During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal American Rescue Plan allocated $24 billion toward child care programs across the country, and in 2021, $6 billion came to the state of Connecticut. As of Sept. 30, 2023, this funding ended, leaving just under 1,000 Connecticut programs susceptible to closure.
Without reallocation of Connecticut state funding, these closures may leave families without a place to bring their children during the day as they work to keep food on their tables.
As a child care provider amidst a global pandemic, I understand the stress and dire need for state and federal funding for daycare facilities. Since 2019, I have served in roles including assistant program director at an after-school center, daycare teacher for newborns to three-year-olds, and as a nanny for CT families. Many of the families that I have helped in these roles greatly depended on the program or my services to maintain their work schedule to support their family.
Without the help of daycare or after-school programming and assistance, many of the families that I have worked with would have needed to abbreviate their hours, leaving them struggling to make ends meet.
As of 2020, there were just over 215,000 children aged birth to 5 in the state of Connecticut. However, there are only 4,052 spaces in Child DayCare Centers. This drastic gap in services may widen if centers are forced to close. Without better funding, child care businesses will have to raise tuition to keep their doors open. With the average annual cost of child care in Connecticut (as of May 2023) being $15,591, it’s hard to fathom how this price could increase any further.
Child care is arguably the biggest financial strain that families face when they have children. And with the cost of daycare and enhanced education continuing to increase, it only makes it harder for families to justify putting their children into a daycare facility.
One response to this at the state level is Care4Kids, an initiative through the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood. Through this, parents can screen to see if they are eligible for help or not. The main eligibility requirements for Care4Kids include: living in Connecticut, the parents of the children must be working or going to school, the children needing care must be under the age of 13 or the age of 19 if the child has special needs, and the parents must meet income limit of less than 60% of the State Median Income (SMI) for new applications.
My proposal to enhance Care4Kids is that the state allocate additional funding towards the CT Office of Early Childhood. After this additional funding, the program will be able to lower its requirements so that more families will be eligible to receive the childcare benefit.
First, instead of the strict SMI filter, the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) standard should be used. ALICE advocates for the 18% of Connecticut households who don’t make enough for basic living, but earn more than the Federal Poverty Level.
By lowering the threshold below just the State Median Income, Connecticut can take a closer look at the families who seem as though they are making it by but are not supporting their specific household’s needs. Additionally, it should not be a requirement that parents have a job or go to school; if a parent has to stay at home with the children, they cannot find a job to be eligible for Care4Kids, which results in an endless cycle for these families to seek support.
The issue of childcare availability continues to be of the utmost importance in the state of Connecticut. For families without accessible, affordable childcare, parents are forced to make hard decisions. They have to work tough hours of the day, they struggle to clothe their children, and they find it difficult to put three meals on the table each day.
Parents should not have to prioritize anything over the health, well-being, and future of their children; and yet they do. Due to the high dollar amount associated with childcare and the limited state funding towards accessibility, parents continue to face these unfair, unjust difficult choices each day. This issue is not just relevant for families but for employers as well. For employers, they need for parents to have child care so that they can work full shifts. This is important for both the employers and the state’s economy as a whole.
More needs to be done to relieve this issue for the sake of the children’s education, parents’ livelihoods, and the state’s economic condition.
Allison Benish is a senior at Sacred Heart University, majoring in Health Sciences.
