Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.
For Jessie Cerretani, a 20-year child care veteran at just 37, hiring trained help has gotten more difficult in recent years.
“It’s hard to find people who are qualified and educated in the right ways,” she said in an interview.
Cerretani is an administrator and educator at Here Wee Grow, a child care agency in Manchester. Lately, when the program has posted open positions, they receive “maybe one” appropriately qualified applicant, Cerretani said.
“I feel like I put most of my life into my work,” she said. “I love what I do.” But Cerretani said she notices some staff pass through her industry without the same commitment.
“They’re just here for a job,” she said, “and early education — it’s a lot more than that.”
Cerretani’s problem is far from rare. Three years after Act 76 transformed the state’s approach to funding child care, providers across Vermont have told VTDigger that recruitment is a barrier to expansion, including in counties where parent demand far exceeds availability. Lawmakers and advocates across the state agree that the child care field has a staffing problem, both in terms of people and expertise — but a proposed step forward has sparked concerns from some providers.
In Montpelier, legislators are considering a bill many say will begin to strengthen the industry’s workforce across the board. If the proposal becomes law, Vermont would adopt a mandatory, individual licensure system for child care staff, increasing required training standards for many and creating a formal system of recognition for education in the field.
The bill, S.206, passed in the Senate on Thursday, and will move to the House.
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast, who sponsored the bill, said in an interview that the measure was intended to clarify and establish “the professionalism that’s needed to really provide excellent child care.”
It’s an important measure to ensure quality of service for kids, she said. She also hopes the bill will help create a clear path to good jobs in a Vermont industry that often offers low pay and few benefits.
But the bill has faced some criticism. Sen. Scott Beck, R-Caledonia, told colleagues Wednesday he thought the bill was likely to “exacerbate” the state’s existing workforce shortages, as well as affordability issues in the child care sector. Beck voted against the bill when the Senate considered it this week — one of only six senators to do so.
For Sharron Harrington, who leads the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children and has been involved in the development of Lyons’ bill, the movement toward professionalization represents a much needed culture shift in the child care industry.
“This is a workforce that has been undercompensated and undervalued for so long,” she said.
The state’s lack of qualified candidates for child care roles is deeply tied to that problem, she argued. And while this bill does not directly address compensation, it does outline “a starting point” for drawing more committed, prepared staff to the field, according to Harrington.
“I think that it’s really difficult to market a profession when we don’t have a professional identity,” Harrington said.
The median wage for child care staff in Vermont was roughly $18 per hour in 2024, according to a recent Vermont Department of Labor report. Though the U.S. median was just $15.41 that year, Harrington emphasized that the state was beginning to address a broader national problem.
Since the passage of Act 76, some providers have told VTDigger that revenue from the state’s increased tuition subsidies has allowed them to raise their salary floor and begin providing new benefits.
But for many centers, money is still tight. Logan Davis, executive director at Here Wee Grow, said she would be grateful for the ability to offer higher compensation, both for current employees’ sake and to improve recruitment.
“Pay comes into consideration” for prospective applicants, Davis said.
She and Cerretani agreed that recruitment might be more difficult following an increase in minimum licensure qualifications. But overall, they said, efforts leading toward a better-trained workforce would have their support.
“It’s not even just like a want,” Cerretani said of that goal. “I think it’s a high need.”
‘An underfunded system’
The new license system would include a Level 1 or “assistant” certification, which requires a 120-hour credential program, and Level 2 and 3 or “lead” license, which requires an associate or bachelor’s degree respectively, with significant coursework in early childhood studies.
Staff who are licensed separately by the Vermont Agency of Education, or who work in public school or afterschool programs, are exempt. But for many of the state’s child care staff, who are generally not individually licensed, the bill would mandate substantially higher or narrowed qualifications after a transitional period.
Davis and Cerretani said that at the moment, it’s unusual for applicants to have much educational background at all. Tighter restrictions on licensing could narrow the field even further, they said.
And Here Wee Grow is not the only center that expressed concern that the potential new requirements could have unintended implications.
Danielle Harris, who leads youth development at the Greater Burlington YMCA, cautioned lawmakers in a January hearing that “new barriers to entry could intensify existing workforce challenges.”
At the Y, recent monthslong searches have sometimes resulted in unfilled positions, she said.
Harris also recommended that the state put greater stock in real-world experience when it came to issuing licenses, citing concerns for current employees who might struggle to meet the state’s new benchmarks.
Janet McLaughlin, who leads the Child Development Division of the Vermont Department for Children and Families, said she understood how stricter licensing standards could be “hard to imagine” for providers.
But for McLaughlin, the bill has clear upsides. If increasing requirements mean staff are better trained and more likely to stay on, she said she’s hopeful that the state can work to smooth potential issues during the transition.
In its current form, the bill outlines a period up to eight years during which “lead” educators can be awarded provisional licenses as they work to fulfill any unmet training requirements. Home-based providers can start their business with a Level 1 certification but must attain Level 2 within six years of doing so. No such option is available for those seeking the lowest level of license, meaning that the minimum qualifications for working in child care would change as soon as the relevant provision went into effect in 2028.
Kaitlin Northey, a professor of early childhood education at the University of Vermont, said the state has been building a network of child care education options as new needs arise. Courses at Vermont colleges and high schools have expanded and improved in recent years, she said, and the state has a number of loan repayment and scholarship programs available for child care education.
Northey described Lyons’ measure as “overdue” and argued that accepting underqualified staff doesn’t solve the child care workforce’s shortage of expertise.
For Lindsey Trombley, executive director of the Orange County Parent Child Center, finding prepared child care teachers to join her team is the biggest obstacle to her operation.
“Where we’re seeing the most challenge is hiring qualified staff that meet the licensing requirements,” she said. The center has never actually been fully staffed, she said.
Despite being surrounded by families who need child care, Trombley said she and her counterparts in other local care centers “can’t welcome all the children we want to because of staffing issues.”
While she supports increased professionalization for child care, Trombley expressed concern about the expectations of future wage increases that have accompanied the bill.
“If there’s no extra money coming in,” she said, “how are we going to support that model?”
Harrington said researchers across the country are still working on that question. As financial models begin to crystallize for the kind of child care system advocates are pushing for, she said it’s hard to imagine states footing the bill by themselves.
“Ultimately, it seems like this needs to be, you know, federal investment,” she said. “It all circles back to an underfunded system.”
