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Advisers and advocates report early wins but warn workforce and outreach gaps remain in Act 76 rollout
Summary
Building Bright Futures and Let's Grow Kids reported to the House Commerce & Economic Development Committee that Vermont's Act 76 has rapidly expanded Child Care Financial Assistance Program eligibility and increased provider reimbursement rates, producing new slots and more open programs but leaving workforce shortages, data gaps and outreach shortfalls to be addressed.
Morgan Crossman, executive director of Building Bright Futures, and Anna Brulette, the organization's policy and program director, briefed the committee on Jan. 23 about the role Building Bright Futures plays monitoring and advising on Vermont's early-childhood system and on the first 18 months of Act 76 implementation.
Crossman said Building Bright Futures is charged by state and federal statute to advise the governor, legislature and federal delegation on children and families prenatal to age 8 and to convene a network of regional councils, strategic-plan committees and an interagency coordinating team. "As an advisory body, we do not directly lobby for or oppose any specific bill or action," she told the committee.
Anna Brulette summarized implementation steps under Act 76: the Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP) expanded eligibility to 575% of the federal poverty level; co-pays were eliminated for families up to 175% of FPL; the law's payroll tax was implemented; the Childcare Quality and Capacity Incentive Program was launched; and reimbursement rates for programs receiving CCFAP were substantially increased.
Brulette said officials and community partners report measurable early effects: an increase in families enrolled in CCFAP (about 1,600 more families compared with the prior year), over 1,700 additional infant slots reported for 2024 compared with prior baselines, and the first year since at least 2018 in which more childcare programs opened than closed. She also said the Child Development Division launched an online application for families and the department has lowered administrative barriers for eligibility in several areas.
At the same time, Building Bright Futures and advocates emphasized ongoing challenges: the early-childhood workforce remains a bottleneck for capacity and quality; Vermont's data systems remain fragmented and not yet adequate for ongoing, routine monitoring of prekindergarten capacity across public and private settings; and outreach and enrollment among underserved populations (non-English speakers, immigrant communities) is uneven.
Crossman and Brulette described the Pre-Kindergarten Education Implementation Committee (PEIC) work, noting four broad recommendations: maintaining benefits for three-, four- and five-year-old children not yet eligible for kindergarten; prioritizing access expansion for four-year-olds; collecting cost and capacity data to inform expansion; and clarifying delivery models across public and community settings. They said the committee collected surveys and qualitative data from superintendents, school boards and community partners to inform those recommendations but that a more standardized annual data collection method is needed.
Ali Richards, CEO of Let's Grow Kids, spoke on behalf of the advocacy organization and said Act 76 has already stabilized the childcare sector by adding public investment and raising program reimbursement rates. She underscored that increased program revenue has enabled some providers to increase wages and training and that those changes are linked to both quality and capacity gains. Richards and Building Bright Futures urged caution about proposals to repurpose childcare funds in the governor's budget-adjustment discussions and recommended preserving investments while the new system matures.
Committee members asked for more data about program ownership, outreach to underserved families and long-term funding options. Building Bright Futures said it will continue to work with the Child Development Division, First Children's Finance, Child Trends and other partners on improved data collection, targeted outreach in multiple languages and continuous quality improvement.
No formal committee votes were taken; presenters offered to provide their legislatively mandated monitoring report and to return with more detailed, disaggregated data on demand.
