Amendment ID: S2789-117-R1

Redraft Amendment 117

Child Care Crisis Management

Ms. Rausch, Messrs. Lewis and Moore, Ms. Moran, Ms. Jehlen, Messrs. O'Connor, Welch, Cyr, Barrett, Crighton and DiDomenico move that the proposed new text be amended by inserting after section 4 the following section:-

“SECTION 4A. Chapter 29 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 2HHHHH the following section:-

Section 2IIIII. (a) There shall be an Early Education and Care Public-Private Trust Fund.  The commissioner of early education and care shall administer the fund.

(b) There shall be credited to the fund: (i) revenue from appropriations or other money authorized by the general court and specifically designated to be credited to the fund; (ii) funds from public and private sources, including, but not limited to, gifts, grants and donations, to support state, philanthropic and private partnership efforts supporting child care providers in the commonwealth; and (iii) any interest earned on such monies. Amounts credited to the fund that are unexpended at the end of a fiscal year shall not be subject to further appropriation and shall not revert to the General Fund.

(c) Amounts credited to the fund may be expended, without further appropriation, by the commissioner to address the following needs related to the reopening and provision of early education and child care services during and for a period of 90 days after the termination of the state of emergency concerning the novel coronavirus outbreak declared by the governor on March 10, 2020 to:

(i) create and conduct a survey of parents and responsible adults to evaluate the current and future demand for early education and child care services and the conditions or circumstances under which parents and caregivers would anticipate utilizing such services; provided, however, that the survey may be distributed through licensed early education and care providers;

(ii) purchase in bulk and distribute personal protective equipment to licensed early education and care providers throughout the commonwealth; provided, however, that the provision of personal protective equipment shall not be limited to providers serving 1 or more children receiving subsidized child care through the department or essential workers;

(iii) engage professional financial, legal, administrative, communications, technical and executive management consultants to develop generally accepted best practices curricula and guidance for licensed early education and care providers to reopen and maintain ongoing operations safely and efficiently and to provide individualized financial, legal, administrative, communications, technical and executive management consulting services to licensed early education and care providers;

(iv) establish and maintain an interactive public web portal to distribute the best practices curricula and guidance and facilitate the individualized consulting services described in clause (iii);

(v) assist the needs of providers in the early education and care mixed delivery system during the reopening and recovery period due to the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic; and

(vi) develop and maintain infrastructure to facilitate state, private and philanthropic collaborative efforts to support and sustain, during the state of emergency concerning the novel coronavirus outbreak declared by the governor on March 10, 2020: (A) child care business operations, including providing technical, business and legal assistance for childcare businesses licensed by the department of early education and care; and (B) ongoing technical assistance and long-term business sustainability and business training for the early education and care field.

(d) Amounts received from private sources shall be approved by the commissioner of early education and care and subject to review before being deposited in the fund to ensure that pledged funds are not accompanied by conditions, explicit or implicit, on the implementation of early education and care policy and planning. The review shall be made publicly available.

(e) Annually, not later than October 1, the commissioner of early education and care shall file a report with the state auditor, the clerks of the senate and house of representatives, the senate and house committees on ways and means, the joint committee on education and the joint committee on state administration and regulatory oversight regarding the fund’s activity, including, but not limited to: (i) sources and amounts of funds received; (ii) amounts distributed and the purpose of expenditures from the fund, including, but not limited to, funds expended to assist early education and care providers; (iii) any grants provided to early education and care programs, philanthropic organizations or other stakeholder organizations; and (iv) anticipated revenue and expenditure projections for the next year.