City staff outline $1 million early-childhood trust fund, slot allocations and data gaps for Richmond childcare

City staff and partners presented the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Trust Fund and data on early‑childhood service capacity, emphasizing priority investments in infant/toddler slots and family day homes while acknowledging limits in enrollment and demand data.

Eva Cohen, senior policy advisor and head of the city’s Office of Children and Families, walked committee members through definitions, funding streams, priorities and progress since July. The City invested $1 million in fiscal year 2025 to establish the ECCE Trust Fund; staff contracted Thrive Birth to 5 (the regional Ready Region lead agency) to administer subawards that place children into community‑based slots without building a new city system.

Cohen explained the fund’s priorities: increase infant and toddler public slots (the most underfunded and highest‑cost categories), support family day homes and home‑based providers, fund therapeutic programs for children who have experienced trauma, and provide cost‑of‑quality reimbursements so providers can cover realistic operating costs. She said the initial $1 million produced approximately 60 slots this fiscal year, heavily concentrated on infants, toddlers and 2‑year‑olds.

Cohen reviewed cost modeling: staff used a state model indicating an annual program cost of about $23,196 per infant and $14,300 per preschooler (figures used for local cost-of-quality planning). The trust fund permits up to 10% of grant funds for administrative costs to support provider outreach and enrollment.

Staff and council members discussed data gaps and enrollment patterns. Cohen noted that Richmond Public Schools (RPS) administers multiple slot streams (Virginia Preschool Initiative and some Head Start slots) and that RPS and other programs have under-enrollment in pre‑K and Head Start in recent years. The committee pressed for a reliable “penetration” number — how many eligible children age 0–5 are connected to publicly supported slots — and asked the Department of Social Services to produce counts of children 0–5 attached to DSS cases as a baseline.

Cohen presented a snapshot of program enrollments cited in the presentation: 767 children under 5 in CCSP (childcare subsidy program) slots, about 400 children on the CCSP wait list, 60 children in the ECCE Trust Fund slots, 46 in early Head Start, 507 in Head Start, 276 in mixed delivery slots and 622 in the Virginia Preschool Initiative. She and other staff said they are developing an annual needs assessment and dashboards to identify geographic and programmatic access gaps and are working with funders (Robins Foundation, Community Foundation) to coordinate investments.

Committee members probed operational choices: why the city prioritized immediate slots over other capacity-building activities, how costs were calculated, and whether RPS could reassign underused slots to community providers. Staff said the rapid deployment of slots aimed to address a CCSP wait list that grew after federal pandemic relief expired; they also said they would follow up with DSS and RPS on slot management and wait‑list processes.

Why it matters: Early‑childhood slots and affordability shape whether caregivers can work and how children access school‑readiness services. Local scarcity of infant and toddler care drives the city’s targeted use of trust-fund dollars.

What’s next: Staff will provide penetration data requested by council, finalize local cost‑of‑quality estimates, continue coordination with Thrive Birth to 5, and report back on specific DSS and RPS data points when available.