SECTION 1:
Why a Facilities Analysis?
Why a Facilities Analysis?
Providing quality spaces for early education and care is critical for children’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development. Well-maintained, safe, and engaging spaces enhance learning, while inadequate facilities can impede development and pose health risks. Connecticut has been committed to investing in early care, but the early care system is fragile; care is not affordable for many families, yet the revenue generated, including from parent tuition, state subsidies, and other sources of income, barely covers the cost of providing care. Additionally early care for infants and toddlers is very limited in many areas of the state. Connecticut is making incremental progress. Funding has been increased through the Care 4 Kids program, allowing more families to receive and retain the subsidy as their income grows; infant/toddler care has been expanded through subsidized slots; and payment rates have increased for state funded programs. However, these steps have not solved the critical needs of the early childhood system and the physical infrastructure remains a key challenge.
Facility Challenges and Funding Gaps
In 2022, Connecticut allocated $15 million in ARPA funds to increase capacity through the expansion of early learning facilities. The distribution of this funding highlighted barriers and provided a window into an industry under strain. Many facilities require urgent upgrades, and the lack of capital for maintenance, improvements, and expansion hinders the sector’s ability to meet growing demand.
Key challenges include:
- Deferred Maintenance: Without reserves for repairs, programs delay necessary upgrades, leading to facility deterioration.
- Capital Barriers: With many programs barely breaking even, the struggle to secure resources for improvements, renovations, or expansions only increases financial strain and limits growth.
- Health & Safety Concerns: Many existing facilities are in disrepair, needing upgrades and improvements to both indoor and outdoor learning environments – including remediating asbestos, installation of HVAC systems, and structural deficiencies that threaten long-term viability.
Without sustained investment, these challenges contribute to capacity shortages, higher costs, and program closures, further straining the child care system.
New Opportunities, Waterbury, CT
Child Care in Connecticut: The Early Childhood Landscape
In 2014, the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood (OEC) was established by executive order, and the following year passed through the Connecticut General Assembly. Since then, the Office of Early Childhood has unified the state’s early childhood network through departmental mergers, the consolidation of funding streams, and by making incremental steps toward a cohesive and viable system of care.
Providers operate in a mixed delivery system of early care programs; programs include both large and small, for-profit centers, multi-location early care companies, non-profit centers, public schools, and family home and group home providers. Some offer full-day, full-year services, while others operate part-day or on a school-year calendar.
Providers have sought to meet the varied schedules of parents by providing “wrap-around” hours, seasonal care, and school vacation hours. As many parents have work schedules outside of traditional work day hours, some providers have begun offering care during “non-traditional hours”, which includes evenings, overnights, and weekends.
The mixed delivery model is as varied as the families seeking care. The languages spoken by staff, programming offered, and access to special needs supports, provide some flexibility to parents to choose the type of care that best suits their family’s work schedule, and the needs and personalities of their children. Facilities also play a large role in a parent’s decision to choose a suitable program for their child. The type and size of the facility, whether is in good repair, is safe and secure, has updated furniture and equipment, and is clean, all have impact on a parent’s choice of program.
A Struggling Sector
A variety of funding sources provide the revenue needed to operate early childhood care and learning businesses, including parent fees, various federal, state, and local allocations, parent subsidies, fundraising, and philanthropic support. Despite the variety of funding streams, the early care industry is struggling; revenue generated is not enough to support the true cost of operating an early care facility, and parents can’t afford the high cost of care. The financial instability of child care programs is exacerbated by:
- High Operating Costs: Staffing is the largest expense, yet providers struggle to pay the competitive wages and compensation needed to hire and retain quality staffing. A 2021 Connecticut Association for Human Services (CAHS) survey estimated 24,000 child care spaces were out of commission due to a lack of staff.1
- Limited Profit Margins: Unlike other industries, child care providers cannot easily pass costs onto families, as tuition is already unaffordable for many.
- Facility Expenses: Repairs, upgrades, and expansions require significant capital, yet most providers lack access to dedicated facility funding.
The early childhood business model is fundamentally unsustainable. Providers struggle to balance quality standards with financial viability and many barely manage to keep their doors open. Unlike other industries, child care is uniquely less able to pass higher costs along to customers. Child care tuition is typically already their customers’ first or second highest household expense. The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed the sector’s vulnerabilities.
While ARPA funding provided temporary relief, long-term sustainability requires ongoing investment in child care facilities and operations.
The U.S. Child Care Market is Broken 2
“We can’t afford care outside the home, so we juggle the kids between us. It has serious mental and physical health consequences, and we are still barely covering our expenses”
-Parent in Groton
Kiddie Cove, West Haven, CT
Family Perspective
While Connecticut’s early child care and education system works for some families, it needs to work for all families. Solutions that center increasing access to quality, affordable care will create a system that works for all.
AFFORDABILITY
Connecticut ranks 4th highest in the nation for child care costs, with center-based infant care averaging $17,888 per year, and family-based infant care at $14,040 per year.3 This cost burden exceeds the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ recommended threshold of 7% of a family’s income, with 63% of Connecticut families paying well over this amount.4,5 However, the cost of care does not reflect what the true cost of operations would be if teachers and staff were paid at a rate commensurate with their education and experience, including increased access to health care benefits.
The cost of child care is often the largest expense in a family budget, even eclipsing the cost of a mortgage:
- Married couples earning the median income of $153,249 allocate 11.7% of their income before tax for one child needing infant or toddler care.6
- Single parents earning the median income of $40,481 spend 43.9% of their income on child care.7
Even with subsidy programs such as Care 4 Kids, many families remain unable to afford quality care, further straining parents’ ability to work and participate in the economy.
At current funding levels, these existing subsidized child care and early learning programs only reach a fraction of eligible families. Providers often need several sources to make the numbers work. Connecticut’s state-funded Early Start program will help to streamline funds through contracted slots available for infant, toddler, and Pre-K care. This process will streamline payments for providers, reduce paperwork, and create greater access for parents by giving slots to communities indicating high demand.
- Head Start supports 26% of eligible children
- Early Head Start supports 10% of eligible children
- Child Care and Development Block Grant (Care 4 Kids) supports 10% of eligible children through parent stipends, with a waiting list of over 1,280 families.
- State Funded programs support 16% of pre-K students, but recently have been expanded to include some infant and toddler care.
ACCESSIBLITIY
Post pandemic, Connecticut’s early care landscape faces severe capacity gaps in communities across the state. Shortages are influenced by the difficulty in securing and retaining staffing and the availability of early care slots, particularly for families with infants and toddlers.
The Blue Ribbon Panel was convened in 2023 by Governor Lamont and OEC to assess the challenges and constraints of the early childhood system and develop a roadmap forward. Results from nine months of research and feedback were incorporated into a report outlining a five-year strategic plan for a child care system that works for families, providers, and Connecticut’s economy.
In 2023, Connecticut had 3,180 licensed child care providers: 1,363 centers and 1,817 family child care homes. These programs have the capacity to enroll 35,670 infants and toddlers, while the total number of children In Connecticut under three years old is 103,424.8 The First Five Years Fund estimates that there is a 30% gap in the supply of child care vs. the potential need, with shortages even more dire for infant and toddler populations (ages 0-3).9
To close the capacity gap, information from the Blue Ribbon Panel indicates that Connecticut needs to increase the supply of infant/toddler slots by at least 17,000.10
SUPPLY ANALYSIS
Even if child care were more affordable, families would still struggle to find available slots. The shortage of licensed child care providers and facilities further compounds the crisis, leaving families without viable options.
Using data from the Department of Health and United Way of Connecticut, the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance has conducted analysis to assess the gap of care available by examining the total number of children under the age of 3 and the total number of licensed care slots in a community. Traditional planning estimates assume that 60% of children under the age of 3 will require formal child care outside the home. Given this multiplier, there are only a handful of communities that currently have enough licensed slots to meet local demand, with many rural communities and urban areas only providing care for up to 20% of total children.
Additional Infant/Toddler Child Care Slots needed to Meet Need of 60% of Connecticut Families
“I cannot go back to work because child care would take up my entire paycheck if not more. My husband makes too much for us to qualify for Care 4 Kids (child care subsidy program). I budget closely so we live comfortably. But this situation, like most families, traps women as the primary caregivers at home”
-Parent in Hartford, CT
When parents who searched for care, and were asked the reasons for not having child care, 57% responded “child care is too expensive.”
-RAPID Survey 2024
PARENT IMPACT
A recent “RAPID Survey” conducted by the Stanford Center on Early Childhood in coordination with The Connecticut Project and the CT Data Collaborative bears out the impact of affordability and accessibility on Connecticut’s parents.
RAPID-CT Community Voices Survey #1: Child Care Access & Affordability
Of respondents:
- The average household income of respondents was $75,000; most respondents were below state median income
- 75% of parents “have ever” looked for nonparental care for a child under 6 years old 59% of non-school aged children were currently
- receiving non-parental care
Of families searching for care:
- 50% had difficulty finding a space in a home or center-based program
- 29% of recent searches took 3 months or longer
- 69% had difficulty finding a provider who could meet the needs of their child with a disability
WORKFORCE IMPACT
A strong workforce is essential to a strong economy. Seventy-one percent of Connecticut children under age five have all available parents in the workforce, yet many parents reduce their hours or leave jobs due to the high cost and limited availability of care.11
According to the Center for American Progress 2024 report:
- 29% of working moms in Connecticut would seek additional school or training if they had child care help.
- 42% of working moms in Connecticut would look for a higher-paying job if they had child care help.
- 46% of children ages 0-5 whose parents work have no available licensed child care in Connecticut.
- 61% of all parents in Connecticut say it is a challenge to find child care.
- Finally, only 16% of working parents in Connecticut have any form of backup child care support.
Considering most child care businesses operate at minimal profit margins, providers are limited in being able to offer competitive compensation packages. Child care providers face persistent staffing shortages, due in part to low wages and limited benefits. Early childhood educators are among the lowest-paid professionals in the state, almost always earning less than K-12 teachers, despite comparable qualifications. In Connecticut, the median hourly wage forchild care workers is $15.34, less than the hourly median rate for animal caretakers and only minimally more than fast food service workers.
When early childhood programs are unable to hire and retain the necessary staffing, fewer children are served. The Connecticut economy loses an estimated $1.5 billion per year in lost earnings, productivity, and revenue as a direct result of infant and toddler care shortages.13
This workforce impact underscores the urgent need for targeted facility investments to expand child care access and support economic growth.
