[T]here is good and bad news for the state’s youngest citizens. Most Vermont children have health insurance, there are more children enrolling in pre-Kindergarten classes and there are more high quality child care programs available.
The bad news? Families with infants and toddlers still struggle to find and afford quality child care and the opiate crisis is straining the child welfare system, according to Building Bright Futures, a group that monitors early childhood issues.
The group released a report on child well-being at a Statehouse press conference Wednesday, How are Vermont’s Young Children and Families? 2017.
Charlotte Ancel, general counsel for Green Mountain Power, said Vermont families and children are strong but “we could be doing more for them.”
The annual report provides a snapshot of how Vermont families are fairing in five areas: Family and Relationships; Safety; Health; Early Care and Learning and Family Economic Well Being. This year, a special section highlights the impact of opiate addiction on families and young children.
Vermont has been losing working age residents and students, but Gov. Phil Scott, said it isn’t too late to reverse this trend. “I believe we can turn this around but we must accept the facts, face our challenges head on and focus on expanding our labor force,” Scott said at a press conference Wednesday.
Part of the administration’s strategy to lure more workers and families to the state is to expand access to affordable child care and early learning. “The economic challenges on new parents are more significant today than 50 years ago, ensuring the availability of affordable child care will make Vermont a draw for young professionals looking to start a family,” the governor said.
In 2014, a new law, Act 166, gave parents access to vouchers for public or private pre-Kindergarten programs for young children between the ages of 3 and 5.
Sarah Squirrell, head of Building Bright Futures, said the law is a “lighthouse that needs to be protected,” but the system needs to continue to up the number of quality programs available to parents. “Vermont took a huge step in the right direction passing Act 166 … we are on the right track,” she said.
Over 8,800 children took advantage of publicly funded pre-K in the 2016-2017 school year, according to Squirrell. In the previous school year, before all of the state’s programs were up and running, 7,326 students enrolled in pre-K. Before Act 166, about 5,600 students were in pre-K programs.
While enrollment is up, lawmakers are concerned that the number of low income families putting children into pre-K programs has remained static, even with the voucher program.
The Agency of Education has found that while kindergarten readiness is high (91 percent) for middle and upper income children, 75 percent of low-income children are ready to start learning when they enter school, according to the report.
On the positive side, more child care providers are participating in the STARS rating system that identifies quality programs — 76 percent in 2017 versus 28 percent in 2010. And the number of programs garnering the highest star ratings — three, four and five stars — has increased from 23 percent to 57 percent over the same period. In order to qualify to teach voucher students, programs must have at least three stars.
This year, the Community College of Vermont is offering professional development classes for early educators in an effort to increase quality programing.
But with more than 70 percent of parents in the workforce, access to child care for infants and toddlers needs to improve, according to the report. Nearly half of infants and toddlers, 47 percent, likely to need care don’t have access to high quality, regulated programs. Another 80 percent can’t access high-quality child care, and in some parts of the state that shoots up to 98 percent.
Affordability is another challenging issue for families who are spending 30 percent of their household income on housing and 40 percent on child care. That “does not leave a lot of resources to support your children’s needs,” Squirrell said.
The report spotlighted the impact of opiate and substance abuse on Vermont families. They found a rise in child abuse and the number of children becoming wards of the state, as well as a high rate of babies born exposed to opioids.
Between 2010 and 2015, about 50 percent of the children were put in protective custody because of opiates, according to Squirrell. “This opiate crisis is placing increased strain on Vermont,” she said.
The special task force recommended integration and collaboration across adult and child care systems. It would require different government agencies to work together to combine and streamline services for adults and children.
Other findings:
- Just about all of Vermont’s children — 99 percent — have health insurance and most parents can afford out-of-pocket costs to make sure their children’s health needs are covered.
- Since 2009, fewer families with children under 5 are living in poverty, but wages have not kept up with the cost of living. The Joint Fiscal Office estimates families living in rural Vermont need an annual income of around $85,000 and in urban areas they need about $91,000 to afford basic needs.
- The number of single mothers in poverty with children under age 5 is three times higher than in 2009.
- The Child Care Financial Assistance plan that helps low income families pay for child care can’t keep pace with market rates the true costs, leaving parents and providers in the lurch and making child care unaffordable.
- In every region of the state, the number of children under the age of 9 is going down; the number of child care programs participating in the STARS rating system is going up and so are the number of kids getting vaccinated.
- In every region, more children under age 9 are becoming wards of the state.
