For more than a decade, Pennsylvania’s elected leaders have prioritized funding for high-quality early learning opportunities for our youngest children and in many cases, our most vulnerable citizens. Our early learning system relies on a varied delivery infrastructure and is comprised of high-quality child care, preschool options like Pre-K Counts and Head Start, and evidence based home visiting services. This infrastructure is not only critical to the healthy development of children but is also a critical support for Pennsylvania’s working families.

Throughout the pandemic, Pennsylvania’s early care and education system has faced enormous challenges. Pre-K Counts and Head Start classrooms as well as evidence-based home visiting models have implemented flexible delivery options to operate in a virtual environment as well as ensuring safe practices for those continuing to meet face-to-face. After the initial shutdown where roughly 80 percent of Pennsylvania’s child care providers shut their doors, many providers continue to struggle with reduced enrollment and rising costs associated with PPE and social distancing policies. As such, more than 500 child care providers have closed their doors permanently since March 2020.

Federal CARES Act and other economic stimulus funding have helped, however additional action is needed to further stabilize the Early Care and Education sector and grow access to these essential services for more of Pennsylvania’s working families when our economy fully reopens.

As part of the 2021-22 final state budget, we encourage you to:

1. Increase high-quality pre-k line items by $30 million to serve 3,271 new children ($25 million in Pre-K  Counts to serve 2,800 children and $5 million in the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program to serve 471 children).
2. Maintain the rate increase provided to Pre-K Counts and Head Start Supplemental Assistance Programs in FY 2020-21, which supports pandemic-related costs such as PPE and cleaning supplies.
3. Level-fund the Child Care Services and Child Care Assistance state line items; supplantation of federal funds is unallowable.
4. Dedicate federal child care funds to:
   1. Serve at least 3,000 additional infants and toddlers in new high-quality contracted slots to get more parents back to work and move towards providing more stable funding for programs. (Estimated $48 million)
   2. Restore and fully-fund Education and Retention Awards for child care teachers and directors that are achieving higher degrees and credentials, recognizing highly-qualified professionals are key to maintaining and building high-quality programs for children. (Estimated $30 million)
5. Child care is an essential component to our economic recovery; work with us to ensure federal stimulus funds are invested wisely to strengthen the system as we move out of the pandemic and support working families.
6. Support more pregnant women and families with young children by providing for a collective $6.3 million increase in funding for evidence-based home visiting with $3.9 million allocated for the Community-Based Family Center line and $2.4 million allocated for the Nurse-Family Partnership line in the Department of Human Services’ budget.

These actions will provide much needed resources to preserve the Commonwealth’s existing early learning system and ensure the healthy development of more young children, which will simultaneously help alleviate the anxiety of parents returning to work as COVID-19 abates.

Thank you for your consideration of this proposal and for everything you are doing to keep Pennsylvania safe!

SUPPORTERS