CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Child care advocates hope a special session agenda will include funding for child care services.

Some advocates presented a petition with well over 2,100 signatures while at the governor’s office at the State Capitol Monday.

“It is encouraging Governor Jim Justice to put child care on the agenda for this special session,” said Kristy Ritz, Executive Director for the West Virginia Association for Young Children.

Ritz expects the number of signatures to double over the next few weeks leading up to a likely special session.

Funding for enrollment-based payments is expected to end in September. Ritz said providers would end up getting paid based on a child’s daily attendance. She calls that an “unsustainable model.”

“We need funding for enrollment-based payments for child care subsidies,” Ritz said.

The funding that runs out in September was something that started at the beginning of covid and was paid through ARPA funds up until last Fall.

According to Ritz, the enrollment-based change was going to cost around $44 million, but the Legislature wanted to take a tax break approach, which Ritz does not agree with.

“Tax breaks will not save child care,” said Ritz. “They probably won’t help at this point.”

Ritz compared the situation to the public school system. If a teacher only got paid based on the days that a student attends, that system would not be sustainable either.

“If they’re only paid on days that a child attends, it would fluctuate so much and be impossible to budget,” she said.

Ritz said there are a lot of child care programs across the state that may have to close classrooms or maybe their entire building because they don’t think they’ll be able to pay their staff and offer their educational services. The lack of high-quality services or services altogether could also be a turn off for companies who are pondering a move to the state.

“We have lost out on business opportunities coming into the state because they see that there’s not child care,” said Ritz.

Delegate Mike Pushkin (D-Kanawha) Monday during the Joint Standing Committee Meeting on Health (Photo/Will Price)

Kanawha County Delegate Mike Pushkin has noticed the staffing issues in child care services. During a meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Health Monday, Pushkin said

“A lot of these services are already unavailable even if they could use them or needed them because of the staffing shortages,” he said.

Pushkin called the situation a “crisis.”

The hope is for Ritz and the West Virginia Association for Young Children that this issue will end up on the special session call by Governor Jim Justice. There are over 1,300 child care programs in the state of West Virginia that could be impacted.

“We hope that he puts his money where his mouth is and helps us with the funding.”

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