- Home
-
Report Sections
- Active Military and Veterans
- Animal Welfare
- Appropriations and Funding
- Children, Families & Persons with Disabilities
- Climate Change and Environmental Protection
- Consumer Protection
- Cradle to Career Public Education
- Economic Development, Job Creation and Workers Rights
- Equity, Access to Justice and Civil Rights
- Housing
- Mental Health, Public Health and Health Care
- Public Safety
- Tax Relief
- Transportation
Early Ed Act
Status
Signed into Law
An Act ensuring affordability, readiness and learning for our youth and driving economic development
Part of the Senate’s Student Opportunity Plan to increase access to public education from cradle to career, the Early Ed Act take transformative steps to improve the affordability and sustainability of childcare programs in Massachusetts. Key provisions of this bill were passed and signed into law as part of the FY25 Budget.
Highlights
- Makes the state’s C3 grants permanent, which provide monthly payments directly to early education and care providers.
- Creates an innovative public-private matching grant pilot program to incentivize employers to invest in new childcare spots, with priority given to projects serving families with lower incomes and those located in childcare deserts.
- Directs the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) to establish a career ladder with recommended salaries to help increase salaries in the field. It also makes scholarship and loan forgiveness programs for early educators permanent.
- Over time, authorizes the expansion of eligibility for childcare subsidies to families making up to $124,000 for a family of four. It also eliminates cost-sharing fees for families receiving subsidies who are below the federal poverty line, and caps cost-sharing fees for all other families receiving subsidies at seven percent of their income.
