Transformative CT early childhood education bill gets full passage

The Connecticut House of Representatives passed a priority bill on Saturday that promises to transform early childhood care and education for generations of families.

Senate Bill 1, which also includes supports for special education, would create a new endowment for early childhood education that would draw up to $300 million from surplus funds each year. Depending on surplus funds available and how quickly the fund grows, it would eventually allow families making less than $100,000 to pay nothing for infant and toddler care and pre-K, while families making more than that would pay no more than 7% of their annual household income toward those expenses.

The bill would also improve salaries for workers in the child care sector, and allows for funds to be spent on expanding or improving facilities. Those funds — $80 million — are expected to pass in a bonding bill.

Gov. Ned Lamont, who is expected to sign the bill, reacted to its passage on X on Monday: “Working parents need childcare. It’s an essential part of keeping a job and growing an economy. I thank the legislature for approving my plan to enact the largest expansion of childcare access in state history. Let’s keep CT known as the most family friendly state in the nation!”

Though Lamont’s original plan was limited to an endowment for universal pre-K, S.B. 1 is the result of negotiations between his office, House and Senate Democrats, and advocates over the past few months. Those groups had started off the session with a variety of proposals to accomplish the collective goal of supporting families with the high cost of infant and toddler care and pre-K in a state where spots are often limited and providers struggle to retain workers. S.B. 1 intends to address those roadblocks by improving salaries for child care workers and investing heavily in the sector.

The House also passed House Bill 5003 on Saturday, which would address another headache parents face: finding available spots. H.B. 5003 would create a portal to allow families to efficiently find the child care and pre-K spots they qualify for. That bill would also make it possible to care for up to 12 children, compared to the current limitation of nine children with a primary child care worker and assistant, in a child care home — provided certain requirements are met depending on the size of the facility and it has adequate staffing — and it would create a pilot program for hospitals to notify new parents of the child care centers and other services available to them.

Deputy Majority Leader Rep. Kate Farrar, D-West Hartford, said she hears from constituents daily about the high cost of living in Connecticut, and that child care is a key piece of that struggle.

“So many of our businesses know how critical it is to have affordable and accessible child care,” she said. “Families deserve access to this care, because the greatest investment we can make is in our young children.”