Thank you for supporting early child care and education!

Members of the Human Services Subcommittee and the Primary and Secondary Education Subcommittee (of the House Finance Committee) heard several testimonies throughout the month regarding the importance of high quality and affordable early care and education. Two overflow rooms were needed to accommodate the dozens of advocates who came to the Statehouse on March 18.

Donned in yellow ribbons and Live United buttons, advocates expressed concerns for budget cuts to the Help Me Grow Program and opposed plans to redefine full-time child care as 35 hours per week. The current definition of full-time child care is 25 hours per week.

Reimbursement rates for child care and early learning centers are tied to definitions of full-time and part-time care. This single change will have a devastating impact on early childhood centers. Few families require 35 hours of child care per week. Instead of receiving the higher reimbursement rate for full-time care, centers would receive the lesser rate for part-time care.

This decrease in reimbursement will make it impossible for many child care centers to meet their daily operating costs, resulting in lay-offs and center closings. Thanks you to all the witnesses who testified and helped paint a vivid picture of how proposed redefinitions would impact children, families and Ohio’s economy.

Despite concerns regarding state funding for Help Me Grow and the proposed redefinition for full-time child care, there were several positives in the Executive budget. Advocates applauded the Administration’s plans to create a single governance structure for all early childhood programs and services.

Early childhood advocates thanked the Strickland Administration for maintaining eligibility for all state-supported early care and education programs at 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. Advocates also praised the Administration for its efforts to implement full-day kindergarten in all Ohio school districts.

The House Finance Committee will hold public hearings the weeks of March 24 and March 31, with plans to complete a substitute budget bill on April 14. Public hearings on the substitute budget bill are scheduled for April 15 and16. The House Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on a substitute budget bill on April 21.

Return to this site for additional information about the impact of Ohio’s budget bill (House Bill 1) on UW’s legislative priorities.