RECAP of the September 10, 2025 EEC Board Meeting
Updates on the Board’s Strategic Planning Session, FY26 State Budget, Career Pathways & ECE Scholarship Programs, and the Inter-Agency EEC Task Force
At Neighborhood Villages, we prioritize keeping up with the policy landscape in the early education and care field, both across the country and in Massachusetts. That includes tuning-in to the monthly meetings of the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care (“EEC Board”), to stay apprised of updates and to identify opportunities for how we can work with government and other stakeholders to improve our early education and care system.
The primary topics of this month’s Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) Board meeting were updates on: (1) the Board’s Strategic Planning Session, (2) Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 State Budget, (3) Career Pathways & Early Childhood Educators (ECE) Scholarship Programs, and (4) the Inter-Agency Early Education and Child Care Task Force.
For additional detail on any of the meeting topics, view the slides here or watch the recording on YouTube.
Here’s what you need to know…
If You Are a Provider:
Commissioner Amy Kershaw announced that the federal department of labor awarded Massachusetts a $6 million dollar grant to support registered apprenticeship and early childhood educator apprenticeships.
Commissioner Kershaw announced that EEC awarded $2.7 million in grants to Family Child Care (FCC) providers through their FCC Capital Grant program. The second round of grants will award an additional $4 million. FCC providers can find information on how to apply for the funds on EEC’s website starting on October 1st.
If You are an Early Childhood Educator:
EEC discussed a strategy for supporting higher education pathways, specifically, the Career Pathways and ECE Scholarship Programs. The legislature allocated fewer funds to both these programs than in FY2025. To ensure continuity of services for current and prospective students, EEC proposed using $2.5 million of the scholarship funds provided in the FY26 budget and $2 million in the Fair Share Supplemental budget to continue funding the existing Career Pathways Program for FY26 at $7.5 million. Additionally, EEC proposed using $2.5 million from the FY26 budget administrative line item towards the ECE Scholarship Program to keep the existing ECE Scholarship Program funded at $7.5 million for the coming year. The Board voted to approve this proposal.
If You are Parent/Guardian or Child Care Advocate:
Commissioner Kershaw announced that at the October Board Meeting, EEC will share an update on the Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) Operations Grants program, following the public comment period, which ended on September 12, 2025.
Commissioner Kershaw announced that EEC will have two policy fellows for the next 20 months as part of a new policy fellow program funded by the Commonwealth Children’s Fund. Commissioner Kershaw introduced Kaitlyn Shafer, the new Director of Investigations.
EEC shared a summary, reflections, and takeaways from the Board’s strategic planning meeting. They reflected on the progress they made beginning projects and initiatives and discussed the work they want to accomplish over the next several years in collaboration with partners in the field, local communities, the legislature, and more. They plan to focus on five key programmatic areas in FY26: continuing work and reform around Child Care Financial Assistance (CCFA), modernization and business process of background record checks, regulation revisions, workforce improvements, and C3. They also shared their priority outcomes. (See picture below).
In addition, they shared the major topics they will seek Board input for in FY26. (See picture below).
EEC will draft the strategic plan and submit it to the Board for their consideration and approval in the fall.
4. EEC discussed the finalized FY26 budget that passed in July. (See picture below with budget highlights). EEC received $1.7 billion, a 10% increase from last year’s budget. They highlighted a few areas the department designated as “watch areas.” These areas are:
Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI), which is funded at $20.5 million. This level of funding will enable EEC to provide funding for the communities they are currently working with but it will not allow them to expand.
CCFA, which is funded at $1.06 billion. This level of funding will allow EEC to maintain services for the children they are currently serving and likely increases for Department of Children & Families and Department of Transitional Assistance related children, but EEC does not believe this funding will allow them to reopen access to income eligible families on the waitlist.
EEC’s Administration and Quality Improvement funding, which is funded at $57 million. In FY25 they were funded at $80.3 million. EEC is working with the legislature for a one time fix to make sure they can maintain their staffing. They are also working with partners across the government leveraging partnerships and resources to continue operations and maintain progress.
Career Pathways Program, which is funded at $3 million. In FY25, it was funded at $5 million.
Through the FY25 Fair Share Supplemental Budget, the Legislature also allocated $45.5 million to EEC. EEC is planning to use $10 million of these funds to fill gaps in CPPI, the Career Pathways Program, EEC’s Administration and Quality Improvement funding, and jump start implementation for the Inter-Agency EEC Task Force.
5. The Project Management Team of the Inter-Agency EEC Task Force provided an update on the Task Force’s work. The team briefly reviewed how and why the Task Force was created and discussed its values, priorities, and recommendations. Last year, the Task Force took time to learn and research, and they published a report with 29 recommendations. Since then, they have been working on the recommendations; they have made progress on each recommendation. They continue to meet with various stakeholders and have created a project management team. The team also shared 6 key highlights of the Task Force’s work. The key highlights are the following:
Working with the Health Connector for Business to design webinars for early education providers in October to help get access to more health care options at an affordable price.
Working on convening a meeting with university and community college presidents, Secretary Patrick Tutwiler, and Commissioner Kershaw to discuss the potential of creating more child care spaces to support students.
Making the Business Front Door available to early educators, a resource that helps small businesses start, grow, or move their businesses to Massachusetts. There is now a dedicated navigator who can answer any inquiries that come regarding general business advice, workforce support, etc.
Finalizing draft guidance for Chief Academic Officers at community colleges to provide guidance around course scheduling and financial aid to ensure all students are able to complete courses required for their certificates and fund their education.
Working on different initiatives to expand access to nature based activities.
Procured the Commonwealth Corporation Foundation to be the grant administration partner for the Employer Child Care Innovation Fund, a grant matching program for employers interested in providing child care support to their employees. They will put out a request for interest in October and a request for proposals later in the year.
Additionally, the Task Force is working on a year 2 report and plans to publish it in early March.
The next EEC Board meeting will be on October 15, 2025.