“It was a bit of a mixed bag for early childhood programs. "
Daniel VanderMolen is the Vice President of Impact at First Steps Kent, a non-profit supporting healthy development and school readiness for young children.
He is still evaluating changes in funding in the new state budget.
"There were some positive developments for pre-K access, but there are still significant gaps that remain for the infant/toddler services and support of some of the community pieces really impacting the local level.”
He says Kent may fare better than other counties due to the local Ready by Five Millage renewal passed last year.
It will support programs for the next six years, providing a safety net of sorts.
“We do have some stability here locally in Kent County because of the millage but even with that incredible investment, there's still a lot of operating services that need additional support. We fund about 30 programs with 16 different organizations currently.”
VanderMolen says affordable childcare is still a critical issue, and cuts to outreach organizations mean it’s now harder to connect people to the programs they need.
“There's a lot of opportunity out there still. There's a lot of coordination that's still going on behind the scenes but what it does mean is that it might take longer and it might not look exactly as it did a couple weeks ago.”
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