ECC Annual Internal Review 7/1/2024 to 6/30/2025 — original pdf

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Annual Internal Review This report covers the time period of 7/1/2024 to 6/30/2025 __________________Early Childhood Council__________________ The Board/Commission mission statement (per the City Code) is: The Early Childhood Council shall: 1. Make recommendations to the city council for the creation, development, and implementation of programs that promote optimal development for young children, 2. Develop, for recommendation to city council, programs and activities that contribute to the continued development of a system of high-quality early care and education and after-school programs for Austin's children; 3. Explore and develop, for recommendation to city council, cooperative arrangements with area governments in the metropolitan region to support a system of quality early care and education; 4. Encourage volunteerism and philanthropic efforts in order to generate broad- based community involvement and support for quality early care and education and promote the wellbeing of families of young children; and 5. Develop, for recommendation to city council, strategies encouraging individuals and agencies to continually improve the quality of their services for young children; and 6. Support innovative approaches to quality early care and education and leadership development in fields relating to the optimal development of young children. 1. Describe the board’s actions supporting their mission during the previous calendar year. Address all elements of the board’s mission statement as provided in the relevant sections of the City Code. (Reference all reports, recommendations, letters or resolutions presented to the City Council on mission-specific issues. If some of the elements of the mission statement were not acted on by the board in the past year, the report should explain why no action was taken.) On August 10, 2024, the Early Childhood Council (ECC): • Encouraged the Austin City Council to adopt the Place-Based Enhancement Program (PBEP)recommendations. o Outcome: On September 26, 2024, the Austin City Council approved Ordinance No. 20240926-012 and Ordinance No. 20240926-013. The PBEP offers incentives to development, both new construction and remodeling, that supports community benefit targets including small businesses, nonprofits, and community development projects. Childcare centers are major community benefit targets addressed in the program guidelines for all categories. The Business Expansion Program is also available to childcare centers that are expanding by hiring new staff, with a category specifically designed for small businesses. On August 10, 2024, the Early Childhood Council (ECC): • Voted to approve a representative from Go Austin/Vamos Austin (GAVA) as a community member of the ECC Quality of Life Study Workgroup. On October 9, 2024, the ECC: • Voted to convene 1 ECC regular meeting in 2025 at a more convenient times for families, child care providers, and other stakeholders to attend, to increase access to community members and increase the opportunity to provide public comment to the ECC. One meeting was scheduled for the morning of Saturday, August 16, 2025. On January 15, 2025, the Early Childhood Council (ECC): • Voted to approve two commissioners as additional members of the ECC Quality of Life Study Workgroup. On February 12, 2025, the ECC: • Recommended that the City of Austin maintain all current investments in early childhood programs and infrastructure, including but not limited to: o Social Service Contracts o Infrastructure such as Family Connects, Maternal and Infant Outreach Program, and WIC programs o Austin Public Health (APH) and Economic Development Department (EDD) staffing budget o Fee waivers previously granted and approved by the City Council to qualifying childcare centers o Afterschool and summer programs o Matching funds of $75,000 for the Building Comprehensive Networks implementation grant from Home Grown And further recommended that the City of Austin: o Add one FTE to the newly organized childcare support in the EDD. o Maintain the 5% adjustment made to the social services programs budget for FY25. Make that 5% adjustment a permanent base for the program budgets. o Add a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in FY26 (in addition to the 5% referenced directly above). Commit to annual COLA adjustments for all service provider contracts. o Make the childcare fee waivers a permanent budget commitment to avoid reauthorization each year. o Fund an additional $36,266 in PreK classroom start-up funds to bring the total funding to $170,666 to maintain eight start-up classrooms per year. o Fund an additional budget (preliminary estimates are $170,000) to top off the balance of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, which will expire by June 30, 2026. o Direct APH and EDD to work along the Success By 6 Coalition (SX6) and Go Austin/Vamos Austin (GAVA) to: evaluate the early childhood programs and number of residents impacted by the end of ARPA funding; share with the ECC and the community the evaluation findings; and develop a set of recommendations by the end of FY26 with any additional early childhood investments that may be necessary to fill the gap after all ARPA funding ends. • Recommended that the City of Austin direct Austin Public Health and the Economic Development Department to work with GAVA and other community input sources during FY26, or sooner if resources allow, to develop an integrated plans for Family, Friends, and Neighbor (FFN) support that: o Resolves potential legal issues around providing financial relief grants to FFN childcare providers and o Finalizes any new FFN-related budget items that might result from the new plan. • Recommended that the City of Austin make the $1.3 million investment in the Family Stabilizations Grant permanent and create a clear path to expanding the investment to $3 million annually. • Encouraged the Austin City Council to sustain investment in the Office of Equity and Inclusion, Equity Division as a vital City of Austin function. • Recommended the deadline for the Joint Inclusion Committee (JIC) to submit their budget recommendations be extended to April 30 of each budget year. Progress was also made this year on recommendations made by the ECC in the previous years, including • • In March 2024, the ECC recommended that the City of Austin maintain all current investments in early childhood programs and infrastructure. o Outcome: City Council passed a FY25 City of Austin budget that maintained early childhood investments and provided a one-time 5% cost-of-living increase for early childhood social service and childcare contracts. In March 2024, the ECC recommended that the City of Austin supports further work on the child care component of the Infrastructure Academy and the Success By 6, Children’s Funding Project Workgroup, and GAVA recommendations to finalize a Greater Austin area plan by July 1, 2024. o Outcome: In November 2024, Travis County voters approved the child care and out of school time fund that establishes a dedicated property tax revenue stream to support the local early childhood system, as recommended by the Success By Six Coalition and the Children’s Funding Project Workgroup. o Outcome: Related to Go Austin/Vamos Austin’s (GAVA) recommendations, from March 2024-March 2025, Austin Public Health used grant funds from Home Grown to develop a plan to support home-based child care providers, including Family, Friend, Neighbor (FFN) providers, through a local child care network. Starting summer 2025, the Economic Development Department will implement the plans and launch the Austin-Travis County Family Child Care Educator Network. o Outcome: In April 2025, the Economic Development Department executed an interlocal agreement with Workforce Solutions for the Austin Infrastructure Academy (IA). The agreement includes $600K to support IA trainees with 6 months of childcare. • In November 2023, the ECC encouraged the Austin City Council to approve Austin Public Health’s Chapter 26 Application to transfer the northeast portion of Civitan Neighborhood Park from the Austin Parks and Recreation Department to Austin Public Health to meet the community goals of expanding access to affordable, high quality child care. o Outcome: Staff continue to work with Mariposa childcare team and with the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) to support Mariposa’s expansion project. Mariposa is revising their conceptual design to fit within the existing childcare footprint. By doing so, there would be no need to request use of parkland outside of existing building and the Chapter 26 application process would not be needed. • In March 2023, the ECC recommended that the City of Austin allocate full funding to pilot the innovative Economic Development Grant Program for Child Care Programs, which has been identified in City Council Resolution No. 20230126-055 as a mechanism to increase access to high- quality affordable early childhood services. o Outcome: The City of Austin Economic Development Department (EDD) staff are working with Developmental Services Department, Fire Department, and the Transportation Public Works Department on grant program and application design for the childcare new construction and expansion fee waivers. EDD plans to launch the program in summer 2025. The fee waivers for the annual childcare Fire inspection started on July 1, 2025. • In September 2022, the ECC encouraged the Austin City Council to direct staff to implement waivers of annual Austin Fire Department fees and project-specific development services fees for high-quality licensed child care programs (those that are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the National Accreditation Commission for Early Care and Education Program, or have a four-star rating from the Texas Rising Star program) that accept child care subsidies. o Outcome: In Resolution No. 20230126-055 Council directed the City Manager to create an economic development grant program to pay for City fees assessed when opening or expanding a qualifying childcare operation, to be considered by Council during the annual budget process. As mentioned above, EDD staff are working with Developmental Services Department, Fire Department, and the Transportation Public Works Department on grant program and application design for the childcare new construction and expansion fee waivers. EDD plans to launch the program in summer 2025. The fee waivers for the annual childcare Fire inspection started on July 1, 2025. • In January 2022, the ECC encouraged the Austin City Council to identify ways to alleviate the financial burden that is leading to increasing displacement of these essential workers out of Austin, such as property-tax relief, assistance for child care and work-related expenses, transportation subsidies, housing subsidies, etc. o Outcome: In response to City Council Resolution No. 20231109- 028, Austin Public Health and Economic Development Department staff proposed a new financial relief grant program for eligible home-based child care providers in an April 29, 2024, memo to City Council. Qualifying providers can apply to receive an up to $2,000 grant. EDD launched the program in June 2025. 2. Determine if the board’s actions throughout the year comply with the mission statement. (If any of the board’s actions were outside the scope of the mission statement, the report should explain the non-compliance issues.) Yes, the board’s actions comply with the ECC mission statement. 3. List the board’s goals and objectives for the new calendar year. (Make sure the goals and objectives fall within the mission statement of the board/commission.) In the new calendar year, the ECC will: 1. Continue to support the development and implementation of the Early Childhood Quality of Life Study and use results to inform future recommendations that align with the mission of the ECC. 2. Continue to monitor the City of Austin development and implementation of the Infrastructure Academy to ensure that there are sufficient investments, resources, and capacity in the local childcare system to meet the anticipated increased demand. (The Infrastructure Academy is estimated to need to train and upskill an additional 4,000 workers each year.) 3. Continue collaboration and coordination with City of Austin Economic Development Department’s role in oversight of childcare investments to maximize the benefits of this partnership. 4. Continue to elevate and prioritize the voices of those with lived experience in informing the priorities and recommendations of the Early Childhood Council. 5. Increase the impact of Early Childhood Council actions by continuing to improve communications between ECC members, Joint Inclusion Committee, and City Council and Mayor’s offices. 6. Make budget recommendations regarding the Austin Public Health and Economic Development Department budgets, informed by community for investments in early childhood in the City budget. 7. Monitor changes in federal funding related to investments in early childhood.