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Early‑childhood advocates ask Senate to expand childcare eligibility and protect kindergarten-readiness tools
Summary
Advocates from Pre for CLE, FutureReady5, Children's Defense Fund and other early-childhood groups urged the Senate to restore House or governor proposals expanding publicly funded childcare eligibility (to 160% or 300% FPL in different requests), preserve child-care vouchers and keep Kindergarten Readiness Assessment requirements.
Representatives of early-childhood initiatives, school-district partners and child-advocacy groups testified in favor of expanding eligibility for publicly funded childcare, restoring child-care voucher funding, and keeping the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment in districts.
Pre for CLE leaders said their citywide initiative has increased access to high-quality preschool and yields measurable gains in kindergarten readiness. "Among those who attend a Pre for CLE program, we see kindergarten readiness rates that are 20 percentage points higher than their peers who don't have access to similar programs," a witness said, urging restoration of proposed eligibility expansions in HB 96.
Future Ready 5 requested a $2,000,000 amendment to scale a kindergarten-readiness collaborative from 500 to 2,000 children and described large percentage gains in short-term literacy scores among pilot children. The Children's Defense Fund asked the Senate to raise initial childcare eligibility up to 300% of the federal poverty level and noted that Ohio currently ranks near the bottom for publicly funded childcare eligibility for ages 0–5.
Pre‑K advocates also asked the Senate to restore $25,000,000 removed from the Child Care Choice voucher program in the House and to keep the state Kindergarten Readiness Assessment mandatory in districts for program accountability and evaluation.
No committee vote occurred during testimony; advocates urged the Senate to restore eligibility expansions and voucher funding in HB 96 to increase access and support workforce participation.
