Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Birth To 3 Funding topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Birth‑to‑3 providers urge full, immediate funding and object to proposed tiered credentialing
Summary
Connecticut Birth‑to‑3 providers told the Appropriations Committee that the governor’s proposed tiered rate model and a cut to the general administrative ‘gap’ payment would harm services and urged immediate funding for FY26 and a flat professional/nonprofessional rate structure.
Representatives of multiple Birth‑to‑3 programs and early‑intervention providers told the Appropriations Committee that current staffing shortages and a lack of rate increases have left the system fragile and unable to meet demand.
Speakers said the program has not had a rate adjustment in several years while referrals and clinical demand increased; they asked the committee to implement the rate increases recommended in the state’s rate study beginning in fiscal year 2026, to appropriate the funding in both years of the biennium and to preserve the existing general administrative “gap” payment ($200).
Providers opposed a newly proposed multi‑tiered professional credentialing scheme, saying the requirement would be burdensome, not reciprocal with other states and would further hamper recruitment and retention. “We hire licensed, highly credentialed clinicians and educators with master’s and doctorate degrees,” one director said; adding new credentialing requirements would not address pay and would raise administrative burden.
Witnesses described the program’s operational dynamics: staff travel to family homes and community locations, often facing cancellations and uncompensated travel time; the gap payment covers some of those nonbillable costs. Several providers said the alternative at the committee’s disposal—delaying or diluting rates—would increase waits for evaluations and reduce hours of direct service for children during a critical developmental window.
Birth‑to‑3 advocates asked lawmakers to fund a professional rate of $167 per hour (as recommended in the rate study) with the existing gap payment retained, to appropriate funds in FY26 and FY27 and to reject the additional tiering proposal in favor of a more straightforward professional/nonprofessional structure.
