Biennial budget approved by Legislature and signed by the Governor doubled funding for stipends that are now also tiered to account for education and experience
Governor Janet Mills announced today that her Administration has issued the first round of increased and tiered stipends for child care workers.
The stipends are expected to benefit approximately 7,000 child care workers and are intended to help qualified professionals remain in the industry and support providers in retaining staff.
They are funded through the current biennial budget, passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor last year, which doubled State funding for the stipends to $30 million annually as a result of legislation sponsored by Senate President Troy Jackson.
At the direction of the Governor, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) first implemented stipends for child care workers in September 2021 using temporary Federal funding and then, following the passage of a budget provision championed by Governor Mills and then-Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau, DHHS continued the stipends using State funding starting in October 2022 at $200 per worker per month.
The new monthly stipends, effective as of November 2023, have increased to $275 for the first tier, $415 for the second tier, and $625 for the third tier, based on education and experience. Additionally, DHHS will issue an extra $100 per month to child care workers in the third tier to compensate for the additional amount they are owed retroactive to the start of the state fiscal year.
"Maine parents need high-quality child care to support the growth, education, and safety of their children and to ensure that they are able to join and stay in the workforce," said Governor Janet Mills. "These new enhanced and tiered stipends, the result of investments from my Administration and the Legislature, will help attract and retain more of the qualified workers we need to expand the availability and affordability of child care while strengthening our economy in the process."
"Strengthening Maine's child care system means supporting those who care for and teach Maine children day in and day out, allowing their parents to work and study," said Jeanne Lambrew, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. "This investment will benefit Maine's children, communities, and economy."
"Maine families, small businesses and the state's economy depend on child care workers. However, stagnant wages have made it difficult for qualified professionals to remain in the industry while providers continue to scrape by. It's why I'm thrilled that the Legislature and the Mills Administration were able to increase salary stipends and implement a tiered system to help folks remain in the industry that they love and continue caring for our kids," said President Jackson. "Now that this law has been implemented, we can pick up where we left off and work together to ensure Maine's child care system works for everyone."
"As early childhood educators play a crucial role in shaping the minds and futures of young children in Maine, it is essential to support and recognize their hard work," said Heather Marden, Co-Executive Director of Maine Association for the Education of Young Children. "The tiered salary supplement program acknowledges the importance of this critical child care workforce and their efforts to provide quality care and education to children. With the tireless efforts of families, educators, business leaders, advocates, legislators, and the Mills Administration, we are working together to increase the wages of child care educators and ensure that they receive the recognition and support they deserve. This program will not only benefit educators but also contribute to the overall growth and development of Maine's children."
The stipends are provided through the Early Childhood Educator Workforce Salary Supplement System, the purpose of which is to provide salary supplements to child care providers and early childhood educators who provide direct services to children in licensed child care facilities and licensed family child care programs, to incentivize continuing education of the early childhood workforce, and to raise the overall quality of care for young children.
Under State law, starting in State Fiscal Year 2024, the tiered system must provide, at a minimum, three tiers based on workers' education and experience, as documented in the Maine Roads to Quality Registry Levels. The second tier (Levels 5 and 6) must provide a salary supplement that is at least 50 percent greater than the first tier (Levels 1 through 4), and the third or highest tier (Levels 7 and 8) must provide a salary supplement that is at least 50 percent greater than the second tier. The specific dollar amounts are based on this requirement as well as the number of workers in each tier and the available funding.
This investment is the latest from the Mills Administration, which has provided more than $100 million in Federal funding for child care. Through her Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan, approved by the Legislature, Governor Mills is investing $15 million to help renovate, expand, or build new child care facilities.
Earlier this year, the Governor announced a $24 million, three-year Federal grant award to strengthen community supports and educational opportunities for young children_. _These will include expanded outreach and programming to families with young children, pilot projects to make Pre-K more accessible, professional development for early childhood educators, and financial support for child care providers to improve their program offerings. The grant will also support the development of an Early Childhood Integrated Data System to help make data-driven decisions about programs and policies to benefit Maine children.
These funds are part of unprecedented investment to increase access to high-quality care and support for Maine's child care workforce via the state's first-ever Child Care Plan for Maine (PDF), which charts how the DHHS Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS) is helping Maine's child care system recover from the pandemic and improving child care quality, accessibility, and affordability over the long-term.
As a result of these state and federal investments, Maine has maintained and built child care slots beyond pre-pandemic levels, created the permanent salary supports for over 7,000 child care workers, and incentivized child care construction to add as many as 4,700 new slots.
Leading this work at the Department will be Tara Williams, who began work this week as OCFS' new Associate Director for Early Care and Education in OCFS. Williams has extensive experience and dedication to early childhood education in Maine, having served as the Executive Director of the Maine Association for the Education of Young Children and, most recently, as an Associate Director for the Bipartisan Policy Center's Early Childhood Initiative.
Improving access and quality in child care and early childhood education is a key goal of the Governor's Children's Cabinet. Governor Mills reconvened the Children's Cabinet in 2019 as a forum for government agencies to collaborate on policies to support Maine children. The Children's Cabinet is comprised of the Commissioners of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Labor, Public Safety, and Corrections, and is coordinated by the Governor's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.