News and Insights | Eller Frye Law

2012-2013 Budget Early childhood programs took a very large collective hit in the budget passed by Maine’s 125 ^th Legislature and signed into law by Governor LePage in 2012. Now, the waiting list for child care subsidy continues to climb, Head Start programs have reduced slots and the home visiting system is weakened despite new federal funds designed to strengthen and increase access to home visiting services.

Program	2011-2012 Funding	2012-2013 Budget (passed 5/15/12)	Reduction
Child Care	$4,242,236	$ 2,271,118	$(1,971,118)
Home Visiting	$4,171,383	$1,518,000	$(2,653,383)
Head Start	$3,354,580	$1,354,580	$(2,000,000)

Head Start Over the past four years state Head Start slots have decreased, with the most dramatic decrease due to the elimination of state Head Start funding from the General Fund in 2012. The General Fund expenditures were designed specifically to increase the total number of slots in Maine. The state Head Start funding that remains is from the Fund for a Healthy Maine (FHM). A number of programs use the FHM money to extend the day and year of existing part-time federal slots. As of September 2012, 217 state slots were lost this year.

EHS & HS slots*	September 2009	September 2010	September 2011	September 2012
Federal	3387	3431	3375	3307
State	406	329	299	82
TOTALS	3793	3760	3674	3389

*EHS=Early Head Start (ages birth to 3); HS =Head Start (ages 3 to 5) Data Source : ME Children’s Alliance and Council for a Stronger America (ME Chapter) survey of individual Head Start grantees. Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) The federal and state CCDF money is used in two ways in Maine. Most is used to provide subsidies to low income working families who need child care in order to remain working and meet the program eligibility requirements. CCDF funds are also used to increase the access to and the quality of the child care that is available to all Maine families. These resources are used to ensure licensing rules are implemented, provide training and technical assistance to all providers and consumer information and support for families. A loss of $3.5 million combined state and federal resources have seriously limited the capacity to serve eligible families. Although the originally projected loss was estimated at $5 million, DHHS can be credited with securing a state match amount that reduced the impact on this program. However, this budget cut still leaves Maine with limited resources to meet the needs of low-income working families.

CCDF	State	Federal	Total
2011 Final Allocations	$4,681,574	$16,215,696	$20,897,270
2012 Allocations	$2,954,902	$14,376,513	$17,331,415
Difference	-$1,726,672	-$1,839,183	-$3,565,855

This reduction of resources is most significant in the increase of families on the wait list, and the drop of families currently receiving subsidy. As of July 2012, 568 children were on the wait list. As of October 2012, the list increased to 802 children. The following table shows the participation rates from July 2012 – October 2012.

Number of Children with a Child Care Subsidy

County	Jul-12	Aug-12	Sep-12	Oct-12
Androscoggin	293	270	255	254
Aroostook	88	86	88	77
Cumberland	492	494	483	461
Franklin	60	56	53	52
Hancock	76	72	68	60
Kennebec	289	268	248	235
Knox	56	50	47	47
Lincoln	62	51	52	48
Oxford	99	98	91	83
Penobscot	327	296	269	236
Piscataquis	14	12	10	13
Sagadahoc	72	59	63	54
Somerset	54	46	45	41
Waldo	68	64	61	58
Washington	85	70	63	57
York	302	278	262	258
TOTALS	2437	2270	2158	2034

Data Source : Maine DHHS Office of Child & Family Services. Point in time data Home Visiting In the state budget of 2012-2013, the Maine Families program had its funding cut by $2.6 million. There was an assumption during budget negotiations that with the federal expansion grant Maine received, this reduction would have little impact on services. The federal grant was awarded based on an extensive needs assessment. The purpose of this grant was to strengthen the home visiting system and increase services to very specific populations and communities. With the cuts in state budget, there will be no increase to services, and 750 families will lose eligibility .

Impact of 2012-2013 Early Childhood Budget Cuts

Dec 11 2012 13:49

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