Hugh Carey/Summit Daily News
Breckenridge Town Council in its working session on Tuesday, April 12 approved an update to the city’s Child Care Assistance Program to potentially provide child care support to more families in the community.
The update included three proposals. One specified that at least one member of the household has to work for the business in Summit County. Another update raised the income limit for aid. The third update expanded the sliding scale to include more income levels.
Austin Dinnen, the child care and housing administrator for the city, presented the changes to the town council in the workshop. She said these changes would be used when the program reopens in mid-May to help prioritize the program for residents living and working in the community. As of Tuesday, there hadn’t been significant changes to the program since its launch in 2017.
Before the changes were approved, families had to live or work in the Upper Blue Basin in order to qualify for aid. Due to the increase in remote jobs, city employees felt it was necessary to clarify that at least one household member was required to work for a business located and serving in Summit County. In this way, remote workers working for companies that do not serve the community ultimately do not seek help from residents who do. It is in line with the housing norms of the city.
Mayor Eric Mamula said he wanted to ensure that the city’s government subsidized benefits, such as the child care assistance program, applied only to workers who benefit the city. Preferably both parents would be working for companies in Summit County, he said. But if the city’s child care committee is okay with requiring that only one family member work for the county, it will accept it.
“If you’re working for a remote company that’s somewhere else in the country and creating value for New York City, you shouldn’t be taking treasure out of this city to support your living here, so I’m going to take that company away.” I draw a really bright line between them,” Mamula said. “I do not support child care funding for people who decide to move here and work for a company that is not located here.”
Before the recommendation to change the specifications, most child care centers in the program were already giving preference to families who were part of the local workforce, so there are no families in the program who are working entirely remotely. .
“This clarification in the parameters is really just to make sure that we are doing double support on this, in fact, so that we don’t have anyone in the program who is a completely distant family,” Dineen told council members. Told.
The committee also asked for raising the income limit for the programme. Before Tuesday, households that earned more than 150% of the area’s median income or $1,44,150 in a family of four were not eligible to receive any tuition assistance.
“Unfortunately, as tuition rates have risen, we know that there are situations where these families may be burdened with costs based on accepted standards. This is particularly difficult in Summit Counties where other costs (housing, medicine, etc.) are also greater,” the memorandum of the deen to the council reads. “The family is burdened with the cost when the family has many children in care four or five days a week. Currently, an 180% (regional median income) household with a gross income of $173,000 pays $43,160 annually to care for two infants or children five days a week.
| The United States Department of Health and Human Services defines affordable childcare as 7% of a family’s income. To come close to the HHS recommended 7%, Breckenridge’s town staff recommends this sliding scale for the upcoming year of its child care tutoring program. | |
|---|---|
| a child in care | |
| area median income range | Percentage of income spent on child care |
| 0-120% | 8-11% |
| 120-150% | 10-13% |
| 150.1-180% | 13-16% |
| The United States Department of Health and Human Services defines affordable childcare as 7% of a family’s income. To come close to the HHS recommended 7%, Breckenridge’s town staff recommends this sliding scale for the upcoming year of its child care tutoring program. | |
|---|---|
| two children in care | |
| area median income range | Percentage of income spent on child care |
| 0-120% | 9-12% |
| 120-150% | 12.5-16% |
| 150.1-180% | 15.5-20% |
These families are participating in the local workforce, often in specialized or skilled positions, and are still burdened with costs from child care, so the Child Care Committee requested an expansion of the upper limit to help these families. For the Extended Sliding Scale, this means that higher-income households will receive less assistance than lower-income households. Both the families will get assistance, but to a different degree or percentage.
Cost-of-weight calculations currently use 10–13% of a family’s income to establish what is considered affordable. This calculation is used to determine the family’s reimbursement for tuition. This was shifted to 10-13% in January 2021 from 13-16% for the rest of the 2021-2022 cycle. The exact copay is calculated based on specific circumstances, including family income, number of children in care, household size, days used, residence and work preference in Breckenridge. Council members said that in the future, it may be worth exploring ways to explain program parameters that do not use the area’s median income, as that measure can be difficult to explain and understand for residents who live every day. Do not work with that solution. ,
The Child Care Tuition Assistance Program operates with a budget of approximately $600,000-$650,000. These changes will cost $60,000 more per year, or about 10%, and are expected to be offset with the inclusion of 3-year-olds in the Summit Pre-Kindergarten program in the fall. The program, which begins in May, is expected to cost $425,000, with increases in the year 2022-2023.
“It’s so incredibly complicated, and I don’t think people realize how complicated it is — from finding out how many kids there are and what’s going on,” Mamula said. “It’s amazing.”
