An Act to Build Maine's Economy by Supporting Child Care for Working Families
Maine Legislature, Session 131, LD 1726
Committee: Health and Human Services
Sponsors: JACKSON, TERRY, BALDACCI, BENNETT, RENY, VITELLI, COLLAMORE, MEYER, MILLETT
Amends: 5 MRSA §12004-I, 22 MRSA §3740-E, 22 MRSA §3731-A, 22 MRSA §3736, 22 MRSA §3740-A, 22 MRSA §3740-B, 22 MRSA §3740-C, 22 MRSA §3740-D

Legislative Document
No. 1726
S.P. 690
In Senate, April 20, 2023
An Act to Build Maine's Economy by Supporting Child Care for 
Working Families
Reference to the Committee on Health and Human Services suggested and ordered printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by President JACKSON of Aroostook.
Cosponsored by Representative TERRY of Gorham and
Senators: BALDACCI of Penobscot, BENNETT of Oxford, RENY of Lincoln, VITELLI of 
Sagadahoc, Representatives: COLLAMORE of Pittsfield, MEYER of Eliot, MILLETT of 
Waterford, MILLETT of Cape Elizabeth.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  5 MRSA §12004-I, sub-§39-A is enacted to read:
39-A.  Human Services  
Human 
Services 
Child Care Task Force 
Not Authorized 
MRSA 
§3740-E 
Sec. 2.  22 MRSA §3731-A is enacted to read:
§3731-A.  Maine Child Care Scholarship Program
The Maine Child Care Scholarship Program is established in the department to provide 
child care subsidies under this chapter in accordance with the principles described under 
section 3732 to support the quality child care needs of children and working families while 
also providing a living wage to early childhood educators.  Eligibility for child care 
subsidies under the Maine Child Care Scholarship Program must be determined in 
accordance with this chapter and rules adopted pursuant to this chapter.  Rules adopted 
pursuant to this paragraph are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, 
subchapter 2-A.
Sec. 3.  22 MRSA §3736, sub-§2, as enacted by PL 1993, c. 158, §2, is amended to 
read:
2.  Eligibility decision within 30 15 days; retroactive reimbursement.  The 
department shall determine eligibility for child care programs administered under this 
chapter within 30 15 days of receiving an application.  If a contractor determines eligibility, 
the department shall require that the contractor determine eligibility within 30 15 days of 
receiving an application.  The department shall provide retroactive reimbursement to a 
child care program that provided tuition assistance to an applicant during the application 
period.
Sec. 4.  22 MRSA §3736, sub-§4 is enacted to read:
4.  Changes in eligibility.  The department shall notify a provider of child care services 
provided under this chapter within 2 days of when a recipient's eligibility changes.
Sec. 5.  22 MRSA §3736, sub-§5 is enacted to read:
5.  Payments to providers within 15 days.  The department shall reimburse a provider 
of child care services provided under this chapter within 15 days.
Sec. 6.  22 MRSA §3740-A is enacted to read:
§3740-A.  Report
The department shall evaluate child care subsidies provided under this chapter and, 
beginning December 6, 2023 and annually thereafter, submit a report of the evaluation with 
recommendations on increasing enrollment and reducing barriers to families receiving 
child care subsidies to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction 
over health and human services matters.  The report must include:
1. Barriers.  The identification of access barriers:
A. For children and families to know about and enroll in the Maine Child Care 
Scholarship Program established under section 3731-A; and
B. For all child care programs to participate in the Maine Child Care Scholarship 
Program established under section 3731-A;
2. Feedback.  The ways in which the department has engaged in feedback from 
families and child care programs through multiple engagement tools, such as surveys, 
listening sessions and focus groups; and
3. Reimbursement.  The instances and frequency of and reasons for delayed or late 
reimbursement payments from the Office of Child and Family Services to participating 
child care programs and plans to remedy delayed or late reimbursement payments.
Sec. 7.  22 MRSA §3740-B is enacted to read:
§3740-B.  Quality child care costs estimator tool
The department, in consultation with the Children's Cabinet established under Title 5, 
section 19131, subsection 1 and the council, shall create and maintain an estimator tool in 
accordance with this section to calculate the actual cost of quality child care.
1. Requirements.  The estimator tool must:
A. Include a living wage compensation scale for early childhood educators pursuant to 
the recommendations of the Child Care Task Force established in section 3740-E;
B. Include regional differences in costs;
C. Include employee salaries and benefits;
D. Include facility costs;
E. Include costs associated with compliance with statutory and rule requirements, 
including the child care quality rating system participation under section 3737, 
subsection 3 and specific costs associated with each step of the rating system and any 
quality indicators used; and
F. Use data and research available from existing studies and reports.
2. Considerations.  In developing the estimator tool, the department shall:
A. Evaluate the effectiveness of current boundaries of child care subsidy regions;
B. Consider differentiating child care subsidy rates by child age and geographic region; 
and
C. Examine alternatives to the current system under paragraph B, such as zip code level 
regions or regionalization based on urban, suburban or rural designations.
3. Accessibility.  The estimator tool must be publicly accessible.  The department's 
process for making changes to the tool must be transparent to the public.
Sec. 8.  22 MRSA §3740-C is enacted to read:
§3740-C.  Affordable child care implementation plan
The department, in consultation with the Office of Child and Family Services, the 
Children's Cabinet, established under Title 5, section 19131, subsection 1, and the council 
shall develop, in accordance with this section, a phased implementation plan with 
benchmarks for limiting child care costs, by 2030, to no more than 7% of a family's income 
for a family earning up to 250% of the median family income in the State.  The 
implementation plan must focus on children and families that are the furthest from 
opportunity, as determined by family income, and must include recommended targeted 
supports for providers serving children who are underserved, and must emphasize greater 
racial equity.  The implementation plan must include:
1. Phased approach.  A phased approach with benchmarks, that gradually increases 
eligibility based on income until 2030;
2. Copayments.  A graduated system of copayments to eliminate the benefit cliff effect 
as defined in Title 26, section 3801, subsection 1 for families and to limit the amount a 
family pays for child care;
3. Cost modeling.  Payment rates informed by a cost modeling tool that includes 
providing a living wage to licensed child care providers;
4. Expanded access.  Expanded access to a child care subsidy by developing a model 
to enable the department to provide contracted slots to programs that service a family using 
the child care subsidy; and
5. Strategy.  A strategy, a budget, revenue recommendations and a timeline to achieve 
the goals of this section.
Sec. 9.  22 MRSA §3740-D is enacted to read:
§3740-D.  Early childhood integrated data system
This section governs data collection and reporting relating to an early childhood 
integrated data system.
1. Data collection.  The commissioner shall collect data in accordance with this 
subsection to create an early childhood integrated data system to provide information 
across agencies to make decisions about programs and policies that promote access, quality 
and a strong workforce to support children who have not attained 10 years of age.  The data 
collected must include information on the early childhood educator workforce and child 
care data for child care facilities and family child care providers licensed under section 
8301-A, including, but not limited to, workforce demographics, salaries and benefits; 
enrollment and staffing demographics; and assessments on cost-of-care and affordability.  
Race, ethnicity and geographic information must be included in each data set collected.
2. Report.  No later than December 15, 2023 and biennially thereafter, the 
commissioner, the Commissioner of Education and the Commissioner of Labor shall 
jointly submit a report to the joint standing committees of the Legislature having 
jurisdiction over child care matters that includes a review of the adequacy of the pathways 
to early childhood education careers and an evaluation of how the collection of data under 
subsection 1 and coordinated, dedicated funding are supporting the ongoing development 
of an early care and education system.  The joint standing committees that receive the report 
may report out legislation relating to the report.
Sec. 10.  22 MRSA §3740-E is enacted to read:
§3740-E.  Child Care Task Force
The Child Care Task Force, referred to in this section as "the task force," is established 
to make recommendations to the department about child care.
1. Membership.  The task force consists of 14 members appointed by the 
commissioner as follows:
A. One nonprofit child care administrator;
B. One for-profit child care administrator;
C. Two family child care provider owners;
D. Two educators working in child care programs;
E. One representative from a state association representing early childhood education;
F. One representative from a state association representing diversity, equity and 
inclusion;
G. One representative of child care providers;
H. One representative of the child care quality rating system under section 3737;
I. Two parents;
J. One economist; and
K. One policy analyst or researcher.
2. Chairs.  The first 2 named members of the task force serve as chairs.
3. Duties.  The task force shall develop policy recommendations and provide the 
recommendations to the Office of Child and Family Services regarding the following:
A. Preserving and increasing racial and ethnic equity and diversity and recognizing the 
value of cultural competency and multilingualism in the child care workforce;
B. Providing a salary floor that supports recruitment and retention of a qualified 
workforce in every early education setting, determined by an analysis of fields that 
compete to recruit workers with comparable skills, competencies and experience of 
early childhood educators;
C. Indexing salaries for child care providers against the salary for a typical preschool 
lead teacher, differentiating base compensation for varying levels of responsibility 
within the early childhood workplace, including consideration of center directors, 
assistant directors, lead teachers, assistant teachers, paraprofessionals, family child 
care facility owners and family home assistants;
D. Incentivizing attainment of relevant higher education credentials and credential 
equivalencies, including early learning certificates, associate degrees, bachelor's 
degrees, master's degrees and doctoral degrees; training; and years of experience by 
increasing compensation for each of these;
E. Considering credential equivalencies, including certified demonstration of 
competencies developed through apprenticeships, peer learning models, community-
based training, elective training and other strategies;
F. Considering a child care provider's years of experience in the field and years of 
experience at the child care provider's current site;
G. Differentiating subsidy rates by region; and
H. Providing additional targeted investments for child care providers serving a high 
proportion of families receiving a child care subsidy, child care providers 
demonstrating additional linguistic or cultural competency and child care providers 
serving populations furthest from opportunity, as defined by family income, including:
(1) Families experiencing homelessness;
(2) Children in foster care;
(3) Underserved geographic communities;
(4) Underserved ethnic or linguistic communities;
(5) Underserved age groups, such as infants and toddlers; and
(6) Populations with specialized health or educational needs.
4. Staffing.  The department shall provide staffing for the task force.
Sec. 11.  Department of Health and Human Services to make changes to 
the child care subsidy program.  The Department of Health and Human Services shall:
1. Review department rules, department materials and department publications, 
including on the department's publicly accessible website, and replace references to "Child 
Care Subsidy Program" with "Maine Child Care Scholarship Program"; 
2. Promote the Maine Child Care Scholarship Program, established in the Maine 
Revised Statutes, Title 22, section 3731-A, statewide with a plan to reach underserved and 
marginalized populations; and
3. Streamline and simplify the online invoicing and billing systems for child care 
providers to accurately reflect reimbursements, including quality bumps, payments to child 
care programs and parent copays, and to isolate payments for the changes to eligibility 
under the department's child care subsidy rules from state funding.
Sec. 12.  Child care subsidy rules.  The Department of Health and Human Services 
shall amend its rules in Child Care Subsidy Program Rules, Chapter 6 to:
1. Increase eligibility for child care subsidies from 85% of the State's median income 
to 125% of the State's median income;
2. Add eligibility for an employee of a licensed child care center or family child care 
provider if the applicant otherwise meets the eligibility requirements after the department 
disregards all of the employee's earned and unearned income and verifies the employee's 
employment; and
3. Reimburse child care providers that accept child care subsidies based on enrollment 
and not attendance.
Sec. 13.  Head Start eligibility rules.  The Department of Health and Human 
Services shall amend its rules in Head Start Program, Chapter 5 to increase eligibility for 
enrollment in Head Start to 185% of the federal poverty level.
Sec. 14.  Report on salary supplement rulemaking.  The Department of Health 
and Human Services shall, no later than December 15, 2023, report to the joint standing 
committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over health and human services matters 
on the status of its rulemaking pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 22, section 
3737-A.
Sec. 15.  Appropriations and allocations.  The following appropriations and 
allocations are made.
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF
Child Care Services 0563
Initiative: Provides funding to double the monthly wage supplement for all child care 
workers.
GENERAL FUND
2023-24
2024-25
All Other
$15,000,000
$15,000,000
__________
__________
GENERAL FUND TOTAL
$15,000,000
$15,000,000
Child Care Services 0563
Initiative: Provides funding to increase eligibility for child care subsidies from 85% of the 
State's median income to 125% of the State's median income.
GENERAL FUND
2023-24
2024-25
All Other
$3,700,000
$3,700,000
__________
__________
GENERAL FUND TOTAL
$3,700,000
$3,700,000
Child Care Services 0563
Initiative: Provides funding to include child care staff in the Maine Child Care Scholarship 
Program.
GENERAL FUND
2023-24
2024-25
All Other
$2,500,000
$2,500,000
__________
__________
GENERAL FUND TOTAL
$2,500,000
$2,500,000
Child Care Services 0563
Initiative: Provides funding for delivery of Head Start services to support families earning 
up to 185% of the federal poverty level.
GENERAL FUND
2023-24
2024-25
All Other
$3,600,000
$3,600,000
__________
__________
GENERAL FUND TOTAL
$3,600,000
$3,600,000
Child Care Services 0563
Initiative: Provides funding to make system improvements to the Maine Child Care 
Scholarship Program.
GENERAL FUND
2023-24
2024-25
All Other
$100,000
$100,000
__________
__________
GENERAL FUND TOTAL
$100,000
$100,000
Child Care Services 0563
Initiative: Provides one-time funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, 
Office of Child and Family Services, in consultation with the Maine Children's Cabinet and 
Children's Cabinet Early Childhood Advisory Council, to create an estimator tool to 
calculate the cost of quality child care, which enables the State to model actual costs of 
child care.
GENERAL FUND
2023-24
2024-25
All Other
$200,000
$0
__________
__________
GENERAL FUND TOTAL
$200,000
$0
Child Care Services 0563
Initiative: Provides one-time funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, 
Office of Child and Family Services to develop a phased implementation plan and 
benchmarks for limiting child care costs for families by 2030.
GENERAL FUND
2023-24
2024-25
All Other
$100,000
$0
__________
__________
GENERAL FUND TOTAL
$100,000
$0
Child Care Services 0563
Initiative: Provides one-time funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, 
Office of Child and Family Services to develop an early childhood integrated data system.
GENERAL FUND
2023-24
2024-25
All Other
$100,000
$0
__________
__________
GENERAL FUND TOTAL
$100,000
$0
Child Care Services 0563
Initiative: Provides funding to continue to reimburse child care providers who accept 
subsidies based on enrollment, not attendance.
GENERAL FUND
2023-24
2024-25
All Other
$4,800,000
$4,800,000
__________
__________
GENERAL FUND TOTAL
$4,800,000
$4,800,000
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, 
DEPARTMENT OF
DEPARTMENT TOTALS
2023-24
2024-25
GENERAL FUND
$30,100,000
$29,700,000
__________
__________
DEPARTMENT TOTAL - ALL FUNDS
$30,100,000
$29,700,000
SUMMARY
This bill establishes the Maine Child Care Scholarship Program within the Department 
of Health and Human Services to encompass the former child care subsidy program and 
new eligibility for child care providers.  The bill directs the department to amend its 
procedures regarding eligibility and reimbursement, submit an annual report relating to 
child care subsidies to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction 
over health and human services matters and to implement various departmental 
improvements to the child care subsidy program.  The bill establishes the Child Care Task 
Force to make recommendations to the department regarding quality child care.  The bill 
provides funding to increase eligibility and wages for child care services and to implement 
the improvements to child care subsidies.  The bill also directs the department, by 2030, to 
implement a program to achieve affordable child care.