Campaign’s Statement re. DOE’s payments to early childcare and education providers


Press Releases

November 3, 2022

Campaign for Children is greatly relieved that the Department of Education affirmed its commitment this morning to paying at least 75% of the contract value for early childhood education programs.   We look forward to working with DOE to ensure that all providers are able to immediately receive the funding that they are owed so that their hardworking staff can be paid in full and on time and services can continue uninterrupted.

When providers entered contracts with DOE, they did so with a guarantee that they would receive at least 75% of their contract value regardless of enrollment.  This guarantee was and remains crucial to the stability of the system, as DOE fully controls enrollment and providers are prohibited from enrolling families without approval.

Late payments from Department of Education have been a major challenge for early childhood providers and a destabilizing force for the entire sector.  Due to late payments, providers have been forced to:

  • Take out personal lines of credits to keep their organizations afloat
  • Miss payments to vendors and payments for their employees’ benefits
  • Miss payroll leaving hardworking early childhood educators, staff and directors struggling to make ends meet and forcing many out of the system.
  • Permanently close their doors leaving families without care, and employees without income.

As Chancellor Banks has stated, a stable child care system is essential to the City’s economic recovery.  We applaud the steps taken today by the City DOE and express our gratitude to the City Council and its Education Committee Chair, Councilmember Rita Joseph, who rallied her colleagues to work on this issue.  We also thank DC 37 and the many providers, staff members, parents, and allies who joined us in advocating on this issue.

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