Childcare, Early Ed Get $3.5M City Boost

More early childcare providers, higher wages for those teaching the city’s toddlers, and better help for parents struggling to find the right daycare or pre‑K for their kids.

Those are some changes that could happen here in New Haven, now that the city has committed $3.5 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to help its struggling childcare system — so long as providers come through with proposals about how to spend the money. 

Local officials joined childcare workers Tuesday morning inside the Dr. Reginald Mayo Early Learning Center at 185 Goffe St. to announce that the Elicker administration has chosen the United Way of Greater New Haven and Cercle, a nonprofit seeking to improve early care for families of color, to translate those millions into grant opportunities. The presser attendees also called on organizations to submit their ideas for how to improve the quality and accessibility of childcare in order to receive those dollars.

“It’s remarkable how early childcare can change the trajectory of one’s life,” Elicker said Tuesday, speaking to how high quality education for those under five can help predict future financial stability and decrease one’s likelihood of incarceration or substance abuse down the line. However, chronic underinvestment in childcare, he said, is causing workforce shortages and leaving workers, parents, and children with limited options.

“The demand currently outweighs the supply,” he said, referencing a report from the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood which estimated that 2,200 more seats in early education programs would be required to serve all kids under five in need of care across New Haven.

The city has divided that $3.5 million in federal ARPA dollars — which are part of a $53 million allocation approved by alders in August 2022 — into three ​“buckets” of funding to try to repair that rift. 

$1.4 million will go towards improving the quality and scope of existing programming of early childcare and education. $1.6 million will focus exclusively on developing the early childhood education workforce. And a final $500,000 will support a so-called ​“strategic planning process” so the city can independently identify the ongoing and changing needs of parents and providers alike in order to map out a long-term plan to bolster the local industry.

The United Way of Greater New Haven will oversee how $1.9 million of that $3.5 million pot is utilized. They will work with the city to lead that latter project — the ​“strategic planning” — to hold community input sessions interviewing parents, childcare providers, local officials, and public school staff and students to collect testimonies about the current need for childcare specific to New Haven. 

They will also field grant proposals for program development and expansion. Jennifer Heath, the president and CEO of United Way’s New Haven chapter, said the first round of applications for those grants will open on Nov. 6 and close Dec. 5. Eligible applicants include licensed family and group childcare homes and centers within New Haven. The money can be used to cover anything from school supplies to necessary furniture, health, and safety upgrades or marketing, and translation or meal services. 

Come January, the United Way will put out grant applications for additional proposals to not just improve the quality of care, but to expand it by requesting ideas from providers to increase their hours and overall capacity. 

Read more about those various grant requirements and find upcoming information sessions here.

The United Way was also selected by the city this past year to coordinate a mass-volunteer initiative to offer biweekly intensive tutoring for New Haven Public Schools students struggling with literacy, math, and science. Watch the press conference here in order to learn more about the results of that six week summer pilot. Over that month and change, eight nonprofit organizations teamed up to offer individualized tutoring for over 400 students. This school year, 16 nonprofits are on board to increase the number of students served to 800. Another $3 million in ARPA funds were assigned to that ongoing tutoring effort.

Childcare provider and community organizer Georgia Goldburn, meanwhile, spoke to the ways her nonprofit, Cercle, will aim to allot the remaining $1.6 million in order to develop the early childcare workforce. The application for grants from Cercle are due by Dec. 10 and will cover costs related to staff professional development needs like courses or conferences for both aspiring or established teachers and providers or just the expenses related to recruiting, hiring, and training new staff. 

Learn more about that fund and its corresponding timeline here.

“There’s a sizable gap between how many young children in New Haven need childcare and how many spots are available,” Heath reiterated. 

“Classrooms are shuttered across the state because we cannot find teachers,” Goldburn added. 

Keith Myers, the fiscal officer for Ms. Mia’s TLC Group Daycare, spoke briefly at Tuesday’s presser in support of the city’s decision to funnel more money into childcare. He told the Independent that his business will be applying for grant money to increase salaries for staff at the daycare. 

“The problem right now is how can a teacher compete with something like Amazon?” he said. The most direct way to help parents, providers, and kids alike, he said, is to increase wages that will draw more teachers and staff into the industry. 

“Everybody starts at minimum wage,” he said of those caring for classrooms of rambunctious infants and toddlers. ​“To compete, you need to pay at least $19 an hour. We’re aiming to get our pay even higher.”