Doug McCrory

Sen. McCrory Announces Rate Increase in Care 4 Kids Child Care Program

State Sen. Doug McCrory speaks at the Women’s League Child Development Center on Main Street in Hartford to welcome a funding increase in the Care 4 Kids child care program. The program helps low-income families pay for child care.

State Sen. Doug McCrory speaks at the Women’s League Child Development Center on Main Street in Hartford to welcome a funding increase in the Care 4 Kids child care program. The program helps low-income families pay for child care.

State Senator Doug McCrory (D-Hartford) today joined The Office of Early Childhood and other state legislators to announce a significant rate increase for Care 4 Kids, a state and federally funded program for lower income working families to help pay for child care.

The rate increase for child care centers that participate in the Care 4 Kids program and who serve infants, toddlers, and preschoolers is the first in many years thanks, in part, to $14 million in new federal Child Care Development Fund dollars and Connecticut’s long-standing investment in this program. The rate increases will take effect September 1, 2019.

“As Senate Chair of the Education Committee, and as a state senator representing the people of Hartford, Bloomfield and Windsor, I not only know how expensive child care is for lower income working families, I also know how important it is to have access to child care,” said Sen. McCrory. “Being able to pay someone to watch your child while you work hard to get ahead is going to be significantly easier with this infusion of federal funds.”

The rate increase is a major step toward addressing the needs of Connecticut’s working families. Connecticut currently has one of the lowest child care subsidy rates in the country and a 50,000 seat shortage of infant/toddler care which has made it difficult for parents to access affordable child care.

The rate adjustment has three major benefits:

• It gives parents, particularly those with infants, better buying power and access to child care options;
• It helps stabilize child care providers financially, many of whom are small business owners;
• It enhances the ability of child care centers to improve the quality of care for developing minds.

The rates are being increased at the scale necessary to respond to federal requirements to provide greater choice and access to families. These rate changes will vary across regions and age groups. For center-based infant toddler care, the rates will increase from the 2nd percentile to the 50th percentile, meaning families can access 50% of center based infant/toddler spaces using this child care. For centers serving preschoolers, the rates will increase to the 25th percentile.

For example, in Hartford, the rate for full-time infant toddler care will increase from $201 per week to $308 per week. The rate for full-time preschool care will increase from $160 to $203 per week.

“This is critical to maintain federal funding and is long overdue. It will support child care providers, parents, and children’s development in these critical first years,” said Office of Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye. “It will help stabilize an already fragile child care system and make some gains for better wages for child care workers.”

“I am pleased that we can invest these new federal dollars to support child care providers and working families. We commend our Congressional delegation for fighting for this major federal investment in child care,” said Governor Ned Lamont.