Now is not the time for budget cuts, underfunding of services, or harmful reprogramming of subsidy dollars that could emaciate our early childhood systems. Such actions would only hinder the District’s economic recovery.
Now is not the time for budget cuts, underfunding of services, or harmful reprogramming of subsidy dollars that could emaciate our early childhood systems. Such actions would only hinder the District’s economic recovery.
Amplifying the voices of 170 early education programs from all wards of the District, this brief, based on a survey that DC Action for Children, DC Early Learning Collaborative, DC Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington Area Child Care Association and the Director’s Exchange conducted, offers timely data about the challenges and opportunities facing our local early learning system.
Our coalition of parents, early childhood educators, community-based organizations, business owners, and health professionals worked together to reverse the mayor’s budget cuts to child care. We won broad support for our plan to provide emergency grants to the child care businesses.
COVID-19 has brought with it a storm of uncertainty and instability for the District’s child care providers, many of whom already struggled to make ends meet prior to the public health emergency. In this exceptionally challenging time, one of the few sources of stability has been the child care subsidy program.
Before the pandemic hit, there were only enough child care seats for one out of every three children under the age of three in DC. Now that many providers are struggling to stay open and pay for their facilities and staff costs.