1. Governor Wolf’s Budget Proposal FY 17-18
Implications for Early Childhood Care and Education Community

2. Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children
Jodi Askins
Executive Director
The Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children (PennAEYC) was formed in October 1983 as the Pennsylvania state affiliate of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and was incorporated as a not-for profit Corporation in PennAEYC represents all NAEYC members living in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania currently has 15 local affiliate options for members to choose including an affiliate in York County and an affiliate in Lehigh County. PennAEYC represents a membership of nearly 5,100 early childhood educators and supporters throughout the state. Our membership includes center-based practitioners and directors; home-based practitioners; educators in the Kindergarten through third grades; and educators and students in higher education institutions. Our members and local AEYC affiliate chapters are located in large urban areas, smaller cities and towns and rural areas with nearly 500 members in the York and Lehigh Valley areas. 

3. Pre-k for pa Our Vision:
Every Pennsylvania 3- and 4-year-old
has access to high quality, voluntary Pre-K
Describe high quality – current state funded high quality Pre-K Counts – Head Start and Keystone STARS

4. Pre-K: The Need There are approximately 300,000
3 and 4 year olds in PA
Almost 200,000 live in families with incomes below 300% of poverty
Of the 300,000, less than 20% have access to publicly funded, high- quality pre-k
Over the past ten years, Pennsylvania has made great strides in providing quality early learning opportunities for our youngest children. We were once one of only 9 states not offering publicly funded pre-kindergarten programming and now offer model programming recognized across the country. We know that quality early learning experiences are important for academic, social, emotional, economic and work force reasons.

5. Governor Wolf’s Proposal for Pre-K
$75 million in additional funding for high-quality pre-k, which includes the $65 million for Pre-K Counts and $10 million for Head Start State Supplemental.
In the past two fiscal years Pennsylvania’s investment has risen by $60 million
$ million in Pre-K Counts (proposal increases to $212,824 million)
$ million in the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program (proposal increases to $59,178 million).
The $75 million increase will provide access to high- quality pre-k to 8,400 more of Pennsylvania’s children

6. Pre-K Delivery system
Currently, over 2000 public and private providers delivering high-quality pre-k.
They include high-quality child care programs (STAR 3 and 4), Head Start programs, licensed private academic nursery schools and school districts.
More than 430 additional providers not participating in Pre-K Counts that are eligible to do so. In addition, every Pennsylvania school district could be an applicant.  

7. Governor Wolf’s Proposal for early intervention
Infant/Toddler Early Intervention:
$1.3 million increase
Preschool Early Intervention:
$11 million increase
The increases will serve approximately 1,100 additional children.

8. Child Care: The Need
Over 11,000 children on the wait list for child care subsidy.
The longest current wait is from April 2016
Current reimbursement rate to providers is 17th-21st percentile of market rate
Suggested reimbursement rate is 75th percentile, in order to support high- quality child care
Provider rates frozen at rates

9. Child Care: The Need (cont’d)
Approximately 28% of children receiving child care subsidy are in a STARS 3 or 4 program (129,000 children served monthly)
Almost 50% of regulated child care facilities participate in STARS program, but under 20% are at STARS level 3 or 4 (STARS is under re-visioning with new indicators to be released late spring)

10. Governor Wolf’s Proposal for Child Care
Child Care Services –$170,691 million
Child Care Assistance - $ million
$10 million additional to remove 1,800 children from waitlist
$14 million to continue tiered reimbursement to STARS 2, 3 and 4 facilities

11. Governor Wolf’s Proposal for home visitng
Evidence based programs include:
Early Head Start (comprehensive early education and family support services)
Healthy Families America (expectant and new parents)
Nurse-Family Partnership (low-income, first-time parents -healthy pregnancies, promotes early literacy and encourages school readiness by helping mothers learn how to foster healthy child development)
Parents as Teachers (home visits with trained experts who educate parents)
$9 million increase to serve 1,700 more families

12. FOR MORE INFORMATION www.prekforpa.org