Freeze being placed on Maryland's Child Care Scholarship program
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) — The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) announced earlier this week that, starting next month, it will be temporarily freezing a program that assists thousands of families by paying for child care expenses.
There are over 45,000 children currently enrolled in the Child Care Scholarship (CCS) program. That number was closer to 21,000 in 2023. Now, an enrollment freeze is being implemented due to increased demand.
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'The success of this program means we have far exceeded the original demand and availability,' Assistant State Superintendent Sarah Neville-Morgan said.
Neville-Morgan says the CCS Program has seen an 87% increase in the last two years. Due to such rapid growth, the program is on pace to nearly exceed its $270 million budget for the year, forcing the MSDE to freeze new enrollments starting May 1.
'We will not be able to award scholarships until we get some attrition and move down below that threshold,' Neville-Morgan explained.
Tara Phillips is the executive director of the MSDE's Early Childhood Division. She says several factors have contributed to the surge in families enrolled in the CCS Program since January 2023.
'We began to use presumptive eligibility to determine what families were eligible,' Phillips said, 'and we implemented a fast track. We did indeed advertise the program more at that time as well.'
So, what does the freeze mean for families already in the program?
'We will continue to pay the Child Care Scholarship payments on behalf of those families,' Phillips added.
Neville-Morgan stated, 'We want to maximize this program. We want every single dollar that we can use to go out and to support Maryland's children and families.'
As of now, there's no word on how long the enrollment freeze will last. The MSDE will continue to accept and review CCS Program applications while the freeze is in place.
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