ATLANTA — Georgia will soon launch a new pilot program, offering childcare tuition assistance for early educators in the state.
The program, set to launch in a matter of days, aims to relieve the financial burden of childcare costs for early education employees who have their own young children, while also supporting the industry, which is still struggling from the pandemic.
“The turnover rate among professionals working in Georgia’s early care and education industry is an obstacle to providing high quality care to Georgia’s children,” said DECAL Commissioner Amy M. Jacobs. “Through this pilot program, DECAL will pay a portion of childcare costs for the children of employees of the childcare programs in which they work. This tuition support will be an incentive for early care and education professionals to stay in their jobs.”
Commissioner Jacobs said 30 licensed childcare programs in Georgia will be chosen to participate in the pilot program: 24 childcare learning centers and six family childcare learning homes. DECAL will pay 75% of the published childcare tuition rates to the employer for each eligible staff member. Employers must cover a minimum of 15% of the published tuition rate, and employees pay 10%; however, employers can cover that additional 10% themselves if they wish.
Georgia will invest $5 million in American Rescue Plan funding for the pilot program, state officials confirmed. While some childcare programs already offer scholarship programs to employees, this is a chance to subsidize that effort, Susan Adams, Deputy Commissioner of DECAL, explained.
“Many times people that are working in early childhood also have their own children, and it's a great fit for them to work at an early learning program and bring their own children with them,” Adams shared. “So really looking at how do we support childcare employers in attracting and retaining workers and really looking at how do we support paying their childcare tuition.”
The pilot program will include providers in a mix of rural and urban settings, Adams told 11Alive. DECAL will launch the application process for providers on the DECAL website by October 11 with an application deadline of October 20. State officials said programs will be randomly selected to participate.
DECAL will also collect data on the pilot program for a year to determine whether the tuition support impacted retention and if the program operated efficiently.
“Then hopefully, based on those results, we'll look at how to maintain this group of providers,’ Adams said, “And then also look at how it would be expanded out across the state.”
For more information on child care tuition assistance, contact Care Solutions at 800.227.3410 or support@caresolutions.com.