Lawmakers allotted child care workers $15 million a year ago. They are still waiting.

Cora Hoppe, executive director of the Rochester Child Care Center, which has seven locations, is waiting on nearly $167,000 from the state for staff bonuses and other incentives to keep and recruit workers. (Courtesy photo)

New Hampshire lawmakers got the message last session.

The state’s dire shortage of affordable child care options had reached crisis levels during the pandemic as providers lost staff to higher paying and less stressful jobs at retail stores and fast-food restaurants. Without child care, parents were leaving jobs to stay home with their children. Business owners were desperate to entice them back.

Legislators responded by including an unprecedented $15 million in the state budget for child care providers, to pay for staff bonuses, training, student loan repayment, and other incentives to retain and recruit workers.

Thirteen months later, providers haven’t seen the money despite what they described as repeated assurances it’s coming from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees child care programs.

Nor have they received the $25,000 stipends for facility upgrades they were promised in exchange for completing business coaching from the Missouri-based SEED Collective, a consulting firm hired by DHHS to manage that program. DHHS has alerted providers it was taking over distribution of those payments immediately but did not say why.

On Friday, July 19, 286 child care providers, directors, community members and parents voiced their frustration with the delays in a letter to Gov. Chris Sununu and the Executive Council, which first approved funding for various child care assistance grants seven months ago.

“These funds only become meaningful once they are placed in the hands of those who need them,” the letter read. It continued, “This length of delay for such an urgent need is unacceptable — and undermines the fundings’ intention to provide temporary, immediate relief.”

The letter, which calls for providers to be paid immediately, does not fault DHHS for the delays but instead the Legislature for “underfunding of (DHHS) operations” to the point where it was unable to move the grants more quickly.

“We’re reaching out in the hopes of working together to take immediate actions to address these delays in fundings and prevent further damage to the stability and viability of child care in our state,” the letter said.

Jennifer Legere, who owns A Place to Grow in Brentwood, wrote the letter. She said in an interview Thursday (July 18) that she’s waiting on nearly $60,000 in grants, $50,000 to retain and recruit staff, and $10,000 for the improvements she’s made to her center as part of the coaching program.

“I can’t pay salaries on ‘I promise,’” Legere said. “That’s not how business functions. There needs to be a promise that is fulfilled. This field is so fragile. We need these dollars today, not ‘When we get to it.’”

‘I’m still here waiting’

DHHS spokesperson Kathleen Remillard responded to questions from the New Hampshire Bulletin via email on July 19. She said the $15 million in workforce grants are “expected” to go out this week, a year after lawmakers approved them.

She said the department decided to extend its initial timeline to incorporate feedback from child care providers.

Several providers interviewed for this story confirmed that they had been asked for input but said the department was late in asking for it and then mismanaged the application process, causing further delays. They said this has been a consistent problem since the state first announced during the pandemic that it would invest nearly $144 million in federal and state money in the child care system.

According to an email shared with the New Hampshire Bulletin by a provider, the department invited providers to apply for a $15 million workforce grant on Dec 6. and gave them until Dec. 29 to apply.

Providers were to be notified of their awards by Jan. 24, according to the email. Payments were to follow, in time for the department to complete an interim report on the program by June 28.

Remillard at DHHS laid out a different timeline in her email.

The department sent its request for approval to the Executive Council in early November, five months after lawmakers passed the state budget.

After the council approved it three weeks later, Sununu celebrated the vote in a press release.

The department, however, went back to the council three months later, in February, with an amended request after asking providers for feedback, according to Remillard.

“As we began the process of determining how the funds would be distributed based on specific allowable uses, DHHS recognized the importance of including stakeholder input in developing approval criteria,” Remillard wrote.

“The department collaborated with child care providers and advocates, including the NH Child Care Advisory Council, to develop a fair model that would also increase the number of applicants.”

Remillard did not say why the department did not seek feedback from providers before it first requested the Executive Council’s approval, a question providers also raised in interviews for this story. The department began notifying providers of their awards in May, Remillard said.

Jackie Cowell, executive director of Early Learning NH, which signed onto the letter to the governor and council, said she believes leadership changes within the DHHS’ child care division will lead to improvements.

Still, she said, the delays have had consequences. “What’s been breaking my heart is when I hear that teachers that were all excited when that money got passed last year and were looking forward to getting some recognition and support, have been waiting and waiting and waiting,” Cowell said. “And finally, they said, ‘I don’t believe this money is coming. I’ll see you later.’” Cora Hoppe, who oversees seven child care sites as the executive director of the Rochester Child Care Center, had planned to use her $167,000 grant to pay bonuses to her 73 staff members, who care for 135 children aged 6 months to 5 years and 245 children in an after-school program.

“I didn’t tell the employees though, because I know how the state works,” Hoppe said. “I was thinking (the money would arrive) by the end of the fiscal year (in June). I’ve done my dance. I’ve done my due diligence, and I’m still here waiting.”

The Children’s Center of the Upper Valley in Lebanon is one of several centers that participated in a state-funded business coaching program that came with a $25,000 grant. Many providers who completed the program have not received the money. (Courtesy photo)

‘I’m incredibly frustrated’

Providers who completed the multi-week business coaching program managed by the SEED Collective are no less dismayed with the delayed payments for facility improvements.

Those $25,000 grants are intended to reimburse providers for facility upgrades that they said they would not have taken on without the assistance.

Tiffany Roberts, owner of Adventures in Learning in Conway, submitted $25,000 in receipts for reimbursement in June. She spent $9,000 on technology upgrades to automate administrative tasks such as reminding parents about annual physicals, scheduling parent tours and sending letters of welcome to new families.

Roberts covered some of her expenses with a loan because SEED Collective told her she’d be paid in 30 days. She’s still waiting.

“I think the most important impact (of uncertain funding) for us is the way it affects our families and staff,” Roberts said. “I can’t give raises. I can’t budget as I should. It goes into cost calculations of providing quality care for families. I can’t look at tuition and assume that money is coming in.”

Ellen Grudzien, founder of Let’s Grow Outside NH in Amherst and Bedford, put her grant toward improvements that included furniture for a new full-day program.

“I have spent thousands of dollars of my own money, and I would say I am incredibly frustrated,” Grudzien said Thursday (July 18). “I’m pretty assertive and asked, ‘Please give me a timeline.’ It’s the perfect time to build up facilities. I have received no communication until yesterday.”

That communication was a July 16 email from Adrienne Haynes, founder and lead consultant of the SEED Collective. In it, Haynes attributed the delays to DHHS, saying it asked for late changes to the payment approval process.

“This will add processing time, and is another example of why we can’t make promises on specific timelines to (coaching) program graduates,” Haynes wrote.

“We are sharing as much as we can, as we find out.”

Remillard at DHHS did not respond to questions about SEED Collective’s oversight of the program. But the department sent a letter to providers midday Friday (July 19) saying it had taken over issuing payments. The letter, which a provider shared with the New Hampshire Bulletin, did not explain the reasons for the change.

“We are working as quickly as possible to ensure timely distribution of funds,” it said.

Haynes did not respond to a message. Staff at the SEED Collective, which pursued the Bulletin in May about coverage of its coaching program, did not respond to questions sent Wednesday about providers’ complaints.

In an email, Danielle Santiago, events and marketing manager, wrote “(Haynes) is in coaching all day Wednesday-Friday, but thank you for the email.”

Santiago did not respond to a request Friday for comment about the state’s decision to take over payments to providers.

This story was originally produced by the New Hampshire Bulletin, an independent local newsroom that allows NH Business Review and other outlets to republish its reporting.

‘We need these dollars today, not “When we get to it.”’