State Releases Recommendations to Make Childcare More Affordable, Accessible
BOSTON — The Healey-Driscoll administration released a report with recommendations to make early education and childcare more accessible and affordable for all families in Massachusetts. These recommendations were crafted by Gov. Maura Healey’s Inter-Agency Early Education and Child Care Task Force, which was established last year in recognition of the essential role childcare plays in driving the state’s economy and competitiveness forward.
Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Lauren Jones, Secretary of Economic Development Yvonne Hao, and Early Education and Care Commissioner Amy Kershaw announced more than 30 actionable efforts across five primary areas.
These include ensuring broad access and availability of early education and childcare for families with young children; supporting high-quality early education and childcare programming; fostering sustainable business conditions for all types of programs with fewer barriers to entry; making early education and childcare affordable for all families, prioritizing those with the highest needs; and building a robust workforce ecosystem that supports the growth and well-being of educators and providers.
“We have made a lot of progress in the last two years, from expanding affordable childcare seats to increasing educator wages to providing programs with more financial support. But we know that more needs to be done,” Healey said. “That’s why we are proud to share these recommendations that outline the ways in which we can continue making early education and childcare more affordable and accessible. Childcare is central to the success of our entire state, and together we are taking important steps toward solutions.”
Examples of recommendations include:
• The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ Office of Outdoor Recreation will work with the Executive Office of Education (EOE) and the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) to help connect children, families, and programs to nature and resources to support the exploration of the outdoors and natural world, while also exploring regulatory changes to facilitate that exploration.
• The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities will explore incentives to encourage construction projects for housing renovation and new buildings that include spaces for early-education and childcare (EECC) programs.
• The Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, EOE, and EEC will explore opportunities to repurpose public physical space to expand EECC programs.
• The Executive Office of Health and Human Services and its agencies with EEC will work towards integrated eligibility, as well as to facilitate simpler enrollment in these programs with the support of MyMassGov’s universal profile, an initiative of the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security.
• In collaboration with MassDOT, the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, and municipalities, EOE and EEC will explore opportunities to provide traffic-safety measures and signage to ensure the safety of children, families, staff, and educators of providers in a manner similar to how K-12 schools are treated.
• The state will maximize and focus small-business resources offered by the Executive Office of Economic Development to support center-based and family childcare programs, including exploring the expansion of some business-development programs to nonprofit EECC providers.
• The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, EOE, and the Executive Office of Veterans Services, with support from EEC and the Department of Higher Education, and in collaboration with the Massachusetts Assoc.of Community Colleges, will call attention to higher-education opportunities facilitated by EEC, as well as create an institutionalized pathway to such opportunities, including for veterans, and make sure MassReconnect and MassEducate support the needs of the EECC sector.
“The governor’s whole-of-government approach brings new resources, thinking, and innovations to address some of the early-education and care sector’s most pressing challenges,” Early Education and Care Commissioner Amy Kershaw said. “These recommendations build on the significant progress and investments we have already made in partnership with our legislative colleagues and are directly informed by the voices of hundreds of educators, program directors, advocates, parents, and families across Massachusetts. I look forward to the work ahead with my colleagues across state government to deliver on this groundbreaking, collaborative approach.”