Connecticut Child Care Advocates Seek $70M Emergency Funding Amid Provider Crisis

Child care advocates are urging Connecticut lawmakers to allocate $70 million from an emergency fund to address what they describe as a crisis in the state’s Care4Kids program, according to proposed legislation.

Senate Bill 265 would transfer the funds from the Federal Cuts Response Fund to the Office of Early Childhood to support Care4Kids, a state program that helps low to moderate income families access child care, according to the bill’s provisions. As Governor Lamont recently signed a declaration to extend this $330.8 million emergency fund through 2027, advocates see the opportunity to redirect a portion of these resources toward the child care crisis.

The proposed funding would direct $5 million specifically to providers in eastern Connecticut to address regional disparities, while the remaining $65 million would create slots for children on the Care4Kids waitlist, prioritizing those who are low-income and have special needs, according to the legislation.

Child care providers say they are struggling financially while trying to serve families. Tashianna O’Connor, who operates Tick Tock Around the Clock 24-Hour Daycare in Waterbury, said her facility charges parents rates as low as $100 per week based on what families can afford, often resulting in losses for the business.

“I can’t afford to pay my bills and I can’t afford to hire a substitute,” O’Connor said, according to advocates. “Providers are currently not staying afloat, they’re going to food pantries just to stay afloat, just to buy food, they can’t pay their bills. They’re getting second and third jobs, they want to do the job that they love.”

The funding request comes one year after the state created a $300 million endowment for early childhood education that aims to provide care at no cost for low-income families and cap costs at 7% of household income for others, according to program details.

Eva Bermúdez Zimmerman, director of Child Care 4 CT, said she receives weekly calls from providers and parents facing difficult choices about keeping programs running and affording care. While she praised lawmakers for creating the universal pre-K endowment last year, she warned that the state risks losing child care slots as providers wait for that fund to build support and infrastructure.

Using the Federal Cuts Response Fund could bypass budget constraints that typically limit new spending initiatives. According to Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration, lawmakers could authorize only $1.5 million more in spending this fiscal year before exceeding the spending cap that aligns overall expenditures with household income and inflation.

The governor’s proposed $28.7 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 has just $1.1 million in room under the cap, according to administration figures.

However, when Lamont and the General Assembly created the response fund last November using $500 million from the previous fiscal year’s $2.5 billion budget surplus, they included emergency provisions exempting spending from that pool from cap limits, according to the fund’s structure.

The proposal faces political challenges despite solving the spending cap issue. Lamont, described as a fiscal moderate, has repeatedly told Democratic legislative leaders that Connecticut cannot afford to replace all federal aid the state stands to lose in coming years.

Federal legislation enacted last July includes more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and other human service programs nationally over the next decade, according to program details. Connecticut Voices for Children, a New Haven-based policy research group, estimated in January that state government and households collectively are losing $480 million in federal assistance this fiscal year, growing to nearly $1 billion next fiscal year.

The current system requires the governor to authorize specific expenditures from the federal response fund, while a panel of six legislative leaders can block spending but cannot order expenditures themselves, according to the fund’s governance structure.

State officials continue assessing Connecticut’s share of the federal reductions as child care advocates press for immediate action to address provider shortfalls and family needs.