Joint committees add reconciliation funding for Working Parents Assistance and a state advocacy post

The Education & Culture and Health & Human Services joint committees on April 22 agreed to add new reconciliation requests intended to expand child care subsidies and boost advocacy capacity.

Committee members voted to add two $500,000 tranches for the county’s Working Parents Assistance (WPA) program to the reconciliation list, a move staff said would let the county subsidize additional children from the state scholarship waitlist. The reconciliation additions would augment the county executive’s recommended $500,000 insertion, giving the WPA more flexibility to move children between county and state programs as applications change.

The committee also unanimously approved adding $125,000 to the reconciliation list to fund a year‑round state‑level early childhood advocacy position housed at the Montgomery County Children’s Opportunity Alliance. Kimberly Rusnick, executive director of the Children’s Opportunity Alliance, said the role is intended to support an existing but unfunded statewide coalition and to advance state policy changes on workforce compensation and funding for early care and education.

Why it matters: Department staff said the state recently froze new awards from the Maryland Child Care Scholarship program (announced 05/01/2025), and that Montgomery County has been receiving hundreds of families from the state waitlist in real time. Adding reconciliation dollars would let county staff move children into WPA when state slots are unavailable and maintain service continuity.

What staff presented: Jennifer Arnaiz, senior administrator for early childhood services at DHHS, estimated the county’s $500,000 reconciliation insertion would subsidize roughly 23 children from the state waitlist using the county’s true cost‑of‑care rate (about $300,000 for 13 infants/toddlers and $200,000 for preschool‑age slots). Arnaiz told the committee that birth‑to‑5 subsidies are costlier per child than school‑age vouchers, so dollars must be managed in real time.

Council process and next steps: Both additions were placed on the council’s reconciliation list for consideration in the final FY27 budget negotiations. The committee noted these are reconciliation requests that must still clear the full council and the budget process. The committee chair closed the session with recommendations to send the agreed reconciliation items to the full council for final decision.