More must be done to ensure Virginia families can access child care services that meet their needs and preferences.
Virginia’s economy, workforce competitiveness, and rank as top in the nation for business depend on hardworking families being able to access quality, affordable child care. Virginia has come a long way, but there is more to be done to fulfill the promise of school-ready children, work-ready families and business-ready communities in Virginia.
Increased payment rates for publicly funded child care to reflect the full cost of business operations, the VQB5 standards that put Virginia on track to lead the nation in quality child care, and the competitive educator wages that retain quality talent and keep classrooms open. And, through non-fiscal policy change, establish a predictable funding formula that appropriately anticipates fluctuations in parent demand.
With higher rates for competitive wages that retain quality educators:
Expanded access to child care by focusing first on ensuring that all currently eligible families have access to child care by protecting existing funding and eliminating the waitlist for the most vulnerable children and, over time, moving toward expanding eligibility for state-subsidized child care to enable additional families to get ahead in life.
With access to affordable child care that meets family needs:
Dedicated regional innovation fund to incentivize public-private partners to contribute to building regional child care supply through state-match dollars. And, through non-fiscal policy change, make it easier for regions to create new child care revenue streams, embed child care into regional planning, and make child care friendly changes to ordinances, zoning, land use regulations, and business codes.
With public-private partners at the table: