Connecticut

The Connecticut Association for Human Services works to reduce poverty, promote equity, and build family economic success through outreach, education, and policy. Along with partners Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance, they inform service providers and others to advocate for policy and practice changes that move low to moderate-income families toward prosperity including: reducing child poverty, increasing access to quality early care and education, and supporting two-generation strategies.

State Allies:

Top Priorities for 2021

Eliminate Connecticut benefit cliffs concentrating on increasing Medicaid A eligibility up to 200 percent of the FPL and eliminating the asset test for TANF.

Expand child care subsidy eligibility to include parents in job training or educational programs and create an initial job search period for homeless parents.

Establish a Connecticut Department of Labor-approved Early Childhood Apprenticeship program to create a pipeline of trained child care providers.

Move Connecticut away from child care subsidy rates based on a market survey to a system designed to pay for the cost of quality care.

Develop a plan for universal early care and education in Connecticut.

Connecticut’s 2020 Early Childhood Policy Landscape and Progress:

$19.45B STATE BUDGET
Estimated FY20 State General Fund Expenditures

ALIGNED GOVERNMENT
House (D), Senate (D)
Governor (D)

32% LOW-INCOME
107,151 Young Children (0-8) are Below 200% FPL

Pre-COVID-19, Connecticut had just begun to recover from the great recession. Harsh spending restrictions had built up a rainy day fund of $2.7 billion. 2020 was the second year of the biennial budget and a short non-budget session. Most of the action in 2020 was in the Governor’s Workforce Council, which developed proposals and made policy.

As hospitals filled with COVID-19 patients, the legislature allowed the governor to rule by emergency order for six months and adjourned in mid-March. All remaining bills died. In July, the General Assembly returned for a one-day special session to pass only election and police reform.

In the absence of a legislative session, policy development has continued through the Governor’s Workforce Development Council. Allies participated in the Barriers to Work Committee, which made recommendations in the Council’s report to the governor on expanding access to child care and smoothing benefit cliffs.

Persuaded Connecticut Office of Early Childhood to continue funding subsidized Pre-k and Child Day Care programs based on enrollment rather than attendance through the state shutdown (March-June) Estimated cost to the state $90M. This was in addition to continuing to pay providers through the subsidy program.
Connected homeless service providers with Head Start and won a change in procedures at the central point of entry for homeless services to screen for Head Start age children in household. Based on their McKinney Vento status, these children now receive an automatic referral for Head Start.
Extended the job search period from 3 to 6 months for current child care subsidy parents who lose a job.
Won funding for supplies and grants for child care programs that were reopening. Advocated for and won free COVID-19 testing for child care providers, teachers, children, and families.
Persuaded Office of Early Childhood to secure $5M from CARES Act economic development funding to pay for child care while parents are in job training.

State Budget Data: National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), “Table 4: Fiscal 2020 State General Fund, Estimated (Millions); The Fiscal Survey of the States.” Spring, 2020

Low-Income Data (including disaggregation by race): National Center for Children in Poverty, “NCCP Analysis of ACS 1-year Estimates—Public Use Microdata Sample, 2019.”

State Action Data: Provided by state advocates, October-November 2020, with analysis and synthesis by Frontera Strategy for Alliance for Early Success, “Protecting Progress and Investing in Scale: The 2020 50-State Progress Report on Early Childhood Education Policy.”

Additional State Actions: Mincic, Melissa, Early Care and Education, State Budget Actions, Fiscal Year 2020. National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), October 2020.

The Alliance for Early Success is achieving large-scale, long-lasting change for the state’s young children by providing our allies with powerful advantages that help them shape Connecticut early childhood state policy.

Strategic, Outcomes-Focused Investments

Consulting and Strategy

Technical Support from National Expertise

Rapid Response Support

Connections/Access to Allies in Similar States

Roles in National Communities of Practice