The RIght from the Start campaign is pleased to see several additional investments in the FY 2025 state budget approved by the House Finance Committee (HFC) that go above and beyond the Governor’s original budget proposal. These important investments will help to support Rhode Island’s young children, families, and our workforce of early educators. While we are pleased to see this progress, much more work is still needed to ensure that ALL Rhode Island kids and families have the resources they need to get off to the RIght Start in life.
We are happy about the following items included in the budget:
- The Governor’s proposal to fund 100% of the OHIC recommended Medicaid rate increase for Early Intervention was included in the HFC approved budget. This rate increase will also trigger a rate increase for Early Intervention services for children covered by commercial insurance. The Early Intervention program for infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities is required under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. As of May 7, 2024, there were 423 infants and toddlers on the waiting list for Early Intervention with an average waiting time of 104 days.
- The HFC approved budget includes 100% of the OHIC recommended Medicaid rate increases for all Home and Community Based Services, including 100% for the First Connections newborn home visiting program. Unfortunately, this new rate will be slightly lower than the rate First Connections has been receiving for the past two years, but significantly better than the 22+ year old rate. We hope that the state will find resources to close the gap and continue the current rates for First Connections to stabilize this critical program for our most vulnerable infants and families.
- The HFC approved budget extends the Child Care for Child Care Educators program through July 2025. This program covers the cost of child care for the children of frontline child care educators and staff. Almost half of all child care centers in the state have at least one educator participating in this program, which is helping child care providers recruit and retain staff. We hope next year that the state will lift the household income cap for participants (which remains at 300% of the federal poverty line) and provide this benefit to Early Intervention staff to help address the staffing crisis in Early Intervention.
- The HFC approved budget expands family eligibility for the Child Care Assistance Program, raising the family income cap to 261% of the Federal Poverty Level or $67,390 for a family of three (from the current 200% FPL of $51,640 for a family of three). Families will continue to remain eligible up to the current 300% Federal Poverty Level or $77,460 for a family of three. The new family income cut off would enable a two-parent family with one child to be eligible for child care assistance if both were working full time and made $16/hour ($1 more than the new $15 minimum wage as of January 2025).
- The HFC approved budget provides a 5% rate increase for child care centers serving children in the Child Care Assistance Program, the first rate increase since 2022. This rate increase will catch centers up with family child care rate increases that have been negotiated through collective bargaining. We believe there is an error in Budget Article 11 where it specifies this rate increase would go into effect in July 2025 (which is Fiscal Year 2026). We urge the House to make this technical correction to match what we believe was intended, so the rate increase goes into effect in July 2024.
- The Governor’s proposal to provide $7.1 million in new general revenue funding for RI Pre-K was included in the HFC budget. These funds have already been allocated. Some of these new state funds will be braided with Head Start funding to help improve staff wages and prevent classroom closures and some of the funding will support existing high-quality child care classrooms for three- and four-year olds that are being converted to RI Pre-K classrooms.
- The HFC budget includes federal funding to provide a 20% increase to the cash assistance payments for families enrolled in RI Works. Article 11 of the budget bill also removes the full family sanction and increases the earned income disregard from $300 to $525, which allows families to keep more of their income from wages without losing RI Works cash assistance benefits.
We are disappointed that:
- The HFC budget does not continue any of the existing wage supplements for early educators in the Early Educator Compensation Stabilization Act. The current Child Care WAGE$ national model program was successfully launched in Rhode Island and is providing substantial wage supplements ($3,000/year – $12,000/year) to about 300 of the most qualified and lowest paid early educators and will end in Summer 2024 without additional funding. In addition, the child care staff pandemic retention bonus program that has been providing $3,000/year retention bonuses to all child care staff for the last 2 ½ years will end in Summer 2024. We anticipate the loss of both programs will cause more child care educators to leave the field and exacerbate the child care staffing crisis, negatively affecting families of all income levels.
- The HFC budget does not remove the Child Support Enforcement requirement for families participating in the Child Care Assistance Program. We are one of only 9 states that impose this burdensome requirement which is not in place for any other early care and education program.
We are hopeful that these bills will pass outside of the budget process:
- Paid Family Leave. We are hopeful the House will pass H-7171 (Giraldo) in alignment with S-2121 (Lawson) already passed by the Senate which extends paid family leave from 6 weeks to 12 weeks. Federal and state policymakers and experts agree that 12 weeks is the minimum amount of time needed by parents to meet intense caregiving needs and to establish strong and nurturing bonds with babies (the foundation of children’s mental health).
- Guidelines for RI Pre-K Expansion. We are hopeful the House will pass H-7497 (McNamara) in alignment with S-2843 (Gallo) already passed by the Senate. Statutory guidelines for RI Pre-K Expansion are needed to sustain and strengthen our Birth through Age 5 early care and education system by closing the $25,000 – $30,000 wage gap for preschool teachers and expanding investments in high-quality programs for infants and toddlers.
- Maternal and Child Mental Health. We are hopeful the House will pass H- 7204 (Shallcross Smith) in alignment with S-2072 (DiMario) already passed by the Senate. Passing this bill is essential to continue the MomsPRN and PediPRN programs that have been helping primary health care providers address the mental health needs of moms and children.
- Young Children with Developmental Delays and Disabilities. We are hopeful the House and the Senate will pass the Early Childhood IDEA Task Force bill (H-7438/Carson and S-2512/Valverde) establishing task force to develop recommendations to improve staffing, financing, and effectiveness of services for the Early Intervention and Preschool Special Education programs so that all babies and young children with developmental challenges get the help they need.
