Teigue Linch remembers the email she received from Pine Forest, her daughters' child care center in Burlington, Vermont, encouraging families to take advantage of the new state law that allows more people to qualify for care assistance. childish.
But Linch, who works full-time as an office manager for an engineering firm, has 17-month-old twins, a long to-do list, and the heavy mental load that all parents of young children share.
“So I ignored it for a while and didn't really look at the information to see if it was worth applying for,” he said.
Linch and his partner, who works in auto insurance, have a combined household income of $120,000, which, at $10,000 per month, is 400 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of four, an amount that would normally be considered too high to receive any kind of significant government subsidy. This is especially true of child care subsidies, which only one in seven eligible families in the US they really get it.
But then one of Linch's coworkers began researching changes in child care specific to Vermont, brought on by Law 76which passed over a bipartisan veto to become law in June 2023. He suggested that even with Linch's six-figure family income, she should apply.
Linch logged on, downloaded the application, which he described as “easy to complete,” and submitted it.
What happened next was a big surprise.
“Within 48 hours I heard back and knew I qualified,” Linch said. Instead of paying $3,068 each month for child care for her twins, she would now be responsible for $1,000, with no changes or additional paperwork on her part. “I didn't believe it,” Linch said. “It just didn't seem real to me.”
The way the state breaks it down in this handy chartIf Linch's family income is $10,000 per month for a family of four, his weekly family share for child care is capped at $250. Previously, almost all of Linch's take-home pay went toward caring for his daughters. He was paid by the hour, so if he had to miss work because a girl was sick or Pine Forest was closed for a day, his income would go down.
But now I would have an extra $2,000 each month. What will she do with it? “We finally have the ability to save, period. We had gotten to a point where we were seeing our checking account go lower and lower each month,” Linch said. “It's still too early to know how it will affect us, but it will be much better.”
Vermont Act 76 marked one year of implementation this summer. The law, paid with a new payroll taxIt is designed so that families who have more than one child in care, like Linch with his twins, save more. Importantly, cost savings grow dramatically with two children; The high cost of caring for a second child is the tipping point for many families, where it may make more financial sense for one parent to leave the workforce, explained Erin Roche, director of First Children's Finance in Vermont, a group that is helping with implementation of Law 76.
Under the old state system, Vermont provided child care subsidies to families earning up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level, although many families receiving assistance had to pay a higher co-pay. Starting October 7, Vermont child care subsidies will be available to families earning 575 percent of the federal poverty line. For a family of four, this rate is close to an adjusted gross household income of $180,000.
For those who study child care policy, such a generous jump is unheard of. Advocates and policy experts will closely monitor how it develops. Roche estimates that the jump in eligibility will make subsidies available to 80 to 90 percent of all Vermont families with young children.
But it's not just parents like Linch who benefit from the program. Under Act 76, Pine Forest, Linch's child care center, will also see an increase in the amount it collects, because it will be reimbursed for the actual cost of care, rather than just what families can afford. Instead of receiving $3,068 a month to care for Linch's two young children, the center now receives $3,768, an increase of $700.
Vermont has also narrowed the gap in reimbursement levels for home-based child care and child care centers, as centers are traditionally reimbursed for care at higher rates. This has made home-based child care more cost-effective and sustainable, and as a result, more than 1,000 new child care spaces have been created in Vermont in just one year.
Roche credits Vermont's small size and the skill of state agencies for acting quickly to get these systems up and running to support Act 76. One hurdle, he notes, was ensuring the state's IT system could prepare the online application.
“Each of the Act 76 changes required a state agency to create a system or change a system. They literally had less than two weeks to make the first changes,” Roche said.
Not all families will see an immediate increase in benefits like Linch's, but Roche estimates that many will, especially those with two parents working full-time. Families with a parent or guardian at home and not working or attending school full time are not eligible.
Having access to reliable child care is one way to help parents participate in the workforce. And it may have the effect of changing people's minds about the costs and burdens associated with having more children, when studies show Many families who choose not to have children cite cost as a major factor.
Linch said she and her partner initially intended to have just one child, “but then we got lucky with twins,” she said with a smile.
Does having additional financial support for child care change your outlook on having more children in the future?
“I don't know how to respond,” he said. “But that would make it more feasible, that's for sure.”
