‘The right next step’: Early education board votes to boost subsidy for child care providers – Boston Globe
By Samantha J. Gross
The state board of Early Education and Care board voted unanimously Wednesday to revamp how Massachusetts child care centers serving poor children are reimbursed, a move widely anticipated throughout the state’s struggling and long-overlooked child care industry.
Starting next month, these child care providers will receive at least a 5.5 percent increase to their daily per-child reimbursement rate — an average increase of more than $2,000 per year, per child. The approved rates address “long-standing inequities” by geographic region of the state and the age group of children served, officials said…
The new rates will use $65 million already allocated from the state’s fiscal year 2024 budget to accommodate the change. They will go into effect next month, but would be retroactive to July 1, the start of the current fiscal year. That means that each provider already accepting poor children would get retroactive payment to account for the increase in a lump sum…
The new rate policy approved Wednesday uses CELFE data to account for the actual cost of caring for children, instead of relying on the current rate structure, which doesn’t capture several factors, including housing costs, staffing numbers, or child care salaries in a particular region. The new formula also consolidates rates across regions with similar costs and economic indicators.