One R.I. child care educator faces a financial reality

Working as an early childhood educator, I get the chance every day to help babies and young children grow and develop. From engaging babies in their first interactions with the world, to helping toddlers with their social skills, to planting the early seeds of reading and learning, I have a wonderful job that I deeply love and hope to continue to develop in for many years to come.

I am also a mom to my own smart, outgoing 1-year old son. As a mom and an early childhood educator, I unfortunately face a challenging paradox that is threatening the supply of quality, affordable child care for working families across Rhode Island. The paradox is that even though I myself am an early childhood educator, I cannot afford child care for my own child.

The reason is straightforward. We do not pay our state’s workforce of early childhood educators enough money. The average pay for Rhode Island early childhood educators is less than $15 per hour. With child care costs in Rhode Island averaging nearly $12,000 per year, it has been nearly impossible for early educators with their own young children to afford child care.

This sad irony actually exacerbates the shortage of child care for everyone in Rhode Island, because as early childhood educators are forced to leave the profession, it in turn causes programs to close classrooms if they are unable to find new staff. This is just one of the reasons for the long waiting lists many working families face when they are trying to find quality, affordable child care.

Fortunately, our elected leaders have been listening to our workforce of early childhood educators and have responded with a combination of increased pay rates, and a new program, started in 2023, called Child Care for Child Care Educators. This program allows eligible child care workers to utilize the state’s Child Care Assistance Program so they can afford child care for their own young children.

Put simply, this program is working. Hundreds of early childhood educators like me have taken advantage of Child Care for Child Care Educators. The program is now in its second year and there are 570 early educators just like me, moms working in licensed child care and early learning programs that are now able to enroll their own children in child care. There are 831 children (317 infants/toddlers, 303 preschoolers, and 211 school-age) of early educators benefiting. The vast majority are single moms earning less than $50,000 per year. Almost half the licensed centers and about 10 percent of the licensed family child care homes in the state have at least one educator benefiting from the program.

Before the program, my son was staying with a family member because I could not afford the high cost of child care. I was fortunate to have some help, but always hit a crossroads when one of my helpers was sick or couldn’t take care of him. That caused me to call out of work and miss out on pay or be forced to use sick time.

Thanks to Child Care for Child Care Educators, I have been able to send my son to the early learning center where I work and where he has flourished. It would be devastating if my son couldn’t attend the center anymore if this program ends in July 2025 as currently scheduled in state law. The price for care is so high that I would be working just to be able to send my son to child care, leaving me with little to nothing to pay my bills and afford groceries and other things my son needs.

It is time to make funding for this successful pilot program permanent. That is why I am urging Governor McKee to include full funding for the Child Care for Child Care Educators Program in his fiscal year 2026 state budget, and for our leaders in the Rhode Island House and Senate to support this key investment in our workforce. This is a smart investment with a huge payoff that will reverberate across our state’s working families, businesses, and our economy.

Roshona Perry is a teacher at Joyful Noise Inc. in West Warwick.