meanwhile free Universal preschool has been a goal of both the Murphy Administration and Progressive groups in the state the governor proposed an extra $20 million in the new state budget to expand free prek adding nearly a thousand more seats but for private Child Care Centers already facing funding challenges and Staffing shortages the timing couldn't be worse as owners tell senior correspondent Joanna gagas the change could cause a drastic blow to their business when preschool expansion comes into a town and stays within the K to2 system you are seeing those centers have to close and that is what we're hearing from a lot of directors is that there is a there is a panic when expansion comes in or near their their towns because they know the ripple effect private Child Care Centers depend on three and four year-olds in their programs because those kids offset the much more expensive care of infants and toddlers that often leave centers at a net negative so as the state expands its Universal prek many child care centers are wondering what role they'll have and if they'll survive we know the model Works um and and we need to tap back into that and see it worked in those districts it could work for preschool expansion as well advocates for children of New Jersey Diane Delano says the state's already developed a successful partnership between its Abbot or SDA school districts and private child care centers in what's called a mixed delivery system where students can attend prek in either public or private settings all of the districts did mixed delivery they worked in partnership with their community-based agencies and uh childcare programs and it worked I mean they were able to keep their doors open they were able to add highly qualified staff with Bas they were able to you know run highquality community- based programs in collaboration with their school districts and as districts seek to develop programs with an infusion of $1.2 billion proposed in the education budget for prek expansion doe commissioner Kevin damer has said they should look to existing Child Care Centers before launching any IND District programs there's a responsibility that we all have to make sure that all Community has all the tenants that needs to be successful and having a thriving infin and toddler um before and after care and summer camp program is a big piece of society's being successful right now there is no mandate for districts to contract through existing child care centers and not all centers want to be included in this model because it's still unclear for them how it all works and who's in charge it was difficult to follow the licensing guidelines and the doe guidelines at the same time they seem to clash Don Cleveland owns the Little Learners Child Development Center in hackensac she tried partnering with the hackensac school district a few years ago turning two rooms that were licensed for 23 kids into classrooms that could only hold 15 kids according to doe standards we would say well licensing says that we can't do that and they would turn around and say well we're the doe so we need to do it our way the other challenge she faced was teacher compensation where the district paid her prek teachers much higher than what she could pay her other employees they will entirely pay for the um the salary but they are not entitled to the benefits of a of a district employee staff can only work for those 6 hours for those 180 days a child care center is open you know 12 months a year before care after care summer camp so there's Staffing implications there and when that that particular teacher Works any of those hours they're back down to that private pay salary I think that it's important that the small child care centers like myself should have the ability to give the like the families that are leaving me to go to public school to stay here and maybe have like a voucher system or something where as long as you have a teacher that has a ba and a P3 certification and you have a curriculum that's researching space and why can't we keep those kids so would you want to contract directly with do we kind of bypass the individual district oh I would love that that that would be fantastic if we could do that I think that that would help us tremendously especially now losing nine children next year she's losing those kids to the hackin sack District that's rolling out its prek program in its existing buildings leaving the future of her Center uncertain in hackensac I'm Joanna G agas NJ Spotlight news [Music]