Families, Child Care Advocates Celebrate ‘First Birthday’ of Landmark Child Care Legislation with Birthday Party on Boston Common
New Law & Record State Funding Have Contributed to Significant Growth in Number of Child Care Programs, Educator Wages, and Children Receiving Subsidized Care
BOSTON – Dozens of children, parents and caregivers, early educators, child care providers, advocates, and elected officials gathered outside the Boston Common’s Tadpole Playground today for a birthday party to celebrate the first anniversary of Massachusetts’ passage of comprehensive early education and child care legislation. The legislation, passed in last year’s state budget, was the culmination of several years of advocacy by the Common Start Coalition, a diverse group of more than 170 organizations and thousands of individuals focused on establishing a system of affordable, high-quality early education and child care for Massachusetts families.
“By passing the Common Start legislation, Massachusetts took a massive step toward our vision of affordable child care for all families; high-quality programs and services for all children; significantly better pay and benefits for early educators; a permanent, stable source of funding for providers; and substantial relief for businesses and our entire economy,” said Deb Pimental, director of the Common Start Coalition. “A year later, these game-changing policies are making our state more affordable for many families, greatly improving our state’s economic competitiveness, and increasing racial and gender equity in our communities. More children have access to affordable child care, early education providers are adding classrooms and launching new programs, and educators are earning higher wages. We have so much more work to do to make high-quality child care affordable for all, but by protecting and building on this amazing legislative victory, we know Massachusetts can get there.”
The legislation made the state’s C3 operational grant program for providers permanent, providing lasting support to Massachusetts’ early education and child care programs that allows them to invest in educator compensation and increase their capacity to serve more children, while avoiding major cost increases for families. It expanded eligibility for child care subsidies up to 85% of the state’s median income (including a 7% cap on parent fees), which will help address the affordability challenges that so many Massachusetts families face. And it included early educator wage scale, loan forgiveness & scholarship programs, starting to address the workforce crisis in early education by enabling more educators to build sustainable careers in the field.
“Initially I had the hardest time finding childcare for my infant. I was a teen single mom with no voucher and no clue how to pay for daycare,” said Shaitia Spruell, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women (MCSW) and as a member of the Steering Committee for the Common Start Coalition. “I've had to work multiple jobs just to pay for childcare, let alone rent, food and car payments. I was fortunate enough to land a teen parent voucher that allowed me to get my son into a daycare program for free. Without that lifeline, I would not be here today, and that’s why I’m so proud of the work we’ve accomplished together.”
Even before the legislation was passed, legislators delivered multiple years of down payments on the Common Start vision, spending more than $1.5 billion on early education and child care in each of the last two state budgets, and more than $1.7 billion in the recently-passed FY26 budget. That’s nearly triple the $600 million spent annually on the sector prior to late 2018, when the Common Start Coalition was formed. Because of the state's investments in early education and child care over the past few years, Massachusetts now has 15,000 more licensed child care spots than we did pre-pandemic (including a 12% increase in parts of the state categorized as ‘very low opportunity areas’), wages for Massachusetts center-based early educators have increased by 20% over the past three years, and more than 65,000 children are now receiving child care financial assistance — up from 48,000 in January 2022.
“Access to high-quality, affordable early education and childcare is essential for the healthy development of young children, as well as for the economic well-being of working families and employers in the Commonwealth,” said State Senator Jason Lewis (D-Winchester), Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Education. “Thank you to the Common Start Coalition for their years-long advocacy to build grassroots momentum and to all the early education providers, educators, parents, and advocates who helped get this bill over the finish line. Last year’s legislation made C3 grants permanent, expanded eligibility to allow for more families to access childcare subsidies, established a career ladder to support and encourage early educators, and more. This year, we invested $1.7 billion into early education and childcare in the Fiscal Year 2026 state budget, and we will continue to focus on steps to increase access and affordability.”
“Access to childcare helps everyone. The Common Start legislation enables parents to go back to work, employers to support their employees, and our children to benefit from all that early education has to offer,” said Representative Ken Gordon (D-Bedford), House Chair of the Joint Committee on Education. “I am proud of what this legislation has accomplished already in expanding access to childcare and am committed to continuing to support this important work.”
At the birthday party event, speakers described how the state’s investments in early education and child care have made a difference for early educators, child care providers, and the children and families they serve.
“One of the major achievements of the passage of the bill for my family and I has been the C3 grants – they have helped me enormously to cover subsidies and create more accessibility for working families in my community of Lynn,” said Nirma Munoz Perez, Director of My First Steps child care center in Lynn. “Lynn is a Gateway City that has historically had less access to childcare compared to the rest of the state. But with Common Start, we are changing that. Together, we have achieved more accessible care options for working families and a new and stable source of funding for early childhood educators.”
“I’m proud of the work I do and the impact it has on families and community. With salary increases, we not only support essential workers like myself, but we also help stabilize the workforce. This allows agencies to retain experienced educators and offer families more dependable, high-quality care,” said Jacqueline Carmenatty, lead teacher in the Social Sprouts Boston Pre-K classroom at East Boston Social Centers. “There's still more work to do to support early educators with good wages and benefits, but you can see the impact of higher wages on the ground. State data shows that educator retention is up, and vacancies are down. That means we're giving more children the stability they need.”
Speakers also called on state leaders to continue investing in early education and child care in order to fully implement the Common Start legislation and ensure that all families in the state can access high-quality, affordable child care.
“When I look back at my children’s early years, their first year had so many milestones - their first smile, their first time sitting up, their first bites of food, their first tooth,” said Spruell. “But there was also so much growth and potential yet to come. The same is true for our Common Start legislation. We’ve achieved so much, and have so many amazing milestones to celebrate. But we also need to protect and nurture this historic child care legislation as it grows, so it can grow and reach its full potential: creating a system of affordable, high-quality early education and child care for ALL Massachusetts families.”
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The Common Start Coalition is a statewide partnership of organizations, providers, parents, early educators and advocates working together to make high-quality early education and child care affordable and accessible to all Massachusetts families. Our goal is to ensure that all families have the care solutions they need and that all children in our Commonwealth have the same, strong start and enter school on a level playing field. We are a diverse coalition including community, faith-based, labor, business, and early education and child care organizations, as well as early educators, parents, individuals, and direct service organizations.
The coalition, established in 2018, includes more than 170 organizations across Massachusetts. More than 3,000 individual parents, caregivers, early educators, center administrators, business owners, and family child care providers are active members of the Common Start Coalition. More information about the coalition is available at commonstartma.org.