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Head Start and after-school leaders warn proposed pre-K changes could strain services and reduce slots
Summary
Leaders from Vermont AfterSchool and Head Start testified that folding or shifting UPK funding could create staffing, licensing and facility challenges for after-school programs and force Head Start grantees to cut slots because of layered funding and intensive family services.
Leaders from Vermont AfterSchool and Head Start told the House Human Services committee that proposed changes to Universal Pre-K risk adverse effects for community providers and the most vulnerable children.
Nicole Miller, executive director of Vermont AfterSchool, said the after-school system is not currently structured to absorb large numbers of 3- and 4-year-olds: funding streams, licensing rules and staffing patterns are built around K-12 ages. "There is one site out of 94 using 21st Century funding to serve pre-K," Miller said, noting limited precedent and capacity for large-scale integration of pre-K into after-school funding streams.
Christie Swenson, director of Capstone Head Start and chair of the Vermont Head Start Association, explained that Head Start programs layer federal grant dollars with state and CCFAP funding to provide intensive family and child services, including health and mental-health supports. "If we no longer are getting that additional funds for 3 year olds ... then that necessarily means that we would need to reduce the number of slots we can provide," Swenson said, adding that some families rely on Head Start's wraparound model and that a subset of children would not be well served by a wholesale migration into school-based classrooms.
Both witnesses urged the committee to weigh the consequences for infant and toddler care and for small business childcare operators whose cross-subsidies depend on revenue from older children. Committee members acknowledged the risks and emphasized targeted, data-driven approaches, asking administration staff to produce district-level data on schools drawing down Child Care Financial Assistance Program (CCFAP) dollars and to coordinate with the Agency of Education, which the committee expects at the next hearing.
The committee did not take formal action; members said draft bill language will be discussed tomorrow and that they will use PDG consultant work and the JFO funding study to guide any structural changes.
