LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KATV) — The early childhood funding crisis in Arkansas is approaching a crossroads.
Many Arkansas daycares are bracing for the new reimbursement rates that are set to go into effect on November 1st. In response to this, a special task force made up of mostly childcare providers met in Little Rock Tuesday morning to work on a funding plan to present to the Department of Education. These providers are feeling the pressure of that Saturday deadline.
“November 1 we are facing 40% of potential closures of centers,” says Shahid Sheikh, the President and CEO of Little Martians Learning Center, which is based out of Northwest Arkansas. He is among the members of that task force that hashed out what they believe is a viable plan to support childcare centers.
The plan includes a potential solution for the high co-pays families are now having to pay.
“We cap them out at 7% of household income if they have multiple children. Then we don’t have a mom with four kids trying to pay $200 a week. Instead, she’s going to cap out at somewhere between $50-60 a week,” says Dawn Colyer, the owner and director of Lil’ Sprouts Academy in Sheridan.
The task force also proposed a plan to cut reimbursement rates based on the size and quality of these childcare centers.
“We proposed to take and implement reimbursement rate cuts across the board by lumping levels three and four together and giving them a separate rate that’s higher than level 2, but not as high as levels 5 and 6. That brings us down to $3.6 million a week for spending, and we have about $28 million sitting available to us right now, which buys us about 8 weeks to get us to the end of the year,” says Colyer.
The next step for the task force: presenting the plan to the Early Childhood Commission and the Department of Education for its approval.
There is overwhelming confidence that the commission will be on board.
“There’s no reason for them not to,” says Sheikh. “It’s a solution that works within the bucket of money that we have, and it’s a solution that doesn’t require education action.”
Despite the plan’s promises, childcare providers will be forced to bend but not break.
“With the proposal that we have submitted, we still are taking cuts, we still are losing money, just our proposal limits the worst of losses,” states Sheikh.
However, Sheikh says this is all vital to stabilizing the crisis of childcare in Arkansas.
“We know 1,000 families have already lost access in those communities to childcare.”
Both Sheikh and Colyer are adamant that this plan will go into effect before the Saturday deadline since it does not require legislative approval or any involvement from the Governor’s office.
Childcare providers on this task force are hoping to learn what the commission decides on Thursday, just two days before the deadline.
