New Mexico's universal child care initiative to launch Nov. 1 under revised final rule

SANTA FE — New Mexico is moving ahead with a trailblazing universal child care initiative, but only after making changes to proposed rules in an attempt to address providers’ concerns.

A day after submitting them to the federal government, the state Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) on Friday published the final rules that will govern how the initiative announced by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will work, starting on Nov. 1.

After child care center owners from around New Mexico expressed concerns about the rules’ impact on their businesses during a public hearing this month, the ECECD increased the per-child reimbursement rates that providers will get over what had been initially proposed.

For instance, a child care center with the state’s highest accreditation level that opts into universal child care will receive $1,975 per month for each toddler enrolled on a full-time basis. That’s up from $1,900 per toddler under the initial version of the proposed rules.

In addition, the agency reduced minimum salary levels that early childhood center would have to pay their entry-level staffers — from $18 per hour to $16 per hour — in order to qualify for a higher reimbursement rate.

In explaining the change, ECECD cited the 127 written comments and 55 oral comments that it received on the initial proposed rule changes.

“Many providers expressed concerns that the enhanced rate, as initially proposed, might not sufficiently offset longer operating hours and wage requirements,” the department’s Deputy Secretary Kendal Chavez said in a Friday statement.

“In response to this feedback, ECECD adjusted the final rule to increase the enhanced rate and reduce the minimum wage threshold, ensuring the program remains both sustainable for providers and beneficial for families,” she added.

The changes also came after several board members of the New Mexico Early Childhood Association met with the governor and top ECECD officials about concerns that included providers not being included in the initial drafting of the universal child care rules.

One of those board members, Barbara Tedrow, the owner of a preschool and child care center in Farmington, said about 90% of the changes sought by the organization were made in the final rule.

In addition to the revised wage rates and reimbursement levels, she also cited changes such as dropping a proposed requirement that private child care centers submit their personnel policies to the state for approval.

“They really did listen to us,” said Tedrow, referring to Lujan Grisham and top early childhood officials in her administration. “The secretary and the governor have vowed to keep communication open.”

But Tedrow said she’s still not sure whether her preschool will opt into the universal child care initiative, citing financial uncertainty caused by tying employee pay rates to per-child state subsidies.

New Mexico has received national attention for its first-of-its-kind universal child care plan, which will remove existing income limits for receiving state-subsidized child care. The governor said the plan could pave the way for an additional 12,000 children statewide to qualify for no-cost child care.

But questions have also emerged about the logistics of such an initiative, including ECECD’s stated need for 5,000 additional early childhood employees statewide.

Early Childhood Education and Care Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky acknowledged in a recent interview it will take time to meet the statewide demand for state-subsidized child care for working parents, but said many families would get immediate relief.

Meanwhile, some lawmakers have expressed frustration about the Lujan Grisham administration moving forward with the universal child care initiative before securing state funding to pay for it.

The initiative will cost at least an additional $120 million in state funds to operate for the coming budget year, a figure that could increase due to the changes made in the final rule. One of the changes allows children who are not United States citizens to also qualify for the program, but stipulates that any child without “federally eligible citizenship status” will be paid for solely with state funds.

Given the initiative’s elevated price tag, Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, said this week the governor’s administration was trying to put legislators “in a box” by launching the program before the start of a 30-day legislative session in January.