At the end of the month, Kentucky childcare providers will no longer receive the bulk of federal pandemic-era support. According to Kentucky Youth Advocates, the American Rescue Plan Act provided $24 billion nationwide to stabilize the childcare industry. Charles Aull is the executive director for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Policy and Research.
“It's creating a lot of major concerns about how childcare providers will respond to that. You know, because they've done things like increased wages and invested in in various other things.”
Aull said the chamber is encouraging the Beshear Administration and General Assembly to analyze the extra federal aid and figure out what worked best. However, some childcare providers may raise rates.
“No provider’s happy about that; no parent is going to be happy about that. That's something that I think a lot of folks are wanting to avoid.”
Aull said there’s been a great deal of discussion at the state level about finding extra funds to help fill that gap. Whether anything can be done before January, when the General Assembly meets, has yet to be decided.
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