JFO tells Vermont lawmakers pre-K, child-care subsidies overlap and create incentives that shape family and district choices

Summary

The Joint Fiscal Office told the House Human Services and Education Committees that universal pre-K, Head Start and the Child Care Financial Assistance Program overlap in ways that affect family costs, school budgets and private providers, and offered policy options under Act 73 while flagging major data gaps.

The Legislative Joint Fiscal Office presented its long-awaited Act 73 report on Feb. 24, telling the House Human Services and House Education committees that universal pre-K (UPK), Head Start and the Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP) are highly interconnected and create financial incentives that can affect families' enrollment choices and district budgets.

"We are not experts in the outcomes of the current early child care system," said Emily Byrne, deputy fiscal officer for the Legislative Joint Fiscal Office, who led the presentation. The report, Byrne said, focuses on how the programs are financed and how those financing rules shape behavior rather than on child-development outcomes.

The report analyzed three main programs: Head Start (a federal program that requires a nonfederal match), CCFAP (a state–federal subsidy program supported largely by the payroll tax and some general-fund and federal dollars) and UPK (a statewide program that guarantees a minimum of 10 hours per week for 35 weeks to eligible 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds not…

JFO tells Vermont lawmakers pre-K, child-care subsidies overlap and create incentives that shape family and district choices

Summary

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