Lua Prado, Contributing Photographer

New Haven is investing $3.5 million to improve child care and early childhood education, Mayor Justin Elicker announced in a press conference on Tuesday morning.

The funding is part of the $53 million dollar in American Rescue Plan Act funding — federal COVID-19 relief funds — that the Board of Alders approved in August 2022. The money will be managed by two organizations, United Way of Greater New Haven and CERCLE, a local early childhood education nonprofit. 

Elicker touted the funds as the largest investment in early childhood education in Connecticut. 

“We believe that this will help families and ultimately our children to create more, better articulated opportunities in this cooperative framework that is being built through this early childhood initiative,” Madeline Negrón, superintendent of New Haven Public Schools, said at the event. 

Both Elicker and Negrón spoke about the importance of access to quality early childhood education during the press conference, discussing how research shows that it is one of the best ways to ensure success throughout the rest of a child’s education.

Elicker also said that early childhood education is important because the development of childrens’ brain until age five dramatically affects their development as learners. Elicker said that there are issues with the way the childcare system is set up now, highlighting that there are currently 2,200 infants and children that are not receiving the proper childcare in the city. Negrón said that families are facing issues finding care centers, particularly infant care. 

Elicker also said that there are workforce shortages in the childcare industry as he said providers are underpaid.

He added that he is optimistic that the new funding will create a healthier landscape for early childhood education in New Haven.

The funding is being split into three different categories.

$1.4 million is being allocated to improve existing educational programs and is being managed by United Way of Greater New Haven. This portion is dedicated to help licensed family childcare programs, small groups and centers committed to providing childcare in New Haven. The initial grant will open for childcare centers to apply at 9 a.m. on Nov. 6.

These groups, programs and centers will be able to use the funds for materials, translation services and health and safety upgrades. Organizations serving low-income New Haven residents are especially encouraged to apply, Jennifer Heath — the CEO of United Way of Greater New Haven — told the News. Two other grants will open in early January and will be focused on supporting expansion efforts for childcare groups. 

“United Way works to improve people’s lives in our community and we do that by focusing on priority issues primarily in the areas of education and financial stability and basic needs,” Heath told the News. “We do our work by bringing people and organizations together to come up with solutions to community problems and then work on those together.” 

$1.6 million of the funding is being directed to educational workforce development, particularly for early childhood educators. Led by CERCLE and Hope Development Center, the grant, which is already open, can be used to support teaching staff to get more training, including attending conferences or workshops, providing technical assistance to educators and developing early care apprentice programs. 

To be eligible for a grant, organizations applying have to be either an early childhood education provider or a business that trains early childhood educators. Another requirement for the grant is that the provider needs to either be located in New Haven or must have at least 50 percent of the children they serve be living in New Haven. 

Georgia Goldburn, the co-founder of CERCLE, spoke with the News about her vision for the grant. 

“There are conferences that I think would serve many providers well that are very limited because providers don’t necessarily have those extra funds,” Goldburn said. “Those extra things are needed for providers to go out and to interact and engage with other folks not just locally or statewide, but also nationally.”

The remaining $500,000 of the funding is reserved for “strategic planning” processes supporting efforts to build a better educational system for parents, providers and educators in New Haven. United Way is leading the project. 

Vanessa Diaz-Valencia, head of early childhood education for New Haven Public Schools said that the school district is excited to participate in the city’s strategic planning on early childhood education.

“Another thing that we know and we hear from the community is that when there’s too many things happening, there’s too many initiatives, there’s too many resources and they’re not all gelled and nothing works right,” Diaz-Valenica said. “So everybody’s kind of in a competitive nature versus in a collaborative and cohesive nature.”

New Haven received $115.8 million total in ARPA funding.