HomeMy WebLinkAboutres2022-005Whatcom County
COUNTY COURTHOUSE
311 Grand Avenue, Ste #105
Bellingham, WA 98225-4038
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Agenda Bill Master Report
File Number: AB2021-209
File ID: AB2021-209
Version: 1
Status: Substitute Approved
File Created: 03/23/2021
Entered by: DBrown@co.whatcom.wa.us
Department: Council Office
File Type: Resolution
Assigned to: Council Committee of the Whole
Final Action: 01/25/2022
Agenda Date: 01/25/2022
Enactment#: RES 2022-005
Primary Contact Email: DBrown@co.whatcom.wa.us
TITLE FOR AGENDA ITEM:
Resolution regarding permanent affordability of childcare in Whatcom County
SUMMARY STATEMENT OR LEGAL NOTICE LANGUAGE:
Resolution regarding permanent affordability of childcare in Whatcom County
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE FILE
Date: Acting Body:
Action:
Sent To:
03/23/2021 Council INTRODUCED Council Committee of the Whole
Aye: 7 Browne, Buchanan, Byrd, Donovan, Elenbaas, Frazey, and Kershner
Nay: 0
Absent: 0
04/06/2021 Council Committee of the Whole HELD IN COMMITTEE Council Committee of the Whole
04/06/2021 Council HELD IN COMMITTEE Council Committee of the Whole
04/20/2021 Council Committee of the Whole FORWARDED TO COUNCIL
04/20/2021 Council
05/18/2021 Council Public Works & Health
Committee
WITH RECOMMENDED
MOTION(S)
DISCUSSED AND
MOTION(S) APPROVED
FORWARDED TO COUNCIL
WITH RECOMMENDED
MOTION(S)
Whatcom County Page 1 Printed on 112612022
Agenda Bill Master Report Continued (AB2021-209)
05/18/2021 Council REFERRED TO Council Committee of the Whole
COMMITTEE
Aye: 7 Browne, Buchanan, Byrd, Donovan, Elenbaas, Frazey, and Kershner
Nay: 0
Absent: 0
09/28/2021
Council Committee of the Whole
FORWARDED TO COUNCIL
WITH RECOMMENDED
MOTION(S)
09/28/2021
Council
HELD IN COMMITTEE Council Committee of the Whole
Aye:
7 Browne, Buchanan, Byrd, Donovan, Elenbaas, Frazey, and Kershner
Nay:
0
Absent:
0
10/12/2021
Council Committee of the Whole
FORWARDED TO COUNCIL
WITHOUT A
RECOMMENDATION
10/12/2021
Council
REFERRED TO Council Committee of the Whole
COMMITTEE
10/26/2021
Council Committee of the Whole
DISCUSSED
01/25/2022
Council Committee of the Whole
FORWARDED TO COUNCIL
WITHOUT A
RECOMMENDATION
01/25/2022
Council
SUBSTITUTE APPROVED
Aye:
6 Buchanan, Byrd, Donovan, Frazey, Galloway, and Kershner
Nay:
0
Absent:
0
Abstain:
1 Elenbaas
Attachments: Revised Resolution for 1.25.2022 Agenda, Revised Resolution as Revised on 1.25.2022, CFWB
Task Force Letter for 10.26.2021,
CFWBTF Letter to Council 1.11.2022
Whatcom County Page 2 Printed on 112612022
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PROPOSED BY: BROWNE, FRAZEY
INTRODUCED: SEPTEMBER 28, 2021
RESOLUTION NO. 2022-005
REGARDING PERMANENT AFFORDABILITY OF CHILD CARE IN WHATCOM COUNTY
WHEREAS, the impact of COVID-19 on families and early childhood development has
been significant, has placed families and children under great stress and providing quality
child care is a key component to helping reduce the long-term impacts of our current crisis;
and
WHEREAS, on February 4, 2020, Whatcom County Health Board adopted the Child
and Family Action Plan, which states, "Whatcom County government has an important role to
play in realizing the community's vision, which begins with making a commitment to promote
the health and well-being of all children and families in Whatcom County, with a special focus
on the critical first years of life, and families that experience disproportionate challenges due
to social and economic factors, discrimination, and health issues"; and
WHEREAS, by adopting the Child and Family Action Plan, Whatcom County has
committed to adopting "a "children and families first" approach for county policy and funding
decisions, build county infrastructure to embed a focus on child and family well-being across
county government, and contribute to community efforts to stabilize and expand access to
child care and early learning opportunities"; and
WHEREAS, according to the 2019 Child Care Supply, Cost, and Demand in Whatcom
County, "Child care is the greatest expense many families face" frequently exceeding the cost
of housing for a young family of four or more; and
WHEREAS, according to The Mounting Costs of Child Care, in Washington State, 49%
of parents found it difficult or very difficult to find, afford, and keep child care, 27% left school
or training due to child care issues, and 9% were fired or let go due to child care issues; and
WHEREAS, according to The Mounting Costs of Child Care, in Washington State, as
for employers, an estimated loss of $2.08 billion due to turnover and missed work due to child
care issues and an estimate of $6.5 billion in direct costs due to employee child care issues;
and
WHEREAS, the Whatcom County Council approved allocation of $5,500,000 in funding
from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to Child Care specific projects;
WHEREAS, while local employers have correctly identified housing affordability as a
major constraint to attracting additional workers to the area; and
WHEREAS, child care affordability is actually a greater overall financial burden on low
income families which, if reduced, would enable thousands of existing local residents
(particularly women) to reenter the workforce, much sooner than it would take to build a
substantial number of additional workforce housing units; and
WHEREAS, spending money on local child care facilities will have significant multiplier
effect on the local economy and will create local construction jobs, raise family incomes by
allowing a second parent to work, and increase the ability to pay the wages necessary to
retain qualified childcare workers; and
WHEREAS, most of the increase in incomes will be spent locally which will increase
incomes of other local businesses; and
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WHEREAS, high quality child care promotes healthy child development, which is
proven to reduce rates of incarceration, homelessness, and poverty in later life; and
WHEREAS, providing affordable, high quality childcare will have long-term benefits
for children and families, our economy, and society as a whole; and
WHEREAS, on May 18, 2021, the Whatcom County Council tasked the Child and
Family Well -Being Task Force to provide recommendations for permanent solutions for child
care affordability to the Council by September 30, 2021; and
WHEREAS, on September 28, 2021, the Child and Family Well -Being Task Force
provided recommendations for permanent solutions to child care affordability to the Whatcom
County Council.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Whatcom County Council recognizes
the need for affordable child care within Whatcom County is greater than the current resources
available; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Whatcom County Council recognizes the time,
effort, and recommendations related to the work submitted by the Child and Family Well-being
Task Force; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Whatcom County Council remains committed to
identifying and pursuing additional funding to address permanent solutions to affordable
childcare in Whatcom County; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Whatcom County Council will use the attached
recommendations to assist in selecting additional projects when additional funding is identified;
and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the cities of Bellingham, Blaine, Everson, Ferndale,
Lynden, Nooksack, Sumas and the Nations of Lummi and Nooksack be invited to participate
in funding of the land, buildings, and capital projects for child care facilities with H.R.1319 -
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funds to allow for affordable child care in Whatcom County
in perpetuity.
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WHAT�.OM COUNTY COUNCIL
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Dana Brown; lDayls,"Clerk of the Council Todd Donovan, Council Chair
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
/s/ Karen Frakes (Approved via e-mail)/JL
Karen Frakes, Civil Deputy Prosecutor
Page 2
EXHIBIT A
Permanent Solutions for Child Care Affordability in Whatcom County
Drafted by The Child & Family Well -Being Task Force
The Child & Family Well -Being Task Force was honored by the request from County Council to
consider and respond to the Resolution' (Permanent Affordability of Child Care in Whatcom County
(2021)) proposed by Councilmembers Browne and Frazey. We also deeply appreciate and support the
Resolution's recognition that, "the impact of COVID-19 on families and early childhood development
has been significant, has placed families and children under great stress and providing quality child
care is a key component to helping reduce the long-term impacts of our current crisis."
In our reading of the Resolution, and in subsequent conversations with the authors, we discerned
several key principles which informed the intent of the proposal:
• To safeguard American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from being thinly spread across
numerous, low -impact projects.
• To create permanent, brick and mortar facilities, rather than temporarily expand assistance.
• To use one-time funds on one-time expenses.
• To have a lasting impact, and leave a legacy of affordable child care for many years to come.
The solution proposed in the Resolution is to allocate a majority of the County's ARPA funds "to land,
buildings, and capital projects for child care facilities." While the proposed approach is responsive to
the key principles listed above, initial feedback to the Council from several community stakeholders
revealed concerns over whether such a focused spending proposal would be truly responsive to needs
of Whatcom County's child care sector, which is currently in crisis. It is in this context that the Council
referred the proposed Resolution to the Child & Family Well-being Task Force for review and
recommendations.
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Our Process
In May, the request for a response to the draft Resolution was delivered to the Task Force. The Task
Force then decided to have the Resources and Funding Workgroup develop the recommendations, and
then bring them to the Task Force for discussion and approval. This Workgroup began meeting in June,
and developed a timeline and plan to develop our response. Agreements were made by the group to
use four data sources in the development of our response:
• Information gathered from national, state, and local experts in the field
• Feedback from the original respondents to the draft child care Resolution
• Feedback from the fellow Task Force members
• Feedback from community members, with a focus on child care providers and parents, and a
special emphasis on those who identify as people of color
It is our shared value that both technical expertise and lived experience are important to the
development of recommendations. We developed initial categories and subcategories based on
information gathered from the local child care coalition, publications about the use of ARPA funds for
child care, consultation with the Children's Funding Project, and a review of the initial feedback to
Council. Our group then gathered broad based community input about the specific priorities to support
child care in our community. We created an informal survey (not meant to be a scientific study) to gain
insight as to what community members believe is missing from our current child care system, what
needs they would prioritize first, and why they had those opinions. We provided a specific opportunity
for our fellow task force members to respond. In total, we collected survey responses from 230
people, 11 % of whom identified as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). Of those who
responded, 113 people identified primarily as a parent/caregiver, 17 people identified as community
business owners, 22 identified as child care teachers, 16 identified as child care operators, and 4
identified as in -home child care providers. Other stakeholder groups heard from were non-profit
organizations, government, and community coalitions. The qualitative data gathered helped shape our
response, and it also allowed more of our community members to be a part of the overall process.
Overwhelmingly, respondents in all categories felt like our outlined priority areas (discussed below)
are what is needed right now to support child care providers, teachers, and consumers. Additionally,
we saw that those in the child care field and parent/caregiver respondents recognized that the most
pressing need is to stabilize the child care workforce through retention and development efforts.
Creating a Community Where All Children and Families Thrive
The Whatcom County Child and Family Action Plane passed in 2020, which gave rise to our task force,
states our community has a:
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Shared vision for the future in which all children are ready to learn and where families are
strong, stable, and supported from the start; and communities are supportive places for
children and families to live, learn, work, and play. Families in Whatcom County, especially
those with low/no incomes, racial/ethnic minorities, and those with members who have special
health or behavioral healthcare needs, face significant challenges in finding affordable child
care so they can attend school and work.... For immigrant families and those living in rural
areas, the challenges for meeting children's and families' needs are even greater.
When considering both the quantity of funds to allocate, and how to allocate them, we believe it is
critical to focus on whether the new opportunities create true situational fairness and equal
opportunity in our community. Any plan using ARPA dollars should meaningfully include the voices of
financially impacted families and struggling child care teachers. We, the Task Force, appreciate being
asked to weigh in, since we are a group that has been created to represent diverse perspectives. We
speak with a shared voice in making these recommendations, and hope we will continue to have a
consequential voice in fund allocation and distribution plans moving forward.
As a group representing a myriad of lived experiences and expertise, we want to emphasize that it will
be critical to use these funds to address systemic inequities built into the child care industry over
centuries, and rooted in historic reliance on the undervalued work of BIPOC women as child care
providers and consumers. With careful, intentional, design; and guidance from families, agencies, and
child care providers; our County government can use ARPA funding in ways that reduce barriers for
providers, children, and families. It is imperative to intentionally meet the needs of children and
families from diverse backgrounds and experiences when building this foundation for the future.
Measuring Success
There are several ways to measure the ongoing success of the proposed child care programs funded
by ARPA. An evaluative process would ensure services and supports are benefiting all children and
families in their search for quality child care. Each priority area has suggested data indicators for
analysis and adaptation for continuous quality improvement. All data indicators should be
disaggregated by factors such as race, income, health care needs of the child, and geography; to
guarantee that the enhancements to the child care industry are truly equitable. Ultimately, the overall
success of these investments should be measured by family economic stability and kindergarten
readiness, with the elimination of disparities by race.
Prioritization
Feedback received from providers and community members indicated overwhelmingly that
workforce stabilization is the top priority.
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Substantial improvement in workforce stability is a prerequisite for the success of investments in other
areas such as capacity building, affordability, family support, and centralized infrastructure. All
proposed areas of investment are interconnected, and investments in any one of these areas would
have only limited impact if not accompanied by parallel investments supporting the other areas.
We strongly urge the Council to immediately dedicate a large portion of ARPA funds to child care,
with an emphasis on supporting child care workers. We believe the amount proposed in the
Resolution ($22.25 million) would ensure continued availability of quality child care, which the
pandemic has clearly illustrated is key to economic vitality and family success in our community.
Information is evolving regarding (1) what kinds of investments are being made at the state and
federal level, and (2) the eligibility of ARPA funds for various uses. As such, adjustments in funding
allocation sources within the priority areas described below, may be necessary after the overall child
care allocation is made. The best use of ARPA funds, maximizing support to the child care industry,
along with leveraging other sources of funding, can be determined by the County and community
going forward.
We have identified five priority areas for funding based on our understanding of child and family
well-being, current work in our community specific to the child care industry, and a study of
recommendations from state and national experts:
Priority A: Increase child care workforce stabilization, development, and compensation
Priority B: Increase child care capacity
Priority C: Increase child care affordability
Priority D: Increase family supports and early childhood well-being
Priority E: Develop County infrastructure for child and family well-being coordination, evaluation
and planning
Priority A
Increase Child Care Workforce Development and Compensation
Adding more qualified teachers to the workforce, and retaining the teachers we have, to meet
the full demands for child care in our community.
Why Invest Now
We can build new facilities or expand existing ones, but without additional child care workers, there
will be no additional child care spots. Child care is in short supply, in part, because of the lack of child
care workers. Child care workers face tremendous stress and health risks, without adequate
compensation or benefits, for the level of education and certifications required for their work. Market
conditions dictate that most child care workers are compensated so poorly that they have to rely on
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public assistance programs and can't afford the basic medical care or mental health services they
need. Furthermore, the burden of this work falls disproportionately on BIPOC women, compounding
societal inequities. Although all of the priorities listed are important, both the Task Force and
community survey respondents agreed, workforce stabilization is the most urgent priority.
Potential Strategies
• Offer retention bonuses directly to staff, to reward longevity and encourage staying in the
industry.
• Provide benefits for child care workers: offering retirement, healthcare, and paid time off; to
both full and part-time workers.
• Supplement hourly wages: increase child care workers wages up to a living wage, that is
consistent with the level of education and certifications necessary for their roles.
• Expand classroom supports: invest in programs which relieve workplace stressors for child
care workers, such as supportive services for behavioral and mental health.
• Provide centralized administrative support for small child care providers. By sharing
administrative services, providers can split costs and free -up time of overburdened
administrators.
Invest in workforce development: encourage people to enter the field by offering scholarships,
creating "earn and learn" programs, offering guaranteed job placement, and funding continuing
education for current providers
Success Metrics
➢ Child care employee retention
Increased and sustained classroom capacity (teachers are hired and classrooms kept open)
➢ Number of open teacher positions
Priority B
Increase Child Care Capacity
Adding more child care spots by both expanding the capacity of current programs, and
supporting the growth of new programs.
Why Invest Now
In order to meet Whatcom County's anticipated child care needs, the amount of currently available
child care slots for children under 5 will need to triple by the year 2025.3 That is 5,768 new spots.
Investment in this area should begin now, because opening new child care centers and earning
credentials for new child care providers are time-consuming processes that often take years.
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Potential Strategies
• Subsidize lending: create a subsidized loan program specific to the child care industry in
Whatcom County.
• Offer grants for facility startup and/or expansion. Funding could be given to child care
operators on a ratio of dollars to new spots created.
• Build new, expand existing, or re -purpose buildings for child care. This could involve buying
land, building new child care facilities, and/or renovating current facilities to reduce the overall
cost of running a child care facility.
• Hire a child care facility specialist within the city/county planning departments. Create a
dedicated position within the city/county to assist in navigating the regulations and obstacles in
new construction permits.
• Offer financial planning and business modeling services to child care centers, providing
assistance around financing and business sustainability.
• Offer tax credits for family -based providers, by establishing a property tax credit for families
who operate child care in their homes.
• Provide down payment grants for family -based providers. People who operate child care
facilities in their homes could qualify for interest -free, forgivable loans to assist with down
payments for purchasing homes.
Success Metrics
Increase in the total number of child care slots
Increase in the number of child care slots in rural areas
Increase in child care slots during non-traditional hours
v Increase in the number of child care slots for children from birth to age 2.
➢ Decrease in wait times for acceptance to child care programs
Priority C
Increase Child Care Affordability
Reducing the cost of child care for families.
Why Invest Now
When child care costs take up too much of a household's budget, other basic needs cannot be
afforded, creating stress and eliminating the possibility of economic security. As noted in recent local
reports, including the COVID Community Health Impact Assessment and the Child Care Demand
Study, nearly half of families report that it is very difficult to maintain and afford child care. Families
not receiving a subsidy often pay more than 30% of their income on child care. These numbers are
compounded when combined with intersectional factors such as race, socioeconomic background,
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ability, orientation, and rural location.4 To increase economic security for families who are most
impacted by the pandemic, reducing the cost of child care is vital. The Washington State Fair Start for
Kids Act' addresses some of these issues, but many of the benefits won't go into effect until 2023,
and families need support now.
Potential Strategies
• Expand paid family leave for parents of infants locally. Funds could be used to supplement the
Washington State Paid Family Leave program and extend the benefit for the first year of a
child's life. If parents could stay home for a child's first year, it would reduce the need for infant
care, remove some stress on the overall child care system, and improve household budgets by
removing a major cost.
• Offer subsidies for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE') families to
supplement existing state programs. By expanding state subsidies to include ALICE families
that work at low -earning jobs (until the Fair Start for Kids Act begins), our community will
continue to incentivize work while improving economic security for families, and improving the
economy of our entire community.
• Create an emergency child care program and/or site. All families experience crises that result in
a temporary need for child care. By creating an emergency child care program, families could
manage a crisis, attend to their health and/or employment, and regain stability for their family
more quickly.
Success Metrics'
Number of families spending more than 7% of their budget on child care
v Percent of household income that ALICE families are spending on child care
Reduce the racial disparity of kindergarten readiness
Priority D
Increase Family Supports for Early Childhood Well -Being
Focusing on the overall well-being of children in their early years (including mental, emotional,
and physical wellness) creates a foundation for healthy individual growth, and contributes to
successful communities. Early experiences shape future outcomes, and are pivotal to human
development.
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Why Invest Now
In Whatcom County, families with young children who need additional support face a variety of
compounding challenges: long wait times for services, services not available locally, complex case
management difficulties, and finding child care during appointments. For over a decade, both families
and service providers have expressed a need for a centralized location where multiple services for
children and their families can be located.
Potential Strategies
• Support the development of family resource centers. Family Resource Centers can efficiently
house a variety of healthcare and family support services under one roof. Families are able to
conveniently access needed screenings, services, and supports from multiple agencies without
traveling to many different locations. They can also provide resource referrals for other
community based services.
• Expand peer support programs: peer supports are consistently recognized as an approach to
center families, build racial equity, and save costs throughout the system; and could be added
in health, education, social services, and government.
Success Metrics
➢ Increase in the number of resource centers
y Increase in the number of peer support programs
Priority E
Develop County Infrastructure for Coordination, Evaluation, and Planning
As funding sources evolve, increased infrastructure is needed to coordinate efficient and
effective use of public and private funds, so that community goals can be reached, without work being
duplicated.
Why Invest Now
Infrastructure is essential to make wise use of funds intended to support Whatcom County children
and families, and will be needed to successfully implement any of the above -listed strategies.
With the large increase in funding from ARPA, a coordinated infrastructure is needed to administer
funds, coordinate stakeholders and partners, develop accountability structures, and monitor and
evaluate the impact of funds on desired outcomes. This infrastructure needs to be specific to child care
investments, as well as for overall child and family well-being. The need will be acute during the
investment of ARPA funds, and will be on -going. Communities that invest in staffing and resources
across agencies and sectors, are able to make investments that make a difference for local children
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and families. This need was first outlined in the Child and Family Action Plan,8 and continues to have
broad -based support as an essential ingredient for prioritizing children and families within the
community.
Potential Strategies
• Create a Child Care Funding Coordinator position. This role would be responsible for
identifying funding sources and funding requirements, coordinating with partners, overseeing
development of contracts with community entities, tracking use of funds, collecting data to
analyze effectiveness, and identifying opportunities to leverage with other funds. This is also
Ensure accountability to the county and community.
• Establish an Office of Family and Child Well Being. On -going leadership and capacity is
needed at the county level to prioritize young children and their families. Besides committing
resources, cross -agency and cross -sector efforts need to be made. Key capabilities include
determining appropriate investments, managing funds and evaluating impacts.
Success Metrics
➢ The elasticity of the system as measured by unduplicated numbers on waitlists
Held accountable to specific, measurable outcomes
Resourced (staffed & funded) commensurate with its goals
Allocation: An Example
The original proposal from Councilmembers Browne and Frazey called for bold action: allocating half
of the county's ARPA funds ($22.25M) to address the challenges of child care throughout our
community. The task force was heartened by that, and urges the council and Executive Sidhu to act in
that same bold spirit because the challenges before us call for action, and the consequences of
inaction cross all sectors of our economy.
Rather than investing into a single intervention, we are hoping to see a well-rounded set of
interventions that alter the landscape of child care in a holistic way.
Workforce stabilization is the most urgent priority that we identified, and should likely see the largest
investment. With more exploration of the potential costs and returns of the other priorities, our
recommendations could expand to include additional strategies. We suggest focusing attention on
workforce stabilization, with the aim of significantly expanding dollars allocated to this priority.
Below is an example of how ARPA funds could be deployed on specific programs across the five
priority areas, with some speculation about the good such investments might achieve. We wanted to
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share what we learned, even though our knowledge across these areas is asymmetrical. We were
limited by our timeline to produce these recommendations, and strive to be candid about what we
learned and what we didn't have time to fully explore. That asymmetry should not be taken as a
signal of prioritization. Some of these areas (capacity building) are easier to research than others
(affordability). Wage subsidies, one of the most popular ideas about workforce stabilization in our
community outreach, emerged late in our process.
One Way to Allocate $22.25M in ARPA Funds Across 5 Priorities
• $2.6M for Retention Bonuses— One of the leading ideas to encourage and retain the existing
workforce is retention bonuses. An investment of this size would fund retention bonuses of
$1,000 (twice yearly, for two year), for the 6509 workers currently employed at licensed
centers. If new staff is hired as a result of the capacity expansion efforts described below, the
total program cost would increase in proportion to the amount of new capacity added.
• $714 for Attracting a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI)— ARPA funds
administered by a CDFI could be used to replicate the success LIIF had in Washington DC.10
Assuming the same rate of return, this investment should yield 4,117 new child care slots,
roughly three-quarters of the projected need for 2025.11
• $7M to Address the Benefits Cliff— Child care subsidies from the Dlvision of Child, Youth and
Families (DCYF) are only available to families with income 200% of federal poverty level.
However, we heard from a number of families who are ineligible for help, but still find it
difficult to afford the child care they need. The subsidy levels will be adjusted substantially by
the Fair Start for Kids Act, but the changes do not go into full effect until 2024. The City of
Seattle is funding a pilot with ARPA dollars to implement those changes early,12 and Whatcom
County could do the same. Assuming this program provides full subsidies for families who are
not eligible for any support today, this investment could make care accessible to 480 children
for a year.
• $2M for Family Resource Centers— Conversations at both the state and local levels
acknowledge the good Family Resource Centers could accomplish.13 The demands of COVID
have stalled local efforts, but ARPA funds could be used to secure two or more facilities within
Whatcom County for this purpose.
• $3M for Coordinating Infrastructure —All of the initiatives listed would be easier to achieve
with a dedicated department or office within the County Government to design programs,
administer funds, convene stakeholders, and attract additional investments. While this is an
ongoing expenditure, which makes its ARPA eligibility uncertain, the yearly cost would be
modest. This level of investment could sustain such a department for 4 years. Other groups
s Estimated by David Webster of Opportunity Council based on the licensed capacity in Whatcom County.
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within our community have worked to envision what such a unit could accomplish, and how it
could be sustainably funded for the long-term. Rather than duplicate their efforts, we would
just acknowledge that the existence of such a department would make any ARPA-funded
projects more effective & efficient.
Implementation
Our research identified many additional local efforts working to address this urgent problem. In
addition to the Task Force's continued involvement, we recommend ongoing planning with
organizations such as The Whatcom Child Care Coalition, The Center for Child Care Retention and
Expansion, and the Healthy Whatcom Early Learning and Child Care team. Communications with the
Task Force and these organizations, along with outreach to child care providers and to families with
young children, will be essential in creating the programmatic details necessary for implementation.
Concluding Remarks
The most lasting investment we can make as a community is an investment in our people. The
proposed Resolution recognizes this, by making child care the top priority for Whatcom County's
ARPA funds. We recommend the County Council broaden the scope of this investment, and take
action to stabilize and grow the child care workforce as your first priority.
We understand the appeal of investing in physical buildings that could serve as a tangible and
permanent legacy. At the same time, any child care investment strategy must center the child care
workforce crisis or it will not succeed. Over the past year and a half, approximately a dozen licensed
child care operators have shut their doors, and classrooms at functioning centers often go unused due
to staff shortages. Whenever a teacher gets sick, a dozen families have to scramble to make
arrangements, as there are no substitutes to fill in. Employers are losing some of their best workers,
because there is no one to look after the kids.
It is important to recognize that there are a lot of unanswered questions about investing in the
workforce. Who, how, and how much? Our Task Force, along with numerous community partners, are
prepared to take them on and offer solutions. As our County Government invests in quality child care,
we know that families will be strengthened and the whole community will find benefit.
The County Council has already demonstrated leadership and challenged conventional thinking. Child
care is a new opportunity for Whatcom County Government to play a significant role in supporting our
entire community and the underlying supports for a healthy economy. We appreciate your bold vision,
and we assure you that your constituents support your effort to prioritize child care and help families
thrive in Whatcom County. Thank you for considering our recommendations.
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