♪ > > This week in the Wheelhouse.

> > funding our future.

what state officials and industry experts are saying about you, child care.

♪ > > for Connecticut Public on Frankie Graziano.

This is the Wheelhouse.

It's a show that connects politics to the people.

We got your weekly dose of politics in Connecticut and beyond right here.

This hour.

Help is on the way for Connecticut families and a time when many are struggling to make ends meet.

There's good news about the cost of childcare.

State lawmakers last legislative session approved a proposal that funds free childcare for some families.

They also agreed to cap the costs of care for all families in the state.

We're going to get into that and meet the architect of this endowment that buys the commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood.

Hello and welcome to the Wheelhouse.

Hello.

Happy to be here.

Frankie, thank you so much for coming on you or on your way out of a job.

Retiring.

> > Effective October.

1st.

So we're going to consider this an exit interview of sorts data your retirement will mark the end of 2 decades of service to the people of Connecticut, at least in a law making capacity.

But it won't be the last time that you work nor work with kids.

What are you up to next?

But what I'm up to next really hoping to work with families and children that are in health care settings and needs support more.

Get back to the > > children and families and work directly in the next phase of my career.

> > This entails or at least involves you getting a master's in social work through it to in order to work in healthcare settings.

You really need an msw.

It's a reimbursable license, if you will.

So I've started back in school at the Ericsson Institute in Chicago, getting master's in social work with a focus on infant and early childhood mental health.

What are you willing to share?

What can you share about what the actual job will be?

Once you finish off with?

> > The Ericsson?

Well, I think part of doing an msw program is doing internships and figuring out what fits.

I know that in the short term immediately start volunteering, hopefully at the village for families and children.

They have some integrated healthcare settings and > > they have a special preschool just to get a feel for for the work as a social worker.

> > Working at the Office of Early Childhood in the pandemic effectively made you a shepherd.

So you're taking local kids from COVID to kindergarten at a time of shifting environments evolving guidelines.

How did you how did the department rise to meet this challenge?

Well, it really was a challenge.

And I think it was a time it's hard to remember now.

But it was a time when you're looking at.

> > Morgues in parking, lots of hospitals and people are home seeing that on TV and early childhood educators.

We're still needed because doctors and nurses needed early childhood to in order to go to work.

They need to childcare in the governor called and said we need to find a way to do this.

And so I think the field rose to the challenge we found 26 programs willing to open and peak of the pandemic to take care of doctors and nurses, kids.

Those teachers, you know, went out when things are very uncertain and did that.

And the team we see just worked round the clock working to get those open and make sure they were high quality and safe and the governor really give us clear direction about this.

We have to do.

We worked with the dally, a foundation that got a 3 million dollars in a week so that we could get those programs up and running.

And we had a wonderful conversation with them at the end of the programs we're really pleased that we were able to support the health care workers.

Through that difficult time.

So then still we had to come out of the pandemic and other programs opened one by one with evolving guidelines from us.

We were constantly working with the CDC with the state health.

You're writing a lot of those guidelines we wear for the Connecticut childcare programs and some states closed all the childcare centers.

Governor Lamont never did that programs decided on their own whether to open a close and then what what he did in the National Guard as we just got all those items out to the program so they could have the PPE that they needed to be safe and literally the National Guard.

We had 3 to 4 locations across the state child care providers came over the weekend and picked up supplies and though they opened as they could in as they feel comfortable in as they could staff.

But it was quite a time and I think that really change the public's perception of early childhood and childcare in Connecticut where the allies wow are state can't run without childcare.

And I think that's what's led to this great investment this past year with the early childhood endowment really recognizing is infrastructure just like roads or infrastructure.

People need childcare to get to work.

They need roads to get to work.

Is that a part of where we are now?

We were just talking about 2020.

21.

22 now are in 2025.

And the concern that you're always going to have now with children is.

> > Following the pandemic.

Where's their mental health?

How are they doing number one?

And number 2, what happens if this happens again?

Do we have a plan in place?

So tell us about the current structure and where we're at now.

And how do you think things are going?

> > Yeah, I mean, I think there are significant impact from the pandemic on children and families.

And when I talked to kindergarten teachers and first grade teachers, they're feeling some of those impacts because kids rely on structure and routine and the pandemic is by definition, pandemonium and families need structure and routine.

So everyone was thrown off their structure and routine for a long period of time.

So it's taken time to build that trust and what's coming next.

Among children.

And I think we're seeing significant increases in children with emotional issues.

And when they when they get to school or even, you know, the infants and toddlers who are infants and toddlers during the pandemic are now for older preschool or so.

It's taken time.

And I think as an extra attention on the mental health issues, people don't think of infant mental health.

A toddler mental health, but it's a real thing you that's when children are learning to regulate their emotions.

> > This year's legislative session can be remembered for lawmakers committing to childcare over the long haul.

Eventually, commissioner, every child in Connecticut will get free childcare or at the very least the costs will be drastically reduced as you leave.

What are you doing to make sure that this kind of universal childcare will endure in Connecticut.

And why is important for kids and their parents?

Well, we're really lucky to have 2 people in place who are really committed to this beginning with Governor Lamont, whose idea it was and he's committed to this endowment > > As well as we have people growing.

like representative for our and are who are champions.

We're going to be up there making sure that the investment continues and Lina truer, the who will be in my position is just fantastic.

And I ISIS job is to make sure that implementing it in the way maximizes a benefit to children and families to childcare workers and and to the State of Connecticut's economy.

So but they have that heavy responsibility of implementing this new way that really works for families.

You give Governor Ned Lamont a ton of credit for what's been done to support kids and their families in recent years.

As you can hear already in this interview.

> > Others including Lamont, give you a ton of credit since 2007, you've rather systematically are systemically.

I don't know what the word is here.

Helped put Connecticut it on course to have early childhood infrastructure besides a master's degree in child development and 45 years experience in the field.

What does it take to do this work?

> > I think it starts with a passion and understanding that young children do need particular attention and focus and having the office of early childhood.

just focused there because when you focus on young children, you focus on families equally and sometimes in schools.

I think we separate parents and children in early childhood.

They're one and the same.

So we know that as were supporting children were also supporting families.

And we need to support them because they're still learning to be parents.

Right?

I think we're all still learning.

I have 30 year old.

So those early years are super important.

For me, it's been really a collaborative effort.

It's I've been an advocate since I was since my daughter was one year old on my My back in Stamford, working for the wages for childcare workers and I look back on that time.

And I think that's when this began to say, we need to say this work is important.

This work matters that young children matter that as a culture, we need to pay more attention to them.

And I think the advocacy community has been incredible philanthropy over the past few years has really funded and advocacy.

There's so many legislators and numerous governors thought this was important.

You know, Connecticut's really is one of the top states in the country for helping families with young children because of this long work.

But it's really community organizing is what it comes down to is people coming together and saying this is a priority because there's so many priorities as the state.

What advice you have for lunch or where governor Lamont obviously tapping her to succeed.

You?

> > Well, I think Alaina is going to continue.

This is super power, which is listening.

You know, we read what's happening in other states.

We think about what children and families need.

We put out plans like we did with the blue Ribbon panel plan.

But we edited that plan about 20 times and, you know, Lane was behind the launching of a pair of in her blood.

Is that families are just as important as young children.

So I have no doubt that Lena.

We'll continue to listen and adapt and lead the agency in a way that will keep us tops in the nation.

2 are the takes over the Office of Early Childhood in an interim capacity in October.

> > She won't officially have the job until confirmed by the state legislature next session.

What will it take for sure.

The talked about a super power power of listening.

But anybody really in state government to work in a time where the federal government wants to cut education dollars.

Do you think the United States government as currently constituted values, child development?

> > Well, I will say early childhood has pretty much been flat funded and not cut, whereas this administration, as you know, cutting critical human services for families that are going to impact their quality of life in a negative way.

Child care has been held steady so far.

I think it's pretty much a bipartisan issue that pairs the childcare to get to work in early childhood pays off in the long run.

The hard part is getting the investment.

The Biden administration a significant investments in early childhood.

We had increases every year.

Now.

Now we're flat funded.

You know, I think what we've done with the endowment, as we said, no matter what happens in the federal government.

The state of Connecticut is going to take care of its own and we're going to build a lasting savings account.

So we don't we aren't subject to the whims of the federal budget going up now.

> > And that again involves free childcare for many to access that endowment or at least capping the cost at 7% of household income for many other families.

> > Is there anything in this job that you didn't get done that you wanted to do in your time?

And always even when he worked with the state legislature has > > Representative and then a state senator, do you have any like regrets?

> > I think I have regrets.

I think I'm excited.

I mean, I think it's important.

People understand that in 2027 is when a lot of this will begin in.

The expansion will begin in the legislature and the governor need to continue to put the money from the surplus in 2, the fund to grow.

I would say I wish that are universal home visiting initiative was further along were in Norwich and Bridgeport reaching every new baby born giving parents information.

Talk about a wreath at the law.

Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Toured > > we we use some of the arpa dollars and then the rim dollars appropriated this year in the legislature and the governor's budget.

> > To have a new babies get a visit from a nurse starting.

When the baby is born.

Every single at a hospital.

Every baby has offered born at Bridgeport Hospital and in Norwich.

I think it's Backus hospital.

I have the name right?

we've we want the ideas to go statewide the planning is to begin in New Haven.

I wish this was further along and faster because the impact on families to have those visits.

The reduced emergency room visits, the reduced anxiety among parents, the increased improved health outcomes from others because we we have a real disparity in maternal health outcomes.

So it addresses so many issue and that big and there's a a widening desert for maternal health care.

Well, absolutely.

So it gets a nurse out every part of the state.

And I think families are welcoming to nurses so and this is what started with the very Gifford and and also of the Knesset around taste back when when she was commissioner a thinking the governor said was with one thing we could do to make a really big difference with these funds.

And we could start as early as possible.

So I wish that was further along and, you know, more part of the culture because it's still going to be subject to, you know, funding decisions and things like that.

But I think I think what the governor has done for families with young children now starting at birth.

You know, then you have baby bonds.

Now you have this child care, the expansion is really the incredible the earliest intervention.

While that is an incredible, what about the LGBTQ+ community Beth, you and your wife, Tracy or pioneers.

This first same sex couple married here in Connecticut.

> > Now the Supreme Court has been asked to do away with same sex marriage is a constitutional Know that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was recently air interviewed and asked about it.

Trance people are being asked to identify in a way that's I guess, inconsistent with their press preference of them trying to say that and the most careful way trans athletes are being banned from certain sports.

How important is representation to you?

How does one you talk about advocacy?

How does one advocate for the LGBTQ+ community at this time?

I think we need we need just like we needed with the gay marriage movement.

We need so many allies.

> > We need people to speak up for us.

We'll speak up for ourselves and will stand up for our rights.

But what we really need allies and we need people to says few minutes just people who want to love who they love and be who they are.

I think for me, I've told the story multiple times.

I think of Connecticut and how far we've come and what representation means.

I mean, when I was director for program more than 20 years ago when we weren't anywhere near where we are with our LGBTQ rights.

I could not continue to be a director in a religious organization because of because just because that's the way it was, which shifted me to a different job.

And then I think 20 years later, the governor appoints me to be in charge of 10 children for the whole state.

And there was barely a blip.

No one the governor appointed this gay women to be in charge of our children.

Don't know at least I didn't hear anything.

It was almost like an on.

And to think how far we've come.

We just can't go back.

Tracie Lee said you cannot take rates for granted.

You have to stay after it.

And I think we're poised in Connecticut to stand up for it and we have a you know, they're great national organization sticking up for our rights, but we can't taken for granted.

And as you see what's going on with immigrants and others being I think as a culture, we have to be really careful about seeing each human as human and not as some other.

Then us because, you know, I think being a member of the LGBTQ community, I watch what's happening with immigrants.

And I think what's next is enough.

Who's next?

Once you stood in Dak go and you've seen those triangles from the different colors.

And it's a concentration camp in Germany.

You realize that, you know, first, it was people with disabilities and LGBTQ.

Then people who, you know, all kinds of one after the other.

And I think we need to pay attention and and not get too comfortable, especially people are being so And this current time, those examples are brought up to our examples where we have gone back.

And that's why it's.

> > It's both intriguing and fascinating even asking these questions to you at this time, especially with quite the history that you have.

it certainly is illustrative of the time that we're in right now, which is why it's so important to talk to you.

Your wife, Dr.

Tracy Wilson passed away earlier this year.

He actually spent a lot of time.

I don't know how many people know this, but with Tracy as she battled cancer and then you have to juggle that big job that you have overseeing the state's child care infrastructure.

I want to know I'm being selfish here.

What would Tracy say about your big career move right now?

What would you say?

Well, she knew this was part of the plan that I always want to get back to working with children and families and hospitals.

A lot of it had to do with her illness has been a lot of time in hospitals.

And I saw what.

> > You know, a genuinely caring person that came into the room and listened.

And I also know young children dealing with bill parents or sickness themselves.

We're not always good talking about that are listening.

So I think if she hadn't probably wouldn't be doing this exact thing.

But I would be getting back to direct care with children and families.

I've been a Boston so 17 when I first was in Polly was director at the Belle Haven Club in Greenwich.

And I'm ready to just not be the boss and B, you know, focused the children and families directly that direct a micro level care, a soldier, if you will.

Exactly.

You have been.

Serving the people of Connecticut for so long that by the outgoing commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood.

We wish you well in this retirement from state service, but also look > > To see how you continue to forward.

serve us here in Connecticut and our children.

Thank you so much, Beth, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Have a great day.

After the break.

More on the state child care and down.

But what and when an interview that was including information on when you can expect some help with your day care be joined as I am right now by Georgia Goldberg, a goal burn and McKayla sav.

It.

Folks, are you working overtime just to afford childcare, get on the phone and in the Wheelhouse.

It up 8, 8, 8, 7, to 0, 9, 6, 7, 7, today, 720-9677, ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ > > thanks for listening to Connecticut Public Radio.

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It's part of our writers room series.

Why do we return the books and on campuses.

Long after leaving school and what can be shot road.

He that's next.

Time on ♪ ♪ > > coming up this morning at 11.

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From roundtable, conversations to community spotlights, we're amplifying black voices stories and successes across industries and across Connecticut.

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This is the Wheelhouse from Connecticut Public Radio.

I'm Frankie Graziano.

> > This hour, we're talking about early child development and how state officials are fostering kids future.

We just spoke with one of them retiring Connecticut Office of Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye.

For some reaction to that interview and a deeper dive into child care legislation in Connecticut.

I'm now joined by reporter and a childcare center director McKayla Sav.

It is a Connecticut Public state government reporter Micaela.

Thanks so much for being on here today.

> > Thanks for having me.

Thank you.

Good to see a good to have you back in studio, Georgia.

Gold burn the executive director of Hope for New Haven Incorporated.

That entity oversees the Hope.

Child Development Center, Georgia, thank you so much for coming on the show and I thank you for having me.

Good to see you again, folks.

I want to know what your child care situation is.

Can you afford it?

Let us know how you're getting by in 2025.

Get in the Wheelhouse.

8, 8, 8, 7, to 0, 9, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 720-9677, Georgia.

We just spoke with outgoing Connecticut Office of Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye.

What has or leadership meant for her, your industry and for the children in Connecticut.

> > I can honestly say that Beth, by was the right commissioner at the right time.

I think a lot of people may not know or may forget that Beth was also a legislator and she was the co-chair for the Appropriations Committee.

So she has done a lot of work.

And, you know, in the legislature, she has negotiated with the governor.

And I think she brought that scale and that expertise to her role as the commissioner.

And I think that was what was very instrumental in helping us to advance legislation that we're in now seeing with the early childhood in town went, I think, you know, Beth has a way of Kober son.

We really you Feelin Corps and I'm pretty sure that she used skills on the governor to move him in any time we spoke, you know, because I do challenge that sometimes on some of policies and as is my role to do, she was always open to hearing those dissenting voices.

And I think that was something that was instrumental to her success being open to hearing.

We are policies are not working well on the ground.

And so I think again, she brought leadership style that engendered a lot of trust among her staff.

And I think she was available.

I think she has been so available as a commissioner that she doesn't feel so much as a commissioner.

But more up here and a colleague in this work.

And I think that was it instrumental in her success as a commissioner.

> > In the interview with by asked her to advise her successor about what the job as the early childhood commissioner brings.

What advice do you have for her?

Ultimate success are here.

Only nature where the > > commissioner true is has of really has deep roots in the early care community and she has a lot of good will coming into this role.

I thing she has, you know, lots of supporters in the field as well as you know, as a part of her team.

My advice to her would be to be open to those dissenting voices.

You know, lots of time, Beth, and I would, you know, have conversations outside of you know, these arenas of public ideas, you know, we would text each other over call each other early in the morning.

Not so much late at night, but sometimes on the weekend to say, hey, you know, here's where things are at work in and she was open by was open to bringing in those dissenting voices and here in some hard truth about an idea that you have worked so hard to put forth and then 2 here that it's not working the way you thought it was going to work.

She was always open to hearing that and bringing in those dissenting voices.

And I think commissioner to where the would be well served to making sure that she doesn't exist in an echo chamber and making sure that she's hearing from all the constituents and here in the difficult truth as well about how policies that work.

And it's not just a few dissenting voices.

It's not necessarily dissenting voices either.

It's just as I've seen some of the zoom calls during the pandemic.

There are thousands.

> > Of stakeholders that are ultimately trying to get a voice and trying to reach the commission are trying to reach folks that are really big time here in Connecticut in terms of lobbying and advocacy like yourself, Georgia.

So I mean, there's a there's a lot of voices out there.

So that is a big job.

Micaela Savage does a good job for Connecticut Public here during this year's legislative session, which you covered.

Beth Bye and her team celebrated a legislative win, if you will.

That's been years in the making.

Connecticut's early-childhood Education Endowment.

Let's break down some of the basics of the state child care endowment.

Will this lower the cost of child care across the board?

And how will Connecticut families benefit?

> > just taking a as a step back and talking about the endowment just to remind folks that, you know, it has been funded with this initial 300 million dollars from our state's surplus.

And, you know, this is a fund that has a whole advisory board with stakeholders on several lawmakers.

And this is a fun that will continue to grow with annual funding from budget surpluses.

And it will happen in phases.

You know, this is not something that can just be the childcare crisis.

Can't just be fixed overnight.

So, you know, in talking about will this lower the cost of care across the board that's that's the goal for you.

Certainly families looking that earn up to $100,000 a year and are enrolled in early start CT child care would be free under this under that plan and then under the plan, families earning more than $100,000 per year would pay a sliding scale.

The camp that 7% of their income.

So, you know, compared the research says, mean, there's a big range of what people pay for childcare but hit it in the tens of thousands that it could be the cost of a new car and people, you know, in the lower class and middle class.

Both report having struggle, struggles to pay for child care.

So it's the goal to help make it more affordable.

you know, across the board in Connecticut and in terms of how Connecticut families will benefit, it's not a sim silver bullet approach.

There's a lot of things that need to happen to expand this system.

Overhaul it.

If you will, this this discount stems from a workforce crisis.

So, you know, increasing the pay for child care providers to be on par with kindergarten teachers.

You're paying these providers, what they're worth and also you helping them pay for their health care costs is is also part of this plan.

So, yeah, so there's a lot of work to be done.

And there's a lot of plans in motion to make it happen in the state 2027.

Does that sound right to you is when this will go into effect and when you might be seeing a change on your bill.

So to speak.

> > What 2027 is when I most of the changes are going to be happening is outgoing commissioner by said.

> > But the work has already started.

So, you know, like I said, the 300 million dollars has already been transferred into this fund.

We can drop the state can draw down a certain percentage from that fund every year.

So right now, you know, they're doing a lot of community planning, making sure that parents and local governing partners and childcare providers have a voice in what the needs are in each town.

And then they've also been adding spaces.

The 2 preschool spots already this fall.

There were at least 500 preschool sponsor added with using dollars for down endowment in cities like Bridgeport and Groton.

New London, Norwalk, Norwalk, Norwich, I go on and but, you know, it's it's a gradual rollout.

But yes, a lot of these big sweeping changes, you know, in talking about the you know, the free childcare for people who make less than $100,000 and the subsidized capped childcare costs for people making over $100,000.

Plus, the increased wages.

All of that is ideally set to go in motion by 2027 free childcare for many families.

Georgia cap costs for others.

If it bears out the way that you'd like to, what does this new legislation mean for families with kids at Hope?

Child Development Center?

So I I I want to give some context because what I think is important for your audience to know is that early start is a new approach to are just a new name to exist and state funded.

So the state funding already existed.

They were called early Head start wraparound.

They recall of child daycare contract.

There was tired of what is it?

A school readiness?

So these funds instead of having these multiple streams of funding have not been wrapped all around the banner early start.

So these slots already exist and they are ready.

Operation allies.

So I hope child Development Center.

We are early provider and what that means for our family.

When we were funded in the state has been given out the slots for the past 2 to 3 years and they have changed all of the existing funding into early start.

So from my center would be became funded 2 years ago, 50% of my family's went from pain.

Tuition off $400 and above to now 50%, actually 60 per cent of my family paid less than $50 or less about 25% of my family's pay 0.

Alright.

Alright.

Between 20 to $20 in less than 0.

So without it, the full should know.

This one is already helping parents and parents can seek out those providers that already exist in the community to find access to care that significantly reduces their tuition.

I can tell from my parents perspective, it's transformational.

One of the things with child care subsidies in the past the way that state has helped families, it's focused on the most vulnerable families as we should and those with the families who can 60% or less of state median income early start now looks at every single family and the as so every single parent and my center who wants access to early start because you don't have to access it.

If you don't want it.

I don't know why a parent would, but and every single parent, regardless of their income in taxes, early start.

And that's part of the transformation of the program.

What you're digging into is something that's become very complex in recent years.

And I think this is very important for people at home.

> > We're funding slots many times in childcare and now they're sort of the nomenclature in the streams, like you said, our kind of combine into one.

You have early start now, which is a big thing.

We know that the cost of care can change.

We know that the economy certainly can change.

So I think we're digging at is well, these this is very transformational for families.

You still have to pay for the cost of childcare Yusuf to pay for the slot, if you will.

So it's not like right away.

Everybody in Connecticut gets free childcare.

So help me understand this.

What does it mean for us?

Enter from that perspective.

So now will you have enough money to take care of these?

These kids?

Or will you be like in a situation?

I think it might be helpful for listeners at home.

We talk about Medicaid reimbursement right?

We talk about sometimes hospitals being left to hold the bag or providers.

Could this happen to a child care center under the new under the new funding?

Are you concerned about being paying That does actually happen.

And now because the way that early start is structured > > is it's a part of a three-legged stool of early start fund in care for kids and family fee.

So care for kids as a as a program now has a waiting list that spans between 6 to 8 months.

So if a parent comes into my center and they cannot access to care for kids program.

A huge portion of my fund and has been removed with early start to the vision and the goal is to eliminate that three-legged stool.

So it's early start fund in and combination of perron fees or no parent fee.

If that parent income is below 100,000.

So if they do not the reimbursement rate at the true cost of care and what is happening now with some providers where they're only getting a 3rd or two-thirds of the funding that they need to operate.

It's going to be devastated because again, in 2027 new rules take place.

So every single provider will have to pay their staff.

People according to the OECD compensation scale, many providers right now, we're not their educators at that level.

So then if you are good in funding, that doesn't really cover your true cost of operating and then you have new mandates attached to that.

You could find that the state has a wonderful story to tell about.

Families have an access to free care parents, of course, will benefit greatly.

My parents now without it being fully operational lies benefited greatly.

But providers could be left holding the bag.

That is that would could possibly put them in a worse situation because we could not.

We can't go back when everybody feels that we've solved childcare to say, hey, you haven't really solved it for us.

So I think the pitfall for the endowment fund is making sure that they're sufficiently capitalize and making sure that the re and the first mate rate for providers cover the true cost of care.

Mckayla, what can you say about the next steps for the childcare endowment?

How will legislators and childcare experts implement the new legislation or at least talk about this in 2026.

> > In in 2026.

Well, they're talking about it right now, So mean a plan to release?

> > 1000 additional spots with a request for proposals that is being released.

I believe next month, late next month.

And those early start slot is Georgia described will be available in the New Year.

> > And this is going to be priority will go towards childcare deserts and high need communities in terms of next steps for the childcare endowment like I said, that there is an advisory committee that is working on this and there's also a lot of work being done on the ground listening sessions across the state.

There's going to be several more in November that the Office of Early Childhood is holding, you know, bringing information about the endowment and early start and the parent portal, which is part of the legislation that was passed out to the community.

And get feedback into how to continue making this, you know, a more accessible system better to understand.

You know, and then in terms of next steps, also just continuing to hear what parents and child care providers need.

You know, we heard from a united way.

That's it.

You know, the latest data they analyzed.

That more and more families are having trouble making ends meet.

So that's both people trying to afford groceries, housing, child care, which we said it's a huge cost in on the flip side, we're also talking about people in these, you know.

Really a vital jobs taking care of our youngest people in the state who aren't making enough to keep up with the cost of inflation.

So continuing to look at how you know, trends are emerging and you know the economy is changing and what can be done in terms of solutions to help people continue to thrive.

Georgia really do this briefly for me.

But childcare centers have to opt into this.

> > Yes, so it is not anything that's going to be imposed upon a child care center.

> > So every single provider will have an opportunity to apply to and RFA, which is a request for application.

We pushed this.

I think they're going to move to a request for proposal for the full rollout and implementation right now.

Talk of providers just like with the care for kids, subsidy can make decisions to opt in.

I don't think it will be a choice for many providers because if you do not opt in as a business, if a provider down the street.

> > is, you early start provider and that parent can go to that facility and pay 0.

I don't see why a parent would opt to come to a center where they would have to pay between 4 to $600 a week.

So the market forces are going to force everyone into the system.

> > Much more to find out about this particular topic will be paying attention to it on the McKayla Sabot State reporter at Connecticut Public's, a government report.

You can find her work at CD Public Dot Org and Georgia Goldberg, the executive director of Hope for New Haven Incorporated.

She also hosts a podcast Inside Voices, Community Conversations.

Check that out.

Did a whole breakdown of the endowment?

What it means for parents.

Thank you guys for your work.

You've been listening to them as well.

After the break.

We zoom out to include as many of Connecticut's youth as we can with former Connecticut child advocate Sarah Eagan, listening to the Wheelhouse on Connecticut Public.

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I'm Frankie Graziano.

> > For nearly 11 years, Sarah Eagan helmed a state agency created to protect the rights of Connecticut children stepped down as the state child advocate last year.

She now works for a legal rights organization called the Center for Children's Advocacy.

And she's speaking out and what the state can do holes in the social safety net that have widened and frayed.

Very important visual there.

Sarah made it.

Thank you for joining us today on the Wheelhouse.

Thanks for having me, Frankie.

So happy to have you on a dig right into this.

You wrote about the state's social safety net in a recent op-ed published in the Current.

Give me a quick overview.

Why is the safety net as you described it, complete with holes that have widened freed?

You know what that's been happening for a long time and it's part and parcel of thinking of how we support kids and families as with a net itself, which I think it's a problem, right?

Because what happens to a net over time?

> > It just gets stretched and stretched and then things happened to a big holes.

Big gaps right?

Let's look at where we are over the last 10 years for vulnerable kids.

Like what I wrote about in the Hartford Current.

We know that Medicaid investment is not where it needs to be way behind where we need to be to pay for care that kids and families need.

We know that invest in our state child welfare system is down probably over 200 million dollars a year since from where it was 10 years ago.

We know that supports and services for kids with disabilities in the state Regis Le underfunded and so many families go to bed at night panicking over how they're going to get care for their kids.

And we just learned that our our worsening problem of what it takes to support a family, Connecticut.

We have over 500,000 families in the state of Connecticut.

That can barely eke out a survival budget.

I think about how many kids that is.

in order to get well here for kids, we're gonna have to be really honest about where are we?

> > In terms of supporting kids and stop thinking about it as a safety net that we can stretch over and think about it is what is the foundation that had only one of active not reactive.

You wrote about someone named Theresa Why she represent to Dave of what's going on here in Connecticut.

What's gone wrong?

Well, Theresa is one of the most vulnerable kids in our state right to re some lives in state custody.

She's in the foster care system.

She just so she rupture, right?

That's her real name.

She just celebrated her 10th birthday in a hospital.

Because she doesn't have the care she needs doesn't have the services she needs.

She can't go home and live safely with her parents and she doesn't a foster home to take her and this terrible for 2 recent right.

And what was recorded her seen that those are her words.

She turned to her lawyer and one of my teammates at the Center for Children's Advocacy.

And she said I and the freed on never leave here.

She's 10 years old.

Teresa and what Theresa needs lives in the context of all the other things I just talked about right, we need to have a system of care and support for children.

Not one that's crumbling, but one that we're strengthening.

Is she still in the hospital?

Has there been any change since the article was rain?

Any any kind of update in that regard?

> > Well, I do want to get too specific about her sister.

Her situation, you know, just because of concerns about confidentiality.

But I can see that the challenge is described in that article are still present for her and they're still present for a lot of other kits.

You know, frankly, in the last year alone, there were more than 2000 incidents of children on Medicaid stuck in hospital emergency departments for behavior, health reasons at any given time, there could be 30 to 30 plus children at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in the behavior health, part of the emergency department.

A department built for 11 children.

Why have we not solve this problem?

Because we have not adequately designed, funded and committed to a system of care for children like to recent 100 people's children and their families.

So what's the best thing that state lawmakers can do for this?

Is it is it money over time?

What what what should be done to help these kids?

> > Well, you know, it's not all gloom because we have a lot of capacity, we have a lot of wonderful leaders who just spent the last, you know, 30 minutes listening to the amazing legacy of the amazing Beth by right when we design when we come when we make a multi-year plan, Timmy children's needs, we can succeed.

Connecticut has a lot of its testing its own hands right?

You know, we do.

Thank goodness for federalism, but we can invest in what kids and families need.

Right?

We have an affordable housing crisis of our own making.

We have a food insecurity problem of our own making.

We have an underfunded behavioral health system of our own making.

We can choose to design a system of care across state agencies we see to DCF to the state Medicaid agency that says how do we meet the needs of children and families together from birth to 21?

I think what you're getting at is kind of a new infrastructure kind of like what that by then some stakeholders did with O E C.

> > I think you're looking at kind of maybe a new infrastructure of of sorts.

> > We have to make sure that that kind of ingenuity, innovation is done in integrated way across state agencies.

You know, it's easy to pummel DCF for like not having enough foster homes right?

Like they're an easy target.

But he's a bit of work.

They do exist in the context of every other problem with challenge we've talked about here today, right?

You can't preserve families and keep kids safe and families beat their family of origin or a foster home.

It families are struggling with basic needs.

And if they can't access the behavior, health services that they as adults or their children.

> > Some developing news out of Waterbury police discovered in February.

31 year-old 68 pound man.

Officers say live fire to escape his home.

It's alleged he was held captive by a stepmother from the time he was 11 years-old up until police found him in February.

Some 20 years.

My colleagues in the NEWSROOM have identified him as S what is this case highlight about the current state of the social safety net in Connecticut?

If anything?

Yes, well, in this is obviously developing.

> > Criminal investigation and prosecution.

So I can't comment on the specifics of that.

But what I can say is that based on the allegations right, Connecticut remains one of a handful of states.

Where a child can be permanently withdrawn from school.

And there's no follow-up.

And I know that that's controversial for folks in the public policy round.

But but the reality is, is just about 40 states have a specific statutory regulatory framework for governing the permit withdrawal of a child from school and Connecticut doesn't.

And this is a matter appropriately before policymakers and policymakers have to come up with a solution.

And that's where I kind of want to end up on here.

I'm reading this directly article written from Connecticut Mirror reporter Jeanne Merc.

I read it directly from here.

> > see a report released Monday concluded Lex Home schooling regulations.

Again, this is from a 5th have meant that some Connecticut children are getting a proper education in the system has been used to cover up abuse and quote, the article was published as parents of home-schooled children rallied in Hartford.

This is back in May.

What's your response to what Jimmy outlined in our story is a politically charged issue for some folks.

Well, it's been a politically charged issue for decades here in Connecticut, right?

We have struggled to reconcile.

> > Now it's the rights of parents with the right of the state to ensure the safety of children in the education of of students.

Right?

No one wants to impair the rights of parents to direct the education of their children.

That is a constitutionally protected right?

Right.

The issue is actually not about homeschooling.

It's about individuals who can.

And we've demonstrated this in multiple state audits and reports parents who use the dice of home schooling and exploit the state's lack of statutory regulatory framework for withdrawing children from school in order to hide their children from public view and from state child welfare.

Authorities that has happened in numerous cases that has been documented extensively by the office of The Child Advocate.

He's seen a number of DCF cases and that's a public policy matter appropriately resolved at the Legislature.

You've been listening to Sarah Eagan, the former Connecticut child advocate and current executive director of the Center for Children's Advocacy.

> > So great to have you on the show.

Thank you so much for your work and thank you so much for your work.

Is the child advocate think, you know, he right here leaving the position today show is produced by Chloe when it was edited by Patrick Scahill.

And Robyn Doyon-Aitken our technical producer is Dylan Race special.

Thanks to test terrible.

Megan Fitzgerald, Connecticut Public's, visuals team and our operations team download the Wheelhouse anytime on your favorite podcast app.

Frankie Graziano.

This is the Wheelhouse.

Thank you so much for listening.

♪ ♪