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The Administration for Children and Families released guidance today regarding the $15 billion in supplemental CCDF Discretionary Funds included as part of the American Rescue Plan. Of this amount, Utah is receiving approximately $163 million. Recognizing the systemic underfunding of the current child care patchwork, the guidance “strongly recommends” that recipients use the funds to support the early childhood workforce.
“OCC strongly recommends that lead agencies prioritize increasing provider payment rates and workforce compensation so that child care providers can retain a skilled workforce and deliver high-quality care to children receiving subsidies.”
Utah has a chance to use these funds to fix what the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at Berkely refers to as the “Hole In the Bucket” shortage of qualified early care and education workforce.
Utah should invest these funds to meet the developmental needs of children, provide parents with true choice and equal access to child care services and appropriately compensate an essential and skilled workforce to facilitate a robust child care sector by:
(1) providing bonuses and wage supplements directly to the early childhood workforce, one of the allowable uses of these funds; and
(2) designating the early childhood workforce as eligible workers who performed essential work during the pandemic so that they qualify for premium pay and so that their children can qualify for child-care assistance without regard to the income eligibility requirements.
Utah provided bonuses to K-12 teachers, but nothing for our early education workforce. These funds can correct this mistake.