Office of Early Childhood presses to unlock bonding for childcare facilities as demand far outstrips ARPA awards

The Office of Early Childhood asked the Bonding Subcommittee to preserve and prioritize bonding for childcare facility improvements after a strong response to recent ARPA and facility funding opportunities.

Commissioner Beth Bai said there are currently an authorized $5 million and an unallocated $10 million in bond funds tied to childcare facilities, and an unallocated $45 million in Smart Start bond funds. The administration proposes maintaining a combined $60 million to meet capital needs for infant/toddler programs, renovations and conversions. An ARPA-funded round of childcare facility grants received 730 applications requesting roughly $74 million; the initial round could fund about 125 projects totaling just over $13 million under the smaller ARPA tranche.

Commissioner Bai said OEC scores applicants using a combined metric that accounts for child-care "deserts" and social-vulnerability indices so high-need communities are prioritized. Most successful applications in the ARPA round are renovations or conversions to increase infant/toddler capacity rather than construction of wholly new centers; building new centers, she said, can cost $5–$10 million per facility.

Lawmakers asked whether Smart Start facility fundspreviously restricted to public-school preschool expansioncould be used more broadly for community childcare providers and for projects co-located with affordable housing. Commissioner Bai said statutory changes broadened eligible recipients for the facility funds and that some ARPA allocations and OEC-administered supports for lab schools and higher-education partnerships are already in motion.

Next steps: OEC is administering ARPA awards now; the department will work with chairs and OPM to move bonded Smart Start and related facility authorizations onto future bond agendas when the administration and legislature direct release.