House Human Services panel urges scaling back governor—s CCFAP cut, recommends infant-toddler rate increase

Theresa Wood, chair of the House Human Services Committee, told the committee on March 10 that her panel recommends reducing the governor—s proposed cuts to the Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP) and restoring funding to support infant and toddler care and compliance with federal rules.

Wood said the governor recommended a $3,500,000 reduction in one CCFAP line tied to utilization and forecast work with the Joint Fiscal Office (JFO), but the administration also proposed a separate $19,000,000 reduction that the committee views as premature given outstanding federal requirements and workforce needs. "Because it is an entitlement service, if for some reason that forecast turns out to be erroneous, then, I'm sure that we will all see a budget adjustment request," Wood said.

The committee recommended using roughly $5.9 million of the $19 million proposed reduction to increase infant and toddler reimbursement rates by 5.5 percent, a change Wood said is within limits set by the child-care statute enacted as Act 76 (which the committee described as enabling increases up to 1.5 times the most recent rate). That $5.9 million figure reflects the committee—s rounding of a more specific number discussed during the meeting: $5,872,612. Wood said the proposed rate change would affect nearly 1,800 infants and about 1,400 toddlers.

The committee emphasized that access for infants and toddlers still lags despite recent progress. "For the first time, in the past year, we are actually seeing the number of providers increasing," Wood said, while acknowledging workforce and provider churn remain concerns: a committee member cited churn rates that are "still close to 50 percent." The committee said increasing rates is intended to improve access by addressing provider costs tied to lower child-to-staff ratios for very young children.

Committee members also flagged federal 2024 child-care rules that cap family co-payments at 7 percent of income. Wood said Vermont has a temporary waiver from that federal requirement and that the waiver appears to expire in mid-2026; she said the Department for Children and Families (DCF) is contracting with an outside vendor to estimate the state—s cost to come into full compliance. "We do not know what the amount of that is at this time," Wood said, adding that the estimate will take time to produce and that relying on the $19 million cut before that estimate exists would be premature.

Wood characterized the committee—s approach as prioritizing needs and providing the Appropriations Committee context for comparing human-services requests to other statewide priorities. She said the committee marked items as highest, high and medium priorities so the Appropriations Committee could see how human-services needs compare across the budget.

The committee approved its budget recommendation on a 10-1 vote, Wood said; the meeting transcript recorded the committee—s reported vote but did not list individual roll-call votes in the record.

What happens next: DCF—s forthcoming compliance estimate and any change in federal policy will influence final funding decisions. Wood said an entitlement program such as CCFAP could require a budget adjustment if utilization exceeds forecasts.