Braiding Funds and Building Access: Securing Child Care Slots for Low-Income and 4K Families

As many parents know, spots for after-school programs can fill up quickly. Sometimes those spots fill up weeks or even months before the school year begins.  

This can be especially stressful for low-income families with young children, who may have unpredictable work schedules or financial situations that make it hard to plan for those expenses so far in advance. Those work schedules may also mean that a parent needs to find after-school care if their work hours extend beyond the end of the school day.

With that in mind, the Community Development Division identified more than $72,000 in available funds that were budgeted to help families access care for their children and tried a new approach: using those funds to hold a number of spots in after-school programs for children from low-income families. Grants were given directly to providers, which in turn allowed them to put the grant funding toward what they needed the most for the next year, whether it was hiring more staff, increasing staff wages, training, or general program quality improvements.

The process of distributing those unused funds was driven by data, with staff using the Madison Out-of-School Time (MOST) dashboard to help determine which schools and community partners should be prioritized based on the level of need.

By reinvesting those unspent dollars, the Community Development Division is ensuring those programs were able to hold spots for children, expand the number of available spots, and remain stable before the school year began, rather than possibly losing enrollment.

When combined with new funding from the State of Wisconsin to support free school readiness instruction for four-year-olds enrolled in participating child care programs, Madison Out-of-School Time providers who use school space or City-funded community locations are now able to provide wraparound care for schools that don't currently provide full-day 4K programs.