The Northern Virginia Association for the Education of Young Children (NVAEYC) appreciates the opportunity to share comments on the proposed changes to child care regulations, 22 VAC 40-661. Our members include 900 early childhood teachers, family child care providers, parents and other professionals who care about and work to promote the healthy development of all young children.

We are concerned that some of the proposed changes to state child care subsidy regulations will negatively impact families in the program.  We hope these comments are helpful as we all work together to ensure young children have access to early learning opportunities while their parents are at work supporting their families as well as the local economy.

1. Proposed cap on subsidy payments for children with special needs in order to bring consistency to such payments and to permit programmatic oversight of costs.

Child care for children with special needs is in limited supply and very difficult for families to find. This care is more expensive to provide, and early childhood programs are doing what they can to make ends meet while serving the families who need them. Especially in our state where subsidy reimbursement rates are already so low, a cap on the payment rate to providers will further reduce the supply of care for children with special needs.

We urge you to reconsider and maintain current payment rates for subsidy for children with special needs.

2. Proposed five year limit on receipt of child care subsidy. “A change to limit the time families may receive subsidized child care will permit more eligible families who are on a waiting list to be served.”

Many families receive child care subsidies for fewer than five years.  However, there are some working families whose income does not increase sufficiently over time to enable them to afford the cost of care.  For families with more than one young child, this five-year limit will not cover the years prior to school entry.

In Fairfax County tuition for one infant ranges from approximately $14,500 to $16,000 per year but the average annual income of a family receiving child care assistance is $25,000 per year. Discontinuing a subsidy for a working family will jeopardize their employment and undermine the investments already made in supporting their efforts to become economically self-sufficient.

Limiting the subsidy may also result in families using unsafe, unregulated child care. Quality early childhood and school-age child care can help narrow the achievement gap by boosting student achievement and academic gains for low income and minority students.

Our state works hard to balance access and quality. We recognize the difficulty in establishing priorities and using dollars efficiently. Child care investments are a federal-state partnership and we are also advocating at the federal level for increases to the Child Care and Development Block Grant to help keep Virginia’s families earning and young children learning.

In the meantime, we urge you to continue the current policy of allowing a locality the option of imposing a five year limit, instead of making this a statewide mandate.

3. Proposed requirement that families register/cooperate with DCSE. “A change to require cooperation with the Division of Child Support Enforcement as a condition of eligibility to receive subsidized child care will provide children with another means of support.”

We believe that families should be encouraged and given support to obtain child support benefits for their children. However, this proposed requirement will actually discourage families from applying for the subsidized child care services they need in order to work and pay for child care.  And without access to affordable, reliable child care parents put their employment at risk.  

A study released by Child Care Matters (2004) found that this kind of requirement was "preventing income eligible families from applying for child care subsidy, hurting enrollments in regulated early education programs, and undermining a parent's ability to access safe and quality child care." There are many very realistic scenarios in which this requirement will immediately become a barrier to accessing child care:
• In cases of domestic violence parents may be afraid to register with DCSE, which would preclude them from accessing affordable child care, thereby creating additional stress for an at-risk family. 
• Families who are recent immigrants to this country and those who are not native English speakers face a number of language and cultural barriers which may impede their ability to meet this proposed requirement. 
• In cases where parents have an informal support arrangement and the custodial parent reports this income on the child care subsidy application, this proposed requirement will change that relationship and may force parents into adversarial roles, often at the expense of the child.

We urge you to reconsider this proposal and instead establish a task force or working group to identify strategies for encouraging families to register with DCSE, instead of making this a condition of eligibility for child care assistance.

4. Proposed requirement that applicants for subsidized child care must be 18 years of age. “A change will ensure that applicants for subsidized child care meet the legal age requirement to enter into the contract to receive child care subsidy payments.”

We have serious concerns about the “contractual age” rationale. Federal CCDBG law does not require this; in fact, guidance from the Office of Child Care at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests that states prioritize child care services to teen parents.

Child care subsidies enable teen parents to complete their high school education and enter the workforce.  These young parents are particularly vulnerable and the child care subsidy is a key component of the safety net needed to ensure that they and their children are safe and well.  Children who do not complete high school are less likely to be a part of the educated and skilled workforce that our state needs now and in the future.

We urge you to reconsider this proposal.

We appreciate this opportunity to provide comments on the proposed regulations and thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Paige Beatty and Gay Hitchcock
Co-Presidents