HB 1208

Public education; early childhood care and education; child care access calculation; report. Requires the Department of Education to establish and maintain a calculation for the provision of early childhood care and education services based on cost of quality rate per child, actual data from the prior year, an estimate of parental demand and choice preferences based on historic growth trends and current eligibility criteria, and an estimate of the number of slots to be added to support local or regional economic development efforts and public-private partnerships focused on increasing the supply of child care services, giving priority to localities or regions identified as child care deserts, as determined by the Department. The bill also contains several provisions relating to the use and appropriation of funds as applicable to the calculation, including (i) providing that the calculation shall not obligate the General Assembly to a specific appropriation, (ii) requiring the calculation to be used to provide information to guide the General Assembly in making decisions about the proportion of parental demand for and supply of early childhood care and education services to be addressed and level of appropriation required to address such demand, and (iii) providing that the annual overall funding available for slots shall be subject to appropriation as determined by the General Assembly. Finally, the bill requires the Department to annually submit to the Commission on Early Childhood Care and Education and post on its website a report on the data used to calculate the minimum funding and number of slots for the calculation in accordance with the provisions of the bill.