Lavin contributed to this report.
This story was originally published by Stateline, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. If you have any questions, please contact editor Scott S. Greenberger: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.
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