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RIght Start 2024 Legislative & Budget Priorities

December 6, 2023

Rhode Island needs state budget investments and policies that help ensure ALL Rhode Island babies and young children, regardless of zip code, race, ethnicity, or family income, get off to the right start in life! Investments in young children and families strengthen our economy now and ensure a bright future.

Early Care and Education

Solve the Early Educator Staffing Crisis

Expand and continue the Child Care for Child Care Educators program to include Early Intervention staff. Remove the household income limit by providing categorical eligibility to the Child Care Assistance Program regardless of family income and with no copayments like Kentucky does.
Invest $2.5 million to continue the Child Care WAGE$ national model program to provide substantial wage supplements to recognize, reward, and retain qualified and skilled early educators.
Invest $13.6 million to continue retention bonuses @ $3,000/year for all child care staff beyond the projected end date in September 2024 to prevent loss of staff/closure of more classrooms and programs.

Expand and Strengthen the RI Child Care Assistance Program

Remove the outdated child support enforcement requirement in statute. Only a few states have ever imposed this requirement and those that did are removing it from the subsidy process (even Mississippi).
Invest $12 million to raise family income eligibility to the federal standard for CCAP, helping all families at or below the state median income. A family of three with earnings up to $81,641 should qualify and be able to retain their subsidy up to $96,048.

Invest $6 million to provide a 50% rate increase for infants under 18 months in the RI Child Care Assistance Program to stabilize and expand access to quality care for the age group in greatest need.
Increase provider rates for all ages of children in the RI Child Care Assistance Program to meet or exceed federal standards.

Expand RI Pre-K Equitably in Birth – 5 Context

As Pre-K expands, ensure there is adequate investment to:

Provide compensation parity for all teachers of publicly funded preschool classrooms (RI Pre-K and Head Start) equal to public Kindergarten teachers with similar qualifications and experience. Right now, there is a $25,000 gap in pay.
Sustain and expand state investments in Head Start and Early Head Start as part of the state’s plan to achieve universal access to preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds.
Establish and fund a 30% infant/toddler spending benchmark in statute as part of RI Pre-K expansion, so that for every $10 million of new funding invested in RI Pre-K expansion there will be at least $3 million of new funding invested to sustain and expand access to high-quality infant and toddler child care and early learning.
Allow and support family child care programs to participate in delivering RI Pre-K.
Remove state requirements restricting enrollment based on child residence for RI Pre-K programs in community-based settings to promote continuity and family choice.

Sustain and Strengthen Head Start & Early Head Start

Continue the $4.2 million state investments in the Head Start and Early Head Start model as part of the state’s plan to achieve universal access to preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds.
Ensure compensation parity for Head Start and RI Pre-K teachers equal to comparably qualified Kindergarten teachers.

Raise More State General Revenue for Child Care/Early Learning

Enact Revenue for Rhode Island fair share tax strategies to bring in at least $50 million in new state revenue to invest in child care and early learning programs.

Health & Development

Adopt Continuous Medicaid Coverage for Children Under Age 6

Join 10 other leading states by adopting continuous Medicaid coverage for all children under age 6 to ensure babies and young children with Medicaid insurance (about 50% of all young children in RI) have consistent access to preventive, specialized, and emergency health care.

End Waiting Lists for Early Intervention

Provide a sufficient Medicaid rate increase to fully staff Early Intervention programs to end waiting lists and serve all children in need.
Establish an annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for rates.
Add Early Intervention staff to the Child Care for Child Care Educators program (and remove household income limit). See this also under “Solve the Early Educator Staffing Crisis above)
Develop an EI workforce pipeline.

Establish an Early Childhood IDEA Task Force, Birth – K Entry

Create and fund a public-private task force to develop a comprehensive financing and staffing plan to ensure all children from birth to 5 receive high-quality Early Childhood IDEA services (across both Early Intervention and Preschool Special Education).

Save First Connections Newborn Family Home Visiting

Make the long-needed (22 years!) rate increase permanent for the Rhode Island First Connections home visiting program to prevent substantial rate cuts scheduled for July 1.
Establish an annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for home visiting rates.
Develop a plan to sustain and expand voluntary family home visiting services, including meeting the new state funding requirements, so that high-quality home visiting programs are offered to all families who could benefit.

Start at the Beginning to Meet Young Children’s Mental Health Needs

Develop a Rhode Island Early Childhood Mental Health Professional Hub to train and support professionals to use appropriate and culturally-responsive tools and therapies to better screen, evaluate, and treat mental health challenges of children under age 6.
Increase Medicaid rates for children’s mental health evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment and allow for evaluation of young children under age 6 over as many visits as needed.
Incentivize the delivery of evidence-based and culturally-responsive therapies and mental health promotion supports for children under age 6 through Medicaid policy and enhanced rates.
Partner with the RI Chapter of the AAP to pilot developmental screenings and early childhood mental health screenings using standardized tools at 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old well-child visits.

Family Economic Security

Improve Paid Family Leave

Increase the wage replacement level to 90% so all parents, and especially lower wage-earning parents, can have adequate income to stay home and care for newborns, adoptive, and foster children.
Expand from 6 weeks to 12 weeks of paid family to meet national standards and match CT and MA programs.

Improve the RI Works Cash Assistance program

Adopt RI Works policies recommended by the Raising Rhode Island Coalition:

Update the cash assistance benefit to ensure children do not live in deep poverty (below 50% FPL)
Adopt an annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).
Repeal the full family sanction.
Restore eligibility to legal permanent residents.

Increase the State Earned Income Tax Credit