Latest news with #EarlyChildhoodEducationandAssistanceProgram
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Spokane, Washington State childcare leaders sound alarms following cuts to federal preschool program
Apr. 3—Childcare providers are warning of dire implications for Spokane residents as the Head Start program is the latest to be caught up in federal cuts. Earlier this week, the Trump administration shuttered the doors to the Health and Human Services Region 10 office in Seattle, which serves and oversees agency operations in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Located within it was the regional hub for the Office of Head Start, a federal early childhood education program serving low-income children and their families since its inception in 1965. The office's six staff members learned they were laid off when they arrived for work Tuesday and couldn't get in and had to be escorted by security to retrieve their personal belongings, said Joel Ryan, director of the Washington State Association of Head Start. Four other regional offices were closed earlier this week as the agency goes through intensive restructuring. About 10,000 full-time employees will be laid off, according to a news release from the agency. Most of the Head Start services in Spokane County are provided by Spokane Colleges, which serves an average of 20,000 students a year at Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College. Chancellor Kevin Brockbank told a room of reporters Thursday that the cuts already made, and those likely coming down the pipeline, could have drastic consequences for Inland Northwest residents. "It is incredibly impactful to the children and also the families, and also, frankly, the workforce here," Brockbank said of the program. "This is how we build people into people who reinvest in our community. The idea that that program is currently being consolidated and is potentially under scrutiny for long term viability and worth is really concerning to us." Spokane Colleges receives 80% of its funding for child care, around $16 million, as a Head Start grant recipient overseeing 11 different centers for infants and children up to 4 years old. Brockbank said the program has more than 290 employees and serves around 700 children. The services provided at those centers go well beyond daycare supervision and early childhood education, and impact more than just the children, said Bobbi Woodral, district director of the Head Start and Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program for Spokane Colleges. Head Start comes with built-in social services, so the colleges provide nutrition assistance, medical and dental care, dedicated case managers for families and more to the children and their families. "We are not just raising a generation into the workforce, but truly raising families out of poverty and supporting the greater unit of the families," Woodral said. The Seattle office served 70 regional Head Start grant recipients, 30 of which are located in Washington. They were the main contact point for recipients, assisting with applications, regulatory compliance, safety precautions, ensuring grant dollars are stretched as far as possible and whatever else may arise, Ryan said. "They're supporting these programs and training and providing technical assistance, making sure teachers have the support they need to be great teachers, that Head Start directors understand the various rules and how to interpret the different standards that are in place," he said. Ryan said he believes the move preempts further cuts for the program, and it comes at a time when state legislators are also considering cuts to the Washington State early childhood education and care program. "It's going to make it exceedingly difficult for the families to find affordable childcare so they can go to work, with both the state pulling back and now the feds attacking the Head Start program." Grant recipients had not received any word from the Trump administration about the cuts, or closures to regional offices, until the morning of March 27, according to an email sent to grantees obtained by The Spokesman-Review. Ryan said there's been a lot of chaos and uncertainty for grantees and Office of Head Start employees in the days since, a sentiment Brockbank also shared. When asked if Spokane Colleges had contacted the federal administration for further direction, the chancellor said, "There's nowhere to direct that request." "It leaves us with this void in connecting effectively with the federal government, and that's, of course, one of our concerns," Brockbank said. Ryan said the program has proven to be successful, highlighting a massive study conducted by University of California Los Angeles researchers that found children in the program are more likely to finish high school and college, find well-paying jobs and generate revenue for the government. "The government makes (a return rate of) 5.4% to 9.1% per year for at least 30 years for every child it puts through Head Start, due solely to savings on public assistance and a small increase in tax revenue from higher wages earned by participants," a university summary of the study reads. Families that rely one of the 11 centers should not expect a disruption in services "until we're told differently," Brockbank said. He said school administrators are in touch with Republican Rep. Michael Baumgartner, and Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and will continue advocating against further cuts to the program. "I don't know if it's a program that's incredibly well-understood by everybody, but I will just say it again: if you take Head Start out of this community, it's going to hurt it."
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
City of Olympia and school district to research how to address childcare affordability, availability
The Olympia City Council and Olympia School District board of directors met March 6 to discuss ways to make the community more affordable and accessible for youth and families. Staff will be drafting an interlocal agreement between the two governing bodies to research ways to partner on providing more child care access to families in Olympia. Superintendent Patrick Murphy said many families and their children in the community aren't getting their early learning or child care needs met. He said just this week, regional leaders attended the United Way's ALICE Summit regarding 'asset limited, income constrained, employed' households who are struggling to pay for high housing and child care costs. 'There's a lot of people that are working really, really hard, and they're still below that poverty number, that they don't qualify for any extra help,' Murphy said. 'They can't afford child care, and it's just this never-ending cycle that they can't get through.' United Way's statistics show there are only about half as many licensed child care spots available as there are children under kindergarten age in Thurston County. Meanwhile, half of children arrive at kindergarten without the skills they need to succeed. Murphy said there's no better investment than early learning, and the earlier children are able to receive high quality child care and education the better. He said getting kids into preschool prepares them better for kindergarten, which can have a massive impact on their life. He said it also contributes to the economic well being of the entire community. Murphy said the district doubled its transitional kindergarten programs this year from one to two, and it added an Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) to McLane Elementary on the city's west side. The City of Lacey is partnering with North Thurston Public Schools to open a new child care center. He's hoping Olympia can do something similar and partner on costs and space. City Manager Jay Burney said the cost of child care continues to rise and is unaffordable, which is hurting young families. Murphy said child care in Thurston County is currently more expensive than UW's tuition. Yet the average salary for a child care facility director is below the county poverty line as well. 'So it's not like we're attracting people to go into these — I hesitate to call them professions because they're a community need,' he said. 'So there were a lot of things that were said at that summit yesterday that I think were a call to do something.' Council member Robert Vanderpool said it could be beneficial for the two entities to conduct a study to better understand the community's needs. He said he also wondered what the cost of converting an already-standing space into a child care facility would be. Vanderpool said the funding model is also something that needs to be considered. He wondered if it would be set by a nonprofit, or if child care could be made a utility rather than a private benefit. That means the public would collectively pay for services. He said that sort of model could mean a greater need for state funding. Mayor Pro Tem Yến Huỳnh said she wants to make sure the two bodies leave the meeting with tangible next steps. She said there are a lot of resources for more information on the topic, and it could be a good opportunity to have conversations with private child care providers and local nonprofits that serve children. Huỳnh said folks talked optimistically about the state budget, but it's looking like a tough time to be asking for additional state funding. With federal funding sources up in the air right now as well, she said she wants to make sure staff research other options. Burney said next steps could include he and Superintendent Murphy getting together with their counterparts in Lacey to learn more about their child care facility partnership. Then the city and OSD can put a funding request together. 'We're going to need a proposal, like we're going to need a building, we're going to need a site, we're going to need a framework of a partnership to ask for money,' Burney said. 'So I think the more we can do to learn about what this model looks like and how they came together, and then maybe we could kind of share that learning, and then kind of figure out where it goes from there.'
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
WA lawmakers weigh further delay to early learning expansion
Advocates for the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program rally at the state capitol on Feb. 6, 2025. (Photo by Laurel Demkovich/Washington State Standard) Nearly 15 years ago, Washington state lawmakers approved a plan to make a state-funded early learning program an entitlement for all low-income families who qualify. Since then, that plan has been delayed three times. As lawmakers face a multibillion-dollar budget hole over the next four years, it's becoming clearer that they will likely need to again push off the expansion — currently set to take effect in the 2026-2027 school year. 'I am not thrilled to bring this to your attention,' House Appropriations Committee Chair Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, said in a public hearing earlier this month. 'It is a response to the fiscal reality that we are in.' Washington's Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program provides free part-day and full-day preschool and other services related to mental health, nutrition and family support for 3- and 4-year-olds in low-income families. As of last year, the program served more than 16,000 children in more than 480 locations across the state. The Department of Children, Youth and Families estimated that the state would need another 14,000 slots once the entitlement was fully implemented in 2031. To be eligible, families must earn no more than 35% of the state median income. That's $47,179 for a family of four, as of October. Some children whose families are over that limit may also be accepted if they meet other criteria, like being homeless, having parents who are incarcerated, or having developmental delays. 'We are serving our most vulnerable population,' said Michelle Rahl-Lewis, director of early learning for Tacoma Public Schools. 'One of our biggest goals is just really teaching the students how to self regulate and supporting our families in their own growth.' But offering the services for free is expensive, and in a year where lawmakers are looking for ways to fill a budget gap, delaying a further expansion of the program could provide significant savings for the state. A bill sponsored by Ormsby and requested by the Office of Financial Management would delay the entitlement until the 2030-2031 school year. At that point, it would become available to any family with an income at or below 36% of the state median. Starting in the 2034-2035 school year, any family with an income at or below 50% of the state median income would qualify. Ormsby's bill would also delay expansions planned for Working Connections Child Care, the state's subsidy program. The proposed delays align with budget proposals from both former Gov. Jay Inslee and Gov. Bob Ferguson. In Inslee's budget, the delay of the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program accounted for nearly $146 million in savings through 2027. Delaying the state subsidy expansion would save another nearly $120 million. 'This is a tough time,' Sheri Sawyer, with the Office of Financial Management, told the House Appropriations Committee this month. 'You all are going to grapple with difficult decisions, and this is one more option for you to consider.' Ormsby emphasized that a delay is not a funding cut. 'This is not a step back,' he added. 'We're not taking away benefits that are currently occurring.' Rahl-Lewis said any cuts to current funding would be 'catastrophic' to Tacoma's program and many like it that families depend on. Early Childhood Education and Assistance Programs offer more than child care, said Stephany Contreras Roman, an early learning teacher in Tacoma. She said the program's teachers often wear many hats, like nutrition specialist, family support and interpreter. 'We're not just teachers,' she said. ' This is not just a one-role job.' Some early learning advocates said they were expecting to have to pause the entitlement implementation regardless of the budget situation because there aren't currently enough providers to handle an influx of new children who would be eligible. To recruit and retain more providers, advocates continue to push for higher pay and benefits for early learning and child care workers. Inslee's budget proposed an 18% rate increase for Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program providers, but that too could be undermined by the budget crunch. Budget talks won't fully ramp up until mid-March after lawmakers get updated revenue estimates. Until then, agencies continue to look for ways to cut spending per a request from Gov. Bob Ferguson.
