With the 2024 Legislative Session rapidly approaching, MACo is profiling some major issues that stand to gather attention in the General Assembly.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future (“The Blueprint”) sets ambitious goals for universal pre-K for all three and four-year-olds in Maryland, utilizing private child care networks to meet those goals. In prior legislative sessions, the Maryland General Assembly laid the framework for universal pre-K and responded to Maryland’s threatened post-pandemic child care industry. The DLS Issue Papers provide a snapshot of the current situation, the progress toward meeting the early childhood goals of the Blueprint, and future work that lies ahead, especially as federal COVID-19 recovery funding comes to an end:
The affordability of child care and a shortage of qualified child care workers are challenges in Maryland and nationwide. The expiration of the federal Child Care Stabilization Grant Program on September 30, 2023, presents potential challenges for Maryland’s child care community, impacting providers, working families, and the State’s economy.
Child care costs are burdensome for Marylanders and prohibitive of families accessing quality early childhood education:
A recent study by NetCredit revealed that in 28 states, including Maryland, the average cost of child care surpassed the cost of public in-State college tuition. The same study found that in 25 states, including Maryland, average child care costs exceed 14% of the average annual wage in the state. Using different data, the Maryland Family Network estimates child care costs in Maryland to be between 16.2% (Queen Anne’s County) and 31.4% (Baltimore City) of a family’smedian income. In addition, employment in the child care sector is recovering more slowly than in other pandemic-affected industries. The inability to hire sufficient staff may result in child care providers serving fewer children and existing staff leaving the profession due to the difficulties of providing care under the working conditions.
Additionally, Maryland faces ongoing challenges in private industry spots and having enough providers post-pandemic:
Like other states, Maryland faces significant challenges in child care funding and the availability of child care slots. Enduring repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, an acute shortage of qualified child care workers, and rising operational costs have contributed to a decline in the number of licensed child care slots, and child care providers have experienced financial hardship. Before the pandemic, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) consistently reported a decline in licensed child care slots across the State, primarily due to the closure of family child care programs. Between fiscal 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic, Maryland experienced a significant reduction of 10,570 licensed child care slots, a 4.9% decrease. In fiscal 2022, the decline in child care capacity slowed to 0.7%, and by fiscal 2023, capacity increased slightly by 0.6%. However, despite this improvement, the State still faces a gap of more than 10,000 child care slots compared to pre-pandemic levels.
While previous legislative sessions established financial and technical assistance for child care providers, the lost of federal recovery resources is expected to have a negative impact on the industry in Maryland. Potential impacts include the following, according to DLS:
- Decline in Available Providers: According to survey data collected by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, approximately a third of Maryland child care providers surveyed in 2022 considered leaving their job or closing their family child care home. According to an analysis by the Century Foundation, if approximately one-third of providers closed, over 69,000 Maryland children could lose access to child care.
- Financial Strain on Providers: Child care providers may increase prices to compensate for the loss of federal funding. This action has the potential to render child care services less affordable for working families, many of whom are already contending with the challenge of meeting their basic financial needs.
- Recruiting and Retaining Staff: Child care workers, who are currently confronted with issues like low wages and substantial workloads, could encounter heightened difficulties in attracting and retaining skilled staff. This scenario could potentially impact the overall quality of child care services.
- Economic Impact: Child care services play an essential role in Maryland’s economy by enabling parents to work and contribute to the workforce. Without child care, parents may be forced to reduce their work hours or leave their jobs altogether, which could have a detrimental financial impact on their families, especially for families living paycheck to paycheck.
