CELINA REYES HAS two jobs and works upwards of 12 hours each day to keep her family child care center afloat.
“Right now it’s really hard,” said Reyes, who operates Montesino’s Day Care in Lawrence. “I don’t want to lose my staff because I have been working with my team for the last eight years together. I want to keep them with me.”
Reyes is licensed to take up to 10 kids in her program, but she said she can only operate with six children under current financial constraints. If Reyes could enroll 10 children and get more funding, she said she wouldn’t need a second job.
And Reyes’s challenges aren’t unique.
On Tuesday, Reyes, president of the Family Child Care Chapter of SEIU Local 509, joined dozens of others with the union for a rally calling on lawmakers to raise reimbursement rates for child care providers who care for kids who are eligible for financial assistance. The state-funded rates compensate childc are centers who care for kids who receive assistance from Child Care Financial Assistance, which helps low-income families get child care at a lower cost.
“When we fight, we win!” the advocates holding signs and wearing purple and yellow shirts chanted in both Spanish and English in front of the State House.
And across the street, a parked van displayed a large screen that read, “Massachusetts families will lose child care if providers can’t afford to stay open. Tell Governor Healey that family child care providers deserve a raise!”
SEIU 509 President Dave Foley said the union that represents more than 3,000 family child care providers is seeking a 3 percent reimbursement rate increase in their next contract with the state. That increase would require about $18 million in additional state funding. Over the past two years, the reimbursement rates have risen a total of 1.5 percent, Foley said.
The union’s contract with the Department of Early Education and Care expired June 30 and they’ve been negotiating the next three-year agreement since March, Foley said.
“They’re not talking about money with these workers yet and with the raises that they’ve gotten in the last two years, it’s critically important to keep these businesses open, to keep this model going, that they get a fair rate increase, and that’s what we’re here for,” Foley told the News Service. “We’re trying to apply as much pressure as we can.”
An EEC spokesperson did not respond to the News Service’s request for comment on the status of contract negotiations and union’s requests for reimbursement rate increases.
In March, the EEC allocated $20 million from a fiscal 2025 surtax supplemental budget to raise CCFA reimbursement rates 0.5 percent across the board. Those rate increases were applied retroactively to span all of fiscal year 2026.
Voucher reimbursement rates for family child care providers vary depending on a child’s age and their geographic location. Rates in fiscal year 2026 ranged from $49.64 for those caring for children older than two in Western, Central, and Southeastern regions to $88.98 for providers caring for kids under two years old in the Boston area.
SEIU 509 staff said the Legislature’s fiscal 2027 budget did not include any funding for the reimbursement rate increases, and family child care providers are hoping funds can be included in a supplemental spending bill.
