LEXINGTON PARK, Md. – Elizabeth McCarthy, Owner of an in-home child care program called Little Bubble Child Care, LLC, wants to bring light to issues many Maryland Child Care Providers are having with the Child Care Scholarship (CCS) Program.
The CCS is funded by the State of Maryland and is a tuition assistance program for income-qualifying families to afford quality child care. McCarthy says many child care providers are leaving the program because of receiving no payment from the state government, leaving providers without their paychecks, and families without care.
McCarthy told The BayNet that Little Bubble Child Care has been providing care for children since it opened in April 2023, “We care for up to 8 children at a time, we offer infant, preschool, and school-age care from 6:00 am to 5:30 pm Monday through Friday. We provide individualized and themed, age-appropriate curriculums. We serve two meals and two snacks to all children in our care and we participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program.”
However, McCarthy has recently run into issues with the Child Care Scholarship program which many of their enrolled families and children rely on.
McCarthy described some of the issues with the program, “From the beginning, there was hardly any support for the families applying for the program. They came to me with questions that I could not answer. When I would call Child Care Scholarship Central 2 – who we are to communicate with – I was told they could not give me any information. I relayed this information to the parent and stated that I had never heard of the application and process to be this confusing. The parent called CCS Central and informed me that they were not much help. Eventually, it was all submitted and approved just for the scholarship to end two months later.”
McCarthy says there are also issues with the portal and they are not notified if any documentation is missing or needs to be fixed.
McCarthy is currently dealing with a situation where she is being told that she will have to wait three months to receive their paycheck from CSS and she says some other providers are being told to wait even longer. McCarthy says that she and other childcare providers have expressed their concerns with CCS many times over email and other sources and have been told to “not take it personally.”
McCarthy went on to describe the type of situation this puts both child care providers and the families in, “The issue here is that these families cannot afford to pay their child’s tuition and I cannot afford to provide care, an environment for the child care program and myself, groceries for the children and my family, along with the rising cost of bills and other expenses without this pay. This puts the family and provider in a sensitive position. I have to charge these families the full rate or let them go.”
“…These families are on the Child Care Scholarship Program because they need the tuition assistance. If they cannot find care for their children without breaking the bank, they cannot go to work…”
McCarthy stressed the impact situations like this have on the childcare industry as a whole, “Child care is one of the most stressful and demanding careers. We work 12+ hours with children and spend our personal time preparing lessons, groceries, learning materials, cleaning, disinfecting, and countless other things. Our industry is dying because of the lack of support for child care providers from Federal, State, and local governments, as well as our communities.”
Ms. McCarthy says concerned citizens or child care providers can try to contact CCS Central 2 to speak with Rene’ D. Williams, Director of the Child Care Scholarship Program, or the Assistant State Superintendent, Dr Shayna Cook.
She says that emails, letters, and phone calls to local representatives and delegates, and Governor Wes Moore, could also potentially help if CCS continues to be unhelpful in resolving the issues.
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