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DOE requests early-childhood expansion and childcare licensing portal; committee seeks details on capacity and workforce pipeline
Summary
DOE proposed $8M in one-time early childhood hub funding to expand full-day seats and build shared-service hubs, and presented a plan to replace a paper-based childcare licensing system with an online portal; committee members pressed DOE on capacity, staffing pipelines, translation services and cost of ongoing portal maintenance.
Committee members and DOE early-childhood staff discussed the department's FY27 proposals for expanding early care and improving childcare administration.
Associate Secretary for Early Childhood Caitlin Gleason summarized the "hub" model and workforce pipeline: DOE is seeking $8,000,000 in one-time FY27 funds to expand ECAP seats and create a shared-services hub model to lower operating costs for providers and accelerate seat expansion. "We're estimating 480 additional seats for that amount," Gleason said when asked by the committee about projected seat growth, explaining that infant seats and staffing ratios raise costs for younger ages.
Gleason and Secretary Martin also explained steps to expand workforce capacity: partnerships with Delaware State University and University of Delaware programs to create stackable credentials, scholarships, and grant-based quality improvement awards to incentivize wage upgrades and retention. "We partner with DSU's Early Childhood Innovation Center for certificate pathways and we offer grant-based quality improvement awards," Gleason said.
On modernization of licensing, DOE associate staff described a new Office of Child Care Licensing (OCCL) portal procurement begun in November 2025, funded in FY27 to replace paper-based licensing and complaint processes. DOE said the portal development is funded but noted an ongoing annual operating cost of about $800,000 that will need to be covered in future budgets.
Committee members pressed for data: the state has begun linking community-based program nonpublic enrollment with Infinite Campus and expects initial longitudinal early-learning-to-kindergarten data next year; DOE said this is the first year those linkages exist and full kindergarten-entry longitudinal reporting will be available after the year.
Questions remained on eligibility alignment between ECAP and purchase-of-care, the interplay of federal vs. state funds for background checks, and the size and timing of workforce investments to staff any new seats. DOE said it will provide the committee with more details on carryover, seat counts by age, the timeline for the OCCL portal pilot, and workforce estimates.
Next steps: DOE will provide the committee a written breakdown of projected seat increases for FY27, the staffing and pipeline assumptions behind those projections, and a plan for the portalongoing operating costs.
