Healey plans to pursue about $93 million in new child care spending in her fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, which will also request another $475 million in grants to continue supporting early education providers.
child care
Posted inState Government
State child care assistance boosted 5%
Gov. Maura Healey’s office said the approval means providers across the state will start to receive at least a 5.5 percent increase to their daily per child reimbursement rate beginning next month — an increase of more than $2,000 per child on average each year.
Posted inOpinion
Apprenticeship: a key to solving our child care crisis
WITHIN EVERY CHALLENGE lies vast opportunity, and perhaps nowhere is that more true than our child care system, which is struggling with a capacity shortage. Solving the capacity problem will not only make child care availability more abundant, it will create new career mobility opportunities for some of the lowest-paid workers in our Commonwealth. Teacher […]
Posted inEducation
Investing in child care infrastructure can be transformative
CHILD CARE is vital to our economy. This has never been more apparent than over the past 18 months as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools and child care centers across the Commonwealth – and the country. Parents and families rely on child care to work each day, and businesses rely on those employees to […]
Posted inOpinion
Pushing for radically different child care system
NATALIE IS a multiracial single mother raising a young son with autism in the greater Boston area. In my job at Economic Mobility Pathways, I work with women like her to help them advocate for themselves and other families struggling to make ends meet. Recently, as Natalie told me a story about having to choose between paying for […]
Posted inUncategorized
Legislature eyes changes in childcare system
RARELY HAS THE ISSUE of childcare received such sustained attention from the state Legislature. But with the pandemic calling renewed attention to the economic importance of childcare, two state panels this week are beginning to dig into the issue. Both experts and legislative leaders say returning to the way things were before is not sufficient. […]
Posted inOpinion
Essential workers need child care support
ESSENTIAL WORKERS are taking care of our state and of our nation: healthcare workers, grocery clerks, bank tellers, first responders, domestic workers, restaurant workers, janitors, and so many more. Yet many of us are fighting to keep ourselves afloat, especially as we struggle to find care for our children while we go to work. With licensed child care in limited supply and many schools […]
Posted inThe Download
Pandemic leads to rethinking of childcare
The shuttering of daycares last spring made apparent to workers and employers alike the importance of childcare to a functioning economy. Now, experts hope that one silver lining of the pandemic will be rethinking how the childcare system works – how it is structured and how it is paid for. “What I hope is that […]
Posted inUncategorized
Pandemic leads to rethinking of childcare
THE SHUTTERING of daycares last spring made apparent to workers and employers alike the importance of childcare to a functioning economy. Now, experts hope that one silver lining of the pandemic will be rethinking how the childcare system works – how it is structured and how it is paid for. “What I hope is that […]
Posted inUncategorized
Licensing of new childcare providers on hold
NICOLE MCCORMACK, a hairstylist from Haverhilll, always dreamed of opening a home daycare. So with her youngest son entering kindergarten, she started applying for a license in March. Five months later, she has not been able to take the training courses required by the Department of Early Education and Care, and her licensing process is […]