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1 S.56
2 An act relating to child care and early childhood education
3 It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont:
4 * * * Legislative Intent * * *
5 Sec. 1. LEGISLATIVE INTENT
6 It is the intent of the General Assembly that investments in and policy
7 changes to Vermont’s child care system shall:
8 (1) increase access to and the quality of child care services throughout
9 the State;
10 (2) provide financial stability to child care programs;
11 (3) stabilize Vermont’s talented child care workforce;
12 (4) address the workforce needs of the State’s employers; and
13 (5) provide policy recommendations for expanding access and capacity
14 in Vermont’s prekindergarten system.
15 * * * Prekindergarten * * *
16 Sec. 2. PREKINDERGARTEN EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE;
17 REPORT
18 (a) Creation. There is created the Prekindergarten Education Study
19 Committee to make recommendations on how to improve and expand
20 accessible, affordable, and high-quality prekindergarten education.
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1 (b) Membership. The Committee shall be composed of the following
2 members:
3 (1) the Secretary of Education or designee, who shall serve as chair;
4 (2) the Secretary of Human Services or designee;
5 (3) the Executive Director of the Vermont Principals’ Association or
6 designee;
7 (4) the Executive Director of the Vermont Superintendents Association
8 or designee;
9 (5) the Executive Director of the Vermont School Board Association or
10 designee;
11 (6) the Executive Director of the Vermont National Education
12 Association or designee;
13 (7) the Chair of the Vermont Council of Special Education
14 Administrators or designee;
15 (8) the Executive Director of the Vermont Curriculum Leaders
16 Association or designee;
17 (9) the Executive Director of Building Bright Futures or designee;
18 (10) a representative of a prequalified private provider as defined in 16
19 V.S.A. § 829, operating a licensed center-based child care and preschool
20 program, appointed by the Speaker of the House;
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1 (11) a representative of a prequalified private provider as defined in 16
2 V.S.A. § 829, operating a regulated family child care home, appointed by the
3 Committee on Committees;
4 (12) the Head Start Collaboration Office Director or designee;
5 (13) the Executive Officer of Let’s Grow Kids or designee; and
6 (14) a family representative with a prekindergarten-age child, appointed
7 by the Building Bright Futures Council.
8 (c) Powers and duties. The Committee shall examine the delivery of
9 prekindergarten education in Vermont and make recommendations for
10 expanding equitable access for all children three and four years of age in a
11 manner that achieves the best outcomes for children, whether through the
12 current mixed-delivery system, the public school system, the private
13 prekindergarten system, or a system that allows school districts to contract
14 with private providers. The Committee shall also examine and make
15 recommendations on the changes necessary to provide prekindergarten
16 education to all children three and four years of age through the public school
17 system, including a timeline and transition plan for such changes. In
18 conducting its analysis, the Committee shall address the following topics and
19 questions, which may yield distinct recommendations for children three and
20 four years of age:
21 (1) Outcomes and quality.
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1 (A) What are the benchmarks for “high quality” in prekindergarten
2 education?
3 (B) How should best practices be implemented and measured across
4 various prekindergarten education settings?
5 (2) Capacity and demand.
6 (A) How many children, by age, does the current mixed-delivery
7 system have the capacity to serve? In studying this issue, the Committee shall
8 consider the number of children on waitlists and the number of vacancies in
9 programs.
10 (B) What are the workforce requirements to expand prekindergarten
11 education? In studying this question, the Committee may consider:
12 (i) whether there is a gap between the total number of licensed
13 teachers currently working and the number needed for expansion;
14 (ii) whether there is a gap between the total prekindergarten
15 education workforce, including paraeducators, and the number needed for
16 expansion; and
17 (iii) the educational and training costs associated with training and
18 retaining the workforce necessary for expansion?
19 (C) If prekindergarten education in the public school system is
20 provided solely to children four years of age, what is the impact on the
21 capacity and workforce of private prekindergarten providers?
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1 (D) If prekindergarten education for children who are four years of
2 age is provided exclusively through the public school system, how will infant
3 capacity in private child care providers be impacted?
4 (E) Are there areas of the State where prekindergarten education can
5 be more effectively and conveniently furnished in an adjacent state due to
6 geographic considerations?
7 (3) Special education.
8 (A) How many children three and four years of age are currently on
9 individual education programs receiving services in public and private
10 settings?
11 (B) Are children three and four years of age on individual education
12 plans receiving the full range of services that they are entitled to?
13 (C) Does the availability or cost of special education services vary
14 between private and public prequalified providers?
15 (4) Public school expansion.
16 (A) What infrastructure changes are necessary to expand
17 prekindergarten education?
18 (B) How would the current prekindergarten education mixed-delivery
19 system transition to a program within the public school system?
20 (C) What capacity needs to be built for developmentally appropriate
21 afterschool and out-of-school-time care?
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1 (D) Are changes needed to existing health and safety standards for
2 public schools to accommodate children three and four years of age?
3 (5) Funding and costs.
4 (A) What are fiscally strategic options to sustain and expand
5 universal prekindergarten education?
6 (B) What is the financial and business impact on regulated private
7 child care providers if the prekindergarten system transitions to public schools
8 or is expanded beyond the current 10-hour program?
9 (C) What, if any, changes need to be made to pupil weights for
10 prekindergarten students?
11 (D) What, if any, changes need to be made to tuition rates for private
12 prekindergarten programs?
13 (6) Oversight.
14 (A) What additional Agency of Education personnel or resources
15 would be needed to oversee an expansion of the current prekindergarten
16 education system under either a mixed-delivery model, a public school system
17 model, or a system that allows school districts to contract with private
18 providers?
19 (B) What additional Agency of Human Services personnel or
20 resources would be needed to oversee an expansion of the current mixed-
21 delivery model or a private prekindergarten system?
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1 (C) Whether additional leadership capacity is needed at the Agency
2 of Education to address early childhood education, and if so, how should the
3 leadership capacity be expanded?
4 (d) Assistance. The Committee shall have the administrative, technical,
5 fiscal, and legal assistance of the Agencies of Education and of Human
6 Services. If the Agencies are unable to provide the Committee with adequate
7 support to assist with its technical, fiscal, or legal needs, then the Agency of
8 Education shall retain a contractor with the necessary expertise to assist the
9 Committee.
10 (e) Report. On or before December 1, 2023, the Committee shall submit a
11 written report to the House Committees on Education and on Human Services
12 and the Senate Committees on Education and on Health and Welfare with its
13 findings and recommendations based on the analysis conducted pursuant to
14 subsection (c) of this section. The report shall include draft legislative
15 language to support the Committee’s recommendations.
16 (f) Meetings.
17 (1) The Secretary of Education or designee shall call the first meeting of
18 the Committee to occur on or before July 15, 2023.
19 (2) A majority of the membership shall constitute a quorum.
20 (3) The Committee shall cease to exist on February 1, 2024.
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1 (g) Compensation and reimbursement. Members of the Committee who
2 are not employees of the State of Vermont and who are not otherwise
3 compensated or reimbursed for their attendance shall be entitled to per diem
4 compensation and reimbursement of expenses pursuant to 32 V.S.A. § 1010
5 for not more than 10 meetings per year. These payments shall be made from
6 monies appropriated to the Agency of Education.
7 (h) Appropriations.
8 (1) The sum of $5,000.00 is appropriated to the Agency of Education
9 from the General Fund in fiscal year 2024 for per diem compensation and
10 reimbursement of expenses for members of the Committee.
11 (2) The sum of $100,000.000 is appropriated to the Agency of
12 Education from the General Fund in fiscal year 2024 for the cost of retaining a
13 contractor as provided under subsection (d) of this section.
14 (3) Any unused portion of these appropriations shall, as of July 1, 2024,
15 revert to the General Fund.
16 * * * Child Care and Child Care Subsidies * * *
17 Sec. 3. 33 V.S.A. § 3512 is amended to read:
18 § 3512. CHILD CARE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM;
19 ELIGIBILITY
20 (a)(1) The Child Care Financial Assistance Program is established to
21 subsidize, to the extent that funds permit, the costs of child care for families VT LEG #369179 v.1
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1 that need child care services in order to obtain employment, to retain
2 employment, or to obtain training leading to employment. Families seeking
3 employment shall be entitled to participate in the Program for up to three
4 months and the Commissioner may further extend that period.
5 (2) The subsidy authorized by this subsection shall be established by the
6 Commissioner, by rule, and shall bear a reasonable relationship to income and
7 family size. Families shall be found eligible using an income eligibility scale
8 based on the current federal poverty level and adjusted for the size of the
9 family. Co-payments shall be assigned to the whole family and shall not
10 increase if more than one eligible child is enrolled in child care. Families with
11 an annual gross income of less than or equal to 150 185 percent of the current
12 federal poverty guidelines shall not have a family co-payment. Families with
13 an annual gross income up to and including 350 600 percent of current federal
14 poverty guidelines, adjusted for family size, shall be eligible for a subsidy
15 authorized by the subsection. The scale shall be structured so that it
16 encourages employment. If the federal poverty guidelines decrease in a given
17 year, the Division shall maintain the previous year’s federal poverty guidelines
18 for the purpose of determining eligibility and benefit amount under this
19 subsection.
20 (3) Earnings deposited in a qualified child education savings account,
21 such as the Vermont Higher Education Investment Plan, established in
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1 16 V.S.A. § 2877, or any similar plan qualified under 26 U.S.C. § 529, shall be
2 disregarded in determining the amount of a family’s income for the purpose of
3 determining continuing eligibility.
4 (4) After September 30, 2021, a A regulated center-based child care
5 program or family child care home as defined by the Department in rule shall
6 not receive funds pursuant to this subsection that are in excess of the usual and
7 customary rate for services at the center-based child care program or family
8 child care home.
9 (5) The Department shall ensure that applications for the Child Care
10 Financial Assistance Program use a simple, plain-language format.
11 Applications shall be available in both electronic and paper formats.
12 ***
13 Sec. 4. PROVIDER RATE ADJUSTMENT; CHILD CARE FINANCIAL
14 ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
15 On January 1, 2024, the Department for Children and Families shall provide
16 a one-time adjustment to the child care provider reimbursement rates in the
17 Child Care Financial Assistance Program for child care services provided to
18 children from birth through four years of age, including children five years of
19 age who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten. The adjusted reimbursement rate
20 shall account for the age of the children served and be 38.5 percent higher than
21 the fiscal year 2023 five-STAR reimbursement rate in the Vermont STARS
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1 system. All providers in the same child care setting category shall receive an
2 identical reimbursement rate payment, which shall be dependent upon whether
3 the provider operates a regulated child care center and preschool program or
4 regulated family child care home.
5 Sec. 5. APPROPRIATION; CHILD CARE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
6 PROGRAM
7 (a) In addition to fiscal year 2024 funds appropriated for the Child Care
8 Financial Assistance Program in other acts, in fiscal year 2024, $45,300,000.00
9 is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department for Children and
10 Families’ Child Development Division for the program eligibility expansion in
11 Sec. 3 of this act and for the fiscal year 2024 provider rate adjustment in Sec. 4
12 of this act.
13 (b) In addition to fiscal year 2024 funds appropriated for the administration
14 of the Department for Children and Families’ Child Development Division in
15 other acts, in fiscal year 2024, $6,000,000.00 is appropriated from the General
16 Fund to the Division to administer the Child Care Financial Assistance
17 Program eligibility expansion in Sec. 3 of this act and for the fiscal year 2024
18 provider rate adjustment in Sec. 4 of this act.
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1 Sec. 6. READINESS PAYMENTS AND GRANTS; CHILD CARE
2 FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
3 (a)(1) In fiscal year 2024, $25,000,000.00 is appropriated from the General
4 Fund to the Department for Children and Families’ Child Development
5 Division for the purpose of providing payments and grants to child care
6 providers, as defined in 33 V.S.A. § 3511, delivering child care services to
7