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This week is a big week for the RIght from the Start Campaign, with at least 8 opportunities to support priority legislation and advocate for budget items to help ensure all babies and young children in the state can get good start in life.  This is a long email organized by date of hearing with each separate bills/budget number listed. Pay attention to the specific details for each Committee hearing and double check the agendas linked with details on the hearings and specific email addresses to submit testimony.

Your voice is important!  Written testimony can be very short and make a difference.  Also, you can come to the hearing and speak from your heart in support of legislation or budget items.  You do not need to submit written testimony if you want to testify in person.

Tuesday, March 19^th

1. The Rhode Island Department of Education’s budget will be heard at a joint Senate Education and  Senate Finance Committee hearing scheduled to start at at the RISE (around 4:30ish) in the Senate Lounge.   This is an opportunity to let legislators know that as much as we’d love to see expansion of high-quality public preschool, 2024 is not a good year to spend $7.1 million in new state funds to expand RI Pre-K.  The funding should instead be directed toward stabilizing and strengthening the existing early care and education system. We have a severe staffing crisis in early care and education programs statewide, particularly for infants and toddlers, and three separate initiatives that are helping stabilize the early care and education workforce scheduled to end in the summer (1. The Child Care for Child Care Educators program, 2. The Child Care WAGE$ national model which provides significant wage supplements to help keep skilled and lower-wage early educators in early care and education classrooms, and 3. The pandemic retention bonus program which has been providing $3,000/year wage supplements to over 4,000 child care staff each year for the last 2 ½ years).  We have had a persistent waiting list for Early Intervention with 623 infants and toddlers waiting for services as of February 2024. And we have the lowest income cut off for child care assistance in the northeast – helping less than half the number of families we used to help 20 years ago.  It is great that the Governor included $7.1 million for early care and education, but we would like to see at least 30% of this funding be directed to strengthen access to high-quality infant and toddler early care and education (Child Care Assistance Infant Rates, Early Head Start Stabilization (20% of slots are empty due to staff vacancies), or Wage Supplements for infant/toddler teachers).  We would also like to see these resources used to close the compensation gap for existing community-based RI Pre-K teachers and Head Start teachers, who make about $25,000 less than kindergarten teachers.  Addressing early educator compensation and investing in infant-toddler care are recommended in the State Pre-K Expansion Plan.  Testimony on the RI Pre-K expansion funding in the RIDE Budget should reference H-722 – Rhode Island Department of Education FY25 Budget and be sent to both senatefinance@rilegislature.gov and slegislation@rilegilsature.gov by 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
2. Senator DiMario’s bill S-2072 that would provide funding to sustain the Moms Psychiatry Resource Network and Pediatric Psychiatry Resource Network programs will be heard at the Senate Health and Human Service Committee hearing scheduled to start at the RISE (4:30ish) in Room 211.  The bill adds the Moms PRN and Pedi PRN consultation program to an existing financing system to sustain this phone consultation service that has been helping primary health care providers provide access to mental health care needed by moms and children. The prevalence of postpartum depression has increased dramatically over the past decade with about 1 in 5 women experiencing postpartum depression. Racial and ethnic disparities in rates of postpartum depression are persistent. Testimony in support of funding to sustain the Moms PRN and Pedi PRN service should reference S-2072 and be sent to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee at slegislation@rilegislature.gov by 3:00 on Tuesday.

Wednesday, March 20^th

1. Senator Valarie Lawson’s bill, S-2121, that would expand the state’s Paid Family Leave program (aka the Temporary Caregivers Insurance Program) from 6 weeks to 12 weeks and update the definition of family will be heard in the Senate Labor Committee scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. in Room 212 (should start on time because there is no floor session).  At only 6 weeks of leave, Rhode Island’s paid family leave program is the shortest in the U.S. The length of leave matters for family health and child development. Public health experts recommend a minimum of 12 weeks, and preferably 6 months, of leave for new parents. Relationships with parents and other caregivers are critical to a baby’s early development, shaping the architecture of the developing brain. Sufficient time is essential for establishing breastfeeding, attending well-child medical visits, and ensuring that children receive all necessary immunizations. Adequate leave time is also associated with a reduced risk of post-partum depression. See more information here: Rhode Island’s Paid Leave Program is Leaving Families Behind. Testimony in support of the paid family leave bill should reference S-2121 and be sent to the Senate Labor Committee at slegislation@rilegislature.gov by 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
2. Senator Cano’s bill, S-2142, the Early Care and Education Workforce Data Act is being heard in the Senate Education Committee at 4:00 in Room 313 (should start on time because there is no floor session). This bill would codify the brand new Rhode Island early care and education workforce registry data system in the general laws to meet national standards and require an annual report on the status of the registry and early care and education workforce.  Until February 2024, Rhode Island was one of only six states in the U.S. without a functioning early care and education workforce data system. Early Care and Education Workforce Registries are a piece of backbone infrastructure needed for a healthy child care and early learning system. Testimony in support of Early Care and Education Workforce Data Act should reference S-2142 and should be sent to the Senate Education Committee at slegislation@rilegislature.gov by 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
3. Senator Cano’s bill, S-2038, the Early Educator Compensation Stabilization Act is being heard in the Senate Education Committee at 4:00 in Room 313 (should start on time because there is no floor session). Rhode Island has three critical initiatives in place to address the staffing crises in early childhood programs. All three of these programs will end in Summer 2024 unless the General Assembly acts. The Early Educator Compensation Stabilization Act will continue two of these initiatives. Rhode Island Child Care WAGE$ program is providing significant wage supplements (ranging from $3,000/year for a CDA credential to $12,000/year for a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education) to 273 credentialed early educators who earn less than $23/hour and work on the frontlines in early learning programs. Child Care WAGE$ has been shown to dramatically improve retention of credentialed early educators and improve the quality of care available to children. Failure to continue these programs will result in more closed classrooms, increased child care tuition for private-paying families, and longer waiting lists. The Rhode Island Child Care Pandemic Retention bonuses have been providing $750/quarter to all staff of all licensed child care programs for more than two years – over 4,000 individuals per quarter. This bill would continue these retention bonus payments only for individuals who work on the frontlines directly with children, earn less than $23/hour, and have been consistently receiving a payment. Testimony in support of the RI Early Educator Compensation Stabilization Act should reference S-2142 and be sent to the Senate Education Committee at slegislation@rilegislature.gov by 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
4. Senator Valverde’s bill, S-2512, to establish an Early Childhood IDEA Task Force is being heard in the Senate Education Committee scheduled to start at 4:00 pm. in Room 313 (should start on time because there is no floor session). We need your help to advocate for a Task Force to develop a plan for a coherent system of educational and developmental services for babies and young children with developmental delays and disabilities. The waiting list for Early Intervention services has been in place for more than two years. Early Intervention services are not as effective at improving child outcomes as they used to be (maybe due to service delays and lack of enough qualified and specialized therapists).  There are 35 separate school districts responsible for implementing preschool special education. Children who live in the four core cities are less likely to be determined eligible for preschool special education (36%) than children in the remainder of the state (52%) with a great deal of variability across school districts. Testimony in support of this bill should reference S-2512 and be sent to the Senate Education Committee at slegislation@rilegislature.gov by 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

* BONUS OPPORTUNITY Senator Hanna Gallo’s resolution, S-2530, requesting the Chidlren’s Cabinet hold an Open Meeting before September 2024 to review progress on recommendations of the Early Childhood Governance Task Force is being heard in the Senate Education Committee scheduled to start at 4:00 in Room 313.   Testimony in support of this resolution should reference S-2530 and be sent to the Senate Education Committee at  slegislation@rilegislature.gov by 3:00 on Wednesday.

Thursday, March 21^st

1. Senator Alana DiMario’s bill, S-2459 to remove the burdensome requirement to cooperate with the state’s Child Support Enforcement Office as an eligibility criteria to qualify for Child Care Assistance is being heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled to start at the RISE (4:30ish) in Room 313.  Did you know that Rhode Island is one of only 9 states in the U.S. that requires parents (almost all are moms) who apply for or who are receiving child care assistance to cooperate with child support enforcement – including genetic testing to determine paternity if it is not acknowledged voluntarily – and multiple court appointments over many years to establish and enforce child support orders? Rhode Island added this requirement into statute in 2006. Recognizing the barriers that this policy inflicts on families that simply want to return to work, most states have chosen not to adopt this requirement or have removed child support enforcement from the subsidy process.  Connecticut stopped in 2006, New York stopped in 2009, Mississippi stopped in 2023, and just recently Michigan announced it was dropping the requirement in 2024. Testimony in support of this bill should reference S-2459 and be sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee at  SenateJudiciary@rilegislature.gov by 3:00 on Thursday.
2. The Rhode Island Department of Health’s budget is being heard in the House Finance Committee hearing scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m. (should start on time) in Room 35.  This is an opportunity to advocate for funding for the family home visiting system. In addition to the funding crisis faced by the First Connections Family Home Visiting program, which is facing a schedule Medicaid rate cut in July 2024. Rhode Island is one of only two states in the U.S. that does not put any state funds into evidence-based family home visiting programs and thus, does not have money to apply for new federal funding available now and in the future. The Rhode Island state funding match requirements for the federal Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting funds are $800K in 2024, $1.1 million in 2025, $1.6 million in 2026, $2.4 million in 2027.  Testimony about lack of funding for family home visiting should reference the H-7225 – RI Department of Health FY25 Budget and be submitted by noon on Thursday.