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Early childhood agency seeks expanded trust-fund distributions to grow infant/toddler care and pre-K
Summary
The Early Childhood Education and Care Department described a large package of nonrecurring and recurring increases to expand infant-toddler care, pre-K slots, home visiting and workforce pay parity; House Appropriations added major increases to the agency’s requested distributions from the early childhood trust fund.
Kelly (agency analyst) and the department secretary told the committee that the House increased the early childhood fund distribution from $250 million to $400 million for the coming fiscal year, adding more than $101.1 million for infant-toddler slots, pre-K expansion, provider incentives, tribal language supports and IT infrastructure.
The secretary said the department measures progress with statewide instruments and county-level baselines and that the trust-fund investments support a five-year strategic plan and a four-year finance plan. She told senators "Children start falling behind as early as 18," urging continued build-out of pre-K, home visiting and workforce supports to avoid remediation costs in K–12.
Committee members asked about the workforce pipeline and whether the proposed wage and career-lattice funding would reach classroom workers. The department said Grow pilot funds for infant-toddler pay parity are underway but results are not yet in; a $10 million request for a wage scale and career lattice would be used to professionalize and retain the workforce and would include an analytic rollout and implementation beginning in the next fiscal year.
Ending: Senators and agency staff agreed the infant-toddler capacity and workforce are top constraints; the department pledged to share program-level cost models and workforce data to inform final appropriations.
