OHIO SENATE UNDERMINES PRESCHOOL QUALITY SYSTEM

Last-minute amendment to HB 45 to remove Step Up To Quality requirements, defies year-long bipartisan committee’s work

CLEVELAND, OHIO – In the late hours of Tuesday, December 13, 2022, the Ohio Senate added a last-minute amendment to the appropriations bill (HB 45) that removes the requirement that some publicly funded preschool programs must adhere to Step Up To Quality guidelines that assure a high-quality environment to Ohio’s youngest learners.

Along with the Step Up To Quality changes, the Senate released the $499 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds dedicated to Ohio’s child care system by the federal government. While the system desperately needs these funds to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, the amendment from Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) undermines Ohio’s child care system when working families need it most to get back to work and get the economy back on track. It also ignores the recommendations of a bipartisan committee that has been studying the issue of quality requirements for more than a year and released their final report hours after the HB 45 amendment was passed.

The amendment to the bill – now passed by both House and Senate and set to go to the governor for signature – does the following:

• Step Up To Quality:
  • Exempts some child care programs that provide publicly funded child care to less than twenty-five per cent of the program’s licensed capacity from participating in the program
  • Exempts home-based child care providers from participating in the program
• Reimbursement Rates:
  • Removes the requirement that programs need to maintain their quality rating to maintain their state reimbursement rate

Katie Kelly, PRE4CLE’s Executive Director, said children and families will be most vulnerable to these changes. “The changes made to Step Up To Quality in this amendment do not increase access to quality care; disincentivize child care programs to improve their quality; proactively remove assurances to families that their children will receive a safe, stimulating and educational learning experience; and limit the impact and accountability of Ohio’s child care funding,” Kelly said.

“It also ignores the democratic, bipartisan committee that has worked for more than a year to come up with recommendations on how to improve Ohio’s Step Up To Quality Rating System.  We look forward to working with the Governor and legislature during the state budget process to review these changes and their impact on children, families, and Ohio’s workforce,” Kelly continued.

About Ohio’s Step Up To Quality Rating System:

• Ohio’s Step Up To Quality rating system is the seal of approval for early learning programs and makes it easier for parents to identify high-quality preschool
• High-quality preschool programs have well-trained, professional staff and teachers, a research-based curriculum and age-appropriate lesson plans, and educational activities that include creative and imaginative play.
• Children who participate in high-quality preschool programs are four times more likely to graduate from a four-year college and 50 percent more likely to have consistent employment in their late twenties.

The study committee was established by the final version of House Bill 110 – the 2021-22 state budget bill – to evaluate Step Up To Quality (Ohio’s quality rating system) and Ohio’s publicly funded child care program.

About PRE4CLE: PRE4CLE is a collective impact initiative working to expand access to all 3- and 4-year-olds in the city of Cleveland so that every child enters kindergarten ready to succeed. PRE4CLE connects families to high-quality public and private preschool programs; connects preschool providers to tools, resources, and key partners to increase their quality and serve more children; and provides strategic leadership and advocacy to accelerate the availability of high-quality preschool in Cleveland.

PRE4CLE was developed in 2014 to fulfill a core goal of Cleveland’s Plan for Transforming Schools and is guided by The Cleveland Early Childhood Compact, a public-private leadership body.